artillery arc

Chapter 401: The Use of Tanks in the 40th Army
Wang Zhong naturally had no way of knowing about this little episode involving Melania's First Division. He was already the commander of the army group, and such things were usually just a line of small print in the daily report and the ten-day report.

On the evening of the 18th, in the headquarters of the 40st Mobile Group, the "Big Three" were discussing how to use the th Tank Army that had just been issued to the group army.

Wang Zhong threw away the specific organization table of 40 episodes he had just received and sighed: "To be honest, I have no confidence in this large tank unit with 100 KVs and a total of more than 300 tanks."

In the first half of 915, although Wang Zhong had been organizing model troops, his model troops did not achieve any results, so the Military Command Department formed a group of troops based on the experience of the previous year.

The 40th Tank Army is one of them. Its number was destroyed in the great defeat from June to July last year. Now this army is a reorganized unit.

Although it accepted some of Wang Zhong's ideas on army building, this tank army had a certain number of accompanying infantry and other auxiliary forces, but that was all it did.

Given the situation this year, it was impossible to organize a lot of support troops, so the Military Command Office stuffed more infantry and relatively sufficient artillery, which was considered to be the implementation of Wang Zhong's idea that "armored forces cannot fight alone."

However, the 40th Army's most important maintenance force was very weak. Its overall maintenance force was only 225 times that of the st Guards Mechanized Infantry, and was less than the maintenance force of the st Guards Mechanized Infantry plus the th Division.

But they were equipped with more tanks than the entire First Mobile Army.

On Earth, the Russians generally only organize heavy breakthrough tank regiments, with 21 heavy tanks in one regiment, because this organization is the largest organization the Russians can support. The support capabilities of the Germans are better than those of the Russians. Generally, a Tiger Battalion has 45 tanks, and a Leopard Battalion has 98 tanks at most.

But this is the upper limit. Only a few armored regiments are given a Tiger Battalion and a Leopard Battalion. This kind of super elite large-scale heavy-armored force is basically unique in the entire Sandezi unit.

There is no other way, it is really unprotected.

Wang Zhong, who knew all this well, was overwhelmed when he saw the organization of the 40th Tank Army. He could tell at a glance that these 100 KVs would be damaged and thrown aside soon after they began the attack.

Moreover, it was almost impossible to repair these abandoned KVs, and they were usually left on the roadside until the end of the war.

This is how the Russians on Earth fight, and they win entirely by relying on numbers and the bravery and fighting skills of the veteran soldiers starting from the middle period.

Wang Zhong couldn’t tell how much changes there would be in this time and space—at least not from the organization of the 40th Tank Army.

Pavlov: "We have already received 40 tanks. Although there are problems with the organization, we still have to use them."

Wang Zhong pursed his lips and fell into deep thought.

Popov: "You are the best at mixing up all kinds of messed-up troops, aren't you? Look at the mess of the First Mobile Army. Pavlov has even lost a few hairs - I mean, even the ones that were supposed to grow are gone."

Pavlov said bluntly: "You don't have more than me, do you? But it is true that the workload of the army headquarters is much greater when highly mixed troops are mobilized. Now there are three divisions of such troops, and we can barely cope with them. If we want to expand more of these highly combined troops, I think the headquarters will have to double its establishment."

Wang Zhong looked at Pavlov and asked, "Why didn't you report before that the pressure on the headquarters has increased so much?"

"Because the troops had not been mobilized before. If they were just stationed at the base, there would not be such a big problem. At most, we would have to fill out more reports. So we did not expect there would be such great pressure. Fortunately, I expanded the headquarters in advance." Pavlov said.

Wang Zhong: "That is to say, this highly integrated combat force organization exceeds the command's ability to bear."

Come to think of it, when all countries on Earth are developing combined battalions, the combat command and communication capabilities of the troops are no longer the same as they were in World War II. With the assistance of computers, commanders can grasp the situation more intuitively and adjust deployment.

However, under the technical conditions of World War II, command ability became an obstacle to integration. Even if the Russians integrated various arms during World War II, they often fought each other separately, probably for this reason. Later, they adopted the large-scale military system, where each branch of the military was independently organized into a large unit, which could simplify the command system.

Wang Zhong thought about it and said, "Then I will make the army's staff suffer a little more. I will split the 100 KVs into four groups plus an independent tank detachment. Each group will have 21 tanks. The tank detachment will have 16 KVs and will be placed under the army headquarters."

Pavlov's eyes widened. "And you're going to lead this detachment in the charge yourself, right? It just so happens that the KVs all have tank commanders!"

Wang Zhong patted Pavlov on the shoulder and said, "Don't be nervous. I didn't say to do this. After all the KVs are transferred out, the remaining T34s will be organized into an assault group. Have all the enemy's pincer attack troops retreated?"

"According to the current intelligence, except for the 14th installation, the others are still in place," Pavlov replied.

Wang Zhong thought for a moment and said, "According to the report from the cavalry, the enemy armored forces still have considerable combat effectiveness. I think it would be a loss if we use these few hundred T34s to attack the enemy armored forces."

The 40th Tank Army was previously planned to be deployed after the enemy's supplies were exhausted and their men were exhausted - specifically, after the enemy had been trapped on the grassland for about a week before launching an attack.

But in the current situation, the enemy is about to retreat, and the original battle plan is no longer effective.

On the battlefield, plans must be modified according to the situation, and almost no combat plan is executed unchanged to the end.

Wang Zhong: "I think it would be more appropriate to use the T40s of the 34th Tank Army to reinforce a KV group and attack the enemy's infantry. While the 40th Army is arriving, we can let the artillery advance first."

Popov: "Use tanks to attack the enemy's infantry divisions? No more annihilation warfare?"

Wang Zhong: "We don't have enough time. After the enemy retreats, we will face one and a half - no, one and three-quarters of the enemy's armored divisions, as well as two armored grenadier divisions. I'm worried that we will suffer heavy losses."

Vasily couldn't help but interrupt at this time: "Our total force is not inferior to the enemy."

Wang Zhong: "But the quality of the troops is not good. Think about how much the 401st Division lost in the battle of Yeisk after only joining the battle for a short time. We should stop while we are ahead, so as not to end up losing more than we gain."

Pavlov: "So the battle plan is to use artillery and the 40th Tank Army to launch a powerful attack on the enemy infantry, seize the advantage before the enemy retreats, and then run away? Where to run? Hold on to Yeisk?"

Wang Zhong: "Yes, we need to hold out in Yeisk until Prince Myshkin's front retreats."

As soon as he finished speaking, the communications staff came running over from the distant telegraph group and shouted, "Report! Today's battlefield situation report has arrived."

Pavlov immediately took the telegram, flipped through it, and handed it to his staff officer who was responsible for updating the map. Then he said to Wang Zhong: "Myshkin has begun to retreat, faster than we expected. His staff is very efficient."

Wang Zhong clapped his hands: "Great! This way we can retreat earlier and break away from contact before suffering heavy losses."

At this time, the phone rang. Because Pavlov had just received a telegram and was a little far away from the phone, Wang Zhong picked up the phone: "This is Rokossov."

General Gorky's voice came from the receiver: "Alexei, Myshkin has begun to retreat. We should launch some offensives to support them. The 40th Tank Army is on the way. Will you make good use of it?"

Wang Zhong: "No problem, leave it to me."

(End of this chapter)