artillery arc

Chapter 556 Rage
Starting point of attack.

When the artillery group in the rear opened fire, the ground was shaking.

The T34s painted in snow camouflage were arranged in a loose formation to cross the river, and the tankers all leaned out of the hatches and looked behind them.

"Boy, this is enough for the Plosson devils to bear."

"I heard that several thousand heavy artillery pieces were concentrated, and General Rokossov said that they wanted to wipe out the enemy's trenches directly from the positions."

"Is this true? Wouldn't that mean the soil on the battlefield has to be cut off by three meters?"

At this time, a messenger came running down from upstream on horseback, shouting, "Start the engine! Start the engine! Final check! Start the engine!"

Wherever the messenger ran, the roar of engines could be heard and thick black smoke spewed out of the tank's exhaust pipe.

The entire river beach was filled with the rumbling sound of engines, which even drowned out the sound of artillery fire at one point.

Then the rockets opened fire.

Fire dragons leaped towards the opposite side, like a meteor shower rising against the trend, and the roar of rockets drowned out the sound of the engine.

----

Plossen Sixth Army Headquarters.

General Wilhelm von Frederick was awakened from his sleep. He had been suffering from insomnia since the day before yesterday, and he was so tired last night that he didn't even want to take off his clothes and just lay down on the bed.

The result was that he seemed to have caught a cold and sneezed several times the moment he sat up.

He didn't even bother to wipe the snot and saliva that were coming out of his nose. Instead, he ran straight to the window, opened it and looked out.

There was still some time before dawn, but the night sky was already lit up by flashes of light.

There were continuous flashes of light on the horizon, accompanied by rumbling thunder.

General Frederick held his forehead and said, "It's over. I knew Rokossov was going to attack."

The orderly standing behind him was shocked: "Rokossov attacked?"

"What else is this?" The general pointed at the flickering lights in the distance. "Christmas fireworks? But the Ants' Christmas is January 7th next year! Aren't these fireworks too early?"

The orderly was silent for a few seconds, then asked, "What should we do now?"

General Frederick: "There is nothing we can do. We should have retreated when the snow stopped. If we had not retreated then, our future would have been doomed. Rokossov deliberately let us capture a red flag and gave me the rank of general. Now I have to pay the price."

The general returned to the bed, sat down and yawned.

The orderly wanted to close the window, but he stopped him: "No, there's no need to close the window. I haven't slept well in the past few days. Now I have a feeling that I can get a good night's sleep if I leave the window open and let the sound of the artillery come in."

"What?" The orderly seemed to doubt his ears. "This..."

General: "It's like the person upstairs throws boots at you every day, and you have to hear two thumps before you can sleep peacefully. But one day, there's only one thump, and you can only sit there anxiously waiting for the second thump, because you can't sleep without the second thump."

The orderly's eyes widened: "You want to sleep now?"

"Yes, I don't have any reserve troops now. The armored troops that were supposed to reinforce me have been delayed on the way and haven't arrived yet. The other troops have been seriously reduced in number. The remaining people are pale and thin, like a group of skeletons. The equipment has also been lost. According to the 10-day report submitted by some armored divisions yesterday, there were only seven tanks in combat readiness.

"Seven! How can I deal with Rokossov's million-man army and hundreds of thousands of tanks? Our aerial reconnaissance has clearly captured so many tanks, but the High Command insists that they are fake tanks!
"Even if our tankers can destroy all the enemy tanks, we don't have that many armor-piercing shells! We've used them all up! So, what else can I do besides sleep?"

The orderly hesitated, then said, "You can at least boost morale. Maybe a miracle will happen."

General Frederick sat on the camp bed in silence, as if he was struggling.

At this time, the army chief of staff opened the door and rushed into the bedroom: "General! The enemy has launched a full-scale attack. We have received news that in addition to shelling the Moravian troops, they are also shelling the coast of the inland sea."

"We need to land on the seashore and launch a pincer attack." General Frederick sighed, "He has learned all our tactics. His style is different from that of General Gorky of the Western Front."

Chief of Staff: “So what should we do?”

Colonel-General Frederick: "We can... uh, send a telegram to Army Group B headquarters and tell them that we are about to be surrounded and annihilated."

"That's it?" The chief of staff opened his eyes wide, like a goldfish that was pulled out of water, with his eyeballs bulging out.

General Frederick: "That's it."

Seeing the chief of staff's expression gradually becoming desperate, the general stood up and said, "Well, we still have to struggle. In order to deal with the enemy's possible pincer attack, we have ordered the Eighth Infantry Army to build fortifications in key locations. Perhaps we can delay the enemy until the new armored army that has been dawdling arrives."

"Do you want to resist?" the chief of staff asked. "Do you really want to resist?"

"Yes, we can't let Rokossov eat us so easily. Even if it's based on the honor of a soldier, we should struggle a bit."

After a brief pause, the general added: "Also, all units should begin to prepare for a breakout. If there are other units to rescue us, it is not impossible to break out."

"Yes."

----

November 11, 20, the position of the First Infantry Division of the First Army of Moravia. The entire position no longer exists. The terrible heavy artillery has flattened the entire hilltop. The trench that was originally one man deep was bombed to only 0900 centimeters deep.

Such trenches would not provide much cover for adult men.

The roar of engines could be heard in the distance, but no one on the battlefield shouted "Prepare for battle".

The Moravians had abandoned their position and were out of sight.

A large number of T34s appeared from the morning light, roared up to the position, crushed the corpses and helmets left on the position, and rushed towards the vast snowfield behind the position.

The cavalry army cooperating with the tank troops formed a retro wedge formation, like a black wave rolling over the snowfield.

After the tanks and cavalry rushed over, the entire position was quiet for a long time before a Stepunk truck carrying people to clean up the battlefield arrived at the position.

"That's strange," the hired worker who got off the car said in confusion, "There are no bodies of our soldiers?"

"How is this possible!" The priest in charge walked up to the hired worker, cursing, and then froze.

The priest looked back and forth across the battlefield, and finally took off his hat in confusion: "Am I seeing a ghost? How could there be no corpses of our soldiers? The Moravians...are they so lame?"

Hired worker: "Yes, before we set out, the commander said something about half-cooked rice. I don't understand it either. It's just that it's difficult to fight and there are a lot of casualties, right? I thought we had to collect the bodies of our good guys again, but... Father, what do you think we should do?"

The priest took out a cigarette, lit it with a match, took a long puff, and then answered: "Collect the enemy's bodies. If we don't deal with them, it will be bad if the plague comes."

----

Abavakhan Front Headquarters, 1000 hours.

"The Moravian troops have been defeated." Pavlov threw the report in front of Wang Zhong. "We have also encountered relatively resolute resistance in Badayev. The armored troops bypassed it as ordered."

Wang Zhong: "The Proshen infantry is dedicated to defense. They will not use infantry to attack in the open. We can safely bypass the enemy's strong support points and let the heavy artillery handle it."

Pavlov: "You're not going to drive your prototype again?"

Wang Zhong: "You know the condition of my prototype car."

He had overused prototype No. 422, and now the maintenance department reported that it had to be returned to the factory, as simply replacing the engine was not enough to repair it.

"When I get back, I will scold the designer severely. This product is not reliable enough!" said Wang Zhong.

Popov: "I think it's good enough. You've been racing around the city for so long and have been hit by so many armor-piercing bullets, but it's only broken now..."

Wang Zhong: “Strive for excellence.”

At this time, a staff officer came over with a report and handed it to Pavlov.

Wang Zhong: "What's going on?"

"Our offensive spearhead encountered the Proson armored forces."

Wang Zhong: "Go around them. In their current state, most of their tanks will break down if they maneuver in the wilderness for a while."

"No," Pavlov handed the writing board with the report to Wang Zhong, "Look for yourself, we wiped out an entire armored division of Prosen."

Wang Zhong's eyes widened: "What? How is this possible..."

Then he saw the number of tanks destroyed written on the report: 5.

Wang Zhong: “How is this possible!”

"That division only has five tanks left to deploy," Pavlov said. "Look at our losses. We lost 22 T34s to destroy these five tanks."

Wang Zhong: "A casualty ratio close to four to one?"

Popov: “It’s an improvement over last year.”

Wang Zhong put down his writing board with a complicated expression, stood up and paced around the headquarters: "Although we have wiped out an enemy armored division, but... I can't be happy, everyone, I can't be happy. We are the Guards Tank Army! Guards! This means that most of the crews are experienced veterans."

Pavlov: "I heard that the T34 will be discontinued next year. The troops have received the T34W model with a commander."

Wang Zhong: "But the T34W no longer has the advantage of fighting against armored shells. And the new tanks of the Prosen people should also be on the front line."

Previously in Yeisk, Wang Zhong’s vortex destroyed all the Tiger prototypes that came to the front line for testing. The Prosen people will definitely have to redesign them. I wonder what they will come up with.

While Wang Zhong was thinking, another staff officer came running over with a report. After hesitating for a moment, he bypassed Wang Zhong who was blocking the way and handed the report to Pavlov.

Pavlov glanced at the report and said, "The landing operation at sea was also successful. This is truly a pincer attack. It seems that we can advance our plan."

It turned out that Wang Zhong’s plan was to close the encirclement within 72 hours.

Pavlov came to the map, looked at the updated situation by the staff, and said to Wang Zhong: "Maybe we can close the pocket in 48 hours."

(End of this chapter)