Chapter 2714: Poisonous Shadow

While Kurbalov was reporting, Malashenko was also flipping through the documents in his hand.

No need for the help of an interpreter, whether in German or German, Malashenko has now achieved the ability to speak and read. After reading the concise documents at a speed of ten lines at a glance, he raised the corner of his mouth.

"Interesting, but how could this thing appear on that German? Who is he? According to my understanding, this thing should not appear in our control area, but on the desk of a powerful Nazi general."

Faced with the questions raised by Malashenko, Kurbalov was also puzzled.

Although there are various possibilities in theory, Kurbalov believes that most of them may not be tenable. After thinking about it, he can only follow his own guess and talk about it bit by bit.

"I'm not sure, comrade division commander."

"The captured German said he was a lieutenant colonel staff officer and was affiliated with the Berlin Garrison Command. But he didn't carry any documents to prove his identity. When asked what happened, he just replied that he was in a hurry and didn't have time to bring them, and he didn't think he needed those things anymore."

"He also said that he stole these things to prove his sincerity, and the purpose of his trip was to surrender to us. He kept saying that he felt that this war was hopeless and could not be won at all, and that he would only die if he continued to fight us, so he had planned to surrender to us and get some confidential things to prove his value."

"But I don't think this makes sense. If he really came to surrender, why did he run away after seeing our soldiers?"

"The squad leader who interrogated him on the spot also mentioned this issue, but the German guy actually said that he thought the private was too low-ranking and couldn't understand the information he provided. He wanted to find someone who could really understand this stuff to explain the situation, so his first reaction was to run away."

"I think this statement is pure nonsense. He just made up an excuse to excuse himself and fooled us. I even think that this document might be fake. The German guy saw that he couldn't hold on any longer, so he made a fake trick to scare us to buy them time and delay as much as possible. I think we shouldn't be fooled by them. We have to continue the attack, comrade division commander."

"Hmm"

After hearing this, Malashenko didn't say anything directly, but just nodded without comment to indicate that he understood the general meaning.

In fact, as far as the document itself is concerned, the things recorded on it are still quite "shocking".

The document itself is not long, and there is only one thing described.

The general idea is that the Wehrmacht has confirmed one thing: the Waffen SS, which is responsible for defending the city, has unsealed a batch of poison gas weapons and has already been transported to the front line to be distributed to the troops.

Because the unsealed weapons warehouse is under the management of the Waffen SS, and since the Cherkassy shooting incident in 1944, the relationship between the Wehrmacht and the SS has become unprecedentedly tense and sensitive, and has taken a sharp turn for the worse. It can be said that the two sides look down on each other, "You think I am a traitor, and I think you are cowardly and incompetent."

Unless it is necessary to interact, the SS and the Wehrmacht are basically keeping to themselves and doing their own things. Anyway, both sides have their own independent command, logistics, and combat systems, so it is not the case that one cannot survive without the other.

In summary, the Berlin Garrison Command controlled by the Wehrmacht only knew that the warehouse was filled with a batch of poison gas weapons that were transported into the city by the SS shortly before the Battle of Berlin. According to the SS lunatics at the time, it was "for emergency use" and "it is better to have it and not use it than not have it when needed".

Due to the sensitivity of the tense relationship between the two armies and the fact that the Soviet Red Army was about to fight the city of Berlin.

The Wehrmacht, which was already "unable to save itself when crossing the river" and had no time to take care of other things, had no time and no intention to intervene in this matter.

So even now, the SS lunatics opened the weapons warehouse and distributed the poison gas bombs to the front-line troops.

The Wehrmacht still did not know what type of poison gas weapons the SS distributed, how many there were, and the detailed combat orders on whether to use it, when to use it, and how to use it.

Of course, the document did not go into detail about the grievances between the Wehrmacht and the SS, but only briefly described the whole thing "only knowing the general idea, but not the details". Malashenko had heard about these things from various German prisoners before.

After reading the document, Kurbalov thought it might be fake, and the German lieutenant colonel who claimed to surrender was also lying.

The purpose of doing this was probably to scare the Red Army with the horror of "poison gas weapons". Even if the Red Army needed to make large-scale anti-gas preparations, it was enough for the Germans, who had been cut to the point of losing their kidneys by the continuous sausage-cutting tactics of the leader's division in the past two days, to take a breath and strengthen their defense. To put it bluntly, it was to create a favorable situation for their side and buy time.

It cannot be said that Kurbalov's analysis is wrong and there is no possibility at all. If you think about it carefully, you can't rule out this possibility.

But if you change your mind and analyze it from another angle, combined with the tense relationship between the SS and the Wehrmacht, which was "only one centimeter away from tearing their faces apart". The situation and events described in this document are logically self-consistent and there is no place to prove it is false.

So, the problem was thrown to Malashenko at this time.

Should the front-line troops be asked to maintain the offensive and continue to cut sausages, not giving the Germans a chance to breathe, or should the troops be withdrawn immediately to make more complete anti-toxic and anti-chemical weapon preparations?

""

Malashenko, holding the document in his hand, was thinking silently. A well-considered decision that takes into account all the currently known factors will take some time.

Under the condition that Kurbalov, who understood the situation, did not interrupt, Malashenko, who closed his eyes and leaned on the chair to think for nearly a minute, waited until he opened his eyes again and then slowly spoke.

"So far, have the troops on the actual contact line reported encountering the SS?"

"Not yet. So far, all the enemy garrisons we have encountered are the Wehrmacht. The captured German prisoners did not interrogate the existence of the SS in the war zone. It seems that this area is entirely defended by the Wehrmacht."

After weighing the pros and cons, Malashenko had made up his mind when he heard this. It is impossible to have no risk and gain profits at zero risk on the battlefield. That is not called fighting, but freeloading.

There are risks in any situation on the battlefield. The difference lies in the assessment of the risk factor and whether the benefits obtained are worthwhile.

Obviously, Malashenko's words that followed were enough to give the final answer.

"I understand, in that case"