Steel Soviet Union

"Have some fun?"

Hearing this, Lavrinenko held up his coffee cup and moved closer to Malashenko. Looking at the slightly messy drawing marks on the map, he couldn't see anything for a while, so he could only speak to Malashenko. Ask questions.

"What do you want to do? Is it possible to do a big one now? Give the Germans a surprise?"

"It's not a surprise, but I do want to find out what the German guy is like."

"Come, look here."

He grabbed the pencil on the table and pointed at the map. Malashenko, who was logical and well-organized, blurted out the language he had already organized.

"According to the intelligence we have obtained, it is mainly the comrades on the inside who are still in Berlin, as well as the few German deserters who ran out of the city later today to surrender to us."

"Here, on the edge of Berlin's outer defenses, there is a regiment-level command post responsible for the defense of several nearby large blocks. Regarding this, the internal comrades staying in the city and the prisoners' accounts can be compared. This basically confirms the situation.”

“The troops deployed in this area are quite limited, and it is not the key direction of the Germans’ defense, but it is very close to us.

"There are five blocks in total in a row. The Germans have left a regiment-level unit here that is not full of personnel. It is conceivable how dense the troops are. Comrades in the city and German deserters can confirm There are not many troops in this area. There are probably not even one battalion of defenders in one block. There are two companies more and one company less. "

Malashenko described the situation in the area outlined by pencil on the map as carefully as possible. After listening to it, Lavrinenko, who had been with Malashenko day and night, how could he still not hear what Malashenko said? The meaning behind the words.

"What do you mean, do you want to launch a surprise attack on these German guys? Just lift their command post and chew off the side part first to get your hands on it?"

"Well, this is my plan, but if we really want to implement it like this, we have to hurry up. We can't think that the enemy has no reaction and vigilance to the deserters who may leak secrets. I guess if the enemy reacts, they may soon send the command headquarters transfer.”

"The two German deserters will run out after eight o'clock. I expect that the Germans will respond as soon as possible and transfer the command headquarters at noon tomorrow. Of course, this is only the best case scenario, and Germans may also appear. They must be extremely vigilant and react extremely quickly, because even if the two deserters transfer the headquarters overnight, they must be prepared accordingly.

"If it's the latter situation, then we can only concentrate our superior forces to force the Germans out of the neighborhood. We can't have too many entanglements with the enemy. If it's delayed until the German commander in charge of the defense command of this urban area reacts, It will be more troublesome to mobilize the reserve troops to come for reinforcements. The problem is beyond our ability to deal with it, and it may have to be brought to the group army or even the front army headquarters."

Malashenko, who nodded in acknowledgment of Lavrinenko's guess, was quite happy and told all his plans in one go. However, this last sentence sounded a bit wrong to Lavrinenko.

"Wait a minute, don't you plan to ask the Army Group Headquarters for instructions before taking action? If this fight really breaks out, it will cause quite a stir. At least it will be a regiment-level battle."

Lavrinenko was quite worried. He was worried that in the worst case scenario, the leader would not be able to clean up the situation and make the matter bigger. At that time, the superiors would have to come out to wipe the mess. Not to mention how to deal with it afterwards, it just sounded pretty good. Isn't it embarrassing? I just didn't expect Malashenko to be very arrogant.

"There is no need to ask for instructions. To be precise, there is no need to ask for instructions, because I have Chuikov's authorization."

"The Army Headquarters allowed our division to make independent decisions and conduct small-scale rat eradication and reconnaissance operations around the outskirts of Berlin. After all, this place is full of Germans, just like rats in the sewers. If every time You have to ask for instructions when hunting rats, and the commander and comrades have to get tired of it first."

In fact, Malashenko has a lot of independent decision-making power on whether he needs to ask for instructions, as he said himself.

The key lies in how you define the next action.

As soon as Lavrinenko heard this, he understood what Malashenko was thinking. He directly defined the planned battle as a "reconnaissance operation to eliminate rats." The scope of the reconnaissance was slightly larger. They reconnoitred a few blocks along the edge of Berlin, and then successfully took down an enemy headquarters that was accidentally discovered during the reconnaissance process, thereby winning the entire battle perfectly.

At least, the situations that need to be reported afterwards are basically that simple.

I wanted to ask Malashenko what to do if the worst case scenario happened or if he got into trouble or couldn't handle it, but then I thought about it and thought that this was just a trivial matter of "a leader's division vs. a German infantry regiment with no members." Moreover, the enemy's unequal intelligence has been mastered in advance, and this information can be confirmed to be reliable after comparison and verification through dual channels.

Both sides have an absolute advantage in terms of intelligence and strength, but there is a huge asymmetry in the overall strength of the two sides.

War is inherently a game full of risks. If you are timid and hesitant because of the slightest risk, then don't lead troops to fight. Take off your military uniform and go home to nurse your children.

As long as the troops are used properly and are well planned and prepared, this will indeed be an easy and predictable battle.

Especially considering the strength of the leader division and the current strength of the enemy and ourselves, this is indeed, as Malashenko said, a "reconnaissance" level battle.

"By taking these few blocks, we will have a foothold to go deeper and drive a wedge into the Germans' urban defense. I really want to see how the Germans will respond to us afterwards. If they try to take back the blocks, then It just so happens that the dual advantages of technical weapons and the defender are just perfect for killing them. I can’t ask for this kind of killing efficiency.”

"If they don't respond at all, it doesn't matter. At least we have a more favorable starting position for the attack than the town we are in now, and we have more options. When the attack actually starts, we can even follow the two main attack directions and start from the protruding part of the city. Attacking at the same time as outside the city also facilitates the deployment of troops. In an environment like street fighting, our troops are a bit too large. There is nothing wrong with having an outlet for our strength. "

At this point, Malashenko's purpose of "fishing and probing" is completely clear.

Lavrinenko, who basically understood what Malashenko wanted to do, nodded. This plan is not only highly feasible and low-risk, but more importantly, the return is not small. If a battle meets the above conditions at the same time, it is worth a try. It can even be said that it is a waste to delay the fighter opportunity.

"Okay, let's do this! You want to use Kurbalov's troops, right? I'll call you and call him over. The three of us will discuss it and prepare the troops. Wait."