artillery arc

Chapter 557 The First 24 Hours
In the village of Badayev, the 151st Infantry Division of the th Infantry Army of Prosen is holding its ground in the village.

If you ask why a whole division is now guarding a village, it is mainly because their division has suffered serious casualties and now has the strength of a regiment.

However, those who have survived to this day are basically veteran soldiers, so even though they are now guarding a village, they can fight quite well.

However, after the Ants were sure that they would encounter strong resistance here, they bypassed the village and continued their advance, leaving only a small number of guard troops.

Brigadier General Hausen, the acting commander of the 151st Infantry Division, looked at the former commander who was killed in the explosion and decided not to go out to the snowy field to provoke Ant's armored forces for the time being.

So for the rest of the morning of the 20th, Badayev Village became as calm as the eye of a typhoon. There were sounds of artillery fire all around, but only here it was so quiet that it was frightening.

By the way, the telephone connection between the 151st Division and the military headquarters has not been restored since the beginning of the attack. At first, the division's communications company sent people to check the telephone lines, but the people who went there also lost contact.

As for now, it goes without saying what the people checking the lines will encounter when they leave the village, so the communications company simply gave up repairing the telephone lines and turned to ensuring the radio and radio stations.

By noon, the generators were running low on fuel and even the radio and station had to be shut down.

The 151st Division became a real isolated island. The Ante armored forces surrounding them did not attack, and they did not dare to go out, and they did not know the situation of the friendly forces around them.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the observation post on the commanding heights of the village reported to the division headquarters that a large number of infantry troops appeared around the village and surrounded the entire village.

The Ant armored unit that was originally responsible for monitoring the village seemed to have stayed behind to support the infantry.

Acting division commander Hausen ordered his men to be prepared to resist the enemy's attack at any time.

However, until the end of the day, the Ants did not attack the village of Badayev.

----

At 20 on the 2200th, Abawakhan Front Command.

Pavlov summarized the situation: "At present, the enemy's will to resist at several support points is very strong, but due to the terrain, these support points have been bypassed by us."

Popov: "This is not a good thing. We were able to bypass the support point because the terrain was flat, the grass was flattened by the snow, the ground was frozen, and tanks and transport vehicles could pass through unimpeded.

"When the enemy tries to break the siege, our defense will be under great pressure."

Wang Zhong: "Indeed. The 15th Armored Corps, which the enemy might have used to rescue the siege, did not enter the encirclement, which was the only flaw in our entire plan. A fully equipped and manned armored corps to rescue the siege would put a lot of pressure on the blocking troops."

In fact, when Wang Zhong received the news that the 15th Armored Corps was on the way, he was expecting to surround it together, so as to eliminate three enemy armored corps at once and destroy a quarter of the enemy's armored forces on the eastern front. Then the enemy would be passive on the entire southern front.

However, even though Wang Zhong gave the order to the Air Force to deliberately let the 15th Armored Army go and not hinder their advance, this army still moved slowly, as if it had seen through the fact that the Sixth Army would be surrounded.

It would be disastrous if this army suddenly speeded up and rushed over to attack the encirclement troops from behind.

Pavlov: "We have deployed a large number of anti-tank units, including two vortex battalions, on the blocking line. Our cavalry also went deep into the steppes and attacked the enemy's transportation lines using their low dependence on supplies.

"This army should not be able to break our defense."

Wang Zhong: "The blocking troops should speed up the repair of fortifications to ensure the smooth annihilation of the Sixth Army. Once the encirclement is completed, the tank troops can be transferred to the blocking line and act accordingly."

Popov: "Won't we use tank units to encircle and annihilate the enemy?"

"Of course we need to invest, but we don't need so many. It's better to leave the tanks in the wilderness." Wang Zhong walked to the map and looked at the group of troops marked with the Sixth Army. "Also, we have time on our side. Maybe we can consider surrounding the Sixth Army instead of attacking it, and instead eat up the enemy's reinforcements."

Pavlov: "Indeed, the Sixth Army's supplies should be running out. We may be able to force them to surrender through siege and psychological offensive. But isn't it too much to want to encircle the enemy's relief forces? We are still at a disadvantage in terms of exchange ratio with the enemy. Think about the Proshen tank platoon that destroyed 22 of our tanks."

It was actually a tank division, but there were only five tanks (a platoon) left in the entire division.

Wang Zhong: "We will first besiege them for a few days. Anyway, we have more artillery shells than we can use up. We can bombard them every day to collapse them, and then combine it with psychological warfare. In addition, all units should be prepared for a strong attack. If the situation gets bad, we can launch a siege and annihilation operation."

"Okay." Pavlov nodded. "One more question. Are we not going to attack those support points?"

Wang Zhong: "They don't even have many assault guns left. How can they break out? We just surround them like this and feed them thousands of shells every day."

----

St. Catherine's Castle, Summer Palace.

"Why haven't I heard the news of victory today?" Olga asked General Turgenev, "When can I give my brother the title of general?"

Turgenev smiled bitterly: "The battle must be fought step by step. The encirclement has not been completed yet. According to the battle plan submitted by the front, it will take 72 hours to complete the encirclement. The first 24 hours have not yet passed, my dear Majesty."

Olga: "What will tomorrow's newspaper say? That the encirclement will take another 48 hours to complete?" "It says that Operation Kutuzov has begun and is progressing smoothly, and Rokossov has sounded the clarion call for a counterattack."

Olga: "Last time his code name was Suvorov, this time it was Kutuzov, next time will it be Bagration?"

Turgenev: "I don't know. You should know better than me."

Olga frowned. “Don’t make it sound like I have a lot of interactions with him in private. I did want to interact, but he ignored me.”

Turgenev looked at Olga, blinked, and seemed to be hesitant to speak.

----

Plossom Heart, Eagle's Nest.

Emperor Proson slammed the table and asked, "So when can Steiner's 15th Panzer Army launch an attack?"

Marshal Celtic: "Half of their tanks are currently under repair. The guerrillas destroyed the repair shops on the road, killing and wounding a large number of repair personnel. The 500th Armored Army cannot cope with a -kilometer field maneuver relying solely on its own support force."

"Where are the roads?" the emperor demanded.

“Since the snow started falling, there’s not much difference between road maneuvers and off-road maneuvers because the roads in Ant are so bad.”

Emperor: "I didn't know our tanks were such fragile things!"

"Your Majesty," Marshal Brian said, "With a mobility distance of 500 kilometers, half of the tanks of any country would break down if they arrived. This distance should have been covered by tank trailers, or a complete battlefield repair system should have been established to deal with it. But we don't have either of us."

Emperor: "Then use the remaining half of the tanks to attack. The enemy can only stop the 15th Army in the wilderness. We have the advantage in the wilderness, and it has always been like this!"

Marshal Bryan: "But the enemy has new assault guns, and we are no longer at an advantage in the open field. Many reports indicate that the enemy has more and more new assault guns."

Emperor: "Then we will do nothing? Wait until the Imperial Academy of Sciences produces tanks that can fight against the enemy's assault guns before launching the next move? Are you still honorable Plosson soldiers?"

At this time, General Moltke, the director of armored forces, said: "The Type 48 tanks equipped by the 43th Armored Corps are equipped with a new 75-caliber gun, not the previous -caliber mm gun. They should be able to penetrate the frontal armor of the enemy's new assault guns."

How many times the caliber refers to the length of the barrel of the gun, how many times the caliber it is.

Generally speaking, the larger the caliber and the longer the gun, the better its armor-piercing ability.

"Look! The Director of Armored Forces has said so. Let Steiner attack! As long as Steiner attacks, everything will be fine! We can rescue the Sixth Army and let them retreat unscathed!"

Marshal Celtic looked helpless: "I will draft a telegram and ask the 15th Armored Army to launch an attack tomorrow."

"Very good!" The emperor sighed. "The Kratt Bureau gave us two different pieces of intelligence. We finally believed the one that Rokossov was bluffing. This was a mistake in our interpretation of the intelligence."

At this time, Gilais shook his head and said, "No, we were fooled by Rokossov's deception. He obviously deliberately exposed the tanks on the snowy plains, which made us misjudge after being fooled once. We were fooled by him."

The emperor was silent for a while, seemingly unwilling to admit that he had been tricked.

Finally, he spoke: "Yes, we were fooled by him, like fools."

Marshal Brian: "In fact, if we hadn't captured his flag, we wouldn't be so naive to believe that he was at the end of his strength."

No one spoke.

Finally, the emperor said: "In any case, we must rescue the Sixth Army first. It is not time to despair! I need to send an outstanding general to the front line to command the breakout. Do you have anyone to recommend?"

Marshal Celtic: "General Eric von Shipling can take on this task. After he commanded the 11th Army in the coastal area in June to complete the encirclement of the enemy's coastal heavy forces, he also performed very well in the Northern Army Group and encircled and annihilated two enemy armies at Lake Bankara."

"Then let him go. And what is the Eleventh Army doing now?"

Marshal Bryan: "In the organization of Army Group A, they were preparing to attack Raoul Pass, but heavy snow prevented their attack. It is too late to withdraw the 11th Army now."

"Okay, then give him a new army group, put all the troops that can participate in the rescue into it, and tell him that he must rescue the Sixth Army before Christmas at all costs!"

Although the encirclement of the Ants had not yet been completed, the emperor's tone had already implied that the Sixth Army had been surrounded.

The generals present looked at each other in silence.

(End of this chapter)