Chapter 838 Building an Army

The order was issued just a few days ago on October 9, and less than a week has passed since October 15.

According to the content stated in the order by my loving father Comrade Stalin, the positions of political commissars in the units, agencies or preparatory departments directly under the Red Army, including units, regiments, headquarters, military schools, etc., will all be abolished from the date of the promulgation and implementation of the order. The original positions in all units The position of political commissar of schools, institutions and institutions was changed to the position of deputy political commander.

This also means that the "political commissar + military chief" dual-chief system that has been in place since the outbreak of the Self-Defense War has been cancelled. The deputy political commander Zi Ruqi will exist as a deputy commander, and will continue to serve as the former military political commander. Ideological education control work.

If the military chief of the army dies, the political deputy commander still has the power to command the troops in special and emergency situations, but under normal circumstances he still needs to obey the orders of the military chief and use this as the battlefield execution standard, and the political deputy commander The military rank is usually lower than that of the military chief.

Of course, the 1st Guards Heavy Tank Brigade is an exception.

Malashenko, who has just been promoted, is now at the same level as Political Commissar Petrov and both have the rank of colonel. However, there is no such problem in the personal relationship between Malashenko and Political Commissar Petrov.

After all, the First Guards Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment used to negotiate. Sometimes when faced with a situation where he could not make up his mind, Malashenko, the military commander, had to ask Petrov, the political commissar who was born in the combat force. Old Red Army, ask for advice on military command issues.

It is fashionable to implement the dual-chief system and Malashenko is one rank lower than Political Commissar Petrov. Although the issuance of this order seems to concentrate the command power in the hands of the military chief, this is not true in the current situation. It seems that Malashenko is still the same as before. He still discusses how to discuss, and the leadership team he built and brought up remains unchanged.

Although Zhukov's detailed explanation has solved most of the difficult problems for Malashenko, there are still two questions for Malashenko that require more detailed explanations and answers.

"Comrade Zhukov, I have a question. I would like to know where the new personnel of our newly formed 1st Guards Heavy Tank Brigade come from? Are they veterans with combat experience or recruits who have just graduated from the Tank Corps School? In addition, we What kind of main tank can the brigade get?”

If it were placed before the Battle of Stalingrad, Malashenko would not ask such a question at all. The First Guards Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment, which has the priority to supplement in the name of the Guards, can get it no matter where it goes. Relatively high-quality and timely recruitment, such a thing as receiving a large number of recruits and inferior tanks, did not exist in the previous Guards First Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment.

However, after the Battle of Stalingrad, this old perception of Malashenko was completely overturned and turned upside down.

In Stalingrad, which is like a red flame purgatory, being able to get tank replenishment is a very happy thing and worthy of bragging to the friendly forces. As for the tank, it no longer matters. Because even those zombie tanks that were recovered from the battlefield and were full of rotten blood and rotten flesh after people died in the tank were absolutely popular in Stalingrad, and some of them were much better than being used as infantry.

Not to mention supplementing staff.

During the days of fighting in Stalingrad, Malashenko, who had received four or five large-scale personnel replenishments and dozens of small-scale personnel replenishments, was so exaggerated that he could not remember the appearance of a certain company commander under him. Can't call out the name.

The average life span of a newly appointed tank company commander is less than 100 hours. Once the company commander dies in battle, the deputy company commander will be replaced directly. Sometimes the deputy company commander and deputy company commander will be killed together and the platoon commander will be replaced. In the most exaggerated cases, he will be replaced by the platoon commander. The whole company was destroyed by the German planes before they even had a chance.

At first, they were supplemented by the gathered broken troops and the scattered small organized units. Later, they were supplemented by the new recruits who had just graduated from the tank corps school and were sent to the city by boat in the middle of the night.

In the worse situation later, in Malashenko's impression, his First Guards Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment had received almost all kinds of supplementary troops.

A submachine gunner who knows how to drive a tractor in his hometown, a gunner who used to be a gunner in an anti-tank gun unit, an infantry machine gunner who has big arms and is strong enough to load artillery shells, and a recruit who has no professional skills but has only used a rifle, come to work as an assistant. Driving mechanics and electricians, as well as worker drivers who were recruited from the tank production line and didn't even change out of their oil-stained work clothes.

The most ridiculous thing was that among the supplementary troops sent to Malashenko, there were seven or eight prisoners who had just been temporarily released from prison. They were sent to work as loaders to get into the tanks and move shells.

Such a bloody thing made Comrade Ma, who was holding the supplementary list in his hand, so angry that he almost went crazy and cursed at his mother on the spot. Thanks to political commissar Petrov's explanation and persuasion, the situation was stopped.

After experiencing the above terrible things that he once dared not even think about, Malashenko is now a little neurotic about the two special words "replenishing tanks" and "replenishing troops", for fear that what he gets will be different from what he got. People will once again refresh their lower limit of cognition, which is why Malashenko asked Zhukov this time.

Fortunately, Malashenko, who has escaped the hell of Stalingrad, has received great help from Zhukov.

Comrade Zhu, who has considerable power in his hands, can be said to be quite good to Malashenko. Before setting off for Moscow, he had already drawn a pencil on the map of the General Staff Headquarters to dispatch equipment and replenish troops to Malashenko. He even made a phone call directly to the office of Comrade Kotin, who often asked about Malashenko, and chatted with Comrade Kotin for a few minutes about tanks.

So far, the entire frame of the 1st Guards Heavy Tank Brigade has basically been completed. To a certain extent, Malashenko's worries are just uninformed worries.

"I have tried to arrange all personnel additions according to optimal conditions. Most of them are veterans with combat experience who have been transferred from other units. However, considering that other units also have to maintain combat effectiveness, these veterans are not It’s not too much, just over half the level.”

"The remaining supplementary troops are new trainees who have just graduated from the Tank Corps School, but they are basically soldiers who have served in the army before and were selected to further their studies at the Tank Corps School due to their good performance. These people are graduates. The best among them belong to the best group.”

"As for the tanks"