Arc of Gunfire

Ante Army, Agsukov, Southwestern Front Command.

Crown Prince Ivan Nikolayev Antonov entered a noisy map room and saw the bandage on General Skorobo's hand at first sight. He was shocked: "What's going on? The enemy has hit the headquarters?"

Skorobo waved his hand: "Nothing, I was just too excited and punched the table."

"Punched the table?" The crown prince raised his voice suddenly, attracting the attention of the surrounding staff. Fortunately, at this time, the headquarters was full of "you speak louder" roars, so it was not particularly eye-catching.

The Crown Prince lowered his voice and asked, "So Rokosov is right, right? The enemy really launched a pincer attack, right?"

"He is right about this part." Scrobo paused and raised his voice, "But his estimate of the next part is completely wrong! Our armored counterattack will crush the enemy's offensive! Come and see!"

Scrobo stood up and went to the map: "According to the intelligence we have received so far, the enemy may have deployed part of the Second Armored Group. We believe there are three divisions, a total of nine armored battalions, and about 400 tanks.

"And the three tank armies we deployed in the counterattack have more than a hundred T34s alone! There are also dozens of KV1s and more than 200 BT tanks.

"These tanks have plenty of fuel and ammunition, which is completely different from the troops that were short of fuel and ammunition in the first month of the war! They will completely crush the enemy's offensive!" The Crown Prince stared at General Skorobo: "Can we really fight back?" The general hesitated for a moment before responding firmly: "Yes! Absolutely!" The Crown Prince nodded: "Then what should I do?" "You should go back to Saint Yekaterinburg! The enemy's planes bombed the airport in Agsukov, but there is another field airport on the east side of the city that is intact and can take off transport planes. I We have arranged a plane to fly directly to Saint Yekaterinburg..."

Crown Prince: "I'm not going anywhere. Since you believe that a counterattack can stop the enemy, I will stay here. If the news of my departure spreads, it will affect morale!"

The general was silenced for a moment, and after a few seconds he said: "Just because we can win doesn't mean it's not dangerous here."

At this time, the communications staff ran in with a telegram and saluted General Skorobo: "General! An urgent telegram from the Supreme Command of Saint Yekaterinburg."

Skorobo grabbed the telegram and took a look.

The Crown Prince: "What does it say?"

General Skorobo: "His Majesty the Tsar ordered us to resolutely repel the enemy's attack."

"Father said that? I think Father may not understand what happened on the front line. I can call Father..."

General Skorobo: "You can fly back to Saint Yekaterinburg and tell His Majesty the Tsar in person."

The Crown Prince bit his lip and shook his head: "My mission is to supervise the army here and boost morale. Since Father asked you to hold on, I should also set an example."

General Skorobo stared at the Crown Prince for a few seconds and said: "I think I may have some misunderstandings about you before. Since you have decided to stay, we can only take out 120,000 spirits to thwart the enemy's attack!

"We have a huge army and a large number of technical weapons in our hands. We are not weaker than the enemy!

"As long as the Sixth Tank Army launches an attack, everything will be fine!"

————

Ante Army, Sixth Tank Army, Chesnokov commanded the tanks.

Army commander Chesnokov heard someone report on the radio: "This is the 5th Tank Battalion. We have six tanks left behind. Should we stop the attack?"

"No! Let the tankers of those faulty tanks take other tanks, so that if a crew is killed in the battle later, they can replace the sacrificed members to fight!" Lieutenant General Chesnokov's voice was cold and ruthless.

"Yes, Lieutenant General!" The crew's answer came in the static noise.

Chesnokov wanted to see what was going on in front of him, so he put his eyes on the gun mirror, but the violent shaking almost made him vomit.

He could only push open the hatch on the top of the turret and stick his head out to observe the front.

Then he noticed that there was smoke and dust in front, and it looked like a cavalry column forming a "wall formation" was charging.

"Attention all tanks!" Chesnokov pressed the microphone on his throat, "The enemy tank group is in front! This time the enemy has no air force to help them, let them see how powerful they are!"

Sporadic "Ura" sounds came from the headset, mainly because the T34 radio was too bad.

Chesnokov himself was still looking out, using a telescope to observe the front. He was excited to see the Proson tanks lined up in a dense attack formation.

At the beginning of the war, the Proson people used this dense formation to form a local advantage and quickly broke through the anti-tank positions of the Ante Army on the border.

"Enemy tanks!" Lieutenant General Chesnokov shouted on the radio, "Battle preparation!"

He retreated into the tank turret.

At the last moment before closing the hatch, he looked back and confirmed that the main force of the Sixth Tank Army was following him.

Back in the car, Chesnokov immediately put his eyes to the gun mirror and began to select targets.

Unfortunately, the enemy was too far away, and the tank was shaking violently at this time due to the high-speed impact. Chesnokov would lose the target as soon as he saw it, let alone put the aiming crosshairs on the enemy.

"Mikhail! Stop, let me choose a target and fire a shot!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the tank braked suddenly. Chesnokov's body hit the front, and his head hit the armrest above the gun mirror.

Chesnokov cursed and immediately operated the turret to find the target. He selected a Prosen tank that was almost facing the direction of the muzzle and opened fire directly!

First hit!

The Prosen tank lost power and gradually slowed down as it slid forward. The crew members opened the hatch and fled.

At the same time, the enemy's attack also hit Chesnokov's car, but it only made a muffled sound on the armor, which sounded like someone hitting the armor with a hammer.

"Hahahaha, that's it! General White Horse relies on this to achieve beautiful results! In the future, every crew can achieve that level of results! Reload quickly!"

More shells hit the Chesnokov car, but did not penetrate the T34's thick armor at all.

One of the armor-piercing rounds may have been deflected by the shape of the T34, leaving a sound that sounded like scraping the surface of an iron pot with long nails, giving the tank crews goosebumps.

Loader: "Armor-piercing bullet, okay!"

"Send away another one!"

Chesnokov fired, and the shell hit the side of the target tank, bounced on the ground and flew into the air, as if it turned into stars in the distance.

"What happened! Reload!"

At this time the enemy releases smoke.

"These cowards!" Chesnokov scolded, "Mikhail, move forward! Let the tanks move! Let's run up and smash them! From today on, the armor advantage of the Prosins is over!"

T34 started up again, and the noise made by the engine and transmission mechanism was so noisy that even the internal communication was difficult to use.

Due to excessive shaking, the gun scope had lost its ability to detect enemies, and Chesnokov could only use the observation ports on both sides to observe.

However, the T34's turret design made it very difficult for the gunner to use the observation window on the loader's side, making it almost impossible to take a good look.

After all, the T34's two-person turret, with the loader and gunner sitting in rows, is completely blocked.

It won't be long before the Proson armored troops on the opposite side will discover this and develop targeted tactics.

Chesnokov struggled for a long time, but it was awkward, so he had to open the hatch cover again and stick his upper body out.

The smoke screen released by the enemy tank has completely blocked the front, and it is impossible to see the other side of the smoke.

But Chesnokov believes that the enemy's smoke cannot be released indefinitely. When the smoke breaks through, the enemy's armored division will be destroyed!

In this way, maybe I can get the Ant Hero Medal!

At this time, his car took the lead and rushed into the smoke.

In the smoke, the view outside the tank was terrible, so Chesnokov retracted into the turret.

A moment later, the gun scope that had been obscured by smoke in front of Chesnokov suddenly showed an image again!

Chesnokov immediately followed up, trying to find the fleeing enemy Panzer III.

But there was nothing ahead.

"Where have you gone?"

At this time, the tank's engine and traditional systems were noisy as always, covering up almost all sounds outside the tank.

Lieutenant General Chesnokov turned the turret, trying to find the missing Panzer III tank group.

At this time, a panicked voice came from the radio: "Who is attacking us? Has anyone seen the enemy who is firing? Where is the cannon coming from?"

gun?

Lieutenant General Chesnokov threw away the gun scope and looked at the observation window on his side. The T34 that attacked with him was fine, and no one was seen attacking at all.

Then he turned to the other side, pushed the loader back, and looked out of the observation window.

Nothing happened? Isn’t my wingman No. 671 still fine?

Soon after, a ray of light flashed across the T34 with tactical number 671. It immediately slowed down, slid for a few meters and then stopped completely, leaving the narrow field of view of the observation window.

what's the situation?

What was that just now?

Lieutenant General Chesnokov wanted to confirm the status of car No. 671, so he turned around and put his eyes on the observation window at the rear of the turret.

However, nothing can be seen through the narrow observation window.

He was about to use the radio, then he remembered that the wing car was not the platoon command car and had no radio.

Chesnokov turned back and tried to use the gun scope to detect the enemy attacking his troops.

However, the gun scope was too bumpy.

In order to get a clear view, Lieutenant General Chesnokov issued a very brave but also very stupid order: "Mikhail! Stop!"

The tank came to an emergency stop. Chesnokov did not wait for the tank to stop, then turned the turret to search ahead——

He saw nothing until there was a flash of light far, far away!

The shells from the 88mm anti-aircraft gun penetrated the frontal armor of the T34 like butter.

Because this round was fired from a long distance, the angle of fall offset part of the inclination of the T34's frontal armor.

The shell penetrated directly through the pilot Mikhail and exploded behind Mikhail.

The entire fighting room - the turret - flew into the sky in the explosion.