Steel Soviet Union

Just like the scene during the last military parade in Moscow's Red Square, Malashenko once again took the lead in giving orders.

All 25 IS7 heavy tank commanders, including himself, stood with their upper bodies stretched out of the turret, raised their hands in salute, and uniformly paid solemn respect to Zhukov in the direction of the viewing platform.

This is not a custom that has always been observed in Red Army military parades. It was purely invented by Malashenko himself at the Red Square military parade not long ago.

For example, in the Red Square military parade, the T3485 formation of the tank four that drove in front of the IS7 formation of the leadership army was passing through the parade with the turret tops tightly buckled. It was just driving through the parade. What other elements.

Malashenko always felt that just accepting the parade in such a dry manner lacked the internal flavor, and it was necessary to make the parade more energetic.

I thought about how to be more impressive, and after rehearsing and testing it countless times on the training ground, I finally settled on the model of a commander leading the team to shout slogans, and the commander of the vehicle being reviewed to salute in unison.

As for the effect

Just look at the loving comrade at the Red Square military parade and Zhukov standing on the viewing platform now.

There was no trace of falsehood in the satisfied expressions of these two people, especially now that Zhukov, de Gaulle, was standing beside him.

"I have to admit, Marshal Zhukov, you have a strong general under your command who will make any military commander feel envious and jealous, that is General Malashenko. I think only such an outstanding general can be worthy of This heroic unit in the name of its leader once again sincerely congratulates you.”

Being honored by Zhukov and enjoying the solemn salute from a total of 25 IS7 commanders led by Malashenko, even if you are not a Soviet, you can feel this indescribable excitement so truly.

To be honest, de Gaulle was even beginning to feel a little envious at this moment, wondering how long it would take until France could be rebuilt before we could have such good soldiers, such good domestic equipment and troops again.

It’s not clear what de Gaulle was thinking in his heart, but he could hear the enthusiastic applause and emotion so close at hand.

Zhukov, who was also smiling, nodded when he heard this. After returning the salute to the reviewing troops of the leadership army in the audience, he also began to applaud together and smiled again.

"Look, General de Gaulle, what you are about to see is the most powerful assault and self-propelled artillery in the world, the latest top masterpiece of the Soviet war industry-the ISU-203 self-propelled artillery."

"oh"

It is huge, majestic, ferocious and terrifying, with great visual impact and enough to shock the whole audience. The huge gun barrel and the even bigger muzzle brake are really unforgettable.

This machine was placed in front of them, and it was just passing by in a row on the road below the stage, which was enough for people to truly understand how terrible and destructive this thing was.

"To be honest, this is the latest equipment that is even more cutting-edge than the IS7. Its first actual combat was in the last battle of the Battle of Berlin - the Battle of the Reichstag, but it was only this battle that proved its The value lies in the fact that no one can escape from the devastating destructive power, and only an ember remains after the earth-shaking explosion."

Listening to Zhukov's personal introduction ringing in my ears, coupled with the live scenes composed of these steel behemoths in the audience that are even taller and more powerful than the IS7 that just passed.

De Gaulle finally understood the meaning of this sentence, which was said by a German Wehrmacht major general who had stayed on the Eastern Front battlefield, fought for a long time, and finally fled to the Western Front and led his troops to surrender to the French army. , which was said when de Gaulle personally met him.

"Those Russians have no sense at all. Fighting against the elite troops among them, all I can feel is artillery fire, and artillery fire, and more artillery fire, and countless explosions surround me and my troops , at that moment the whole world was shaking, and the heaven and earth seemed to be turned upside down. "

"At that moment, I felt that as long as I could survive such a world, it would be called a miracle. And the most capable unit among them was led by a man named Malashenko. People "I don't know if it is true that he is Stalin's most respected guard captain and that he leads the Kremlin's most elite guard force."

"I only played against him once, just once, in Warsaw, Poland, and I would never want to have that experience again."

“That day, we watched helplessly as the most elite field division of the Wehrmacht, which had been reorganized, was annihilated and wiped out by him in less than a day on the outskirts of Warsaw, under the eyes of the army. Along the Vistula River, we can smell the blood coming from the other side.”

"Oh my God, they are only division-level troops. Shouldn't the division-to-division fight be equally matched, and even our German army has the advantage? I can't imagine what kind of battle it will be. When everyone heard that it was "Steel Butcher" "Here he is, it was him who did it. Fear and rumors swept through all the Warsaw defenders like a plague. Until we finally escaped from Warsaw, we were still under its shroud. We just wanted to leave this place quickly and get away from that place called Ma." Rashenko’s plague god, stay far away.”

"Maybe someone will defeat him, but that person will never be me, not me and my troops. I would rather hear the news of someone annihilating him in a relatively safe place. Although it is a coward to say this, I I must admit that this is the common thought of many division commanders and even corps commanders, including me.”

Just listening with your ears is far from a thorough and profound understanding of the above words.

Only by really standing here, standing in this position, watching the rumored "Steel Butcher" who killed the people in rivers of blood, passing by with his "Elite Crusher" troops, and seeing Ma Rashenko's true appearance in a fighting posture, and his troops whose appearance means destruction.

De Gaulle finally understood why the trembling Wehrmacht Major General was so frightened that some of the rumors at the end of the war were indeed so "unpalatable", at least to the Nazis.

"I can't stay in Berlin. I can't. I don't even want to go near that place. That lunatic-like steel butcher will mince any German soldier he comes into contact with. If you meet him in Berlin, you will definitely die." "

"I still have a wife and children at home. I don't want to be buried with the Nazis, let alone be caught by that steel butcher! You must not send me to the Russians, please! I am willing to cooperate with you in anything, just ask Don’t give me to the Russians, that Iron Butcher will definitely kill me! All Germans who have fought against him will definitely die!”

The more the Germans are defeated, the more outrageous the horrific rumors about our Comrade Ma become.

German soldiers on the front who don't understand why they keep losing always like to find reasons in private, or even invent reasons. As a popular figure, the "Iron Butcher" naturally becomes a good target, because the name itself There are many outrageous and even evil legends.

There is a saying in the Internet era of the distant 21st century: if a lie is repeated too many times, like chanting a sutra, it is unknown how many times it is said, and it is impossible to count. Its people will involuntarily choose to believe that telling too much will really turn lies into "truths."

Fortunately, the German frontline troops from late 1944 to early 1945 used themselves as an example to prove this point.

You lied, I lied, and all kinds of rumors about the "Iron Butcher" spread.

The German leadership, exhausted and numb by the defeat and retreat, had no time to take care of it, so that the rumors and legends below, after thousands of endless repetitions, had become something that even their superiors could turn around to take care of. , the "truth" that is already too late.

As long as the German army cannot turn the offensive and turn defeat into victory, those German soldiers on the front who can only subjectively feel that "we are losing constantly" and who still have the brains to think independently will naturally be more willing to believe it as they become increasingly pessimistic. negative news.

Because negative news can really explain why "we keep losing" instead of believing the nonsense in the German base camp battle reports.

Now that the Germans have been completely defeated, the Nazis have become the dust of history and cease to exist.

But one thing needs to be noted. Countless former members of the Nazi armed forces are still alive, and the "terrible truth" spread from these people still exists.

Anyone who regards the "Iron Butcher" as an enemy will be affected by these "truths". The difference lies in the size of the impact and how to view it subjectively. But the influence spread by former members of the Nazi armed forces is indeed real and cannot be ignored.

"Iron Butcher" - this terrifying nickname stained by the blood of the Nazis will not disappear with the demise of the Nazis.

On the contrary, this nickname will continue to deepen the stereotype and continue to exist for a long time, until one day in the future it will be as famous as the more stereotyped "East Kaiser" nickname.

But that will be in the future, not now.

Now

When the ISU-203 formation, which was so powerful that it towered over the IS7, rumbled past, when Patton's face was dark and he had been silent for 5 minutes.

The third heavy equipment parade formation of the Leader Army finally arrived. It was a formation of 1 leader vehicle and 24 vehicles in a 4X6 layout, for a total of 25 TOS-1A heavy rocket assault tanks.

The IS6 body carries a huge and heavy 310 mm He shocked everyone with his appearance no less than that of the two previous brothers.

"What the hell is this thing? Wait, I remember this thing was mentioned in the report from Moscow!"

"That's it. There's no mistake. This is the thing called the "rocket assault tank" sent in the Moscow report. Just like the British were the first to invent the tank, this is an invention created by the Russians. Only they Only then.”

"The Russians had disclosed this thing to the outside world before during the Battle of Berlin. I still remember that it was a photo at a press conference. Now that we have seen the real thing, this thing is far more beautiful than it looks in the photo. Very threatening.”

Limited by the IS6 chassis' "one vehicle, three needs", it is necessary to build not only the heavy tank of the IS6 body, but also the ISU-152A derived from the deformation. Finally, it is necessary to make the demand is not particularly large and the priority is not high. , but TOS-1A must be available and maintained in mass production to be included.

Production capacity began to climb in 1943, and the IS6 chassis that is still not enough has indeed limited the number of TOS-1A delivered into service.

Except for the leading division that uses this kind of terrifying heavy special armored vehicles on a large scale and in clusters, other guards divisions can be divided into a company and a few small vehicles, which is good, and they are all treasured and basically used as The safest artillery was used.

Almost no division commander dared to use this treasure to attack the city on the front line, except Malashenko.

This comrade, the division commander who shouted "This thing is far less important than the lives of my soldiers", caught TOS-1A and killed it and used it for nothing.

Either you German guy will be bombed to pieces, or you will knock down the TOS-1A and destroy it. There will be no third result. It depends on whether you have this ability.

This is why even though Malashenko has long disclosed the existence of TOS-1A as active combat equipment, the US military still knows very little about him.

Any German soldier who could witness this thing at close range would basically be unable to get off the battlefield. The result was either recorded on the "Iron Butcher"'s head account, or he was sent to a Red Army prisoner-of-war camp.

The Germans are the targets of beatings. It is normal for Americans who rely on digging intelligence from the Germans to understand the Red Army to know no more about TOS-1A than the Germans.

If you can see its true appearance up close, you really have to look forward to today's joint military parade of the four countries.

On the one hand, he was afraid of the destructive power of this thing that could be seen at a glance; on the other hand, he felt relieved because he could finally see its true appearance.

The US military officers, who were in conflicting and tangled moods, looked at the steel monsters called TOS-1A with complicated and indescribable expressions, and the diesel engines roared past the stage.

The matter is not over here, the leader's mechanized infantry squadron follows closely behind.

The BMP-43 infantry fighting vehicle, fully loaded with a group of mechanized infantrymen leaning out of the vehicle and with AK assault rifles hanging on their chests, rumbled past and ended with a collective shout of "Ula". It was finally over. This military parade, which made representatives of the other three countries except the Soviet Union somewhat dazzled, brought a successful conclusion to the Red Army's final appearance.

"Wha-is it over? Finally???"

I don't know why, maybe it's something I can't explain.

Seeing no other heavy equipment coming after the mechanized infantry formation, de Gaulle felt that he could finally blink twice more and rest for a while, and suddenly felt a sense of relief.

De Gaulle was convinced that this feeling was not unique to him, but was a general situation on the entire viewing platform.

But there was at least one exception, and that was Zhukov, who was closest to him and kept smiling from the time the Red Army came on stage to the end of the review, and he had slowly spoken again.

"I am deeply impressed by the high morale of the French army. Seeing that your country has restored its production capacity of heavy equipment in such a short period of time, I would like to express my sincere admiration and congratulations to you, Charles de Gaulle General."

Is Zhukov telling the truth? of course.

But de Gaulle always felt that these words sounded somewhat like "comfort from a champion."