artillery arc

Chapter 707 Everyone will meet the destined ending (6K words)
November 916, 9, Eagle's Nest, the heart of the Prosom Empire.

As Marshal Shiplin stepped out of the elevator, he saw a group of generals standing in the corridor outside the war room.

Shiplin stopped and looked at everyone suspiciously.

Marshal Rundstedt was the first to speak: "Don't worry, your majesty just wants to be alone, so let's go out and smoke a cigarette."

Marshal Celtic: “It is understandable. This time, His Majesty completely guessed Rokossov’s actions, seized the initiative, and even transferred troops from the Western Front. I even drank a glass in advance to celebrate another victory of the Empire when I received the news of Rokossov’s attack.

"Now that the fight has gotten this bad, I just want to be alone."

Shiplin looked at the Celtic Marshal: "Did you really drink a glass?"

"Yes, many people saw it in the headquarters staff room." After a brief silence, Marshal Celtic sighed, "The current situation is very scary. It means that the Ants can defeat us fairly. In the past, they had to rely on General Ni and General Dong and various tactics that violated military common sense to defeat us."

Shiplin: "In fact, there is no need to be so pessimistic. The Ants are just using tactics that are suitable for Khazaria. We don't have a particularly good way to deal with this tactic on the current vast front.

“In fact, when the Central Army Group faced the same tactics last year, it was a bit flustered. In the end, it was able to stop it because the Central Army Group’s defense area had forests, swamps and dense river networks.

"But in Khazaria, we have no way to deal with this kind of warfare. In comparison, Rokossov's elite armored forces equipped with new tanks did not play a big role."

General Moltke, the director of armored forces, asked in surprise: "No? I thought you would put the blame on these new tanks."

“No, Rokosov did use these elite armored forces to defeat most of our armored counterattacks, but these elite armored brigades themselves also suffered heavy losses, and they did not actually cause much damage to our ordinary troops.

"Also, part of the Western Front Armored Division that we launched in the counterattack was defeated by Ant's armored forces. Facts have proved that the tankmen coming from the Western Front no longer have any advantage in combat skills over Ant's veterans who have fought hard and experienced hardship."

After a brief pause, Shiplin added: "Also, the 504th Independent Tank Destroyer Battalion equipped with the 'emergency product' Panzer IV tank destroyer has performed well. I think the production of this type of tank destroyer should be expanded immediately."

Marshal Celtic: "We are already working on this. By the beginning of next year, the production of the Panzer IV tank destroyer will triple!"

General Moltke added: "They will all join the newly formed armored division!"

"What?" Shiplin's eyes widened. "The 504th Battalion achieved outstanding results because of its cooperation with the infantry! This type of tank destroyer will play a huge role in future homeland defense operations in cooperation with the infantry to dig anti-tank bunkers!"

General Moltke: "This type of tank destroyer is classified as a Panzerjger, so it should be considered an armored unit and should be under my control and incorporated into an armored division."

In fact, long before the classification of tank destroyers was proposed, General Moltke counted all vehicles under this classification as armored troops and took away the power to allocate them.

Shiplin was about to argue, but Marshal Celtic stopped him: "Be patient. In fact, we have reached an agreement with General Moltke. The Type 4 gun carrier with an open turret, which has been produced as a prototype, is a self-propelled artillery, the same category as the Bison self-propelled infantry gun, and will be assigned to the infantry units at the front of the wave."

Shiplin laughed dumbly: "The artillery carriers with turrets, not tanks, are added to the infantry units. The assault guns without turrets, which are obviously more suitable for defense - I mean the tank destroyers, are incorporated into the armored divisions?"

Marshal Celtic: "But the problem is solved, isn't it? The Director of Armored Forces got more armored vehicles, and the infantry got valuable mobile anti-tank firepower."

Shiplin: "But the tank destroyer is more suitable for defense! In defensive operations, the requirements for the firing range are not so high, and reliable frontal defense can play a greater role. Artillery carrier - I never expected the Bison self-propelled infantry gun to fight against tanks! That thing can be penetrated by a heavy machine gun!

"The enemy's large number of P47s can kill all the members with one sweep!"

At this point, Shiplin noticed the smile on Moltke's face.

Well, this guy deliberately threw the convertibles with unarmored fighting compartments to the infantry! He knew that these vehicles were very afraid of machine gun fire!
General Moltke spoke up: "The Allies on the Western Front are very fond of using open-top tank destroyers. Those fast-running tank destroyers have caused us great trouble. I believe that the brave soldiers of Plossen can do the same thing."

Shiplin was so angry that his face turned green. Rundstedt got a glass of wine from somewhere and said, "Come on, drink some wine and don't get excited."

Shiplin took the cup, drank it all, slammed the empty cup heavily on the table, and stared at General Moltke with a tiger-like gaze.

It's a pity that his service guns were placed on the counter in front of the reception room, otherwise something unspeakable might have happened.

For example, "How can we govern the Proson Empire with such insects?"...

----

At the same time, it was already nightfall in Bogdanovka, where the headquarters of the First Khazaria Front was located.

Wang Zhong opened the envelope brought to him by the special envoy from the United States and pulled out a stack of photos.

"what is this?"

"This is our army's new tank being tested at the Aberdeen proving ground. Your old friend General Ike asked me to bring it to you," said the envoy.

Wang Zhong: "It's good to have connections. At this point, the United States probably won't be happy for me to see these photos - what is this?"

He stopped, pulled out a photo and asked the envoy.

While Wang Zhong was questioning the special envoy, Vasily took the remaining photos to look at.

Envoy: "I just learned before I took off that this vehicle is named Langguan, and it is a destroyer vehicle that will be shipped in batches to the Europa war zone soon."

The Wolfcat on Earth is a "large Hellcat", but the "Wolfcat" in the photo now looks to Wang Zhong like an M4 Sherman chassis with the upper half of an M56 Scorpion anti-tank gun inserted into it.

This looks too good.

However, Wang Zhong immediately praised with high emotional intelligence: "This is obviously a solution made of mature technology. It can be easily mass-produced and added to the army in large numbers. But I don't understand, if it is just to install a cannon, can't a jeep be used?"

Special Envoy: "It has been tested and will turn over. The Ordnance Bureau believes that it may be necessary to research a new chassis. There is not enough time, so it is better to directly modify the Sherman chassis. There is also a modification using the M5 Stuart chassis and a modification using the M3 half-track vehicle. They will be deployed to the troops as soon as possible."

My goodness, is this how the first industrial country fights? Put the 90mm gun that can deal with the new Proson tank on any chassis they can find, and rely on production capacity to explode a lot and drown the enemy?

"Hey," Vasily suddenly interrupted, "Marshal, look at this!"

He handed a photo to Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong took a look at what was in the photo: a Willys Jeep with six gun barrels on it.

This thing looks a little familiar!
Wang Zhong: "Is this six recoilless guns installed on a Willys Jeep?"

"Yes," the envoy replied, "Using a recoilless smoothbore gun to fire fin-stabilized shells can ensure that the shaped charge warhead has a better penetration effect when it hits the enemy. As for installing six guns, it is probably to pursue firepower density, so that they can release smoke and run away as soon as possible after firing."

Wang Zhong held his forehead, how could the United States be forced into this state, but these weird things, don't say it, you really don't say it! It feels useful!

In the future, "War Thunder" will be born in this time and space. I wonder how many weird things will be used.

Wang Zhong put down the photo and said, "I understand that you will soon be able to fight against Proson's new tanks. The more pressure you put on Proson on the Western Front, the smoother our progress will be."

"Of course, of course." The envoy agreed. Anyway, he had no power to make the final decision to launch a sea crossing operation.

Wang Zhong: "Okay, I have received the photos. My chef has prepared a welcoming banquet. Vasily, take the special envoy with you."

Vasily: “Yes.”

----

Return to the Eagle's Nest.

Shiplin finally just sighed: "I hope these artillery carriers can have enough armor-piercing capabilities to deal with the increasingly thick armor of the Ante tanks."

Marshal Celtic: "Don't worry, this time the carrier uses a 105mm anti-tank gun."

General Moltke: "We are still testing the extended 88mm gun. Although this will greatly increase the production time of the 88 gun barrel, it will achieve satisfactory armor-piercing capability.

"We are also working on a new type of shell that is like a steel needle and has better armor-piercing capabilities, but we have not yet been able to solve the impact of the shell's spin."

Marshal Shiplin: "I have seen your new shells. The tankers generally responded that after using the new shells to attack the ANT tanks, the fire rate has dropped significantly. We can often see ANT tankers abandoning their vehicles."

General Moltke: "Abandoning the tanks also achieves our goal. The Ants don't have much repair capability, and they won't repair the abandoned tanks."

Just as Shiplin was about to retort, the door to the war room opened.

Gilais came out and said to everyone present: "Your Majesty has adjusted his mood. Please come in."

The officers looked at each other.

Marshal Rundstedt reminded them, "Stop arguing in front of His Majesty. Adding pressure to His Majesty will not be good for everyone."

Shiplin nodded, then suddenly remembered something and asked, "Why isn't Marshal Erwin Romer here?"

"He was inspecting the fortifications of the Western Wall and called us every day to ask for mines." Marshal Celtic smiled bitterly, "It's as if we are all magicians who can conjure up hundreds of millions of mines just by blowing."

General Moltke: "The beach will certainly be prepared by naval gunfire. Will laying a large number of mines really be useful?"

"I heard that Romell was planning to lay mines on the road leading inland from the west wall." Marshal Rundstedt said, "Well, stop talking and go in."

The group entered the operations room past Giles.

His Majesty's face was slightly ruddy, and it looked like he had drunk a little. This was not normal. The emperor of Proshen never drank during the day. He was like "a typical Proshen man" and strictly required himself during working hours. Seeing Shipulin, the emperor said: "You are back from the front. I have a very urgent question for you to answer. Do we still have hope of defeating Rokossov?"

Shipulin immediately spoke up: "Of course. Rokossov's breakthrough now is closely related to the terrain of Khazaria. When the battle line moves to the border between Melania and Khazaria——"

"The terrain is still grassland." The emperor retorted.

Shiplin: "But the width of the front has been greatly reduced, and the towns are more densely populated, and they are all reinforced concrete towns. Mr. Giles has studied Rokossov's defense in Shostka. We can use all this experience against him."

Giles nodded. "Yes, in fact, we adopted Rokossov's defense concept in the Central Army Group. The town fortifications we built caused huge casualties to Ant's Western Front."

Emperor: "You mean, we can stop Melania?"

"Yes, we can stop them. By then, Rokosov's - no, it's General Ante's Gorky (Shiplin doesn't know that Gorky has been promoted to marshal) tactics will not be effective." When Shiplin said this, his tone was very confident.

In fact, it can still work, but it requires the strongest light infantry unit in the world to carry out, and now neither Prosen nor Ant can come.

Marshal Celtic took over the conversation: "We built a defense line on the border between Melania and Ant last year, and it is now 30% complete."

"Only 30 percent?" the emperor exclaimed. "Nine months!"

Marshal Celtic replied calmly, "The progress is so slow because a large number of young people who were supposed to join the national labor camp were directly conscripted into the recruit camp, and we are short of labor."

The emperor was silent for a few seconds and said: "Let the prisoners of war repair it."

Celtic Marshal: "This violates the Geneva Convention."

"What does it matter? The Ants even let the prisoners work in the factory! They said something like 'liberating the prisoners' and 'recognizing the mistakes of themselves and the Proson Empire and turning back'. Humph, I don't believe it!"

Marshal Celtic: "Understood. I will arrange for the prisoners of war to participate in the labor service."

Emperor: "Remember, give them less food and make them do heavier work, so that they don't have the strength to escape from prison and it can reduce the pressure of management!
"As for those who died while working, our food supply is already so tight and we still have to feed the prisoners. No, let them die and the saved food rations will be given to our people.

"Why did I capture so many prisoners of war back then? Just to boast about our military exploits! We should have found a pit and shot all the prisoners at that time!"

The emperor muttered to himself and pounded the table hard.

Everyone waited tacitly for the emperor to calm down.

They didn't have to wait long.

The emperor, having recovered, asked Shiplin, "Can you hold out until the muddy season arrives?"

Shipulin: “Yes, in fact, I personally estimate that Rokossov’s logistics have almost reached their limit. He will have to stop and rest after taking Roniezh at most.

"They have advanced far enough that the troops' armor and vehicles need to stop for repairs, as well as ammunition and fuel."

Emperor: "We are waiting for the enemy to stop attacking because their logistics are no longer able to keep up!"

"Rokosov was like this in the first year. It wasn't because of how strong his tactics were in the first year. His only role was to maintain Ant's determination to resist until we couldn't keep up with the supply." Shiplin said, "This is part of the art of war."

To sum up his words: Rokossov did it too, so there is no need to be shy.

Emperor: "Since we are waiting for Rokossov to exhaust his supplies, if I replace you now, Marshal Shiprin, will it affect the actions of our army?"

Marshal Shiplin: “No, in fact, we can clearly feel that the Ants’ offensive is weak, especially the Ants’ cavalry. They have suffered heavy casualties in the continuous battles, and even one cavalry battalion has lost most of its horses and can only fight on foot.

"Our entire retreat was carried out in an orderly manner. As long as there are no large-scale changes to the Southern Army Group's headquarters, replacing me as the commander will not affect the operations of the entire Army Group."

After listening to this, the emperor nodded to the Celtic Marshal.

Marshal Celtic took out an order from his briefcase: "Marshal Shiplin, this is an order for you. The position of commander of the Southern Army Group will be replaced by General Mendel, who has performed outstandingly in the Central Army Group."

Marshal Shiplin: "Very good, Mendel is very good at organizing defenses, especially at integrating scattered troops. He is just right for this."

Emperor: "Now you don't need to flatter me anymore."

"I speak from the bottom of my heart," replied Marshal Shiplin.

The emperor said: "Don't be too happy too soon. I won't let you stay at home idle like the former army commander-in-chief."

Marshal Shiplin nodded, put on his military cap, saluted the emperor, then turned and left the room.

As soon as he arrived at the reception room, he saw his adjutant having a pleasant conversation with a strange colonel.

"Who is this?" Marshal Shiplin came to the adjutant and asked.

Adjutant: "This is Colonel Berg of the Reserve Military Administration. He is..."

"Valkyrie Club." Marshal Shiplin interrupted his adjutant, "I heard that Marshal Werner is the head of your club."

Colonel Berg: "Many marshals have come in and out of our club, even Marshal Romer."

Marshal Shiplin: "Really? Congratulations! It looks like your career is flourishing. I won't bother you."

Colonel Berg: "Aren't you worried about Plosson's future?"

Shiplin glanced at the reception room - this was mainly a place for adjutants to wait and socialize. In theory, as long as the emperor was in a meeting, there would be many marshals' adjutants in the room.

But now the room is empty.

Shiplin said to his adjutant: "When I have another chance to enter the Eagle's Nest, don't wait here. Just go somewhere and hang out. There are many beautiful typists in the secretarial department outside. You can go and give them some flowers."

The adjutant nodded in understanding.

Colonel Berg: "Your Excellency, Marshal——"

"I still have a lot of handover matters to deal with, so I have to return to the front line now." Shiplin smiled at the colonel and left the room briskly with his adjutant.

Colonel Berg watched them leave.

----

August 9, Plossen, Army Group South Headquarters.

Marshal Shiplin deliberately returned by plane a day late. When he entered the headquarters, he saw General Mendel chatting with his staff in front of a map.

"General Mendel, I've heard of your great name for a long time!" Shiplin stepped forward and extended his hand.

Mendel saluted: "I have heard of your name for a long time. You are known as the maker of miracles on the battlefield."

"Humph, whatever reputation he had before, it's all gone now." Marshal Shiplin said with a wry smile, "On the vast Eastern Front, the only true legend is Rokossov. No matter which side the historians of the future stand on, they will not be able to avoid him."

Mendel: "I have never fought him. In the Central Army Group, my old opponent was General Gorky. Apart from constantly depleting his own troops, there was nothing impressive about him."

Marshal Shiplin: "No, it was his tactics that made Rokossov achieve such great success. He just didn't use them in the right place."

Mendel: "When the front line shrinks to the Melania border, the situation will get better. We can set up defenses along the line from Konigburg to Barachia. There are rivers and mountains here, all of which are suitable for defense. There are also a large number of reinforced concrete buildings."

At this time, Shiplin's adjutant interrupted: "Doesn't this mean giving up all the achievements since Barbarossa?"

The marshal and the general turned to look at the adjutant.

Adjutant: "Then what's the point of launching Barbarossa?"

"It's meaningless - I mean, there's no point in discussing this now." Marshal Shiplin looked at General Mendel, "But I don't think it will be that easy for Your Majesty to agree to retreat to the border. I told Your Majesty that we can keep part of the land in Western Kosalia."

Marshal Mendel: "Don't be ridiculous. It's all plains. There's not even a wide river. How can we defend it? Marshal Celtic built the 'Eastern Wall' on the border, which used the fortifications that the Ants used against us. Now you tell me that we have to defend the land east of the border?
"You were relieved of your duties, but I am the one responsible for defense!"

Marshal Shiplin: "You can protest and stay where you are. Maybe you can skip those complicated stages and be successfully dismissed."

Mendel was silent.

After an unknown amount of time he said, "No, I will play defense. I will not intentionally allow myself to be removed from office."

Marshal Shiplin: "Then you are more qualified as a soldier than me. However, listen to my advice, everyone will meet their destined end, including the Empire."

Mendel stared at Shiplin and said, "Yes, I think that struggling as hard as you can before that is what life is all about."

Shiplin stared at Mendel for a few seconds and said, "I salute you. But... maybe the end will come sooner than we think."

(End of this chapter)