Chapter 1236 "Ex-Wife"

"It's not welded like that. Adjust the position and move it a little to the left. The gun mount should consider the user's posture. Open the turret cover and get in to see if you feel comfortable using it like that?"

"Lift the machine gun over and prepare to install it! Hurry up, don't dawdle!"

"Hey! Don't go there! Don't you see the main gun hanging above your head? Be careful of falling and being killed!"

As the saying goes, you hear the voice before you see the person. Before Malashenko stepped into the maintenance warehouse, he heard Karamov's continuous roar inside. It really sounded powerful and a bit like a tenor.

"What is he doing?"

"Uh, modifying the tank. Comrade division commander and comrade regiment commander are personally leading the maintenance team to modify the tank."

"Modifying the tank?"

Damn it, did I hear it wrong because my ears were stuffed with donkey hair?

In Malashenko's impression, shouldn't modifying tanks be Comrade Kotin's specialty? Why is Karamov also tinkering with this thing on the front line?

Putting aside other things, Malashenko knew that Karamov had this ability. This guy understood technology, could draw maps, could measure, and was proficient in machinery. He was a rare multi-functional talent.

But the problem was that modifying a tank was not a job that could be done with just words or hands. It required heavy machinery and equipment. Where did Karamov get these things? Malashenko didn't remember that there were such heavy industrial infrastructure conditions on the front line.

The more he asked, the more curious and confused he became. He ignored the deputy commander who led him and chose to open the door of the maintenance depot in front of him and go in to take a look.

Before the Stalin Guards 1st Tank Division moved to this village closer to the front line and chose this place as the division headquarters, this place, which was now used as a maintenance depot, was once a granary with a very large indoor volume and a roof environment that was enough to shelter from wind and rain.

It is said that this village was a grain distribution center and storage point for nearby villages before the war. It is not surprising to have such a large granary. However, the food inside had long been emptied and no one knew where it had gone. It might have been transported away when the Red Army evacuated, or it might have been robbed by the Germans, but this was not important to Malashenko, who was borrowing this treasure land for a while.

Because there was a large enough indoor environment, and there were a lot of jars and cans of various mechanical equipment and tools for repairing and maintaining tanks, which needed to be properly stored, Malashenko simply waved his hand and threw the granary to Karamov for use, so as to prevent those maintenance machinery and tools from being exposed to the open air and snow and causing problems. Then this place became a logistics reserve warehouse.

The first thing I saw when I pushed the door open was that the huge and empty reserve warehouse was filled with various equipment and instruments, including tools for repairing tanks, various spare parts and new engines for tanks, and even hoses and refueling valves for refueling tanks were piled in the corner.

However, the most eye-catching thing was the huge heavy tank that had been dismantled into pieces and parked in the center of the reserve warehouse.

The familiar appearance of the vehicle, which seemed familiar but was covered with scars, made our old comrade Ma exclaim on the spot.

"Wow! This thing is still there. I thought the Germans had blown it up!"

The broken heavy tank parked in the maintenance warehouse was none other than the vehicle that Malashenko had abandoned and lost in Prokhorovka earlier, one of the prototypes of the IS6 heavy tank with the number 177 on the front of the vehicle.

Malashenko, who had almost forgotten about this, had always thought that the Germans must have destroyed this abandoned heavy tank that could not be taken away. Who knows, some German stick crew who suddenly saw this steel behemoth thought that someone inside fired two shots, and it seemed that it was a very reasonable and obvious outcome to turn it into a burning torch.

I can see my lost and recovered previous generation vehicle, my former "wife" again here.

To be honest, Malashenko was both unexpected and extremely surprised.

But what made Malashenko even more curious was what Karamov, who had dismantled the tank into pieces, was doing now.

"What are you doing? Karamov, where did you get this tank?"

Faced with the question raised by Malashenko who had already come to the side of the tank, Karamov, who was busy with the turret after dismantling the main gun, immediately took off his oily canvas gloves, clapped his hands, jumped down from the turret, jumped out of the car, walked to Malashenko and spoke.

"We found this vehicle when we were recovering and cleaning up the battlefield after the war. I recognized it as your vehicle at first sight."

"The tank was lying there with one track broken. We checked it and found that the power compartment was intact, and there was no problem with the transmission system and gearbox. We found tools and called a tow truck, moved it slightly on the spot, replaced the broken track plate with a new one, reconnected it, and then drove the car back."

"I wanted to ask you how you dealt with it, but you were recuperating in Moscow at the time, so the car was left there and no one cared about it until two days ago when I suddenly remembered it."

"Because the armor of this car was already scarred, I took people to repair it, fill the damaged armor, and upgrade the equipment. Now it is more powerful than when it was just shipped out of the factory."

Karamov's speech did not end there. Karamov, who was interested in introducing the results of his work to Malashenko, immediately came to the side of the car and reached out to pat the turret.

"Did you see the ring-shaped machine gun mount on the top of the turret? I designed it. I plan to put this thing on it. It is a twin-mounted Deshika heavy machine gun with a shield. It takes three people to lift this baby. But don't I’m worried that the machine gun mount will be equipped with bearings and locks in time, making it as easy and flexible as operating a Deggarev.”

"When you need to fix the shooting position and stabilize the machine gun, press the lock and it will lock. Feel free to send the cordial greetings of communism to those fascists. When you need to move the gun body, press the lock again. , easy to release, does not require any external assistance, purely mechanical structure, a hundred times stronger than the German’s shabby design.”

"Oh, don't rush to praise me yet, there are other modifications here. But if you praise me now, I don't mind either."

Karamov, who moved forward, arrived not far from the main gun, which was hoisted high and three meters above the ground. He raised his hand and pointed at the clearly visible breech mechanism that was completely exposed, and looked at the man next to him who was also looking up. Malashenko said.