Steel Soviet Union

Malashenko, who was wrapped in a dirty blanket and lay beside the tank, sleeping all night with the road wheels of his car as a pillow, couldn't sleep anymore at around three o'clock in the night. The boiled beans and vegetables he had eaten in the evening gave him a stomachache that made falling asleep impossible.

The sound of Malashenko turning over in his blanket woke up the gunner Iushkin who was sleeping next to him. This highly vigilant gunner immediately turned over and woke up after being lightly bumped by Malashenko. Coming over, his alert right hand immediately grabbed the Somi submachine gun placed beside him.

"Quiet, Iushkin, those Germans didn't come."

""

After being reminded by Malashenko, Iushkin relaxed his tense nerves. Iushkin breathed a sigh of relief and turned around, then saw Malashenko's face under the moonlight.

"What time is it now? Comrade Commander."

"It's three-thirty, you can still sleep for a long time."

Iushkin, who was silent after hearing Malashenko's answer and had no intention of continuing to sleep, immediately extended his right hand towards Malashenko.

"Comrade Commander, do you still have cigarettes?"

Seeing Iushkin's palm stretched out in front of him, he was a little surprised, and almost subconscious words immediately blurted out from Malashenko's mouth.

"I remember that the supplies were distributed just two days ago, and you seem to have received an extra supply in my name. Don't tell me that you have finished smoking the double supply of tobacco now."

Iushkin seemed a little embarrassed when Malashenko told him about the backdoor trick. He scratched the back of his head and then spoke with an embarrassed smile.

"Those Mahogany tobaccos are so hard to smoke. I even used up the German surrender leaflets I saved for rolling cigarettes. Now even if I want to smoke, I have no paper to roll them. Comrade Commander, you know what I mean."

Thinking that the battle could be ended in the winter of 1941, the complacent German army maintained its actual offensive while also engaging in psychological tactics to shake the morale of the Soviet army.

Throughout the Winter War, the Germans airdropped a large number of leaflets persuading them to surrender over the heads of the Soviet positions, hoping that even if they could not induce the Soviets to surrender voluntarily, they could weaken some morale and shake the morale of the troops.

What the Germans didn't expect was that the Soviet soldiers who happened to be short of paper to smoke cigarettes were overjoyed when they saw the German leaflets falling from the sky. Most of the German leaflets persuading surrender were rolled into cigarettes by the Soviet soldiers in a short period of time. The pumping is finished.

The Germans would never have thought that the surrender leaflets they used for psychological warfare not only failed to have the intended effect, but also caused many Soviet soldiers to increase their combat effectiveness because they had cigarettes to relieve their addiction to cigarettes. Some Soviet soldiers who were not dissatisfied with the paper even used the German surrender leaflets to go to the toilet, and some of the leaflets were directly used to light firewood for warmth.

All in all, these leaflets persuading surrender dropped by the German army can be seen in almost all places where paper is available. However, these leaflets persuading surrender have not had the slightest effect on shaking the morale of the troops and lowering morale. Comrade political commissars are present. These German surrender leaflets are equivalent to waste paper.

During the Winter War, Iushkin, who was planning to have paper cigarettes to smoke in the future, also picked up along the way, and saved a thick stack of German surrender leaflets for later use.

The enlightened political commissar Petrov not only did not hold Iushkin responsible for the incident, but once went to the toilet in a hurry and asked Iushkin to take some leaflets for urgent use.

In the glorious 1st Guards Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment, no one will doubt their comrades because of these German surrender leaflets that are no different from waste paper. The word surrender has never been in the dictionary of the 1st Guards Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment. It never existed.

Malashenko, who was noncommittal about Iushkin's statement, smiled slightly, then took out a whole box of cigarettes from his jacket pocket and then took out two of them, one for each person.

In the No. 177 crew, whose number has never changed, the two biggest smokers, commander Malashenko and gunner Iushkin, are notoriously addicted to smoking.

Smoke when you are free, smoke before going to bed, smoke when you wake up, smoke before eating, smoke after eating, smoke while standing in the toilet, smoke while squatting in the toilet, smoke when repairing the tank after the war, smoke when carrying ammunition to refuel the tank, just Even when killing a German in battle, he would hold one in his mouth and continue to smoke.

The air in the tank, which was already turbid and full of the smell of diesel and gunpowder residue, became even more suffocating after the presence of two super smokers, Iushkin and Malashenko.

If the tank remains closed for an hour or two, the smoke coming out of the fog after the turret roof is pushed open may even make people think that there is a fire in the tank.

Lavrinenko, who was much less addicted to smoking than Malashenko, once made a joke. He mistakenly thought that there was a fire in Malashenko's car and ran over to save people. But what he saw was Marashenko. Schenko poked his head out of the foggy tank with an awkward smile on his face. Lavrinenko was so angry that he almost punched Malashenko in the face.

Everyone else around them was sleeping with loud snores, but only two smokers, Malashenko and Iushkin, smoked close together, enjoying each puff.

Holding the remaining half of a cigarette in his hand, he blew out a round smoke ring. Malashenko, who had no intention of going back to sleep, simply chatted with Iushkin.

"I haven't asked you before, do you have a fiancée?"

Faced with Malashenko's sudden question without warning, Iushkin was stunned for a moment with the cigarette butt in his hand, and then shook his head with a wry smile.

"Those girls in our village look like she-bears. To be honest, I doubt I can beat them, Comrade Commander. Let alone my fiancée, I don't even dare to think about such a thing. think."

Pfft——

Malashenko couldn't help laughing when he heard Iushkin's vivid description.

In Malashenko's impression, the female classmates when he went to university in Moscow were famously beautiful, but from Iushkin's words, there was a sense that all the girls in the village were Charlie. The taste of Ya.

Malashenko, who thought about the "beautiful" scene, couldn't help but shook his head and secretly thought it was too scary. The two of them chatted about the mountains without saying a word, and just smoked one cigarette after another until dawn. .

When Malashenko ordered the troops to be assembled and set out immediately to continue chasing the enemy, thousands of miles away on the Leningrad front line, Michelle, who had not seen Malashenko for almost a year since the encounter in the small village, Wittmann was also making preparations.

Not knowing that the man he saw with his own eyes was the now-famous "Iron Butcher", the clueless Wittmann was making final preparations for a critical turning point in his life.