In Samara, 1,100 kilometers west of Kurgan, in an angular brick building with thick walls, the commander of the Russian Volga Front, formerly the Turkestan Front, was casually playing with a model of a half-track armored vehicle, and the desk in front of him was filled with various models of armored vehicles that seemed to be a hundred ghosts walking at night.

As the architect of the Russian army's armored forces, it would not be surprising to fiddle with these things, but at the moment, Nakasidze clearly had more important things to deal with - a dozen of his subordinates were sitting in two rows of chairs in front of his desk, and his expectant and puzzled eyes were intertwined between Nakasidze's general's epaulettes and the table full of toys.

"Tanks, tanks are the key."

Nakasidze's unexpectedly remarkable words made everyone look at each other, as if they understood or not.

"The infantry equipped with heavy artillery pressed and pinned down from the front, and the mechanized units with tanks as the core, supported by superior aviation, made a detour from the flank, which is the consistent tactics of the opposing side to break through the main defense line of our army since the beginning of the war, and we have suffered a lot because of this - in several decisive battles since the second half of last year, although we knew that the enemy would still do this, we could not stop them in any way."

Speaking of this, all the generals nodded yes, and the commander of the 3rd Cavalry Corps, Lieutenant General Semenov, raised his voice and shouted: "The machine guns and field guns in the infantry division cannot block the impact of tank clusters at all, the number of special anti-tank guns urgently renovated is too small and their role is limited, and the cavalry's saber against the tank is even more of a joke - no, it is a tragedy." ”

"The enemy's armored forces are equipped with all kinds of advanced special engineering equipment: there are armored bridge-erecting vehicles against anti-tank trenches, armored minesweepers against anti-tank minefields, armored demolition vehicles and bulldozers against deer barges and anti-tank earthen embankments, and the anti-tank obstacle lines that we have painstakingly set up are always easily crossed by the enemy and are basically useless." The commander of the 53rd Army, Lieutenant General Panlyotsev, complained not without indignation.

"Our strangely shaped tanks and armored vehicles can neither break through the enemy's positions nor stop the enemy's tanks, which, in turn, will cause countless problems for the transport sector......"

"The soldiers under my command are convinced that the aviation of our army exists only in the imagination of the base camp......"

"Half of my soldiers have been in the army for less than three months, and I bet that if a large herd of tanks were to charge at them, the first instinct of these animals would be to throw away whatever they had and run around like frightened cattle and horses at home......"

"Ahem—ahem."

Nakasidze cleared his throat and stopped the gossip.

"So, the conclusion is obvious - we will lose this time too?"

The generals winked in unison, wondering whether their commander had been overstuffed with vodka or had been slapped on the head by a bear.

"General Glinsky, tell me, what is the most effective weapon against tanks?"

The new face, who had been huddled in the corner without saying a word from the beginning of the meeting, slowly raised his head and spit out one word without hesitation: "Tank." ”

The crowd burst into whispers.

"Who's that awe-inspiring guy?"

"I haven't seen it, what about you?"

"It's also the first time I've seen ......"

"I've never seen a uniform like this before...... That armband is painted with a tank? ”

"It seems to be someone from the headquarters of the armored corps, an old subordinate of the chief?"

Nakasidze smiled slightly, raised his hand to stop the discussion, got up and introduced: "The 1st Tank Army, which has just been included in the establishment of our front army, is the commander of this Lieutenant General Glinsky. In the middle of last year, the base camp sent him to England and France to learn tank skills and tactics, and when he returned from his studies at the beginning of this year, he returned with nearly 100 tanks of various types aided by Britain and France, as well as hundreds of British and French instructors and technicians. ”

"Using this equipment and personnel, our army opened a tank crash school, which was headed by Glinsky, and specialized in training tankmen who operated British-French tanks, and trained hundreds of vehicle crews in just three months."

"Since the Battle of the Strait, the communication situation between our country and the allies has gradually improved, and in the growing allied firearms assistance, tanks, aircraft, radios and other technical weapons have been given priority, but they are still far from enough to offset the enemy's huge superiority in this regard."

"If this limited aid is evenly distributed among the fronts, and even among the armies, their role is bound to be insignificant. Therefore, the base camp decided to concentrate most of its resources first and form a highly integrated elite army, which will be invested on the most critical front as a decisive reserve. ”

Speaking of this, Nakasidze smiled bitterly and pointed at himself: "Obviously, the most critical front is here. ”

"That is, we also have tanks? How many are you? Panlyotsev got excited - in the decisive battle that the Russian army called the "Battle of the Balabin Steppe" and the Chinese army called the "Battle of the River", the two experimental armored brigades under Panlyotsev gave him a brief sense of satisfaction, as well as ...... A sense of disillusionment engraved in my heart.

Glinsky stood up and nodded to everyone, and responded to Panlyotsev's question by the way: "Our army has two tank brigades, an armored vehicle brigade, and a separate heavy tank battalion and a separate mobile anti-tank battalion directly under the front. ”

"Just three brigades?" Panlyotsev was a little disappointed, when he led the 53rd Army to counterattack Semipalatinsk last year, the tank brigade and armored vehicle brigade attached to it were equipped with a total of 70 miscellaneous tanks and 210 domestic thin-skinned armored vehicles that could be used for the exposition, which were exhausted within a few days.

Perceiving Panlyotsev's mood, Glinsky continued: "The 1st Tank Brigade has 1 heavy tank battalion and 1 light tank battalion, equipped with 25 heavy tanks and 63 light tanks, as well as 30 armored vehicles. ”

"The 2nd Tank Brigade has 2 light tank battalions equipped with 94 light tanks and 30 armored vehicles."

"The 11th Armored Vehicle Brigade has 1 light tank battalion and 1 armored vehicle battalion, equipped with 49 light tanks and 97 armored vehicles."

"The army is armed with 25 heavy tanks and 206 light tanks, a total of 231 units, and 157 armored vehicles. In addition, each brigade is armed with 16 field guns, 16 anti-tank guns, 8 anti-aircraft guns and 12 combined anti-aircraft machine guns. ”

"The units directly under the army include 1 special tank company, 1 armored vehicle battalion, 3 independent heavy artillery battalions and 3 independent anti-tank artillery battalions, equipped with 14 tanks, 93 armored vehicles, 54 heavy guns and 72 anti-tank guns."

"Together with the tanks and armored vehicles in the units directly under the Front, the Front is equipped with a total of 284 tanks and 282 armored vehicles. Among them, the tanks are mainly French Renault and British Racing Dogs, and half of the armored vehicles are half-tracks of the Putilov factory, which is a difference between heaven and hell compared with the tank armored brigades that were patched together during the Battle of the Balabin steppe. ”

"There should be no less than 1,000 enemy tanks in front of us, and with this one armored corps alone, we can have a chance of winning?" Panlyotsev still didn't buy it.

Nakasidaze, who had already sat back in his seat, picked up a model of a crudely made domestic Mendeleev tank that looked like a chopstick had been inserted in a pillbox, and while playing with it, he shook his head and smiled: "Then it depends on what the definition of victory is." ”

…… V！ ~！