Chapter 334 Machine Gun
Putting on a new military uniform, Shulka got a good understanding of his troops.
The commanders of the second and third companies are all acquaintances, namely Lieutenant Davydov and Lieutenant Pukarev.
The company commander of the 1st company is a bit unfamiliar. He is a second lieutenant named Timka. It is said that he is an officer who came from Leningrad to reinforce Moscow... He is very popular with the soldiers because he plays an accordion.
So after the training and dinner, there was an extra program in the first battalion. The soldiers would always sing and dance at the door of the dormitory while drinking Vodka to the music of the accordion... The Soviets actually liked to sing and dance, so of course they didn’t would pass up this opportunity.
However, when Jim was playing the accordion, he would often shed tears unconsciously.
It was later that Shulka found out that he was a company commander in the original army, and he used to play the accordion and sing and dance with his subordinates like this before.
However, when Mozhaisk fell, only fifteen of his subordinates could come back alive... This is one of the reasons why his troops were split into the 1st Guards Tank Brigade.
Seeing this Shulka felt relieved.
Shuerka believes that the most important thing for a grassroots officer is not military quality or whether he has attended a military academy, but whether he has feelings for his subordinates.
If he has feelings, he will try his best to consider for his subordinates and survival, which will inevitably make his subordinates accept him, so he can become a good company commander.
As for military quality...it's only a matter of time.
Facts also proved that Shulka was correct, and Timka quickly integrated into the first battalion and became one with his subordinates.
To Shulka's surprise, he had some strange staff officers around him, and his military rank was higher than Shulka's.
On the first day of entering the battalion headquarters, Shulka discovered that there was actually a captain in the staff group at a glance.
"Hello, Comrade Shulka!" The captain took the initiative to shake hands with Shulka: "Nice to meet you, my name is Halder!"
"Hello, Comrade Halder!" Shulka replied.
"We have heard a lot about your battles, Comrade Shulka!" Halder said with reverence in his eyes, "My subordinates and I are honored to be the second set of commanders of the first battalion!"
"The second set of commanders?" Shulka looked at Halder in surprise.
"Yes!" Halder replied: "We were ordered to train with you and learn from the 1st Guards Tank Brigade!"
Shuerka couldn't help but "Oh", and then understood.
At this time, the Soviet army often had a special system of "Second Division".
The so-called "Second Division" refers to an additional set of commanders in the army. This set of commanders usually does not participate in specific commands. They usually serve as deputy positions next to the commanders, and occasionally accept some simple tasks.
The purpose of doing this is to let them learn the command of the relevant level, and then as long as someone has the equipment, this set of commanders can be separated from the original army to form a new army immediately.
This is also the reason why the Soviet troops tend to fight more and more... The German army wiped out one division, and immediately two divisions stood in front of them.
The German army also has a similar method of training officers, they named it "Adjutant", the difference is that the German army will not train as a whole set like the Soviet army.
This made Shulka feel a little awkward, as if someone was staring at him.
But this was only the feeling at the beginning, and soon Shulka completely forgot the existence of this set of commanders.
It was only later that Shulka learned that not only battalion commanders and company commanders have "another set", but even instructors have "another set".
Obviously, they wanted to copy the organization and command of the 1st Guards Tank Brigade intact.
When he knew this, Shulka smiled wryly in his heart... Many of his ideas on the battlefield were actually brainstorms, and this can only be done with more knowledge. How can it be possible for others to copy the surface and form? copy!
As a result, the instructor has an extra follower, so the instructor often puts on a very unhappy face.
It took some time to learn about the affairs of the lower battalion from the deputy battalion commander Maximovich, and then Shulka focused on the training of the tank unit.
After looking through the tank and equipment information, Shulka discovered another problem: tank guns and machine guns are not common to the Soviet army.
There are even three different machine guns: British, American, and Soviet.
Obviously, these three different machine gun ammunition will cause a lot of logistical problems.
so…
Shulka walked out of the battalion headquarters and came to the training ground. Stephen was directing the troops to train with the tanks.
"Colonel!" Shulka said, "I think the first thing we have to do is replace the tank's machine gun, all of them!"
"It's not an easy task, Captain!" Stephen objected, "I've thought about it too, but... the machine guns you use in tanks are usually rotary machine guns, and the magazine needs more space, which will affect Archer's shot!"
It is indeed true that all the machine guns used by Soviet tanks and armored vehicles during World War II were all DT tank machine guns...It is similar to the DP machine gun, except that the magazine has been improved into a three-layer structure, and one magazine has a capacity of 63 rounds.
The design of British and American tanks did not take this into consideration, so the perforation position did not reserve the space required for the turntable machine gun.
"I believe our people will solve this problem, Colonel!" Shulka replied: "It's really not possible, we can remove the entire machine gun mount and replace it with a Soviet-style machine gun mount!"
"Are you serious?" Stephen couldn't help but looked at Shulka strangely: "No, Captain! I don't think it's necessary... I know it will make it difficult to supply ammunition. But it's tanks, and they are ready for every battle. You can fill the tank with bullets and finish a battle without any problem!"
"I know they are tanks, Colonel!" Shulka replied: "But it has to 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 as well! Besides, we brought a lot of ammunition, don't these ammunition Abandon them all?"
"That's you!" Shulka objected: "You never have to worry about supplies, but we are different. Colonel Stephen, as Colonel Katukov said, you don't know our battlefield, our The supply lines are often blocked by the enemy, and the infantry often needs to use tank machine gun bullets, and if they are equipped with other machine guns... Should the infantry wait to die with their rifles?"
(end of this chapter)
