Arc of Gunfire

Plossen Ninth Army Headquarters.

General Mendel was holding the receiver, waiting for the communication department to complete the telephone repair, when he suddenly saw the staff officer in front of the map put a breakthrough mark at the Shostka position.

He immediately slapped the receiver on the landline and asked loudly: "How could Shostka be broken through?"

The staff officer hurriedly explained: "This breakthrough mark means that the enemy has made certain progress and captured some key positions, but it does not mean that it has been broken through."

Mendel: "So the 48th Army is confident that it can regain the lost ground?"

The staff officer was embarrassed: "Uh... Actually they are requesting reinforcements. The enemy has deployed the rumored 500mm rocket launcher, and the defensive support points that could still hold yesterday have been blown up one after another.

"The 48th Army used mines to blow up the tracks of three rocket launchers, and destroyed one of them with magnetic anti-tank grenades, temporarily stopping the enemy's advance.

"However, the 48th Army's counterattack was blocked by the Ants. The Ants quickly used the original fortifications to kill a large number of our troops."

Mendel: "Draw an armored grenadier division from the 6th Armored Army to reinforce them."

"Yes. But on the way from the 6th Armored Army's base to Shostka, there were reports that the Ant Army was discovered."

Mendel: "In the future, all ambiguous reports like this will be regarded as a small cavalry unit of Ant."

"Yes."

After the staff officer agreed, he buried his head in work. Mendel put his hands behind his back and looked at the dense breakthrough marks on the defense zone map in front of him - no, it should be said that the key positions were lost but not completely lost, and there is a possibility of regaining the key positions.

The real breakthrough place is probably not marked yet, because the defending troops were scattered and could not be reported in the first time.

Mendel looked at the map: "It's full of holes. We don't have enough troops to defend such a long front. We can only say that we have brought this upon ourselves."

The army chief of staff was still busy and had no time to come over and chat with him, the commander, so his adjutant took over the conversation: "We can't give up the occupied land and retreat, General. The country will not allow this, and some people will question the propaganda of the Minister of Propaganda."

"I know, of course I know." Mendel looked at the map, "We can only do our part, defend if we can, and try to defend as long as possible. If we can't defend, we should start to retreat as soon as possible, and we can't be surrounded and annihilated like the Sixth Army."

The adjutant was shocked: "Retreat? If you retreat without orders, you will be punished by military law!"

"Calm down, no one said to retreat. We still have an armored army in our hands - I mean an armored army is short of a division, so we are not helpless. Thanks to the Third Armored Army that reinforced us last year." Mendel said and fell into deep thought again on the map.

At this time, the phone rang. Mendel muttered, "Is the phone fixed?" and rushed to pick up the receiver: "Hello? Supreme Command?"

Marshal von Borg's voice came from the other end of the phone: "How is the situation on your side? Your army group is the key to our entire defense line. You can't make any mistakes!"

Mendel adjusted his expression and said in a voice mixed with anxiety and anger: "We are about to be broken through! You should come to my headquarters and look at the dense breakthrough signs on the map!"

The staff in the room couldn't help but look up at the commander. Mendel's adjutant looked as if he was used to it and urged the staff to continue working.

Marshal von Borg: "The same goes for other troops. The good news is that I brought back newly formed infantry divisions from the headquarters! I decided to allocate three to you!"

Mendel: "Three? Even if you send me six divisions, they may not be enough! But three divisions are good, which can greatly relieve our pressure. Send them here quickly!"

After successfully asking for reinforcements, the corners of Mendel's mouth rose slightly, but he did not dare to show it, for fear that Marshal von Borg would change his mind.

However, the marshal on the other side was silent for a few seconds before saying: "Mendel, I thought about it and it would be better to tell you the truth. The infantry divisions I brought back were the 15th and 16th waves of infantry divisions formed after the general mobilization began. Their artillery used captured Carolingian artillery. Some divisions did not even have enough machine guns, and even had to use captured Chauchat light machine guns."

Mendel's expression froze: "What?"

"The reinforcements given to you are the 15th wave of infantry divisions, and the equipment is very poor." Marshal von Borg said again.

Mendel held his forehead and said, "Hasn't the general mobilization started? How come we can't even equip light weapons? Where is the industrial capacity that we are proud of?"

"It was blown up by the Allied bombing." Marshal von Borg said.

He was actually joking here. In fact, as a long-established industrial power, Proshen resumed production very quickly.

The Allied bombing did have a certain impact on Proshen's production capacity, but it was not as fatal as the Allies themselves estimated.

Now the supply is insufficient. The military has expanded too much at once, far exceeding the increased industrial capacity-after all, while arming new troops, the front-line troops also need to replenish equipment.

Mendel: "Send the troops here, I'll see where they can be used. These divisions should have enough combat backbones, right?"

"Of course," von Borg immediately patted his chest and guaranteed, "Most of the wounded soldiers withdrawn from your troops have joined these newly formed troops."

Mendel whispered, "If these combat backbones were returned to us, maybe there wouldn't be so many breakthrough marks on the map."

"What did you say?" Marshal von Borg asked.

Mendel: "I'll tell you what the general said."

Von Borg: "Good luck, General Mendel. Also, His Majesty is busy, so don't bother calling him."

"Yes." Mendel said reluctantly, and the other party hung up the phone.

Mendel put down the receiver, shook his head and cursed: "I lost here. I'm afraid that Ant's cavalry will follow the telephone line to find your headquarters. Now the entire Central Army Group is leaderless!"

The adjutant asked with concern: "How is it?"

Mendel: "It's terrible. They sent us several divisions to supplement it."

"Isn't this good?" The adjutant was overjoyed.

Mendel: "But these divisions are the 15th wave of troops, and they are already short of equipment. Some troops don't have enough machine guns and can only use the Carolingian Chauchat machine gun."

The adjutant immediately frowned: "Chauchat machine gun? That useless light machine gun? As a machine gun, it has to control the firing rate to avoid malfunction?"

Mendel: "Yes. That thing often malfunctions when used by veterans, and it may break down before the first round is fired by new recruits. Let us wish the troops using it good luck."

Adjutant: "Damn it, how did the Empire become like this!"

Mendel didn't say anything, but stared at the map.

After a long while, he said: "I can't sit and wait for death. I can't just pull the armored troops in my hands up to fill the line. No. The tank combat readiness rate of the Third Armored Army is very high. We must use this fresh force to mop up those Ante troops that broke through the defense line."

As he said this, Mendel picked up the map stick and poked the tip on the map: "Order the Third Armored Army to move to this position and deploy on this line."

The tip of the map stick drew a horizontal line on the map.

"Then attack here, attack along the road all the way, defeat all the Ante troops you encounter, move here and turn around, sweep everything along another road.

"After such an inverted V-shaped offensive, most of the Ante troops that broke through to our rear can be completely wiped out."

Mendel looked at the adjutant after he finished speaking.

The adjutant: "The entire combat operation can be completed in three days, I mean, if the attack goes smoothly."

Mendel: "The enemy only put in that new rocket launcher on the second day of the attack, and there has been no report of witnessing the rumored new heavy tanks so far, indicating that the new weapons are mainly on Rokossov's side, and they should not encounter too much resistance.

"That's it, even if the counterattack fails, it's better than sitting and waiting to die. The Ante people are now like a group of ants, trying to bite our elephant to death by biting more, and we can't let them do what they want."

————

On the same day, the headquarters of the First Front of Khazaria, far away from the central battlefield.

Wang Zhong: "General Gorky's attack will not really crush the enemy, right?"

Pavlov: "Don't worry, the offensive has only been going on for two days, and if it really collapses, it won't collapse so quickly. At least today, our enemy reconnaissance operations are still continuing, and it doesn't look like the offensive plan has changed."

Vasily: "If Gorky's attack is successful, can we not defend and counterattack, and directly use a pincer attack to eat up the enemy's heavy troops near Oril?"

Wang Zhong: "You can give it a try. We haven't annihilated the enemy in large numbers when the enemy is in full condition. Of course, I personally don't care much about fairness. I think annihilating the enemy is annihilating the enemy, whether it is an enemy in full condition or an exhausted enemy, it is annihilating the enemy."

Popov: "Who wants to fight them fairly? They didn't pay attention to fairness when they attacked us."

Wang Zhong: "Of course, in order not to miss the opportunity to attack, I'll see if I can personally scout for two days, so that I can determine whether the enemy has transferred its troops. If we find that the enemy in Oril has decreased, we will attack immediately.

"The troops originally deployed in front of Oril to prepare for defense were also all deployed in the attack. ”

Pavlov: “Okay, I will improve a new plan based on the original counterattack plan, a plan for an all-out attack.”

Popov: “I originally wanted to continue the defensive counterattack, but now it has become an active attack, which is more inspiring than a defensive counterattack.”

Wang Zhong: “Yes. Of course, the premise is that General Gorky has made progress. If the enemy blocks the attack and the number of enemies in front of us has not decreased, then we will continue to implement the original plan.”

“There is another possibility.” Pavlov said, “The enemy has put the originally prepared reserve troops on General Gorky’s side, and at the same time has not given up the attack on our side. This situation is the best for us.”

Wang Zhong frowned: “No way? Wouldn’t the enemy be caught in two sides? The reserve troops have all been smashed to the center, which means that Gorky’s attack is very effective. At this time, we should decisively stop the offensive, switch to defense here, and concentrate our forces to deal with the breakthrough in the center.”

He stopped and thought carefully, and shook his head: “No, it can’t be like this, unless the enemy has lost his eyes and lost his judgment, otherwise it will not be like this.”