Chapter 194 Roaring at the Pier

The fleet of small transport ships sailing in the endless night cut through the waves. The sharp bows of the ships cut the lake surface into two waves on the left and right like a razor. They kept moving forward. As the largest freshwater lake in Europe, Lake Ladoga is obviously larger than the average. Small lakes are even more restless.

A destroyer-turned-transport ship with a full load displacement of nearly 2,000 tons can still hardly be called stable when traveling on a lake with considerable wind and waves.

As the wind and waves continued to beat against the cold hull of the ship, Malashenko, who stood in the bridge control room, only felt that he was about to fall with a swaying step.

"Captain Andre, is Lake Ladoga usually as rough and rough as tonight? Standing on the bridge, it doesn't feel like I'm driving in a calm freshwater lake, but more like I'm sailing on a river. Above the rough sea.”

Hearing the question from Malashenko's mouth next to him, Captain Andrei, the destroyer modification training and transport ship captain, then asked a question.

"Major Malashenko, have you ever been to the sea yourself?"

After hearing the question from the captain of the Red Navy next to him, Malashenko couldn't help thinking. He couldn't think of what kind of story he could make up in this special era to explain that he, a tank soldier, had been to the sea. Malashenko had no choice but to Prevaricate.

"A neighbor uncle in my hometown used to be a fisherman. I heard him tell me that the sea in the north is very unstable. I guess the inland freshwater lakes should be calmer than these vast seas, but I myself I really haven’t been to the ocean myself.”

After hearing the explanation given by Malashenko, he immediately looked at each other and smiled. This relatively innocent young Red Navy captain did not consider Malashenko's explanation in a more suspicious way.

"The North Sea in a furious state is sometimes like a crazy giant bear. The biting cold wind will penetrate into the bone marrow like a sharp knife. Anyone swallowed by the North Sea will have no hope of survival. Compared with the cold North Sea, Lake Ladoga It’s really not worth mentioning, she is just as gentle as a lovely girl, Major Malashenko.”

When talking about maritime matters, Malashenko naturally looked like an outsider in front of these professional Red Navy personnel. Taking this opportunity to open up the conversation, Malashenko quickly shifted the focus of the conversation to transportation operations.

"Captain Andre, can our sailing speed be any faster? How long does it take to get to the shore and disembark?"

For the question raised again by Malashenko, Captain Andrei, who has served in the Baltic Fleet for eight years, gave the answer almost without thinking.

"Our current speed is 21 knots, Major Malashenko. This is already the fastest speed of this retired modified destroyer. If we continue sailing according to the planned route, we will dock at the port before dawn as expected. Then you and your troops can unload and leave.”

As one of the old destroyers inherited by the Soviet Red Army from the Tsarist Russia era, it is extremely lucky that this old broken ship built during the Russo-Japanese War could be barely refitted after being decommissioned. It is expected that these old-fashioned ships cannot run fast at all. It is obviously impossible for a destroyer to be able to run at high speed after modification.

The time from now until dawn is obviously not a small number. Such a result means that for Malashenko, who originally wanted to take another water route to pick up the remaining troops at the dock, This is truly the worst news.

"The house leaked and it rained all night. Damn it, what if a bunch of Fletchers and landing craft transport tanks like the US Navy could do this? It doesn't happen."

Although I have some criticisms about the strength and ship quality of the Red Navy's surface fleet during World War II, the turtle speed of this old converted broken ship is an objective existence that is not affected by human subjective consciousness, and I am unwilling to do so. In the end, Malashenko had to hold his nose and admit this terrible fact that made him extremely depressed and worried.

The small transport fleet sailing on the windy and turbulent Ladoga Lake finally arrived at the coast of Leningrad before dawn. The pale golden sunrise slowly climbed up from the junction of the distant lake and the sky, covering the entire city. The surface of Lake Ladoga is sparkling in the early morning.

After just docking and disembarking from the boat, Malashenko ignored the beautiful sunrise on the lake and immediately began directing his troops to unload and assemble the boat without stopping.

"Hurry up! Unload the turret and chassis from the ship first. Karamov, take your people with you immediately and prepare to start assembly work! After the assembly is completed, each vehicle crew should immediately check whether there are any problems with the condition of their vehicles. Make sure You can move into battle at any time!"

The loud shouts from Malashenko's mouth echoed on the Leningrad dock, which had just woken up from the endless night. After a hasty night in the cabin, the crews immediately went to Malashenko, regardless of their fatigue. Under the orders of Coe, they followed their respective commanders and began to search for cars belonging to their own crews for assembly operations.

As the saying goes, it is easy to disassemble but difficult to put back together. For the KV1 heavy tank, the turret steering gear needs to be tightly connected to the entire turret seat ring and then carefully adjusted. After the engine is put back in place, it needs to be connected to the oil pipeline and mechanical transmission system. The process of reassembling a tank is far more time-consuming and laborious than taking it apart.

The dock, which was already piled with a large number of transportation supplies that had not yet been transferred, suddenly became even more crowded due to the arrival of Malashenko and his troops.

Dock workers, the Red Army Army, the Red Army Navy, and the tank crews under Malashenko who were busy assembling their own vehicles on site.

The noisy, crowded and busy pier is like a Chinese New Year gathering, so crowded that there is no place to stay. All the staff and soldiers on the pier who are racing against time know deeply that the rising sun of the new day has a great impact on the people who have been dormant for a whole day. What does one night mean to the Luftwaffe? The self-evident final result drives everyone to speed up their steps and movements.

Seeing that the first batch of accompanying troops that passed through Lake Ladoga with him have been basically assembled and can be transferred, but in his heart, he is still worried about the second batch of follow-up transport fleets led by his deputy Lavrinenko.

Just as the anxious Malashenko was about to return to the ship and borrow a radio from Captain Andrei to inquire where the second batch of transport fleets had reached, a whistling propeller gradually approached from the distant horizon. At this moment, he rushed towards the dock with the sound of air raid sirens.