artillery arc

Chapter 511: Battle Interval
Major General Schneider did not return to the headquarters of the 9th Armored Division of the 14th Armored Corps in Plossen until two o'clock in the morning.

Major General Hope, the commander of the 9th Armored Grenadier Division, was already waiting at the division headquarters.

Major General Hope was a colleague of Schneider. When he saw Schneider coming in so dusty, his eyes widened: "Did you encounter a night attack?"

"I survived the bombardment. Rokossov may have used a thousand cannons to shoot at me. My armored battalion commander and the command team of your first regiment were all killed because they were in a meeting when the bombardment came!" Schneider paused and continued, "You must leave my division headquarters as soon as possible! We cannot let Rokossov destroy the headquarters of both our divisions again!"

Major General Hope frowned: "He doesn't know where the division headquarters is, and your division headquarters is 15 kilometers away from the front line. The enemy should not be able to bomb our artillery positions.

"Remember our instructor Erwin when we were in the military academy? He always emphasized that the distance between the division command post and the front line should not exceed ten kilometers. If it exceeds this distance, the division commander will not be able to understand the situation on the front line.

"We have violated the instructor's teachings."

Major General Schneider shook his head repeatedly: "No, no, no, Instructor Erwin is on the front lines in the Afrika Korps every day. He will definitely be on Rokossov's trophy rack as soon as possible."

Major General Hope frowned, "A trophy rack?"

"Yes, the Ante nobles would stuff the bears or deer they killed and hang them on the trophy rack on their walls. And Rokossov is the highest-ranking Ante noble. He might melt the medals and ranks of General Prosen, whom he killed, into one piece, engrave his name and rank on it, and display it on the trophy rack."

Major General Schneider said "maybe", which was a guess, but because what he said was too shocking, Major General Hope was shocked and didn't notice that it was a guess: "Will he actually do this?"

Schneider then realized that his friend had misunderstood, and quickly corrected him: "I mean, it's possible! This Rokossov is a bit weird. He definitely has a way to know the location of the senior generals who are within the artillery range. Do you remember how the major general commander of a division of the Asgard Knights died?
"He got on a tank and went to the front to see what was going on, but was covered by Rokossov's heavy artillery."

Major General Hope shook his head, turned to his orderly and said, "Bring my treasured whiskey here. I think my old friend would like a drink."

Orderly: "Is that the bottle of whiskey that Caroline brought?"

"Yes, that bottle. Also bring the carved cup I brought from Florence. You should really see the Florentine craftsmanship. These Sardinians are not good at fighting, but they are really good at art." Major General Hope said the second half of the sentence to Major General Schneider, trying to pat him on the shoulder as he spoke.

But Major General Schneider waved away his old friend's hand: "I am not crazy, nor am I hysterical because of shell shock. It is just a coincidence that I just arrived at the front line and the shelling came."

Major General Hope: "In fact, just now, all our offensive starting points and assembly points were bombarded. Rokossov guessed the location of the assembly point from the daytime attack, got caught, and then you happened to be there."

"Could it be such a coincidence?" Major General Schneider asked suspiciously.

Major General Hope: "Of course, there are so many coincidences on the battlefield. If I just take a look around the troops, I can find a lot of stories about amulets. One day, someone's amulet disappeared, and then he was shot in the head.

"Are those all true? No, it's probability and survivor bias. Only those that happen to come true will be recorded. There are also countless people who took amulets to the battlefield and were killed. The amulets did not play any role.

"It's the same thing that happened to you. Rokossov happened to bombard the front line. This was his routine operation. In fact, many troops who moved and then set up camp after nightfall were not hit by his bombing.

"You were simply careless and allowed the troops to rest in the assembly area, and then something terrible happened."

Major General Schneider stroked his beard and stared at his friend.

Major General Hope: "That's it, old friend!"

At this time, Major General Hope's orderly came over with wine and carved wine glasses.

"Come on, you should drink a little to calm down. You're just scared after escaping death, and then you start to have all kinds of wild thoughts." Major General Hope took the wine and the glass, filled a glass and handed it to Schneider.

Schneider snatched the wine glass and drank it all in one gulp.

After drinking it, he seemed to calm down a little. After taking a few deep breaths, he said, "Thinking about it carefully, you do make sense. I just happened to be bombarded. I shouldn't be so scared. It's really embarrassing for the Imperial Military Academy."

Major General Hope nodded and said, "Yes, if someone who is dissatisfied with us Junker nobles saw you like that, he would say that we only learned to eat with a knife and fork when we went to the military academy."

"Go to hell with them!" Schneider seemed to have regained his confidence and courage through alcohol, "Let's plan tomorrow's attack. My first battalion was bombarded like that. We can't attack tomorrow without inspecting the tanks. When I was there, I saw that many tank tracks were blown off. Many radios and other things were also damaged."

In fact, there is one important thing that Snyder did not mention: the tank's sighting system.

After being bombed like this, almost all the tanks' sighting and observation systems needed to be readjusted, but the tankers could solve this problem themselves by daybreak. Most sighting and observation systems did not require repair, only recalibration.

As a professional tank officer, Schneider subconsciously thought that there was no need to worry about this matter and ignored it. In other words, the Proson armored troops were indeed elite and there was no need to worry about such things. When the training level of the armored troops was lowered by the reinforcements, Schneider might pay the price for his carelessness.

Now, Schneider was giving orders on his own: "Tomorrow, the Second Battalion will take over the attack from the First Battalion. All tanks of the First Battalion will be towed to the maintenance battalion for preliminary inspection. Those that need major repairs will be transferred to the Armored Military Repair Factory."

"Yes." The division chief of staff quickly wrote down Schneider's order.

"Hope, my old friend." Schneider turned to his friend, "It's time to replace your 1st Panzergrenadier Regiment. There are only a few lucky guys left as battalion commanders and above."

"Don't worry, my troops can do it. Even though they are the second echelon in the command sequence, they are all experienced officers. There will be no problem." Major General Hope said confidently.

Schneider nodded. "That's good. My reconnaissance this time was effective. I saw through Rokossov's trick. Tomorrow I will use all the artillery assigned to us to fire smoke bombs to cover the entire nameless hill, and then conduct close-range combat."

Hope: "Then it all depends on my grenadiers, right?"

Schneider waved his hand and said, "Don't worry. We have been attacking all day today. The positions are full of mobilized soldiers. The troops have the word "temporary" in front of their numbers. The Ante troops with this suffix are very rubbish."

"You were held back by temporary troops for a whole day?" Major General Hope's eyes widened. "How is this possible? When I came here, I thought this high ground belonged to Ant's Guards! For example, Rokossov's elite, the First Red Banner Infantry Division of the Guards."

Schneider shook his head. "I specifically asked when the attack was frustrated at noon. The troops resisting us did not raise red flags, and the tanks coming to support us did not raise red flags either. We were blocked by Ant's ordinary troops - no, it was Ant's temporary infantry troops for a day."

Hope pursed his lips and was silent for a few seconds before saying, "It seems that after more than a year of fighting, the quality gap between our troops and the Ante troops is not that big."

Schneider: "Don't be so worried. We have just come such a long way in three months. Such a long distance!"

He pointed to the huge map on the wall of the division headquarters and repeated: "Look! It's so long and so far!"

Major General Hope looked at the map and nodded slightly. "Yes, we have advanced further and occupied more territory than last year. Except that we have not annihilated as many troops as last year, we can say that we have achieved a brilliant victory in the summer offensive."

When it was mentioned that the number of troops destroyed was not as large as last year, everyone fell silent.

Schneider took the bottle from Hope's orderly, filled it up for himself, and drank it all in one gulp.

After drinking, he poked the cup on the table and said loudly: "No matter, this attack will end the war anyway. Then we can return home in triumph and concentrate on preparing to attack the United Kingdom."

Major General Hope nodded: "Yes! Tomorrow we will take this unnamed hill in front of us in one fell swoop, and then push all the way to the city of Abawahan."

The 14th Armored Corps' mission was to push the front line from the open areas on both sides of the city to the densely built-up areas.

After taking the unnamed hill, the 14th Armored Corps will enter an area similar to the urban-rural fringe. Although there are more brick and stone buildings, it is still an open area.

According to the offensive plan, the 14th Armored Corps should arrive at the Abawakhan city on the 23rd.

But now there is a small problem with this offensive plan.

Major General Schneider was determined to correct this minor problem tomorrow.

He murmured quietly as if to comfort himself: "They are just some temporary infantry, there will be no problem!"

----

"The enemy certainly didn't expect that we would replace our brother unit." Brigadier General Alomeev of the 393rd Marine Infantry Brigade said, "According to the intelligence we obtained by catching the spy, an armored grenadier division has just arrived. We just need to clash with these elite troops. They have always been known as the strongest light infantry! Let's see how strong they are!"

As he spoke, Brigadier General Alomeev patted his chest, and the strong muscles under his sailor shirt made a popping sound.

The officers and soldiers of the 393rd Brigade gathered in the small bunker and smiled knowingly: "Let them see!"

Brigadier General Alomeev: "General Rokosov has always valued us! Everyone can feel it! We have also fought side by side with the elite 225th Division Tank Destroyer Battalion! Tomorrow we will make sure that the enemy will not return!"

(End of this chapter)