Chapter 193 Set sail in the dark night

It is by no means a simple matter to lift these huge steel behemoths onto the ship. Even after being split into many parts such as engines, vehicle chassis, and separate turrets, it is difficult to lift these huge steel beasts without heavy lifting expertise. Equipment docks also still require a lot of manpower to transport them onto ships.

In order to cooperate with the smooth completion of Malashenko's transportation operation, Colonel Baranovsky, who is the commander of the entire dock and the Ladoga Lake Squadron, dispatched a large number of troops to Malashenko before nightfall completely fell. Dockworkers assist Red Navy sailors.

Among them, the vast majority of dock workers are mainly front-line workers who have just retreated from Leningrad and young and middle-aged men among the evacuated civilians.

These workers and civilians, whose hearts were ignited with ambition and anger because of the invasion of their motherland, voluntarily joined the ranks of dock workers to participate in voluntary labor. Even if they did not have the opportunity to pick up a gun and rush to the front line, they still had to work on the transportation lines within their capabilities. Please do your part to fight the national crisis together.

Compared with the well-known Soviet-German war blockbusters directed by a certain French director in later generations, those evil political commissars who forcibly captured civilians and sent them to the army, and were even shot directly if they disobeyed.

On the pier within Malashenko's field of vision, there is a scene of a political commissar holding a loudspeaker standing on the pile of material boxes at the pier, loudly directing the crowd to work, shouting at the top of his lungs and cheering for the comrades. The shouts of encouragement echoed over the pier under the night sky for a long time.

Red Navy sailors from the Baltic Fleet, regardless of their status, worked hard together with dock workers and civilians to move goods.

All the smearing actions by capitalist directors who do not know the essence of communism and the true meaning of the Soviet spirit are being undermined at this moment. Their selfless dedication to the motherland and their unswerving belief in the red are not those of capitalist directors. It is something that young people can understand.

I watched a tank turret placed on a flatbed trailer in front of me. It was pushed manually by more than a dozen workers, and the Red Navy sailors on the transport ship pulled the rope and chanted hand-in-hand and shoulder-to-shoulder. It was finally sent to the deck. , the transportation process was far more difficult than he imagined. Malashenko could not help but raised his hand with a slight frown and glanced at the hands on the watch.

"It has been an hour and a half since it got dark, but we have only transported eight KV1 heavy tanks onto the ship so far, and we haven't even had time to set off for transportation. If we continue like this, I guess it won't be until dawn. There is no way to load all of our battalion’s equipment onto the ship.”

From the eager look on Malashenko's face, we can see the deep helplessness and anxiety from the bottom of his heart. After thinking about it, Lavrinenko still couldn't come up with any better way, so he had to He stretched out his palm and patted Malashenko's shoulder and spoke softly.

"The original heavy lifting equipment on the dock was either transported to the rear by emergency evacuation, or was directly blown up by the German air raids. Although manual transportation is difficult and inefficient, it is really the only feasible solution for us at the moment. A little peace of mind Come on, Malashenko, you have to stay calm and be ready to command the troops at any time."

While listening to the advice from his deputy, Lavrinenko, he still couldn't take his eyes away. Even after the turret and engine were removed, the heavy chassis still weighed more than 30 meters. There were only three small cranes on the dock. It was extremely difficult and heavy to haul them separately. The speed of slowly moving to the deck of the transport ship through the trailer seemed to Malashenko to be slower than a snail.

"This can't go on like this, Lavery, there aren't enough people involved in the loading operation!"

"Go and gather our own vehicle crews and logistics personnel from each company. No matter how many people there are, as long as they are not injured and unable to move, all of them will be involved! If we continue to grind at this rate, can our entire battalion cross the lake tonight? I can’t guarantee it, but I’m sure we’ll be waiting for those German planes and bombs by daybreak!”

It was originally planned to let the troops under his command, who had been hurriedly rushing towards Leningrad, take a break to prepare and restore their strength to deal with the battle that might break out at any time after crossing the lake.

But judging from the current situation, Malashenko's previous wishful thinking is obviously unrealistic. If timely corrections are not made, it is likely that Malashenko himself will be deceived in the end.

Looking at the eager and anxious look on Malashenko's face, Lavrinenko, who knew that time waits for no one, also had similar thoughts and plans to Malashenko. Lavri had almost no hesitation. Nenko then nodded to Malashenko and immediately took the order and left.

About five minutes later, the crews and logistics personnel of the Independent First Heavy Tank Breakthrough Battalion, who were urgently summoned by Lavrinenko, began to join in the heated port transfer work.

The heavy tank turret is loaded on a pallet truck and pushed and pushed onto the ship by manpower. Skilled dock mechanics operate a small dock crane with limited carrying capacity to drag the heavy tank chassis onto the deck.

Some relatively thin and less capable civilians formed a human-shaped assembly line and loaded the 76mm shells that were emptied out of the tanks one after another onto the ship.

On the desolate dock shrouded under the deep night sky, there was a bustling scene. Everyone, including women and children, were carrying out loading and unloading operations under the coordination of the commanding political commissar.

Ship after ship of food and supplies set off after being fully loaded with horns, gradually moving farther and farther above the deep and endless black lake, transporting full loads of hope to Leningrad.

One after another, ships carrying frontline wounded and evacuees arrived at the dock. Medical staff who were already on standby immediately ran forward, carefully took over the stretchers carrying the heroes of the motherland and the people, and carefully inspected the situation.

After seeing the scene on the dock, more of the evacuated workers and civilians who walked off the evacuation ship in an orderly manner directly threw themselves into this temporarily smoke-free front without hesitation.

With more and more people joining in to assist, the efficiency of loading these KV1 steel behemoths onto the ship has begun to increase faster and faster.

Finally, when the deck of the military transport ship converted from an old retired destroyer was crowded with the chassis and components of various KV1 heavy tanks, several transport ships that had been fully loaded were finally able to start near midnight. Set sail.