Chapter 15: War Clouds Gather
After hearing such explosive news from Kirill, the three people who were stunned in place looked at each other with wide eyes after they recovered.
"Lieutenant Colonel Petrov, Kirill is Lieutenant Colonel Petrov's nephew? My God!"
Among the three people who were shocked by this news, Malashenko, the commander of the No. 177 vehicle and Kirill's direct superior, could hardly believe what he had just heard.
But after a brief shock and disbelief, they still had to face the facts in front of them. Combined with the next stage of action deployment that Lieutenant Colonel Petrov had asked the signalman to tell him before, the deep meaning behind such a seemingly inexplicable arrangement is naturally obvious.
"Boy, I'm handing my nephew and our next phase of operations to you. You'd better make plans before the operation begins. If Kirill makes any mistakes, I think no one wants to see such a result."
Although Lieutenant Colonel Petrov did not say such words directly, Malashenko, who was deeply surprised and carefully thought about it, guessed that his real purpose was roughly the same.
The divisional political commissar who reached the position of Lieutenant Colonel Petrov was naturally more stable and experienced in his way of doing things. For example, the straightforward way of doing things has long been thrown into the trash can for these old-timers who survived the Great Purge.
The way of doing things that hides half of the words and leaves the rest of the meaning to you to understand is the best trick of these cunning old-timers, but it is also the most difficult and guessable problem.
"Oh, it's a hot potato that I have to accept and can't push away."
When things have developed to this point, Malashenko naturally has no reason and no possibility to pack up and push back Kirill, who was directly assigned by Political Commissar Petrov.
In this case, the most important thing now is to lead and protect Kirill, the new loader who is silly and naive to the point of being cute. Compared with Kirill, the other bits and pieces are no longer important.
In the end, Malashenko, who was a little regretful and had infinite speculation and reverie about the meaning of Lieutenant Colonel Petrov's actions, finally accepted Kirill, the new "connected" loader, as if nothing had happened, after a smile.
And in accordance with the order of the superior command, he led his newly formed armored company as the vanguard of the entire division to the next front line.
In fact, according to the series of exercises conducted by the Soviet Western Front in the past to simulate the German invasion, the ultra-long-distance mobile transfer deployment of armored forces with a distance of more than 200 kilometers should actually be completed by the developed railway transportation network of the Soviet Western Military District.
If the ultra-long-distance strategic maneuver of 100 kilometers is left to the grassroots troops to complete independently, the long march will inevitably make the Red Army soldiers who travel day and night exhausted, thus affecting the actual combat effectiveness of the troops that will be put into battle later.
In addition, the underdeveloped road transportation network in the western part of the Soviet Union, which is basically in its original state, not only greatly restricts the mobility and invasion speed of the German armored forces, but also makes the Soviet army's own tank divisions have to endure more severe tests and difficulties in this endless prairie off-road environment.
As a heavy armored force driven by traditional mechanical structure during World War II, it is not as tough and durable as an off-road vehicle with a light body and integrated with modern science and technology. In such a long-distance mobile journey, it is inevitable that parts will be damaged or even the whole vehicle will break down and wait for repair, which will undoubtedly affect the actual available combat power of the 20th Tank Division when it arrives at the front line.
But for the 20th Tank Division where Malashenko is located, it is really a last resort to make the decision to complete the long-distance cross-country mobile transfer of more than 200 kilometers on its own.
Long before the Barbarossa invasion officially began, the German army, which had been prepared in advance, had learned in advance through a series of means such as bribing the Soviet Western Front staff, infiltrating spies to spy on intelligence, and radio listening and detection that if the Soviet Western Front encountered a German invasion, it would mainly rely on the Soviet Western Railway Transportation Network to complete the strategic mobile transfer plan of troops above the division level.
On the premise of knowing this situation, the efficient and strict German General Staff immediately modified some details of the Barbarossa invasion plan in a targeted manner.
The first phase of the German Air Force's air strike mission order after the invasion began was to determine that all railway hubs and important railway transportation networks in the Soviet Western Military District must be destroyed in a timely and thorough manner.
Under the highly targeted and focused attack of the German Air Force, the railway transportation network and hubs of the Soviet Western Military District, which were originally planned to provide wartime mobile transfer and transportation capabilities for the Soviet Western Front, were soon completely blown into a pile of twisted steel and rubble under the screams of JU87 Stuka dive bombers and Junkers 88 medium bombers.
The destruction of the railway transportation network, which was entrusted with important tasks in the plan, not only dealt a heavy blow to the Soviet Western Front's troop transfer and defense deployment. As a result, the Soviet Western Front, which was hastily responding to the German blitzkrieg, was unable to gather troops of equal strength to the enemy in front to resist the German invasion, and suffered defeats in battles and retreats.
On the other hand, the destruction of the railway transportation network made the process of withdrawing and reinforcing the Soviet Army's subsequent reinforcements a nightmare.
The method of letting the lower-level troops move to the designated location by themselves not only wasted a lot of precious time on the way, but also how much remaining combat power could be retained after arriving at the predetermined target location due to the long journey was also a cruel problem that had to be faced.
But even so, the Soviet 9th Mechanized Army, which was tasked with the difficult and important task of blocking the German Army Group South from heading towards Kiev, was still determined. Under the leadership of its commander, Major General Rokossovsky, the main forces of the 20th and 35th Tank Divisions and the 131st Motorized Infantry Division, a total of three divisions, began to rush towards the German Army Group South more than 200 kilometers away in a forced march.
The scorching June sky was already covered with dark clouds, and a cruel armored battle that strangled steel and flesh was about to strike.