Steel Soviet Union

The frozen snow showed no signs of melting under the biting low temperatures. Even in early 1942, the winter that was enough to leave a shadow on the Germans still shrouded the entire Russian land in their mouths.

Although Malashenko has commanded the troops to advance as fast as possible on the frozen land, the poor cross-country snowy road conditions and a small number of zombie tanks that had been repaired after one death broke down. It still seriously slowed down the advance speed of the First Guards Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment.

What made Malashenko even more upset was that his own IS1 prototype tank had a gearbox gear break during maneuvers. The reason was that when the driver Seryosha drove this IS1 prototype tank up a small slope, he made an operating error and forced a gear change midway, and the IS1's transmission system itself was not very reliable.

Malashenko, who was stumbling and making repairs along the way, unexpectedly encountered something very interesting.

However, this is interesting only for the Soviet army. For the German army, it is the most realistic portrayal of the horrors of the Winter War.

While passing through a village that had been destroyed by the war, Malashenko accidentally saw a "German stick" stuck on the road at the entrance of the village.

Literally understood as a German stick, this was actually a German corpse that was frozen solid and had already turned into a human stick. It was dug up by the Red Army counterattack troops passing by in a head-down position with its feet in the air. A small hole dug upside down in the snow.

On the boots of the feet pointing straight to the sky, a wooden sign with Russian writing on it is hanging on it. It is quite strong and fixed, and the writing is very neat. It seems that it is the handwriting left by a cultural person. In Malashenko's view But it's extremely sarcastic.

"вперёд!назапад! (Forward! All the way to the west!)"

The sticks planted on the side of the road made many Red Army tank soldiers passing by slow down their vehicles to pay attention and smile. This prank left by an unknown person did bring some joy to everyone in the winter.

"This is our home court now! I like this feeling, Comrade Commander!"

Hearing what Iushkin next to him said after seeing the German stick, Malashenko, who was in a good mood, responded with a smile and agreed without much thought.

"Yeah, things are different now."

When Malashenko, who had been delayed for a long time along the way, finally caught up with the large army and was ready to show off his skills, a telegram from Comrade Lao Zhu told Malashenko a very frustrating news.

The winter counteroffensive had ceased, the siege of Moscow had been lifted, and the Red Army now needed to recharge its batteries for the battles that would begin next spring.

With nothing to fight, Malashenko led his troops to stay put. Not long after, a transfer order from the front army headquarters transferred Malashenko to other fronts again.

"Go to the Southwest Front, accept the direct command of Marshal Timoshenko, and prepare for the upcoming battle!?"

Malashenko, who was holding a telegram in his hand and looking confused, couldn't figure out the situation. Political Commissar Petrov beside him was also full of surprise.

"What's going on? Why were we suddenly assigned to the Southwest Front?"

Malashenko, who looked a little dazed, didn't say much. With his drooped right hand, he gently handed the telegraph newspaper in his hand to the political commissar Petrov beside him and told him to read it himself.

After receiving the telegram, he quickly read it at a glance. This telegram, personally drafted by General Zhukov, commander of the Western Front, clearly ordered Malashenko to lead his troops to report to the Southwest Front Headquarters.

The relevant troop handover procedures have been completed through direct communication between the two front army headquarters. The final result has been finalized and the only option left for Malashenko is to report to the Southwest Front Army Headquarters.

There, Marshal Timoshenko, a famous Red Army general, was waiting for Malashenko's arrival.

"It seems that the Southwest Front Army is about to make a big move, Malashenko, otherwise they wouldn't be so anxious to recruit us there."

Since Malashenko first led the First Heavy Tank Breakthrough Battalion into battle, every battle he has fought has been a bloody battle without exception.

Scenes of mountains of corpses of soldiers from the Soviet and German armies have long been commonplace for Malashenko. At first, he would feel nauseous when he smelled the rotten blood. Now, Malashenko can even sit next to the corpses and directly kill them. The hot food in the lunch box was eaten clean.

Wherever there is a bad battle, there will be Malashenko. In the critical battle where the counterattack force is urgently needed to be condensed into a battering ram, using heavy tank troops to carry out key breakthroughs is undoubtedly the best choice.

Compared to Commissar Petrov's thoughtful expression, Malashenko, who had roughly deduced what he was going to face based on the memories of later generations combined with this order telegram, was silent and unhappy.

As the commander of the Southwest Front, does Marshal Timoshenko have the talent and ability?

The answer is of course yes, otherwise Stalin, his loving father as a qualified leader, would not have entrusted him with important responsibilities.

But the bad thing is that Marshal Timoshenko's style of commanding the battle is somewhat arbitrary, even very arbitrary and reckless. Compared with Zhukov's "heavy sword without edge, big skill but no craftsmanship" style of rough and fine, Temu Marshal Xinge's seemingly powerful command style actually contains huge hidden dangers. If he is not careful, he will lose everything. This is the case of Marshal Timoshenko.

Malashenko, who had sorted out all his thoughts, knew clearly that the second Battle of Kharkov, which broke out after the snow melted in the spring of 1942, in the original historical direction, caused heavy losses to the Soviet army.

Marshal Timoshenko, who commanded the Southwest Front to launch an offensive against the German Army Group South, suffered heavy losses. He was routed in all directions and was captured by the Germans. The Soviet prisoners who could not see the end opened the door to the defense area of ​​the entire Southwest Front, and thus directly led to the Battle of Stalingrad.

According to the original historical trend, Malashenko actually did not want to interfere with these wrong strategic decisions made by the Soviet army. If this is done, it is likely to cause great changes in the original historical direction, including a complete subversion of the battle time and strategic situation, and even the final outcome of the war will become unpredictable.

And this is obviously not what Malashenko, who is bent on survival, wants. If possible, Malashenko would like to have everything under his control, so that he can make the most accurate decisions about every move of the German army and the time of the war. judge.

But thinking that he might also be thrown into the flesh-and-blood grinder of Stalingrad and experience purgatory on earth, Malashenko, who had a fierce conflict in his heart, quickly weighed all the pros and cons. The Battle of Stalingrad, which changed the course of the entire Patriotic War, was too heavy in casualties. If possible, Malashenko really didn't want to be involved in this terrible flesh and blood grinder.