artillery arc

Chapter 704 Propaganda Action
As soon as Wang Zhong entered the headquarters the next day, he asked, "Did we stop the 504th tank destroyer battalion yesterday?"

He almost revealed the enemy's number, but without the help of a plug-in, this could only be obtained by interrogating prisoners or seizing enemy maps and documents.

Pavlov: "Oh? You already know the enemy's number? That's quick. I just got the report!"

Wang Zhong: "I heard about it on the road, so it's blocked?"

"They have been eliminated. They bypassed our blocking position and were ambushed by another guerrilla group when they passed through the village. Most of the new tank destroyers were burned by Molotov cocktails. Only a few that did not have time to enter the village were captured by the guerrillas."

Pavlov paused and added, "But unfortunately, they followed their No. 3 Assault Gun Battalion."

It seemed that the village road was not long enough, and half of the enemy's long snake formation was destroyed. The Three Bald Battalion, which served as the tail of the snake, escaped.

Wang Zhong: "It's good that they have been destroyed. Immediately send out the Dragon trailer to transport the captured vehicles to the rear for comprehensive testing to understand their performance."

Pavlov: "I have sent people to organize a trailer team. However, Bogdanovka has not been taken yet, and there are still many scattered enemy soldiers near the ambush site. Large trailers are not suitable for going there.

"So I asked Yegorov to dispatch troops to Nolinka to guard these vehicles. After a few days, when all the scattered Proson soldiers in the surrounding area have been cleared, they will be towed back with trailers."

Wang Zhong: "Just make the arrangements."

After a brief pause, he asked, "How many tankmen survived the previous ambush by the 504th Battalion?"

"Irreversible losses 271," Popov answered immediately. "Half survived."

The so-called irreversible losses refer to the total number of deaths and those who are unable to return to the front line due to injuries.

110 T34Ws were lost, with 5 crew members in each tank, for a total of 550 people, which was exactly half of the total number of people left.

It's neat as a cruel joke.

Wang Zhong: "The enemy should be equipped with 75mm guns, but half of them survived."

The tank crew members who were previously destroyed by Proson's 75mm and 88mm guns were basically lucky if any of them survived.

Pavlov: "The guys on the front line also find it strange. We'll have to wait for our technical experts to investigate to find out what's going on."

Wang Zhong: "Okay. Let's change the subject. So what is the movement of the Prosen armored forces today?"

"There was no movement from Proshen's armored forces yesterday." Pavlov took out another report and threw it in front of Wang Zhong. "All day yesterday, no troops reported encountering Proshen's armored forces."

Wang Zhong picked up the report and flipped through it pretentiously. He knew that Pavlov’s summary was correct: “So we have exhausted all of Prosen’s armored forces?”

Pavlov: "It's possible. It's also possible that they counterattacked for a few days and the motorcycle's engine hours ran out."

Wang Zhong: "So how many vehicles did our troops report?"

"One thousand five hundred," Pavlov replied immediately. "The team I sent out is counting the wreckage. It's definitely not that many."

Wang Zhong: "We need to rectify the bad habit of the troops reporting random results, and try to ensure that the statistics of the results obtained by the front army headquarters are closer to the actual situation."

Vasily: "As for how much to exaggerate, it is up to the propaganda department of the front to decide, right?"

Wang Zhong: "It was decided by the church propaganda department. And is this exaggeration? It is difficult to count the results of battlefield battles, and some errors are acceptable. Especially the results of the air force, how can you be sure that the air force did not destroy so many tanks behind enemy lines?

"If we don't find so much wreckage behind enemy lines, on the one hand it's because the enemy has strong repair capabilities, and on the other hand it's because the enemy must have blown up all the wreckage that can't be repaired!"

This is the situation on Earth. It is very difficult to confirm the results of the air force's ground attacks, mainly because there were no reliable positioning methods on the aircraft at that time. The pilots basically relied on identifying ground landmarks to "guess" their own positions.

To put it nicely, it is speculation, but in fact it is just guessing based on experience.

When the positioning problem cannot be solved, even if you want to send a special reconnaissance aircraft to confirm the results of the battle, you cannot do it.

Therefore, the results of air attacks in World War II were basically based on what the pilots claimed.

In the middle and late period of the American war, as they were financially strong, they began to equip ground attack aircraft with camera guns. There were even aircraft in the entire fleet that were specifically responsible for taking photos to confirm the results of the battle, so the water injection situation was only slightly better.

At that time, several American fighter squadrons were competing in ground attack results, and there was a very dramatic scene: the dust had settled, but several pilots who were captured by Sandezi after an emergency landing were rescued by ground troops.

After the forced landing, these pilots immediately removed the film from their camera guns and hid it in a tree hole. After being rescued, they forcibly retrieved it, and the results of the ground attack were reversed.

Decades later, this reversal made it the top ground attack fighter squadron and it was equipped with F15E "Strike Eagle".

Of course, the current Ante Air Force does not have the conditions to equip every aircraft with a camera gun to confirm the results of the battle, so it is still in a state where the pilots claim that as many bombs as they have destroyed are counted.

Of course, for attacks on key nodes, such as stations and dispatching yards, there would be special reconnaissance aircraft to take photos and confirm the results, but with such a vast battlefield as Ant, there was plenty of room for water injection.

Pavlov: "We should be cautious in estimating the results of the war in order to have a correct understanding of the enemy's strength. The above exaggeration of the results is to boost morale, and there may be a little intention to put pressure on the Allies. There is nothing wrong with that."

Wang Zhong smiled but said nothing. Just then Nellie came over with coffee. He took the cup and took a big sip. Nellie: "Today I'm using milk produced in the city that was just liberated. How is it?"

Wang Zhong looked down at his coffee and smiled, "I didn't taste it. But... uh, I tasted the enthusiasm of the local people!"

----

Marshal Shiplin was holding the receiver, and the staff around him were burning documents in an orderly manner.

Emperor Prossen was asking in an unwilling tone through the receiver: "Four armored divisions! Four! These are two-battalion armored divisions from before Barbarossa was launched. You tell me they were all used up in less than a week?"

"These four armored divisions are all Type 3 and Type 4. They have no advantage in fighting against the enemy's new tanks."

"But the Proson Armored Troopers are the most elite!"

"The enemy has also become more elite." Marshal Shiplin's tone was very patient. "The Ante armored troops who can drive the new tanks are all elite with the title of Guards. These troops are composed of veterans and top students from the training school. The quality of the troops is no worse than ours."

Shiplin still had something to say.

The armored divisions transferred from the Western Front had never experienced such brutal tank battles on the Eastern Front.

The two more experienced armored divisions only fought against the Mamluks and the United Kingdom's Matildas, but the intensity of the confrontation was not even a hair less than that on the Eastern Front. The tank soldiers of the United Kingdom did not have as strong a fighting will as the Ant tankers.

The tank crews of the United Kingdom would usually abandon their vehicle and give up the fight if one person was lost, but Ant's tank crews would often continue fighting even if two people were killed.

In short, although the four divisions transferred from the Western Front did help delay the Ants' offensive, it was only a delay.

Shiplin: "The good news is that the enemy's armored forces have also suffered heavy losses. It is expected that Rokossov's offensive will almost end after capturing Roniezh, and we can still keep part of Khazaria's territory."

The emperor's silence was deafening, and even Shiprin lost his composure.

He thought about it and felt that there seemed to be nothing to say, so he simply shut up and waited for the emperor to speak. As long as he didn't speak, he wouldn't make any mistakes.

Finally, the emperor sighed, "In two years, we have lost all the land we gained on the southern front. All our plans for the black soil of Khazaria have come to naught.

"This place was supposed to be the granary of the Proson Empire! It also had important coal and iron mines! Now it's all gone!"

Shiplin didn't dare to speak, for fear that the emperor would start lamenting the "incompetence of the Junker officer corps" in the next sentence.

But the emperor did not say that.

"How can we explain this to the people of Proshen? We have been able to keep bread prices down for the past two years thanks to wheat from Khazaria and Moravia. What will we do next year?

"We still have food from Moravia. If Moravia is lost, people might have to eat cabbage! The price of a loaf of bread might rise to 500,000 marks! 500,000 marks! This is going to be a big problem!"

Shipulin Khan had come down, thinking that it would be better for the emperor to scold the officer corps for its incompetence.

He felt that he could no longer remain silent: "We will try our best to ensure that there is arable land in West Kosalia."

"Unless you hold the Tiber River, nothing you do will work." The emperor's voice was dejected. "I will discuss with the Minister of Propaganda how to explain to the people of Plossen. Be prepared."

Shiplin's heart suddenly settled down, because from the tone of his voice, the emperor seemed to want him to retire at most.

It might be a good thing to retire now. It would be best if he was not used again until the war was defeated. For a moment, Shiplin really thought so.

But the quality of the Junker officer corps made him quickly dismiss this idea.

Shiplin: "I am mentally prepared to give an explanation to the people of Prosen!"

"That's good." The emperor asked after a brief silence, "Anything else you want? I will try my best to satisfy you, even though it's useless now."

Shiplin: "No, I will try my best to withdraw the troops intact to the border."

"Ah."

The emperor hung up the phone directly.

As soon as Shiplin put down the receiver, his adjutant immediately asked with concern: "What did your Majesty say?"

"For publicity purposes, I may have to retire. That's fine too. I'll go have some tea with those retired old guys."

Adjutant: "Would you like to show up at the Valkyrie Club?"

"No." Shiplin said seriously, "Absolutely not."

(End of this chapter)