artillery arc

Chapter 661: The Restoration of Pochayev
As soon as Adel gave the order, he heard someone shouting on the radio: "The enemy is rushing through the smoke!"

"What?" Adel quickly picked up the telescope and saw a pot-lid truck leading the way through the smoke that had just been released.

It is obvious that the mobility of these pot-head tanks exceeds that of the T34, and they gallop across the grassland like steel horses.

Then the jar-head car stopped under Adel's gaze.

He thought they would have to stop and fire suddenly, but the infantry on the vehicle got off, and the tank stopped and fired, allowing other tanks to rush past.

Could it be that the machine failed because it rushed too hard?

----

"Sukabulie!" The commander of the tank with tactical number 333 cursed, "Why did it break down at this time? The Prosen people thought we were attacked!"

"I don't know either. It sounds like the traditional axle is broken." said the driver angrily.

Gunner: "I heard that the Rokossov-1 tank also has a tendency to break its drive shaft. Do all tanks with this new configuration have this problem?"

Loader: "There must be a traitor who sabotaged the production. The Inquisitor should have everyone who produces the drive shaft shot!"

Commander: "Forget it, we'll be a fixed turret here!"

He climbed out of the turret and said to the infantry on the vehicle: "Our transmission shaft is broken and we can't move. Now we will use it as a fixed turret. You can get on other vehicles and charge in! There must be casualties on other vehicles. Just squeeze in and you'll be fine!"

"Alright." The sergeant commanding the squad waved his hand, "Get off the car. If we can get on another car, we'll do it. If we can't, we'll attack on foot and kill those Prosom devils!"

The infantrymen jumped off the vehicles one by one and walked forward with big strides.

----

Adel looked at the stopped pot-head vehicle. Because it stopped, it became a fixed target and was immediately targeted by several Proson crews.

As a result, under the continuous attack of armor-piercing shells, the Ant crew still stubbornly fired back three shots. In the end, it was not known whether the turret ring was stuck or the sight was damaged, anyway, the Ant tanker abandoned the vehicle.

Before abandoning the vehicle, the commander threw a smoke bomb, so Adel could not see the effect of the infantry machine gun fire point.

It was obvious that the Ants were becoming more and more familiar with war, and they also had very good fighters, so Proson's technical and tactical advantages were decreasing.

Adel was upset, but just as he was sighing, the voice of the chief of staff came over the radio: "General! The enemy tanks are about to cross the hill, and we will lose the terrain cover! We can't beat them in mobility!"

Adel picked up the microphone and said, "I am Adel Schultz. All the crews driving the Type 3 tanks, I order you to abandon retreat and use ramming to stop the enemy's offensive!
"The enemy only has 30 tanks. We have the advantage in numbers!"

Yes, in the past Adel would never have issued such an order. He once taught his subordinates that the Ant tanker's approach of driving a car into another car and dying together was commendable, but not worth learning. A qualified tanker should take advantage of firepower and use cannons to annihilate the enemy.

But now, collision is the only means Adel can think of.

Use the lighter and faster Type 3 tank to ram the enemy's new tanks under the cover of smoke, forcing them to stop, and then use the long-barreled Type 4 to go around the side and take care of the other Ant tanks. This is the plan that just came into Adel's mind.

Even if there are only seven or eight Type 34 long-barreled tanks left, Adel is confident that he can destroy dozens of TWs. The exact number depends on the stock of shells.

It was not that Adel was arrogant. On the front line of Army Group Center, his 5th Armored Division once achieved an exchange ratio of 200 to .

Of course, that was the exchange ratio achieved by the entire division's 27 long-barreled Type tanks and the same number of long-barreled Type tanks, but people sometimes intentionally or unintentionally overlook some key details.

Adel believed that his division could replicate its success in Army Group Center - provided that all the Type 3 tanks were sacrificed to stop the enemy's running new tanks.

----

Ant here.

"The enemy is trying to hit us!" the brigade commander shouted on the radio, "Everyone, pay attention, stop the car! Stop the car! Shoot the enemy where they are, don't let them hit us!"

"Brigade Commander! We only have one reverse gear, and the maximum reverse speed is only four kilometers per hour!"

The brigade commander was silent.

Because training was mostly just rushing, he actually forgot that there was only one reverse gear.

After a short silence, the brigade commander cursed: "Sukabulie! It's just a close combat! The infantry on our backs have guns, there's nothing to be afraid of! Go!"

----

Fifteen minutes later, Adel realized he had made a big mistake.

Ant's tanks have armored cavalry, and the armored cavalry are equipped with new anti-tank weapons, which are very effective against the armor of the Type 3 tank.

After the Type 3 tank approaches the Pot-Headed Ship, it will first be hit by a round of infantry fire and will usually be completely destroyed.

After fifteen minutes of exchange, all the Type 3 tanks had been destroyed, but the Jarhead was still alive and well.

Although the remaining No. 4 long tube took the time to go around the side, it did not have time to destroy several tanks.

My plan completely failed!

The Ante infantry even jumped off the tanks and began to clean up the infantry units of the 332nd Division.

In the Proson organization system, the 332nd Division is at the back of the wave and is full of small fry. They can't beat the Ant Guards with cloaks at all.

In fact, when he was in the Central Army Group, Adel discovered that the infantry divisions after the eighth wave would only be ravaged by Ant's cloaked infantry. In fact, this was similar to the situation at the beginning of the war, when the Proson infantry were veterans and Ant's infantry were all rookies. A Proson veteran could easily kill seven or eight Ant infantry and still survive.

Now it was the experienced Cloak Guards who massacred the Plosson infantry, and because the Ante Guards had either Bobosha or the even more terrible Thread Cutter, the Plosson recruits died in large numbers and quickly.

Adel saw that the morale of the 332nd Division's infantry collapsed, and they broke away from their positions and began to run backwards.

Just then, he suddenly heard the sound of machine gun fire nearby.

When he turned around, he saw that it was the machine guns of the gendarmerie, and their target was the infantrymen of the 332nd Division who had deserted from the battlefield.

Adel hesitated for a moment and did not speak. Instead, he continued to pay attention to his troops who were being chased by the Jarhead tanks.

The less than one hundred tanks in his hands were the last remaining strength of the entire 48th Armored Corps.

Army Group Center controls most of the battlefields where tanks are fighting. It should be possible to salvage a certain number of tanks from the battlefield tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, but these tanks will not be delivered to Shepetovka until at least the day after tomorrow.

Adel realized something very serious. After the "Schultz Battle Group" under his command was destroyed, there was no organized armored force on the entire defense line that could stop the Ants.

His scalp was tingling.

I don’t know how many armored troops the Ants still have. If the Ants still have more than a hundred tanks, the battlefield might collapse.

After all, there is only one first-wave infantry division resisting Rokossov's Khazaria Front, and the rest are all troops of the same quality as the 332nd Division.

The stronger Greyhound Division was holding off the Shepetovka Front in the east.

Disaster is about to befall the Southern Army Group!

Adelschultz shouted: "Signalman! Send a telegram to the Southern Army Group Headquarters immediately! The situation here is very bad! The front is in danger of collapse! The original plan is no longer applicable. We need to mobilize strong and useful troops to stop Rokossov!"

"Yes!"

As the signalman answered, the chief of staff reminded him, "General, you can't use plain language to explain such an important matter over the radio! You can send a messenger!"

Adel: "Look at the battle situation! The enemy is about to rush to me! It will be too late if I don't send a message now!"

After saying that, Adel threw down the radio receiver and used the intercom to order his command tank: "The enemy's pot-covered head in front of the target——"

"General," the gunner reminded, "the command tank only has a short-barreled 50mm gun. We can only scratch the enemy's paint."

Adel was stunned for a moment before he realized that the gunner was right.

The pot-covered man had already rushed over. The commander of the turret, Ante, turned the anti-aircraft machine gun towards Adel and shouted, "Surrender your weapons and you will not be killed!"

----

Pochayev village, headquarters of the 332nd Infantry Division in Proshen.

Only one regiment of the 332nd Division plus its subordinate units were defending Pochayev and the surrounding areas, but the headquarters of this division was always kept here.

Next to the division headquarters is the base of the 11th Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. The motorized armored reconnaissance troops are also elite infantry, and together with the division guard troops, they have built a very solid position.

But everyone knew that such a position was not enough to stop Ant's attack force.

The commander of the 332nd Division placed his hopes of holding Pochayev on the Schultz Group, which would launch a counterattack against the Ants via the right wing of the position.

According to general experience, wherever the Proson armored forces launched a counterattack, Ant's attack would at least be delayed.

Previously in Oboyang, the encirclement of the Ants was almost ruined by the Proson Armored Forces. Unfortunately, in the end, the Proson Armored Forces were exhausted, and the enemy only had some armored forces left.

Army Group South was then forced to retreat to Shepetovka.

On the other hand, as long as the armored forces are not completely consumed, the Ants will not be able to advance smoothly.

The commander of the 332nd Division personally went to the observation post at the outer position to watch the Schultz Group launch a counterattack. The group had at least seventy tanks. Although a considerable number of them used Type 50 tanks with mm guns, it was still a very powerful armored force.

Such an armored force would certainly inflict heavy casualties on the Antes until Army Group South could mobilize reinforcements.

The commander of the 332nd Division knew that the Southern Army Group was retreating, but he was fully convinced that he had to hold the line in order to retreat calmly.

In short, leave everything to the armored forces, and the 332nd Division can complete the mission as long as it uses machine guns to eliminate some ANT infantry - this is what the division commander thought.

So when the observation post reported that enemy armored forces appeared outside the village, he didn't believe it at all.

Then the 76mm self-propelled artillery accompanying the Ante Armored Forces began shelling the village.

The Chief of Staff asked, "What now, General?"

The commander of the 332nd Division straightened his uniform and said, "Give me a submachine gun. The Empire needs everyone to do their duty."

At 2200 hours that day, Pochayev was liberated.

Of course, from the perspective of the Prosen people, this is called a loss.

(End of this chapter)