artillery arc

Chapter 78 Horizontal Bombing
Although the above task seemed to be very difficult, the senior officers of the Rokossov Battle Group, who had done everything they could do at hand, decided to play an exciting game of bridge.

It feels a bit like playing Gwent first no matter how urgent the situation is.

Wang Zhong has gradually adapted to this rhythm.

When nothing goes wrong on the battlefield, nothing happens, but there is a Sword of Damocles hanging above your head at any time, and you don't know when it will fall down and destroy everything.

People who have just entered the battlefield may be frightened by the sword on their heads all day long, but after veterans get used to it, they become like Wang Zhong now.

Yes, Wang Zhong has only traveled through time for less than two weeks, and he is already a veteran. This is how the battlefield trains people.

Just when Wang Zhong lowered his head to look at the cards, the phone rang.

He picked up the receiver and said, "I'm Rokossov, please speak."

"I am Brother Peter. I heard a large enemy aircraft group approaching. I don't know if they are bombing or passing. There are a large number of six-engine heavy bombers."

"I know." Wang Zhong put down the phone and said to Yegorov, "Air defense alert!"

After he finished speaking, the air defense siren rang outside. It was obvious that Brother Peter had notified the military station headquarters and air defense force in the city.

Wang Zhong threw down the playing cards, came to the window and looked at the sky.

Dimitri asked: "Do we need to retreat?"

"There is no subway in this city, and there were no planned air-raid shelters before. If you have to hide, you can only hide in a cellar where cabbage is stored in the winter." Wang Zhong said, "This place is stronger than most basements."

While talking, Wang Zhong saw the fleet of aircraft.

He cut to an overhead view so he could see the entire fleet without being restricted by the window view.

A large formation of 30 six-engine heavy bombers and the same number of fighter jets was approaching. If this was the bombing of Loktov, it means that Bogdanovka no longer needs to dispatch this kind of aircraft fleet to cover the target.

Wang Zhong was thinking about it when Vasily suddenly shouted: "I heard the enemy shouting clearly, it sounded like the ground was shouting to the air force."

"What did you shout?" Wang Zhong asked, but he vaguely guessed it.

Vasily: "We need the air force to deal with the heavy artillery in the city."

"How did the Air Force respond?"

"The Air Force said to call for the tactical bombers. They're the ones who blow up stations and supply depots."

Yegorov was speechless: "Fortunately, we moved the artillery position away from the station."

At first, the B4 position selected by Wang Zhong was the stack of the station, but now it has been moved to the city park near the station and the small garden in front of the municipal building.

These places have dense vegetation, which is a natural camouflage, and the camouflage net is difficult to see from the air - Wang Zhong personally confirmed it from an overhead perspective.

The city's anti-aircraft guns began to fire. Unfortunately, the 25mm anti-aircraft guns didn't have much to do against the high-flying enemy planes. They were only firing because they were air defense troops.

The enemy plane approached the chemical plant and began to drop bombs - Loktov was not that big. Given the enemy plane's current level flight altitude, if he dropped the bombs as he approached the chemical plant, the bombs would just fall near the station and supply warehouse.

The whistle at the end of the bomb made a sharp whistling sound, which made Wang Zhong's ears hurt.

Yes, it is different from the "whoosh" sound that breaks through the air when the artillery shell falls. This "whoosh" sound is the masterpiece of a specially installed whistle at the rear of the bomb.

The enemy plane that completed dropping the bomb began to turn.

Wang Zhong moved to the window on the other side and watched the bomb fall to the ground.

30 heavy bombers, carpet bombing.

The tightly packed bombs plowed thirty bloody scars on the ground.

Diffuse dust clouds cover the streets of Loktov.

More than a dozen plumes of smoke rose into the sky.

Wang Zhong was suddenly glad that he did not have a view of the bombed streets, otherwise he would have seen the miserable appearance of the streets.

Loktov is different from the villages and towns outside. There are many civilians in the city. Men who believe in the secular Eastern Holy Church form a self-defense army, while women join the voluntary labor camp. There are also a large number of elderly and children waiting for the train to be evacuated.

It is unknown how many civilian casualties such heavy bombing would cause.

----

Lyudmila got up from the ground.

She was deployed with the Arrow team on the roof of the only Anatolian public bath in Loktov, waiting to snipe enemy reconnaissance planes.

The B4 artillery position is just a street away from the public bathing place. If an enemy dive bomber wants to attack the artillery position, the Divine Arrow can provide some protection.

One of the "scars" that had just been plowed into the ground by the horizontal bombing was not far from the bathing beach.

As long as the enemy drops the bomb just a few seconds later, the Divine Arrow team will perish in a sea of ​​fire.

She lay on the railing of the roof and looked at the tragic scene below.

Suddenly, she saw something.

Lyudmila flew up and rushed downstairs. Brother Yetsemenko shouted behind her: "Where are you going? Maybe a reconnaissance plane will take this time to confirm the results of the battle! We need to prepare for war!"

Lyudmila shouted: "I'll be right back!"

She rushed down the makeshift ladder next to the bathhouse and rushed to the street, arriving at what she saw as if she was flying.

It was a glass jar that shattered on the ground, and the gypsophila flowers inside scattered all over the floor.

One hand was still holding the jar tightly, and the skin on the fingers was wrinkled from washing too many clothes with crude soap.

Lyudmila picked up the hand with only the palm and half-stretched wrist, and looked around for the owner of the hand.

Then she saw not far away from the place where laundry soap was distributed, several laundry girls assigned to the Rokossov Combat Group were squatting on the ground and crying.

Lyudmila took out the bandage from her body, tore off part of it, wrapped the gypsophila on the ground, held it together with the severed hand, and came to the girls of the laundry team.

She couldn't recognize the girl who fell on the ground. After all, it was already dark last night.

But the girl's severed hand said it all.

And of course, there are these baby's breath stars.

The girl on the laundry team was crying: "The captain just ordered us to come and get soap! How could this happen..."

Lyudmila stood silently.

At this time, Brother Yezemenko rushed to her side: "You must return to your post! Without the Divine Arrow, it cannot be guided!" The monk glanced at the girl on the ground, sighed, and took the severed hand and baby's breath: "Leave this to me and get back to your post!"

Lyudmila nodded and walked towards the bathing place, looking back every step of the way.

----

Wang Zhong withdrew his gaze and came to the phone, putting his hand on the receiver ready to answer the call.

If the artillery position is damaged, they will report it to Wang Zhong as soon as possible.

This was the call he was waiting for.

Thirty seconds passed and the phone didn't ring.

Wang Zhong breathed a sigh of relief: "Our artillery seems to be fine."

Yegorov: "It's really the right thing to keep artillery positions away from targets that can be bombed."

Popov asked: "Do you want to change the artillery position? Will the enemy pilots already see that it is an artillery position?"

Wang Zhong: "No, the enemy never passed over the artillery position. He probably completed the bombing turn above our heads."

As he spoke, he made a circling gesture above his head.

At this time the phone rang again.

Wang Zhong picked up the receiver himself: "I'm Rokossov, speaking."

"This is the 5th Beshensk Regiment. We saw an enemy armored reconnaissance vehicle on the path southeast of our position."

The Fifth Beshensk Regiment had no replacement members and little equipment, so Wang Zhong split them up and mixed them with the local religious militia to monitor the two main roads out of the city in the southeast and northwest.

Loktov is indeed just a small town, but with the few troops Wang Zhong has, it is impossible to surround the city in an iron barrel formation. He can only focus on defending the front, and place secondary troops on both sides to monitor the road.

Wang Zhong: "Southeast? Half-track vehicle?"

"The half-track and the No. 2 tank. Based on the advice of the workers at the tractor station, we used a tractor to disguise a tank, which scared the enemy away."

Wang Zhong: "What? A tractor disguised as a tank?"

"Yeah, it works great, just pile straw on the front and it looks like you put straw on the tank turret for camouflage, we drive this thing out, let the gearbox click, and the enemy is running away right away .”

Wang Zhong laughed loudly. The others didn't hear the words in the receiver and looked at him in confusion.

"You are doing a good job, continue to scare the enemy, don't let them find out that our troops here are actually very weak! You are doing a good job!" After speaking, Wang Zhong put down the receiver and told everyone what the Beshensk regiment was doing.

Vasily laughed, and then Popov glared at him: "Do your job!"

Yegorov: "But fake tanks can only scare people after all. I still hope to have real tanks as soon as possible. Your Excellency General can also use his talent in tank command."

It seems that in Yegorov's eyes, Wang Zhong is already a genius tank commander.

Wang Zhong: "I saw at the brigade headquarters that there are remnants of the 23rd Tank Corps in Dorji to the north of us. I wonder if they can be brought over. No matter what tanks they are equipped with, they should be able to play some role."

The function refers to personally commanding a tank to steal the back of the enemy's head around the blind spot of the enemy's field of vision after being activated. This is the specialty of land combat players in "War Thunder".

Popov: "They should be equipped with fast series tanks."

Mr. Wang frowned when he heard this. Although the T28 is also thin-skinned, its gun is still good. BT doesn't even have the firepower. At this time, many of Proson's tanks have strengthened their frontal protection based on their experience in the Carolingian campaign. The BT7's small cannon may not be able to penetrate the enemy from the front.

The BT7 itself is super squishy and can penetrate the side even with deeper heavy machine guns.

The only commendable thing about this tank is its maneuverability. It uses the famous Christie suspension, so when high-speed maneuvers are needed, the tracks can even be removed and the wheels can be used to run on the road.

While he was talking, Wang Zhong had already begun to think about whether he could do something with the BT7's amazing mobility after getting it.

Just then, the phone rang again.

Vasily: "I never knew that war is about playing cards at the command post and constantly answering the phone."

"Say less." Wang Zhong picked up the receiver and said, "I am Rokossov, please speak."

"This is Brother Peter. I heard a lone Dow 215, probably high altitude. There's also a Ford Wolf 189, low altitude."

Wang Zhong frowned. Bombers in this era generally dispatched in groups to form a dense formation, so that self-defense machine guns could form a fire net to intercept enemy aircraft. A single Road 215 is still high in the sky...

Wang Zhong: "One at high altitude and one at low altitude?"

Brother Peter replied: "Yes, if you count the time it takes for sound waves to be transmitted from high altitude, Road 215 is in front. It flies very high, and only MiG-3 can intercept it. And we obviously do not have MiG-3."

Maybe there were originally some, but they were all destroyed at the airport on the first day of the war.

Wang Zhong: "I know, thank you."

After hanging up the phone, he looked at the others: "A single Dao 215 is at high altitude, possibly a reconnaissance plane. Then there is a 189 at low altitude. What do you think?"

Egorov and Popov looked at each other.

Vasily: "I know! The enemy always has 189 losses over Loktov, so I want to see what happened!"

Wang Zhong and everyone looked at each other.

----

Major General Randolph, commander of the 15th Armored Division, heard the sound of aircraft in the sky and raised his head.

His chief of staff said: "Flying very high, it's a reconnaissance plane. Is it to observe the effect of the carpet bombing just now?"

As soon as they finished speaking, a Fokker Wolff 189 flew past their heads.

Because the appearance of the Focke-Wulf 189 looked advanced, the soldiers regarded it as a symbol of Prosen's cutting-edge technology and took off their hats to cheer.

The chief of staff frowned: "I heard that the Air Force lost several reconnaissance planes over Loktov. Such reconnaissance planes are very difficult to shoot down. Could it be that... they wanted to see what shot down their own reconnaissance planes?"

Major General Randolph scolded: "We have talked about artillery positions so many times! Those B4s have caused more than a thousand casualties to us, and the Air Force is indifferent! They lost a few reconnaissance planes and mobilized troops!"

After speaking, the major general sighed.

"We'll think of a solution after our divisional artillery comes up," the chief of staff said.

The major general nodded: "That's all. When will our air-ground coordination be as good as that of Grand Duke Meyer?"

(End of this chapter)