Chapter 2415 Iron Ambition

After understanding and realizing the importance and preciousness of his synthetic commanders, Malashenko began to impose stricter requirements on commanders at all levels of the division.

This includes but is not limited to that unless the battlefield situation is extremely critical and necessary, commanders at the company level and above must not lead the team to charge, especially a combat engineer whose skull muscle content is estimated to be greater than the brain content. He was specifically named by Malashenko as "strictly prohibited from leading the charge". Allowing him to follow the soldiers and command the team is already giving him the maximum face.

This order is mainly for infantry commanders. After all, the fragility of flesh and blood is much higher than that of steel. In the leader division full of heavy armor units, the infantry's death rate has always been higher than that of tank soldiers. Many tank soldiers in the leader division with strong heavy armor protection can retreat after the tank is disabled, and get timely friendly cover that high-value technical arms should enjoy.

But those infantrymen can't. Flesh and blood bodies are hit by bullets, which is real damage. It hurts and bleeds, and if they bleed too much, they will die. Everyone has two shoulders and one head, which is no different. Even the combat engineers who are called "human tanks" and wear armor have a bad casualty rate.

If you say that the leader division fights hell-level battles and bites the hardest bones of the Germans, then the combat engineers of the two battalions of the leader division are undoubtedly facing hell-level in hell-level, the bone in the hard bone, and casualties are inevitable even with the best equipment.

In the past few times, Malashenko ordered the combat engineers to retreat or suspend their participation in the front-line assault. Without exception, the casualties were too heavy, and continuing to fight would shake the core.

For those middle and senior tank commanders under his command who like to charge into battle and whose combat style is almost the same as his division commander from top to bottom, they are indeed carved from the same mold. Malashenko chose not to issue a mandatory order but to directly change the equipment, using the IS7, which the Germans could hardly destroy from the front, to arm and protect his mid- and senior-level tank commanders.

There is of course a price to pay for this

The IS7s dispersed among the subordinate units and placed in the position of command vehicles not only lost the cohesive combat power and strong breakthrough power that could be burst out by concentrated use, but also passively reduced the engagement rate because the command vehicles usually had fewer encounters with the enemy.

In short, if we consider the maximum use of the performance of the IS7 equipment, it is very inappropriate to disperse it to the subordinate units and use it as a company-level and above command vehicle, and the blessing effect it can bring to the overall combat power is pitiful.

But as Malashenko realized, the method of grasping the main contradiction first and then the secondary contradiction is applicable.

Without solving the survival rate problem of mid- and senior-level commanders, it is nonsense to talk about how strong the combat power can be exerted by the concentrated use of IS7.

Equipment is for people to use and give play to. If you are gone, what is the use of equipment? IS7 can kill the Germans by itself if it stops there? What are you thinking? This is a real 70-ton tank, not a 5-star SSR tank girl that can run, jump and fight.

As long as the survival rate of mid- and high-level tank commanders can be guaranteed and this major contradiction can be solved, the secondary contradiction of IS7's combat effectiveness being affected can be tolerated by Malashenko. If you think about it carefully, it's not a big deal. The equipment level of the heavy tank unit of the leader division does not lack such a little combat power blessing, and the overall strength is still enough to chase and fight any German field unit in 45 years.

The artillery fire from below the high ground gradually subsided in the violent landslides and landslides, and the destructive power of the deep extension of the German positions from the first line to the second line in front of them was visible to the naked eye.

In this way, another artillery cutting belt was pulled out, just like what Malashenko did when he gnawed the first edge position on the top of the Zelo Highland and successfully established a landing site for the leader division to assemble follow-up troops.

The artillery cutting belt created by the army-level artillery firepower is much more powerful than the artillery cutting belt of Malashenko's leader division.

The self-propelled 152 is not as powerful as the towed 203, and the TOS-1 of a battalion is not as numerous as the Andryusha in Chuikov's hands.

The final result is that a section of land with a depth of less than two kilometers in front of them has been almost turned into a death zone by the concentrated firepower of the army-level artillery.

It is not realistic to say that all the Germans on the scorched earth will die, but there will be heavy casualties and serious damage to the defense line, which is enough to achieve Malashenko's goal: step on the accelerator and rush up to penetrate the weak outermost defense of the Germans, and then rush up in one go, and then clean up the German remnants who were blown up on the artillery cutting belt.

The key is to end the battle before the Germans in the rear come to reinforce. If it is delayed too long, the German reinforcements will make up for the losses in the artillery cutting zone, and then it will be too late.

Knowing that speed is of the essence, Malashenko seized the time and arrived at his position when the artillery fire was about to end: the commander of the IS7 command heavy tank with the turret call sign 177, holding the radio transmitter and shouting orders to the troops who were ready to go.

"Forward, leader division! Start the attack!"

"Ura!"

"Smash those fascists! Charge!"

"For the motherland!"

There was no "Ura" charge with a sea of ​​people shouting and killing, only one after another steel chariots with no one hanging outside spewed black smoke, stepped on the accelerator, and rushed out of the position at the maximum off-road speed.

Although the momentum was much smaller, and the "Ura" sound was limited to the radio channel, the hundreds of steel chariots of the grassland cavalry in this new era galloping forward were more powerful than any traditional troop charge.

No flesh and blood were exposed, and it was a pure iron cavalry corps covered with steel armor.

Tanks were in front, infantry fighting vehicles followed closely, and self-propelled artillery was in the back.

The German soldiers who had just witnessed the whistling sea of ​​fire above their heads and the friendly positions in the rear were scorched. How could they have seen such a scene? A pure steel charge without a single Russian alive? Sorry, I haven't seen it in my dreams, okay? Are you making a Hermann Meyer-style joke?

Witnessing the huge mass of Russian steel monsters rushing towards them, the German infantrymen who had never experienced such a battle would be lying if they said they were not afraid. Their heartbeats were almost as fast as the shaking of the ground under their feet.

But at this point, they had no way to retreat. Behind them was the heart of the empire to which they all swore allegiance. The position under their feet was the last heart-protecting mirror to protect the heart of the empire. All the German soldiers guarding this high ground could be called the Imperial Guard.

The desperate will that trembled in the rage supported them to fight against steel with their flesh and blood. This high ground that had been bombarded with holes was destined to be a river of blood.

The real bloody battle was not in progress, but was just about to begin.