Chapter 1322 Battlefield Harvest

The Stalin Guards 1st Tank Division, which had just finished a battle, took a short break. Malashenko learned the latest situation after the war from the specific combat report.

From the results, the battle just now only caused very limited casualties to the fully equipped and powerful Stalin Guards 1st Tank Division.

Because Malashenko made timely tactical adjustments after the last battle, he used the tank group that rushed to the high ground to directly fire heavy fire at the enemy. Ensure that the precious tanks can effectively kill and absolutely suppress any enemy targets within the field of vision at a safe distance, completely restraining the effective range of the German iron fist.

In addition, the German army defending the position was a remnant of the Wehrmacht, and many important technical equipment were abandoned or lost during the great retreat in Kursk. There was no heavy artillery at all, and there were very few anti-tank guns. Most of them were light but not powerful 50 and 75 mm anti-tank guns. There were only a few heavy anti-tank guns like PAK 43.

With reasonable and appropriate tactics and the low combat power of the German army, the Stalin Guards 1st Tank Division not only easily won the battle, but also did not lose too many important technical equipment such as tanks.

In the end, only 8 medium tanks were destroyed, but only 3 of them were completely lost due to ammunition explosion. The remaining tanks could be put back on the battlefield after repairing the armor and replacing important parts. In the rules of the Red Army, such losses would not be counted in the total loss list as long as they could be recovered on the battlefield.

The loss of heavy tanks was only two, one of which was the IS2 heavy tank that had been replaced by the Stalin Guards 1st Tank Division. This IS2 was destroyed by the only two PAK 43s of the German army on the battlefield. The armor-piercing projectile broke through the front armor of its turret and poured into it. Immediately afterwards, an explosion occurred, killing all the crew members in the vehicle.

By the way, the ammunition rack at the rear end of the turret was also detonated. A whole row of 122mm projectiles instantly exploded, and the flames shot up into the sky, directly blowing the head of this IS2 away and landing on the ground.

If there was no ammunition explosion and only people died, then this IS2 might still be saved.

But it was beaten into this state, even the head was blown away, and it became a blazing steel coffin. Even if the mechanical master Karamov of Stalin's First Guards Tank Division came, he could only express his helplessness in the end.

Another heavy tank lost on the battlefield was the new mass-produced IS6. The IS6, which should have been invincible in the front, encountered an extremely embarrassing misfortune.

A German 88mm capped armor-piercing shell penetrated the turret armor of the IS6, and the position where it was injected was the gunner's sight at the root of the gun on the front of the IS6 turret. This is also the only place in the front projection of the IS6 that can be effectively penetrated by the long 88. If you use an object to describe it specifically, it may be only a circle larger than a large shoe box.

Good luck on the battlefield is not impossible, and the Germans were obviously lucky to destroy this IS6 from the front.

The good news is that the 88mm capped armor-piercing shell injected into the turret only killed all the crew members in the turret, and seriously injured the driver at the front of the chassis from behind in the form of shrapnel flying.

The detonation point too close to the front of the turret failed to detonate the first ready-to-fire ammunition rack at the rear of the turret, and the hot shrapnel flying in all directions avoided every projectile and none of them hit. The first ammunition rack, which would instantly lift the entire vehicle as soon as a projectile exploded, was only burned by the flames of the 88mm armor-piercing projectile, leaving a little black mark.

Instead, the power compartment and fuel tank, which used safe and non-flammable diesel as fuel, did not catch fire. The driver, who was seriously injured in the back and had several shrapnel inserted, even climbed out of the tank by himself, was rescued and saved his life.

After inspection, Karamov confirmed that this IS6 heavy tank could be completely recovered and repaired. As long as the damaged parts in the car were slightly replaced and the blood stains were cleaned, the crew could be rearranged and put into the battlefield and continue to participate in the battle.

So in this battle, not to mention the casualties and the loss of technical equipment, only 4 tanks of the Stalin Guards First Tank Division were completely annihilated.

It is no exaggeration to say that this is a very terrifying and arrogant record, which even sounds incredible and unbelievable.

However, as long as we consider the specific performance of both sides and the quality of personnel and equipment during the entire battle, it is not impossible to achieve such a great victory, and it can even be said that it is reasonable.

Elite troops are crippled, isn't this the final result?

Malashenko can be said to not even care about such a small loss of equipment. For Malashenko, who owns more than 200 tanks of various models, the actual damage caused is basically the same as accidentally cutting the flesh when cutting nails and causing a slight sting.

So for the next opponent to be dealt with, Malashenko just reorganized the troops and simply cleaned up the battlefield before leading his troops to set off immediately. He rushed to the next battle without stopping, intending to end everything before the German troops in the entire area made an actual response.

By the way, the biggest gain from cleaning up the battlefield after the battle was not the broken guns and a pile of scrap copper and iron of the Germans, but the Panzerfaust armor-piercing shells that were enough to supply a high-intensity battle.

I don’t know how, although the remnants of the Germans who withdrew from Kursk and were thrown into this ghost place lacked key heavy weapons and technical equipment, the Panzerfaust rocket launchers known as "infantry cannons" were equipped in sufficient quantities and were completely sufficient.

At first, Malashenko opened his eyes wide when he saw the list of captured weapons, and felt unbelievable, because the number listed on the list was as many as 1,200 Panzerfausts! This number is really not just a lot, but it is already enough to make people dumbfounded.

Malashenko, who came back to his senses from the amazement, began to gradually calm down. The most important thing at the moment is not to guess why there are so many Panzerfausts and where they came from, but how to make good use of these "infantry cannons" that are still very useful at critical moments.

This kind of simple thing that can be learned in one go is easy to understand, and the veterans of the Stalinist 1st Guards Tank Division can be used right away. After careful consideration, Malashenko finally distributed all of them to the infantry regiment of Varosha, requiring Varosha to use them for the main assault troops according to actual conditions, while the non-main infantry should be equipped with fewer or no equipment.