artillery arc

Chapter 364: Tanks roar in the wilderness

"Why does this shelling last so long?" Major General Witte shouted, lying on the ground.

But his shouts were completely drowned out by the shells.

For a moment, Major General Witte wanted to give up on defending against the artillery and just lie down on the ground. It would be tiring to hold on like this, and it might not improve his survivability much.

But in the end, he decided to maintain his anti-cannon stance.

The shelling continued, and suddenly he heard a snap, and the glass of his watch exploded, and the flying glass fragments scratched Major General Witte's forehead.

Major General Witte was shocked. If even the watch glass couldn't bear it, then the person couldn't be fine.

Then he found that his nose had been bleeding for a long time, and the blood was flowing out of his nostrils and dripping onto the ground.

He had been keeping his mouth open to balance the pressure inside and outside his skull!

Major General Witte immediately lay on his side, took out the first aid kit from his body, and took emergency measures to stop the bleeding.

Every Plosson soldier has received relevant training and can deal with some minor injuries on their own.

One of them was having a nosebleed caused by a shell.

After Major General Witte finished the job, he simply turned over and lay on his back, feeling the vibration of the earth and the fierceness of the enemy's firepower through his back.

Gravel and sand kept falling on his face.

He closed his eyes, letting his eyelids block out the noise.

Suddenly, a voice said in his ear: "The glorious Imperial Armored Corps, the Asgard Knights, did not die in a tank duel, but were blown to pieces by heavy artillery. How ironic."

He opened his eyes and tried to find the person who was talking, but sand fell into his eyes. His tear glands immediately started to secrete, trying to flush the sand out.

And the voice continued in its ear: "New weapons seem to have changed the form of war, but in the end, cannons still have the final say."

"Who are you? Tell me your name!" Major General Witte shouted.

The man just laughed.

"Damn it! It must be hallucinogenic gas. The Ants mixed poison gas bombs into the shells!" (Actually, it wasn't. Major General Witte was just blinded by the explosion and had hallucinations.)
The shells were still falling, and it seemed as if the bombardment would never stop.

----

"The shelling has stopped!" Yegorov shouted in surprise, "It's our turn! When the smoke clears, we'll beat the enemy!"

The military bishop said: "In this situation, should we move the anti-tank guns to cover the flanks of the destroyer battalion and the tank battalion?"

"You're right. Given the current situation in the city and the recent influx of infantry, no armored vehicles should be able to rush out of the city. Order the anti-tank guns to move and occupy the Gamma 2 position." Yegorov gave the order.

In the combat plan, several anti-tank artillery positions had been planned long ago, and even the divisional engineers had built simple defensive fortifications on these positions, and the covering machine guns had also been deployed in place.

Soon, smoke and dust appeared from the anti-tank gun position. All the anti-tank guns of Rokossov's army were motorized. He learned this from Prosen.

The Plossen anti-tank artillery unit is fully motorized, while the heavy artillery and infantry artillery are mostly mule- and horse-drawn.

The First Mobile Army even motorized its heavy artillery.

The anti-tank artillery hung their cannons on the backs of M3 half-track vehicles and various tractors, and advanced towards new positions, trailing a lot of smoke and dust.

Yegorov used a telescope to observe the anti-tank gun and then turned his attention back to the enemy.

The smoke and dust from the shelling had been blown away a lot by the morning wind, and the outline of the Proson tank could be seen.

----

Major General Witt got up and wanted to observe the Ant people's position, but when he picked up the telescope, he found a crack on the eyepiece.

He ignored the cracks and raised his telescope to look at the enemy positions he had discovered before the bombardment.

The Ant officer was also looking at this side, but there was no tank around him.

Major General Witte turned his head and found that Ant's tanks had been deployed on the grassland, and the assault gun's "haystack" had also changed its position and was deployed facing his own troops.

Major General Witte used the front outline of the enemy tank as the main object of measurement, adjusted the scale on the telescope and began to estimate the distance.

He quickly came to the conclusion through mental calculations: the enemy was lined up at a distance of 1800 meters.

Major General Witte turned his head and said: "Order the armored forces to deploy. The enemy wants to shoot at us, and we have never been afraid!"

No one responded to him.

Major General Witte: "Chief of Staff? Hoffmann (his adjutant)!"

No one responded, but a young staff officer came over and said, "I'm afraid you can only give orders to me. The chief of staff and Hoffman are both injured and unconscious."

Major General Witte: "Let the armored forces launch the attack! If the enemy wants to fire back, our long-barreled Type 34 is more than enough to deal with the T! Let the new tanks deal with the assault guns!"

"Yes!"

----

Captain John Christopher poked his head out from the top of the turret and looked around.

He clicked his tongue slightly and began to perform his duties, picking up the microphone: "All vehicles report, all vehicles report! I'll go first. There is a problem with the running mechanism of No. 201. A wheel may be broken, but it will not affect mobility."

After all, the Type VI heavy tank has so many road wheels that breaking one will not affect the overall maneuverability much, it will just cause the other wheels to break gradually.

"There may be something wrong with turret No. 202. The rotation speed has dropped significantly now. Maybe I will have to crank it manually in a while."

"No. 203..."

"Is there any problem with your scope?" Someone suddenly interrupted the orderly report.

John looked at the gunner: "Scope!"

The gunner immediately put his eyes to the sight and began to operate the knobs: "Self-check in progress... There is indeed a problem, but I need a definite reference object to readjust it." Sights are often damaged by artillery fire, so all that is needed is to find a reference object at a certain distance to calibrate it.

As for how to judge whether there is a problem with the sight, you can only know it when the shell is fired, or rely on the experience and intuition of the experienced gunner.

John's tank company was composed entirely of experienced veterans, and they could feel directly when they were aiming if the gun scope was crooked.

John: "Recalibrate the scope, Car 203, you drive forward and tell us the odometer reading when you stop."

The distance on the odometer is just an estimate based on the rotation of the engine and transmission mechanism, but this situation will do for now.

It's better than no calibration at all.

"203 understands."

John watched No. 203 leave the line and move forward.

At this time, an order came over the radio: "Attention all tank units, the Long-Barreled No. 34 Company deploys its formation, targeting the enemy T. New heavy tanks, target the enemy assault guns! Deploy the formation immediately!"

John cursed, "Fighting a tank battle with the enemy in this situation?"

At this time, someone climbed onto his tank.

He turned his head and saw the face of the captain of No. 211.

"My car's radio is dead, and the tracks are broken, so I can't join the attack. Any instructions?"

John: "Go find the maintenance company and have a tractor to tow your tanks away."

Tank 211 commander: "Are you sure? The enemy is right in front of us! We can stay behind to cover our retreat, just like the enemy's KV tanks did last year."

John: "Follow orders. We are on the offensive now. Even if the Sai De Division is exhausted here, the follow-up armored forces will catch up. We don't have to think about cutting off the rear. Now go find a tractor!"

The commander saluted and jumped out of John's No. 201.

John held the microphone: "Is there anyone else who can't join the battle? Keep reporting!"

"No. 204, the running gear was damaged and we were also stranded. We had to stay where we were."

"Go find a tractor and tow away your tanks. Your battle is over. Everyone else continue to report."

"No. 205, our tracks have also been blown off. Isn't the effect of this artillery bombardment too good?"

John was shocked. He looked back and saw that the Type 3 and Type 4 tanks belonging to the Sad Division had started to move, but there were also a large number of tanks lying there.

It seems that the shelling caused great damage to the tracks, and even the front No. 1 road wheel of the long-barreled Panzer IV tank fell off completely, and the tank lay on the ground.

The report in the headset continued: "No. 206, we are all normal."

"No. 212 is fine. By the way, No. 211's radio may be broken. I saw his driver go to find you."

"He found me. I ordered them—"

In the blink of an eye, a beam of light flashed in front and hit the armor of the No. 203 tank that was advancing forward, and it was bounced away.

The loud noise of the shells was heard even by John who was wearing headphones.

"Assault gun!" John shouted. "The enemy is attacking us! No. 203! Turn sideways!"

While he was shouting, No. 203 had already moved sideways, so the second shot hit the side of the car and bounced off again.

The flying shell passed over John's head, landed not far away, and bounced up again.

The commander of the 203rd tank said calmly, "It was a large-caliber anti-tank gun with a very high initial velocity. It just didn't penetrate us because the distance was too far!"

John was trying to find the assault gun to fire.

However, the thing was hiding in the bushes and could not be seen at all.

More shells flew towards No. 203 and bounced off.

"We're fine, someone was knocked unconscious, but he should wake up soon - he's already woken up!"

----

Yegorov watched the vortex main gun being bounced off by the enemy's box tank and cursed, "This thing is really strong. It seems that it's a bit too much to want to penetrate it at 1800 meters. Change the target quickly! Don't focus on the enemy's turtle shell!"

But the annihilation battalion was still firing.

Yegorov: "Give me the radio, I want to call them, tell them to hit those Fours!"

----

"The enemy has started shooting at Number Four!"

As the voice came from the headset, John saw the head of a No. 4 flying into the air.

"Damn it!" he yelled. "Everyone, calibrate the main gun! 203, what's your reading?"

"You calculate based on 93 meters!"

"Each vehicle adjusts the sights to 93 meters, and now we are ready to talk."

"202 is ready!"

"204 is ready!"

……

After all the vehicles had reported, John waved his hand and said, "Armored troops, move forward! Don't lose to the enemy!"