Chapter 351 Cold Snow

The freezing cold wind howled over the vast snowfield, which was frozen for three feet. The horizon was just a white line. In peacetime, it was enough to make people stop and admire it.

But Malashenko, who had received an order from the front headquarters, didn't care to appreciate these things. The rumbling sound of artillery from the distant horizon was even more exciting than the firecrackers on New Year's Eve in China. What such a scene meant was undoubtedly needless to say to Malashenko.

Malashenko was anxious but couldn't improve the poor off-road speed of his KV85 heavy tank. He leaned out of the turret to observe the situation, and then turned around with an anxious face.

"Yakov, has Istra been lost? Why is there still so much gunfire? Are you sure the intelligence you received is correct?"

Yakov, the lieutenant colonel who almost had the word "macho" written on his face, climbed onto the hood behind the turret of Malashenko's vehicle as before, under the pretext of speeding up, and accompanied the vanguard troops.

The hood grille, which was enough to burn people with heatstroke in the hot summer, was now very warm. Lieutenant Colonel Yakov, who was originally baking to keep warm, heard the idiotic words from Malashenko and spoke to him helplessly with his eyes rolled back.

"I'm not the only one who read that telegram, Comrade Malashenko, didn't you also read the telegram sent by the front headquarters? It clearly states that Istra has been lost, and our mission is to establish an advantage for the follow-up counterattack forces to open a gap and hold on until they arrive. Don't you remember? Wait, what did I just say? Follow-up counterattack forces?"

The two who had not realized the existence of this detail before could not help but look at each other in surprise. Istra, which had already been lost, was still full of gunfire, which could only mean one thing.

"The counterattack has begun!"

"The counterattack has begun!"

Malashenko and Yakov, who came to the same answer in unison, immediately changed their expressions. Now recalling that the short telegram did not seem to specify the specific counterattack time of the friendly army's follow-up counterattack forces.

"Damn it! We are late! Comrade Malashenko! Can your tank go any faster? We must rush to the front immediately, at the fastest speed!" Malashenko, who had already ordered the driver Seryosha to step on the tank's accelerator, seemed very helpless after hearing this. He shook his head slowly and his expressionless face was enough for Lieutenant Colonel Yakov to guess the answer he wanted to express even without saying a word. The mobility of the KV1 heavy tank, which was replaced with anti-skid track shoes for winter, was affected. In addition, the road it was driving on was not a man-made road but a vast snowfield frozen by the severe cold. It is natural to imagine how fast the 47-ton KV1 heavy tank would be driving on such a road. "KV1 is not T34, Comrade Yakov. I have ordered the engine to be increased to full speed since we just left the village, but you can see the current situation. The shortcoming in mobility can be said to be the only place where KV1 is not as good as T34. This is an objective fact."

Since receiving the task of "teaming up" with Malashenko from his superior division commander, Lieutenant Colonel Yakov has always admired and appreciated these huge steel behemoths under Malashenko's command.

In his opinion, an outsider who doesn't know the door of tanks, only the KV1 heavy tank equipped with strong armor and guns and strong and durable is the romance that a man should have. As for those T34s with a slightly smaller size and weaker protection, they are just like little brats whose hair has not fallen off.

In his eyes, the KV1, which is almost full of advantages and no disadvantages, is not as agile and fast as those T34s. This is undoubtedly a little difficult to accept for a while for Yakov, who has always regarded KV1 as the most elite and advanced tank of the Red Army.

"I always thought we were just driving at a constant speed, including when we attacked the village before. I never thought such a powerful tank would have such a shortcoming."

Although the KV1, a heavy tank, can travel at a speed of only a little over 20 kilometers per hour in the snow, it is much faster than the speed of people carrying equipment on foot. Malashenko and Yakov, who were anxious and helpless, had to continue to maintain the current situation.

On a circular field fortification position outside the city of Istra, the German army, which had seized this land from the Soviet army that had previously defended this place, had just cleaned up the battlefield and dealt with the bodies. The German soldiers who put down the engineer shovel in their hands had just put the cigarette in their mouths and had no time to light it. The roar of a large-caliber grenade, like the roar of a bull, tore through the distant horizon and came suddenly.

The fall of Istra, which is only 24 kilometers away from the main urban area of ​​Moscow, undoubtedly gave Zhukov, who was the commander-in-chief of the Red Army front under Moscow, a great shock.

Zhukov obviously never expected that the Germans could put the frozen tanks back into battle at such a fast speed and at the same time concentrate their fist power to capture the city of Istra in one fell swoop.

Knowing the disastrous consequences of letting Istra remain in the hands of the Germans as a springboard, Zhukov did not hesitate at all. Before his father Stalin's angry phone call came, he sent all the troops closest to Istra to the eye of the storm.

Zhukov, who felt the incomparable importance of Istra, not only mobilized ordinary troops to gather there immediately, but also the large number of German armored forces mentioned in the telegram of the loss of Istra, which was also a top priority that could not be ignored. If he wanted to destroy the German armored forces that took Istra as an attacker, the only option was to use the Red Army tank forces to attack against the attack.

The three Soviet infantry divisions that rushed all the way from the surrounding war zones had not yet had time to gather their troops. The vanguard troops that arrived first immediately launched a fierce attack on the outer defense positions of Istra after the troops gathered together.

However, these Soviet infantry, which lacked effective artillery and tank support, fought for more than an hour without making any substantial breakthrough progress. The German troops, who had thought that the Soviet counterattack was relatively easy to deal with, had no time to rejoice before the Soviet field artillery, the most powerful in the world, slapped the daydreaming Germans in the face with the roar of huge artillery shells like a tsunami.