Steel Soviet Union

Prior to this, Malashenko received an order to replenish the troops and seize the time to rest and recuperate.

Malashenko, who had a very serious sense of crisis, had tried his best to gather together the stragglers who were filling in as quickly as possible. In the past week, I only slept an average of three or four hours a day. What I was afraid of was that a sudden order from above would catch me off guard and I would immediately return to the battlefield.

Malashenko, who was afraid of what might happen, had already been mentally prepared, but it was too unexpected to have the 1st Guards Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment return to the battlefield so quickly.

"But the 1st Guards Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment is not ready yet. The personnel added to me come from 8 different units. They lack enough extended tactical thinking, let alone overall cohesion. The situation of the tanks is also very bad! I The field maintenance camp has been busy for almost a week to get these tanks into optimal condition!"

"Such a unit is not at all the original Guards First Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment. Comrade Zhukov, both in terms of combat level and equipment quality are not at the same level! It is no exaggeration to say that even I now feel that the If such a force is used in key places, it will cause big trouble!"

Although the words may not sound pleasant, everything Malashenko said is true. Zhukov also understood this very clearly in his heart.

"Do you know? Malashenko, a few hours ago, just like you now, I fully explained the difficulties I am currently encountering to Supreme Leader Comrade Stalin on the phone. Guess what answer I got? "

Before Malashenko, who was stunned and had not yet reacted, could answer, Zhukov took the lead in answering.

"We have no choice in this case, Malashenko. Executing orders is more important than understanding them. This is true for all Red Army soldiers. We are not ready, but I still decided to execute the highest order." Leader Comrade Stalin’s order, I hope your answer will be the same as mine.”

Seeing that Comrade Lao Zhu had already talked about this, Malashenko, who could roughly understand what this counterattack was about, nodded without wasting any more words.

"I understand, Comrade Zhukov. I will seize the time to prepare the troops, but I don't know the specific counterattack plan and have never participated in any relevant combat meetings. I guess the original list of troops to be used in the counteroffensive plan does not include nearly The 1st Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment, now I need to know some more specific situations."

The demands and questions raised by Malashenko are not surprising to Zhukov, and it is indeed necessary for Malashenko to know these things.

"You can go to the combat staff office to get a copy of the specific counterattack plan when you leave later. It is roughly to break through the German offensive starting position and disrupt their deployment, so as to buy time for our follow-up combat plan."

"But one thing needs to be remembered, Malashenko. This counterattack is only a partial counterattack. It does not require the destruction of many German troops or the depth of breakthrough. It only needs to disrupt the German offensive starting position and deployment. good."

Even though Stalin strictly ordered Zhukov to immediately counterattack to reverse the situation, Zhukov clearly realized that the troops currently in hand were not enough to launch a counterattack that could turn the tables.

If this counterattack sinks too deep, it will have the opposite effect and be surrounded by a large number of German troops that will follow. Once he got out of the game, Zhukov didn't even have the extra troops to rescue the besieged troops from the encirclement.

Therefore, this counterattack in the direction of the northern suburbs of the city must be extremely cautious and step by step, and must not be completely entangled by the superior German army because of greed for success.

After listening to Zhukov's order, Malashenko nodded to indicate that he understood that the 1st Guards Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment, as a forward breakthrough force, might accidentally charge too hard.

Malashenko, who had fought with the Germans for a year, knew that it was actually a relatively easy task to break through the German offensive starting position, especially when the Germans did not foresee the attack and were unprepared.

Just as Hitler admired Clausewitz's famous saying "Offense is the best defence", in fact the German army did this in most cases when encountering Soviet counterattacks.

From last year to now, the Germans have been engaged in counterattacks more than ten times. The starting positions of the German offensives that have been advancing rapidly on the Soviet Union are often very thin and poorly built. Sometimes there are only one or two infantry trenches. Not even a decent interconnecting trench was dug.

It is not easy to penetrate such a deceptive position, but the real trouble is the subsequent attack by the German army.

Once the German army with strong offensive energy started, it was by no means a small formation. The reason why the Soviet army's counterattacks were repeatedly defeated, and they were often driven back with bloody heads and blood, was mostly because of the defeat in the battle of attack against attack.

After comprehensive consideration of the current situation, Malashenko estimates that the Germans will most likely resort to the old tactics of attacking with attack. It is not the German style to squat in the trenches and build echeloned deep defense positions.

"We have to prepare in advance to deal with those German planes, Comrade Zhukov. And the north of the city is the main direction of the German attack. They can devote several divisions of troops to a small tractor factory to attack at any cost. What will happen next? You can guess how many large forces will follow, and we have to beware of these subsequent large forces launching an attack on us. "

Last year, Malashenko was bombed so miserably by the Luftwaffe that he almost lost his life. But who would have thought that after the offensive began this summer, the Luftwaffe's bombings not only did not weaken, but intensified, hitting Malashenko even more. On the head of the department.

In the past few months, Malashenko has experienced firsthand what it feels like to have his shit blown out.

The German fighter planes overhead would appear on time as soon as it dawned, chasing Malashenko's ass like fishy-smelling flies and mosquitoes, throwing bombs and swooping down to shoot at him. The angry guy will never completely disappear until the sun goes down.

Thinking that the upcoming local counterattack would inevitably be bombed, Malashenko, who had hardly received decent air support in recent months, finally couldn't help but ask Zhukov.

"Comrade Zhukov, maybe I shouldn't ask and I'm not qualified to know, but how much air support can we get for this counterattack? What I mean is that we don't ask for ground attack support, even if it's just to maintain air supremacy and not let those Germans Just let the flies and mosquitoes drop bombs on our heads.”

"I have understood one thing in the past few months. No matter how brilliant the downwind battle was a second ago, as soon as these German guys' flies and mosquitoes are in place, the group of German guys on the ground will be beaten to death. They dare to take advantage of the situation to launch an attack even if they can’t breathe, and in most cases it will be us, the Red Army, who ultimately fail.”