Chapter 429 Departure

Although Malashenko, who is accustomed to using good tanks, is essentially very repulsive to these German Panzer III J1 tanks, the small Panzer III, which cannot keep up with the armored firepower, is a younger brother in front of the Soviet main tanks.

However, the current situation forced Malashenko to have no choice but to use these captured German main tanks. In the name of the Guards Heavy Tank Breakthrough Group, it was filled with more than half of the medium tanks. This situation is both Reluctant but having no other choice, Malashenko could only curse in secret.

"This battle is becoming more and more unreliable. Will the T26 and BT7 be given to me next time to replace the battle damage?"

Completely unaware of the slanderous expression on Malashenko's face as he paced slowly, Karamov quickly ran to the platform with the maintenance summary report in his hand, and then handed the thing in his hand forward. .

"Comrade Commander, I'm sorry that I'm late. According to your order, this is the latest repair report on the batch of German Panzer III tanks. I have listed all the details in it. Overall, there are exactly ten The German Panzer III tanks have been repaired to a ready-to-fight condition, and I have removed many parts from other unusable scrap tanks, which should be enough to support us for a while.”

He took the folder handed over by Karamov with one hand, opened it, and quickly reviewed it at a glance. The detailed situation of the German tanks listed in the list was instantly clear.

The 50mm shells collected from other scrapped German tanks are enough to last for a period of time. The spare parts are also enough for the very reliable Panzer III tank. But the problem is that Malashenko is very suspicious of these ten German Panzer III tanks. There's a good chance that the tank won't even survive the first battle.

All in all, with the addition of these ten German Panzer III tanks, Malashenko now has more than 70 available battle tanks under his command. Although it cannot be compared with the heyday in terms of quality, at least it has reached the level in terms of quantity. Most of them are full, so overall the situation makes Malashenko feel quite satisfied.

"It looks like we now have more than seventy tanks ready to fight, Malashenko, the situation is not bad."

"Yeah, it's not bad."

After quickly reading the report in his hand, he immediately handed it back to Karamov who was standing aside. Just as he was about to reply to Lavrinenko's words beside him, another sudden figure came with him at this moment. Hasty footsteps came to the platform.

"Malashenko, the battle status briefing message just sent from the front army headquarters. The information mentioned in it is very critical. You must read it immediately."

"Front Army Headquarters?"

Malashenko, who had just had a phone call with Zhukov not long ago, did not expect that the front army headquarters would send another telegram in such a short period of time. Malashenko, who was impatient for the contents, immediately took it from the hands of Political Commissar Petrov. He grabbed the message.

"It has been confirmed that the only railway from Moscow to Tula has been blown up by the enemy. At the same time, the road section from Tula to Serpukhov has also been occupied by the enemy and the garrison has been driven away."

"Aerial reconnaissance intelligence showed that the German force attacking and defending this area was a fully armored division. The intelligence department provided supporting evidence that the enemy force was the 4th Armored Division of the Wehrmacht under the Gudrijan Armored Group."

"Your mission is to defeat the German armored forces entrenched here, open up the north-south passage, and re-establish the ground connection between Moscow and Tula. Only in this way can we send more follow-up support troops and supplies of material and equipment. After defeating the front, The enemy's rear immediately moves closer to the Tula main theater to support the local garrison. I will mobilize more support troops as soon as possible to enter the Tula theater through the gap you opened to consolidate the results and provide support to you. "

"Victory will eventually belong to our Soviet Red Army! Comrade Malashenko, Ulla!"

"Commander of the Western Front: General Zhukov."

The brief telegram brought the worst news to Malashenko.

He originally thought that his troops could take a train and reach the front line by railway as quickly as possible to participate in the war. However, the bad news that the railway line was blown up and destroyed by the German army was unexpected for Malashenko. In addition, Zhukov's telegram mentioned The road from Tula to Serpukhov that we arrived at has also been captured by the German army. Now the only option left for Malashenko to go to the battlefield is to drive cross-country.

Having become accustomed to this when annoying and annoying things happened one after another, Malashenko, who was silent with a black face, immediately handed the message in his hand back to the political commissar Petrov. The helpless battle situation made Malashenko Even though he knew that the road ahead would be thorny and bumpy, he still had to take this step.

"Let the troops be ready within half an hour. Don't count on the railway. We have to rush there ourselves!"

The road to Tula was not as smooth as Malashenko expected.

The vast white cross-country roads covered with ankle-deep snow seriously slowed down the advancement of the tank troops. The KV1 heavy tanks, which were already painfully slow, crawled at a snail's pace on such cross-country road conditions. It was those No. 3 J1s captured from the Germans that performed well after some emergency treatment by Karamov. They barely caught up with the T34, which was famous for its mobility, and at the same time were in the first order of the entire tank force. Among the echelons.

The original plan was to use such a large corps movement method to directly drive the troops to the war zone to engage the Germans. However, the heavy tank group was seriously out of touch in the snowy cross-country conditions and could not keep up with the medium tanks. This was abandoned. Thinking of this, Malashenko, who kept raising his hand to look at his watch as he poked his head out of the turret and looked around, finally made a decision in the face of this situation.

"The speed is too slow, Lavry, it can't go on like this. By the time we get to Tula, the Germans will probably have packed up the local garrison and are waiting for us at the garrison position."

Hearing the loud shouting from Malashenko on the other end of the radio, Lavrinenko, who roughly guessed what Malashenko wanted to do, turned around and asked.

"You want to let some of the troops go first and let the heavy tanks move behind?"

"Yes, you are following behind with the heavy tanks. I am responsible for leading these T34s and Seizure No. 3 to rush forward quickly. If we continue to act together like this, both sides will not be able to run fast!"

Regarding the plan proposed by Malashenko, Lavrinenko, who had already taken this situation into consideration, agreed in principle, but there was one issue that in Lavrinenko's own opinion still needed to be discussed.