Arc of Gunfire

The situation on the battlefield is indeed unpredictable.

The Primorsky Fortress resisted for 18 days, and kept reporting that "the pressure was not great" and "the Rokosov-style defensive position performed well", but on the morning of May 19, the Primorsky Fortress suddenly reported that the outer defense circle was breached.

Of course, the Primorsky Fortress still has two other lines of defense, and it can still resist for a while, but everyone's expressions at the imperial meeting were not very good.

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May 19, Ye Castle, Summer Palace, Imperial Meeting.

General Turgenev was introducing the air force reconnaissance situation: "We used the high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft of the Pe-2 modified to conduct reconnaissance and were intercepted by the Proson Air Force, and we were unable to obtain the situation around the fortress.

"But the low-altitude infiltrating Il-2 reported that the enemy has a large amount of anti-aircraft firepower at this location."

The general drew a circle on the map.

"In addition, the infiltration reconnaissance team of the defending force also reported that the patrol density in this area will increase suddenly, and it is equipped with military dogs, so there is really no way to infiltrate.

"Combined with the survey of the craters left by the enemy's heavy artillery, it is speculated that this may be a heavy railway cannon. At first, the fortress headquarters thought it was the enemy's battleship bombardment, but even the naval guns could not leave such a terrible crater, let alone penetrate the 30-meter-thick roof of the underground ammunition depot."

Wang Zhong: "Does the Allied side have any intelligence?"

"No." Cardinal Raf Kidd shook his head, "We have been exchanging intelligence with the Allied forces, and they did not mention this super cannon."

Wang Zhong: "In short, it was originally well defended, but today the ammunition depot was suddenly penetrated. The explosion was too loud, and the front line did not have time to stabilize the morale of the army, so part of the defense position was lost. That's it. ?”

“That’s right,” General Turgenev nodded, “and there is also a practical problem. The artillery firepower of the fortress is basically provided by the Navy Coast Artillery Regiment. The Coast Artillery Regiment mainly operates the fortress artillery of the fortress. The artillery that can support the section that has been breached now needs to be supplied by the underground ammunition depot that has been blown up. ”

Wang Zhong: “The ammunition is cut off after an underground ammunition depot is blown up?”

The major general of the engineering corps who attended the meeting explained: “It is not cut off. The coastal artillery can still get ammunition from other ammunition depots.

“The ammunition depot of the coastal fortress is like this. Each ammunition depot supplies a gun group. There is an underground track connecting the gun position and the ammunition depot, and the ammunition train can be used to deliver the ammunition to the gun position.

"It's not so convenient to transport it from other ammunition depots. We have to move the ammunition to the ground first and then transport it by truck. The enemy air force is now conducting very intense air strikes, and there is no way to transport it by truck."

After the major general of the engineering corps finished speaking, Turgenev quickly took over the conversation: "We thought that the Primorsky Fortress, which adopted a new defensive strategy, could hold out for a long time. Now it seems that we have to be prepared to lose the Primorsky Fortress.

"After the fortress is breached, Myshkin's troops may be outflanked, and we may have to abandon Borsk."

Wang Zhong: "Then where to retreat? The grassland is not suitable for defense."

General Turgenev replied: "There is still a barrier. The Sukhayaveli River can provide the necessary defense. We have been deploying defenses on the river since January this year.

"In order to ensure their own logistical supply, the enemy will definitely break through the Sukhayaveli River to the east first, and then continue to advance to the Valdai River.

"There are a large number of industrial areas along the Valdai River, and we rely heavily on shipping on the Valdai River to transport power supplies from Yebao to the south.

"As long as the enemy advances the front to the Valdai River, we can only rely on the inland sea route to transport supplies to the Southern Front."

Wang Zhong added: "The fuel can only be transported from Kuba by the inland sea route."

"Yes." General Turgenev nodded, "So the defense of the Sukhaveli River is crucial. We sent the 51st Army led by Lieutenant General Kashukh. This army was expanded on the basis of the 51st Army. In addition, the 52nd and 54th armies were sent to the Sukhaveli River."

Wang Zhong: "I remember that these armies participated in the battle from September to October last year, and Kashukh's army suffered considerable losses."

General Turgenev: "They have rested and are now fully equipped."

"That means that my First Mobile Army is no longer needed to defend the Sukhaveli River?" Wang Zhong asked.

"Yes, you can get more training time." Turgenev continued to explain the map and said, "Of course, the defense of the Sukhayaveli River is not as reliable as that of the Duva River, because there are open grasslands on both sides of the river and lack large cities as support points. Last year, we were repeatedly broken through by the Prosons on the same terrain. "The good news is that these armies have been reinforced with heavy tanks. We referred to the suggestions of Lieutenant General Rokossov and organized heavy tanks into battalions of 21 tanks, and reinforced them to infantry divisions in need as a kind of "mobile support point." " Wang Zhong immediately raised his head and chest when he heard his name. In fact, he also copied the Soviet army organization on Earth. In the middle and late stages of the war, the Soviet army did not use a large number of heavy tanks in a concentrated manner because the Soviet army's maintenance and support capabilities were really bad. The unit composed of 21 heavy tanks was the largest unit that could be supported. The maintenance and support capabilities of the Ante Army were equally bad. Because heavy tanks were heavy, the failure rate was much higher than that of medium tanks, so it was natural to disperse the heavy tanks to reduce the difficulty of support.

Wang Zhong just pointed out the experience that Ant Army himself could sum up in advance, and then took it as his own credit.

Turgenev continued: "In addition, in accordance with our new field defense manual, we dug many tank bunkers along the river with only the tank turrets exposed."

This new field defense manual was also created by Wang Zhong.

The entire Ant army is currently using the combat rules Wang Zhong borrowed from Earth.

Turgenev: “Judging from the results of the defensive battle between Primorye Fortress and Bolsk, the new defense system performed well. I personally think we can look forward to their performance on the Suhayaveli River.

"That's probably it for now."

Wang Zhong: "Aren't there any offensive actions by the enemies on the central and northern fronts?"

"No. However, we have received a lot of intelligence, indicating that the target of the Prossen's attack this summer is still Yebao." General Turgenev looked at Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong: "This is an action to deceive the enemy. The enemy's target is the oil field. General Gorky and I both judged this."

"The same goes for the high command. So I just mentioned it casually." General Turgenev said, "Then the situation is like this, Your Majesty, I'm done."

Olga, who had been holding back, immediately spoke: "Alyosha..."

Wang Zhong: "In work situations, it is called military rank."

Olga pouted, but immediately put her expression back: "Lieutenant General Rokossov, the Operations Section has submitted a combat plan to launch an offensive on the southern front to retake Shepetovka. What do you think?"

Wang Zhong: "Okay, what troops are you planning to invest?"

"Mainly the newly formed tank brigades, five brigades are planned to be invested, plus two infantry divisions."

Wang Zhong’s brows were twisted into knots.

In the second year of the war, the Soviet army on Earth had some very abstract formations, such as forming a large tank army with 600 tanks. As a result, the commander had no experience in commanding such a large tank force, and the battle was in a mess.

In addition, this tank group still has only a few auxiliary troops, and they are taught by the highly synthetic Sandoku.

In the end, even the commander of the tank group was directly killed by Santoku.

Starting from the mid-term, the Soviet army also knew that the tank force needed to be equipped with a large number of auxiliary troops. A tank corps would be organized into a large number of self-propelled artillery and infantry. Instead, the number of tanks was reduced to about 200, but the name was still stubbornly called a tank corps.

And Ant is luckier. Thanks to Wang Zhong, the Ant people have taken this step less.

But this does not mean that these tank brigades formed by the Ant Army are not abstract.

These brigades do combine infantry and artillery, but the total number is very small, giving people the impression that as long as the problem of whether or not the brigade is solved, the strength of the brigade will increase by leaps and bounds.

In addition, these brigades are still extremely lacking in support capabilities, with only a few maintenance and support personnel.

Mainly, not every commander has the dignity to second a large number of skilled workers from the church and navy to form a support force. Of course, not every tank battalion has the conditions to assign the tractors that rescue and recover tanks to the company like Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong had strongly suggested reducing the number of these tank brigades, but Turgenev convinced him.

Turgenev said this at the time: "You are special. Just because you can form a highly integrated force with luxurious configurations does not mean that the military command department can also form it. I have tried my best to equip them with auxiliary forces. Let's put the tank brigade first. Establish it and fill it into the battle line. After all, we have produced so many tanks.

"When the infantry troops see the tanks, their combat confidence will be greatly improved. In this way, at least they will not see Proson's tanks rushing a hundred meters in front of the position, abandon the position and start to flee."

Wang Zhong's own troops have passed the test of blood and fire, and they can survive more than half of their casualties without retreating.

However, most of the Ante Army's troops do not have such a will to fight and will need another year of training.

The same is true for the Soviet army on Earth. In 43 years, there are still troops who fled before the enemy could rush into position. Even in the movie "Liberation" shot after the war, the first one also had scenes of a large number of Soviet soldiers fleeing - the first one was about Kursk in 1943.

Now, let this kind of tank brigade, which lacks support capabilities and has a low degree of synthesis, and infantry that will retreat when the enemy tanks come up, launch an attack on the Plosans, and also retake the important town of Shepetovka, it feels like A little overthinking.

So Wang Zhong said: "Shepetovka is a city, and there are a large number of reinforced concrete buildings nearby. With so many tank troops and so few infantry troops, what do the people in the combat department think? No, no."

Olga: "But, didn't you support General Gorky's offensive plan?"

Wang Zhong: "General Gorky's offensive plan mainly relies on infantry and artillery. The armored troops only play a supporting role. The purpose is only to contain the enemy's troops on the front line and to train the offensive capabilities of the troops.

"This is two different things from confidently wanting to retake a major town. I am opposed to this aggressive attack plan and to wasting precious technical equipment and soldiers' lives in such a place."

Olga nodded: "Okay, then I won't approve this plan!"

Wang Zhong nodded and complimented "very good" casually, and then realized that this was wrong: It looks like the tsar is just my puppet! No, no, no, you misunderstood!