Steel Soviet Union

"Comrade Battalion Commander, I found it! It's your command vehicle! She's here!"

Following the commander's loud shouts, he stepped forward and took a closer look. When he reached a crater, Malashenko felt that his head had grown a whole circle.

In this crater with a diameter of nearly 30 meters, which was obviously caused by a direct hit by the German one-ton heavy aerial bomb, Malashenko's battalion headquarters No. 177 improved KV1 command vehicle, which had just been unloaded from the transport ship to the dock and assembled, It is lying at the bottom of the pit in an almost completely upside-down posture. As for the reason why it appears at the bottom of the center of the crater, it goes without saying.

"Damn it, this is a 47-ton thing with additional armor! Isn't it a bit too much to just send me flying into the crater? A heavy tank doesn't have any dignity!?"

Although he was complaining and extremely annoyed about the scene in front of him, the shock wave power of the one-ton heavy aerial bomb was clearly displayed in front of Malashenko and it was real. The shock wave of a full 600 kilograms of warhead charge exploding at close range is enough to blow away anything in the way, even the most powerful KV1 heavy tank in 1941.

He took off the black leather tank cap on his head and squatted down at the edge of the crater. He looked at Malashenko lying in the car at the bottom of the crater with an expression of great annoyance. He was silent for half a minute before slowly speaking.

"Is there any way to get her out of the pit? Karamov, in my eyes you are omnipotent."

Karamov, who also had a black line on his face, stood next to Malashenko and looked straight at the tank at the bottom of the pit in silence for a long time. This maintenance company commander, who has always been optimistic, was in Malashenko for the first time. In front of Ke, he showed his unsure side.

"I will try my best, but the possibility is really not very high, Comrade Battalion Commander. The slope of the entire crater is too shaky, and the tank is lying at the bottom of the crater. I don't know if the maintenance trailer of the battalion headquarters can drag it up. , I have never encountered this situation before. ”

He picked up a still-warm shrapnel beside the crater and frowned. Malashenko, who was distracted by the terrible situation in front of him, then threw it far away towards the lake like a dart.

"Those damn Krauts!"

Hundreds of one-ton heavy aerial bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe bombers caused extremely serious damage to the entire dock.

The pier's hoisting equipment was destroyed, a large amount of accumulated materials were completely evaporated, and the concrete structure of the pier was bombed as if a magnitude 10 earthquake had just occurred. The ground was cracked and fragmented, and one after another huge craters were like the surface of the moon. The entire dock was covered with ruins, and even the various types of ships parked near the dock that had not yet been evacuated were also broken into two pieces by the bombing, and the bottom of the ship was turned upside down.

Just when the extremely annoyed Malashenko was thinking about how to drag his car out of the bottom of the crater, Zhukov, who was located in the Smolny Palace of the Front Army Headquarters in Leningrad, also received the news almost at the same time.

"Comrade Commander, this is the air raid damage report that was just sent. The German bomber group did not drop bombs in the main city, and they all went straight to the Ladoga Lake pier."

"The Ladoga Lake pier located on our side of Leningrad City suffered heavy losses. The Germans launched an air attack against the intensive firepower of anti-aircraft artillery positions, using all powerful heavy aerial bombs."

"The specific casualties are still being counted, but apart from the dock anti-aircraft artillery unit, the losses should not be large. Those air-raid shelters played a big role. The losses in materials are not optimistic. From last night to this morning, hundreds of goods were transported Tons of supplies have not had time to be transported and are piled up in the dock. The rescue work of supplies is ongoing, but it is best not to be too optimistic. "

After listening to the report of Lieutenant General Hozin, the new Chief of Staff of the Leningrad Front Army who had followed him from Moscow, Zhukov, who was a bit unexpected about the speed of the Germans' attack, couldn't help but speak in a deep voice.

"As soon as the German ground offensive on the front line was suspended, the German air force who had taken a break immediately launched an air attack on the dock. It is not so much premeditated as it is that our confidentiality work was in vain. The specific situation of the Ladoga Lake dock has long been known. Being touched clearly by the Germans is a serious dereliction of duty!”

Regarding Zhukov's slightly angry words, Lieutenant General Huo Jin, who knew the truth, couldn't help but be indifferent.

The Germans have been detecting and deciphering the telegram communications of high-level Soviet troops for a long time since the Battle of Leningrad. Although the Soviet troops who were aware of this situation changed the code books many times during the process, they did not know why they gave up. The German intelligence deciphering department was obviously more skilled in technical equipment than the slightly backward Soviet army.

Lieutenant General Huo Jin, the Chief of Staff, who had been silent for a long time, was about to raise his head again and report to Zhukov on the deployment of the frontline troops, but something suddenly flashed in his mind, which forcibly interrupted Chief of Staff Huo Jin. The train of thought changed the focus of the topic.

"Comrade Commander, there is one thing I just forgot to report to you. The port office reported that a heavy tank unit of our army that had just arrived also suffered serious losses in the air attack. The unit was designated the First Independent Heavy Tank. The breakthrough battalion is led by a tank commander named Malashenko. What are your instructions?"

Lieutenant General Hozin, who had just taken over as the Chief of Staff of the Front Army, was not clear about the troop dispatch orders before he took office, and he had no way of knowing that Zhukov had transferred Malashenko and his troops just after arriving in Leningrad.

But what Lieutenant General Huo Jin said was particularly important to Zhukov. Thinking of the young face that had won the smile of leader Comrade Stalin not long ago, Zhukov frowned and immediately dropped the drawing pencil in his hand. Turn your head immediately.

"What's the situation like with Major Malashenko? Are the casualties serious? How many tanks were destroyed in the air strike?"

Being a little overwhelmed by Zhukov's rapid-fire questions, Chief of Staff Huo Jin, who didn't care too much about the situation, thought about it in his mind for more than ten seconds before speaking with certainty.

"The condition of Battalion Commander Malashenko is pretty good and he did not suffer any injuries. The report states that he is leading the troops to rescue equipment and tanks. The personnel losses of the troops are minimal because the air defense sirens were sounded in a timely manner."

"However, the situation of equipment losses does not seem optimistic. The report mentioned that those KV1 heavy tanks had just been unloaded from the ship and were waiting for assembly and could not be driven. The vast majority of the tanks were directly exposed in the open areas of the dock. Under the dense German army The bombing was likely to cause heavy losses."