artillery arc

Chapter 402 Rokossov's Prediction
At eight o'clock in the morning of the 19th, Wang Zhong heard the roar of tanks outside. He changed his view and saw the vanguard brigade of the 40th Tank Army approaching in a mighty manner.

After switching back, he gestured to Pavlov and Popov: "The 40th Tank Army should be here. Let's go out to greet them and see how many tanks have been damaged."

Popov: "I think one-fifth of it is broken?"

"Based on our previous experience with long-distance maneuvers, one-fifth. However, they probably don't have as good maintenance as we do, so I guess one-third," said Pavlov.

Wang Zhong: "Then I can only bet half."

Everyone else laughed, and Wang Zhong couldn't help laughing too. Apparently, no one thought there would be so many non-combat losses.

After laughing, Wang Zhong made a gesture, then took the lead and led everyone towards the gate.

Just as he walked out of the warehouse gate, he saw a T34 tank with a flag flying, driving in. Its tactical number was 4022. Wang Zhong always felt that this tactical number was also a way to get his No. 422 seat.

Although the number 40 should mean the 40th Tank Army, the subsequent numbers are simply serial numbers, and there may be tactical numbers such as 40122 later.

After tank No. 4022 came to a complete stop, the turret hatch opened and a tank soldier in a general's uniform came out. He took off his anti-collision tank cap, put on an officer's peaked cap, jumped off the tank, straightened his clothes, and then walked towards Wang Zhong.

When he came to Wang Zhong, he saluted and said loudly: "Greetings to you, General Rokossov! The 40th Tank Army has arrived!"

Wang Zhong returned the salute and then asked, "Is this the only force in the 40th Tank Army?"

The commander of the 40th Army turned his head and looked at him, then corrected him awkwardly: "The vanguard of the 40th Army has arrived."

Pavlov stepped forward and asked, "How many tanks were lost on the march?"

Army Commander: "The vanguard unit I led, the 112th Tank Brigade, was organized with 70 T34s, but 41 actually arrived."

Pavlov turned around and looked at Wang Zhong: "Commander, you really won the bet."

Wang Zhong: “I can’t be happy at all.”

He turned to the commander of the 40th Army and switched on the plug-in to see the commander's name - in fact, he could have seen it by looking at the organizational table before, but he thought Ant's name was too long and was too lazy to read it. Anyway, there was a plug-in.

Wang Zhong: "General Kosikov, your tank brigade has lost half its men before it even reaches the battlefield. How are you going to fight the enemy?"

"The grass is too difficult to walk on, and our support force is insufficient." Kosikov defended, "Also, the quality of the new tanks is very poor, it's really not our fault."

Wang Zhong wanted to say something, but Popov smoothed things over: "General, you just lost half of your bet, which shows that you also expected this situation."

Bullshit, I just chose half of it after you guys had chosen all the others!

Wang Zhong's actual prediction was also based on the losses incurred by his own troops when they entered here, so it was similar to the estimates of Popov and Pavlov.

I didn't expect that a tank brigade could actually break down 40% of its tanks.

Wait a minute, Wang Zhong suddenly thought of something: a considerable number of the tanks that broke down in the mobile army were replaced recently.

So he asked Kosikov: "Among your damaged tanks, are most of them new tanks that have just been delivered to the place not long ago?"

Kosikov frowned: "I really didn't notice... Barlev!"

Soon a colonel who looked a bit bookish came running over: "Hello, General, what can I do for you?" Kosikov: "We have broken tanks, are there many new tanks?"

Barlev: "I have reported to you that the reason why so many tanks broke down may be that the quality of the new tanks is not up to standard. I came to this conclusion because two-thirds of the tanks that broke down were new tanks, and all of them had engine problems."

Pavlov looked at Wang Zhong and said, "It seems that this is the case. Although a series of measures have been taken, the decline in equipment quality has not been prevented."

Popov nodded. "If that's the case, then there should be a lot of reports from the entire army."

Barlev: "Before that, can you send rescue forces to tow over all the tanks we left behind along the way? Some tanks have normal running mechanisms, but only broken engines, so they can be towed."

Wang Zhong looked at Pavlov, and the chief of staff shook his head. "Although we have a lot of tractors, we can't tow so many at once. It will probably take a week to tow all the stranded tanks back."

Wang Zhong took over Pavlov's words and said, "That's it for now. When all four of your armored brigades arrive, gather them together and form an assault group."

Kosikov saluted: "Yes, form an assault group. Then what?"

Wang Zhong: "Then, while the enemy is still unable to react, we will attack the remaining three enemy infantry divisions in front of us with the support of artillery."

Kosikov was immediately overjoyed: "Yes! We will complete the mission! We will lead 100 KVs as the vanguard to raid the enemy's position!"

Pavlov coughed and said, "Regarding the 100 KVs, we have decided to distribute them among the various units and use them in a dispersed manner. Rokossov believes that 100 KVs are too concentrated and will hinder logistics capabilities."

Kosikov was shocked: "Are you going to take away my 100 KVs? I don't see why this is necessary! The KV does have a high failure rate, but if the failure rate is high, shouldn't we concentrate more of them? That way, more tanks will rush to the Prosen people!"

Wang Zhong was also surprised. Is there such an idea? Needless to say, this idea is quite deceptive.

Maybe the Russians on Earth really thought so at first, but it didn't work in the end.

Wang Zhong: "How can it be calculated like this? The real situation is this: your support capability can ensure that 21 tanks can rush to the enemy. No matter how many you pile, in the end, 21 tanks will rush to the enemy, because the extra tanks are not adequately protected and will break down on the road.

"So we should deploy as many tanks as we can, rather than simply piling up the numbers. Piling up the numbers will easily drag down our already weak support capabilities and flatten them. We could originally guarantee 21 tanks to engage the enemy, but now we can only guarantee 15!"

Kosikov's eyes widened: "It does seem to make sense!"

Wang Zhong: "This is the truth! The war we fight depends on our logistical capabilities. Modern warfare is a war of logistics. Do you understand?"

"I understand!" Kosikov said loudly - probably because Wang Zhong raised his voice just now.

At this time, a lieutenant ran over and whispered something in Barlev's ear.

Wang Zhong: "What's going on? Feel free to tell me."

Barlev glanced at Kosikov, then reported loudly: "We just received a report from the heavy tank brigade that the number of broken-down tanks has reached 55, and the other tanks have also had some minor problems. They plan to stop and repair the tanks and set off again at dawn."

Popov looked at Wang Zhong and said, "You are really good at predicting things."

Wang Zhong wanted to curse in his heart.

(End of this chapter)