Steel Soviet Union

Malashenko expected that he would perform many kinds of missions, and he also knew that he might encounter a variety of unexpected opponents in this largest ground conflict battlefield in human history, which would be more complicated and difficult than before.

But Malashenko never imagined that one day he would be able to command tanks to rob trains and commit train robberies. Let alone thinking about it, just hearing it was exciting enough.

Moreover, this is still robbing a train protected by elite SS troops. Such additional conditions alone are enough to deter ordinary troops. The madness of this group of SS elite fanatics far exceeds that of most German armed forces. , whether it is the Wehrmacht or the SS, after all, the names of the four elites are not for nothing.

However, this is exactly what Malashenko wants.

He had already fought against all the four elite members of the SS, and even killed one of them completely. Even the organization and troops were wiped clean in one go.

Now, on a narrow road, they met another old opponent who had climbed down in the past. After the initial surprise, this reality actually made Malashenko feel a little excited.

Yes, he was excited. Malashenko, who was familiar with himself, was very convinced of this at the moment, and immediately spoke to the political commissar.

"Then what did the Front Army Headquarters say? In addition to hijacking the train, is it necessary to annihilate all the bastards like the Skeleton Division?"

Malashenko's words seemed to be as expected by Comrade Political Commissar, and the next answer came out without much thought.

"I guessed that you would come up with this idea. Comrade Commander must have also expected it."

Having discovered his thoughts, Malashenko smiled sheepishly. People who knew him well seemed to have guessed that he would have such thoughts. Malashenko could only say, "You said so." That's right" expression, and by the way, he quietly waited for the words that Comrade Political Commissar would definitely continue to say next.

"Although this is a good opportunity, the Skeleton Division consumed a lot of power in the battle not long ago and lost a lot of combat power."

"But we must remember the premise of our current priority mission. The battle to encircle and suppress the northern protrusion is on the ropes and everything is ready. The arrival of our division will sound the clarion call for this battle. Our division is to attack the northern protrusion. The protagonist of the encirclement and suppression battle is unique and irreplaceable. This is the highest priority mission goal and remains unchanged. "

At this point, Malashenko had actually heard some clues. He hesitated to say something but hesitated. It seemed that he wanted to see whether the next words of Comrade Political Commissar would confirm him. speculation.

"I think you have probably guessed it. Yes, this is a division of troops. Under the current situation, we can only do this and have no other choice."

""

Sure enough, what Comrade Political Commissar said in his mouth was consistent with what he expected. Malashenko guessed immediately that the current embarrassing situation would definitely require separate troops. Otherwise, why would Comrade Political Commissar emphasize that again? Problems with fighting in the northern salient? This already makes sense.

"Regarding the battle on the northern protrusion, the leading troops of the Baltic Front have now arrived, exchanging fire with the German infantry on the periphery, and small-scale battles broke out."

"The current battle is still limited to a small scale. The Germans also know that the real storm has not yet come, so they are hiding their strength or exercising restraint. But the longer it drags on, the worse it will be for us. The Germans can mobilize more troops towards the salient. The longer you delay the fight with reinforcements, the worse it will be, you know this.”

Comrade political commissar spread out the map of the war zone on a corner of the armor plate of the tank and explained the map in detail. Malashenko, who was holding on to the side skirt of his vehicle, listened clearly and nodded in approval.

There are some things that he does not need to do personally. The political commissar will summarize all the key information in advance and report to the division commander. Malashenko only needs to make the final decision and issue orders. This has been the case many times in the past, and the current situation remains the same today.

"The first phase of the combat mission must first clear out the Germans' peripheral positions and scattered infantry defenses, further compress the Germans' activity space, and cover as much of the final encirclement and annihilation combat area as possible within our artillery support range. In addition, The smaller the Germans' defense in depth, the more advantageous it will be for our tank group's breakthrough operations. Maybe one attack can end everything before the energy is exhausted. "

"The Front Army Headquarters requires us to send at least part of the advance troops to the northern protrusion to cooperate with the Baltic Front's advance forces in the same theater to conduct the first phase of clearing operations."

"Considering the enemy's huge accumulation of armored forces in the area, the support of tank troops is crucial. Otherwise, a pure infantry attack may suffer a failure like the previous Kharkov campaign. Comrade Commander clearly emphasized this point, and requires us to fully realize the necessity and importance of it, I think you should be able to understand.”

If someone else evaluates the quality of the Battle of Kharkov, they may really just evaluate it from the perspective of a third-party bystander, but Vatutin is different.

The failure of the Kharkov counterattack was essentially the result of Vatutin's command. Vatutin did not expect that the German army, which was facing the enemy in front of him, had accumulated a powerful armored force of both quality and quantity that far exceeded anything in the past.

The Germans' powerful zoo cluster and the latest scrap iron men attacked together. The unreliable black panthers and a lot of miscellaneous German iron bastards overran the counterattack force with few tanks commanded by Vatutin. They were in disarray and suffered heavy casualties. In the end, they were helplessly defeated and gave up to the Germans a large area of ​​territory that had been recovered before.

Few famous generals have maintained a glorious record of never losing a battle in their lifetime. Even a Red Army god of war like Zhukov had a humiliating major defeat like Operation Mars.

You can't use too perfect standards to judge a person, and Vatugin is not the kind of god who can win battles throughout his life without suffering any losses. Able to learn lessons from the failure of the Kharkov counterattack, make corrective judgments based on the current situation, and then issue orders.

At least in the eyes of Comrade Lao Ma, Vatutin did an impeccable job.

If he had had a similar experience and was still sitting in the position of commander of the front army, he would probably do the same thing. Because neither the hijacking of the train nor the encirclement and suppression of the northern protrusion can be delayed. Either one is very important and must not be left behind. Even if it is a division of troops, it must be completed.