Arc of Gunfire

On the second day of the offensive, at the headquarters of the First Front of Kosalia, 2120 hours.

Pavlov looked at the sunset outside the window: "There is only a little time left for the sun to shine, and the enemy should stop counterattacking."

Popov let out a long sigh: "Although I know that the enemy's armored forces are strong, is this too strong?"

Wang Zhong's expression was not good: "On the bright side, our armored soldiers have slowed down the enemy's counterattack with their sacrifices."

At this time, the preliminary results of each unit facing the enemy have been sent to the headquarters. Basically, except for the Guards Heavy Breakthrough Tank Regiment equipped with Rokosov I heavy tanks, the exchange ratio between other units and the Prosons is about 3 to 1.

The good news is that the exchange ratio between ordinary tank units equipped with T34W and the enemy is not as bad as before, and there will never be such a bad thing that the enemy's long-barreled No. 4 platoon destroys a brigade of T34s without losing anything.

The bad news is that the exchange ratio between the veterans of the Guards Tank Brigade driving T34W and the Proson armored soldiers is not much better.

The reason for this is that in addition to the reasons of aiming accuracy, search speed and other factors related to the quality of the troops, there is another very important reason, that is, the armored forces generally reported that the newly issued armor-piercing shells could not penetrate the enemy's late-model No. 4 frontal armor.

Vasily: "The new armor-piercing shells can stably penetrate the 80mm frontal armor of the enemy tank during the rear test, and can even penetrate 100mm armor at a closer distance. I think these testers should be shot, they must have cheated."

Wang Zhong: "It is not necessarily a cheat. It is possible that our armor steel is not as good as Proson's armor steel."

In fact, because a large number of professional and technical talents were lost during the industrial migration process, the quality of armor steel produced by Ante dropped sharply in the second year of the war. There were even reports on the front line that PAK38 penetrated the T34 gun shield from the front.

This is exactly the same as the situation on Earth.

Now that the war has entered the third year, the talents and craftsmanship in the rear should have recovered to a certain extent, but they certainly cannot compare with Proson in terms of armor steel quality.

Pavlov: "Look at it in a positive way. This time at least three tanks can be exchanged for one tank. If the results of heavy tanks are included, it can even be close to two to one. If we keep exchanging like this, the day of one to one will come sooner or later."

In fact, on Earth, the Russians were not able to achieve a one-to-one with the armored forces of the Germans until the end, and they were even beaten by the armored aces of the Germans.

Because too many good armored soldiers of the Russians died on Earth, by the end of the war, the average driving time of the troops was not much longer than at the beginning of the war.

Although the Russians also had a lot of legendary aces, the average level of the troops was too low.

But this time and space is different. At least many aces who drive heavy tanks can be preserved now.

When the Ante version of T54 is mass-produced, some aces trained in heavy tanks can be transferred to the T54 troops, and the old and the new can even produce some medium tank aces.

While Wang Zhong was calculating, the signalman entered the room and said loudly: "The report of the 8th Guards Tank Army has been delivered."

Pavlov: "The only thing missing is theirs! Let me see how much they lost."

The 8th Guards Tank Army inherited the mantle of the original 51st Tank Army, but it was only a nominal inheritance. In fact, there were too few survivors from the 51st Tank Army. This tank army was a brand new unit.

Pavlov opened the envelope, read the report for a while, and immediately smiled: "The 8th Guards Army did not encounter the enemy's armored counterattack. They successfully broke through the position of the enemy's 167th Infantry Division and are developing in depth. Kirinenko's cavalry army is also with them."

Wang Zhong breathed a sigh of relief: "It seems that the battle loss table for today does not need to be expanded."

He looked at the battle loss figures on the blackboard.

That was the estimated battle loss reported by the armored units today. The real battle loss will not be known until the statisticians of each unit carefully count it after nightfall.

On the first day of the enemy's counterattack, the estimated losses were as high as 500 vehicles, with at least four brigades losing more than half of their vehicles, and other brigades that encountered the Plosson troops also suffered serious losses.

But the good news is that this time most of the brigades forced back the Plosson's counterattack and finally controlled the battlefield.

This means that a considerable portion of the 500 losses can be repaired.

Popov stood beside Wang Zhong, and together they looked at the numbers on the blackboard, sighing: "If we lose a few more days, our armored forces will be completely wiped out."

Wang Zhong said confidently: "The enemy will be exhausted first."

————

"We will be exhausted if we continue like this!" Marshal Goron knocked on the table hard, "How could we lose 300 tanks on the first day of the counterattack?"

Chief of Staff: "Most of them are the results of the enemy's new heavy tanks, my marshal."

As soon as he finished speaking, the commander of the Third Armored Army said: "Marshal, although we suffered heavy losses, various units claimed to have destroyed more enemy tanks. The 19th Armored Division with newer equipment even reported that it destroyed 200 enemy tanks!"

The commander of the Second Armored Army of the Asgard Knights next to him was not to be outdone: "Our Ampra Division lost ten tanks and reported that it destroyed 220!"

The marshal sighed: "Enough, we all know how much water there is in claiming to destroy this thing! Apart from anything else, since so many Ante tanks were destroyed, we should have controlled the battlefield. Why did we retreat in most places?"

Commander of the Third Armored Army: "There are too many enemies, and their tactics and skills have obviously improved greatly compared to before. We can't drive them away like before."

The commander of the Second Armored Army of Asgard also echoed: "Yes, and the enemy's new heavy tanks are too powerful. They repelled our troops and continued to pursue, threatening the logistics supply line of the armored army. That's why we retreated."

The commander of the Third Armored Army took the conversation back: "The mobility of the enemy's new heavy tanks exceeded our expectations. We couldn't escape at all. Many armored battalions that were pursued suffered heavy losses.

"Our troops retreated to the range of the Elephant tank destroyer to stabilize their position and force the enemy back."

Marshal Goron: "Thank God, finally a new equipment has played a little role."

Chief of Staff: "It's a pity that the failure rate of these destroyers is too high, and they can't keep up with the mobility of the armored forces."

Marshal Goron: "What about our new weapons? What about those Type 5 and Type 6 tanks? Where are they? Isn't the Ampra Division equipped with a battalion of Type 5 tanks and a battalion of Type 6 tanks? "

The Asgard Knights' Ampra Armored Division belongs to the Knights' Second Armored Army, so the commander of the Second Armored Army replied: "The Type 6 tanks are performing well and are on their way to the battle area. It is expected that 30 Type 6 tanks will be put into battle tomorrow.

"As for the Type 5 tanks... this battalion has only 40 tanks that can move, and it drove into the minefield during the maneuver."

Marshal Goron was shocked: "The enemy laid the minefield so quickly?"

"No, it was laid by our infantry division." The commander looked embarrassed, "The remaining Type 5 tanks all had their tracks blown off and could not move forward."

Marshal Goron cursed: "Damn it!"