Steel Soviet Union

Zhukov, who was flipping through the documents handed over by Vatutin, could not take his eyes away. While listening to Vatutin's explanation, he carefully read every word on the document in his hand, and his thoughtful words soon blurted out.

"What about the actual combat effect? ​​How is the actual combat situation of this kind of infantry squad firepower configuration?"

Compared with innovative reform pilots, Zhukov cares not about the process but the results. This is also in line with his strategic command style of large corps that tends to value results more.

"This is what I want to tell you, Comrade Marshal, the actual combat effect of this new type of infantry squad firepower configuration is almost astonishing."

"At first, some staff members of the front army headquarters believed that Malashenko was acting haphazardly. An infantry squad that lacked rifle long-range firepower would be greatly restricted in battle and would be suppressed by German rifle and machine gun firepower. However, The actual results clearly prove that this kind of people’s ideas are short-sighted and very wrong.”

"The infantry squad in this new configuration was used by Malashenko to combine with tanks to carry out high-speed maneuvering infantry-tank cooperative operations. Every two medium tanks carry an infantry squad, and each heavy tank carries an infantry squad. Carrying an infantry squad, oh, and one more thing!”

"Malashenko used the heavy machine gun mounted on the roof of the tank as a supplementary firepower for the infantry squad. The anti-aircraft machine gun was not used by the vehicle crew, but was placed at the back of the turret for the infantry on board. In this way, it is During the maneuver, the infantry squad can also exert strong firepower, and the machine gun on the roof of the tank will not be idle, and the equipment and people are put to good use. "

"The core point of this new infantry squad configuration is to use high-speed maneuvering tanks as the main offensive equipment, which greatly shortens the offensive distance for the infantry and directly eliminates long-range and medium-range infantry light weapons firefights. It is mounted on The infantrymen on the tank will always move forward with the vehicle until they are at medium and close range before dismounting and entering the battle. "

"In this case, there is no need for single-shot bolt-action rifles with range advantages to participate in the battle. Automatic and semi-automatic weapons with faster fire rates and stronger firepower can directly enter the home field. A new configuration of infantry squad firepower , which is almost three times the firepower of the enemy infantry squad. If you do not take into account the annoying MG42 machine gun of the Germans, the firepower output capacity can even reach more than five times. "

The firepower advantage between an infantry squad and an infantry squad can reach three to five times. This is undoubtedly a very terrifying number.

Under normal circumstances, this is impossible. There is no qualitative difference in technical equipment between the Soviet and German armies. The light weapons and equipment used by the two armies have their own strengths and weaknesses. Maybe your gun has a better ammunition capacity, but my gun has an advantage in accuracy. That's roughly the situation. I can't say whose gun will definitely win overall.

However, Malashenko directly eliminated the medium and long-distance firefights with light weapons and retained only the medium- and short-distance firefights through a clever way of exploiting his strengths and avoiding weaknesses and taking advantage of his heavy equipment. And they concentrated their efforts on strengthening the weapon configuration in the medium and close firefighting stages and carried out targeted replacements. Based on this tactical idea, an infantry unit with high automatic firepower was created.

Malashenko's bold ideas and actions were unprecedented in the Red Army, but the results proved that the feasibility of this infantry squad configuration was quite high.

The more than 200 medium and heavy tanks owned by the 1st Stalin Guards Tank Division are a reliable guarantee for erasing long-range infantry engagements.

When attacking, tanks act as armored barriers and mobile machine gun bunkers. When defending, tanks' powerful main gun firepower can suppress any enemy attacking unit, whether tanks or infantry, with extremely powerful long-range firepower suppression and heavy damage.

The power of the 122mm high-explosive grenade is far beyond that of any German tank gun. The effect of one grenade is more effective than two or three heavy machine guns. Under normal circumstances, the Varosha Infantry Regiment, which rarely has infantry equipped with heavy machine guns, appears to be able to attack and defend with ease. The complementary advantages with tanks are the most important factor.

While looking through the documents in his hand and listening to Vatutin's explanation, Zhukov's expression seemed erratic. Sometimes his brows were frowning, sometimes they were relaxed, and sometimes he was thinking a little. It was difficult to judge what was going on in Zhukov's mind just based on this facial expression. What are you thinking about? Are you happy or have other thoughts?

It was not until a few seconds after Vatutin's voice faded that Zhukov, who slowly put down the document in his hand, nodded thoughtfully, then faced Vatutin and spoke again.

"The number of clever ideas this kid Malashenko has will really surprise you time and time again! I have combined what you just said with what was written in the report. This is indeed a very effective infantry squad reorganization. model, but I have some opinions and opinions of my own to put forward. I say listen and let’s analyze them together.”

Vatugin nodded quietly without saying a word, just waiting for Zhukov's next words.

"This infantry squad reorganization model is only applicable to elite units like the 1st Stalin Guards Tank Division, for the time being. The heavy equipment advantages of the 1st Stalin Guards Tank Division are unique and very powerful. More than two hundred tanks are placed on the Ordinary ordinary troops have reached the size of a tank corps, or even more. It must be an elite Guards tank corps to have the same size. "

"Only under such circumstances can the lack of long-range firepower of the infantry squad be perfectly compensated, whether it is offensive or defensive. If ordinary troops want to do what Malashenko does, they will not only use it to carry infantry when attacking If there are not enough tanks, the Germans will concentrate their firepower to block it, and they will lose a large part of their troops on the offensive. "

"Problems can also arise when defending. The insufficient number of tanks and guns will give an enemy with sufficient strength an opportunity to easily skip mid- and long-distance battles and approach the front of the position with very low casualties. In the final analysis, they are still heavily equipped. Quantity and density in a certain combat area are the dominant factors, and Malashenko has an absolute advantage in this aspect. This is the main reason.”

"As for this infantry squad reorganization model and supporting tactics, they are indeed very novel and worthy of recognition. However, at this stage, there is no way to promote it on a large scale. Our general Red Army troops cannot play with this model at all, and they will directly copy and apply it. There will be big problems. This is the general situation I analyzed, what do you think?"