artillery arc

Chapter 382 Beware of Aerial Attacks (10000 monthly tickets plus more)

While the First Mobile Army was doing nothing, the situation of Prosen's Tenth Army was similar.

"They still haven't attacked." Admiral Poke crossed his arms and looked at the map. "So now we're both just going to sit there and waste time?"

As soon as he finished speaking, a mosquito landed on the admiral's face.

In a rage, he slapped himself in the face, but the mosquito flew away and kept buzzing in his ear, as if mocking him.

Admiral Pok: "Damn it! Rokossov lives in the city and has a house to live in. We can only sleep in tents and command vehicles and deal with mosquitoes everywhere every day!"

Chief of Staff: "The Academy of Military Sciences has issued special anti-mosquito equipment..."

"That equipment is extremely difficult to use! Don't they know that? It's like the incendiary bombs we distribute, which are incredibly complicated, but the effect is similar to the homemade incendiary bombs made by the Ants with wine bottles, except that the burning range is a little larger. The effect on hitting tanks is exactly the same!" Admiral Poke said as he waved his arms vigorously a few times, trying to hit the flying mosquitoes, but of course failed.

At this time, the admiral's adjutant said, "We can light something that produces a lot of smoke and use the smoke to drive away mosquitoes. That's what we do in our hometown."

Admiral Poker glanced at the large amount of maps and paper documents in the headquarters and shook his head: "Forget it. If I set the headquarters on fire to repel mosquitoes, I will become the laughing stock of the whole army."

The chief of staff suggested: "You can use perfume with a stronger smell to keep mosquitoes away."

In fact, perfume repels mosquitoes by masking the smell of humans, which is equivalent to using camouflage and disguise to hide your body.

The same principle applies to using smoke to extinguish mosquitoes, but at that time, humans did not have such a deep understanding of mosquitoes and believed that it was the fragrance that "repelled" mosquitoes.

Admiral Polk asked the Chief of Staff, "Do you have any perfume that smells stronger?"

"I have cologne."

Admiral Poker immediately reached out his hand: "Here, give me some."

The Chief of Staff immediately took out the cologne and put it into Admiral Poke's hand.

The admiral didn't care about anything and just unscrewed the lid and poured it all over himself.

The chief of staff hesitated to speak, and finally just watched the admiral struggle.

After applying the cologne, Admiral Poke looked around, squinted his eyes and listened carefully for a while, and said, "It seems that there is really no buzzing of mosquitoes."

As soon as he finished speaking, the sound of some insects came from a corner of the headquarters, as if mocking Admiral Poke.

"Damn it," he cursed.

Chief of Staff: "Because of the mosquito problem, the number of sick soldiers has increased every day since we entered the grassland. We require soldiers to wear long sleeves to avoid mosquito bites, but many people still get malaria."

Admiral Polk: "Give the soldiers quinine."

"Because there are too many people who are sick, it has exceeded our expectations. Quinine has run out. Since replenishment is not as high a priority as ammunition, food, and penicillin, hospitals at all levels are currently short of quinine."

Admiral Pok sighed, "Then we can only wait until we retake Yeisk - no, break through the Sukhayaveli River and realize the first stage of the Blue Plan before stopping to rest thoroughly."

As he spoke, he picked up a writing board, took down the documents on it and threw them on the table. He then stood in front of the map while fanning himself against the mosquitoes while holding the writing board.

"Do you think Rokossov really wants mosquitoes and infectious diseases to defeat us?"

"That's unlikely," the adjutant replied. "I think Rokosov is waiting for his supplies to arrive. The grassland is a harsh environment for us, and the same is true for the Ants. At most, they have the support of the locals and are more familiar with the grassland conditions."

Admiral Pok: "You said Rokossov was waiting for supplies..."

At this time, the roar of engines was heard outside.

Now the Tenth Army’s headquarters is too simple and has no sound insulation at all, so the sound of the engines in the sky can be heard clearly.

Admiral Poker rushed to the headquarters door, opened the curtain and walked out, looking up at the sky.

There was indeed a very small dot in the sky, but it was unclear whether it was the Ant Air Force or the Proson Air Force.

Admiral Polk said confidently: "This is the enemy conducting aerial reconnaissance. Damn it! Our Air Force has to interpret the reconnaissance results themselves before sending them to us! By the time we get them, the things in the photos are already outdated."

The chief of staff turned to his men and asked, "Are the artillery of the two infantry divisions facing Rokossov well hidden?"

The staff officer reported: "They were setting up artillery positions yesterday. According to the standard operation time, they should be able to complete them all tomorrow. Don't worry, General. The grassland is so open that the Air Force cannot find landmarks to use as reference points for photo reconnaissance. It is difficult to locate our artillery positions based on photos alone."

Admiral Poke nodded. He had strong military skills and knew this without his staff reminding him.

This was the limitation of the air force at that time. This situation was gradually alleviated with the implementation and improvement of airborne electronic equipment. It was not until positioning systems such as GPS and Beidou were put into use that the problem of aircraft not knowing where they were was completely solved.

But now, aerial reconnaissance photos can only be determined by methods such as ground landmarks to determine where the photos were taken.

In short, expecting to find artillery and guide artillery fire to destroy it solely through aerial reconnaissance is basically a pipe dream.

So even if the artillery position is not well hidden, it is not a big deal.

I guess so.----

ANT Air Force, 4th Fighter-Bomber Regiment.

Originally this was the Fourth Attack Aircraft Regiment, but after being equipped with the United States' P47, this regiment also possessed certain air combat capabilities, so it was changed to a fighter-bomber regiment.

All P47s were also classified as fighter-bombers because after dropping their bombs and returning to high altitude, they could still compete with Plossen's BF109.

Drachenko Grigorevich, the former commander of the 4th Attack Aircraft Regiment and now the commander of the 4th Fighter-Bomber Regiment, is assigning tasks to his team members under the largest awning.

Drachenko: "Yesterday's aerial reconnaissance found some enemy artillery units, but we don't know where they are, and the ground artillery can't attack them. Now it's time for us to play a role. The photos you got are marked with coordinate grids. Our task today is to plow all these coordinate grids!
"We must be careful and find the enemy's artillery positions! We can have such good equipment and get rid of the Il-2 thanks to Lieutenant General Rokossov! Now the Lieutenant General's troops have no way to deal with the enemy's heavy artillery, we have to share his worries!"

The pilots responded in unison: "We will complete the mission!"

Drachenko: "I paid for all these photos out of my own pocket! You must remember what the enemy artillery positions look like! Find them, drop bombs, and then fire!"

A pilot said: "These artillery positions are covered by anti-aircraft guns."

"We have large-caliber anti-aircraft artillery to cover us. It's used to attack heavy bombers. We can bypass their firing area by constantly changing directions!" Drachenko waved his hand, "Don't be afraid! I will lead the team myself and take you to avoid the enemy's shelling area! Okay, let's go!"

The pilots clipped the photos onto the map board, stood up and ran towards the fighter planes parked not far from the awning.

The ground crew had already hung bombs under the P47's stubby fuselage.

Ant's ground crew and pilots were already very familiar with the P47. They found that the technical specifications given by the United States were conservative. In fact, the P47 could fly with percent more bombs than the standard load.

In order to ensure the maneuverability of the aircraft, most pilots would usually carry fewer bombs. However, the pilots of the 2th Attack Aircraft Regiment were accustomed to flying the bulky Il-47, so they felt that the overloaded P was still very flexible and chose to overload it.

If someone couldn't fly because of overloading, he would be laughed at by the entire flight group.

The pilots ran to their "bomb trucks".

Drachenko also came to his own plane, took off his peaked cap and put it on the maintenance man's head, took the flight cap and goggles from the maintenance man's hand and put them on, jumped onto the left wing of the plane, and then stepped into the cockpit.

The mechanic, wearing his big hat, stuck his head into the cockpit and shouted, "Everything is good! We can blow the Prosens up to the sky!"

"Thank you, old buddy." Drachenko patted the maintenance worker on the shoulder, gripped the joystick, stepped on the gas, and the plane slowly slid on the lawn.

At this time, the field airport where the 4th Fighter-Bomber Regiment was stationed was basically a flattened grassland. The only thing that could prove that this was an airport was a simple wind vane tower made of wood.

Drachenko glanced at the flag on the weather tower and confirmed the wind direction and wind speed - because the conditions at the airport were so poor, there was no tower to tell him these things, so he could only check them himself.

After making preparations, Drachenko filled the fuel tank and the plane accelerated suddenly.

Because it was overloaded, the plane took off very slowly, and it barely reached take-off speed when it was almost reaching the marker at the end of the runway.

Drachenko gently pulled the joystick, allowing the plane to glide lightly into the air.

"That's heavy," he said, "enough to give Plossom the bastard a drink."

----

Artillery position of the 190th Infantry Division in Plossen.

The commander of the engineering battalion ran up to the commander of the artillery regiment and saluted: "Report, the ground is full of vole holes, so your artillery suddenly sank while firing."

The shelling this morning was stopped suddenly because the ground collapsed suddenly during the bombardment. Three 105mm howitzers and two 150mm howitzers were affected and their shooting accuracy could not be guaranteed.

In order to prevent other guns from being caught in the sinkhole, the commander of the artillery regiment ordered to stop firing.

The commander of the 190th Division was very angry about this.

However, the artillery commander argued with reason and finally got the division commander to agree to a ceasefire, and sent engineering troops to reinforce the position.

The commander of the engineering battalion continued to report: "Under the current situation, we can't continue to shoot here. We have to move our position."

Artillery commander: "Then where are there no field mice?"

"I don't know." said the commander of the engineering battalion.

Just as the artillery commander was about to speak, someone from the anti-aircraft artillery position nearby shouted, "Be careful of enemy attacks from the air!"

The artillery commander looked up and saw something shiny approaching in the distant sky!

"It's broken! Hide!" he shouted.

At the same time, the anti-aircraft guns opened fire, and the 88mm guns roared at the sky.

(End of this chapter)