Chapter 571: Extreme Joy Leads to Sorrow

At first, Lieutenant Vasily was stunned when he heard Malashenko's question.

"I don't know much about this, Comrade Malashenko, but I think it should be under construction."

"That's easy!"

Just now, he suddenly remembered that the field fortifications and trenches outside Stalingrad should not have been completed. Malashenko, who had an idea, immediately thought of the way to capture these German prisoners of war and take them to labor reform.

Well-fed and warmly dressed, they were as strong as cows and had endless strength. After half a winter and a spring, these Germans had almost gained back their fat. In this case, if they did not capture them for labor reform, it would be a shame to Comrade Lenin's teachings and the trust of a loving father.

Malashenko, who had made up his mind, decided to do it right away. He immediately raised his right hand and pointed at the more than 100 German prisoners who had been driven together not far away and gave orders to Lieutenant Vasily.

"Here, Comrade Vasily. You can dispatch some people to take these Germans to the construction site outside Stalingrad, and let these Germans help us build field fortifications and trenches."

"We have a limited time to hold on here. Once we move our position, taking these Germans with us will become a burden. You know the way to Stalingrad better than I do. Arrange this matter and send these Germans away as soon as possible. I can approve four trucks for you! But you have to go and come back quickly, because we will need these vehicles when we move our position."

Let these Germans build fortifications and labor reform?

Lieutenant Vasily, who had never thought about this before, was stunned for a moment after hearing what Malashenko said, and after reacting, he couldn't help but applaud this great proposal.

"That's great! Comrade Commander. Let these Germans go to the rear to build positions for us. Why didn't I think of this idea!?"

Inadvertently, Lieutenant Vasily praised him again. Malashenko, who had no time to be complacent, immediately signaled Lieutenant Vasily to take action, and he immediately walked towards the surrendered German tanks not far away.

There were a total of 6 German tanks that surrendered but were not destroyed. In addition, there were 4 intact SDKFZ251 half-track vehicles, one of which was modified by the German battlefield and equipped with a 50mm tank gun of the early Type 3 tank instead of the original machine gun. It was not easy for Alexander's German army to put so much thought into the anti-tank mission.

Among the six German tanks, the Type 4 and Type 3 tanks accounted for half each. The only unsatisfactory thing was that these German tanks were all early models: short-barreled Type 4 and early Type 3 tanks equipped with 42-caliber 50mm main guns.

These garbage tanks in the eyes of the Red Army were not even willing to be looked at by Malashenko in the past, let alone used, but now Malashenko, who is in a difficult situation, has long been unqualified to be picky, and basically it is good enough to use them.

Malashenko, who was worried that the German army might attack at any time, immediately waved his hand and ordered the Karamov logistics troops who had already arrived to drive all these unmanned German armored vehicles into the village without leaving any. Malashenko still had more than 20 abandoned vehicle crews who had no tanks to use and temporarily served as infantry. These things were absolutely precious at the moment.

The soldiers of the field maintenance battalion who had learned how to drive German tanks from Karamov before immediately took action. The German tanks, which had much better man-machine efficiency than Soviet tanks, were very easy to drive, which was one of the few advantages of German tanks in the eyes of the Red Army tank soldiers.

Watching several German tanks and half-track armored vehicles slowly drive into the village, the light weapons abandoned by the surrendered Germans on the battlefield were almost all seized.

Thinking that the matter was almost done, Malashenko did not intend to collect the bodies of the German soldiers. Although the hot summer was prone to plague, it would become a headache for the German army that followed after he left. It had nothing to do with him, and it could delay time a little bit, which was beneficial to him.

Malashenko, who was thinking so in his heart, had just taken two steps towards his car and planned to hurry back to the village. The roar of the engine suddenly came from the west behind him from far to near and then resounded through the sky.

"Fuck you, you licker again!"

Only 800 meters above the ground, a team of 12 Stuka dive bombers that received a radio command and rushed to the sky were roaring all the way.

The destroyed German tanks were still burning and releasing billowing smoke straight into the sky. The scene, like an ancient beacon tower, quickly attracted the attention of German pilots.

The German pilots who had undergone special ground unit identification training courses recognized the big Soviet heavy tanks at a glance, and pushed the throttle with their right hands and rushed towards Malashenko and his party who had just got on the car.

"Retreat! Retreat quickly! The German planes are coming, everyone retreat quickly!"

The thing that Malashenko, who had almost no decent field anti-aircraft firepower, feared most was encountering a German air raid.

These Stuka dive bombers, which claimed to be able to drop bombs on top of Soviet tank turrets, had terrifying bombing accuracy. Malashenko, who had personally experienced countless shrill whistles, had witnessed many terrifying scenes of 250-kilogram bombs being dropped directly on top of the tank's head.

Sometimes, the aerial bombs dropped by the Germans were not triggered fuses but delayed fuses.

Malashenko did not understand why these Stuka dive bombers did this. Perhaps they were worried that the bombs were too powerful and would blow down their low-altitude bombing planes that they did not have time to pull up?

But in short, the scene where the 500-kilogram aerial bombs whizzed down and directly penetrated the fragile turret dome armor and poured into the tank, and the entire tank was completely restored to its parts state after a few seconds, was undoubtedly the most impressive scene.

Just as Malashenko screamed orders into the radio channel and imagined the past ten seconds, the Stukas that whizzed down like vultures had begun to spread death to the earth.

The first wave of dive windows dropped at least 20 aerial bombs on the targets on the ground, and the retreating Soviet tanks and infantry were instantly knocked down in a horrible manner.

A few minutes ago, the German vanguard was killed by this vast grassland with no defenses, and was forced to surrender to Malashenko.

Things change, and Malashenko, who had not had time to be happy after winning a small victory, immediately experienced the despair of the German army a few minutes ago.

There was no place to hide in this stupid empty grassland!