artillery arc

Chapter 624 The storm is coming
At 0200 on the second day of the offensive, the 24rd Guards Tank Corps of the st Khazaria Front, the th Guards Tank Brigade, was in the vanguard.

"Brigade Commander!" The brigade chief of staff knocked hard on the turret cover of the brigade commander's vehicle, "Brigade Commander!"

The turret cover opened, and the brigade commander poked his head out, yawning: "What's going on, Mikhail?"

"Engine sound!"

The brigade commander was startled and all sleepiness disappeared. He raised his head and indeed heard the sound of an engine in the night sky.

After a brief listening, he cursed: "The half-track vehicles of Plosson's men may be enemy reconnaissance troops. Why didn't our troops open fire?"

The brigade chief of staff said: "Maybe they didn't understand the situation either."

"Damn it, our half-tracks are all at the brigade headquarters! Let them fire!" The brigade commander suddenly stopped.

He remembered that he was in a tank. Since the United States provided a radio production line last year, the brigade command tanks were equipped with high-power radios. So he picked up the microphone, turned on the radio and started calling: "This is the brigade headquarters. The engine sound now must be the enemy. Open fire at will!"

The Ante Armored Forces do not have half-track vehicles because the production capacity of tracked vehicles is too precious. They are either used to produce tanks and self-propelled artillery or to build tractors. There is no time to produce half-track vehicles.

The M3 half-track vehicles imported from the United States are good stuff that can only be used on a large scale by troops like the First Mobile Army. The 24th Close Tank Brigade only has eight of them, all of which are assigned to the brigade's reconnaissance battalion. They should have no missions now.

Then the engine sound can only be the sdkfz half-track vehicle of the Proson people.

A few seconds after the brigade commander's speech, the sound of artillery and machine guns rang out.

The night that originally enveloped the earth was illuminated one after another by the flashes of artillery fire and tracer bullets fired by machine guns.

The battle lasted about twenty minutes.

The radio came with a report from the battalion that had engaged the enemy: "Brigade Commander, we have repelled the enemy!"

Brigade Commander: "Are there any losses?"

"Some crew members who did not spend the night on the tank were injured, but it's not a big problem."

Since Rokossov reformed the organization of the armored forces, the armored forces of the ANT Army will also bring some reserve personnel.

These personnel are generally experienced tank drivers. When they do not need to be added to other crews, they are mainly responsible for driving tractors and maintenance vehicles and acting as tank maintenance personnel.

Once there are casualties in the combat vehicle crew, these veterans will take over.

Brigade Commander: "It's too dark. Don't pursue them. Stay overnight as planned and see what happens at dawn."

"Yes, Brigadier."

----

A few more hours passed.

Wang Zhong had only slept for less than five hours when he suddenly sat up.

He was sitting there trying to wake himself up, and Lyudmila patted his waist and said, "Don't be so nervous. If there was a real emergency, Pavlov would have woken you up right away."

"The enemy should react today. How can I sleep well?" Wang Zhong said as he stood up and put on his clothes.

Nellie seemed to hear the sound in the room and immediately opened the door and came in, holding a basin of hot water and a wet towel in her hands.

Wang Zhong: "Thank you. Was there any movement at the headquarters in the middle of the night?"

Nellie: "No, Chief of Staff Pavlov also went to rest around 2 o'clock. I think everything went well last night."

Lyudmila also stood up: "See, I told you it's okay."

Wang Zhong put on his clothes, wiped his face with a hot towel, then ran out of the room and ran towards the headquarters.

Lyudmila sighed, "Last night, after he fell asleep, he started giving orders, 'Alexander, turn the turret fifteen degrees right.'"

Nellie: "After I came down from the front, I often dreamed about the situation at the front and the enemy coming to attack at night."

Lyudmila: "I didn't dream about these things. Maybe it's because I didn't fight the enemy face to face."

"Isn't there one in Upper Peniye?" Nellie asked doubtfully.

Lyudmila: "In Upper Peniye, we were pinned down in a house by enemy tanks. The situation was quite dangerous, but no Prosen entered close combat distance. I am Praying Hands, and I am always well protected. I wanted to go to the front before, but you, Nellie, stopped me."

Nellie: "Praying hands should not be on the front line. It is neither reasonable nor logical."

After another year of fighting, the number of prayer hands like Lyudmila has been reduced to one percent of the number before the war. In the past, the God's Arrow Team with prayer hands could be deployed to the division level, and there were often organizations like the God's Arrow Company, with many prayer hands in one company.

But now the Praying Hands are basically used individually, and are often deployed at key hubs at the front level to perform air defense tasks.

Lyudmila stared at Nellie's face and sighed softly: "Last winter, when you were fighting on the other side of the river, I often dreamed that you were getting farther and farther away from me. You all threw yourself into the furnace of war, but I stood outside the furnace."

Nellie: "You are here now, with us."

Lyudmila did not answer.

----

Wang Zhong entered the headquarters and found Pavlov already there drinking coffee, so he asked, "Nelly said you didn't go to bed until two o'clock, is that okay?"

Pavlov: "There's coffee, no problem. When the war is over, we'll all have plenty of time to rest as much as we want."

Wang Zhong seemed to be hesitant to speak, and finally turned to ask Vasily: "Where's the coffee?" "Nelly has already made it. It's here." Vasily came over with a coffee pot and a cup and filled Wang Zhong's cup.

Wang Zhong took a sip and his brows were twisted into a knot because of the bitterness.

Vasily: "Judging from your expression, it must be effective."

As soon as the voice fell, the signalman ran into the room: "Report on the situation this morning."

Pavlov immediately took the report and read it quickly.

Wang Zhong continued to drink coffee, and his mind became clearer with each sip of the bitter coffee.

About five minutes later, Pavlov handed the report to his staff to update the map, and turned to Wang Zhong and said, "Last night, a team of enemy light armored reconnaissance battalions encountered the 24th Guards Brigade under the rd Guards Tank Army.

"After a brief exchange of fire, the enemy retreated. The 24th Tank Brigade did not understand the situation clearly, so they did not pursue them. At dawn around 19 a.m., they counted the wreckage left by the enemy, identified the markings on the wreckage, and confirmed that the enemy was a light reconnaissance unit of the th Armored Division of the rd Armored Corps."

Wang Zhong: "It looks like the enemy is going to counterattack. The Third Armored Army, our intelligence originally indicated that they were deployed here..."

As he said this, he picked up the map stick and poked the map in front of him.

Pavlov: "Judging from the distance, the enemy began to mobilize yesterday afternoon."

Wang Zhong: "It seems that in the afternoon, they realized that they could not stop our breakthrough, so they began to mobilize troops."

Pavlov: "According to the enemy's previous mobilization speed, the counterattack will be launched between 2 and 3 this afternoon."

He raised his hand and looked at his watch. "If we launch a counterattack at three o'clock, there will be more than six hours until sunset. The enemy has plenty of time to fight several tank battles."

Wang Zhong: "Send out reconnaissance aircraft - no, not just reconnaissance aircraft, but all aircraft that mainly fight at low altitudes, such as the Yak and the Il-series, which are now in short supply, to confirm the location of the enemy's large armored vehicle forces and provide early warning for our tank units."

The Il-series in this time and space has had its equipment greatly reduced in number after Wang Zhong's active intervention, but a portion has been retained, mainly using cluster rockets to attack the enemy's soft targets.

In fact, this is also the most effective attack method of the Il series on Earth.

Pavlov immediately picked up the phone and gave the order.

Wang Zhongze watched the staff officers update the map.

At this time, Emilia came in and said as soon as she saw Wang Zhong: "When I was covering Pei 2 in bombing the enemy's logistics station, I saw an armored unit marching on the grassland. The location was 20 kilometers east of Bariyang."

Wang Zhong glanced at the map: "In front of the First Guards Tank Army, the estimated time of contact with the First Army..."

"Five hours." Pavlov had already given the order and immediately reported the time he had calculated in his mind after he put down the phone. "Considering that the enemy will need time to regroup and refuel after arriving, we will start the counterattack around 3 p.m."

Emilia: "On our way back, we saw a lot of smoke at 3000 meters in the sky. The enemy will definitely launch a large-scale counterattack today."

Wang Zhong: “We have anticipated this.”

Popov added: "The tank troops are eager to fight. Ever since they switched to the T34W, they have been wanting to compete with Prosen. Now they have the chance."

Wang Zhong: "It's a pity that we used the T34W to counter the enemy's long-barreled Panzer IV. Our new medium tanks couldn't catch up no matter how hard we tried."

Pavlov: "I am now worried that if the enemy's new tanks are deployed in large numbers, our guerrilla comrades will report that they will cause us heavy casualties."

Wang Zhong nodded.

Although he knew that the first time the Panthers on Earth were deployed on the battlefield, they failed to reach the front line due to mechanical failures and driving into their own minefields, but there was no guarantee that the Panthers in this time and space would repeat the same mistakes.

Although the T34W has a big head, its gun is still a 76mm gun. Although it is equipped with new armor-piercing shells, it still has a hard time dealing with the Panther.

Of course, Wang Zhong also made a contingency plan. If the Leopard tanks were really deployed on the battlefield on a large scale, he was prepared to use the Rokossov Type 1 heavy tanks in his hands as a fire brigade - just like Sandezi on Earth used the Tiger tanks as a fire brigade.

As for the actual situation, we can only find out after we confront the enemy at three o'clock in the afternoon.

----

At the same time, the 51st Armored Battalion of the Ampura Armored Division of the Asgard Knights of the Plosson Army.

This armored battalion was reinforced to the Ampura Armored Division in early June and is equipped with 6 of the latest "Phase V tanks".

His Majesty the Emperor has high hopes for this battalion and the Type 5 tanks they are equipped with, so he personally appointed Lieutenant Colonel Otto, the current number one ace of the Plossen Armored Forces, to command this battalion.

However, at this time, Lieutenant Colonel Otto frowned and said, "Sixty vehicles to be repaired?"

"Yes." The battalion maintenance captain nodded. "The new tank's running mechanism obviously has some problems. We have completed the repair of ten vehicles so far, and the faults are all in the same place."

Lieutenant Colonel Otto: "When will the remaining 50 be repaired?"

The captain said bitterly, "It's hard to say. The staggered road wheels on the new tanks are very troublesome to remove. Even if we know where the fault is, it will take more than five hours to remove and install the road wheels. Taking into account other miscellaneous maintenance procedures, seven hours to repair one is considered fast. We can repair three tanks at the same time."

Lieutenant Colonel Otto: "You mean, at most ten vehicles can be repaired a day?"

"That's the best case scenario." The captain shrugged. "New tanks are difficult to repair. I don't understand why the mature suspension system of the Panzer IV is not used directly?"

Lieutenant Colonel Otto sighed, "Our designers have their own considerations! Repair them as soon as possible! Can the remaining 46 be put into combat?"

"Yes, I mean, for now. As for how many of them can reach the enemy, that's hard to say."

(End of this chapter)