artillery arc

Chapter 616 Full of holes
Plossen Ninth Army Headquarters.

General Mendel was holding the receiver, waiting for the communications department to complete the telephone repair, when he suddenly saw the staff officer in front of him on the map put a breakthrough mark at the Shostka location.

He immediately slammed the receiver back on the landline and asked loudly: "How did Shostka get breached?"

The staff officer hurriedly explained: "This breakthrough sign means that the enemy has made some progress and captured some key positions, but it does not mean that they have been broken through."

Mendel: "So the 48th Army is confident that it can retake the lost territory?"

The staff officer was embarrassed: "Uh... Actually they are requesting reinforcements. The enemy has deployed the rumored 500mm rocket launcher, and the defense support points that could hold out yesterday have been blown up one after another.

“The 48th Army destroyed the tracks of three rocket launchers with mines and destroyed one with a magnetic anti-tank grenade, temporarily halting the enemy’s advance.

"However, the 48th Army's counterattack was blocked by the Ants. The Ants quickly used the original fortifications to kill and injure a large number of our troops."

Mendel: "Reinforce them with a Panzergrenadier Division from the 6th Panzer Corps."

"Yes. But there are reports of ANT troops being spotted on the road from the Sixth Panzer Army's base to Shostka."

Mendel: "From now on, all ambiguous reports like this should be regarded as Ant's small cavalry unit."

"Yes."

After the staff officer agreed, he went back to work. Mendel, with his hands behind his back, looked at the densely packed breakthrough marks on the defense zone map in front of him - no, it should be said that it was a mark that showed that the key position had been lost but not completely lost and there was a possibility of retaking the key position.

The actual breakthrough point probably had not been marked yet because the defending troops were scattered and could not be reported immediately.

Mendel looked at the map and said, "It's full of holes. We don't have enough troops to defend such a long front. We can only say that this is our own fault."

The army chief of staff was still busy and had no time to come over and chat with him, the commander, so his adjutant took over the conversation: "We can't abandon the occupied land and retreat voluntarily, General. The country will not allow this. Someone will question the propaganda of the Propaganda Minister."

"I know, of course I know." Mendel looked at the map, "We can only do our part. If we can hold on, we should hold on as long as possible. If we can't hold on, we should retreat as soon as possible. We can't be surrounded and annihilated like the Sixth Army."

The adjutant was shocked: "Retreat? If you retreat without orders, you will be punished by military law!"

"Calm down, no one said we should retreat. We still have an armored corps - I mean an armored corps is short of a division, so we are not helpless. Thank you to the Third Armored Corps that reinforced us last year." Mendel said and fell into deep thought again looking at the map.

At this time, the phone rang. Mendel muttered, "Is the phone repaired?" and rushed over to pick up the receiver: "Hello? Supreme Command?"

Marshal von Borg's voice came from the other end of the phone: "How is the situation over there? Your army group is the key to our entire defense line, and there can be no mistakes!"

Mendel adjusted his expression and said in a voice mixed with anxiety and anger: "We are about to be breached! You should come to my headquarters and look at the dense breakthrough signs on the map!"

The staff officers in the room couldn't help but look up at the commander. Mendel's adjutant, on the other hand, looked as if he was used to it and urged the staff officers to continue working.

Marshal von Borg: "The same goes for other troops. The good news is that I brought back newly formed infantry divisions from the High Command! I decided to allocate three to you!"

Mendel: "Three? Even if you send me six divisions, they may not be enough! But three divisions are good, it can greatly relieve our pressure, send them over quickly!"

After successfully getting reinforcements, the corners of Mendel's mouth curled up slightly, but he didn't dare show it, for fear that Marshal von Borg would change his mind.

However, the marshal was silent for a few seconds before he said, "Mendel, I thought it would be better to tell you the truth. The infantry divisions I brought back were the 15th and 16th waves of infantry divisions formed after the general mobilization began. Their artillery used captured Carolingian artillery. Some divisions did not even have enough machine guns and had to use captured Chauchat light machine guns."

Mendel's expression froze: "What?"

"The reinforcements given to you are the 15th wave of infantry divisions, which are poorly equipped," Marshal von Borg said again.

Mendel held his forehead with his hand. "Hasn't the general mobilization started? How come we can't even equip ourselves with light weapons? Where is the industrial capacity that we are so proud of?"

"It was blown up by the Allied bombing," said Field Marshal von Borg.

He was actually joking here. As a long-established industrial power, Prosun resumed production very quickly.

The Allied bombing did have some impact on Plossom's production capacity, but it was not as deadly as the Allies themselves estimated.

The supply is insufficient now because the military has been expanded too much at once, far exceeding the increased industrial capacity - after all, while arming new troops, the troops on the front line also need to replenish their equipment.

Mendel: "Send the troops here, I'll see where I can use them. These divisions should have enough combat backbones, right?"

"Of course," von Borg assured immediately, "most of the wounded soldiers transferred from your troops have joined these new troops."

Mendel muttered quietly: "If we return these combat backbones to us, maybe there won't be so many breakthrough marks on the map."

"What did you say?" demanded Marshal von Borg.

Mendel: "I think the general is right." Von Borg: "Good luck to you, General Mendel. Also, His Majesty is very busy, so don't bother calling him."

"Yes." Mendel said reluctantly, and the other party hung up the phone.

Mendel put down the receiver, shook his head and cursed: "I've lost this side. I'm afraid that Ant's cavalry will follow the telephone line to find your headquarters. Now the entire Central Army Group is leaderless!"

The adjutant asked with concern: "How is it?"

Mendel: "That's terrible. Send us a few divisions of reinforcements."

"Isn't this great?" the adjutant was overjoyed.

Mendel: "But these divisions are the 15th wave of troops, and they are already short of equipment. Some units don't have enough machine guns and can only use the Carolingian Chauchat machine guns."

The adjutant immediately frowned. "Chauchat machine gun? That useless light machine gun? As a machine gun, it has to control the firing rate to avoid malfunctions?"

Mendel: "Yes. The old soldiers often break down when using it, and the new soldiers may break down before they finish firing their first round. Let's wish the troops who use it the best of luck."

Adjutant: "Damn it, how did the empire become like this!"

Mendel said nothing, but stared at the map.

After a long while, he said, "I can't just sit there and wait for death. I can't just pull the armored forces I have now to fill the line. No. The tank combat readiness rate of the Third Armored Army is very high. We must use this fresh force to mop up those Ante troops that have broken through the defense line."

Mendel picked up the map stick and poked the tip of it on the map. "Order the Third Armored Army to move to this position and deploy along this line."

The tip of the map stick drew a horizontal line on the map.

"Then attack here, attack all the way along the road, defeat all the Ante troops you encounter, move here and turn around, sweeping everything along another road.

"After launching this inverted V-shaped offensive, we can wipe out most of the Ante troops that have broken through to our rear."

Mendel said and looked at the adjutant.

Adjutant: "The entire operation can be completed in three days, I mean, if the attack goes smoothly."

Mendel: "The enemy only deployed the new rocket launcher on the second day of the attack, and there has been no report of the rumored new heavy tanks so far. This shows that the new weapons are mainly on Rokossov's side and should not encounter much resistance.

"It's settled. Even if the counterattack fails, it's better than sitting there and waiting to die. The Ants are now like a group of ants, trying to bite our elephant to death by biting more. We can't let them do that."

----

On the same day, the headquarters of the First Khazaria Front, far away from the central battlefield.

Wang Zhong: "General Gorky's attack won't really crush the enemy, will it?"

Pavlov: "Don't worry. The offensive has only been going on for two days. If they really want to collapse, they won't do so quickly. At least today, the enemy's reconnaissance operations in front of us are still continuing. It doesn't look like the offensive plan has changed."

Vasily: "If Gorky's attack is successful, can we avoid defensive counterattacks and directly launch a pincer attack to destroy the enemy's heavy troops near Oril?"

Wang Zhong: "You can give it a try. We haven't wiped out a large number of enemies when they are in full condition. Of course, I personally don't care much about fairness. I think annihilating the enemy is annihilating the enemy, whether the enemy is in full condition or exhausted. It is annihilation."

Popov: "Who wants to fight them fairly? They didn't show any fairness when they attacked us."

Wang Zhong: "Of course, in order not to miss the opportunity to attack, I'll personally investigate in two days, so that we can determine whether the enemy has transferred its troops. If we find that the enemy in Olier has decreased, we will attack immediately.

"The troops originally deployed in front of Oriel to prepare for defense have also been deployed to attack."

Pavlov: "Okay, I will improve the original counterattack plan and create a new plan, a plan for an all-out attack."

Popov: "I wanted to continue the counterattack, but now it's become an active attack, which is more inspiring than the counterattack."

Wang Zhong: "Yes. Of course, the premise is that General Gorky makes progress. If the enemy blocks the attack and the number of enemies in front of us does not decrease, then we will continue to implement the original plan."

"There is another possibility," Pavlov said, "the enemy has put the originally prepared reserve troops on General Gorky's side, and at the same time has not given up attacking us. This situation is the best for us."

Wang Zhong frowned, "No way? Wouldn't this make the enemy caught in a dilemma? The reserve troops have all been sent to the center, which means Gorky's attack is very effective. We should decisively stop the offensive, switch to defense, and concentrate our forces to deal with the breakthrough in the center."

He stopped and thought about it carefully, then shook his head: "No, this can't be done. Unless the enemy has lost their minds and has lost their judgment, this won't happen."

(End of this chapter)