Steel Soviet Union

The heroic battles of Lieutenant Allelukhin and other Soviet pilots spilled blood in the sky, and indeed played a very important role in covering Malashenko on the ground.

If it weren't for these brave and fearless fighter aircraft to help him control the situation, Malashenko estimated that the list of losses in his hand would have been super doubled, or even directly exploded.

"14 tanks haha, to be honest, I kind of want to laugh. I am used to seeing the heavy losses in recent times, but now I feel that the loss of 14 tanks is nothing at all."

Malashenko, who was holding a list of losses in his hand, smiled awkwardly as if he was suffering from mental illness. The two political commissars Lavrinenko and Petrov on either side of him unexpectedly did not show any surprises.

Indeed, as Malashenko said, compared with more than half of the horrific battle losses in recent times, the destruction of 14 tanks is really enough to be called a "very small loss."

He handed the list of losses in his hand to Lavrinenko next to him for safekeeping. Malashenko, who had his battle-scarred car on his back, sat on the ground with a half-full lunch box in his hand and asked questions.

"How are the casualties of the friendly forces? Did the infantry suffer heavy losses?"

In the turbulent battle just now, the three Soviet infantry divisions that were originally following Malashenko to accompany the attack were turned upside down in the end. Somehow, he rushed in front of Malashenko and fought with the German motorized infantry units that were speeding towards him.

What was originally a tank encounter became more and more confusing, and in the end it turned into an attack-on-attack chaos between two huge groups.

Malashenko, who was too busy to take care of himself, could not spare any troops to support the infantry battle. The German armored soldiers, who were tightly suppressed by Malashenko, also did not dare to show any contempt for the fierce opponent in front of them, and invested all their superior forces into the battle. During the battle, concentrated firepower was used to deal with the 1st Guards Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment, which had a mass advantage.

It wasn't until the battle came to an end with the temporary retreat of the German army that Malashenko, who had some free time, remembered to ask how the three infantry divisions were doing, but Commissar Petrov looked solemn. His expression already revealed the answer even before the words were spoken.

"It's very bad! I just went to the back to meet with the three infantry division commanders and briefly asked about the situation. Their losses were so great that nearly half of them were caused by the German bombers on the open terrain without any bunkers. "Great damage."

"The troops fighting with the Germans at the front were able to escape, but the large troops, division artillery regiments and division agencies in the rear movement suffered. Those German aircraft were afraid of accidental damage and did not dare to fly too far forward. The bombs were dropped at close range, but all the bombs were concentrated in the rear. "

"Two of the three divisional artillery regiments have been bombed and have lost their combat capabilities. The remaining one moved its position relatively quickly and happened to have a group of fighter aviation to cover it. The loss was not significant. All the artillery combined now only has one full strength. The division's artillery regiment has lost nearly half of its infantry. What are you going to do?"

The noncommittal Malashenko did not directly answer Petrov's political commissar's question. He stirred the thick bean soup in the lunch box and took a spoonful of it into his mouth. Apart from the salty taste, there was no other delicious taste at all. Marashenko Ke forced himself to swallow it and then replied.

"What did the front army headquarters say? Are there any more specific orders?"

Faced with Malashenko's question, Commissar Petrov shook his head. Apart from a simple telegram asking about the situation of the battle, no other update orders came.

He already knew the answer from the unanswered face of the political commissar Petrov. He leaned his head high on the tank wheel behind him and looked up at the sky feebly. Malashenko felt that the morning that had just passed was simply worse than the previous week. More lengthy.

"Inform the troops to prepare for battle. It has been almost half an hour since the Germans withdrew. I estimate that it will take another ten or twenty minutes at most for these bastards to charge forward again."

Malashenko's order was not clear, as if he was deliberately avoiding some cruel topics that must be faced. Lavrinenko, who pouted, hesitated a little but finally asked.

"How should we fight in the afternoon? Continue the attack? Or just block or repel those Germans?"

Among the two possibilities of deliberately avoiding and forgetting to answer, Malashenko almost accounts for half of the two. The contradiction is so contradictory that even Malashenko himself cannot explain why he avoided the key topic intentionally or unintentionally.

When asked by Lavrinenko, Malashenko, who did not give a direct answer for a while, thought about reality for a moment, and after a fairly intense psychological game, he finally gave a specific order based on the actual situation.

"Let's defend first. Whether we should attack or not depends on the situation."

The order Malashenko received from Comrade Lao Zhu was to cooperate with the 24th Army as the main forward counterattack, but this morning's battle has ruthlessly proved how weak this counterattack is with the fact that it was so bare.

The devastating air raids of the Luftwaffe almost blocked the progress of all Soviet counterattack forces. The German troops on the ground were also not rotten fish but the main force of the elite Sixth Army of the Wehrmacht.

Will you continue to counterattack under such circumstances? Malashenko did not believe that Zhukov's strategic insight could not even see this problem. If we really want to continue to play tricks with the German army like a fool, Malashenko estimates that most of the Red Army units participating in the counterattack may be wiped out tonight.

No one, including Commissar Petrov, expressed any objection to Malashenko's decision. To be precise, the temporary decision made by Malashenko is already the most correct arrangement at the moment. If we really want to continue like this morning If he hits hard like that, he may be close to complete destruction.

Malashenko, who still felt something was wrong after issuing the order, could not sit still in the end. With some uncertainty and trepidation, he came to the temporary regiment headquarters tent and called Comrade Lao Zhu at the front army headquarters. .

What Malashenko didn't expect was that he was still thinking about how to say what he had said in a more tactful way, but Comrade Lao Zhu on the other end of the phone seemed to have guessed what he was thinking. Usually the first to get the upper hand.

"I understand the situation, Malashenko. The 1st Guards Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment stopped the attack and assisted the infantry to defend the captured positions on the spot."