artillery arc

Chapter 513: Vortex in the Heavy Rain
As Ilyich was riding away at lightning speed on his motorcycle, a Studebaker truck drove in. A major general jumped off the truck, glanced at Wang Zhong, then straightened his clothes in the rain and put his hat on.

Pavlov: "This should be Lieutenant General Korodov, the commander of the 71st Infantry Army who just arrived. His vanguard has just arrived. I have arranged for it to be transported to the front line."

Wang Zhong: "I know. Yakov, go inform Chef Chen to prepare the lion's head. Let the commander eat before going to the front line."

Yakov responded, wrapped the relic he had just taken from Wang Zhong in oil paper, put it in his backpack, and then turned and left.

Korodov walked up the steps and saluted Wang Zhong: "General! I have heard of your great name for a long time! I am glad to fight under your command!"

Wang Zhong returned the greeting and said seriously: "Welcome to hell."

Korodov smiled. "That's great. We will definitely be able to get the title of Guards. I heard that the Guards Infantry have started to be equipped with those silent submachine guns?"

Wang Zhong: "It's called an assault rifle. Currently, only the infantry guards under my command are equipped with it."

"We are now under your command, the only thing missing is the title of Royal Guard." Korodov saluted again, "Then I'm off, General!"

Wang Zhong: "Wait a minute! Let's eat first."

"But the military situation is urgent. We saw a lot of wounded soldiers on the way here, more than I saw in the whole of last year. I should rush to the front line as soon as possible--" Korodov argued.

Wang Zhong interrupted him: "Eat first! The battlefield is there, it won't go away. Let your troops stop to eat, have some hot dishes and drink some hot soup."

Korodov wanted to argue, but he suddenly understood something from Wang Zhong's expression.

He saluted Wang Zhong for the third time: "Thank you, Comrade Commander."

Wang Zhong nodded: "You're welcome."

After a few seconds, he murmured again, "You're welcome."

----

October 915, 10, early morning. Heavy rain.

The joint headquarters of the 9th Panzer Division and the 9th Panzer Grenadier Division of Plossen's XIV Panzer Corps.

The 9th Armored Division and the 9th Armored Grenadier Division were originally expanded from troops at the same training base. In Plossen's army, it was very common to expand two different divisions with the same number from the same base.

For example, the 16th Armored Division and the 16th Armored Grenadier Division have the same origin. Of course, later both divisions were supplemented with new recruits from various places, so the "origin" characteristics were weakened.

Major General Schmidt paced back and forth in the joint command center: "Why hasn't it started yet?"

Major General Hope replied: "Obviously smoke bombs can't be used in rainy weather. In rainy weather like this... smoke bombs won't have much effect at all."

At this time, Schmidt's adjutant said: "General, the heavy rain will obscure the view. Perhaps we can try to launch an infantry attack?"

Major General Schmidt: "You want me to conduct an infantry attack without artillery preparation and without smoke cover?"

Major General Hope: "Our division's ammunition reserves are still intact, and we also have a large number of mortars and infantry guns assigned to infantry battalions and regiments, as well as a battalion of assault guns. I think we can attack. My division will provide artillery cover, and you can provide tank support."

Schmidt stared outside for a few seconds and nodded, "Okay. Let's give it a try. Once we find strong anti-tank firepower on the enemy's position, we will retreat and wait for the rain to stop before attacking as planned."

Major General Hope waved his hand and his staff officers immediately got busy.

Watching the attack order being issued step by step, Major General Hope patted his old friend on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry, even if there is an assault gun called Vortex made by Rokossov, the infantry can handle it! After all, the assault gun has no turret, which has great limitations in defense. The infantry is much more vulnerable than the tank when close.

"You said before that the soldiers guarding the Nameless Hill were just Ant's mobilized soldiers."

Schmidt nodded. "Yes, we briefly occupied a part of the position, seized some documents, and captured several wounded soldiers. The Ants on the position had only been in the army for more than three months, and the number of bullets they fired before going to the position did not exceed 50 rounds."

Major General Hope said confidently: "That's it. The nameless hill will be taken today. Then I will name it the 9th Armored Division Hill to commemorate the fallen soldiers."

At this time, a staff officer reported to Major General Hope: "The bombardment preparation is complete, General!"

"Very good. Fire!"

----

At 21 on the 0821st, on Unnamed Hill, after the shelling ended, it rained heavily.

Brigadier General Alomeev raised his head and looked around.

He could hear the company commanders of the Marine infantry battalions loudly confirming the situation.

The heavy rain made visibility very poor, and the whole world was gray. Alomeev estimated the current visual range and felt that the Vortex destroyer ambushed on the position could only attack targets within 300 meters at most.

You can't see anything further away.

Even at a distance of 300 meters, you can only aim roughly and cannot make precise attacks. After all, the enemy tank may be just a black lump at this distance.

Now the most terrifying aspect of the vortex is offset by the weather!
In Balas, Alomeev had seen the scene of Vortex's long-range precision sniping. These elite troops under Rokossov could accurately hit enemy tanks at 1800 meters.

If you look with the naked eye, the tank at a distance of 1800 meters is very small.

The tank crews of the Vortex destroyer could hit the target accurately and penetrate the weak points (Aromeev did not know the design standards of the Vortex and thought he was hitting the weak points).

"Damn the weather," the brigadier general cursed. At this time, the brigade chief of staff said, "Maybe the Prosons knew that the vortex was here, so they fired smoke bombs. It's raining heavily now, so smoke bombs don't work. The vortex still has a 300-meter range."

"You are right." Alomeev nodded.

At this time, the observer shouted: "Listen!"

Alomeev and the chief of staff shut their mouths at the same time, and soon they heard the sound of the engine.

Alomeev: "Prepare for battle!"

His orders were passed down continuously, like a continuous echo: "Prepare for battle!" "Prepare for battle!"

Alomeev had confidence in his soldiers because they were well-tested naval infantry, the "Black Death" that the Prosen people feared. If they couldn't stop the Prosen people, then no one could stop Ante, and the Nameless Hill would be lost today.

As for casualties, after arriving at the position yesterday and seeing the tragic scene, Alomeev had long since driven the word casualties out of his mind.

Even if the 393rd Brigade fights to the last man, he will stay on the position to cover the transfer of the precious Vortex tank destroyers.

The ground began to tremble, and dense ripples appeared in the small puddles outside the trench, like fish scales.

Dark shadows appeared in the distance and grew bigger and bigger.

The vortex has not opened fire. Is it because the rain is too heavy to see the weak spot?

Aromeev pursed his lips and began to wonder how many enemy tanks the naval infantry could replace.

If we calculate that three people have to be sacrificed to destroy a tank -

Suddenly, the vortex fired!

The shell hit a black shadow accurately, and then the black shadow exploded. The flames that spurted out from the turret cover were two meters high, like bright torches in the heavy rain.

Then all the vortices started firing, and the entire position was filled with smoke from the muzzle flames of the 100mm guns - then the smoke was quickly washed away by the heavy rain, and the field of vision immediately became clear again.

The second wave of shooting begins!

In the blink of an eye, the front of the position was full of burning torches, illuminating the rain curtain, and even the Prossen skirmish line that was originally covered in the rain was illuminated.

The heavy machine guns took the opportunity to open fire, and the interweaving fire network of tracer bullets pierced the rain curtain.

The vortex fired a third salvo.

The enemy tanks were already retreating, and had retreated to a distance of five or six hundred meters, but were still hit and caught fire.

Aromeev finally realized that the vortex thing could penetrate and destroy Prosen's main tanks as soon as it came into contact with them, without having to aim at any weaknesses.

Just now, the vortex put the enemy 300 meters away before attacking, probably to prevent the enemy from running away.

You see now, the enemy has retreated to seven or eight hundred meters away, and the Vortex is still firing. From time to time, you can see Proson's tanks being hit and turned into torches.

Alomeev waited for about five minutes, and the vortex finally fell silent.

There were no moving objects in his field of vision.

About thirty Plosson tanks were burning. If a tank was hit, it would most likely not be repaired even with Plosson's maintenance capabilities and would have to be completely scrapped.

As for those black shadows that were still standing there, the Prosen people might be able to repair them after they occupied the nameless hill.

Brigadier General Alomeev breathed a sigh of relief: "The first wave of attacks today has been repelled. Tell everyone to return to the artillery holes and prepare to avoid the bombardment. According to the nature of the Prosen people in fighting, the bombardment is coming."

Chief of Staff: "Do they still have shells? Didn't they say that the Air Force had used up all the shells?"

Brigadier General Alomeev shrugged, and at that moment a whistling sound was heard in the sky.

"It seems they still have some," said the brigadier, as he leaned forward against the muddy trench wall.

----

"How much did you say the loss was?" Major General Schmidt's voice rose eight octaves.

"31 Type 11s and Type s did not return. The nd Armored Battalion has suffered losses of more than one-third." The adjutant looked troubled. "Your prediction was correct. Those assault guns did not leave yesterday. They were all ambushed on the high ground."

Major General Schmidt snorted: "Although my prediction was correct, I am not happy at all!"

At this time, Major General Hope suggested: "Let my armored grenadiers crawl forward and sneak up, take advantage of the heavy rain to launch a surprise attack, and take the position in close combat!"

"We should have done this a long time ago!" said Major General Schmidt. "In just one attack, within ten minutes, my armored battalion suffered more losses than we did in the whole of yesterday!"

Plossen's armored battalions were all large battalions. It was normal for a battalion to have more than 100 tanks. The Second Armored Battalion lost one-third of its troops in a charge. Any armored division commander would feel painful.

Major General Hope comforted his friend: "Leave it to us next. Anyway, prepare the artillery fire first, and let my troops quietly approach the position while the artillery fire is covering the area."

(End of this chapter)