Chapter 575: Prepare for Battle

The pain of losing a comrade takes an extremely long time to dissipate, but the pleasure of revenge comes faster and more fiercely than anything else.

Everything is exactly as Malashenko had expected.

After learning that the vanguard troops were ambushed and annihilated, the German Sixth Army, which was following closely behind, did not slow down the pace of attack at all. The first wave of troops, which were several times larger than the vanguard troops, quickly arrived outside the village and launched a forced crushing attack with superior forces.

When dealing with opponents of equal strength, the German army is good at using tactical strategies to conduct roundabouts and outflanking, and quickly resolve the battle by inserting the enemy's depth and weak links in defense at high speed.

But facing the weak opponent who had just been baptized by the air force and only occupied a small village where no one was, it seemed unnecessary to mobilize a large encirclement and outflanking.

The fierce bombardment like a tsunami was baptizing the palm-sized village in the wind and rain. Malashenko, who had not yet reached the stipulated mission target, still led his troops to fight on the defense line.

When there is no tiger in the mountain, the monkey will be the king.

Without the fire suppression of the Soviet field artillery, the German field artillery, which was free to fight, exerted unprecedented fierce firepower and fired crazily. A 150mm caliber heavy howitzer could instantly blow up a whole house and turn it into dust. Even the ground under his feet was shaking. Malashenko was walking side by side with the god of death.

"Bah! These Nazi bastards, if we had artillery, would you be so arrogant!? Bah! Bah! Bah!"

Large pieces of floating soil were shaken off the roof and scattered all over the faces and bodies of the people. Lavrinenko, who cursed all this badly, wished that his own artillery would appear immediately to blow away all these Germans.

Just after being bombed by planes, and now being baptized by artillery fire, this kind of feeling of being pressed to the ground and rubbed in turn is not pleasant for anyone.

Before Lavrinenko finished his terrible curse, Malashenko, who had been standing in front of the window with a telescope and watching the movement outside the village, suddenly strode to the command table.

"The artillery bombardment has been going on for nearly 30 minutes. It is estimated that the artillery preparations of these Germans should be stopped. All those who are not dead should pick up their guns and prepare for battle! More German bodies piled in front of the position are needed!"

About half an hour ago, when arranging the next battle plan, Lieutenant Vasily's death brought Malashenko a very difficult problem. The main infantry unit responsible for defending the position lacked a commander who could take charge of it independently.

Although there were not many surviving infantry soldiers after the airstrike, only about 200 people could barely hold their guns. If the wounded who were still able to take care of themselves but had difficulty walking and aiming were counted, Malashenko could barely fight the Germans with less than 300 infantrymen.

After counting the 300 people, the highest-ranking one was a platoon leader, who was also the militia platoon leader who had served under Lieutenant Vasily.

Malashenko thought it was too crazy to hand over the defensive position to the militia platoon leader, and then gave up this unrealistic idea.

Just when Malashenko was worried about the infantry commander, Political Commissar Petrov, who had not been to the front line battlefield to fight for a long time, made an eye-catching move at this time.

"You and Lavrinenko go to command the tank battle, and I will be responsible for leading the people to hold off the battle in the village. We will act separately and we will definitely be able to stop the German offensive!"

Political Commissar Petrov personally led people to the battlefield to fight? Surprised, Malashenko even thought that he had heard it wrong.

But Political Commissar Petrov, who repeated what he had just said, was very determined.

In terms of commanding infantry to fight, no one is more professional than himself who came from the infantry unit and walked step by step to this position today, at least in the First Guards Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment.

According to Political Commissar Petrov, if he had not happened to catch up with the opportunity of the new political commissar's promotion and went to the Party School to receive systematic professional knowledge training, he should be an infantry regiment commander or division commander now, and becoming a political commissar is more like a coincidence.

You look at me and I look at you. Malashenko and Lavrinenko looked at each other and had nothing to say. At this point, there seems to be no better choice except to trust Political Commissar Petrov.

But after Political Commissar Petrov left, the regiment headquarters was completely empty. At most, there were only a few auxiliary personnel such as communication staff, and no one could take charge of the overall situation in the rear.

The regiment commander, deputy regiment commander, and regiment political commissar all took their weapons to the battlefield to fight. The entire regiment headquarters was empty and there was not even a person to take charge. Malashenko couldn't help but sigh just thinking about it.

"If we can't even win this kind of fight, there's really nothing to say."

Political Commissar Petrov, who only had one right arm left, could still barely complete his daily rear work independently, but if he really went to the front line to command the battle, he was really a little powerless.

Only one arm was left to maintain balance when running, which made Political Commissar Petrov still very uncomfortable with his incomplete body and rarely ran. On weekdays, when he was in a hurry to send a telegram or report news to Malashenko, he would try to jog as slowly as possible. If he ran a little faster, he would lose his balance and fall to the ground.

Once you arrive at the front and command the battle in person, running is inevitable, whether you are commanding the soldiers to charge or retreat.

Thinking that he might fall on the battlefield while running, Political Commissar Petrov, who had already pulled out the gun from his waist that had not been used for a long time, couldn't help but laugh at himself.

"Maybe I'm really old."

As soon as the gunfire stopped, the German attacking force, which had been ready for a long time, rushed over quickly.

Political Commissar Petrov, who was fighting side by side in the trench with the soldiers around him, clearly saw from the telescope that the seven or eight German tanks in the lead were rushing towards him with a large group of German infantry following behind.

"Get ready for battle, comrades! The great leader Comrade Stalin is with us!"

Many of the bandaged Red Army soldiers in the trenches fought side by side with the political commissars of the Guards for the first time. The obvious morale boost was enough to even overcome their timidity and fear of fighting to a certain extent. Even when facing the roaring German tanks, they could muster up the courage to raise their weapons.