artillery arc

Chapter 744 Attack
As soon as Filippov came out of the headquarters, he was stopped by the second battalion commander Makarov.

"What do you think of this operation?" Makarov asked.

Filippov: "Make sure you complete the mission."

"What should infantrymen do if they encounter an enemy armored unit with only the light weapons they carry with them?"

Filippov: "We have been given such a detailed map. The attack routes of each battalion have been carefully planned to avoid tough enemies. According to the map, the enemies we encounter are definitely ones that our weapons can deal with."

Makarov took out a cigarette and put it between his lips, but he couldn't light it even after striking several matches.

Filippov took out a lighter, opened the lid with a click, and lit a cigarette for Makarov.

Makarov took the lighter, played with it and asked, "Seized?"

"Yes, captured from a dead officer of Plossom."

"Is he really dead?"

The Ant Army prohibits robbing prisoners, so sometimes Ant soldiers will beat to death prisoners who have good things in their hands and then rob them of the things they like.

Sometimes, Ante soldiers would kill prisoners out of hatred, and robbing the spoils was just a side job.

Filippov: "We are the Guards, and we are the Marshal's direct troops. We cannot lose face for the Marshal. Of course, this was taken from a dead person. I reported it to the higher-ups, saying that having a portable fire source would be helpful in combat, and the priest agreed."

"Fuck, by useful in combat you mean this thing is convenient for lighting Molotov cocktails?" Makarov complained.

ANT troops no longer use Molotov cocktails to fight tanks. Even if they really want to burn tanks, there are better-used incendiary grenades.

After the brief interlude, Makarov continued to talk about business: "If the map is correct, there won't be much problem for us to infiltrate like this, but what if the map is wrong? What if we encounter an armored force?"

"Are the bazookas in our hands just for show?"

"Of course not, but this thing only has so much range—"

"You can make use of buildings. There are villages everywhere on the map. When you encounter enemy tank troops, just hide in the village and prepare for a counterattack." Filippov said.

"But--"

Filippov patted the second battalion commander on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry. Think about the cavalry. Didn't they also penetrate into the enemy's rear in the previous offensive operations? We are doing the same job. If the cavalry can complete the task, so can we.

"Before, in the grasslands of Khazaria, there was no place to hide when we encountered tanks. Now, look at the plains of Melania. There is a village every few steps."

Makarov: "You are right, but the cavalry can run fast, and we only have two legs. Whatever, being able to attack is better than anything else."

There were many surviving core non-commissioned officers in Filippov's unit, so they were selected to join the Vistula Battle Group and attack eastward.

No other unit in their group army has this honor. It is said that other units even held soldiers' meetings to give their opinions to their superiors and collectively request to fight.

Makarov took a step forward, turned around and saluted Filippov: "Good luck tomorrow."

"See you in Prosinia," Filippov returned the greeting.

After the second battalion commander left, Filippov suddenly slapped his thigh and said, "Sukabulie, he took the lighter away!"

He chased for a few steps and saw the second battalion commander's jeep speeding away outside the headquarters gate. Makarov waved to him from the car.

"Sukabulie!" Filippov cursed.

"What are you scolding?" A majestic voice came from behind.

Filippov turned and saluted: "General!"

Yegorov came over and said, "Work hard tomorrow! Apart from the Melania People's Army, I have only selected you from my army. Don't embarrass me!

"Sukabulie, I wanted to command your regiment myself, but that bald Pavlov wouldn't let me!"

Filippov glanced at Yegorov's head and thought, you don't have much more hair, right?
"What are you looking at? Charge tomorrow! Do you understand? Don't embarrass yourself! Do your best!" Yegorov patted Filippov on the shoulder and snatched the map from him when he wasn't paying attention. "Let me see what the battle plan is. Oh my god, it's more detailed than I thought. When I saw the map at the headquarters, I didn't think it would be so detailed! If I had this map, I could charge directly to Prothenia!"

Yegorov looked like a little kid who had gotten a new toy, his muscles twitching with laughter.

"Let me see the attack route. This route is more suitable for cavalry, right? Do you want you to move in like this?"

Filippov nodded. "Yes, and the offensive is divided into phases by week. It seems that the accumulated supplies can only sustain high-intensity firepower for a week, and then they have to stop and replenish."

Yegorov stared at the map for a long time and nodded: "This is the work of the Marshal. It is very imaginative. You must execute it well! Otherwise, if you don't play well, the Marshal will be blamed. This is not acceptable. Do you understand? You must complete the Marshal's plan no matter what!"

After saying that, Yegorov patted Filippov on the shoulder again: "Good luck tomorrow, drummer!"

Filippov: “Ah?”

"I remember you. You are the old soldier who survived Loktov. You are the one who played the drums! Where are you playing the drums?"

Filippov: “Rotten.”

Yegorov immediately turned around and said to the guard: "Where is your harmonica? Take it out and give it to Filippov."

Guard: "Ah? The harmonica was given to me by my sister."

Yegorov: "I will give you one later. When you go back, you can tell your sister that it is a gift from the general. She will not blame you. Come on, take it out. People are going to fight under the command of the marshal himself, so they need a musical instrument."

Filippov poked his head behind Yegorov and asked, "Is there any cause and effect?"

"This..." Yegorov paused, thought seriously for a few seconds and said, "You can play a song beside the Vistula River in the capital of Melania! Can you play it?"

Filippov: “Yes, of course…”

Yegorov personally touched the guard's pocket, forcibly took out the harmonica, and slapped it on Filippov's hand: "When you reach the destination, stand by the river and play the harmonica. This is the task I give you! You must complete it! Complete it alive!"

At this moment, a loud shout came from a distance: "Egorov!"

Marshal Rokossov came over angrily: "When I heard you were here, I knew you had bad intentions. You are not allowed to steal other people's uniforms and sneak into the attacking troops!"

Yegorov slapped his thigh and said, "Yeah! Why didn't I think of that!"

The marshal shouted, "How dare you? A man who wants to be a general is a battalion commander. How dare you! Go! Before the attack begins, you are forbidden to approach the front line within 30 kilometers!"

Yegorov ran away, tumbling.

Obviously the marshal is much younger than him, but now it looks like the marshal is the old father and he is the son.

The marshal turned around and saw Filippov, his eyes widened: "Hey, Filippov!"

Filippov: "Yes, it's the one playing the drums, Marshal Davarich."

The marshal looked at the harmonica and said, "You changed to playing the harmonica? That's fine. Let me ask you, have all the extra radio equipment been distributed to your troops?"

"Yes, Marshal. The operator is in place. But—"

"But what?"

Filippov scratched his head: "There are so many female comrades among the radio operators..."

"They are all high school graduates! They are valuable talents for the future of Ant! We must protect them! Of course, they have also received submachine gun shooting training, so don't worry."

The marshal paused and then warned: "When you hear my direct orders over the radio, don't hesitate, just execute them. I must have been above you or nearby at the time. It was precisely because I wanted to command you directly that the chief of staff of the front tried his best to get so many radio equipment and talents! This is the key to whether we can successfully break through this 150 kilometers!"

Filippov: “Yes!”

----

Vistula Battle Group Headquarters at 9 on September 1.

Wang Zhong looked at his watch and nodded to the cluster artillery commander.

The lieutenant general commander picked up the phone: "Fire!"

Because we were much closer to the front line, the sound of cannon firing could be heard from outside the window after the order was given.

The headquarters was very quiet.

This time, Pavlov selected a large number of young staff officers with good performance to form this headquarters, but most of them had no experience of being in the same room with Wang Zhong, and now they subconsciously lowered their voices.

Vasily suddenly said, "I'm not used to seeing Pavlov's bald head not in the room." All the staff officers looked up in surprise.

Wang Zhong: "He is responsible for arranging our logistics plan. If the offensive is to succeed this week, the supply must be smooth. As the chief of staff, he cannot leave."

In the past, Wang Zhong always had the impression that the work of a staff could be completed by a few people, and the general staff department was like the general staff department in the movies, with only about ten people in total.

Now, after four years of fighting, his perception has changed.

The work of staff is very complicated and requires a large amount of manpower. The staff department at the front level starts with 10,000 people, with several thousand to tens of thousands of staff members, as well as a large number of clerks and menial servants.

It can only be said that the fact that Wang Zhong’s staff was able to function normally even with so few staff was entirely due to Pavlov’s outstanding abilities.

Just as Napoleon would have suffered Waterloo without Berthier, Wang Zhong might not have gotten to where he is today without Pavlov.

Now that Pavlov is no longer in charge of the General Staff, Wang Zhong still feels a little guilty.

This time a new tactic was adopted, using infantry to perform the penetration tasks previously performed by cavalry.

Moreover, this time, the infantrymen had designated infiltration targets, which was very different from the previous cavalry's method of charging forward and then roaming around on the grassland, acting according to circumstances.

It remains to be seen whether the troops under his command can complete such operations.

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Pavlov also understood this, so the troops selected this time were those with better preserved core officers and higher fighting spirit.

Wang Zhong had personally confirmed the troops' fighting spirit yesterday, and he also drove away General Yegorov, a brigadier general, who was trying to snatch the clothes of the grassroots officers to go to the battlefield.

Wang Zhong's personal inspection further boosted the morale of the troops.

Wang Zhong listened to the sound of artillery outside the window and thought that if he failed in this offensive, it would indirectly prove the value of the strongest light infantry in another time and space.

At this time, Emilia entered the headquarters: "I saw Lyudmila at the Archer Post."

"Yes, this time my headquarters is too close to the front line, and Pavlov requires that there must be a magic arrow to be responsible for air defense." Wang Zhong replied.

Emilia smiled and said, "Isn't it that you two are going to war together? Is that lovely maid lady here too?"

"Yes, I am here too."

"Hey~ So when do we take off?"

Wang Zhong: "Twelve hours after the infantry set out, if we discovered that the enemy's deployment had changed, we could directly command the interspersed infantry units."

Emilia: "What should we do now?"

Vasily: "Generally, the first half of the day after an offensive begins is very boring. Feedback from the front lines hasn't come back yet, and the marshal can only pace back and forth in the room."

Wang Zhong stood up and said, "You're right. I'm going to start pacing now."

Then he stood up and began pacing around the room.

Vasily: "Look! Am I right?"

----

At the headquarters of the newly formed Vistula Army Group in Plossen, Commander General Steiner was awakened by a phone call.

Generally speaking, a commander of an army group must be at least a general, but Plossen's generals and marshals were either purged because they had appeared in the Valkyrie Club, or were dismissed for "incompetence", or were besieged in the "armed prisoner-of-war camps" around Coburg and refused to come back. Steiner then became the commander of the army group.

Originally, this position was to be given to General Hawke of Melania's occupation army, but General Hawke declined the offer on the grounds that he was "busy suppressing Melania's uprising."

Marshal Mendel, the "hero" who commanded his old unit, the Ninth Army, to break out of the encirclement, was now sent to the Western Front to face the fierce attack of the Allied forces.

So now Admiral Steiner, with the rank of general, is facing the million-strong army of Ant who are resting in front.

Under his command were: first, the Ninth Army, which had a complete structure - but it was seriously short of personnel and equipment and urgently needed to be replenished; second, the Second and Third Armies, which had less complete structures; and third, the newly formed 33rd Army, which was basically composed of new recruits.

Even if these troops were in good condition, it would be a difficult task to resist Ant's army.

Fortunately, the Ants had just finished a large-scale battle and needed rest and replenishment.

According to the intelligence Admiral Steiner received from the High Command, he was about to face an attack from a cobbled-together Ant battle group.

His Majesty the Emperor believed that these were the elite troops mobilized by Rokossov. As long as Admiral Steiner could severely damage this cluster, the next large-scale offensive of the Ants could be postponed until May next year.

Marshal Celtic privately told Admiral Steiner that the High Command believed that this might be a pretense by the Ants in response to international urging, and even if they attacked, it would only be a tentative attack.

Steiner personally tended to agree with the High Command's opinion.

After all, he had personally gone to Prothenia to meet His Majesty, and felt that His Majesty was already - already hysterical.

So after being woken up, Admiral Steiner was still a little angry: "Damn it! The enemy is just a tentative attack, don't make a fuss!"

The Army Group Chief of Staff shouted back: "No, General, the divisions are under extremely heavy shelling and our telephone lines have been cut.

"This looks like a massive attack."

Admiral Steiner stood up from the bed helplessly. After all, the enemy had started shelling, and as the chief officer of the army, it was a bit unreasonable for him to still sleep in bed.

As he was getting dressed, he asked, "Have any troops reported that the enemy's reconnaissance activities have suddenly become more intense recently?"

"No."

Admiral Steiner: "How is that possible! If we really want to attack, we will definitely conduct intensive reconnaissance."

Chief of Staff: "The air defense forces reported that Pei San was conducting frequent aerial reconnaissance."

Admiral Steiner: "Don't you know how effective aerial reconnaissance can be? Think about the blurry photos that the Air Force's Nightingale reconnaissance plane brought back to us. No, there must be a small team to catch the tongue before the attack. We must have many officers and soldiers missing.

"Take the missing persons list. The unit with the largest number of missing persons may be the enemy's main attack direction."

The chief of staff immediately turned around and gave orders.

Admiral Steiner put on his clothes and sighed, "Rokossov's encirclement really seems to have taken a toll on us."

"What?" The chief of staff turned around.

"No, nothing, give the order."

Fifteen minutes later, Admiral Steiner entered the headquarters map room, and the staff officer came over with a document: "We checked the number of missing people, and it's almost the same as usual, and it's consistent with the number of losses our army suffered during the confrontation on other fronts."

Admiral Steiner sneered, "Sure enough, the High Command's judgment was correct. This is just a show to give an explanation to our allies. What is the situation in the capital now? The latest report should have been delivered, right?"

"It was delivered at three o'clock." The chief of staff replied immediately. "The 36st, nd and rd Armored Divisions of the Asgard Knights have been put into action. The th Grenadier Division joined the battle yesterday. Currently, there are more than Asgard Knights in the combat zone, and there are Wehrmacht soldiers. The police and National Guard have also deployed three divisions, people."

Admiral Steiner: "150,000 men, to suppress the uprising. Isn't that too many? At least give us the armored divisions, since we are already under attack."

Chief of Staff: “You said——”

"I said it was a probing attack, but it was an attack, and what about an armored division suppressing guerrillas in a city?"

----

"Tanks!" Hermann shouted back, "Retreat! The tank guns are coming!"

The next moment, the shock wave hit him from behind, pushing him to the ground, and a large amount of broken bricks and sand fell down.

Hermann's ears were ringing and his head was aching terribly, as if a pair of invisible hands were squeezing his skull hard.

He turned around and looked out at the street through the large hole made by the tank gun.

The turret's coaxial machine gun opened fire, and the bullets whizzed past Hermann, who was lying on the ground, and hit the guerrilla who was trying to pull him over.

"I'm fine, let's go!"

As soon as Heilmann finished speaking, a loud shout came from outside the window amid the sound of machine gunfire: "Melania will be liberated!"

Then there was the sound of a bomb exploding.

The sound of machine guns stopped abruptly. Hermann got up, staggered out of the room, and waved to the guerrillas who were about to come in to support him: "Retreat!"

(End of this chapter)