Arc of Gunfire

At 0200 hours on the second day after the attack began, the 3rd Guards Tank Corps of the 1st Khazalia Front and the 24th Guards Tank Brigade were forward.

"Brigade Commander!" The brigade chief of staff banged on the turret cover of the brigade commander's car, "Brigadier Commander!"

The turret cover opened, and the brigade commander yawned and stuck his head out: "What's going on Mikhail?"

"Engine sound!"

The brigade commander was startled. He was no longer sleepy. He raised his head and heard the sound of an engine in the night sky.

After listening briefly, he cursed: "The half-tracks of Prosen's men may be the enemy's reconnaissance troops. Why didn't our troops open fire?"

Brigade Chief of Staff: "Maybe they didn't understand the situation either."

"Asshole, our half-tracks are all at the brigade headquarters! Let them fire!" The brigade commander suddenly stopped.

He remembered that he was in a tank. Since the United States assisted the radio production line last year, the brigade command tanks had been equipped with high-power radios. So he picked up the microphone, turned on the radio and started calling: "This is the brigade headquarters. There is definitely an engine sound now." It’s the enemy, fire at will!”

The Ant Armored Forces do not have half-track vehicles, because the production capacity of tracked vehicles is too precious. It is either used to produce tanks and self-propelled artillery, or to build tractors, and there is no time to produce half-track vehicles.

The M3 half-track imported from the United States is a good thing that can only be used on a large scale by troops like the First Mobile Army. The 24th Tank Brigade only has eight vehicles, all of which are under the name of the brigade headquarters reconnaissance battalion. They should not have tasks now.

Then this engine sound can only be the Prossenian's SDKFZ half-track.

Just a few seconds after the brigade commander shouted, the sound of artillery and machine gunfire rang out.

The night that originally shrouded the earth was illuminated one after another by the flash of cannon fire and the tracer bullets fired by machine guns.

The battle lasted about twenty minutes.

A report came over the radio from the battalion approaching the enemy: "Brigadier Commander, we have pushed back the enemy!"

Brigadier: "Is there any loss?"

"There are some injured crew members who did not spend the night on the tank. It is not a big problem."

Since Rokossov reformed the armored force organization, the Ant Army's armored force will also bring some spare personnel.

These personnel are generally veteran tank operators. When they do not need to be supplemented by other vehicle crews, they are mainly responsible for driving tractors and maintenance vehicles and acting as tank maintenance personnel.

Once there are casualties in the combat vehicle crew, these veterans will step up.

Brigadier: "It's too dark. Don't pursue us. Stay the night as planned and wait until daybreak to see what happens."

"Yes, Brigadier."

————

A few more hours passed.

Wang Zhong only slept for less than five hours before he sat up suddenly.

He was sitting and waking up when Lyudmila patted his waist: "Don't be so nervous. If there is a real military emergency, Pavlov will definitely wake you up directly."

"The enemy should have responded today. How can I sleep peacefully?" Wang Zhong said as he stood up and got dressed.

Nelly seemed to hear the sound in the room, and immediately opened the door and came in, holding a basin filled with hot water and a wet towel in her hand.

Wang Zhong: "Thank you. Is there any movement at the headquarters in the middle of the night?"

Nelly: "No, Chief of Staff Pavlov also went to rest around two o'clock. There should be no incident last night."

Lyudmila also got up: "Look, I just said it's okay."

Wang Zhong got dressed, took a hot towel and wiped his face, then ran out of the room and ran to the headquarters.

Lyudmila sighed: "After he fell asleep last night, he started to give the command, 'Alexander, turn the turret fifteen degrees to the right'."

Nelly: "After I came down from the front line, I often dreamed about the situation on the front line, and dreamed about the enemy attacking at night."

Lyudmila: "I didn't dream about this. Maybe it's because I didn't fight face to face with the enemy."

"Isn't there Penier?" Nellie asked doubtfully.

Lyudmila: "In Upper Perniya, we were pinned down in a house by enemy tanks. The situation was quite dangerous, but no Plosin came into hand-to-hand combat range. I am a praying hand, and I am always protected. Very good. I wanted to go to the front line before, but you stopped me."

Nellie: "Praying hands should not be on the front line, neither emotionally nor rationally."

After another year of fighting, praying hands like Lyudmila have now been reduced to one percent of what they were before the war. In the past, the Divine Arrow team with praying hands could be deployed to the division level, and often there were Divine Arrow companies. In such an organization, one company has many praying hands.

But now the prayer hands are basically used individually, and are often deployed at key hubs at the front level to perform air defense tasks.

Lyudmila stared at Neli's face and sighed softly: "Last winter, when you were fighting on the other side of the river, I often dreamed that you were constantly moving away from me. You all threw yourself into the furnace of war, but I Standing outside the furnace."

Nellie: "You are here now, with us."

Lyudmila did not answer.

————

Wang Zhong entered the headquarters and found that Pavlov was already drinking coffee there, so he asked: "Nellie said you went to bed at two o'clock. Is that okay?"

Pavlov: "There is coffee, no problem. When the war is over, we will all have plenty of time to rest and rest as much as we want."

Wang Zhong hesitated to speak, and finally turned around and asked Vasily: "Where's the coffee?"

"Nellie has already brewed it, here it is." Vasily came over with the coffee pot and cup and filled Wang Zhong's cup.

Wang Zhong took a sip and his brows knitted together in pain.

Vasily: "Looking at your expression, it must be very effective."

As soon as he finished speaking, the communications soldier ran into the room: "Briefing on the situation this morning."

Pavlov immediately took the report and quickly read it.

Wang Zhong continued to drink coffee, each sip of which made his head sober.

About five minutes later, Pavlov handed the report to his staff to update the map. He turned to Wang Zhong and said: "Last night, there was an enemy's light armored reconnaissance battalion and Guards 24 under the Third Guards Tank Corps. Brigade encountered.

"After a brief exchange of fire, the enemy retreated. The 24th Tank Brigade did not understand the situation so they did not pursue it. At dawn around four o'clock, they counted the wreckage left by the enemy, identified the signs on the wreckage, and confirmed that the enemy was the 19th Armored Corps of the 3rd Armored Corps. Division's light reconnaissance force."

Wang Zhong: "It seems that the enemy is going to counterattack. The Third Armored Army. Our intelligence originally showed that they are deployed here..."

As he spoke, he picked up the map stick and poked it on the map in front of him.

Pavlov: "Based on the distance, the enemy began to mobilize since yesterday afternoon."

Wang Zhong: "It seems that in the afternoon we knew we couldn't stop our breakthrough, so we started mobilizing troops."

Pavlov: "According to the enemy's past mobilization speed, the counterattack will be launched from two to three o'clock this afternoon."

He raised his hand and looked at his watch: "If we launch a counterattack at three o'clock, there will be more than six hours until sunset. The enemy will have enough time to fight several tank battles."

Wang Zhong: "Send out reconnaissance planes - no, not just reconnaissance planes, dispatch all aircraft that mainly operate at low altitudes, Jacques, and the IL series, which currently have a small number of equipment, to confirm the location of the enemy's armored vehicle force, and provide Our army’s tank troops provide early warning.”

In this space-time Il series, after Wang Zhong's active intervention, the number of equipment has been greatly reduced, but some are still retained, mainly using rockets to attack the enemy's soft targets.

In fact, this is also the most effective attack method of the IL series on Earth.

Pavlov immediately picked up the phone and ordered.

Wang Zhongze watched the staff update the map.

At this time, Emilia came in. As soon as she saw Wang Zhong, she said: "When I was covering Pei 2's bombing of the enemy's logistics station, I saw armored troops marching on the grassland, located 20 kilometers east of Bali Yang."

Wang Zhong glanced at the map: "In front of the First Guards Tank Army, the estimated time of contact with the First Army..."

"Five hours." Pavlov had already given the order. He put down the phone and immediately reported the mental calculation time. "Considering that the enemy will have to spend time reorganizing the formation and replenishing fuel after arriving, the counterattack will start at about three o'clock in the afternoon. "

Emilia: "When we returned, we saw a lot of smoke and dust at an altitude of 3,000 meters. The enemy will definitely launch a large-scale counterattack today."

Wang Zhong: "We have anticipated this."

Popov said: "The tank troops are gearing up. Ever since they switched to T34W, they have been wanting to compete with Prosen. Now they have a chance."

Wang Zhong: "It's a pity that we used the T34W to fight against the enemy's Long-Gun No. 4. Our new medium tanks rushed slowly but still couldn't catch up."

Pavlov: "I am worried now that the guerrilla comrades report that if the enemy's new tanks are put into battle on a large scale, it will cause us heavy casualties."

Wang Zhong nodded.

Although he knew that the Leopard on Earth was put into the battlefield for the first time basically due to mechanical failure and driving into his own mine array, and failed to drive to the front line, there was no guarantee that the Leopard in this time and space would definitely make the same mistake again.

Although the T34W has a big head, its gun is still a 76mm gun. Although it is issued with new armor-piercing bullets, it is still a bit difficult to deal with the Panther.

Of course, Wang Zhong has also made a plan. If the Leopards really enter the battlefield on a large scale, he is prepared to use the Rokosov I heavy tank in his hand as a fire-fighting team - just like the Santoku on earth uses the Tiger as a fire-fighting team. Team like that.

As for the actual situation, we can only know by meeting the enemy at three o'clock in the afternoon.

————

At the same time, the 51st Armored Battalion of the Amphora Armored Division of the Asgard Knights of the Prosen Army.

This armored battalion was only strengthened for the Anpra Armored Division in early June and is equipped with 96 of the latest "Plank 5 tanks."

His Majesty the Emperor has high hopes for this battalion and the Panzer V tanks they are equipped with, so he personally appointed Lieutenant Colonel Otto, currently the top ace of the Prosen Armored Forces, to command this battalion.

However, at this time Lieutenant Colonel Otto frowned: "Sixty vehicles sent for repair?"

"Yes." The battalion maintenance team leader nodded, "There are obviously some problems with the running mechanism of the new tank. We have completed the maintenance of ten vehicles so far, and the faults are all in one place."

Lieutenant Colonel Otto: "When will the remaining 50 vehicles be repaired?"

The captain looked bitter: "It's hard to say. The staggered road wheels of new tanks are very troublesome to dismantle. Even if we know where the fault is, it will take more than five hours to disassemble and install the road wheels. Counting other miscellaneous maintenance procedures, it will be repaired in seven hours. One is considered fast, and we can repair three at the same time.”

Lieutenant Colonel Otto: "You mean, you can repair up to ten vehicles a day?"

"That's the best case scenario." The captain shrugged. "It's very troublesome to repair the new tank. I don't understand why the suspension system of the Panzer IV is not used directly?"

Lieutenant Colonel Otto sighed: "Our designers have their own considerations! Repair them as soon as possible! Can the remaining 46 be put into combat?"

"Yes, I mean, for now. As for how many can reach the enemy, it's hard to say."