artillery arc

Chapter 516 Yegorov strikes back
After eating and drinking, Yegorov led his troops in a Willys jeep straight to the nameless hill.

When he reached the high ground, he jumped out of the car and his first words were: "Huh, so many Plossen tanks were destroyed, almost catching up with the Shostakovka blocking battle last year."

The guard driving the car was shocked: "With so many tank wreckages, we still can't catch up with Shostka?"

Yegorov nodded, "Yes, and at that time we didn't have vortexes, so we used the two anti-tank guns, the ZIS-3 and ZIS-30. The 57mm gun had enough penetration, but the power was poor. Often, it only killed one or two people after penetrating, and the rest of the Proson tankers ran away."

At this time, two men dressed in navy uniforms came out of the trench. The leader was a brigadier general with his right hand wrapped in a bandage and hanging in front of his chest.

He came up to Yegorov and saluted with his left hand: "Alomeyev, 393rd Marine Infantry Brigade, the front headquarters called and said that you are here to relieve the guard."

Yegorov returned the greeting: "Egorov, the 1st Mechanized Infantry of the 1st Mobile Army Guards, you have worked hard, and we will take over the rest. Is the loss heavy?"

"Your question is really unreasonable." The Marine Infantry Commodore smiled bitterly, "I can only tell you that it's OK. They didn't wipe out our brigade on the battlefield. There are only a dozen or so Vortex tanks left that can move."

Yegorov: "The eddy current losses are so great?"

"Most of them were damaged by enemy artillery fire. Only four were destroyed by enemy infantry who got close to them and blew them up with grenades. The Prosens have a new type of grenade that can stick to the outer armor of armored vehicles. Bring it here!"

After Alomeev shouted, a soldier came over with a funnel-like thing and handed it to Yegorov.

Yegorov examined it and waved it like a mallet: "What is this? A close combat weapon? I have heard that Plossen's combat engineers are equipped with hammers..."

"This end can be attached to the tank's armor," said Alomeev, pointing to the wide opening of the funnel. "We all think it's like a magnet because it has no attraction for people."

Yegorov changed his hand to hold the thing and gently stroked the bottom of it with his right fingers. There was indeed no feeling of sticking or anything.

Then Yegorov turned around and pushed the thing against the guard's Popsa, and sure enough, the iron part was sucked in, making a clanging sound.

Then Yegorov pointed to the rear of the thing and said, "Is this thing like Proshen's wooden-handled grenade, where you have to unscrew the lid and take out the pull ring and cable?"

"Yes, after twisting it open, you will see a very long rope. As long as you pull the rope with your fingers and run forward, the bomb will be activated." Alomeev explained.

Yegorov put his finger through the ring and was about to pull it back, but the guard was so frightened that he shouted, "General!"

"No way." Yegorov laughed. "I won't test my guards. So have you tried it?"

"No, how can we test it on the battlefield? We gather the seized stuff together and prepare to take it away after the rotation. We will hand it over to professionals for analysis and research, such as the Inquisition," said Alomeev.

Yegorov was very surprised. He pulled the weapon off the guard's PPSh with great effort, weighed it in his hand and said, "You don't want to keep this new weapon of the Prosen people to defend the position?"

Aromeev: "Because we saw the Prosons using this thing and we thought it was not easy to use. It was too heavy and difficult to throw. And because of the large momentum after throwing it, it often couldn't be firmly attached to the tank.

"The Prosons would rush up to the tanks and carefully put their heads against the tank armor. After watching them do that, we decided that it would be better to just throw Molotov cocktails (incendiary bombs) at that distance, which would destroy the tanks.

"The cocktail doesn't need to be close to the face, it can be thrown in the trench. But if we use the Proson funnel, we have to get out of the trench and lie down next to the tank."

Yegorov looked down at the "big funnel" in his hand again: "The Proson people... made a useless equipment?"

Aromeev: "It's not useless. We destroyed four Vortex tanks. But it was mainly because our soldiers were stunned when they saw the Prosons holding this thing. They didn't expect it to be an anti-tank weapon."

The Marine infantryman who brought the stuff in interrupted, “We don’t know what it is, we really don’t know. When we saw them putting it on the tank destroyer, someone reacted and shot and killed Plosson’s blaster, but the weight of his body pulled the ring.

"Then the people who knew what it was started yelling, 'Don't let the guy with the funnel get near the tank destroyer!'"

Yegorov looked at the thing in his hand, and a scene emerged in his mind where someone shouted "Don't let the person holding the funnel get close to the tank destroyer" during the battle.

Aromeyev: "At that time, no one knew why we had to stop the man with the funnel from approaching the tank destroyer, but since the enemy wanted to do so, we should stop him. So after the first four victories, the Prosens did not achieve any more victories, and we seized a bunch of these things that had not been detonated."

Yegorov looked confused: "Is this the Proshen Army that defeated us?"

At this time, the sergeant major of the Marine Infantry behind Alomeev said: "Maybe it's the same as the grenade launcher of the Proson people. I captured that grenade launcher. It was very complicated. I studied it for a long time before I knew how to use it. It was very troublesome. But if you use it completely according to the operating instructions, you can accurately shoot the grenade into the firing port of the bunker."

Yegorov's eyes widened: "The Prosons have such equipment?"

At this time, the commander of the 225th Division's annihilation battalion also came over. He knew Yegorov, so he didn't introduce himself after saluting: "You are finally here! My battalion only has half of the Vortex left, and the shells are almost gone. We have to withdraw to rest. Several Vortex tracks or engines are broken, so they are left on the position as fixed artillery for you."

Yegorov nodded. "Okay, thank you for your hard work. Our own Vortex should be arriving tomorrow, and the anti-tank guns should be unloading. It will be here in the afternoon."

"Then good luck to you."

"Wait a minute," Yegorov raised the funnel in his hand, "What do you think of this thing?" "What can I think of it? It's just like the staggered road wheels of the new Prosen tanks we destroyed. I can't understand it. I'm shocked." The commander of the annihilation battalion spread his hands, "What I don't understand is that they all rushed to the face of the tank. Wouldn't it be better to throw Molotov cocktails? As far as I know, there is no tank that is immune to Molotov cocktails. Just throw them on the engine radiator cover."

Yegorov took a final look at the thing in his hand and handed it back to the Marine infantryman who had just delivered it: "Take it away. I've seen enough. Let's see what the scientists in the Equipment Department have to say."

The Marine infantry took the item and said, "We should be happy that the Prosen people used their resources to build such useless things. If they had built useful weapons, the vortex losses would have been even greater."

Yegorov nodded: "You are right."

Aromeev of the 393rd Brigade: "Then I'll take my leave?"

"No, wait a minute, you are familiar with the situation of the position. Let me ask you, if I want to counterattack, which place can best improve the situation on the high ground?" Yegorov asked in the most sincere tone, even though he had a higher military rank.

Alomeev pointed to the factory building in the rain in the distance: "Do you see that? That's the agricultural machinery station and the tractor repair factory. It's a reinforced concrete building. When we arrived, it had been occupied by the Proson army.

"If you can take it back, put the DShK heavy machine gun on the window of the factory building, and it will form a crossfire with us."

Alomeev gestured.

Yegorov nodded. "Indeed, the factory and the high ground are only about one thousand meters apart. The 14.5mm DShK can hit the side of the enemy's light armor. If I deploy a Crusader anti-aircraft gun there..."

The Crusader's 40mm Bofors machine gun would surely cause great suffering to the Prosens who were attacking the heights.

Yegorov: "Okay, that's our counterattack target. The reconnaissance battalion!"

Soon the commander of the reconnaissance battalion ran to Yegorov and said, "Report!"

"Organize reconnaissance, just the farm machinery station and the repair shop next to it. Find out the enemy's defense situation as soon as possible, and it would be best if we could catch them."

"Yes!" The reconnaissance battalion commander saluted, turned around and trotted away.

Yegorov looked at Alomeev and said, "Thank you for the information. Leave the rest to us."

Instead of saluting, he held out his hand.

Alomeev: "My right hand is injured."

"Sorry." Yegorov quickly switched to the other hand.

Alomeev took his hand and squeezed it hard: "Good luck to you."

----

At noon on October 10, Plossen's XIV Panzer Corps' 22th Armored Division and th Panzer Grenadier Division combined command.

Major General Schneider suddenly frowned and looked outside: "What's going on? Artillery fire? Is Rokossov also harassing with artillery fire during the day?"

Schneider's adjutant shouted "Quiet", and all the staff in the headquarters stopped, and the noisy headquarters became completely quiet.

Then, the sound like muffled thunder in the distance became clearer.

Major General Schneider cursed: "There must be heavy artillery. No, it's the explosion of heavy artillery that can be heard so far!"

Major General Hope turned around and shouted, "Quickly confirm where the shelling is!"

Soon a staff officer reported: "The shelling is at the area occupied by the 20th Grenadier Division next door. It seems to be an agricultural machinery station they occupied yesterday."

Major General Schneider came to the map and asked, "Where is it? Here?"

He pointed to a symbol on the map.

"That should be it." The staff officer replied, "The nameless hill is on the outskirts of the city, and there is only one concrete building in sight."

Major General Schneider's brows twisted into knots. "I've personally been to the front line to check out the terrain. If this farm machinery station is captured, it will form a crossfire with the artillery fire from the nameless hill. At least the attack on this side of the hill will become very difficult!"

He picked up a pencil and quickly drew a triangle on the map, sandwiched between the farm machinery station and the unnamed high ground.

"I'm going to call 20 loadout! Quick!"

(End of this chapter)