Chapter 3001 "Comfort From the Champion"

Just like the scene during the last military parade in Moscow's Red Square, Malashenko once again took the lead in giving orders.

All 25 IS7 heavy tank commanders, including himself, stood with their upper bodies sticking out of the turret, raised their hands in salute, and uniformly paid solemn respect to Zhukov in the direction of the viewing platform.

This is not a custom that has always been observed in Red Army military parades. It was purely invented by Malashenko himself at the Red Square military parade not long ago.

For example, in the Red Square military parade, the T3485 formation of the tank four, which drove in front of the IS7 formation of the leadership army, all passed through the parade with their turret tops tightly buckled, and they were just driving through the parade. What other elements.

Malashenko always felt that just accepting the parade in such a dry manner lacked the internal flavor, and it was necessary to make the parade more energetic.

I thought about how to be more imposing, and after rehearsing and testing it countless times on the training ground, I finally settled on the model of a commander leading the team to shout slogans, and the commander of the vehicle being reviewed to salute in unison.

As for the effect

Just look at the loving comrade at the Red Square military parade and Zhukov standing on the viewing platform now.

There was no trace of falsehood in the satisfied expressions of these two people, especially now that Zhukov, de Gaulle, was standing beside him.

"I have to admit, Marshal Zhukov, you have a strong general under your command who will make any military commander feel envious and jealous, that is General Malashenko. I think only such an outstanding general can be worthy of This heroic unit in the name of its leader once again sincerely congratulates you.”

Being honored by Zhukov and enjoying the solemn salute from a total of 25 IS7 commanders led by Malashenko, even if you are not a Soviet, you can feel this indescribable excitement so truly.

To be honest, De Gaulle was even beginning to feel a little envious at this moment, wondering how long it would take until France could be rebuilt before we could have such good soldiers, such good domestic equipment and troops again.

It’s not clear what de Gaulle was thinking in his heart, but he could hear the enthusiastic applause and emotion so close at hand.

Zhukov, who was also smiling, nodded when he heard this. After returning the salute to the reviewing troops of the leadership army in the audience, he also began to applaud together and smiled again.

"Look, General de Gaulle, what you are about to see is the most powerful assault and self-propelled artillery in the world, the latest top masterpiece of the Soviet war industry-the ISU-203 self-propelled artillery."

"oh"

It is huge, majestic, ferocious and terrifying, with great visual impact and enough to shock the whole audience. The huge gun barrel and the even bigger muzzle brake are really unforgettable.

This machine was placed in front of them, and they were just passing by in a row on the road below the stage. It was enough for people to truly understand how terrible and destructive this thing was.

"To be honest, this is the latest equipment that is even more cutting-edge than the IS7. Its first actual combat was in the last battle of the Battle of Berlin - the Battle of the Reichstag, but it was only this battle that proved its The value lies in the fact that no one can escape from the devastating destructive power, and only an ember remains after the earth-shaking explosion."

Listening to Zhukov's personal introduction ringing in my ears, coupled with the live scenes composed of these steel behemoths in the audience that are even taller and more powerful than the IS7 that just passed.

De Gaulle finally understood the meaning of this sentence, which was said by a German Wehrmacht major general who had stayed on the Eastern Front battlefield, fought for a long time, and finally fled to the Western Front and led his troops to surrender to the French army. , said when de Gaulle personally met him.

"Those Russians have no sense at all. Fighting against the elite troops among them, all I can feel is artillery fire, and artillery fire, and more artillery fire, and countless explosions surround me and my troops , at that moment the whole world was shaking, and the heaven and earth seemed to be turned upside down. "

"At that moment, I felt that as long as I could survive such a world, it would be called a miracle. And the most capable unit among them was led by a man named Malashenko. People “I don’t know if it is true that he is Stalin’s most respected guard captain and that he leads the Kremlin’s most elite guard force.”

"I only played against him once, just once, in Warsaw, Poland, and I would never want to have that experience again."

“That day, we watched helplessly as the most elite field division of the Wehrmacht, which had been reorganized, was annihilated and wiped out by him in less than a day on the outskirts of Warsaw, under the eyes of the army. Along the Vistula River, we can smell the blood coming from the other side.”

"Oh my gosh, they are only division-level troops. Shouldn't the division-to-division fight be evenly matched, and even our German army has the advantage? I can't imagine what kind of battle it will be. When everyone heard that it was "Steel Butcher" "Here he is, it was him who did it. Fear and rumors swept through all the Warsaw defenders like a plague. Until we finally escaped from Warsaw, we were still under its shroud. We just wanted to leave here as soon as possible and get away from that place called Ma." Rashenko’s plague god, stay far away.”

"Maybe someone will defeat him, but that person will never be me, nor me and my troops. I would rather hear the news that someone has annihilated him in a relatively safe place. Although it sounds cowardly to say this, I must admit that this is the common idea of ​​many division commanders and even army commanders, including me."

Just listening with your ears is far from a thorough and profound understanding of the above words.

Only when you really stand here, stand in this position now, and watch the rumored "Iron Butcher" who killed the Nazis and brought his "Nazi Elite Crusher" troops through here, and see Malashenko's true appearance in a fighting posture, and his troops whose appearance means destruction.

De Gaulle finally understood why the trembling Wehrmacht Major General was so scared. Some rumors at the end of the war were indeed so "unbearable to hear", at least for the Nazis.

"I can't stay in Berlin, I can't, I don't even want to get close to that place. That crazy Iron Butcher will mince any German soldier he comes into contact with. If you meet him in Berlin, you will definitely die."

"I have a wife and children at home. I don't want to die with the Nazis, and I don't want to be caught by the Iron Butcher! You must not send me to the Russians, please! I am willing to cooperate with you in everything, just ask you not to send me to the Russians, that Iron Butcher will definitely kill me! All Germans who have fought with him will definitely die!"

The more the Germans were defeated, the more outrageous the various terrifying rumors about our comrade Lao Ma became.

The German soldiers on the front line who didn't understand why they kept losing always liked to find reasons for themselves in private, or even invent reasons. As a popular figure, the "Iron Butcher" naturally became a good target, because this name itself has many outrageous and even weird legends.

In the Internet age of the distant 21st century, there is a saying that if a lie is repeated too many times, like chanting a sutra, and it is said countless times, then probably in the end, even the original inventor will choose to believe it involuntarily. If it is said too much, it will really turn a lie into "truth".

Fortunately, the front-line troops of the German army from the end of 1944 to the beginning of 1945 used themselves as an example to prove this point.

You lie, I lie, and all kinds of rumors about the "Iron Butcher" spread.

The German leadership, exhausted and numbed by the failure and retreat, had no time to care, so that the rumors and legends below, after thousands of endless repetitions, have become "truths" that are too late even if the superiors go back to care.

As long as the German army cannot turn the tide and turn defeat into victory, the German soldiers who can only subjectively feel that "we keep losing" and who still have brains to think independently will naturally be more willing to believe negative news as they become more pessimistic.

Because negative news can really explain why "we keep losing", rather than believing the nonsense in the German headquarters' war reports.

Now the Germans are completely defeated, and the Nazis have become the dust of history and no longer exist.

But one thing needs to be noted, countless former members of the Nazi armed forces are still alive, and the "terrible truth" spread from these people is still there.

Anyone who regards the "Iron Butcher" as an enemy will inevitably be affected by these "truths", the difference lies in the size of the impact and how to view it subjectively. But these influences spread by former members of the Nazi armed forces are indeed real and cannot be ignored.

"Iron Butcher" - this terrible nickname stained with Nazi blood will not disappear with the demise of the Nazis.

On the contrary, this nickname will continue to deepen the stereotype and continue to exist for a long time, until one day in the future it will be on par with the more stereotyped nickname of "East German Emperor".

But that will be in the future, not now.

Now

When the ISU-203 column, which is so majestic that it surpasses the IS7, rumbles past, and when Patton has been silent for 5 minutes with a dark face.

The third heavy equipment parade column of the leader army finally came up. It was a leader vehicle plus a 4X6 layout of 24 columns, a total of 25 TOS-1A heavy rocket assault tanks.

With the body of IS6 carrying a huge and heavy 310mm X16 launch box, this special armored vehicle designed for specific combat targets, designed to provide mid-range saturation artillery fire and close-range demolition and assault, shocked the four as soon as it appeared on the stage with a posture no less than the previous two big brothers.

"What the hell is this? Wait, I remember this thing was mentioned in the report from Moscow!"

"Yes, it is the thing called "rocket assault tank" sent in the Moscow report. Just like the British were the first to invent the tank, this is an invention created by the Russians, and only they have it."

"The Russians had previously disclosed this thing to the outside world during the Battle of Berlin. I still remember that it was a photo at a press conference. Now we see the real thing, and it is far more threatening than it looks in the photo."

Due to the "three uses of one car" of the IS6 chassis, it is necessary to build not only the heavy tank of the IS6 body, but also the ISU-152A derived from the deformation, and finally the TOS-1A, which is not in great demand and has a low priority, but must be available and maintained in mass production.

The IS6 chassis, which has been in short supply since 1943, has indeed limited the number of TOS-1A delivered and put into service.

Except for the leader division, which used this terrifying heavy special armored vehicle on a large scale and in clusters, other guards divisions were lucky to have a company or a few small vehicles, and they were all treasured and basically used as the safest artillery.

Almost no division commander dared to take this treasure to the front line to attack the city, except Malashenko.

This division commander, who shouted "This thing is far less important than the lives of my soldiers", grabbed the TOS-1A and used it to death.

Either you Germans were bombed to pieces or the TOS-1A was knocked down and destroyed. There would be no third result. It depends on whether you have the ability.

This is why even though Malashenko had long publicized the existence of TOS-1A as an active combat equipment, the US military still knows very little about him.

Any German soldiers who could see this thing at close range could not leave the battlefield. As a result, they were either recorded in the head count of the "Iron Butcher" or obediently entered the Red Army's prisoner-of-war camp.

The Germans, who were beaten, all looked like this. It was normal that the Americans, who relied on digging intelligence from the Germans to understand the Red Army, knew no more about TOS-1A than the Germans.

To be able to see its true appearance up close, you really have to rely on today's four-nation joint military parade.

On the one hand, they were afraid of the destructive power of this thing that could be seen at a glance; on the other hand, they felt relieved because they could finally see its true appearance.

The American military officers, who were in conflict and entangled, looked at these steel monsters called TOS-1A with complex and indescribable expressions, roaring diesel engines and driving past the stage.

Things were not over yet, and the mechanized infantry column of the leader army followed closely behind.

The BMP-43 infantry fighting vehicle, loaded with mechanized infantrymen leaning out of the vehicle and with AK assault rifles hanging on their chests, rumbled past again, and ended with a collective roar of "Ura", finally ending the military parade that made the representatives of the other three countries, except the Soviet Union, feel a little dazzled, and drew a perfect end to the Red Army's final appearance.

"Huh - is it over? Finally??"

I don't know why, maybe it's because I can't explain it clearly.

Looking at the mechanized infantry column, there was no other heavy equipment coming, and Charles de Gaulle, who felt that he could finally blink his eyes a few more times and rest for a while, suddenly had a sense of relief.

Charles de Gaulle was very sure that this feeling must not be just his, but a common situation on the entire viewing platform.

But at least there was an exception, that was Zhukov, who was closest to him and kept smiling from the appearance of the Red Army to the end of the parade, and he had already slowly spoken again.

"I am deeply impressed by the high morale of the French army. I would like to express my sincere admiration and congratulations to you, General de Gaulle, for seeing that your country has restored its heavy equipment production capacity in such a short period of time."

Is Zhukov telling the truth? Of course.

But de Gaulle always felt that this sounded a bit like "the consolation from the champion."