artillery arc

Chapter 362 Close Combat

At the Proson Army's side, fifteen minutes ago.

Major General Witte breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the first ray of sunlight appear in the sky.

At this time, the chief of staff came to him, saluted and said, "General, it has been confirmed that there are two armored battalions retreating, with a total of 90 Panzer III tanks and 44 Panzer IV tanks."

Major General Witte was shocked and interrupted the chief of staff's report: "Why did so many No. 3s fall?"

Plossen's armored battalion usually had 70 Panzer IIIs and about 28 Panzer IVs. The results of the current inventory showed that there were more than 50 Panzer IIIs and more than a dozen Panzer IVs left in the city.

Chief of Staff: "The shelling last night destroyed many tanks. The commanders of the two armored battalions believe they have driven out all the tanks they can."

Major General Witte shook his head and gestured to the Chief of Staff to continue his report.

Chief of Staff: "Six companies of the Panzergrenadiers escaped, and each company lost about half of its vehicles."

Major General Witte frowned.

The Armored Grenadiers Regiment of the Seder Division was a large regiment, with 16 companies, each of which was also a large company. In addition to infantry, there were also various weapons groups, reconnaissance, and logistics, with a total of more than 200 people. Now people were left in the city.

The armored battalion also had accompanying infantry, so if we calculate it this way, there might be more than 4,000 people left in the city.

We can still hear dense gunfire in the city. The enemy's weapons are all silent weapons, so these gunshots should be made by Proson soldiers.

Major General Witte looked up at the sky and confirmed that the sun was getting brighter and brighter. Then he said to the Chief of Staff: "Once it clears up, return to the city immediately and help the troops in the city retake the occupied city."

The chief of staff seemed to be hesitant to speak, so Major General Witte looked at him and said, "Just say whatever you want to say."

Chief of Staff: "We are an armored division and are not good at urban combat. We should wait for the armored grenadier divisions in the follow-up echelon to catch up."

Major General Witte shook his head. “You may not know this yet. Our follow-up armored grenadier divisions have been deployed to the north and south sides. General Bock is preparing to launch a pincer attack on Rokossov.”

"Eh?" The chief of staff was shocked. "Is that so?"

"That's what the secret message from the day before yesterday said. Didn't you read it? Oh, you weren't the chief of staff the day before yesterday, not even a senior staff officer. It's normal that you didn't know."

The Chief of Staff remained silent.

Major General Witte: "Anyway, we have to return to the city. There are still thousands of our brothers fighting in the city. We can't abandon them."

As we were talking, the fog dissipated a lot. After all, the sun was shining, which was the best weapon to dispel the fog.

As his vision gradually returned, Major General Witte suddenly saw something on the grassland in the distance.

He picked up the telescope.

Thanks to the excellent performance provided by Zeiss optical lenses, Major General Witte saw Ant's famous T34 tank parked on the distant hill, and it was a big-headed model.

This big-headed tank has been almost firmly associated with the name Rokossov over the past year, so much so that now when the Proson Army sees the big-headed T34, they will think they have encountered Rokossov.

Plosson's headquarters had to issue a document emphasizing that Rokossov would fly a unique red flag and that his car would use the tactical number 422.

Because of this, Major General Witte carefully confirmed that there were no tanks with red flags in the telescope - the tactical number was too unclear to be confirmed.

However, Major General Witte saw that in front of the tank, there was a burly officer named Ant looking in his direction.

Then he saw the officer seemed to take the radio headset (actually it was a telephone receiver, it was too far away to see clearly) from his attendant.

Major General Witte immediately shouted: "Communications staff, monitor the enemy's radio communication channel, the enemy may be reporting!"

"Yes!"

The voice of the communications officer came from the direction of the communications vehicle.

Major General Witte waited for ten seconds, but when the communications officer's report failed, he asked urgently, "Didn't you hear it?"

"No, there's no one talking on the enemy radio channel."

Major General Witt frowned: "Is he on the phone? What do you think, Hank——"

Suddenly, the major general remembered that his partner, the experienced chief of staff, had been sent to space by friendly forces.

He cursed, then remembered the culprit and asked, "Has Colonel Busey escaped?"

"No." The Chief of Staff reported.

Major General Witte curled his lips.

At this moment he suddenly realized that Colonel Busse might be the most experienced senior officer in the army besides himself, and it didn't seem good for him to stay in the city like this.

Before he could think about it, the Ant officer in the telescope returned the communication tool in his hand to his subordinate.

Is the call over?
What did it say?
Major General Witte saw the officer begin to give orders to the people around him, and then the Ant armored forces on the hill began to move.

No, there's something else besides armored forces!
Major General Witte looked at the moving grass in surprise. When they were still, he thought they were taller grass!
The enemy's assault gun!

Major General Witte suddenly realized that he should not attack the city now, but should launch an armored assault while the enemy was shifting its position.

He turned around and shouted, "Order the armored units to deploy a wide wedge formation! The target is the hill in the southeast, start the attack! The enemy has a small number of tanks, and with the assault guns, their number is about the same as our Type 3! We also have the latest long-barreled Type 4..." At this moment, Major General Witte heard a whistling sound in his ears.

He immediately realized that the shell was coming towards him, so he threw himself forward: "Get down!"

Shells fell.

And it was not like ordinary artillery bombardment where shells fell one after another, but hundreds of shells fell in an instant.

Major General Witte certainly didn't know that this was "simultaneous firing". He made a judgment based on past experience: "Oh my God, at least ten artillery regiments are firing at us!"

When the division headquarters was bombarded last night, Major General Witte was not in the area where the fire was most intense. He therefore believed that the target of the bombardment was to destroy the fortifications and ordered the entire army to be on combat readiness.

Now, he was right where the fire was most intense.

"Oh my God!" he shouted - anyway, when dodging the artillery, he needed to open his mouth wide to balance the air pressure inside and outside the skull, so he might as well shout and vent his tension.

----

When Colonel Busey heard the sound of artillery fire, he immediately ran to the window, lay on the windowsill and peeked out. Sure enough, he saw dense artillery shells falling outside the city.

"The armored unit was bombarded. I don't think we will get reinforcements for a while." He turned to the captain behind him and said, "We can only drive out the enemy who entered the city by ourselves."

Captain: "In addition to the defenders in various places, we have gathered a hundred people and concentrated the submachine guns."

Colonel Busey left the window and stood up straight in the house: "Very good, I will lead the team myself. We have occupied this place for three days and are more familiar with the terrain than the Ants - although this is their country. Give me a submachine gun."

An MP40 was immediately delivered to the colonel.

The colonel checked the gun, pulled the trigger to make sure there was a bullet in the chamber, and then reset the bolt.

The guard handed over the magazine bag. Colonel Busey took one look and cursed, "Why is it the Ants' magazine bag?"

"It's very useful." The guard said, "It's more comfortable to use than our magazine pouches, and it can also protect the chest from bullets. This is the equipment used by the ANT troops that entered the city today. I have never seen other ANT troops use it before. We only seized a small amount."

Actually, this was a chest mount of our army copied by someone, and it was immediately well received by the infantry. Unfortunately, it could not be promoted in other units of Ant, because other units either used PPSh drum magazines to splash water, which could not fit into the chest mount, or used Mosin-Nagant bolts, which also did not require this chest mount.

But this chest mount is just right for holding MP40 magazines.

Colonel Busey frowned: "What about the enemy's silent weapons? Have they been captured?"

Captain: "We have four here. Other troops in the city should have captured some."

Colonel Busey: "Send one out of the city to ensure that the High Command and the Imperial Academy of Sciences can get the sample gun."

As he took the Ant's equipment and was about to hang it on the belt, the guard said hurriedly: "No, no, this is not hung on the belt, but worn on the upper body like a vest. You can see that you can put grenades here and you can get them with just a raise of your hand. This equipment design is great. I think it should be sent back together with the enemy's weapons."

Colonel Busey nodded: "Then send one back."

At present, Proson's equipment is in a state where everything is slung over his shoulders, and everything that cannot be slung over his shoulders is stuffed onto his belt, so the belt - or more precisely, the weapon belt - is very heavy.

Colonel Busey dressed himself with the help of the guards and said to the captain: "After we start the attack, you will hold here. This building is a support point and cannot be lost..."

Suddenly, there was an explosion behind Colonel Busey, and a soldier exclaimed: "Be careful! The Ants are surrounding us from behind!"

Colonel Busey held up his MP40: "Take care of them first! Go!"

----

"Charge! This is the enemy's firepower support point!" Lieutenant Colonel Xie Miao shouted, "Occupy this place and set up machine guns, and then you can control the main road in the city!"

This morning, Brigadier General Eugene of the 225th Division issued an order to the troops to prohibit advancing to avoid accidental injuries, but the situation was so chaotic in the fog that a large number of infantrymen of the 225th Division did not receive this order.

Lieutenant Colonel Semyon's squad was one of them. The radio operator following him got lost in the fog, so he led the troops forward.

We did encounter some infantry from the Guards' First Mechanized Infantry on the road, and there may have been some accidental firing, but the thick fog made it impossible to see clearly.

Anyway, Lieutenant Colonel Xie Miao brought all the infantrymen he met and rushed all the way here.

The explosion just now collapsed the entire wall, and the gate to the yard was wide open. Lieutenant Colonel Xie Miao rushed into the yard with a spiral shearing machine, firing at the doors and windows on the other side to suppress the enemy.

At this time, the door on the first floor of the building opened, and a Proson officer jumped out, holding a submachine gun and shooting at Lieutenant Colonel Semyon.

The lieutenant colonel was shot immediately, but he tried to support his body and looked at the enemy's collar badge - only to find that he did not recognize the officer's collar badge.

After all, the rank of the Asgard Knights is different from that of ordinary Prozen troops.

Lieutenant Colonel Xie Miao raised his gun and fired at the enemy.

The enemy's body trembled, and he leaned back against the door frame, struggling to continue firing.

Under the impact of the bullet, Lieutenant Colonel Xie Miao fell backwards and fell heavily to the ground.

Lieutenant Colonel Plossen dropped his gun and slowly slid down the door frame.

The Proson soldier jumped over his spread legs and rushed towards the rushing Ante soldier, and a fierce hand-to-hand combat began.

(End of this chapter)