Before Comrade Lao Tie finished speaking, Malashenko on the other end of the phone began to vomit his bitterness.
"We just encountered an air attack by the Germans. Comrade Commander, the air defense forces did not have time to deploy, and the troops suffered heavy losses! Many tank crews died when they got off the vehicle. I need to add more members now, otherwise there will be at least nearly two dozen people on my side.
Ten tanks cannot be put into combat condition."
Nearly twenty tanks cannot be put into combat status. This is not a small number for Malashenko, who has only one regiment. Timoshenko, who looked solemn on the other end of the phone, also knew this very well.
"Where are those German planes? Are they still conducting air raids?"
"No, Comrade Commander, they have already evacuated. There are not many planes, less than twenty. They should have come to rescue the Germans in the village, but they came a little late."
After listening to the answer given by Malashenko, I sighed again. After experiencing the battle last year, I knew very well how powerful the German Air Force was, and I knew that the First Guards heavy tank led by Malashenko had broken through.
Timoshenko, who understood how important the regiment was, made the decision with little hesitation.
"The additional personnel will be sent to you as soon as possible, but they are all recruits just sent from the rear. They have only received the most basic tank training in the tank academy and have no actual combat experience. You must be mentally prepared, Mara
Shen Ke.”
Faced with the "good news" that Timoshenko said that could not make people happy at all, Malashenko, who gritted his teeth and had no other choice, had to bite the bullet and accept this group of personnel to supplement.
"I understand, Comrade Commander, I will adjust the distribution of vehicle crews and disperse these new recruits to less important positions so that they can adapt to combat as soon as possible."
Malashenko, who continued to speak, discussed with Timoshenko the replacement of battle-damaged tanks.
Unsurprisingly, Timoshenko, who had deployed all his troops and prepared to face the Germans head-on, had no extra tanks. To be precise, all the tanks that could be used at this stage, old or new, strong or weak, were all available.
Ready.
There are two ways to get Malashenko to replenish tanks, which is to mobilize them from other troops or wait for the newly built tanks to arrive at the front line. The first method is for Timoshin, who has already deployed his troops.
It is naturally impossible for me, which means that Malashenko’s only way now is to wait for the arrival of newly manufactured and supplementary tanks.
After putting down the phone, Malashenko was a little worried. Compared with the situation when he only led one battalion, Malashenko, who was promoted to regiment level and received the title of the first batch of Guards troops, is becoming more and more angry.
I feel how complicated and troublesome things have to be considered as a military commander.
Generally speaking, the recruitment of new recruits is considered a normal phenomenon in that tank unit. After all, it is impossible for all the ready-made veterans to be pushed into you, not even the Guards tank unit led by the Red Army tank hero.
.
In normal times, Malashenko would have accepted this, but at this critical moment, the introduction of new recruits will not only affect the combat effectiveness of the tanks corresponding to their numbers.
If the loaders and electromechanical crews of those mutilated tank crews died, it would be okay. Even if the driver died, it would not have much impact. These are relatively simple and easy-to-learn jobs and duties.
.
But if the gunner or the commander dies, then the matter will be very serious.
It is impossible for Malashenko to let the new recruits replace the positions of the commander and gunner, and it is unlikely that the crews of those whose commanders or gunners have died will have ready-made veterans who can replace these two positions.
In this way, Malashenko must consider the overall situation and disperse more vehicle crews and reallocate them in order to ensure that all tanks have qualified commanders and gunners, and they must at least be able to exert a qualified level of combat effectiveness.
He went to the battlefield and made a fool of himself.
But in this way, the original team's cooperation tacit understanding will be completely cleared and started from scratch. The impact of the new team's replacement on the team's cooperation tacit understanding is self-evident. Compared with those new recruits, this is the most important thing at the moment.
Something that worries and headaches Malashenko.
An intense and busy day of stops and starts.
In the evening, news came from the forward observation post that a leading German unit had arrived fifteen kilometers outside the village. After less than half a company of reconnaissance troops were repelled by the observation post using a KV1 heavy tank, there was no movement again.
It seems that the Germans are really not planning to start the attack until tomorrow as Timoshenko guessed on the phone.
In the middle of the night, the village of Nibotrikaya is still a scene of hard work. An infantry division assigned to the village to assist in the defense is building a defensive position with Malashenko's troops.
Not only were the simple trenches built by the Germans not of much use, but they were all built to the east of the village just to withstand possible Soviet attacks.
As for the depth to the west of the village with its back to the German-occupied area, the German army, which was bent on launching an offensive, did not even dig a foxhole for the infantry to squat in. This would give them a chance to fight the Germans at dawn tomorrow.
Malashenko caused great difficulties, and only a few hours were left to build field fortifications and trenches.
The melting snow had turned the entire village's dirt roads into huge puddles of mud and puddles. The feeling of stepping on them was extremely unpleasant, even with boots on. Malashin looked very bad.
Ke looked depressed after returning from inspecting the construction site outside the village.
"Oh, my dear Comrade Malashenko, what makes you so sad?"
The man who was smiling at Malashenko in the newly replaced regiment headquarters was none other than Division Commander Leonid who was sent into the village to lead the troops to assist Malashenko in building a defensive position.
The biggest characteristic of Division Commander Leonid is that he is very young. Considering the rank of colonel, there are undoubtedly very few people who can reach the position of division commander at the age of 32.
After a brief contact, Malashenko's first impression of the new commander Leonid was that he was a bit floating, to be precise, he felt like he was about to fly.
A harmless-looking smile hung on his face almost all day long, and this guy's face was exceptionally white, without any scars or marks left on the battlefield. If Malashenko was in Moscow in later generations, this would be
What I saw and heard during those years of studying abroad was that a guy was kept by a rich Russian woman who weighed more than 200 pounds, or a male kindergarten teacher. In any case, he would never be associated with the Maozi elite.