artillery arc

Chapter 507 Rokossov's Right Hook
When I returned to the headquarters, the first thing I saw was a map full of red.

Wang Zhong: "How many positions have been lost?"

Pavlov rolled his eyes at him and said, "Although it's the truth, don't say it so directly. It will have a bad impact. At present, almost all the positions without reinforced concrete buildings on the first line of defense have been lost.

"Several support points built on the original reinforced concrete structures are still resisting, and even phone calls can be made."

Pavlov said as he picked up the map stick and quickly tapped on the map a few times: "Here, here, and here, a total of three support points. We dismantled most of the KVs of the 21st Tank Regiment and placed them in the alleys around these three support points."

Wang Zhong pretended to look at the map, but in fact he had already seen the terrain clearly from the bird's-eye view - of course, before he established contact with the front-line troops, he could only look at the terrain. Regardless of friend or foe, they were all troop markings, stuck on the terrain like plasters.

You know what, it does look like a game. Before Wang Zhong traveled through time, he liked to play games like "SGS". It felt similar to this before it was magnified.

Because he couldn't see exactly where the tanks were, Wang Zhong shouted, "Contact these three support points by phone."

Pavlov: "It's still under dispute. I'm afraid you won't be able to adjust even if I call you."

Wang Zhong could only give up and change the subject: "Besides the support point, are there no other positions to defend?"

"Yes, the unnamed hill defended by the 510th Division is still in our hands. This hill overlooks our second and third lines of defense, so the 510th Division has deployed all its reserves, as well as its cooks and divisional guards. According to them..." Pavlov paused and adjusted his expression, "Only the division headquarters and the division commander can go up there."

Wang Zhong: "Where are their reinforcements?"

Pavlov poked the arrow pointing to the nameless hill with his map stick: "A division of the 56th Infantry Army is on the way, but the 56th Army is not well equipped and has a low level of motorization, so it can't catch up for the time being."

Wang Zhong stared at the map and changed the perspective to look at the actual terrain of the high ground. "Our vortex can be used on this high ground. Send out the vortex troops of the 225th Division. Do we have any infantry on hand that can ride on the vortex and advance together?"

Pavlov: "The 393rd Marine Infantry Brigade has requested to fight for the fourth time."

Wang Zhong hesitated for a moment, but still said firmly: "Let the 393rd Brigade go to the vortex and drive over! With the mobility of the vortex, they can be faster than the 56th Army on foot!"

"Yes!" Pavlov immediately turned around and made a phone call.

At this time, another phone rang. After the staff officer picked up the phone, he immediately shouted, "No, you must hold on! It will be dark in three hours. The Prosens are not that good at night combat. Hold on until night!"

Proson is very dependent on long-range firepower, especially the firepower of the machine guns equipped by the squad. It is common knowledge among the Ante troops that Proson's combat effectiveness will decrease at night.

Wang Zhong looked at the staff officer and heard him shouting into the microphone: "No! We don't have any troops to send out now. Do you want the troops from the second and third lines of defense to move forward? If they are penetrated by the enemy, won't they be completely defeated? No! No, we can't retreat!

"Too many casualties? There are heavy casualties everywhere! You..."

Wang Zhong walked over and stretched out his hand.

The staff officer glanced at Wang Zhong and immediately said into the receiver: "General Rokossov, the commander of the front, wants to speak to you!"

After that, he handed the receiver to Wang Zhong and added, "The phone number of the train maintenance factory at the outer support point."

Wang Zhong nodded and took the receiver: "This is Rokossov."

“General!” someone on the other end of the receiver shouted urgently, the sound even drowning out the sound of machine gun fire. “There are too many casualties! Some companies only have a few people left! If the fighting continues, we’ll be wiped out!”

Wang Zhong: "I don't want your casualty figures, I just want support points. You need reinforcements, but I'm the only one there, I'll go there myself!"

The receiver suddenly became quiet, and only the sound of intense machine gun fire could be heard.

Wang Zhong: “Hello?”

A voice came from the other end of the receiver, as if waking up from a dream: "I understand, Commander Davarishi, as long as we have one man left, our position will be there. Once we are all dead, we can only rely on you to defend it."

Wang Zhong: "Good luck, Commander Davarish."

"See you in Prothenia, Comrade Commander."

The person on the other end hung up the phone resolutely.

Wang Zhong: "Who opened the window? The wind is a bit strong."

The staff officers all looked towards the tightly closed windows, which were rattling in the howling wind.

Wang Zhong looked at Pavlov and said, "I order you to get the troops to the front line even if it means losing money!"

Pavlov: "The current railway line has the capacity to transport three divisions every day. The losses caused by the bombing of the Proson Air Force are too great. If we want to have sufficient troops, we need to eliminate Proson's artillery positions and artillery observation posts on the west bank to make the entire Valdai River navigable." Pavlov said as he drew a line on the map with a map stick, crossing the entire Valdai River.

Wang Zhong: "Very good, this is what we are going to do. Here are the investigation results."

He took out a map board from his arms: "The photos are being developed. They should be ready by midnight. I found three places on the entire west bank where we can land. One of them is very suitable for building a pontoon bridge. After the naval infantry lands, we can use the pontoon bridge to send the 51st Tank Army over. We can use the tank troops to quickly maneuver and clear the enemy artillery positions on the river bank."

Wang Zhong gestured on the map.

"These are the artillery positions and observation posts I discovered." He used a pen to circle several more locations already marked on the map.

Pavlov: "Your reconnaissance is amazing. I suddenly have absolute confidence in defeating the enemy - although we are short of troops now."

As soon as he finished speaking, a staff officer muttered, "Our forces are obviously almost as strong as the enemy's, but why do we still feel that we are short of manpower?"

Wang Zhong: "The enemy is of higher quality than us. Don't worry, veterans are a non-renewable resource. Once we eliminate a large number of the enemy's veterans and force Proson to start a general mobilization, we can use the same number of troops to beat them up."

Staff Officer: “How long will it take?”

Wang Zhong: "You can see it next year, I mean, in some places."

"You..." the staff officer said with a look of respect, "Have you seen the entire context of the war?"

Wang Zhong poked the staff officer's shoulder with the map board in his hand and said, "You don't read the book seriously. If you read the booklet I wrote, you will understand."

"I've read it!" Yakov suddenly interrupted. "Indeed, after reading it, my mind became brighter and I was full of confidence in the future."

Yakov has almost become a professional salesman of the pamphlets written by Wang Zhong. He always carries three sets of pamphlets with him, one set for himself, one set for giving to others, and one set as a spare.

Wang Zhong was a little embarrassed by the praise, and could only force himself to turn to the map: "Anyway, let's start this right hook quickly. Call the commander of the inland fleet and the commander of the naval infantry division now. And the pontoon troops should also be prepared."

Pavlov: “The pontoon troops have been preparing to build bridges. We have also imported large bridge-building equipment from the United States. Now they are practicing building bridges on tributaries every day and have no chance to practice.

“In addition, there are actually car ferries, which have been tested before. As long as a ferry only carries two tanks, they can be transported across.”

Wang Zhong shook his head: "We still need a floating bridge. The ferry is too slow and can be easily attacked by enemy bombers."

Just as he finished speaking, the commander of the inland fleet and the commander of the naval infantry division came in.

"How come you came so quickly?" Wang Zhong was surprised.

"We heard that you had returned from reconnaissance, so we rushed here directly, and brought with us a staff officer who is good at organizing landing plans." The commander of the inland fleet pointed to the staff officer behind him, "If the sailing distance is not far, we can land tomorrow. Of course, if we need to land more than 100 kilometers upstream, it will be more complicated. We need to organize transport ships... In short, we can launch a landing within three days."

Wang Zhong: “Three days is enough?”

"Yes, after all, it's just an inland river landing, so tides and other things are relatively simple, and we are also familiar with the conditions on both sides of the river." The commander of the inland fleet said, "But the Plossons have set up defenses at suitable landing places."

Instead of deploying his troops in a line, Plossen focused on defending areas that were easy to land in, and set up artillery positions to block the river.

Wang Zhong: "Come and take a look, the landing point is here."

At this time, the staff officers had marked all the locations marked by Wang Zhong on the map.

Wang Zhong pointed to these points and said, "After my personal reconnaissance, I chose a landing point where the enemy's forces are weak and it is easy to attack the artillery positions on the shore."

"Here." The commander of the inland fleet shook his head. "There are sunken ships here, and the water is turbulent, making it difficult to land. Perhaps that's why the enemy didn't set up defenses here."

The commander of the Marine Infantry Division immediately said, "I think we can give it a try to catch the enemy by surprise. If the landing craft runs aground, we can wade ashore. We can swim anyway. If the waves in the inland river are bad, we can even swim armed without a landing craft."

Wang Zhong: "We still need landing craft. The enemy on shore has heavy firepower."

"We can seize the enemy's heavy firepower." The division commander said confidently, "We are all capable of operating the enemy's artillery, tanks and armored vehicles."

Wang Zhong was so envious that his teeth were sore. Everyone in the division could drive tanks, half-tracks and fire artillery. Why are you guys infantrymen? Go and be technical soldiers!
How many tanks can 15,000 skilled tank drivers drive?
But then he thought again, truly reliable tanks have not yet been built, and if the elite tankers were to use T34s and KVs now, they would be sending themselves to waste, so he immediately calmed down.

Wang Zhong: "Anyway, I have already done the reconnaissance and can get the photos by midnight. You should complete the plan as soon as possible and try to launch the landing operation before the 25th. It happens that the muddy period will begin at that time, and it will be difficult for the enemy to counterattack and land."

"Yes!" The two senior naval generals saluted together.

(End of this chapter)