Steel Soviet Union

The time spent on the return journey was not too long. After another great victory, Malashenko quickly led the troops back to the location of the field division headquarters and met the political commissar comrades who were busy handling post-war affairs for the troops.

"Come back so soon? I thought you had to wait until at least tomorrow to come back. Tell me what you did during your trip."

Comrade Comrade Political Commissar has heard some of Malashenko's deeds during this trip, but the more specific situation still needs to be told by Malashenko himself. Those things heard from hearsay are not necessarily true.

Malashenko, who had just entered the tent, did not bother to answer the questions of the political commissar. Instead, he pulled up a chair and sat down. He picked up a cup filled with water from the table and raised his head without saying anything. It's just a burst of cow's drink to quench my thirst. The sound of gulping and gulping sounds like I'm really thirsty.

"Phew! It's great! Having water to drink is also a happy thing."

After putting down the cup, he took out a cigarette for himself, put it in his mouth, and lit a fire. Only then did Malashenko finally take a breath and speak to his comrades, the political commissar.

"The main thing is to rescue Comrade Commander, which is the most important. Secondly, it is to destroy a group of local Ukrainian bandits. The combat effectiveness of these guys is not even as good as those third-rate servants forced by the Germans. Army, it's not a big deal to take care of things they can just do casually, and of course it doesn't take much time. A purely mechanized march will naturally go back and forth very quickly.

What Malashenko said is basically consistent with what the political commissar heard, but there are still some details that need to be confirmed by Malashenko.

"Where is the leader of these bandits? Have you caught him? We should interrogate him strictly. Maybe these bandits colluded with the Germans and came specifically to assassinate Commander Vatutin. Maybe there are other secrets and Things we don’t know about can be unearthed.”

Comrade Political Commissar's idea was the same as Malashenko's original plan, but the subsequent development of the situation did not allow Malashenko to do this at all. The final result of the forced arrest was to be killed on the spot.

"That's what I thought at first, and of course that's what I planned to do."

"But you haven't seen that the two leaders of this gang of bandits, one fat and one thin, tried to evade the search at first and hid in the cellar. After we found the entrance to the cellar and blocked it, they continued to resist and persist. Gun resisted arrest.”

"These two bastards shot at our soldiers. The situation in the cellar was very complicated at that time. The light was dim, the hands could not be seen, and it was very narrow. We had no other choice but to fire on the two bastards on the spot. We could not take the soldiers They tried to capture them alive at the cost of their lives, but they could only fire back immediately and kill these two bastards.

Malashenko’s simple description basically clarified the situation on the scene at that time. It was concise and concise and basically made the key points clear. The political commissar comrade with strong logical thinking and analysis ability also basically understood the key points that Malashenko wanted to express. And then nodded quietly.

"Okay, I think I've figured it out. What about the rest of the people? Are there any other bandit leaders who know something about the situation? The limited information may be able to analyze something useful for us."

"You don't need to tell me this. It's naturally been interrogated."

He put out the cigarette butt in his hand and put it in the ashtray of the empty can in front of him. Malashenko, who was still smoking from his mouth, continued to talk.

"There are a few small leaders among the remaining bandit prisoners. They know something about the situation, but they are not critical and important information."

"The statements of these little bosses are quite consistent. They said that the news they learned before setting off was that this was an ordinary robbery, but the target was our Red Army. These gangsters wanted to rob our transport convoy and supplies. Get what they want and get away to the west before we take control of the whole area."

"It's just that something unexpected happened. The convoy that was ambushed by them did not have materials or supplies. It was Commander Vatutin's convoy."

"Seeing that the convoy's escorts were powerful and elite, these bandits thought that the convoy contained some extremely important supplies, so they attacked like crazy to get their hands on the things. After that, I led the team to arrive, It’s about saving Comrade Commander.”

"What can be determined so far is that the number one leader of this gang of bandits is named Anton, and the number two leader is Baranikov. Both of them are locals from Cherkasy. The identities of these two people are quite special. They fight He used to be a member of the Red Army's military industry, but he was arrested for stealing and reselling supplies and sabotaging military production. "

"Originally, they were going to be shot, but when the Germans came, they found an opportunity to escape from prison. After that, they took advantage of the chaos to recruit soldiers and find ways to get guns. From 1941 to now, they have become a huge group of bandits with 700 to 800 people. It is said that They are the number one gang in the Cherkasy area, and they often preyed on the Germans before. They have robbed the Germans' convoys and even military columns several times, and they are relatively capable of fighting among the bandits. "

The above information was learned by Malashenko from the interrogation of the captured leader. The specific authenticity can no longer be confirmed from the mouths of Anton and Barannikov. These two bad guys are now Has been buried in the grave.

"Okay, okay, I have recorded the main situation. I will investigate and confirm it through other channels later. After all, this matter is not trivial and needs to be taken seriously."

Comrade Comrade Political Commissar closed the cap of the pen in his hand, put aside the notebook for recording for the time being, and still faced Malashenko and began to talk about some important things that Comrade Ma did not know yet.

"After you led the team away, we conducted a comprehensive inventory and cleaning of the battlefield. Through interrogation of the few prisoners and battlefield survey, we can confirm that this time we completely eliminated the elite of the SS: the 5th Viking Armored Division There is no sign of any large or medium-sized enemies escaping. At most, there are only a few fish that slipped through the net and became deserters.”

"The point is, this is the first time since the outbreak of the Patriotic War in 1941 that our entire Red Army has wiped out an elite division of the SS, and it was also an armored division. Because the SS is Hitler's personal armed force, and this According to reports, the Viking Division was the only Foreign Legion unit in the SS, so the results of this victory were of great military and political significance. "

"I have drafted a telegram here and am preparing to report all the summarized information to the front army headquarters so that Comrade Commander can be informed. When this news reaches Moscow, I am almost certain that Comrade Division Commander and Comrade Stalin will Everyone will be happy about it.”

"Oh, by the way, there is one more thing I haven't told you. In this annihilation operation, we also eliminated an unexpected big shot, one that will definitely surprise you."