Arc of Gunfire

Major General Witte saw smoke from shooting suddenly appearing in front of the tank front line and quickly raised his binoculars.

Within seconds, he was sure the armor had encountered an enemy anti-tank gun emplacement.

In the past year, the Ant Army's anti-tank artillery unit caused much higher losses to the Plossen Armored Force than the tank unit.

Of course, the Prossen tank crew also had extensive experience with anti-tank gun positions.

They will first try to find anti-tank gun positions, use grenade attacks, and once the grenades fail to solve the problem, they will release smoke and then rush towards the anti-tank gun positions.

Most of the time last year, the tank density on the front of Prosen's offensive was much higher than the density of anti-tank guns. In addition, the Ant Army basically used 45mm anti-tank guns last year, so the frontal threat to the Panzer III and IV tanks was not high.

Then the shooting skills of the Ant gunners were very poor, so most of the time the Prosin army did not rely on smoke, but eliminated these anti-tank gun positions through crossfire.

Yes, the Ant anti-tank gun positions caused a lot of damage, but most of the positions were breached and the tanks subsequently slaughtered the Ant infantry and gunners on the positions.

It's just that Ant's other units performed too poorly, so the anti-tank gun unit became the number one threat.

Now the commander of the armored battalion seemed to follow last year's experience and ordered the troops to turn to the anti-tank gun position and launch an attack on the position - to be precise, the position was originally on the armored battalion's outflanking route, and he only needed to turn the front of the vehicle to the left. You can rush to the position in just a dozen degrees.

Major General Witte held a telescope in one hand and a fist in the other: "Quickly, destroy them! Show them how powerful they are!"

Unfortunately, from his position, he could not see the effect of the tank group's attack. He could only see Prosen's tanks catching fire one after another - a fire basically meant that the tank would be burned down and completely lost.

As for the stopped tanks, Major General Witte did not know whether they were destroyed or whether their members were stunned and stopped temporarily.

Suddenly, the Ant's T34 tank appeared from the side and began to attack the flank of the Prosen tank!

These Ant tanks have superb shooting skills, and one shot can stop a dozen advancing Prosen tanks.

The commander of the armored battalion ordered the tank troops on the flanks to turn around and engage in a melee with the Ant tanks.

Last year, as long as it entered a melee, the Ant tank could only be beaten unilaterally. Many of Proson's new tank aces last year were medals obtained by continuously opening T34 cans in the melee.

But this batch of Ant tanks is obviously different. They don't have the "blind" problem of the T34 in the past.

Because they are all big-headed T34Ws!

The monthly combat report in March this year specifically mentioned that when encountering a big-headed T34W unit, it cannot be treated as an ordinary T34 unit.

These tanks are often driven by armor experts from Ant's side, and with the addition of a separate commander, their situational awareness capabilities are incomparable.

Major General Witte was extremely worried. He could see that his armored forces were in trouble and were gradually losing ground!

"What are the heavy tanks doing? Hurry up and destroy the enemy's assault guns, come and help us!"

Major General Witte cursed.

The new chief of staff said cautiously: "The enemy's new assault guns are powerful, it will be good if our new tanks can hold them back..."

"Shut up!" Major General Witte scolded, "My troops are melting! Damn it, if the shelling hadn't crippled so many tanks, we should have had a strength advantage!"

Suddenly, someone shouted: "General, look!"

Major General Witte turned his head sharply and saw smoke appearing in the north. It was obvious that armored troops were marching on the grassland.

The major general immediately raised his telescope: "Is it a friendly force in a pincer offensive on both wings?"

Then he saw the silhouette of a tank racing across the steppe.

Tilt the armor!

The Prosen tank currently does not have sloped armor!

The Ant tank troops are outflanking from the north!

Major General Witte shouted: "Prepare to defend! All the tanks lying in the nest have been stopped for maintenance. When the members get on the vehicles, they can at least be used as fixed forts! Where are our anti-tank guns?"

Adjutant: "Report, it was almost blown up by enemy shelling!"

Armored units have better resistance to artillery fire, but soft targets such as infantry suffer heavy losses.

Major General Witte waved his hand: "Forget it, just relying on the firepower of the paralyzed tanks is enough. The enemy's T34 can't do anything to our new tanks. Just two new tanks lying down can beat the enemy. The infantry. The troops have made good use of the wreckage of the half-track, it's your turn to use the incendiary bombs in your hands!"

At this time, the impacting T34 stopped and fired the first round.

Immediately, a fire broke out one after another lying in the nest, and several tanks should have been shot, but as long as the members did not abandon the vehicles, they would not be able to tell.

The Prosen tanks also opened fire, but most of them were shot away.

The major general frowned slightly, then shouted: "It's a scope!"

The lying tank indicates that the heavy artillery shell exploded very close to the tank. Since even the road wheels and tracks were damaged, the more fragile optical system cannot be unaffected.

Major General: "Recalibrate the scope!"

At this time, the new heavy tanks lying in the nest opened fire. The first wave of shelling caused the two T34s to burst into flames and stop.

The members of the car jumped out of the tank with fire and rolled on the ground.

The new heavy tank continued to fire, and the 88mm main gun smashed the Ant tank like an egg with a hammer, turning it into burning scrap metal.

The Ants fought back, and the shells hit the heavy tank and exploded into white "cotton"!

smoke bomb!

The Ant people also learned it!

All the heavy tanks lying in the nest were hit by smoke bombs and were covered tightly with white smoke.

Immediately afterwards Ant's T34 began to clean up the Plossen tanks that had not calibrated the sights - it should be said that the Plossen fixed turret.

For a time, the entire Prosen position was in a sea of ​​flames, with burning tanks everywhere.

The Ants also shot at the wreckage to make sure it was on fire - so they wouldn't suddenly come to life and cause harm to the Ants.

The fire illuminated Major General Witte's face.

At this time, there were footsteps behind him. He turned around and found that it was Captain John: "General!"

Major General Witte said to the adjutant: "Gather the vehicles that can still be driven, take the surviving tank crews with them, and retreat along the way we came. The surviving infantry gathered, and I personally led the mission to cut off the rear. Lay smoke grenades, Force the enemy tanks to come up and engage in close combat.”

The adjutant saluted: "Yes!"

Major General Witte: "You lead the retreat team. Also, bring the staff officers with you. Take them all with you."

The chief of staff was surprised: "Should I go too?"

Major General Witte: "Yes, you just have no experience. You will become a qualified chief of staff in the future."

The chief of staff opened his mouth, but in the end no words came out, but the corners of his eyes were moist.

Major General Witte waved his hand: "Act quickly!"

Captain John stood at attention and saluted Major General Witte: "Salute to you."

At this time the guard shouted: "Stop, who is it?"

A three-wheeled motorcycle drove over. The driver was a corporal, and the person holding a machine gun in the motorcycle was a private. Neither of them wore the handsome leather jackets of the motorcycle unit.

"We are the messengers of the 16th Panzer Grenadier Regiment," said the corporal. "The Grenadier Regiment is still fighting in the city and is asking for support."

Major General Witte shook his head: "There is no support. You two are the leaders of the retreating troops, so leave quickly!"

The corporal's expression relaxed. He saluted the general and drove his motorcycle straight to the assembled automobile troops.

The smoke set by the infantry had formed a curtain wall in the north, so Major General Witte could not see the movements of the enemy armored forces, but he could hear the sound of the engine getting closer and closer, and the noise from the gearbox.

The Ant tank's gearbox is really loud, he thought.

On the other side of the convoy, the surviving tank crews and the wounded were all put into vehicles that could still move.

The adjutant seemed to want to come over and report, but Major General Witte waved his hand: "Let's go! Let's go when you're ready!"

The adjutant saluted the major general from a distance, and then took off his golden adjutant sash - after the death of the chief officer, he was no longer an adjutant.

Major General Witte watched the convoy heading west.

An infantry captain came to him and saluted: "General, the remaining panzergrenadiers are ready."

"Give me a submachine gun," the major general said.

The captain immediately took off his submachine gun and magazine bag and handed them to the major general.

The major general put these on his back and took out a wooden handle grenade from the captain's grenade bag.

"'I have one last grenade,'" he read.

Captain: "What?"

Major General: "The Ant language is a song that the Ant people like to sing recently. Since this song became popular, the number of prisoners we captured has decreased by 60%. Most of the Ant people will hold grenades and die with us before being captured. . I thought they were crazy, but now - I might be crazy too."

He had the grenade in his belt.

It seems a bit nondescript for an officer to have such a grenade on his arm.

Major General Witte didn't care about this at all. He put his hands behind his back, smelled the smell of burning corpses in the wind, and said, "This wind, this feeling, this is the smell of war."

Soon enough, an unknown tank rushed through the smoke.

This tank has a thick barrel on the body, and a turret on top of the tall body with a thinner barrel.

The machine gun fire from the tank swept towards the major general.

The captain pounced and pinned Major General Witte to the ground.

The major general lay on the ground, pressing the grass blocking his view with his hands, and then he saw a brave Prosin soldier holding an incendiary bomb and rushing towards the tank——

Then the door on the side of the tank opened, and an Ant soldier jumped out, shooting with a submachine gun.

Then the second Ant soldier jumped out, the third, the fourth...

The major general looked at the seven infantrymen who jumped out of the tank in shock. Is this actually an "infantry fighting vehicle"?

The next moment, the cannon on the tank body opened fire, and the high-explosive bomb hit the wreckage in front, sending the Plosen soldiers who had just stood up from the grass into the sky.

Major General Witte opened his mouth.

At this time, another "infantry fighting vehicle" rushed through the smoke, and then another infantry squad came down from above.

Fierce close-range infantry combat was in full swing, but the Anters had the firepower of "infantry fighting vehicles". For the first time, the Prosin infantry was at a disadvantage in close-range combat!

The Anters began to efficiently massacre the Plosen infantry at the rear.

They gradually approached Major General Witte who was lying on the ground.

The major general looked at the captain who had just thrown him down, and found that his expression was dull and his pupils had dilated.

Apparently he was shot as he tackled the major general.

The major general pushed the captain away and struggled to stand up. He did not pick up the submachine gun, but picked up the grenade, pulled the fuse, and rushed towards the Anters holding the grenade.

The machine gun hit the major general in the shoulder, knocking him to his knees.

The next moment, the grenade exploded in his hand, turning him into a bloody mist.