Arc of Gunfire

Yeisk, the headquarters of the First Mobile Army.

Pavlov: "What if the enemy adopts a strategy of retreating? Cavalry has no ability to attack."

Wang Zhong: "Think about how to deal with this situation in the era of line infantry."

While Pavlov was stroking his chin and lost in thought, Vasily spoke: "In the era of line infantry, phalanxes were used to deal with cavalry. Cavalry basically had no way to deal with phalanxes. They could not charge at all. The way to deal with it is to bring the phalanx within the range of artillery."

Wang Zhong: "Yes, if the enemy stays indoors and forms a tortoise shell formation, our artillery can show its power. The air force can strike at places that the artillery cannot reach."

Pavlov said: "In fact, even if we don't deal with the enemy's tortoise shell, it's okay. Our goal is to delay the enemy, not to annihilate the enemy. If the enemy retreats and does not move, our goal will be achieved."

Wang Zhong snapped his fingers: "You said-"

At this time, there was a noisy sound at the door.

"What's going on?" Wang Zhong turned his head and asked.

Senior Sergeant Gregory: "I'll go out and take a look."

Soon Gregory came back, and brought with him the old herdsman who had provided Wang Zhong with map information.

The herdsman was wearing an old cavalry uniform, a leather hat, and a shining George Cross on his chest.

Looking closely, the old man's cane was also replaced with a saber.

Vasily gasped.

Wang Zhong hurriedly asked: "What's wrong?"

Vasily: "That saber should have been given by the Tsar, and the shape is the royal saber."

Okay, die-hard royalists.

The old man's son said to Wang Zhong: "Please persuade my father! He insists on going to the front line!"

Wang Zhong: "Old man, you have provided information about the grassland, which has been a great help..."

"I am 85 years and five months old this year, and I am in very good health! When the Anatolians invaded, I chopped off their heads with a saber!" The old man patted his chest, "I want to defend Ant as I did before, how can you stop me?"

Wang Zhong: "You are 85 years old!"

"Ha!" The old man looked at Wang Zhong with disdain, "General, you may not be as good as me in chopping heads on horseback! Let me go, General!"

Wang Zhong: "Let the young people do it, they can do it."

Wang Zhong said to the old man's son: "Help your father to rest quickly, it will be bad if he falls."

Just at this time, the phone rang. Pavlov was watching the excitement, and now he ran to answer the phone: "This is the army headquarters, how many enemy planes? Got it."

Before he put down the receiver, the air defense alarm sounded outside.

Pavlov looked at Wang Zhong: "48 twin-engine aircraft, and the same number of Stukas, with 24 109s covering them."

Wang Zhong: "Fortunately, we set off early for this fleet, otherwise the losses would be great."

"What? Set off? So many cavalrymen outside the city have set off? Take my old bones with you!" The old herdsman yelled, and deliberately did not lean on his saber, but stood directly on his legs, "Look! General, look!"

At this time, the sound of anti-aircraft guns and the sound of Stukas diving came from outside.

Wang Zhong and others all lay down.

The old man's son wanted to throw the old man to the ground, but was pushed away by the old man: "Don't push me! I'm not afraid, it's just a plane!"

The sound of explosions came from outside the window, and the aerial bombs shook the ceiling of the warehouse to pieces.

The old man stood in the dust, waving his saber: "I'm not afraid! A sissy thing like an airplane can't scare the son of the grassland! It can't scare!"

————

At the same time, Drachenko once again led the 4th Fighter-Bomber Regiment to patrol in the air.

"What's running on the ground?" He muttered, turned on the radio and asked his wingman, "Hey, deputy regiment commander, look at what's running on the ground?"

The deputy regiment commander's plane tilted its wings, and then replied: "It doesn't look like an armored unit. The smoke and dust are too small and too fine. The dust from the tracks shouldn't be like this."

Then the radio was silent for a while.

Someone suddenly said: "Could it be cavalry?"

"Cavalry? Didn't they say that the cavalry's organization has been reduced recently? How could there be so many cavalry?"

Everyone started to discuss.

Drachenko suddenly said: "Don't worry about it. One thing is certain. There is no cavalry in Prosen! This is our unit! Then their mighty charge must be an attack! We fly in front of them and blow up the enemy's defensive position first!"

"Okay, that makes sense!"

Drachenko stepped on the rudder lightly, slightly corrected the plane's course, and flew in the direction of the cavalry's attack.

Soon the smoke and dust raised by the cavalry could no longer be seen.

Ten minutes later, someone shouted on the radio: "Ahead! There are armored vehicles in a circle on the ground!"

Drachenko shook the wing and looked down, and almost immediately confirmed: "That's right! And the armored vehicles are all painted gray! Squadron 1, follow me down, Squadron 2 and 3, go a little further and see if there are other enemies! Don't waste firepower!"

"Okay!"

As his subordinates responded, Drachenko's plane had rolled 180 degrees and turned upside down.

During the dive, Drachenko suddenly thought that he should learn from Prosen's Stuka and make a whistle for the plane to make a sound to hit the enemy's morale.

As of now, the Prosen people have not even noticed the air raid!

As soon as he thought of this, a Proson man pointed to the sky with his mouth wide open, probably shouting.

The next moment, Proson's camp was like an ant nest filled with water, with panicked ants everywhere.

"It's too late!" Drachenko pressed the bomb button.

————

Lieutenant Joseph of the Proson rear mobile brigade lay on the ground, a lot of mud fell on the back of his head, and slid into his clothes through the opening at his neck.

He cursed Proson's national curse loudly.

Ever since the Ants were equipped with this ugly bomber that looked fat, the intensity of their air strikes suddenly increased.

At the beginning of this year, when Lieutenant Joseph accepted reinforcements, he told these big-headed soldiers that the enemy's Il-2 looked terrible, but in fact most of the attacks could not hit, and they could only use the density of firepower to make up for the poor accuracy.

He also said that only people with very bad luck would be hit during the Il-2 air strike.

This is indeed the case. Last year, the rear mobile brigade had also encountered Il-2 air strikes many times. Generally, hundreds of Il-2 sorties only caused two or three hundred casualties, with an average of three people killed per plane.

The loss of trucks was slightly greater, but generally did not exceed 10% of the total number of trucks.

So the mobile brigade concluded that the Il-2 was not a big threat, especially when there was friendly anti-aircraft artillery cover. The Ante pilots would attack randomly and run away, and rarely return to attack again.

In contrast, the Ante twin-engine bombers were much more threatening, because these aircraft had higher attack accuracy and more powerful bombs.

The Il-2 had too much armor and carried too few bombs and rockets.

But this year the situation changed.

First, the Il-2 began to launch a kind of cluster bomb, which covered a large area at once and caused huge casualties to the unprepared Proson people.

But soon the Proson people discovered the defects of this rocket and began to increase the spacing between vehicles when parking, pulling the formation apart, and the killing efficiency of the cluster bomb dropped sharply.

But then, the enemy's dive bombers began to fight.

This fat, bottle-like fighter can carry large-yield ammunition and deliver it more accurately. After bombing, it can quickly retreat and even fight with the 109th air force that came to cover. It is very scary.

If it is found that the troops have no anti-aircraft artillery cover, these bombers will return to strafe and kill ground personnel and light armored vehicles with fierce machine gun fire.

Their 12.7mm ammunition can even penetrate the top armor of the 251 half-track vehicle with a roof.

After the appearance of this new bomber, the efficiency of the enemy's air attack has suddenly increased.

It is said that this is because the Ants selected elite pilots to fly new aircraft. Only pilots who have achieved good results on the Il-2 will be transferred to the bomber regiment equipped with new aircraft.

In any case, in April, Lieutenant Joseph could not pat his chest with the recruits and say that the enemy's air raid was no big deal.

Instead, he would teach the recruits that if they heard the sound of an engine coming from low altitude, they should not worry too much, because it was an Il-2, but if they saw something reflecting in the sky, they should be careful, because it could be a bomber like the Bottle or Pe-2.

Lieutenant Joseph looked up and listened attentively for a while. When he was sure that the enemy plane had flown away, he stood up and tried to get rid of the mud that ran in from his collar.

While getting rid of the mud, a few lice were startled and jumped up and fell into the grass next to them.

"Is anyone injured?" he shouted.

"Hans was hit in the shoulder by a machine gun!"

"Sanita!" Lieutenant Joseph shouted.

Immediately, a medical soldier carrying a small bag with a Red Cross came over: "Lieutenant, are you injured?"

"No, our private Hans was hit by a machine gun. Over there!" He pointed to the direction where the sound just came from.

The medic rushed over and squatted beside the recruit who was holding his comrade: "Let me see!"

"Please save him, doctor!"

"I'm not a doctor, just a paramedic, trained in field rescue." The medic felt the pulse of the wounded man and said, "Put him down, he's dead."

"What?" The recruit's eyes widened.

"He's dead. I suggest you check if he has any letters or other relics for his family. Then send him to the truck that transports the body."

The recruit immediately covered his face: "He is the only fellow countryman in the entire brigade! He... How can I explain to his mother!"

Lieutenant Joseph was about to go over to comfort the recruit when he heard someone shouting: "Ah pain! There is dust approaching us in the distance!"

Joseph looked up and saw dust on the horizon.

The headquarters had just used the radio to say that the enemy might launch a cavalry attack, but it came so soon!

And it was just when the enemy planes had just raided!

The lieutenant stepped forward and grabbed the crying recruit. "Get up! The enemy cavalry is coming! Get to the half-track if you don't want your head chopped in half! Get moving, you pigs!"