Chapter 1161 Fight to the End

No one can maintain high energy after such a high-intensity battle that lasts all day. Even the most energetic tank soldiers will be exhausted. Needless to say, the infantrymen who are more exhausted than the tank soldiers are in the same situation. .

Malashenko, who stopped and walked around the position, basically inspected all the details and locations he could think of before returning to the field brigade headquarters temporarily built in the center of the village, where I met Commissar Petrov and Lavrinenko who also experienced a whole day of brutal and bloody battles.

"You two look terrible. It's rare to see you in such a mess."

It’s similar to Malashenko’s current situation.

Lavrinenko, who was sitting a little closer to the door, was sitting on a bench made of a pile of shell boxes to rest and drink water. Lavrinenko held a military kettle that was bigger than a child's head above his head and drank for a while. The clear water overflowing from his mouth flowed down the corner of his mouth and continued to slide down his neck.

Seeing Malashenko come in, Lavrinenko, who was holding a kettle and drinking heavily, put down the objects in his hands, raised his sleeves and wiped the water stains around his mouth before speaking to Malashenko.

"You also said to others that you should find a mirror and look at yourself. If we weren't so familiar, I would have thought you were a farmer fleeing from famine. I think even the workers in the factory are cleaner and tidier than you look now.

As Lavrinenko said, the current Malashenko is simply "unhuman" to the extreme.

Almost no spot on the combat uniform all over his body was clean from head to toe. This was an oil stain, that was a blackened smoke stain, and there was a large piece of blood in the middle that belonged to someone who didn’t know who it was, but it was definitely not Malashenko’s own blood stain. , the unevenness was accidentally obtained when inspecting the wounded just now.

Although Lavrinenko's condition is equally bad, he is at least a little better than Malashenko. For example, Lavrinenko's combat uniform is at least not as similar to the map as Malashenko.

The two brothers Malashenko and Lavrinenko were joking around, while the political commissar Petrov sat at the table and handed a document report that he had just processed in the direction of Malashenko. come over.

"The statistics on specific casualties and losses of technical equipment have been released. The situation is not optimistic. You'd better take a look now."

Malashenko, who was interrupted in his conversation with Lavrinenko, turned his head and immediately focused his vision on Commissar Petrov.

Although he took the initiative to take two steps forward and reached out to take the document, Malashenko, who was obviously hesitant to speak, glanced at Commissar Petrov twice, and it was difficult to move away from his feet in front of him.

Commissar Petrov, who seemed to have guessed from his eyes what Malashenko was thinking and why he was hesitating, breathed a sigh of relief, and then calmly spoke slowly to Malashenko in front of him.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me, you just have to do what you have to do."

""

Malashenko's mouth was half-opened as if he wanted to say something, but perhaps due to the many people in the brigade with too many eyes and ears, Malashenko nodded slightly and remained silent in the end. Then he lowered his head and began to flip through the documents handed to him by Political Commissar Petrov.

Seeing Malashenko sitting at the table and quickly reading the things he had personally handled, and judging from the past speed, Malashenko had almost finished reading, and Commissar Petrov, who was still at the other corner of the table, spoke again.

"The troops we have on hand may not be able to last even half a day of fighting. As long as an offensive like today is repeated again, our defense line will definitely be torn open by the enemy and cannot be closed."

"This situation is inevitable, Malashenko, what are you going to do?"

What Political Commissar Petrov said was true, and he did not mean to be alarmist or exaggerated in the slightest. Malashenko felt the same after reading the casualty and loss statistical report.

According to the content presented in this report, the entire Stalin Guards 1st Heavy Tank Brigade is still able to move and put into battle tanks, even those T-70 little bean sprouts that have almost no effect. On the road, there are only 31 such a small and pitiful number left.

What is the concept of 31 tanks?

Let’s not talk about other nonsense, just give a very simple and easy-to-understand example.

In the heyday of the 1st Stalin Guards Heavy Tank Brigade when it was fully manned, Malashenko's men once commanded more than four times this number of tank troops. As an unstoppable key force on the battlefield, fighting in all directions on the southern front of Kursk made those arrogant SS fanatics suffer a lot.

Now, the situation faced by Malashenko can no longer be described by the word "heavy casualties".

To put it bluntly, the 1st Stalin Guards Heavy Tank Brigade was actually on the verge of destruction. The total annihilation of the entire army might just be another daytime offensive that lasted for two or three hours.

Malashenko, who always appears on the battlefields with the fiercest battles, has faced similar desperate situations more than once, and even worse situations.

But since the establishment of the Stalin Guards 1st Heavy Tank Brigade, this is the first time Malashenko has encountered a situation like this.

In 1943, when the war situation had already tended to be strategically balanced, it was still possible to encounter such a critical moment of being beaten by the Germans so miserably and on the verge of destruction. It would be a lie to say that Malashenko had anticipated this. Because all this is not the development direction of the battle that should have existed in the existing history, and the ability of the time traveler to predict in advance can not help Malashenko at all at the moment.

Now, everything can only rely on Malashenko himself, relying on his own experience and will gained in the war to decide everything.

Facing the question of Political Commissar Petrov, Malashenko was somewhat noncommittal and did not give his answer immediately.

Malashenko, who said nothing, raised his head and looked at the political commissar in front of him who was waiting for his answer, but his face was still calm.

He looked at Lavrinenko next to him, who didn't take the group of Germans outside seriously at all, and sat there like a fool picking the dirt under his fingernails. His extreme contempt for the Germans and his attitude of seeing death as home from beginning to end remained the same as before.

"I think we have no choice. This amount of troops is definitely not enough to break out. We can only hold our ground here! We have to hold on until the reinforcements sent by Commander Vatutin come to rescue us. This is the only choice."

"But if we can't hold on until then, I am honored to be able to fight with you all, united under the honor of Stalin's First Guards Heavy Tank Brigade. There will be no soldiers who are alive and grovel to those fascist bastards, and no Communists who live in shame. This village is the final cemetery for all of us!"