Chapter 193 Setting Sail in the Dark Night

It is not an easy task to lift these huge steel beasts onto the ship. Even after they are split into many parts such as the engine, chassis, and separate turrets, a large amount of manpower is still needed to transport them onto the ship at the docks that lack heavy lifting professional equipment.

In order to cooperate with Malashenko's transportation operation, Colonel Baranovsky, who is the commander of the entire dock and the Ladoga Lake Squadron, dispatched a large number of dock workers and Red Navy sailors to assist Malashenko before nightfall.

The vast majority of dock workers are basically young and middle-aged men who have just retired from Leningrad and evacuated civilians.

These workers and civilians, who have ignited lofty ambitions and anger in their hearts because of the invasion of their motherland, voluntarily joined the ranks of dock workers to participate in voluntary labor. Even if they have no chance to pick up guns and rush to the front line, they must contribute to the national crisis on the transportation lines in the rear.

Compared with the image of evil political commissars who forcibly captured civilians and even shot them directly if they disobeyed in the famous Soviet-German war blockbuster directed by a French director in later generations.

At the dock within the range of Malashenko's vision, the political commissar with a loud speaker in his hand was standing on the pile of material boxes at the dock and loudly commanding the crowd to work. The hoarse shouting and cheering for comrades echoed over the dock under the night sky for a long time.

The Red Navy sailors from the Baltic Fleet worked hard to move goods with the dock workers and civilians regardless of their identities.

All the smearing behaviors of capitalist directors who do not know the essence of communism and the true meaning of the Soviet spirit are now invisibly broken. The selfless dedication to the motherland and the unswerving belief in the red are not something that those capitalist scoundrels can understand.

Seeing a tank turret placed on a flatbed trailer being pushed by more than ten workers and carried by the Red Navy sailors on the transport ship with ropes and slogans, it was finally delivered to the deck. The difficulty of the transportation process was far beyond his imagination. Malashenko raised his hand with a frown and looked at the pointer time on his watch.

"It has been a full hour and a half since dusk, but we have only transported eight KV1 heavy tanks to the ship, and we haven't even had time to start the transportation. If this continues, I don't think we will be able to load all the equipment of our battalion on the ship even by dawn."

From the anxious expression on Malashenko's face, he could see the deep helplessness and anxiety from the bottom of his heart. After thinking about it, Lavrinenko still couldn't come up with any better solution. He could only reach out his palm and pat Malashenko on the shoulder and speak softly.

"The heavy lifting equipment on the dock was either evacuated to the rear or directly blown up by the German air raid. Although it is difficult and inefficient to move it manually, it is really the only feasible solution for us at the moment. Calm down a little, Malashenko, you still have to stay calm and be ready to command the troops at any time."

While listening to the advice from Lavrinenko, his deputy beside him, he still kept his eyes fixed. Even after the turret and engine were removed, the heavy chassis still weighed more than 30. It was extremely laborious and heavy to be towed by the only three small cranes on the dock. The speed of slowly moving to the deck of the transport ship through the towing board was slower than a snail in Malashenko's opinion.

"We can't go on like this, Lavri, there aren't enough people to join the loading operation!"

"Go and gather our own crews and logistics personnel from each company. No matter how many people there are, as long as they are not injured and unable to move, all of them should be put in! I can't guarantee that our battalion can cross the lake tonight if we continue to grind slowly at this speed, but I'm sure that we will definitely wait for those German planes and bombs by dawn!"

Originally, he planned to let the troops under his command who had hurried all the way to Leningrad take a short break to prepare and recover their physical strength to deal with the battle that might break out at any time after crossing the lake.

But judging from the current situation, Malashenko's wishful thinking in his mind is obviously not in line with reality. If he doesn't make timely corrections, then in the end, it is likely that Malashenko himself will be pitted.

Seeing the anxious and irritable look on Malashenko's face, Lavrinenko, who knew that time was running out, also had similar thoughts and plans in his mind. Lavrinenko nodded to Malashenko without any hesitation and immediately took the order.

About five minutes later, the crews and logistics personnel of the First Independent Heavy Tank Breakthrough Battalion, who were urgently summoned by Lavrinenko, also began to join the busy dock transportation work.

The heavy tank turret was loaded on a cart and pulled onto the ship by manpower. The skilled dock technicians operated the small dock crane with limited carrying capacity to drag the heavy tank chassis onto the deck.

Some relatively thin and not very capable civilians formed a human assembly line to load the 76mm shells emptied from the tanks one by one onto the ship.

The cold dock under the deep night sky was a scene of great activity. All people, including women and children, were carrying out loading and unloading operations under the coordination of the commanding political commissar.

After being fully loaded with food and supplies, ship after ship whistled and set off, gradually moving farther and farther away on the deep and boundless dark lake to transport full loads of hope to Leningrad.

One after another, ships carrying frontline wounded and evacuees arrived at the dock. The medical staff who had been on standby immediately ran forward, carefully took over the stretchers carrying the heroes of the motherland and the people, and carefully checked the situation.

After seeing the scene on the dock, the evacuation workers and civilians who walked down from the evacuation ships in an orderly manner directly and resolutely threw themselves into this temporarily smokeless front.

With more and more people joining in to assist, the efficiency of loading these KV1 steel behemoths onto the ship began to increase more and more.

Finally, when the deck of the military transport ship converted from an old retired destroyer was packed with the chassis and components of various KV1 heavy tanks, several fully loaded transport ships were finally able to set sail near midnight.