In most cases, the chief of staff is the most calm and collected person in an army.
The particularity of the profession requires this group of people to keep a cool head at all times and provide their most accurate suggestions to the military commander. At the same time, they must also summarize the opinions of the ordinary staff officers below and list them in a book, taking the essence and discarding the dross and refining the most accurate advice.
Perfect parts for use, such professional requirements are not something that a madman can do.
But at this moment, Major General Osheim's partner, the Chief of Staff, acted like a madman, completely different from his previous behavior.
Normally, Major General Osheim might feel strange and even reprimand his chief of staff for this.
But now, Major General Osheim feels that if he were not too cold-hearted, his current behavior would be basically the same as that of the Chief of Staff. This is a normal behavior for ordinary people after hearing that order.
Not surprising at all.
Major General Osheim, who stretched out his hands and rubbed his cheeks vigorously, looked a little depressed. In the fierce conflict, his brain was making a choice between obeying the order or caring about the lives of the soldiers.
"But this is an order, and we must implement it. If the overall strategic progress is delayed or even fails because the order is not fully implemented, you and I will have to go to military court. This is no joke."
Major General Osheim's tone was full of helplessness, and the chief of staff who responded seemed calm.
"So you plan to carry out the order? The phone is next to you, you know what I mean."
Of course, Major General Osheim knew what his partner, the Chief of Staff, was implying. In the past, there had been precedents of getting things done with just a phone call and feedback, but this time it was different.
"What are you going to do if you don't carry out the order? Disobey it? This is impossible, you know it. Commander Paulus has a good temper, but that doesn't mean he doesn't understand things. We have no choice in this matter."
Although the two men, one master and the other, were unwilling to accept it, the principled issue of executing the order was finally settled. The oath and honor of the military did not allow the two of them to continue to bargain over the phone under such circumstances.
They just agreed to seek some possible opportunities from Paulus after achieving certain results. No one wanted to see the corpses of German soldiers turning the captured train station into a ready-made cemetery.
Not knowing anything about the coming storm, Malashenko was sitting on the back of his tank with a tin lunch box in his hand, eating lunch. The rare potato stewed pork was simply delicious.
"Damn, the more you eat it, the lighter it gets. It's almost like boiling it with plain water. Does the cook have to ask Lao Zhu for permission to use salt?"
Malashenko, who was a prostitute for free, thought that Malashenko, who had only a few prostitutes, was doing a lot of shit. He had just chewed two pieces of meat and started complaining secretly that the taste was too bland, completely ignoring Iwu next to him who was also leaning behind the tank's butt and eating haise.
Shi Jin's happy expression.
"Comrade Commander, why don't you continue eating? If you are full, you can give it to me and I can have another portion."
"...."
Eat, eat, eat. Apart from fighting, you only know how to eat during the whole day. How come you are so stubborn!?
Malashenko, who had a black face, shook his head and couldn't help but sigh that people these days are really simple-minded, so simple that he almost found it unbelievable! The requirements for happiness are also extremely low. It's no wonder that the capitalists these days are so naive.
Everyone is making a lot of money but they are not good at it. These lower-class people are so easy to get rid of, and everyone will be exploited to death! If the exploitation is not done properly, they will become iron fools.
The quite speechless Malashenko had nothing to say and continued to fiddle with the food in the lunch box with a spoon. He chewed a mouthful of dry bread and swallowed the two pieces of pork. The real feeling of fullness and the taste of the meat finally made Malashenko.
Shenke felt a hint of happiness.
"Don't tell me, the more you eat it, the more it tastes. It's so delicious!"
He put the German M35 steel helmet he picked up casually on the battlefield and put it upside down under his buttocks to use it as a bench. Malashenko, who didn't want to get all muddy, finished eating the last bit of gravy in the lunch box and was about to get up to clean up the tableware and ran over quickly.
Commissar Petrov once again appeared in time with an attitude that even Malashenko was numb.
"Another telegram?"
"Huh? How did you know? Did someone tell you in advance?"
"...."
Malashenko, who was looking for a pen to write the words "speechless" on his face, turned around and temporarily placed the empty lunch box on the cooling window. He casually wiped some meat juice on his hand up and down on his clothes, and then
He extended his right hand to Commissar Petrov.
"Bring it here and let me see what's written on it."
He reached out to take the fresh telegram handed over by Commissar Petrov, spread it out in front of him with a flick of his hands, and quickly read the contents of the telegram at a glance, then his expression changed a little.
This telegram was not sent by Comrade Lao Zhu, but by Chuikov himself from the Army Group Headquarters.
The telegram first mentioned a quite shocking news to Malashenko. The 13th Guards Infantry Division participating in the counterattack on Mamayev Heights had suffered a casualty rate of 70%. Although its morale was still there, it had basically lost its combat capability.
.
The top of the Mamayev Hills is still firmly occupied by the Germans. After repeatedly pulling and changing hands 13 times in three days, the Soviet troops are now only staying on the mountainside. They have suffered a serious loss of troops and almost lost all their attacks.
energy.
The Soviet troops halfway up the mountain were beaten with blood all over the ground and were almost half dead. The situation of the German troops guarding the top of the mountain was not much better.
Intertwined with the corpses of the Soviet soldiers, the corpses of German soldiers were everywhere. In the more than 200-meter-wide formation area where repeated battles were the most fierce, the number of corpses could even fill the trenches!
On the top of Mamayev Hill, the German army, which had basically exhausted two entire organic divisions, still refused to give up here!
I don’t know if it’s due to the butterfly effect of Malashenko’s arrival, but the battle of Mamayev Ridge on this timeline is even worse than the original historical trend!
Both the number of troops invested and the casualties of the Soviet and German armies were far beyond that. Even the 13th Guards Infantry Division, which had originally recaptured the Mamayev Hills, was now only a remnant of defeated troops stuck on the mountainside.
The half-dead and panting German troops on the mountaintop stood a few hundred meters away, staring at each other in the air. No one was willing to be the first to admit defeat and quit, and the stalemate remained.