Arc of Gunfire

While the First Mobile Army was doing nothing, the situation of the Tenth Army of Proson was similar.

"They still didn't attack." Admiral Poke crossed his arms and looked at the map, "So now we are just wasting time like this?"

As soon as he finished speaking, a mosquito landed on the admiral's face.

He slapped himself in the face in anger, but the mosquito flew up and dodged, still buzzing in his ear, as if mocking him.

Admiral Poke: "Damn it! Rokosov is in the city and has a house to live in. We can only sleep in tents and command vehicles, dealing with mosquitoes everywhere every day!"

Chief of Staff: "The Academy of Military Sciences has issued special anti-mosquito equipment..."

"That equipment is so difficult to use! Don't they know? It's like the incendiary bombs we issued, which are incredibly complicated, but the effect is similar to the homemade incendiary bombs made by the Ants with wine bottles, except that the burning range is a little larger, and the effect of hitting tanks is exactly the same!" Admiral Poke said, waving his arms vigorously a few times, trying to hit the flying mosquitoes, but of course failed.

At this time, the admiral's adjutant said: "You can light something that produces a lot of smoke and use the smoke to drive away mosquitoes. That's how it is in our hometown."

Admiral Poke looked at the large number of maps and paper documents in the headquarters and shook his head: "Forget it, if I set the headquarters on fire to drive away mosquitoes, I will become the laughing stock of the whole army."

The chief of staff suggested: "You can use perfume with a stronger smell to keep mosquitoes away."

In fact, perfume drives away mosquitoes by covering up the smell of humans, which is equivalent to using camouflage and disguise to hide the body.

The same is true for fumigating mosquitoes with smoke, but at this time, humans did not have such a deep understanding of mosquitoes and believed that the fragrance "drove away" mosquitoes.

Admiral Poke asked the chief of staff: "Do you have perfume with a stronger smell?"

"I have cologne."

Admiral Poke immediately reached out: "Here, give me some."

The chief of staff immediately took out the cologne and stuffed it into Admiral Poke's hand.

The admiral didn't care about anything and just unscrewed the lid and poured it on himself.

The chief of staff hesitated and finally just watched the admiral toss.

After applying the cologne, Admiral Poke looked around, squinted his eyes and listened carefully for a while, and said, "It seems that there is really no buzzing of mosquitoes."

As soon as he finished speaking, the sound of some insects sounded in a corner of the headquarters, as if mocking Admiral Poke.

"Damn it." He cursed.

Chief of Staff: "Because of the mosquito problem, the number of sick soldiers has increased every day since we entered the grassland. We require soldiers to wear long sleeves to avoid mosquito bites, but many people still have malaria."

Admiral Pok: "Give the soldiers quinine."

"Because there are too many sick people, more than we expected, quinine has been used up, and because the priority of replenishment is not as high as ammunition, food and penicillin, quinine is currently in short supply in hospitals at all levels."

Admiral Pok sighed: "Then we can only wait until we recapture Yeisk - no, break through the Sukhayaveli River to realize the first stage of the Blue Plan and then stop to rest completely."

As he said, he picked up a writing board, took off the documents on it and threw them on the table, holding the writing board while fanning the mosquitoes and standing in front of the map.

"Do you think Rokossov really wants mosquitoes and infectious diseases to defeat us?"

"It's unlikely." The adjutant replied, "I think Rokossov is waiting for his supplies. The grassland is a harsh environment for us, and the same is true for the Ante people. At most, they have the support of local people and are more familiar with the grassland conditions."

Admiral Bock: "You said Rokossov is waiting for supplies..."

At this time, the roar of engines came from outside.

The headquarters of the Tenth Army is too simple and has no sound insulation at all, so the sound of engines in the sky can be heard clearly.

Admiral Bock rushed to the door of the headquarters, lifted the curtain and walked out, looking up at the sky.

There is indeed a very small dot in the sky, and it is unclear whether it is the Ante Air Force or the Proson Air Force.

Admiral Bock said confidently: "This is the enemy's aerial reconnaissance. Damn it. Our Air Force's reconnaissance results must be interpreted by them before they are sent to us! By the time we get them, the things in the photos are already outdated."

The chief of staff turned his head to confirm with his subordinates: "Have the artillery of the two infantry divisions facing Rokossov been hidden?"

The staff reported: "They were building artillery positions yesterday. According to the standard working time, they should be completed tomorrow. Don't worry, General, the grassland is so open that the Air Force cannot find landmarks that can be used as references for photo reconnaissance. It is difficult to locate our artillery positions based on photos alone."

Admiral Bock nodded. He himself has very strong military qualities. He knows this without the staff reminding him.

This is the limitation of the Air Force in this era. This situation was gradually alleviated with the installation and improvement of airborne electronic equipment. Until the last positioning systems such as GPS and Beidou were put into use, the problem of aircraft not knowing where they were was completely solved.

But now, aerial reconnaissance photos can only be determined by ground markers and other methods to determine where they were taken.

In short, it is basically a pipe dream to expect to find artillery and guide artillery fire to destroy it only through aerial reconnaissance.

So even if the artillery position is not well hidden, it is not a big deal -

Probably.

————

Ant Air Force, the 4th Fighter-Bomber Regiment.

Originally this was the 4th Attack Aircraft Regiment, but after being equipped with the United States' P47, this regiment also had a certain air combat capability, so it was changed to a fighter-bomber regiment.

All P47s were also classified as fighter-bombers, because after they dropped their bombs and returned to high altitude, they could still compete with Proson's BF109.

Drachenko Grigoevich, the former commander of the 4th Attack Aircraft Regiment, is now the commander of the 4th Fighter-Bomber Regiment. At this time, he was assigning tasks to the team members under the largest awning.

Drachenko: "Yesterday's aerial reconnaissance found some enemy artillery units, but we don't know where they are, and the ground artillery can't attack them. Now it's time for us to play a role. The photos you got are all marked with coordinate grids. Our task today is to plow all the coordinate grids!

"Be sure to be detailed and find the enemy artillery positions! We can now have such good equipment and get rid of Il-2, thanks to Lieutenant General Rokossov! Now the Lieutenant General's troops have no way to deal with the enemy's heavy artillery, we have to share his worries! ”

The pilots answered in unison: "We will complete the mission!"

Drachenko: "I paid for all these photos out of my own pocket! You must remember what the enemy artillery positions look like! Find them, drop bombs, and then strafe them!"

A pilot said: "These artillery positions are covered by anti-aircraft guns."

"There are large-caliber anti-aircraft guns to cover heavy bombers. We just need to keep changing directions to bypass their firepower area!" Drachenko waved his hand, "Don't be afraid! I will lead the team personally and take you to avoid the enemy's artillery area! Okay, let's go! "

The pilots clipped the photos onto the map board, stood up and ran to the fighter planes parked not far from the awning.

The ground crew had already hung bombs under the stubby fuselage of the P47.

Ant's ground crew and pilots were already familiar with the P47. They found that the technical indicators given by the United States were conservative. In fact, the P47 could fly with 20% more bombs than the standard load.

In order to ensure the maneuverability of the aircraft, pilots usually hang fewer bombs. The pilots of the Fourth Attack Aircraft Regiment were used to the bulky Il-2, so they felt that the overloaded P47 was still very flexible and chose to overload.

If someone couldn't fly because of overloading, they would be laughed at by the entire flight regiment.

The pilots ran to their "bomb trucks".

Drachenko also came to his plane, took off his big hat and put it on the maintenance man's head, took the flight hat and goggles from the maintenance man's hand, put them on, jumped onto the left wing of the plane, and then stepped into the cockpit.

The maintenance man wore his big hat, stuck his head into the cockpit and said loudly: "Everything is good! It can blow the Proson people up to the sky! "

"Thank you, old friend." Drachenko patted the maintenance man's shoulder, held the joystick, and gave the oil, so the plane slowly slid on the lawn.

At this time, the field airport where the 4th Fighter-Bomber Regiment was stationed was basically a flattened lawn. The only place that could prove that this was an airport was the simple wind vane made of wood.

Drachenko glanced at the flag on the wind vane and confirmed the wind direction and wind force - because the conditions at the airport were too poor, there was no tower to tell him these, so he could only see it himself.

After getting ready, Drachenko filled the fuel and the plane accelerated suddenly.

Because of the overload, the plane started very slowly, and it was only when it was about to reach the marker at the end of the runway that it barely reached the take-off speed.

Drachenko gently pulled the joystick and let the plane slide lightly into the air.

"It's really heavy," he said, "enough to give Proson the bastard a pot. ”

————

Artillery position of the 190th Infantry Division in Plossen.

The commander of the engineering battalion ran to the commander of the artillery regiment and saluted: "Report, there are vole holes under the ground, so your artillery suddenly sank while firing."

The shelling this morning stopped suddenly, because the ground suddenly collapsed as a whole during the bombardment, and three 105mm howitzers and two 150mm howitzers were affected, and the shooting accuracy could not be guaranteed.

In order to prevent other guns from being involved in the ground collapse, the commander of the artillery regiment ordered to stop firing.

For this, the commander of the 190th Division was very angry.

But the commander of the artillery regiment argued with reason and still let the commander agree to cease fire, and sent engineering troops to reinforce the position.

The commander of the engineering battalion continued to report: "In the current situation, we can't continue to fire here, we have to move our position."

Artillery commander: "Then where are there no voles?"

"I don't know. "The commander of the engineering battalion said.

The artillery commander was about to speak when someone from the anti-aircraft artillery position next to him shouted: "Be careful of enemy attacks from the air!"

The artillery commander looked up and saw something glittering approaching in the distant sky!

"It's bad! Take cover!" he shouted.

At the same time, the anti-aircraft guns opened fire, and the 88mm guns roared at the sky.