Arc of Gunfire

Wang Zhong: "I still have to go and see my brother... He arrived at Saint Catherine Castle so early, why didn't he go back to his own home?"

"Who knows? I'm not your housekeeper. Let's talk business."

Wang Zhong stared at Chekhov for a few seconds: "Don't you have to fill out the form this time?"

"You can fill it out if you want." Lieutenant General Chekhov said.

Wang Zhong: "No, I don't want to fill it out. But didn't you say last time that filling out the form is a special case?"

"You misunderstood, the form is still required, but we can do it for you. Anyway, there are so many forms thrown there, and no one will really check them carefully. The key lies in the content summarized on the dispatch list.

"This operation is against the rules, but the war situation is so urgent, even the crown prince has died for his country, so of course some red tape can be omitted." Lieutenant General Chekhov spread his hands.

Good guy, this guy simply didn't want to stick to the pot last time, so he followed the process.

Special cases are special cases within the process framework.

Wang Zhong: "Okay, then I want T34."

"No. We don't have any ready-made T34s now. If you tell us what you need, we will give you the T34s that will roll off the factory in the future."

Wang Zhong: "Then I'll take 100!"

"Do you have so many tankers? No, no, that's not appropriate. And if you want so many at once, others will have opinions. Our logistics headquarters is mainly a department that handles things, understand?" Lieutenant General Chekhov leaned forward, stared at Wang Zhong and said, "Don't take so many at once. The correct approach is to have a large total amount, but each item is very small, scattered among countless requirements."

Wang Zhong: "Then how many do you suggest I take?"

"How many tankers do you have? You suffered a lot in Orachi, right?"

This is the truth.

Even if the surviving tankers of the Fifth Tank Army are added, Wang Zhong can't get 30 crews.

But he is going to take 30, plus the ones left over from the last battle, there will be 36 - but the ones left over from the last battle have all been returned to the factory for repair, and it is estimated that it will take at least half a month to be sent back.

Wang Zhong: "I want 30, don't worry about the crews. ”

Lieutenant General Chekhov wrote down in the notebook in front of him: "One battalion, okay. Not too much."

"And then there are ZIS3..."

"There are really not many of them. The main production plant is retreating, and now the output is basically zero. But the production capacity of 45mm guns is sufficient. How many do you want?"

Wang Zhong: "First get a battalion, and then I want heavy mortars. I hope to strengthen the heavy mortars to the infantry battalion."

"You have two regiments?" Chekhov asked back.

Wang Zhong: "Yes, two infantry regiments."

"That's six heavy mortar companies, not too many. In fact, the requirements for heavy mortars on the front line are not high now. Everyone is shouting "anti-tank anti-tank."

Wang Zhong pointed to the sky with his finger: "I am also forced by the war. The enemy likes to use reconnaissance planes to observe our artillery positions and then bombard them. If there are not enough MiG-3s to knock down high-altitude reconnaissance planes, we can only use heavy mortars to cover the positions occupied by the enemy. ”

“Now the focus of the Air Force is to protect Saint Ekaterina Castle, and most of the MiG-3s are deployed near Saint Ekaterina Castle. Some fighter regiments have been sent to the front line, but not many.” Chekhov said, “What else?”

Wang Zhong: “Heavy artillery, my artillery regiment has lost all the heavy artillery, and my anti-aircraft battalion is gone. At least give me 24 152 howitzers.”

Lieutenant General Chekhov raised his eyebrows: “Don’t you want B4? The user experience is not good?”

Wang Zhong: “It’s too heavy, and it’s too slow to load. It’s really not as convenient as 152 howitzers. Instead of replenishing B4, it’s better to replenish me with 12 more 152 howitzers.

“The enemy’s artillery firepower at the division level is very strong, and the army level is even stronger. In the absence of army-level or even campaign-level artillery cluster support, we must have strong enough firepower.”

Wang Zhong’s words are actually a bit beyond time and space. Now the officers of Ant can’t realize the artillery firepower configuration of the Proson Army. At most, they know “a lot”.

But Wang Zhong has read a lot of war history. He knows that Sandezi's artillery is mainly dispersed at the division level, and even knows Sandezi's specific artillery firepower configuration.

Lieutenant General Chekhov made a note in the notebook, then looked up and asked: "Anything else?"

Wang Zhong: "I want the BM13 rocket launcher."

Lieutenant General Chekhov frowned: "How do you know this weapon exists?"

At this time, the existence of rocket launchers was still confidential. Even long after the weapons were put into the front line, the troops did not know that the model of this thing was called BM13, so it was nicknamed Katyusha.

Wang Zhong smiled: "The crown prince and I are good friends."

Lieutenant General Chekhov was amazed: "That's right. You...you will really become a prince?"

"No." Wang Zhong said firmly, "Anyway, can you get it?"

"No, all rocket launchers are used in a centralized manner, and they will not be allocated to you. Give up this idea."

Wang Zhong sighed and had to give up. He began to think about what other powerful weapons at this time could be won over.

At this time, Lieutenant General Chekhov said: "Based on the experience of the front line, we have produced a simple incendiary bomb, which is much more effective and safer than the one you made with wine bottles. It also has the function of automatic ignition of white phosphorus, and it will spontaneously ignite when the lid is opened."

Wang Zhong: "Really?"

"Really. The Troop Response Molotov cocktail is very useful, but it needs to be ignited before throwing. Sometimes the fuel will spill out and ignite the grenadier when throwing... So the engineers of the design bureau made targeted improvements."

Wang Zhong: "That's good, I want enough."

Chekhov continued: "Also, we have accelerated the mass production of the Deshka heavy machine gun, which is much more powerful than the previous old machine guns."

Wang Zhong: "Yes, it just so happened that we lost all our heavy machine guns when we broke out from Orachi, and now our troops only have DP light machine guns. Our light weapons gap is not big, but if we have Tokarev semi-automatic, the more the better."

Lieutenant General Chekhov nodded: "We also tried to imitate some enemy combat armors, which can be used by your combat engineers. Do you have combat engineers?"

Wang Zhong: "No, but I can have it. Yes!"

Lieutenant General Chekhov: "There are also light mortars, which would be very good as a support weapon for the infantry company..."

"Yes!" Wang Zhong said in advance, "Wait a minute, I don't think I need to order it, so I can just leave it to you."

Lieutenant General Chekhov: "No, no, no, I still want you to nod. How can I nod? I can't decide for you. But you see, as a logistics lieutenant general, I am definitely more familiar with what I have. Let me make suggestions. , this is reasonable, right?”

It’s really… very reasonable!

Wang Zhong asked: "Lieutenant General Chekhov, who is familiar with equipment, do you know that besides the 45mm gun, is there anything that can make up for our lack of anti-tank firepower?"

"I just said..." Lieutenant General Chekhov stopped and frowned.

Wang Zhong sat up straight: "Yes? Is it there?"

Lieutenant General: "There is a trial production artillery piece. Because we were in such a hurry, we haven't done detailed range testing yet. Do you want it?"

Wang Zhong: "What kind of gun?"

"A 57mm artillery was sent back for remanufacturing due to design flaws. Now the flaws have been improved, but it has not been tested. Because of the emergency, the Ordnance Bureau planned to use the production line, so it ordered its production. The output was not very high. , but I estimate that I can get 24 doors for you before the 15th of next month.”

Wang Zhong raised his eyebrows: "57 mm?"

Could it be the legendary "57 magic needles"? This thing is one of the best anti-tank guns in the Soviet Union on Earth.

Even in the middle and late stages of the war, when faced with a large number of Santoku zoos, the 57 Magic Needle still had useful penetrating capabilities.

However, this thing has a fatal weakness, that is, it is too difficult to produce, requiring a lot of man-hours and skilled workers, and the output has not been able to increase.

So in the end, the Soviet Union chose a mindless caliber and swamped the Sandoku troops with crude 85mm guns. The performance of the 85 gun is actually very mediocre among the anti-tank guns produced by all parties involved in the war in the mid-to-late period, but it is easy to produce if it cannot stand up.

When Wang Zhong heard that there were 57 cannons that no one wanted, he felt like he had found a treasure.

He had to confirm: "Can you give it to me? This 57mm gun?"

"Yes, we didn't have artillery of this caliber before, and we had zero experience in design and use. Then this gun had major design flaws discovered before, so no one wanted it. Of course, people don't know that this kind of gun exists, which is also a big reason."

Wang Zhong: "Give it to me! Give me as much as you have!"

Lieutenant General Chekhov stood up, went to the filing cabinet, dug out a stack of documents, flipped through them carefully and said, "There is also a production plan here. On August 22, the 912nd Arsenal will start producing ZIS30 Tank destroyers also use this 57mm gun. If they are all issued to you, there will be no need to issue 57mm ammunition to other troops. "

Wang Zhong: "What's the matter, are you trying to save trouble?"

Lieutenant General Chekhov shrugged: "My principle is that each unit should be equipped with one type of gun, and the calibers should be as unmixed as possible. Your unit already has so many 45mm guns, and then there are so many 152mms. Supply one more type of 57mm. The artillery shells are nothing, since there is a railway leading to you. Since you want this 57-mm gun, how about I not supply you with the 45-mm gun?”

Wang Zhong snapped his fingers: "Okay!"

57mm gun, plus the ZIS30 mobile self-propelled anti-tank gun, suddenly the anti-tank firepower becomes richer!

Lieutenant General Chekhov added: "Oh, by the way, when I looked at this document, I discovered that we still have many machine gun tanks here, only equipped with machine guns. How about I grant this to you as a half-track transport vehicle? Take it. It's good for transporting ammunition or as a tractor towing anti-tank guns."

Wang Zhong frowned and pretended to be angry: "What do you think I am? A scrap collector? But you said so, give it to me. And you have to give me a driver."

Lieutenant General Chekhov said seriously: "I am in charge of supplies here. If you want people, go to the church and ask for them yourself. I guess there are many young people in the church who have learned to drive tractors and have just been drafted into the army."