Chapter 803: Survivors Will Attract Each Other
Although the order to abandon the vehicle had been issued, Malashenko's own mission was still unfinished.
Before leaving this beloved car that he couldn't bear to part with, Malashenko had one last thing to do.
Raising his right arm, he grabbed the transmitter hanging on the armored bulkhead next to his commander's seat. After pressing the call button, Malashenko blurted out the words that had been on his lips.
"Lavri! My car can't move, you take over the command! Don't call, we're abandoning the car now! Repeat, you take over the command, we're abandoning the car!"
The other end of the transmitter did not immediately reply as in the past. It was as if time had stopped and after a few seconds, Lavrinenko, who was also busy with the exchange of fire and was already in a mess, finally responded to Malashenko.
"Take your weapons and find the nearest tank for cover! Don't pretend to be a hero, come back alive! Over!"
The voice of Lavrinenko's reply came from the transmitter hanging in the air with the transmission line.
Malashenko, who had indeed heard Lavrinenko's last instructions in full, had no time to reply. He had already grasped his Suomi submachine gun, which he had not replaced until now, and then raised his right hand to open the turret hatch above his head and stuck his head out.
"Come out, fire! Kill that Russian guy!"
"Fuck your mother!"
Da da da da——
Malashenko, who had already expected that there might be a German bastard squatting outside, was cautious. After pushing open the turret cover, he only stuck out a small part of his head to check the situation, but did not get out of the whole upper body at once and just run for his life.
The inconspicuous little details at the critical moment saved Malashenko's life again.
Less than a squad of German soldiers who had just climbed up from behind the ruins and poked their heads out happened to stare at this Russian heavy tank with its hatch tightly closed and motionless.
This strange heavy tank, which was huge in size and peculiar in shape, and had never been seen before, immediately attracted the attention of the German squad leader. Generally speaking, tanks with no obvious holes in the armor and no explosion or fire may have just stopped temporarily to prepare for an ambush or deliberately pretend to be dead.
Thinking of the rumors that he had heard that there was an elite Russian tank unit in Stalingrad, which was full of new and terrible heavy tanks that the German army had never seen before, the squad leader, who was just a logistics soldier accompanying the team during the German armed intervention in the Spanish Civil War, immediately became extremely vigilant and ordered to stop moving forward.
"Keep an eye on it! There may be Russians inside, don't get close yet, wait a little longer!"
The cowardly command of "better safe than sorry" really happened to hit Malashenko, who opened the hatch like a mole and exposed half of his head.
The quick-reacting German squad leader immediately issued an order to fire without hesitation, and a crackling of rifle bullets and submachine gun bullets instantly hit the armor of this monster-like heavy tank, but the frightened Russian who was ready to abandon the car and escape obviously escaped and was not hit on the spot.
None of the infantrymen who can survive the cruel and hellish Stalingrad street fighting is a fool. Basically, all of them have been trained into first-class street fighting and survival experts by the cruel battlefield of survival of the fittest.
A German sergeant who saw that the light weapons shooting had no effect and exposed the target immediately put down the PPSh in his hand, and took out the M24 long-handled grenade on standby at his waist, quickly unscrewed the cover to reveal the fuse and held it tightly in his hand.
At a distance of less than 30 meters, he had more than 85% confidence that he could throw the thing in his hand directly into the tank through the top cover that had not been closed yet.
This German sergeant, whose bomb throwing skills were among the best in the entire battalion, had previously destroyed two Soviet tanks by chance through similar methods, and was even personally commended and praised by the regiment commander.
But what he didn't expect was that before he put the half-exposed fuse on his finger and prepared to pull the line, the squad leader who was lying less than half a meter away suddenly raised his right arm to stop him.
"Don't! Keep this tank, haven't you heard the rumors before? What if the grenade completely blows up the tank? It's better for us to capture it intact. Don't you want to become an officer quickly to increase your chances of returning home alive?"
The longer a veteran lives on the battlefield, the more he can make the most favorable tactical choices based on the actual situation at hand. Only hot-blooded fools who have just arrived at the front line would do blindly and subconsciously. The German squad leader who had already thought about what to do to benefit himself was obviously not one of them.
Even though his identity as an infantryman made him completely ignorant of these steel monsters, this German squad leader still knew that the so-called "inferior Russian tanks are far inferior to German technology" promoted on the radio and in newspapers on weekdays was pure bullshit!
The troops on the front line were almost beaten to shit by the T34 and KV, but those idiots with human excrement in their heads were still promoting the bullshit fallacy of "inferior and superior races" in the rear!
The German squad leader didn't go to school for many years. He was born in a poor fisherman's family in Hamburg (a German place name, not KFC) and followed his father to fish for a living. It was because of his lack of education and connections that he had been hovering in the position of squad leader for many years and could not move up, but this did not prevent him from having a clear understanding of the various situations on the front line with his independent thinking.
It was a fool's fantasy that Stalingrad could still be won. The German squad leader who had witnessed how terrible those Russians were just wanted to leave Stalingrad alive as soon as possible, and then immediately apply for retirement to receive a sum of money to return to his hometown to follow his father's business and fish for a living. Staying in this terrible Russia would only make him die faster!
It is said that the Russians are an inferior nation, but the tanks made by the inferior nation are much better than the rags made by your superior nation. The industrial crystallization of the superior nation is so vulnerable in front of the tractors of the inferior nation, and it explodes with a poke. Isn't this a bit unworthy of the name of the superior nation?
The German squad leader didn't understand the performance of tanks or the tactical arrangements of armored troops. He only knew that the real scene he saw most of the time was that his own tanks would explode like balloons, while those Russian tanks were like monsters that were indestructible and could not penetrate the armor at all.
He heard the rumor that the country was already imitating the German version of the T34 tank. It was said that General Guderian had organized an investigation team to come to Russia for actual inspection and collect front-line feedback and actual combat data of the T34 before he was dismissed. Such a piece of gossip among German soldiers to kill time after dinner was an opportunity for the shrewd German squad leader.
That heavy tank with a weird shape that he had never seen before must be a new weapon of the Russians. Just looking at the terrifying shape, he knew it must be very powerful! As long as he could get it intact and hand it in, at the very least he could get a company commander because of this great contribution, and the chance of leaving Stalingrad alive would be geometrically doubled.
It is quite ironic that this German squad leader who was only thinking about getting Malashenko's car intact, actually had the same idea as Malashenko, which was to keep climbing up to increase his chances of survival.