artillery arc

Chapter 590: All-out Attack
916 January 1, 15th Army Headquarters, 0641 hours.

As soon as General Shiplin entered the headquarters, he asked the chief of staff: "Is there any good news while I am sleeping? Don't tell me the bad news, I can read the map myself."

Chief of Staff: "The vanguard of the reinforcements transferred from Shepetovka arrived at Diburskaya last night, only 30 kilometers away from us."

General Shiplin was so angry that his nose was crooked: "The No. 8 Command realized that the main attack direction was here, and you told me that the troops are only being transferred here now?"

"In fact, the mobilization order No. 9 had already been issued, but during this process, the enemy's Western Front and the Kuskov Front in front of Shepetovka launched an attack, and the defensive pressure in the Shepetovka direction increased sharply, so the troops were not immediately withdrawn." The chief of staff explained, "And after the Sixth Army was surrounded, the guerrillas in the rear suddenly became active, which also affected transportation."

General Shiplin did not say anything, but just took the coffee brought by the orderly and sipped it in small sips while standing in front of the map.

The chief of staff continued, "In addition, it would take about three days to transfer them from Shepetovka to our side. If they leave on the 12th, the best case scenario is that they will arrive on the th, but there is no..."

"Not much slower, right? After all, the 15th has just begun. Is that what you want to say?" General Shiplin asked back.

The chief of staff nodded.

The general sighed: "Forget it, don't worry about it, these troops are under my control now, right?"

"Yes."

"Then order them to get off the train and deploy into battle formation, and attack in the direction of Borsk. Don't take the train, as there are only ante cavalry and guerrillas along the way."

As soon as Shiplin finished speaking, the phone in the operations room rang.

A staff officer immediately picked up the receiver.

As soon as the phone stopped ringing, another one started ringing, and then everyone's phones started ringing.

Shiplin held a coffee cup and looked at the headquarters, which had suddenly become as noisy as a market, and cursed, "Damn it, so early in the morning!"

The first staff officer who answered the phone had already put down the receiver and reported loudly: "General, the 61st Infantry Division is under artillery fire!"

Before he could finish, the phone he had just put down rang again.

Shiplin: "No need to report one by one, put the divisions that have been bombarded on the map, I want to see how many places Rokossov will launch attacks!"

……

Twenty minutes later, Shiplin looked at the dense bombardment marks on the map, his brows twisted into knots.

His adjutant said: "It seems that Rokossov has learned his colleague's offensive method."

The Chief of Staff shook his head: "It's useless to us. Our front line is not as long as Army Group Center's, and our troop density is much higher. There is basically no gap for them to 'drill'."

Shiplin: "No, have you forgotten that they just captured our well-defended Plinka yesterday? Rokossov's troops are generally very strong. He attacked like this because he believed that he could make a breakthrough in every place."

After these words were spoken, all the senior generals around Shiplin fell silent.

The staff officers also looked over here, but they had other things to do.

More bombardment markers added to the map.

Shiplin asked the chief of staff: "Do we have enough troops to launch a counterattack in so many places? I mean, assuming that they have achieved a breakthrough of 50 percent."

The chief of staff shook his head. "No. In fact, launching counterattacks in two directions at the same time is already our limit. Unless the troops in Diburskaya can come here immediately, our flexible defense strategy will not work."

Shiplin thought for a few seconds and said, "Draft a telegram to the High Command and copy it to the headquarters of Army Group A, emphasizing the difficulties we are facing. If we are not given more troops, Borsk is in danger of falling. We may have to retreat to the coastal fortress and prepare to evacuate by sea."

"Yes." The chief of staff immediately walked to the desk.

Shipling added: "You are an old staff officer, you know what to do!"

Every staff officer in the Plosson army is good at crying poor to their superiors, so that they can get more attention and reinforcements for their troops.

----

On the same day, on the White Sea coast, the headquarters of Army Group A in Plossen.

"Urgent telegram from the 11th Army!"

As soon as the communications officer finished his report, General Steiermark came over, took the telegram from him, quickly read it, and then handed it to the chief of staff.

General Steiermark: "Let us reinforce, you are kidding, where do I have troops? There are hundreds of thousands of people from the mountain front following us, and the rear guard has no natural barrier to use, so we can only fight the enemy on the plains.

"The remaining troops are all crowded on the shore preparing to retreat. Many troops have abandoned their baggage. Where can I find people to reinforce them?" Just as the words fell, the sound of a ship's whistle was heard from the direction of the beach, which was very appropriate.

Then the air raid sirens sounded, and five minutes later, the sounds of anti-aircraft gunfire and bomb explosions came from the direction of the beach.

Steiermark walked to the window and looked outside through the foggy glass: "All this is a chain reaction. The Sixth Army surrendered too early, releasing Rokossov's million-strong army, and the result was that the retreating Army Group B was destroyed.

"Army Group B was destroyed, and Rokossov's million-strong army had no rivals, so he gave us a right hook. By the way, Rokossov's deception operation was successful because Army Group B was destroyed. There was only the Tenth Army between him and Shepetovka.

"The High Command had to send more troops in the Shepetovka direction. All of this was connected, and it all started with Frederick's premature surrender! If he had held out for a month, Army Group B would have been able to regroup and continue to fight Rokossov.

"If he can hold out for two months, the muddy period will begin when Rokossov gets rid of him."

Steiermark shook his head repeatedly: "Frederick is unworthy of the marshal's baton given to him by His Majesty the Emperor!"

----

The heart of the Proson Empire, the Eagle's Nest, 4 hours later.

"After two days of retreat, we have evacuated 40,000 people by sea," the White Sea Fleet commander proudly reported. "At this rate of retreat, we will be able to evacuate all the active forces of Army Group A in ten days."

Emperor Proson: "Didn't you tell me that you could evacuate 30,000 people a day?"

"Well... at that time we didn't take into account the damage to the port facilities, and we also didn't expect that the efficiency of using small boats for transportation would be so slow. A considerable number of army soldiers couldn't swim, and when they were transported using rope nets, many of them were too scared to move, which greatly reduced the efficiency of the transportation..."

The commander of the White Sea Fleet looked helpless: "Our estimate is based on the level of the navy and marines."

Marshal Bryan: "This is outrageous. They are throwing the blame to our army! It's obviously your navy that didn't make a good plan! It's your incompetence!"

"We have mobilized all available transport ships, and while we are driving away the Ante Navy, we are also using naval guns to support the army's operations. If it weren't for the naval guns, the rear guard of Army Group A would have been defeated by the Mountain Front!"

"you!"

"Enough!" The emperor slammed the table. "Enough! It's already this late, and you're still blaming each other!"

Air Marshal Grand Duke Meyer stood nearby with his mouth tightly shut. Perhaps the heating in the room was turned on too high, his forehead was covered in sweat.

At this time, the Emperor looked at Meyer and asked: "How many planes can the Air Force spare to participate in the retreat?"

Grand Duke Meyer swallowed his saliva and said, "We lost quite a number of transport planes in the previous airdrop operation to supply the Sixth Army. In addition, the airports around Borsk are now being harassed by cavalry, and planes cannot take off and land safely, so..."

Emperor: "So you can't help?"

Meyer: "It's not that we can't help. In recent days, the fighter and bomber units have been operating at full capacity, constantly supporting the ground forces and the navy. In the past week alone, we have produced three new aces!"

The emperor had a stern face, and was not at all as excited as he had been when he heard about the birth of a new trump card.

The Grand Duke's voice, which had just risen in pitch, gradually faded again.

The emperor was silent for a long time before he said, "We can only ask the 15th Army, which has just been transferred from Shepetovka to the vicinity of Borsk, to work harder."

Marshal Celtic: "There is a problem with this. The 15th Army wants to attack and needs to occupy the highway, but the highway is full of retreating troops. They... are stuck in traffic."

The emperor was silenced by this sentence.

Marshal Celtic continued: "Armored units and half-track vehicles can leave the road and move on the snowfield, but trucks still need roads. In addition, the enemy's cavalry harassment has not been resolved..."

Emperor: "Think of a solution! You should think of a solution! Instead of complaining about this and that in front of me all day long! Last year - and the year before, we suffered because of Ant's transportation infrastructure problems! We are still suffering now!"

Marshal Celtic: "We have been building high-standard roads in the Kingdom of Khazaria since the year before last, and we have achieved initial results. Otherwise, the 15th Army would not have been able to get there so quickly. The section of road that is having problems now was newly occupied after the summer offensive last year, and we haven't had time to repair it yet."

"It has been half a year since summer, what are the engineering troops doing?" the emperor asked.

Marshal Celtic: "In repairing the road from Borsk to the Raoul Mountains, without their efforts, the supply of Army Group A would not have survived last year's muddy season. By the way, supporting the Sixth Army also took up a lot of our engineering forces, which were severely damaged in the great defeat in the last month of last year and have not yet recovered."

The emperor opened his mouth, but still no words came out.

At this time, Giles said, "I have a way to contain Rokossov. We can let the Tenth Army cross the river to attack Rokossov's rear. As long as we cut off the railway line from Yeburg to Yarvik, his supply will be in trouble, and he will not be able to attack the Eleventh Army with all his strength."

The emperor looked at Gilais, thought for a moment, and nodded: "That's a solution. We can give it a try."

(End of this chapter)