artillery arc

Chapter 425: Moravian Cavalry Finally Arrives
At the same time, the Tenth Army Headquarters.

Admiral Poke suddenly heard the sound of horse hooves outside.

He turned his head in confusion: "There are so many horse hooves, it doesn't look like a transport troop."

The logistics department of the Plossom Army still maintained a large number of mule and horse transport capacity as a supplement to the Opel trucks. However, the mule and horse transport team would not make such dense hoof sounds.

Admiral Poke was nearly sixty years old. He had certainly lived through the era before motorization, and he knew that this was the kind of noise that could only be made by a large cavalry unit marching.

"Where did the cavalry come from?" he turned and asked the chief of staff.

"The Moravian cavalry should have arrived a week ago, but they only arrived now because of the bombing of the railway station by the Ant Air Force. The High Command originally intended to use these cavalry units to reinforce us to fight against the Ant cavalry army."

Poker teased, "They arrived just in time."

The cavalry units of the Ant Army had long since retreated because they had run out of supplies, and the Tenth Army also withdrew the troops whose supply lines were easily disrupted by the cavalry, forming a fist and no longer having to worry about the cavalry units being cut off from supplies.

In other words, Moravia's cavalry was no longer useful.

At this time, two Proson officers with the emblem of the old Moravian army on their arms entered the headquarters. The one walking in front had a red collar badge - he was a lieutenant general, but Admiral Poke had no impression of him at all.

He should be a general of Moravia, and became a lieutenant general of Prosom after being merged into Prosom.

The Moravians saluted Admiral Poker.

Admiral Polk returned the salute and said, "You arrived too late. The cavalry threat has been eliminated, and the enemy cavalry has suffered heavy casualties."

The Moravian was a little embarrassed. "After we entered Ant, the train stopped many times. We had to wait for half a day or even a whole day. We had to get off the train and find ways to get grass and feed for the horses from the surrounding villages. When we were in Khasalia, it was not bad. The land was very fertile and there was strong enough natural grass on the grassland. Even if we just let the horses out to eat grass, they would not be too thin.

"The situation became worse after entering Nanant. Although the grassland looks lush, most of it is not forage grass, which is even harmful to the horses' stomachs. The ground covered with green grass has a lot of complex terrain. The horses' legs are often sprained when running, and the wear and tear of horseshoes is far greater than when we were in Khasalia!
"Our soldiers are still privately saying, what's the point of occupying this godforsaken place!"

Admiral Poker: "I think it's for the Ante industrial area on the Valdai River, their transportation lines through the inland sea, and the oil in Kuba."

Admiral Poke's detailed answer stunned Lieutenant General Moravia for a moment, and then he said awkwardly: "I was just complaining, I didn't mean to say that capturing this place is useless."

"I know." Admiral Poke nodded. "Let's talk about your mission. The enemy cavalry has retreated. We estimate that they have lost 50% of their troops and will not be able to harass us in the short term. You may have nothing to do. Can I ask how much supplies you consume in a day?"

Lieutenant General Moravia did not answer directly: "General, we have 25,000 people, and 1.5 times that number of war horses and pack horses. The amount of feed consumed by our horses every day is an astonishing number.

"However, compared to your armored forces, we are relatively energy-efficient."

At this time, the army chief of staff interrupted and said, "This should also be the reason why General Rokossov of Ant deployed the cavalry army. The cavalry relies much less on logistics than the armored forces, and even less than the fully equipped infantry units."

In fact, what the chief of staff said was biased. Ant had some infantry armies, and each division had only 5,000 people. There were no cannons and very few machine guns.

Such an infantry unit fully deserves the nickname of the Ant Infantry: gray cattle.

The Prosens have defeated countless troops like this, and the Ants have countless more.

Admiral Poke sighed: "Although you are less dependent on logistics than our armored forces, our logistics are very poor now, and we can't bear even this little new pressure. You may retreat to the rear-"

"We are here to fight." Lieutenant General Moravia interrupted Admiral Poke. "We want to prove our worth to the Empire through fighting, and then be promoted to a class of citizens of the Empire and be recognized as Aryans. Please let us fight!"

Admiral Poker stared into the Moravian's eyes. After a few seconds, he raised his hand and scratched his forehead. "Well, I am moved by your passion and loyalty. But the mission I can give you-hmm?"

Admiral Poke stopped scratching his head. He kept his hand raised and looked at the Moravians. "We have a mission for you to complete. Please come over here."

The admiral put down his hand, walked quickly to the map table, picked up the photos that had just been airdropped from the rear, picked out a few and placed them in front of the candle: "Come, please look, the Air Force has photographed a large number of Ante armored forces in Yeisk, and tomorrow the Air Force will conduct dive bombing to verify the authenticity of these tanks.

"But I guess these tanks must be protected by Ant's arrows, and the Stuka will not achieve very good results. And the horizontal bombing has a limited hit rate. In addition, bombing alone is not enough to tell whether these tanks are real or fake. After all, fake tanks may also be splashed with fuel, so they will catch fire when bombed.

"To identify these tanks, we can only do low-altitude reconnaissance, but the bastards in the Air Force won't do that. As long as there are arrows defending the place, the Air Force will never conduct low-altitude bombing. Do you understand what I mean?"

"Does that mean the air force is unreliable?" Lieutenant General Moravia asked in confusion.

"That's what I mean." The admiral waved his hand, "I want you to infiltrate the enemy's defenses, attack these tank units, and confirm whether they are real tanks!"

The Moravian frowned. "If these are real tanks, my cavalry will suffer heavy losses."

"If you want to become a true Aryan, you have to bear this sacrifice." Admiral Poke said with a straight face, in an unquestionable tone, "If you do not carry out this order, please go back. I will personally send a telegram to explain the reason for your return." Lieutenant General Moravia sighed: "Okay, let's go and scout these tanks. After we complete the mission, you must give us a good review and help us become true citizens of the empire!"

Admiral Poker: "I promise."

Lieutenant General Moravia saluted and turned to leave, but Admiral Poke stopped him and said, "Wait a minute, you don't have to leave so late at night. Leave tomorrow morning and you can have a hot meal tonight."

Suddenly, there was an explosion outside.

Lieutenant General Moravia subconsciously reacted by falling to the ground, but when he saw that no one around him moved, he stopped, but his adjutant had already fallen down.

"What is this?" asked the lieutenant general.

Admiral Poke replied calmly: "Witch, Night Witch."

The lieutenant general was shocked: "Did the Ants invest a real witch?"

"No, it's their night bomber regiment, flown by female pilots, that comes to drop bombs at this time every day."

"But I didn't hear any engine!"

The admiral pointed to the ceiling of the tent and said, "You will hear it soon. Be patient."

As if in response to the Admiral's words, the sound of an engine came from the air.

Lieutenant General Moravia cursed, probably in Moravia, which was quite different from standard Prosanglish, so Admiral Poke couldn't understand it.

Admiral: “When these witches approach our military base, they will turn off their engines and rely on the amazing aerodynamic capabilities of their aircraft to float over. So you can only hear the whizzing sound of the wings passing through the sky, as if there are witches flying on broomsticks.

"They will start the engines only after the bombing is over. The Air Force said that they will lose a lot of speed when turning, so they have to start the engines to maintain the speed and altitude of the aircraft."

At this time, Moravia, who was lying on the ground, got up and brushed the dust off his body awkwardly.

Admiral Poker: "Your adjutant is a new soldier?"

The lieutenant general nodded.

At this time, the sound of the plane's engine finally faded away, and the lieutenant general asked: "Can this attack cause much damage?"

The army chief of staff replied: "No, we shot down an enemy plane and found that it had no night observation equipment. They were looking for targets based on the flashes of anti-aircraft guns, so as long as the anti-aircraft guns fired, most of the bombs would fall around the anti-aircraft guns.

"So we figured out the best way to deal with this kind of bombing: just ignore them and use a complete blackout and no anti-aircraft guns. They were blindsided and the results of the air raids dropped sharply."

Lieutenant General Moravia smiled contemptuously: "Isn't that completely useless?"

The chief of staff replied with a serious expression: "No, some people will still be killed. For example, at the army headquarters, an average of eight people will be killed every night. This continuous casualties are a catastrophic blow to morale."

Admiral Poke added: "So it would be even better if you could destroy the witch's airport. Kill the witch and let the soldiers of the army have a good sleep. Please."

The Moravians saluted a second time.

At this time, a staff officer came in with a document: "Report, preliminary casualty statistics. Six people died tonight."

Admiral Poke: "Not bad, below average. The damage done by the Night Witches to us is not as great as that done by mosquitoes and lice! These two pests suck hundreds of kilograms of blood from our soldiers every day! Hundreds of kilograms!"

Lieutenant General Moravia didn't know what to say for a moment.

Admiral Poker waved his hand, "Well, let's go, eat and rest. I believe you have been assigned a room appropriate to your rank."

As soon as the admiral finished speaking, the orderly who had been waiting outside the tent curtain poked his head in: "We are ready, generals."

Admiral Poke gestured for permission, and the Moravian followed the orderly.

As soon as they left, the army chief of staff asked: "Isn't it a bad idea to consume them like this? Perhaps we can also use cavalry to attack Rokossov's transportation line."

Admiral Pok shook his head. "Reports from all sides mentioned that the terrain below the Nanant Steppe is rugged. It's not that I don't want to attack Rokossov's logistics, but even cavalry can easily die in this damn green hell without a guide."

(End of this chapter)