Chapter 138 Selecting Generals

Seeing that Marshal Timoshenko in front of him spoke directly, Zhukov, who knew that time was running out and the war was urgent, simply spoke frankly.

"The second phase of the offensive in the direction of Yelnya must have a sufficient number of tank troops. The reserve front currently has only one tank division under its command, which is not enough to deal with and consume for such a front-level battle."

"If possible, comrade Marshal, I hope to borrow a sufficient number of tank troops from you, at least to ensure that enough tanks can be gathered at a key breakthrough point to break through the enemy's defense line. Only in this way can I have absolute confidence in taking back the city of Yelnya from the Germans."

Marshal Timoshenko, who was also a senior general of the Soviet Red Army, was naturally very clear about Zhukov's outstanding command ability.

As early as the Battle of Nomonhan, the Japanese Kwantung Army, which had long planned the northward strategy, was completely cured of its dissatisfaction by Zhukov, then the commander of the 57th Special Army of the Soviet Far East Military District, in just this battle.

The Japanese Kwantung Army, which has always advocated infantry offensive tactics, encountered a large-scale armored group charge launched by Zhukov with 450 tanks of various types concentrated on one point in this battle.

Even with the blessing of the Bushido spirit and the shouting of "Long Live the Emperor", the flesh-and-blood infantry was still useless.

Aircraft in the sky provided cover, tank groups on the ground charged, and the Soviet field artillery group in the rear fired heavy artillery barrages for support.

The Japanese Kwantung Army, which confidently thought it could reproduce the glorious record of the Russo-Japanese War, was instantly beaten to the ground by Zhukov's "Red Army version of blitzkrieg" and suffered heavy losses. It never dared to breed any incidents or initiate any provocations in the border area between Outer Mongolia and Manchuria.

After this battle, Zhukov not only proved his outstanding military command ability and important value in front of Stalin, but was also awarded the highest honorary title of the Soviet Union, "Hero of the Soviet Union", which made his military career flourish from then on.

It was on the unfortunate Japanese Kwantung Army that Zhukov first implemented his strategic deployment of large-scale concentrated operations, proving the feasibility of this multi-arms coordination and concentrated breakthrough superior forces on one point to launch a fierce offensive operation tactic, laying a solid practical foundation for Zhukov's future confrontation with a group of outstanding German generals.

Judging from the summary of the results after the Battle of Nomonhan, Zhukov's outstanding command and application capabilities for armored forces have been tested in actual combat and are beyond doubt.

Zhukov's deployment tactics of concentrating forces on one point for breakthrough offensive deployment of armored forces are quite similar to the blitzkrieg tactics that Guderian has always advocated and promoted in the German army. Compared with Pavlov, who reversed history and advocated that "tanks are only auxiliary equipment for infantry offensives", he is much stronger.

Marshal Timoshenko, also an outstanding Red Army general, combined the practical summary of the German army's new blitzkrieg tactics at this moment when the Pavlov case was decided by Stalin.

He naturally had reason to believe in Zhukov's concentrated use of tank troops, and was also very willing to believe in Zhukov's outstanding talent and command ability in commanding tank troops. Handing the tank troops to Zhukov to launch an attack on Yelnya might achieve better results.

"Well, Zhukov. In order to recapture the city of Yelnya, I think I must support you with some tank troops."

While speaking lightly, he stared at the battle zone diagram in front of him and kept thinking and thinking. Marshal Timoshenko, who was constantly thinking about which elite tank unit to reinforce Zhukov in his mind, suddenly had an idea and his eyes lit up.

A unit number that appeared repeatedly in the recent war report telegrams, along with the name of its commander, immediately appeared in Marshal Timoshenko's mind.

"Comrade Zhukov, have you heard of the name Dimitri Drukovich Malashenko?"

"Dmitri Drukovich Malashenko?"

Zhukov suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu after hearing this name from Marshal Timoshenko, but the passage of time and his busy work as the Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army made him unable to remember whether this name matched the familiar face in his memory.

Finally, after Zhukov thought about it for nearly half a minute, he finally remembered the name that had been mentioned in the conversation with Rokossovsky.

"I remember, Comrade Marshal, I heard this name in some conversations with Comrade Rokossovsky before. I remember that this young man named Malashenko was a very good commander of the front-line tank troops in Comrade Rokossovsky's mouth. The last time he achieved good results, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and promoted to major. Why did you suddenly ask this?"

Looking at Zhukov's slightly puzzled expression in front of him, Marshal Timoshenko sighed in his heart that this little major was really well-known and continued to speak.

"Major Malashenko has been fighting in the army group under Rokossovsky since he was transferred to the Western Front. In order to focus on breaking through the German defense line, Rokossovsky established an armored breakthrough battalion composed of pure heavy tanks and chose Major Malashenko as the commander of this heavy tank battalion."

"These days, Major Malashenko and his 1st Heavy Tank Breakthrough Battalion have been fighting in the most intense battle zone in the direction of Yelnya. The defense lines of the German Wehrmacht's Grossdeutschland Infantry Regiment were attacked one after another under his leadership. After being overrun many times, they have now been compressed from the outskirts of Yelniya City and are continuing to fight in the streets inside Yelniya City.”

"It's just that heavy tanks are really unable to operate in narrow streets. In the past week, Major Malashenko and his First Heavy Tank Breakthrough Battalion have suffered heavy losses and are quite exhausted. Rokossovsky has already Major Malashenko and his troops have been replaced and are currently resting and recuperating on the outer edge of the Yelniya theater. New personnel and equipment have been put in place. This heroic tank unit undoubtedly has the best record among the entire Western Front. Brilliant Tank Elite.”

After hearing this, Zhukov, who had roughly understood what Marshal Timoshenko meant, smiled calmly.

"Comrade Marshal, Major Malashenko is the tank commander who was personally named by Comrade Rokossovsky to leave. If his confidant is about to leave like this, I am worried that Comrade Rokossovsky will Generate some opinions.”