Chapter 3004 "The 7th Tank Army"
"Comrade Marshal, what are you doing?"
Malashenko could predict that someone would come to pick him up, so he didn't say how awesome he was when he went to the sky, but he was also a lieutenant general and a high-ranking figure. When he got off the plane, he carried all the big bags with him and picked him up at the airport. There are no cars, which really doesn’t make sense.
But Malashenko really didn't expect that the person waiting at the airport gate and driving to pick him up would be Vatutin.
We have all heard that subordinates take over from their leaders. How can there be any reason for leaders to come and take over their subordinates?
Although my friend and I have a good personal relationship with Vatutin, this doesn’t feel like a normal thing.
Malashenko, who didn't understand what was going on, stepped forward. What was waiting for him was Vatutin's smiling face. Not only that, he even took the initiative to step forward and talk to the old man who had worked with him for a long time. The subordinate opened his arms and gave him a big bear hug.
"Flying directly from Berlin to this place, you must have suffered a lot along the way, right? Huh?"
The first sentence he said directly spoke to Comrade Ma's heart, and almost made Comrade Ma, who already suffered from back pain, burst into tears.
"It's definitely not a small thing to talk about the situation, but I really can't speak out of conscience about our relationship, Comrade Marshal. Now I really feel that there is no part of my body from my arms to my legs that is normal. It's like falling apart. It’s all light.”
"Pfft hahahaha——"
As soon as Malashenko said this, he made Vatutin, who had just finished the bear hug in front of him, laugh out loud. Before his laughter subsided, he patted Malashenko's arm and said.
"Yes, if you can tell me the truth, it means that we are not estranged from each other. That's the way it should be with me!"
"Let's go, the food has been prepared for you. I just arrived here not long ago. It happens that my motorcade is also there, so I just came to pick you up and see how our "Berlin heroes" are going to Japan this time. What surprises did the devil bring?"
After the Battle of Berlin, the name "Berlin" was added to the already long full name of the leading army.
From Moscow to Berlin, the title of the capital of the Soviet Union and Germany is undoubtedly one of the top honors in the Patriotic War.
The titles of other meritorious troops are basically "Vistula to Oder River", or even worse, "Tamanskaya" is added with some embellishments.
Like the Leader's Army, which has "Stalin" in front and "Moscow to Berlin" in the back, it is the only one among the millions of Soviet Red Army, and there is no other.
Now Vatutin says that Malashenko is the "hero of Berlin", which is also referring to the newly added title of Berlin.
After getting in the car, he and Vatutin sat side by side in the back row of the car to facilitate chatting. Comrade Comrade Political Commissar and Lavrinenko and his party sat in other cars at the back under Vatutin's arrangement and traveled with the convoy.
Facing such praise from Vatutin, Malashenko smiled and nodded at first, and was not embarrassed to say anything more. The words that followed directly got to the point.
"Comrade Marshal, how much time do we have left to prepare? You know that my troops are still on their way back from Berlin. I'm worried that if the time is too tight,"
Malashenko didn't finish his words, and Vatutin could guess what he meant next. After thinking for a moment, he spoke directly and clearly pointed out the answer for Malashenko.
"You basically don't need to worry about this. The time our superiors have left for us to prepare for the battle is relatively ample."
"Although our First Far East Front Army has undertaken a considerable number of major combat tasks, the transportation resources assigned to us by our superiors are equally abundant. Our army has a lot of property, and our superiors also know this. Now this army's The wealth is already more than that of some newly formed army groups, and there is no other commander as wealthy as you in the entire Red Army. "
Malashenko's main concern is that the leader's army has a lot of tanks. If there is no transportation capacity and resources, it will be difficult to assemble the troops in a short time. The assembly speed will definitely not be as fast as that of a certain archbishop.
On the other hand, the facts before us are just as Vatutin said. The current leadership army is not only unique in the entire Red Army, but in terms of the size of the army-level establishment, no other company can be found in the world. .
After the Battle of Berlin, when the highly integrated leading army expanded, it did not have infantry divisions, tank divisions, or a large number of lower-level units like the traditional Red Army corps-level units.
Under Malashenko's personal drafting, there were only two combat units at the leader's division level, namely Kulbalov's First Division and Varosha's Second Division.
But don't think, "How can you be so poor with only two divisions in one army?" The two heavy synthetic divisions under Malashenko are far beyond the capabilities of ordinary Guards divisions.
To put it simply, the two main forces of the original Leader Division, the First and Second Brigades, were reorganized according to the final organization plan that was continuously reorganized based on the actual combat experience of the Leader Division during the Battle of Berlin. Both brigades were all promoted and expanded into the original Leader Division. Troops of the same size.
In terms of book figures, the two combat divisions of the current leadership army, when fully equipped, should have more than 530 medium and heavy tanks, self-propelled artillery, rocket launchers, and rocket assault tanks assigned from the battalion level. Counting all the way up to the division level, the total number reaches more than 430 vehicles.
In addition, because the Leader's Army was also the first unit in the entire Red Army to be fully mechanized, it literally realized "everyone has a car and a seat"; just like its predecessor, the Leader's Division, it was also the first fully mechanized unit in the entire Red Army. Like a teacher.
So in terms of the allocation of armored combat vehicles, the current leader army still has more than 530 infantry fighting vehicles with the same number of tanks as the 1:1 ratio, achieving the ideal configuration of "one tank for one squad" infantry-tank coordination.
In addition, Malashenko, who kept the ultimate killer TOS-1A at the division level instead of continuing to hold it in his own hands, also has a newer and stronger military fire support equipment-ISU-203 self-propelled artillery.
This super self-propelled artillery has greatly shocked foreigners who have witnessed it, whether on the battlefield or on the parade ground.
In addition to the 24 new arrivals received at the two eastern and western parades, a total of 48 vehicles.
During the period after the parade, the Leningrad Kirov Plant, which is rushing to continue to polish the car, will also count the initial prototypes that have been delivered before, and deliver another 24 to Malashenko before the start of the anti-Japanese operations.
So if everything goes according to plan, the army's support firepower will be composed of 72 ISU-203 self-propelled artillery.
In terms of specific organization, Malashenko set it as 23 vehicles per battalion, including the battalion command vehicle, and 72 vehicles are just enough to pull out 3 artillery battalions and then form a regiment-level command.
In addition, Malashenko's original division-level guard tank company has now been expanded into a guard tank battalion, with a total of 48 IS7 heavy tanks equipped with the guard mechanized infantry battalion, which is also directly under the army, and cooperates in combat.
Although these two forces are nominally named "guards", in the actual combat concept, they play the role of permanent reserve forces of the army. Together with the ISU-203 self-propelled artillery regiment, they are all army-level direct combat units directly controlled by Malashenko.
Another point is that although the IS7 is good, it is limited by many factors such as weight and production capacity. Therefore, the main heavy tank of the leader army is still the 50-ton IS6. The IS7 is only used as a breakthrough spearhead in a suitable battlefield environment at the division level.
In addition, there is the direct IS7 tank battalion in Malashenko's hand, which is likely to play a role in turning the tide of the war once it is put into use when the war is most tense.
So when all the jars and cans are counted together, the leader army, including all the combat equipment of the army and division, has a total of more than 1,100 armored combat vehicles such as tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, more than 500 self-propelled artillery, rocket launchers, and rocket assault tanks, and the total strength of the combat troops has exceeded 50,000.
That's not counting the logistics support truck team, whose number of vehicles is only a little more than the total number of combat equipment.
It is true that the leader army is a "legion on steel tracks and truck wheels".
By the end of the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army had a total of 6 Guards Tank Armies.
After the reorganization of the Leader Army, some people jokingly called the Leader Army the "7th Guards Tank Army".
Malashenko heard this statement and smiled and agreed, thinking "it is true".
Because from the width of the front battlefield that the Leader Army has to face and the comprehensive combat strength at the army level, the Leader Army's powerful assault energy is only stronger than the traditional tank army.
From infantry to artillery, all are equipped with tracks and wheels. The huge progress has made the Leader Army's assault speed completely realize the unprecedented breakthrough of "how fast the tank can fight, the other arms that cooperate with the tank will definitely be able to keep up".
With tanks as the core, they will not drag down the tanks, and a complete combat system that can keep up with the tanks will be built around the tanks.
This is the core answer given by Malashenko to the topic of "how to enhance the combat efficiency of the army\army-level assault cluster".
There is another thing that Malashenko is also very fortunate for.
Thanks to the timing of the expansion and establishment of the Leader's Army, it caught up with the important node of the late period of the Great Patriotic War, when the Soviet military industry's production capacity exploded to an unprecedented level, and all the required main battle equipment production capacity could be delivered in full with quality and quantity.
Otherwise, the army-level synthetic assault cluster reorganization plan that Malashenko has been conceiving for a long time would have to wait for "people to have equipment", but it is better than "equipment to have people".
In short, in Malashenko's view, the current situation is basically in line with the expectations of the plan he has always conceived, which can be said to be quite good.
At the level of the front, Vatutin already has a huge amount of tanks under his command, and now there is a "super tank army that is not called a tank army" such as the Leader's Army.
The Far Eastern First Front led by Vatutin, which had more than 2,900 tanks and self-propelled artillery, became the most powerful front-level unit in the entire anti-Japanese operation, completely surpassing the Outer Baikal Front, which should have been the strongest in history, with more than 500 more tanks and self-propelled artillery than the latter.
This is actually unavoidable. It is not that the superiors deliberately favor Vatutin.
Rather, the Leader Army is a special experimental army-level unit. No matter whether it is the Outer Baikal Front or the Far Eastern First Front, whoever gets it will be the first and the strongest.
Even if it is given to the Far Eastern Second Front, which is relatively the weakest among the three fronts and only undertakes auxiliary combat tasks, it can become a strong army on par with the other two fronts.
Whoever gets the Leader Army will be awesome. That's how it is.
Considering that the tacit cooperation and mutual familiarity between Vatutin and Malashenko will help the leadership army's combat operations to unfold at the actual battlefield level, and the front-level combat tasks that Vatutin is responsible for do indeed require Such a unit as the Leader Army. After comprehensive consideration, the leading army was placed under the command of Vatuking, so Vatuking's First Far Eastern Front Army became "the most powerful army in the Far East."
Cause and effect is just that, it's that simple.
If the other two front commanders are dissatisfied, then be dissatisfied. If you are dissatisfied, go to the General Staff Headquarters or go to the loving comrade who signed and approved the final plan for the Far East operations. If you are willing to go and really have the ability to go.
Malashenko led Malashenko to eat all the prepared food on the table. Malashenko, who had a big belly like a pregnant woman who was five months pregnant, patted her belly and burped one after another. On the other hand, Vatutin, who was sitting next to him, was amazed, with an expression like "I don't know if you just escaped from Africa to the Soviet Union."
"Isn't the food delicious all the way back?"
Vatutin asked in a half-joking tone. His reaction was a little slow because he was too full. Malashenko, who was sitting on a chair and stroking his belly with his hands for a moment, finally figured out what was going on.
"Oh, not really. I was shaking all the way back, and my brain was almost shaken. I couldn't sleep well, let alone eat. I didn't have much appetite when I had everything in front of me. I didn't expect that. I'm used to riding in many tanks, but this time it's like this."
After eating and drinking, he went to the local guest house in Chita and slept. When Malashenko opened his eyes again, it was already 7:20, and there were only 40 minutes left before the train departed at 8:00.
Thanks to the fact that it was close to the train station, he dared to sleep until now. Malashenko got up and quickly packed up his things to leave. When he left the guest house, he saw the political commissar who had finished packing early and was waiting by the roadside with a special car.
"Let's go, it's just you. If you don't come down, I'm going to go up and call you. Lavri and the others have already gone to the station first."
"Also, while you are sleeping, Kulbalov sent a telegram. He has arrived in Khabarovsk and is setting up the division headquarters. He also said that the military headquarters has also prepared the site. Now Waiting for you to bring someone over."
"Oh, one more thing. Marshal Vatutin has already set off ahead of time. The Front Army Headquarters is also located in Khabarovsk. It will be more convenient for combat meetings and liaisons. At least you don't have to take a train to the Front Army Headquarters for meetings. ”
Just like the preparations for every previous war, Comrade Political Commissar would always quietly figure everything out and arrange everything in an orderly manner when Malashenko was tired and busy.
Malashenko doesn’t know how long this kind of daily life can last. There are always things that must be faced. He just hopes that such a good time can last as long as possible, even for a moment.