Realising there might be German special forces among them, Gromov immediately switches to his RTS view and checks everyone here.
Everyone's names remain blue, which indicates they are friendly.
Gromov has slightly relaxed for now, but not too much. He does not know if his cheat can actually identify who the enemies are hidden.
"Comrade commissar, I agree with Yukin's suggestion, just take away his rank and let him fight like the other in our company."
Kirov, after learning they have lost contact with the battalion and division, does not care much about Yukin.
"You will make the decision, Captain. I believe you can make the correct decision."
Soon, Yukin and his soldiers were released.
He gives Gromov a grateful look.
Gromov nodded his head in reply and let Alexee take charge of them.
He got something to discuss with Kirov now.
"Why didn't you report it to me earlier!" Kirov was scolding one of his men.
"Apologise, commissar, our runner only got back 10 minutes ago. It takes some time for him to look for the battalion or any higher unit command post, but he failed."
The Red Army lacks radios or even telegraphs in most of their unit, so a runner is still needed. The consequences of using it are also obvious, which is the delay in the message.
Upon seeing Gromov enter, Kirov waved for his men to leave.
"You have heard it, Comrade Captain, I have some trust in your ability."
"So, what do you think we should do now? Just for you to know, I will not allow for any retreatment of troops before receiving further orders."
"Kyiv is behind us. We have no way to run now."
Shit, Kirov seems to know what he wanted to say for.
"I'm afraid I can't have any better way, Comrade Commissar. My suggestion would be to withdraw from the village and get into the forest."
Looking at Kirov's face, which is turning mad, Gromov quickly explained.
"Comrade Commissar, if we don't retreat now, we will face enemies from three directions. Or even from all directions after they have advanced more."
"And what worries me is the situation that Yukin talked about."
To persuade Kirov to allow for the retreat, he decided to tell him about the Brandenburger.
"It was done by a group of Germans who camouflaged themselves as us.
"I have met them, it is also how I lost my company in the city. They often used the gap where our unit was in chaos due to the retreat of defeated soldiers to launch their assault."
Of course, it was fake. Gromov never met them. Maybe the original met, but who knows?
Kirov looked at him with a mixture of belief and scepticism after hearing this.
"If what you were saying was true, you mean there might be German spies within our armies? Including Yukin and his twenty men?"
"I'm afraid it is. I can assure you, Yukin is not one of the traitors. But not any of their men, maybe they can wash away suspicion on them if they know each other." Gromov replied solemnly.
Seeing that Kirov was already wavering, he decided to press on and persuade him to retreat. He didn't want to die in this place that was destined to fall.
"Comrade Commissar, allowed us to retreat to the forest before it is too late. Once the sunrise, the enemies will launch their attack again, and we will have no chance to fight against them here."
"But if we enter the forest, with the use of landscape, their air force and artillery will be heavily restricted, and by that, we could due more casualties on their personnel and equipment."
"Besides, the Germans have just taken down the city, and there will be many surviving soldiers breaking through from it. They need someone to lead them. We can gather them and reorganise them to fight against the Germans."
"All these need a strong leader to do it, and Commissar, you are the most suitable person as I see."
Finished speaking, Gromov looks at Kirov and waits for him to make the decision. He first analyses the situation, then praises how Kirov can change the situation if they retreat.
Kirov clenched his fist, and after much serious thought, finally made his decision.
"Retreat!"
As the order was given, the silenced village immediately mobilised. Sleep soldiers were awakened, taking everything they could and preparing to move.
"Alexee, plant some trip mines and booby traps. We will have to use anything we have to delay their advance."
How many Germans will be here after the sunrises? Gromov has no idea.
While waiting for the troops to pack up and leave, he thought about many things, mostly about problems they would soon encounter.
Since Zhytomyr in the north and Berdychi in the south have already been taken down, he doesn't think that the Germans will send another few tens of armoured here.
Instead, their infantry division, to clear all the Red Army remnants.
Gromov still remembers the map he saw in Zhytomyr.
There is a big forest east of Zhytomyr, he believes, where they are going to retreat to.
But to the east of this forest, it is just plain until Kyiv.
He can use the forest landscape as an advantage to fight against the German armoured forces. Then, how about after that?
They wouldn't be able to run faster than the German mechanised unit.
They can't stay in the forest for too long either.
Gromov has also made his decision in his heart. They will need to continue to retreat to the outskirts of Kyiv tomorrow night.
The main problem is Kirov. How would he be able to convince him of the retreat?
Never mind, it will see.
A squad will move first, they will act as vanguard, clearing the path or detecting any possible enemies for the company.
Then it will be the two KV to move. The tracks left on the ground will reveal their location, so infantry will be needed to help clear them.
This was all arranged by Alexee. Gromov observed and remembered it deeply. He is still more like a typical strategic player, who knows how to battle but knows nothing else.
A commander, except for arranging tactics, will also need to know about marching, supply, or even how the order will be given, whether it will be exactly followed and etc.
It is definitely not a job that any keyboard warrior could do.
By the time the sun rises, the whole company has already entered the forest.
Just as they left the village, another German armoured and infantry company arrived.
The commander tank stopped exactly where the previous reinforcement stopped. Captain Thomas raised his binoculars to observe the village.
Sees a bunch of tank wreckage and their infantry bodies. After losing contact with them, he had expected this.
But this time, he does not make the same decision as the previous commander. He sends two tanks and a squad of infantry to enter the village first.
There is no sound of gunfire. Just as he believes that the Soviets have already retreated, an explosion of a grenade came from the village.
He immediately called the two tanks on the radio.
"What happened there?"
"The Soviets have left some trip mines and booby traps here, commander. One of our soldiers accidentally tripped it."
"Beware of their ambush. I will send an engineer to assist you all."
Half an hour later, the squad returned with news and confirmed that the Soviets had already retreated.
Thomas and the armour column stopped outside the village.
There is no more space on the only street for them to stop.
He got down from the tank and walked to the village entrance.
By standing there, he could already imagine how the armour column was ambushed.
Those tank in the middle was destroyed in different positions, some crashed into the houses, some crashed into the other while reversing, some just stayed there and destroyed while turning the turret.
He walked through them one by one, and soon he realised something was wrong. Some of them do not have an obvious hole that shows the shell penetrates them.
Thomas continued walking to the tank in the middle, where the previous commander was. Take off his hat and salute.
After that, he walks to those tanks without a hole and starts observing them.
With some moment of observing, it is not correct to say that there is no hole, but the hole is small.
"Pry open the hatch."
When they pried open the hatch, all they saw were scorched interior panels and the crew slumped in their seats, as if time had frozen inside the tank. A wave of heat and burnt metal hit them. The crew lay still in their positions, leaving no sign they had struggled.
Thomas knows what has hit them by looking at the way they die.
"It was HEAT. When does the Soviet have HEAT shells?"
He then sees the other tank that was also destroyed in the same way, and immediately realises that the Soviet has a breakthrough and advance on HEAT technology.
HEAT has two major problems.
First, the fuse used on it is not mature yet. Sometimes it could just explode earlier, where it has no difference from HE rounds.
Second, the rifled guns meant the HEAT round was spinning when it struck, and that rotation makes the jet HEAT rounds produce less effective
So even though they are equipped with heat, they seldom use it. Armour Piercing rounds will be more effective than it.
But from what Thomas observed, the HEAT that destroyed these tanks does not have these problems.
"Have any of our friendly know about the Soviet HEAT?" Thomas asked the infantry company commander next to him.
"Only them in our division. " The commander pointed at the wreckage and dead bodies.
"But I have heard from my battalion commander, the Army Group Centre has encountered a new type of Soviet personnel anti-tank weapon that can destroy a tank easily in a range of 100m in Smolensk. I believe they might be related."
Thomas frowned.
He had not known anything about this.
He felt an even greater dislike for the incompetent intelligence officers.
Useless Abwehr.
"We will have to tell this to the division or even all the brothers of Army Group South."
Thomas looked at the forest.
"Which enemy unit are we facing?"
"Not clear, but from the latest news from the recon platoon, they say it was a penal unit that launched a suicide attack on them."
His men report.
Thomas nodded his head.
"There is no point for us to be here any more. Infantry will stay until the relief troops here."
Soon, he led his armoured company back to Berdychi.
The job of cleaning the forest belongs to the infantry.
Their job is only one: launch the assault on Kyiv!
---
On the other side, Gromov's penal company continuously encountered troops fleeing from the city, mostly in heavily damaged platoons and squads.
Kirov and his NKVD soldiers will stop them and take them into the company.
Gromov switches to his RTS-view to check every time when there are newcomers. Nothing has been found.
Adding in some stragglers, his force had expanded to nearly two hundred men.
But the problems have also come.
"We do not have enough food and medicine. The only thing we have is some canned food and bandages seized yesterday. But even the Germans did not prepare much."
"It will be finished after today's lunch, mostly tomorrow if we plan it."
Alexee's report.
Gromov rubbed his hair in frustration.
What can he do?
In his plan, they will need to leave tonight, if they can, just hold for it. Since they can arrive at Kyiv or a friendly position after today.
But you never know if an accident will happen.
Most importantly, they do not have vehicles.
The two KV was not expected to get out of the forest. A complicated landscape could easily damage their tracks or make the engine die.
Even if they can, where does he get the petrol for them?
No matter what, just move to the east after Kirov has gathered most of the defeated units or stragglers.