USSR 1941

Chapter 567: Try your hand

??Chapter 567 Small test of skill

??Sometimes, for grassroots officers, the binding force of a bet is often much easier to use than military regulations or some vague and lofty ideals.

??For example, "for the motherland", "for the people"... These slogans have been shouted to the point of numbness, especially the deserters of the 5th Infantry Company. Obviously they will not and are unwilling to be bound by these slogans, otherwise they would not be deserters.

??But it is a bet, and there is a clear fact in front of you. If you cheat, it will be related to your personal credit and loyalty.

?? On the contrary, these are the Soviets who care more.

??So, when Sokolov returned to the army and organized his subordinates, his attitude was completely different.

?? "We lost!" Sokolov said to his subordinates.

??The subordinates all lowered their heads. Sokolov didn't need to say this, they all saw it.

?? "What shall we do now?" one of the subordinates asked.

?? "What else can I do?" Sokolov replied: "Obey orders, understand? Don't forget our bet!"

?? After thinking about it, Sokolov laughed instead.

?? "It's a good thing for us, isn't it?" Sokolov said.

??The subordinates couldn't help looking at each other, and one of them asked in puzzlement: "We lost the bet, and we must fully obey the order in the future. How can this be a good thing?"

"Because..." Sokolov replied: "If Comrade Shulka wants to send us to the front to die, he doesn't need to do it at all! I mean, he doesn't need to take this bet and make us learn this Tactics. It's superfluous for him! In other words, he does treat us as a normal army, a normal combat force!"

??The subordinates could not help but nod their heads.

?? "Yes, Comrade Shulka did not betray us!"

?? "We misunderstood him!"

?? "Comrade Shulka is trustworthy, he will not let us sacrifice meaninglessly!"

??…

?? This is a kind of trust. The trust between the superior and the subordinate in the army is very important, which directly determines whether the order can be effectively implemented.

??Otherwise, "there are policies above and countermeasures below", if you want to work abroad, you can find a hundred reasons at any time.

?? It was only then that the 5th Infantry Company could truly be considered part of the 82nd Infantry Regiment.

??Shuerka got the news from Valerina.

??Valery reported to Shulka on the phone: "Unbelievable, Comrade Captain! Just now Sokolov apologized to me and offered to ask me to assign tasks to the Fifth Infantry Company!"

?? "Very good!" said Shulka, "How do you answer?"

?? "I agree!" Valery said: "I assigned them to guard the third floor building, am I right?"

?? "Of course!" Shulka said: "They are your soldiers, you can make whatever decision you want!"

"I have to say..." Valery exclaimed, "You subdued them, Comrade Shulka! I always thought that there was no cure for these people other than some drudgery or something under the supervision of a rifle but you changed them!"

?? "Continue to observe!" Shulka said: "Let me give you a suggestion, don't rush to abolish their lynching!"

?? "Understood!" Valery replied.

?? Although "lynching" does not comply with military regulations, it is very effective against deserters, and it can even be regarded as a booster.

??In addition, for the high-level Soviet army, these "deserters" could have been shot at any time. What they cared about was whether these "deserters" died. As for when they died and who killed them, it didn't matter.

??In this respect, it is not out of compliance with military regulations.

?? Then, the Fifth Infantry Company got a chance to perform that afternoon.

??They behaved bravely, resisting the German attack like other troops and calmly responded to the enemy's indiscriminate bombing, until the German army had to decide to blow up these buildings before withdrawing calmly.

?? This surprised Major Mikhailevich, who had been vigilant all the time.

?? "Not long ago, I was worried that they would run away!" Major Mikhailvich said, "But now I find that this is obviously redundant. None of them ran away!"

??This performance is even better than other units of the 82nd Infantry Regiment... When the second battalion was stationed on the second floor of the building, several soldiers fled the building without orders because the building was crumbling.

?? This should be said to be inevitable in actual combat. There will always be a few people who are mentally weak or make mistakes in judgment.

?? But the 5th Infantry Company had none.

?? Or there was, but they were "lynched" by themselves.

However, this was just a small test of the 5th Infantry Company. When the 82nd Infantry Regiment launched a counterattack against the German army that night, the 5th Infantry Company rushed into the German army with a bayonet at the head. The successful attack not only recovered the line of defense lost during the day, but also continued to advance more than 200 meters.

?? When Shulka asked Sokolov about it later, Sokolov said he was also surprised by it.

?? "At first, I thought it would be good to be able to reach the combat effectiveness of other troops!" Sokolov said: "I didn't expect them to be determined to participate in the battle, and they all became ruthless, and everyone wanted to die!"

?? This may be a shift from one extreme to another, or it can also be said that they have already died once before they were about to be shot, and at this time they are more able to see through life and death.

??However, if you look closely, this may also have something to do with their uniformly equipped rifles.

??The fifth infantry company is composed of deserters. If it is equipped with submachine guns and machine guns like other troops, plus mortars, rocket launchers... all kinds of equipment must be mixed and coordinated with each other.

??And this kind of synergy cannot be achieved without a certain period of unified training.

??This is not something that can be solved by reaching a new level of thought, it is a real problem.

??So, if their equipment is complicated, they may not be able to exert their combat effectiveness at all, but will be **** instead.

??But due to equipment restrictions, they can only be equipped with rifles, all rifles, and if there is any other equipment, it is grenades.

??This made them hardly need to cooperate on the battlefield. They put on bayonets, threw a few grenades, and then charged in the night with a shout, simply and rudely beating the German army by surprise.

?? Soon, the results and performance of the Fifth Infantry Company were placed on the table of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

?? This was not reported by Shulka, but as said before, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will track the situation of these "traitors of the motherland" until they die.

??This result surprised the captain of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

?? "They actually became a fighting force?" The captain asked his subordinates with the document: "Are you sure these are true?"

?? "Yes, Comrade Captain! They are very brave on the battlefield!"

?? "Brave? Those cowards became fighters in just a few days?" The captain couldn't believe this.

??(end of this chapter)