Arc of Gunfire

On November 8, the 1st Guards Machinery Reconnaissance Company went out on a reconnaissance mission.

Company commander Koshkin was about to go to the usual hillock to see what was going on, but halfway through, he suddenly heard the sound of an engine on the other side of the mountain.

He pulled his horse sharply and listened with bated breath.

It was indeed an engine sound, and it was becoming clearer and clearer.

He turned around and shouted: "Misha (Mikhail's nickname)! Run! We have encountered the enemy. Go back to the headquarters to deliver the message!"

Mikhail is the best horseman in the company, so he has always ridden the strongest horse. Now that he heard the company commander shouting, Mikhail immediately turned around and urged the horse to start running wildly, and the horse's hooves splashed every bit of mud.

Koshkin took the smoke grenade captured from the enemy from his waist and shouted: "Get ready to set up the smoke! We have to buy time for Misha!"

In fact, under such road conditions, a war horse running at full speed can run faster than a mechanized force.

But for the sake of safety, Koshkin decided to lead the team to stay to block the enemy's reconnaissance troops.

As he threw the smoke grenade, a motorcycle drove up the hill.

The person sitting in the motorcycle compartment was not the machine gunner, but the commander of the motorcycle reconnaissance team, so the machine gun fire did not come immediately.

But when the second motorcycle came up, the machine gunner in the motorcycle immediately opened fire.

Three horses in the reconnaissance company were mowed down by machine guns. Only two of the three horse riders had time to jump off their horses. The remaining one was directly crushed by the horse and screamed - his leg bones were probably crushed.

The fallen horse was still struggling to get up.

Koshkin hid in the smoke and shouted to the company: "Disperse! Set up smoke! Let the enemy not dare to pursue rashly!"

The reconnaissance team scattered to avoid machine gun fire and lobbed smoke grenades.

Soon the entire mountainside was filled with smoke, and enemy machine gun fire stopped.

Koshkin: "Spread out and retreat so that the enemy doesn't know who to pursue. Meet at the division headquarters at night!"

After saying that, he lay down on the horse and started galloping at full speed.

————

Major Cohen, commander of the 512th Motorized Reconnaissance Battalion, climbed out of the truck.

He looked at the ground at his feet: "There is no mud on the top of the mountain anymore. This damn weather is going to pass."

After speaking, Major Cohen once again confirmed the condition of the ground and confirmed that there was really no mud. He grinned: "After the weather has passed, we can attack with all our strength. Ant's end is coming!"

Others laughed too.

No wonder they laughed. After breaking through the Duwa River, the Second Armored Group was invincible and invincible. No matter how resolute the resistance of the Ant Army troops they encountered, they would be quickly crushed by the Second Armored Group.

Although it was not an encirclement and annihilation battle, and not many prisoners were captured, the bonus effect of such consecutive battles and victories on the morale of the troops was obvious.

While laughing, the half-track vehicle accompanying the reconnaissance battalion also drove up the slope. Major Cohen immediately ordered: "Establish observation posts and support points here to ensure that the enemy's harassing troops will not cross this slope."

"Yes, Major."

The major turned back and shouted to the No. 2 tank at the foot of the mountain: "How is it! Is it repaired well?"

It has become a regular configuration of the Prosen Army that the reconnaissance force is accompanied by the No. 2 tank. The No. 2 tank can no longer participate in frontal battles, but it is still good to follow the reconnaissance force with a 20mm machine gun to provide supporting firepower.

Facing the small Ant troops and the reconnaissance cavalry troops, the No. 2 tank was extremely effective.

In response to the major's question, the commander of the No. 2 tank shouted: "No, it's completely broken. We need maintenance troops to come up!"

Major: "Then leave it here, mark the location on the map, and wait for the maintenance team to come up."

Because of the mud and the crazy advance of the Second Armored Group, the maintenance troops had been thrown a hundred kilometers away.

In October they stopped attacking for two days to wait for maintenance troops.

After that, the logistics department allocated a considerable amount of transportation capacity to the maintenance troops, and it was difficult for the field repair shops to keep up with the assault forwards.

But as the Second Armored Group deepened, the situation became worse again.

The crew who abandoned the tank quickly took a motorcycle up the mountain. The commander jumped off the motorcycle and protested to Major Cohen: "The field repair yard is still a hundred kilometers away. If you leave it here, it may never be repaired. As long as there is a variable speed We can repair the No. 3 gear in the box. We should ask other tanks for the No. 3 gear.

"The spare parts package carried by our tank has only used up the No. 3 gear, and there are others left that can be exchanged with other tanks."

Major Cohen looked at the commander: "Do you all carry spare parts bags?"

"Of course, in this crazy weather, logistics and the air force are not trustworthy. All tanks will bring their own spare parts kits and repair them by themselves. In fact, the spare parts kits can also be used as additional armor!"

Major Cohen nodded: "Okay, you can use the radio to ask what other tanks have gear three."

"Thank you Major."

In order not to expose themselves, reconnaissance troops generally maintain radio silence. They will only break the silence and report to the police if they find valuable targets.

After seeing off the tank crew, Major Cohen shouted to the correspondent: "Report to the division headquarters that we have advanced to a place ten kilometers west of Suhayaveli."

————

At 1200 noon on November 8, Suhayaveli, 1st Guards Mechanized Infantry Division Headquarters.

A trooper was brought into the division bunker.

Wang Zhong: "Hey, aren't you Senior Private Mikhail from the reconnaissance company?"

The cavalryman was shocked: "You know me?"

Wang Zhong: "I remember the names of all the officers and soldiers in the division."

I used a plug-in to remember them.

But the cavalry didn't know and immediately looked moved: "It's amazing!"

"Don't be amazing, report the situation. Did you go to investigate? Why didn't Captain Koshkin come in person?" Wang Zhong asked.

The cavalry immediately became serious: "Captain Koshkin asked me to come back and report first. They are responsible for delaying the enemy. We encountered the enemy's reconnaissance troops on Hill 391. There were motorcycles and half-track vehicles, and more engine sounds. I didn't see those vehicles."

Pavlov immediately picked up a battle mark and placed it on the battle zone situation map on the table. Next to the mark was a triangle symbol representing the hill and the height of the hill 391.

It is also a traditional practice in military cartography to name the hill by its altitude.

The hills where the battle took place will be named after the battle, such as "Little Nameless Land" or something like that.

Wang Zhong's expression was serious: "The enemy's reconnaissance force is already ten kilometers away from us."

Pavlov: "Do you want to fight?"

Wang Zhong: "I'm not sure if the enemy has stopped, maybe they will continue to move towards us?"

At this time, Vasily suddenly reported: "Wait a minute, I heard a shout in Proson language. It seems that a Type 2 tank has broken down and other tanks need to deliver spare parts."

Wang Zhong: "Is the radio clear?"

"Clear, the speaker may be only ten kilometers away from us." Vasily replied.

Wang Zhong: "Well done, musician."

He picked up the receiver himself: "Connect to the artillery position. Artillery position? This is Rokosov."

"Hello, General! We are conducting simulated shooting training!" The commander of the artillery regiment reported.

Wang Zhong: "Don't simulate, let's shoot for real. I'll give you the map coordinates, and you can convert the shooting elements yourself. The map coordinates are..."

Wang Zhong found Hill 391 from a bird's-eye view. Although there is now a layer of "fog of war" covering the hill, he can only see the scenery and cannot see the enemy above, but it is still very simple to say the coordinates.

After reporting the coordinates, he continued: "Three rapid fire."

Artillery Regiment Commander: "Three rapid fire, got it. General, the enemy is going to kill another general, right?"

Wang Zhong refuted seriously: "Don't say such unfounded words, it's just that there may be an enemy's Type 2 tank that has broken down, and the enemy's motorized reconnaissance team may also be there. So we fired three rapid fire to try our luck."

"Just to try our luck?"

"Yes, anyway, we are close to Yebao now, and it is easy to replenish artillery shells."

In fact, Wang Zhong has so many artillery shells that he is worried that if they are blown up by someone, they will explode and destroy the entire division - it is so much.

Wang Zhong put down the phone and looked at Pavlov: "They asked me if I was going to kill another general."

Pavlov laughed.

Wang Zhong: "We should avoid such unrealistic remarks from recurring."

Pavlov: "Just give up. Haven't you read the latest Yebao tabloids? What the people of Yebao are talking about now is the scandal between you and the Crown Princess, how many General Proson you killed, and that you are actually the reincarnation of St. Andrew."

Wang Zhong frowned: "What's the matter with the latter?"

Pavlov pointed at Popov: "This is his field, ask him."

Popov met Wang Zhong's eyes and said: "First of all, this is not spread by the church, but... Generally speaking, the legend that someone is the reincarnation of St. Andrew will be considered by the Tribunal as a defilement of St. Andrew, but such remarks can be published in the newspaper, even though it is only a tabloid, but...right?"

"What do you mean right?" After Wang Zhong finished speaking, he heard the sound of artillery firing outside. The artillery regiment completed the calculation of the firing elements and started firing.

Vassily suddenly said: "I hope to kill a general. The enemy's."

Wang Zhong glared at him.

————

When Major Cohen heard the sound of shells breaking through the air, he lay down directly, and used the anti-artillery lying method in a very professional way.

The first wave of shells fell on the high ground, directly blowing the half-track vehicle to the ground, and the machine gun on the vehicle fell off from the machine gun position and fell in front of Major Cohen.

When the second round of shells fell, Major Cohen had to open his mouth wide to balance the pressure inside and outside his brain.

When the third wave of shells fell, he was finally knocked unconscious.

It turns out that the anti-artillery posture is indeed useful, but as long as the enemy's firepower is dense to a certain extent, the anti-artillery posture is not so useful.

I don't know how long he was unconscious, Major Cohen woke up, got up and sat on the ground, looking at everything around him blankly.

At this time, his brain was actually not working, and he was still in a state of confusion - and it was a physical state of confusion.

At the same time, his ears couldn't hear anything at this time, only tinnitus, strong tinnitus.

Then he saw a captain rushing over and opening and closing his mouth to him constantly.

Major Cohen looked at the captain blankly until the buzzing in his ears suddenly disappeared, and the world seemed to return to him all of a sudden. He could hear the screams of the wounded and the captain's words again.

"Major! Our motorcycles and half-tracks are all destroyed! Do we still need to move forward to investigate?"

The major shook his head: "No, leave the high ground quickly! The enemy, the enemy is Rokossov! It's General White Horse! This sneaky and sudden artillery attack must be him!"