artillery arc

Chapter 641: Tanks roar in the wilderness

Lieutenant Colonel Fein returned to his heavy armored battalion.

The brand new Type 6 heavy tank is ready to go.

The lieutenant colonel asked the battalion chief of staff who came to greet him, "What's the situation?"

"The enemy's reconnaissance plane flew over us for the first time and was driven away by the accompanying anti-aircraft battalion."

Fein's heavy battalion received special care. It was not only equipped with high-quality infantry and motorized reconnaissance units, but also with an anti-aircraft battalion equipped with Panzer IV tanks and anti-aircraft vehicles.

This air defense vehicle, nicknamed the "furniture car", is the latest self-propelled anti-aircraft gun of the Plossen Army. The newer "Cyclone" self-propelled anti-aircraft gun has not yet been equipped in large quantities.

Lieutenant Colonel Finn was shocked: "Our gathering has been exposed. Today's attack will not be easy."

"But we have a brand new Panzer VI! Even the enemy's vortex tank destroyer and the turtle-like new heavy tank can't penetrate the new Panzer VI head-on!" The chief of staff said confidently, "This is specially strengthened to counter the enemy's 100mm gun!"

Lieutenant Colonel Finn nodded. "Yes, after the reinforcement, the combat weight is close to 12 tons. It takes 18 to hours to replace the wheels after breaking a few wheels when moving to the offensive assembly point! Our new tanks are really amazing."

Because the sarcasm was so obvious, the chief of staff hesitated, not knowing whether he should continue the conversation.

Lieutenant Colonel Finn skipped the topic himself: "I want to attack personally, let the captain of car 202 give me the seat."

The chief of staff was shocked: "Are you going to attack in person? Why?"

Lieutenant Colonel Finn looked at the horizon and was silent for a few seconds before answering, "It reminds me of my youthful ambitions."

"What?" the chief of staff asked in confusion.

Lieutenant Colonel Finn: "Only a loyal chariot will give us a steel grave."

The Chief of Staff still didn't understand: "Do you want me to gather everyone to sing together?"

Lieutenant Colonel Fane: "You are a typical Plosson, my good Chief of Staff."

The chief of staff smiled and said, "Thank you. I grew up in my family's manor when I was a child, but later the manor was sold to a large landowner, and we moved to Brandenburg and became city residents. But I have always held myself to the standards of traditional Junker nobility!"

Lieutenant Colonel Finn nodded: "It is a blessing for Plosson to have a soldier like you. It is a misfortune for Plosson to have a soldier like me."

The chief of staff, who originally wanted to continue to show his loyalty, was suddenly embarrassed.

Lieutenant Colonel Finn: "Go and pass the order. No, I will go to car 202 myself."

After saying that, he turned around and strode towards the group of tanks that had already formed an attack formation, and directly found vehicle No. 202.

The commander saw Lieutenant Colonel Finn coming and climbed out of the turret and asked, "Lieutenant Colonel, are you planning to personally lead the attack after such a long absence?"

"Yes." The lieutenant colonel climbed onto the tank, took the headphones from the commander and put them on. The horizontal bar of the headphones pressed down on his wide-brimmed hat.

He got into the turret, looked back at the armored battalion ready to go, and then, like Officer Plosson in the propaganda photo, he picked up the microphone and ordered: "Attention, all battalions, tanks, move forward!"

The roar of the engine had already been hovering over the assembly area, and now it sounded like thunder rolling across the grassland.

The original commander of vehicle No. 202 jumped out of the vehicle, stood by and saluted the lieutenant colonel, watching the tank slowly start.

At this moment, the roar of engines was heard in the sky, and several bombers of the Ant Air Force dived down from the sky.

The accompanying "furniture truck" began to open fire, and anti-aircraft artillery shells continued to blast black clouds in the air.

The Ante Air Force dropped bombs in advance, and the bombs blew up tall mud pillars in the tank formation.

Lieutenant Colonel Finn: "Has anyone been shot?"

"A bomb landed right next to me, Captain. I guess I'll have to recalibrate my scope, but otherwise it's OK."

Lieutenant Colonel Finn: "It's not too late to calibrate when we encounter the enemy. Forward!"

Someone shouted excitedly on the radio: "Today we will let the turtle shells of the Ants know how powerful we are!"

The Ante turtle shell that has recently caused the Proson Armored Forces a lot of trouble has a relatively short shell and is indeed not as "tall and mighty" as the Type 6 tank.

Lieutenant Colonel Finn did not respond, but just listened to everyone chattering excitedly on the radio.

Car No. 202 roared forward.

……

An hour later, a lot of dust appeared ahead.

Lieutenant Colonel Fein picked up the microphone and said, "Dust appears ahead, prepare to engage the enemy!"

"It's already been prepared!"

"I won the first victory of the Panzer VI!"

Lieutenant Colonel Finn raised his telescope and looked ahead.

According to the intelligence obtained from the Armored Corps Headquarters, after several days of fierce fighting, the enemy's Rokossov Type 1 heavy tanks should not be able to move much.

Lieutenant Colonel Finn hoped that this time he would encounter a T34. The Panzer VI could crush it without any pressure. Last year, the old Panzer VI was very effective in the summer campaign, using Ante's T34 and KV as targets.

The new Type VI tank, with all its data comprehensively improved compared to the old design, will surely achieve even more exaggerated combat results.

Lieutenant Colonel Fein held up a telescope and observed patiently, and finally saw the outline of the enemy tank.

Something was wrong. Lieutenant Colonel Fane put down the telescope, rubbed his eyes, and raised it again.

The silhouette of the enemy tank looks nothing like the T34.

Lieutenant Colonel Fein had never seen the legendary Rokossov Type 1 heavy tank that looked like a tortoise shell in person, but he had only read the identification manual issued by the Proson Command.

He felt that the outline did not look like the "Rokosov Type 1" in the identification manual.

Moreover, after so many days of fighting, there shouldn't be so many Rokossov-1 tanks.

Lieutenant Colonel Fein saw at least twenty silhouettes.

Also, the Rokossov Type 1 is said to be very fast, but it shouldn’t be this fast, right?

It is a heavy tank after all!

After a while, Lieutenant Colonel Fein saw that the outlines in front of him had grown several times larger and were obviously approaching at an alarming speed!
Lieutenant Colonel Fein acted decisively, picked up the microphone and ordered: "Everyone, please stop the car!"

With a mournful whine of the gearbox, the lieutenant colonel's entire battalion came to a halt.

The company commander below hurriedly asked: "Lieutenant Colonel, what's going on?"

"The enemy is not right, they are approaching too fast! Let's stop and try to control the distance and shoot from a distance!" Lieutenant Colonel Finn ordered, "All tanks conduct the first wave of shooting at 1800 meters and strive to hit the first shot."

For the Plossen tank crew, hitting the target with the first shot at 1800 meters is not a difficult goal to achieve. Their training and advanced sights are sufficient to support this.

The company commanders began to convey Lieutenant Colonel Fein's order: "Everyone listen up, open fire at 1800 meters, and hit the target with the first shot!"

"If you don't hit the target, you have to clean the toilet for a week!"

Lieutenant Colonel Finn switched to the internal communication: "There's no need to turn the turret. There's a car approaching right in front of us. Do you see it, Cole?"

Gunner Cole replied: "I see, I've aimed. I can hit at a distance of 2000 meters. Please take the initiative to fire."

"No, once we fire, the other vehicles will follow suit and fire again at 1800 meters." Lieutenant Colonel Fein said firmly.

"Ok."

Because the main gun of the old design of the Type 88 tank could not penetrate the front of the enemy's vortex tank destroyer, the main gun of the new Type 88 tank was lengthened a lot and was called the long gun. Its armor-piercing ability was far superior to the mm gun of the anti-aircraft artillery unit.

It is said that the designers originally planned to equip the upgraded Type 105 tank with a 88mm tank gun, but in the end it was changed to a Long gun because it was too heavy.

If the designers at Proson thought the tank was too heavy, then it must really be too heavy.

Now it is time to test the armor-piercing capability of the long-barreled 88mm gun.

Lieutenant Colonel Fein used the scale on his telescope to measure the enemy's distance.

Because we don't know the enemy's specific parameters, this estimate should be inaccurate. Lieutenant Colonel Fein used the vehicle width data of the Rokossov Type 1 in the identification manual to make an estimate. In this way, if this is the Rokossov Type 1, or an improved and upgraded version of Type 1, then the distance data will be more accurate.

I don't know what set of data the gunner used to make his estimate.

When the distance estimated by Lieutenant Colonel Fein was shortened to 1800 meters, the gunner of vehicle No. 202 opened fire.

The muzzle flash from the cannon directly blocked Colonel Fein's view.

However, there was a strong wind blowing on the grassland now, and the dust caused by the muzzle flame was blown away directly by the strong wind. Lieutenant Colonel Fein just happened to see the target being hit.

It looks like the shell bounced off. It seems that it is still a bit difficult to penetrate the armor of Rokossov Type 1800 at a distance of meters.

The enemy tanks also returned fire.

It should have been an emergency stop shot, but at this distance it was hard to tell that the enemy had stopped suddenly.

The shell hit the armor of vehicle No. 202 with a bang, leaving a shocking scratch on the corrugated magnetic coating.

Lieutenant Colonel Finn felt relieved, at least the enemy could not penetrate the front of the Type 6 tank.

The next step is to see which side will penetrate the other first as the distance gets closer.

Just as I was thinking this, the second wave of enemy attacks arrived.

It's a smoke bomb!

Lieutenant Colonel Fein was a little stunned. Firing a smoke bomb meant giving up long-range shooting and engaging in close combat.

But what kind of close combat is there between heavy tanks? Isn't it better to use long-range missiles to fight against armor-piercing shells?

Suddenly, Lieutenant Colonel Finn shuddered.

Unless the enemy is not a heavy tank at all.

Considering that the closing speed far exceeds that of ordinary heavy tanks, these tanks are medium tanks! They are the successor models of T34!
So they knew that their defensive capabilities were not as good as the newly designed Type 6 tank, so they gave up long-range shooting and planned to rush up and engage in close combat by relying on speed!

Lieutenant Colonel Fein switched to radio mode and shouted into the microphone: "Back off! Everyone, back up! The enemy is a medium tank and is about to rush up and engage us in close combat!"

"What? But the shape doesn't look like a T34!" asked a company commander.

Lieutenant Colonel Finn: "Think about the speed at which they are closing! Only medium tanks like the T34 can close at this speed! Don't engage them in close combat! They have armored cavalry on their backs, and close combat is too disadvantageous for us! Back up!"

(End of this chapter)