artillery arc

Chapter 575: Like a steel knife, stabbing into the enemy's chest (Update 31/81)

Schultz only saw the moment when the thing behind the turtle tank fired.

The rising rocket immediately went out of the field of view of the observation window, and even though Schultz lay on the observation window and looked up, he could not see it.

Schultz then lost consciousness.

When he woke up again, the air was filled with a burnt smell. The stench was blown onto his face by the rolling heat, making him forget the bitter winter cold of minus 40 degrees Celsius.

After finally opening his eyes, Schultz saw flames everywhere: empty ammunition boxes, human bodies, everything was burning, except himself.

He felt that the hot wind was blowing in the same direction, so he walked in that direction - at this time his mind was still blank and he was completely unable to think.

Just then someone grabbed his arm and said, "General! Don't go there! The exit is this way!"

He turned around and saw it was his adjutant.

The adjutant had a head injury, blood covered half of his face, and his clothes were also covered in blood.

Schultz was dragged by his adjutant and left the bunker which had turned into a hell on earth.

When they got outside, the adjutant dropped Schultz's hand, turned around and closed the door of the bunker, then heaved a sigh of relief and said to Schultz: "The enemy launched a big bomb, which penetrated the roof of the bunker and exploded all the way down. I don't know what the situation is down there, but we should leave now, otherwise the ammunition depot will explode and we will all be finished."

Schultz's brain finally started to work. He asked, "Is there no one alive in the bunker?"

Adjutant: "I don't know. I closed the door just to prevent the fire from spreading outside the bunker. Let's go, General! Let's go back to the headquarters and make a long-term plan! The enemy's new tanks may be very powerful, but they are not so powerful that we can't deal with them! It didn't fire again, maybe the turret ring has been stuck.

"We did the same thing against KV last year. We're just doing it again!"

Schultz: “Yeah… yeah… just do it again.”

At this time, the two men left the anti-tank artillery platoon's bunker group and entered the trench.

Then an Ant warrior appeared head-on.

The adjutant raised his MP40 and started firing. The Ant man was probably stunned by Schultz's rank and failed to react immediately, so several bullets pierced his chest.

"What's going on?" Schultz asked.

Adjutant: "The elevators and tunnels leading to the ammunition depot were blocked, and the anti-tank guns used too much ammunition to attack the new tank, so the Ante armor had no ammunition when it charged.

"The infantry entered the trench too late and failed to stop Ant's armored cavalry charge. Their infantry charged directly sitting on the tank engine radiator covers, rushed to our position and jumped down to start fighting. We were caught off guard." The adjutant explained while dragging Schultz along the communication trench.

Finally, they reached the exit of the communication trench, and the barrel truck that Schultz had been riding in during his inspection was still outside.

The adjutant opened the back door, pushed Schultz in, jumped into the driver's seat, started the car, and drove away.

As a result, just after running a short distance, I saw two T34 tanks and a group of ANT soldiers.

When the Ant people saw the barrel truck coming towards them in a swaggering manner, they did not realize at first that it was the Prosen people. It was only when the barrel truck passed by them that the Ant people realized something was wrong and started shouting.

So the bullets of the PPSh hit the back of the barrel truck one after another, turning the replacement tire hanging at the back into a sieve.

Schultz shrank his neck and hid behind the spare wheel, of which only the inner circle of steel was left.

The bullet shattered the window of the barrel car and the broken glass scratched the adjutant's face.

Fortunately, the area where the 16th Armored Grenadier Division was stationed was already in the suburbs, with winding streets and numerous buildings.

The adjutant turned the steering wheel sharply, and the car turned into an alley and sped along the alley.

Suddenly, a rack where the locals were drying their caught fish appeared in front of the alley. The bucket truck crashed directly into it, and all the fish on the rack flew off.

A nearly cooked salted fish fell on Schultz's face. He licked it for some unknown reason and gritted his teeth at the saltiness.

The adjutant drove the bucket cart around in the alleys on the outskirts of the city, and when he jumped onto the street again, he actually arrived directly at the entrance of the division headquarters!

The staff officers at the division headquarters were busy in front of two burning gasoline barrels, constantly throwing documents and maps into the barrels.

Schultz got out of the car and demanded, "What are you doing?"

The staff officers stopped and looked at Schultz, their eyes widened in surprise.

"Go and call the chief of staff!" said a staff officer.

The chief of staff appeared immediately and was shocked to see Schultz: "I received a phone call from the front saying that you have been killed! So I took over the command temporarily, ordered the burning of documents, and prepared to retreat..."

"Retreat! We still have so many well-built positions and bunkers. We will not retreat. We will fight the enemy to the end!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the light from behind Schultz illuminated the entire yard.

All the staff officers stared behind him with wide eyes.

Schultz sighed, slowly turned his head, and saw another mushroom cloud rising. It looked like another carefully constructed concrete fortress was completely destroyed.

Schultz was speechless for a moment and could only stare at the rising mushroom cloud.

Chief of Staff: "General, what are your instructions?"

Schultz suddenly realized and ordered: "Immediately bury anti-tank mines on the main road. Rokossov's new weapon is still tracked. Our anti-track mines can perfectly deal with it!"

Chief of Staff: "The enemy is now crushing us like a whirlwind. Our entire front has collapsed. At present, the regiment below has reported that at least two new assault guns have been confirmed. They are obviously specially designed to target bunkers, and the effect is very good.

"The explosive power of this thing can even lift a Type 4 tank to the second floor!"

Schultz: "Think about it carefully. Since the summer campaign, we have been constantly losing to Ante's new weapons. What are the Imperial Academy of Sciences and the Equipment Department doing? Where are the new weapons?"

The staff officers looked at each other.

Chief of Staff: “The key is what to do now.”

Schultz: "What should we do? Of course we should resist step by step and report the situation to the headquarters! We will not retreat this time. If the Ants can hold Abavahan, we can also hold Yarvik!"

At this time, the sound of a telephone ringing was heard at the headquarters gate - because Rokossov's attack did not carry out artillery preparation this time, the telephone lines were basically unobstructed.

Schultz strode into the headquarters and picked up the phone.

----

The moment the call was connected, Admiral Bock, commander of the Tenth Army, asked: "We saw a huge fireball rising from your division's defense zone. What's going on?"

Schultz on the other end of the phone was a little incoherent: "Rokossov! Rokossov's masterpiece!"

Admiral Poke said seriously, "The fireball he created? That shouldn't be something a mortal can create, right?"

"He used two new types of armored vehicles. One of them looks square from the front, without even a hole. It has a whole piece of armor plate with a large angle to protect its fighting compartment." I don't know if it was the training in the military academy that worked, but when Schultz started his report, he sounded much calmer.

Admiral Poke: "So that huge ball of light is the work of a new weapon? Did you suffer a great loss?"

"My division's front-line position has been breached. The new weapon fired just one shot and destroyed the largest support point on the defense line. It almost killed me! This weapon... is terrible! Very terrible!"

Admiral Bock: "Do you have a way to deal with it? Do you need me to send the 14th Armored Division as a reserve to counterattack?"

"No, Rokossov has a new tank that looks like a giant turtle. We concentrated eight PAK40s and one 88mm cannon to fire at it continuously, but we only blocked its turret ring!"

Admiral Poker was shocked: "What?"

----

On the outskirts of Yarvik, Wang Zhong was sitting on the tank turret, listening to the tankmen's conversation on the radio to pass the time.

At this moment, he heard the sound of an engine from behind his head. He turned around and saw the tank repair vehicle imported from the United States - all of Ant's production capacity was used to build trucks and tanks, and there was no excess capacity to produce this thing.

Sitting in the bed of the repair truck was the "eldest disciple" that Ke Jing had introduced earlier. He shouted to Wang Zhong from a distance: "General, are we late?"

Wang Zhong: "No, we hit a mine here an hour ago. You came here very quickly."

Wang Zhong had very bad luck when driving the small tank this time. Not only was his turret ring stuck by the enemy at a distance of 1000 meters, but he also ran over an anti-tank mine while continuing to advance, which directly blew off the track.

Reality is not a game. It is very troublesome to replace a broken track. As for the stuck turret ring, this is a problem that cannot be solved without waiting for the professional repair vehicle to arrive.

So Wang Zhong could only tearfully hand over the task of annihilating a large number of enemies in the city to the T34s, while he waited for the repair vehicle to arrive.

Finally, the repair vehicle stopped in front of Wang Zhong's car.

Ke Jing's senior disciple jumped off the vehicle, walked around the tank, and said, "Your tank is seriously damaged. The track is a minor problem, and it can be fixed by replacing it. But the turret ring will take more than half a day to fix."

Wang Zhong: "Then you can repair it first, and take this opportunity to do a defense capability analysis."

The "eldest disciple" smiled bitterly and said: "Forgive me, for the defense analysis, we should go to the test site and use the captured enemy artillery to shoot a few times to see at what distance it can penetrate.

"The current analysis of the protection capability based on visual inspection of the shell scratches on the vehicle cannot be accurate."

Wang Zhong: "Then you should write a report, telling us what problems you found during the inspection and how you eliminated the problems. I think this is very important to Kejing, because it will let them know how to modify the design next."

The "eldest disciple" nodded: "Okay, I'll write the report."

Wang Zhong nodded and asked the question he was most concerned about: "How long will it take to repair it?"

The eldest disciple said: "If it's quick, we can start moving tomorrow night, and even participate in the night operation. I suggest that you drive the second car out, go into the city and fight hard. When the second car breaks down, the first one will be almost repaired."

Wang Zhong thought about it and nodded: "What you said makes sense!"

(End of this chapter)