"Let's take a look at the message from the Front Army Headquarters."
With a cigarette in his hand, Malashenko turned around and glanced at the political commissar Petrov who was handing him a telegram behind him. He said that Malashenko had not received a telegram from the front army headquarters for several days.
Since he was assigned to Chuikov, he has been in direct contact with the Army Headquarters, so much so that Malashenko almost forgot that his true identity is a reserve unit directly under the Front Army Headquarters. This sudden telegram from the Front Army Headquarters is really
Malashenko was a little surprised.
Malashenko, who took the telegram from Commissar Petrov, first glanced at the signature at the end. Comrade Zhu's name was written as always where his eyes glanced, and then moved his eyes back to Malashenko at the top.
Only then did I begin to carefully examine the specific content of the telegram.
What was mentioned at the beginning of the message was nothing more than that the front army headquarters had learned about the fierce fighting in the direction of the train station, and was preparing to dispatch as many supporting troops as possible to come over, and demanded that Malashenko must be nailed to the train.
Stand and guard this place.
Perhaps Comrade Lao Zhu knew that Malashenko was in a difficult situation and had suffered heavy battle losses and needed to replenish troops and tanks. In the follow-up message, he specifically mentioned that support would be delivered to Malashenko soon.
What makes Malashenko feel a little unhappy is that the support that will arrive soon is still the same as before. It is still a bunch of broken troops and the remnants of the original unit that were almost completely wiped out by the German army. The condition of the tanks is confusing.
If you think about it, you will know that it will never be too good. It can basically be summarized as a collection of rags delivered in a package.
Malashenko, who was still complaining at first, felt relieved after thinking about it carefully.
Malashenko doesn't know the current specific situation of the Stalingrad Tractor Factory, but he can guess with his head that it will definitely not be good. After all the important equipment has been dismantled, packaged and shipped away, the remaining old equipment
How could those workers who were carrying Kraut bombs and shelling on their heads build tanks when they were bombed to prevent them from falling into the hands of the enemy?
If there are no new tanks, we have to make do with old tanks, and tanks cannot be transported from the Volga River. Just supplying soldiers and transporting materials are already very difficult. German aircraft almost blocked the entire shipping channel of the Volga River during the day.
Countless Soviet transport ships, large and small, were destroyed on the river. The blood of those who were killed and fell into the water almost dyed half of the river red.
The things that were smuggled over at night were basically the most scarce food, supplies, medical supplies, and more recruits. Under such circumstances, it was almost unthinkable to transport tanks over. In Leninger
The German army, which had already suffered a loss on Lake Ladoga, was no longer what it used to be in terms of attacking and blocking waterway transportation.
Thinking that it would be good to have a tank for himself, Malashenko sighed and handed the message back to Commissar Petrov. Then he stood up, reached out and flicked the cigarette butt from his fingertips, and then turned towards Petrov.
The political commissar husband spoke up.
"Call everyone who needs to be called. Let's have a meeting to discuss tomorrow's combat deployment. Oh, just follow the standard form of the call back to the front army headquarters. I'll leave it to you, Comrade Political Commissar."
Political Commissar Petrov, who rarely goes to the frontline battlefields to direct battles due to physical reasons, always stays at the regiment headquarters more often. This is in contrast to Malashenko, who always stays in his tank and is always present in frontline battles.
sharp contrast.
"Just ask comrade political commissar to go to the regiment headquarters. Ask comrade comrade regiment leader to go to the front line where the artillery fire is the densest. He is with comrade deputy regiment leader."
Although it is just a joke circulated among the 1st Guards Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment, it can also illustrate from the side that Malashenko and Petrov have a clear division of labor and each performs their own duties. For example, returning telegrams
The matter has always been carried out by Political Commissar Petrov, and Malashenko still doesn’t even know how to draft a message.
The combat meeting that started in ten minutes was more intense than before.
Lavrinenko, who often appears on the frontal battlefield side by side with Malashenko, believes that he should launch a surprise attack on the German army before dawn tomorrow morning, drive all the German army out of the train station as quickly as possible and retake the enemy.
Full control of the train station.
Similarly, Lavrinenko's proposal was recognized by Malashenko's two tank battalion commanders and an acting tank battalion commander.
As a result, all the military officers of the 1st Guards Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment except Malashenko became the main combatants, but correspondingly, Political Commissar Petrov and Division Commander Cherchenkov did not do so.
think.
"Our troops are not strong enough to complete such a high-intensity battle! Today's counterattack suffered a lot of casualties. We spent a lot of money to repel the enemy's crazy counterattack at dusk! Our soldiers are very tired.
The fascist lackeys are superior to us in terms of numbers and weapons and equipment, and they can also receive support from aircraft, which we do not have."
"We should stick to the current actual control area, so that we can concentrate some troops and avoid the dispersion of troops caused by the previous defensive front being too long and the defensive area being too large. Failure can be avoided!"
The person who spoke was the commander of a main regiment under Division Commander Cherchenkov. It was this regiment that charged the most fiercely toward the German counterattack in the evening. It followed closely and fought with the Germans in hand-to-hand combat, forcing the Germans to give up the idea of counterattack.
This was also the group, but it was the speech of the group leader that aroused dissatisfaction from Lavrinenko, who was sitting on the other side of the table.
"Comrade, please pay attention to your own words! What is the defensive area that is too large and leads to the dispersion of troops? The train station is the train station of the Soviet people. It is a city train station named after the great leader Comrade Stalin. Every inch of this place
All the land belongs to the motherland! If our soldiers are not allowed to defend every inch of the land, are we going to give part of the train station to the Germans for nothing?"
Lavrinenko said this intentionally, because what the regiment leader just said was equivalent to criticizing Malashenko's previous defensive deployment, implying that the real reason why the Germans invaded the train station was Marashenko.
Schenke wanted to hold the entire train station, but the result was that the troops were dispersed, which was counterproductive.
Lavrinenko hates people criticizing Malashenko, and he doesn't want others to say anything bad about his old classmate. Even if the other person is the commander of the lieutenant colonel and he is just the deputy of the major, with the title of guard.
Lavrinenko still dared to stand up and say a few "fair words".