Putting on a new military uniform, Shulka got to know his troops with great emotion.

The commanders of the 2nd and 3rd companies were acquaintances, Lieutenant Davydov and Lieutenant Pukarev, respectively.

The commander of the first company was a second lieutenant named Timka, an officer who was said to have arrived from Leningrad to reinforce Moscow...... He was very popular with the fighters because he played a hand-to-hand accordion.

So after the end of the training, after dinner, there was an additional program in the first battalion, and the soldiers would always sing and dance at the door of the dormitory to the music of the accordion while drinking waterga...... The Soviets were actually very fond of singing and dancing, so of course they would not give up this opportunity.

However, when Timkara plays the accordion, he often sheds tears unconsciously.

Later Shulka learned that he was a company commander in his former unit, and that he used to play the accordion like this and sing and dance with his subordinates.

However, by the time Mozhaisk was lost, only fifteen of his men had survived...... This is one of the reasons why his unit was split into the 1st Guards Tank Brigade.

Shulka was relieved to see this.

Shulka believes that the most important thing for a grassroots officer is not his military quality or whether he has gone to a military school, but whether he has feelings for his subordinates.

If he has feelings, he will try his best to consider his subordinates for survival, which will inevitably make his subordinates accept him, so he can also become a good company commander.

As for military qualities...... That's just a matter of time.

Shulka was also proved right, and Timka soon integrated into the first battalion and mingled with his own men.

To Shulka's surprise, he had some strange staff officers around him, and the rank was higher than Shulka's.

On the first day of entering the battalion headquarters, Shulka found out that there was actually a captain in the staff regiment at a glance.

"Hello, Comrade Shulka!" The captain took the initiative to step forward and shake Shulka's hand: "It's a pleasure to meet you, my name is Halder!" ”

"Hello, Comrade Halder!" Shulka replied.

"We've heard a lot about your deeds, Comrade Shulka!" Halder had reverence in his eyes: "My subordinates and I are honored to be the second set of commanders of the first battalion!" ”

"Second set of commanders?" Shulka looked at Halder with some surprise.

"Yes!" Halder replied: "We were ordered to train with you and learn from the 1st Guards Tank Brigade!" ”

Shulka couldn't help but let out an "oh", and then understood.

The Soviet army at this time often had a special system of "second divisions".

The so-called "second division" refers to the addition of a set of command personnel in the troops, and this set of command personnel does not participate in specific commands in ordinary times, but usually holds deputy positions next to the command personnel and occasionally accepts some simple tasks.

The purpose of this is to let them learn the relevant level of command, and then as long as there are people with equipment, this set of command personnel can be separated from the original unit and a new unit can be formed immediately.

This is also the reason why Soviet troops tend to fight more and more...... The Germans eliminated one division, and immediately two more divisions stood in front of them.

The Germans also had a similar method of training officers, whom they named "adjutants", with the difference that the Germans did not train as a whole set like the Soviets.

It made Shulka feel a little awkward, as if someone was watching and staring at him.

But this was only the initial feeling, and soon Shulka completely forgot about the existence of this set of commanders.

Later, Shulka learned that in fact, not only the battalion commander and company commander had "another set", but even the instructors had "another set".

Obviously, they wanted to make an exact copy of the organization and command of the 1st Guards Tank Brigade.

Shulka smiled bitterly in his heart when he knew this...... Many of his ideas on the battlefield were actually a whim, and this could only be done with more knowledge, how could other people copy the surface and form!

As a result, there is a small follower around the instructor, so the instructor often puts on a very unhappy bitter gourd face.

After taking a moment to learn from the deputy battalion commander Maksimovich about the affairs of the lower battalion, Shulka turned his attention to the training of tank units.

After looking through the information on tanks and equipment, Shulka found another problem: tank guns and machine guns were not common to the Soviet army.

There will even be three different machine guns: British, American, and Soviet.

It was clear that these three different machine gun ammunition would cause a lot of trouble with the logistics of resupply.

So......

Shulka walked out of the battalion headquarters to the training ground, where Stephen was directing the troops and tanks to train together.

"Colonel!" Shulka said: "I think the first thing we have to do is to replace the machine guns of the tanks, all of them!" ”

"This is not an easy task, Captain!" Stephen objected: "I've thought about it too, but ...... The machine guns you use in tanks are usually turntable machine guns, and the cartridge needs more space, which will affect the shooter's shot! ”

It is true that all the machine guns used in tanks and armored vehicles of the Soviet Army during World War II were DT tank machine guns...... It is similar to the DP machine gun, except that the cartridge has been improved into a three-layer structure, with a capacity of 63 rounds per cartridge.

The design of the British and American tanks did not take this into account, so there was no space in the perforation position that was needed for the turntable machine gun.

"I'm sure our men will fix this, Colonel!" Shulka replied: "It really doesn't work, we can remove the entire machine gun mount and replace it with a Soviet-style machine gun mount!" ”

"You mean really?" Stephen couldn't help but look at Shulka strangely: "No, Captain! I don't think that's necessary...... I know that this will make it difficult to resupply ammunition. But that's a tank, they can fill the tank with bullets before every battle, and there's no problem fighting a battle! ”

"I know they're tanks, Colonel!" Shulka replied: "But it must be done!" ”

"We didn't do that, Captain!" Stephen said, "Look, we have British and American machine guns in Africa, and we can fight the Germans just as well!" Moreover, we have brought with us a large quantity of ammunition, have we discarded it? ”

"That's you!" Shulka objected, "You'll never have to worry about supplies, but we're different. Colonel Stephen, as Colonel Katukov said, you don't know our battlefield, our supply lines are often blocked by the enemy, and the infantry often needs to use cartridges from tank machine guns, if equipped with other machine guns...... Do you want the infantry to die with their rifles? ”