artillery arc

Chapter 419 Destruction
Carl was stunned by the white smoke that exploded at his position.

His first reaction was that it was an enemy artillery fire, but he immediately realized that blocking the enemy's view would do no good at all.

If Rokossov was really the famous general as rumored, he would not make such a mistake.

This must be supporting fire from friendly forces.

He immediately picked up the microphone and shouted, "This is friendly fire. Friendly forces are supporting us! After the enemy's long-range firepower is blocked, prepare to destroy the advancing enemy tank forces!"

That's right, even in such an environment, Major General Karl still believed that he could destroy the rushing T34 - the premise was to cut off the long-range firepower of the enemy assault gun.

The commander of the armored battalion responded: "Understood, General! We still have 17 long-barreled Panzer IVs, which is enough to deal with these T34s!"

Just as he finished speaking, Major General Karl saw a T34 being hit. Sparks flew when the shell penetrated the front armor of the vehicle. The next moment the tank caught fire. The Ant tank soldier, covered in flames, jumped out of the tank and rolled on the ground.

Major General Karl was overjoyed: "Destroy them! Quickly!"

----

Kosikov was in his tank, brows furrowed.

The 40th Tank Army was different from Rokossov's First Mobile Army. It had very few radio equipment. In this smoke-shrouded battlefield, Kosikov had no idea what his troops had encountered or what the situation was.

He could only try his best to imagine the situation on the battlefield from the communications of the platoon command tanks.

Suddenly, a clear voice came from the headset. Kosikov recognized it as the commander of the 41st Battalion of the 1st Tank Regiment: "The enemy only has a dozen long-barreled Panzer IVs, only a dozen! Charge forward, and if that doesn't work, ram them!"

Kosikov frowned. It sounds like the situation is not good?

How could this be?
Only then did he notice that the rumbling sound of the tank's firing had disappeared.

He looked at the tank destroyer positions in confusion and found that they were moving.

Then Kosikov finally noticed that the enemy's smoke screen had intensified and the tank destroyer's vision was blocked.

He immediately turned his head to look at the high ground where the commanders of the 1st Mobile Army were, and saw Yegorov giving orders.

Kosikov picked up the receiver, adjusted the frequency, and called out loudly: "Kosikov calling Yegorov, Kosikov calling Yegorov!"

He saw the signalman hand the walkie-talkie to Yegorov, and the next moment the commander of the 1st Guards Mechanized Infantry Division looked over.

"I'm Yegorov, go ahead."

"My troops are in a bad situation. The enemy seems to be attacking my soldiers! Think of a solution quickly!"

Yegorov's answer came immediately through the headset: "Let them release the smoke."

"We are not equipped with smoke bombs!"

Yegorov was silent for a few seconds and then said, "Then how do you deal with the enemy's advantage in long-range firepower?"

"No, in fact, if you have driven a T34, you will know that when we attack, we often cannot see where the enemy is. Even if smoke is needed, it is provided by artillery!"

Yegorov: "Don't worry, order your troops to retreat into the smoke. We will be able to outflank and kill the enemy once we are in position."

Kosikov's face was livid: "We don't have enough radio equipment. I repeat, we don't have enough radio equipment. In this chaotic battle, it is impossible for all tanks to execute the retreat order in unison!"

Yegorov's curse came from the radio: "Sukha! Why haven't radios been distributed to every vehicle? How many long-barreled Type 4s do the enemy have?"

Obviously, Yegorov was also very clear that only the long-barreled Type 34 could completely offset the armor advantage of the T.

"I don't know, they said there were more than a dozen of them. My battalion commander ordered a ramming of these Proson tanks! But I don't know the effect!"

Yegorov was silent for a few seconds before he replied, "Then I wish you good luck."

Kosikov pursed his lips, his expression serious. He was about to answer when Yegorov suddenly said, "Wait a minute, the reinforcements sent to us by the army headquarters have arrived!"

Kosikov looked back and saw a lot of smoke and dust on the Eastern Highway, obviously a team of tanks were advancing.

Yegorov continued, "It was a battle group composed of the tank units and repaired tanks directly under the army led by Lieutenant Colonel Zinov. They are all veterans! And they have smoke bombs! There must be smoke bombs!"

Kosikov was overjoyed. Although he could only see the smoke rising from the tanks, he still pounded the turret of the command tank and shouted, "Great! Let them fight!"

"I'll order them forward now! Let your troops hold on!"

----

Car No. 40233 commanded by Captain Semyon was hit.

After the dizziness caused by the impact wore off, he felt a hot breeze on his back, and when he turned around he saw a huge fire in the turret.

The loader sat on the fire, completely dead. The smell of burning human flesh hit Captain Semyon's nostrils.

At this time, Xie Miao heard the sound of the driver opening the hatch. It was obvious that the driver was still alive and had made a correct judgment on the condition of the tank.

The captain immediately pushed open the turret cover and tried to climb out of the tank, but suddenly found that he had no strength in his lower body.

He looked down and saw that his pants were covered in blood.

At this moment, Captain Xie Miao knew that he could not get out.

He looked forward through the scope, where photos of his wife and daughter were inserted in the slits of the scope. Both were smiling at him.

At that moment, the captain made up his mind.

He struggled to climb into the driver's seat with both hands and pushed hard on the control stick. Although the turret was on fire, the engine and transmission responded to Captain Semyon's operation.

He pressed his eyes to the driver's observation window, trying to find the Plosson tank that was firing -

Then he rushed forward in the burning tank.

The engine and gearbox roared, and the T34 seemed to have become a part of Captain Semyon, and it also had a last burst of vitality.

Captain Semyon shouted the name of Saint Andrew, hoping to receive divine guidance to keep the tank's engine working for a while longer.

Suddenly, his chosen target turned the cannon around.

The next moment, car No. 40233 was hit again.

It was not known whether it was the engine or the gearbox that made the bad noise, but Captain Xie Miao, who was not familiar with the driving position, did not know what it meant.

He could only shout: "General Rokossov! Protect me! Mother Ant, protect me!"

The engine noise became louder, but the tank was still moving forward!

It seemed as if something was really answering Captain Semyon's prayers.

Just a little bit closer!
However, the enemy tank shifted into reverse gear and began to retreat.

At that moment, Captain Semyon was seized by despair.

With a loud and crisp sound, the tank's gearbox finally couldn't hold on. No. 40233 slowly stopped, and Captain Xie Miao also leaned forward on the two joysticks.

With his eyes still glued to the observation window, he could see the enemy tanks gradually pulling away.

The enemy's gun was aimed at the cab.

In the blink of an eye, a shell flying from the side hit the enemy. Amidst the flying sparks, the enemy tank suddenly stopped retreating.

Then, Captain Semyon saw the tank driver Proshen climb out of the tank skillfully and was about to jump into the grass to hide.

The machine gun swept over.

Xie Miao saw that the enemy driver was hit in the foot and fell headfirst into the grass like a green onion.

He also saw the mechanic operator get out of the car and try to run behind the tank, but was hit in the back by a bullet.

The loader who came out of the side door of the turret was shivering in the shadow of the tank, while the gunner who came out of the other side of the turret was not so lucky as his shoulder was shattered by a machine gun.

Immediately afterwards, the second shell hit Tank No. 4, causing the tank to burst into flames. Prosen's tank commander did not have time to climb out of the tank and screamed on the turret.

Captain Xie Miao was speechless. He stared at the burning No. 4 with a slight smile on his face.

He just left with a smile on his face, without seeing the scene where Lieutenant Colonel Zinov's tanks rushed to the enemy tanks, used the wreckage as cover, and opened fire continuously.

----

Major General Karl heard someone shouting on the radio: "Enemy reinforcements are coming! Enemy reinforcements!"

He quickly put the microphone close to his mouth: "What's going on? How many reinforcements have arrived?"

"I don't know!" The battalion commander who had just patted his chest and promised that he could destroy Ant's advancing tanks said in a shaken voice, "We are almost losing all our long-barreled Type 4s! Retreat, General! If we don't retreat, we will be in trouble when the enemy surrounds us. We can't defeat those assault guns with only Type 3s!"

Major General Karl was shocked: "Okay, retreat immediately. I repeat, retreat immediately!"

At this moment, as if guided by God, Major General Karl suddenly turned his head and looked to the flank.

He saw smoke.

Moreover, the grass was relatively low, so he could clearly see a low-riding assault gun speeding through the shallow grass.

Then all the assault guns turned in unison, and one could tell from the movement that they all had radios.

At that moment, Major General Karl's heart skipped a beat, but he still comforted himself: these assault guns were almost two kilometers away from him, and they should not be able to directly hit the tanks of the division headquarters.

Major General Karl saw the flash.

This scene reminded him of the salvo of 88 guns from the anti-aircraft battalion.

Before the sound of artillery fire was heard, armor-piercing shells whizzed in.

The wingman of Major General Karl's command vehicle suddenly caught fire. The tankmen, covered in flames, jumped out of the tank, rolling on the ground and screaming.

The major general broke out in a cold sweat and his entire scalp was numb.

It's over. The enemy's assault gun can penetrate Type 3 at a distance of two kilometers!
No, even the new tanks that were highly anticipated could be penetrated by this thing at a distance of more than one kilometer. It was not surprising that the Type 3 was penetrated - especially since the commander of the Type 3 was originally an old model.

Major General Karl finally realized that he should run, but the second wave of flashes had already appeared in his field of vision.

Major General Karl's consciousness stopped at this moment.

He felt no pain, nor could he hear his adjutant's exclamations.

By the time his adjutant dragged him out of the burning tank, most of his body had been burnt, and even the cross emblem he was so proud of was burnt black.

(End of this chapter)