Steel Soviet Union

The pain of losing a comrade will take an extremely long time to fade away, but the pleasure of revenge comes faster and more fiercely than anything else.

Everything was exactly as Malashenko had expected.

After learning that the vanguard force had been ambushed, surrounded and annihilated, the German Sixth Army troops following closely behind did not delay the attack at all. The first wave of large troops, several times the size of the vanguard force, quickly arrived outside the village. And launched a forcible crushing attack with superior force.

When dealing with opponents of equal strength, the German army is good at using tactical strategies to outflank and penetrate the enemy's depth and defensive weak links at high speed to resolve the battle as quickly as possible.

But facing a weak opponent who had just been baptized by the air force and only occupied a small and insignificant village, it seemed unnecessary to mobilize troops to fight in a large encirclement and roundabout.

Fierce shelling like a mountain roar and a tsunami crazily baptized the palm-sized village in the precarious situation. Malashenko, who persisted far short of the prescribed mission goal, still led his troops to fight hard on the defense line and refused to retreat.

There are no tigers in the mountains, but monkeys rule the roost.

Without the firepower suppression of the Soviet field artillery unit, the enemy of life and death, the German field artillery unit, which was free to fight, unleashed unprecedented ferocious firepower and fired wildly. The 150 mm caliber heavy howitzer can be fired instantly with just one hit. Malashenko, who blew up an entire house and turned it into dust, and even the ground beneath his feet was shaking, was fighting side by side with death.

"Bah! These naughty bastards, if we had artillery we could be so arrogant like you!? Bah! Bah bah"

Large pieces of floating soil were shaken off the roof and scattered all over the people's faces and bodies. Lavrinenko, who was cursing all this badly, wished that his own artillery would appear immediately and blow away all the Germans.

Having just been bombed by a plane and now being baptized by artillery fire, the feeling of being pinned to the ground and rubbed in turns was unpleasant to anyone.

Before Lavrinenko could finish his curse, Malashenko, who had been standing in front of the window with a telescope and staring closely at the movement outside the village, suddenly strode to the command table.

"The artillery fire has been going on for almost 30 minutes. It is estimated that the artillery preparations of these Germans should have stopped. Everyone who is not dead should pick up their guns and prepare to fight! We need more German corpses piled in front of the position!"

About half an hour ago, when the next battle plan was laid out, the death of Lieutenant Vasily brought Malashenko a very difficult problem. The main infantry unit responsible for the defensive position lacked a commander who could take charge of it alone.

Although there were not many surviving infantry soldiers left after the air raid, only about 200 people could barely hold a gun. If we consider the injured who still have the ability to take care of themselves but have difficulty walking and raising a gun to aim, If the troops are calculated, Malashenko still has less than 300 infantrymen who can fight the Germans.

After counting among the three hundred people, the one with the highest position was a platoon leader, and he was also the militia platoon leader who had previously served under Lieutenant Vasily.

After giving the defensive position to the command of the militia platoon leader, Malashenko felt that it was too crazy to do so and gave up the unrealistic idea.

Just when Malashenko was worried about the infantry commander, political commissar Petrov, who had not been to the frontline battlefield for a long time to fight, made an eye-catching move at this time.

"You and Lavrinenko will command the tank battle. I will be responsible for leading the men to resist the battle here in the village. If we work separately, we will definitely be able to block the German offensive!"

Political Commissar Petrov personally led people to fight on the battlefield? Surprised, Malashenko even thought that his ears had heard wrongly.

But Political Commissar Petrov, who repeated what he had just said, was very resolute.

When it comes to commanding infantry in battle, no one is more professional than himself who was born in an infantry unit and reached his current position step by step, at least in the 1st Guards Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment.

According to Political Commissar Petrov, if he had not happened to catch up with the promotion of the new political commissar and went to the party school to receive systematic professional knowledge training, he should be an infantry regiment commander or division commander now, and becoming a political commissar would be more important. It's like an unexpected coincidence.

Look at me and I look at you. Malashenko and Lavrinenko, who were looking at each other, had nothing to say. At this point, there seemed to be no better choice but to believe in Commissar Petrov.

It's just that with the departure of Political Commissar Petrov, the regiment headquarters is completely empty. At most, there are only a few auxiliary personnel such as communications staff, and there is no one who can take charge of the overall situation in the rear.

The regiment commander, deputy regiment commander, and regiment political commissar all went to the battlefield to fight. The entire regiment headquarters was empty and there was no one in charge. Malashenko couldn't help but sigh just thinking about it.

"If you can't even win this fight, there really isn't much to say."

Commissar Petrov, who has only one right arm left, can barely complete his daily rear work independently, but he is really unable to command the battle on the front line.

Only one arm was left to maintain balance when running, which made Commissar Petrov still uncomfortable with running with his incomplete body. On weekdays, when I was in a hurry to send a telegram or report news to Malashenko, I would run as slowly as possible. If I went any faster, I would lose my balance and fall to the ground.

Once you are on the front line and personally command the battle, running is indispensable, whether you are directing the soldiers to charge or retreat and transfer.

Thinking that he might fall on the battlefield while running after a while, Commissar Petrov, who had already drawn his gun from his waist and had not used it for a long time, couldn't help but laugh at himself.

"Maybe I'm really old."

As soon as the sound of artillery stopped, the German offensive troops who had already been prepared rushed forward very quickly.

Political Commissar Petrov, who was fighting side by side in the trench with the soldiers around him, could clearly see through the telescope that the first seven or eight German tanks were rushing towards him menacingly with a large group of German infantry following them. .

"Get ready to fight, comrades! The great leader Comrade Stalin is with us!"

It was the first time for many bandaged Red Army soldiers in the trenches to fight side by side with the political commissars of the Guards Regiment. The obvious improvement in morale was enough to overwhelm the timidity and fear of battle to a certain extent, even in the face of Those German tanks that were roaring forward could also muster the courage to raise their weapons.