Steel Soviet Union

Malashenko, who was sitting next to his tank and smoking a cigarette alone, would not have thought that at this moment, two boss-level tasks of the Soviet Red Army were planning the next step of the famous battle for him.

Malashenko, who had lost count of how many days he had been fighting in a row, felt like he was trembling all over. His right hand holding the cigarette holder flicked away the ashes like a machine. Cigarettes, a hard currency in the army, carried The consolation cannot completely eliminate the sequelae of the war left by Malashenko these days.

"If the Battle of Yelniya continues at this rate, it is estimated that it will not be completed for another month or so. Both Hitler and Stalin are throwing new chips on the gambling table like crazy."

"The Battle of Kiev should have started by now. Khrushchev, the corncob, is probably deceiving Stalin again to stick to Kiev to show his courtesy. The German Army Group Northern is probably also on its way to encircle Leningrad and finish the Battle of Yelnya. If I'm still alive, where will I be transferred? Don't just send me to Kiev with a fucking transfer order. Even if I have nine lives, that corncob won't waste it!"

After the battle of Yelnya, where will he be transferred to continue fighting? This is the question that Malashenko is most concerned about and constantly thinking about.

According to the war history data published by later generations, the end of the Battle of Yelnya was undoubtedly an important change in the strategic deployment of the German army's invasion of the Soviet Union.

After this battle, the three German army groups that launched Operation Barbarossa adopted placement tactics against Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union, and then made strategic adjustments to the focus of the next offensive.

At Hitler's personal request, the German Army Group Center divided its main force into two, one going north to support Army Group North's attack on Leningrad, and one going south to support Army Group South's Kiev campaign.

In order to occupy Leningrad, the cradle of the Bolshevik proletarian revolution, to crush the will of the Soviet military and civilians to resist and seize the Leningrad heavy industrial base.

Completely clear out all remaining Soviet resistance forces in the southern direction of Ukraine and seize Ukraine's rich strategic resources. This allows the German army to launch the Moscow offensive before the arrival of winter without having to worry about the Ukrainian Soviet army group on the southern flank disrupting the counterattack.

As a result, there are only two possibilities left for the next stage of operations of Malashenko and his first heavy tank breakthrough battalion, which always appear in the most intense conflict areas - Leningrad and Kiev. .

Rather than being thrown into the largest encirclement in the history of human war in Kiev, he became a political victim of Khrushchev, a corn on the cob, who courted Stalin along with 650,000 captured Soviet soldiers.

Malashenko, who could not help but shiver all over when he thought of this, preferred to be sent to fight in the direction of Leningrad.

Although the Battle of Leningrad ended with a temporary end point in which the German and Soviet offensive and defensive armies were indifferent, the German army, unwilling to accept the failure of the offensive, besieged Leningrad for nearly 900 days until 1944. Only in early March of that year did the Soviet army defeat the German army and its slave state armies to lift the siege of Leningrad.

But even being surrounded by the Germans for nearly three years was better than being captured in Kiev and then working in a German prisoner-of-war concentration camp, or even becoming a guinea pig for some inhumane and cruel experiments of the German army and dying unknown. white.

During World War II, the attitude and methods of the top leadership of the Soviet Union led by Stalin towards captured Soviet troops were enough to make Malashenko, who knew all this as a later time traveler, couldn't help but tremble.

"Damn it, don't throw me into that big iron barrel that I can't escape from in Kiev. If that happens, it will be hard not to be a prisoner. If I have to bear the scapegoat of being a prisoner, my whole life will be over. With Order 270, I’m either peeling potatoes in the gulag or getting shot in a punishment camp. It’s not something I can just decide if I don’t want to be captured.”

After careful consideration and weighing the pros and cons, Malashenko finally came to the conclusion that he should try his best to avoid being transferred to Kiev to participate in the next phase of the battle.

Just when Malashenko was racking his brains as to how to avoid being thrown into the destined encirclement of Kiev and becoming a prisoner of the Germans, a transfer order from the army headquarters suddenly changed Malashenko's thoughts. Back to reality.

"Transport all troops and equipment personnel to the Reserve Front Army to participate in the next phase of the operation, and be directly under the command of the Reserve Front Army Headquarters? Wait, what does the Reserve Front Army do?"

Malashenko, who was familiar with the entire history of the Patriotic War as a time traveler from later generations, did not remember the origin of such a little-known reserve front army.

It is almost impossible for this second-line unit to be remembered just from its organizational name and its name alone.

Malashenko, who was scratching his head and scratching his head with this piece of paper in his hand and thinking hard for a long time, could not recall who the commander of this unit, designated as the Reserve Front Army, was in the combat area and in August 1941. Where is the direction?

"Don't be the troops heading to Kiev to fight, otherwise it will be all over!"

With such an uneasy feeling, Malashenko immediately started to take action after stubbing out the cigarette butt in his hand. The brutal battles for many days have made Malashenko's resolute and high-speed command style more and more vivid.

Under the strong supervision and command of Malashenko and his deputy Lavrinenko, the 1st Heavy Tank Breakthrough Battalion, which was originally in a relatively safe area outside the hot war zone and was loosely resting, immediately regrouped in accordance with the order.

Carrying those old tanks that had been damaged and repaired, and a small number of newly transported new tanks, they began to assemble towards the location of the reserve front army headquarters mentioned in the transfer order.

Because the temporary resting point on the outskirts of the Yelniya theater is not far from the location of the reserve front army headquarters, the straight-line distance of a few dozen kilometers is just a step on the accelerator for the armored forces.

The entire railway transportation network in the hands of the Soviet army near the Yelniya theater was continuously transporting supplies and ammunition from the rear to the front line and then transporting the wounded down. It is not an exaggeration to describe it as being busy with traffic.

In this busy situation of using the railway network for mobile transfers and even needing to sign up and wait in line to arrange dispatched trains, Malashenko, who had a mountain of military orders and no time to wait for anyone, simply chose to move the troops cross-country and completed the dozens of kilometers on his own. In order to strive to reach the reserve front troops as soon as possible, they went to report.