Steel Soviet Union

"So now we are encountering unprecedented trouble. The strength of the German defense system has exceeded the limit of our direct firepower projection in a single attack wave. Is that understood?"

Malashenko's words were not pleasant, and could even be said to be a bit unpleasant, which made everyone present feel their faces burning after hearing it.

But it's one thing to be embarrassed, and it's another thing to admit the truth.

No matter how unpleasant the situation described by Malashenko is, it is the real situation that must be faced at the moment. The political commissar comrade who does not care much about face issues on this issue immediately spoke.

"Judging from the current known situation and feedback from the battlefield, I'm afraid this is indeed the case, Comrade Division Commander."

""

Malashenko remained silent, quietly waiting for the next words. He knew that Comrade Political Commissar still had something to say next.

"We have a lot of flaws in our intelligence about the enemy's defense system. This must be admitted. The number of enemy defenses that have been discovered and confirmed on the battlefield is far more than what our division organization expected before the war. Denser."

"The bigger problem is that the number of enemy's permanent fortifications has greatly exceeded the estimate. Judging from the numerical comparison alone, it is even more than double or nearly three times of our pre-war estimate. This situation directly led to the allocation of our The direct-aiming support firepower of the front-line assault group is seriously insufficient. Not only is the number of firepower units within the area insufficient, but the continuity of the firepower is also seriously insufficient and is quickly exhausted. "

"Overall, our offensive against the enemy's core position has made some progress. The outermost defense of the enemy's core position has been breached by us, and the enemy's effective forces have continued to be compressed after suffering considerable casualties. Although the offensive has been temporarily slowed down, the pace has been slowed down. , but the overall situation is still in our favor, and we still firmly have the initiative on the battlefield. The rest depends on how to carry out the next wave of assaults, what kind of firepower to deploy, and how to adjust tactics."

Although there was some bad news at the beginning, the final result of the war briefing given by the political commissar was positive.

After hearing this, Lavrinenko was about to say something, but Malashenko, who had been silently thinking beside him, spoke first.

"What are the casualties? Is there a more detailed report now?"

They only talked about the situation of the battle, but forgot the more important issue of casualties.

"Oh, why did you forget this?"

Lavrinenko slapped himself on the forehead, and then showed the same impatience as Malashenko.

Compared with how to fight the next battle, the overall casualties suffered by the leader division after the suspension of the first round of offensive are obviously more important than the next move that can be considered "not a big problem" The problem.

Just like what Malashenko has always worried about.

The current situation of the leadership division is that it has to take a look at three things. When attacking the Zero Highlands, it not only has to consider how to win efficiently, but also has to consider the Battle of Berlin, which Zhukov has "internally appointed" to lead the division.

The battle on the Zelo Heights was won, but the losses of the troops were so great that they were so injured that they were unable to participate in the subsequent Battle of Berlin. Such a result is absolutely unacceptable to Malashenko. .

Or

Even if Malashenko can accept it, Zhukov may not be able to accept it.

Even if Zhukov accepts it, the loving comrade is 100% intolerable.

Let the Leader Division take the lead in the Battle of Berlin and act as the main vanguard. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that this is a decision with greater political significance than military significance.

For Comrade Stalin, there is probably nothing more suitable to serve as the "ultimate prize" from a personal perspective than crushing the ultimate evil heart of the Nazis in the name of the Supreme Leader.

This is if the two leading divisions were severely damaged in a battle on the Zelo Highlands and were useless. They could not fight the subsequent Battle of Berlin and had to change their units.

Not to mention that Malashenko may not be able to withstand the thunder and anger of Moscow, even if he is classified as Zhukov, he may not be able to bear it. After all, there are many Guards tank divisions, but there is only one Leader Division. It is unique in terms of number, organization, technical and tactical equipment, and overall combat effectiveness. Anyone who dares to cripple this unit will definitely bear the consequences of his loving father. Thunder rages.

Of course Malashenko understands this. To say that he is not afraid of this at all would be to deceive himself. It is just a matter of degree. You can get an idea of ​​this just from Malashenko's attitude of being very concerned about the casualties of the troops.

"The good news is that the casualties are not beyond our tolerance. It can even be said that the distance is relatively far, and there is still a certain amount of tolerance."

"Great, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief."

Before Comrade Political Commissar finished speaking, Lavrinenko gave a direct answer and was relieved. After a long sigh, he even took out a cigarette from his pocket and planned to "worship" on the spot and take a few puffs, but he didn't. It occurred to me that Comrade Political Commissar had only finished half of what he said.

"The bad news is that, assuming the good news is true, we still suffered the largest single battle loss since entering the German mainland, even exceeding the previous losses suffered in East Prussia."

"There is no verified complete casualty statistics yet, but we have still confirmed the loss of more than 600 combatants, and the death rate is estimated to be about 25 to 30 percent."

"The losses in technical and tactical equipment are mainly tanks and relatively few infantry fighting vehicles, while the losses in tanks are mostly medium tank troops. In order to enhance the direct-aiming support firepower of the front-line offensive troops, we have almost all All direct-aiming artillery and armored vehicles were dispatched, including all available medium tank units and even the captured Panther II."

"It is estimated that we lost at least 30 or more armored combat vehicles in the attack just now. The irreparable permanent losses are relatively small. This is good news. They only account for about 15% of the total. The Germans want to Preventing us from moving forward, we tried every means to attack the tracks of the tanks, causing a large number of vehicles to be paralyzed. Under the premise that control of the battlefield is in our hands, these vehicles can be recycled and repaired, and most of the crew members abandoned the vehicles as soon as possible and obtained Very good protection, few casualties.”

"The bad news is that according to the division's rough assessment and analysis of the current offensive situation, if such battles are repeated two or three more times, it will have a huge and irreversible impact on the overall combat effectiveness of the leader division in the short term."

"It is estimated that we will lose close to 2,000 experienced combat personnel, and about 70 to 90 tanks of various types, and the loss of heavy equipment will reach almost one-third. I don't need to explain, you also know that this is very important to the current leader. What does it mean to be a teacher?”