Arc of Gunfire

Wang Zhong naturally couldn't know about the incident of Melania's First Division. He was already the commander of the army group. Such things were usually just a line of small print in the daily report and the ten-day report.

On the evening of the 18th, in the headquarters of the First Mobile Group, the "Big Three" were discussing how to use the 40th Tank Army that had just been issued to the army group.

Wang Zhong threw away the specific organization table of the 40th Division that he had just received and sighed: "To be honest, I have no confidence in this large tank unit with 100 KVs and a total of more than 300 tanks."

In the first half of 915, although Wang Zhong had been organizing model troops, his model troops did not achieve any results, so the Military Order Department organized a group of troops based on the experience of the previous year.

The 40th Tank Army is one of them. Its number was eliminated in the great defeat from June to July last year. Now this army is a newly organized unit.

Although some of Wang Zhong's ideas on building the army were accepted, this tank army organized a certain number of accompanying infantry and other auxiliary troops, but that was all.

Under the current situation this year, it was impossible to organize many support troops, so the Military Order Department stuffed more infantry and relatively sufficient artillery, which was considered to implement Wang Zhong's idea that "armored troops cannot fight alone."

Wang Zhong pursed his lips and fell into deep thought.

Wang Zhong couldn't see how much change there would be in this time and space - at least it was not easy to see from the organization of the 40th Tank Army.

Come to think of it, when the earth was on the road and all countries were engaged in synthetic battalions, the combat command and communication capabilities of the troops were no longer the same as those in World War II. With the assistance of computers, commanders could grasp the situation more intuitively and adjust the deployment.

At this time, the phone rang. Because Pavlov had just received a telegram and was a little far away from the phone, Wang Zhong picked up the phone: "This is Rokosov."

"Because the troops didn't move before. If they were just stationed at the garrison, there wouldn't be such a big problem. At most, they would just fill in more reports. So we didn't expect such a big pressure. Fortunately, I expanded the headquarters in advance." Pavlov said.

No other, it really can't be guaranteed.

Wang Zhong patted Pavlov on the shoulder: "Don't be nervous, I didn't say to do this. After all the KVs are withdrawn, the remaining T34s will be organized into an assault group. Have the enemy's pincer offensive troops retreated?"

Popov: "You are best at mixing all kinds of messy troops, right? Look at the First Mobile Army, it's mixed up like this, Pavlov has lost a few hairs - I mean, the ones that could have grown are all lost."

Pavlov said bluntly: "You don't have more hairs than me, right? But it is true that the workload of the army headquarters is much greater when highly mixed troops are mobilized. Now there are three divisions of this kind of troops, and we can barely cope with it. If we want to expand more of this highly synthetic troops, I think the headquarters will have to double its establishment."

Vasily couldn't help but interrupt at this time: "Our total strength is not inferior to the enemy."

And these abandoned KVs are basically impossible to be repaired, and they are usually thrown on the side of the road until the end of the war.

Wang Zhong thought for a while and said, "According to the report of the cavalry, the enemy's armored forces are still quite strong. I think it's not worth it for us to attack the enemy's armored forces with these hundreds of T34s."

But they have more tanks than the entire First Mobile Army.

Wang Zhong: "I think it's more appropriate to use the T34 of the 40th Tank Army to strengthen a KV group and attack the enemy's infantry. During the time when the 40th Army arrives, we can let the artillery advance first."

Wang Zhong, who knew all this, was overwhelmed when he saw the organization of the 40th Tank Army. He could see at a glance that these 100 KVs would be damaged and thrown aside soon after the attack began.

Wang Zhong clapped his hands: "Good! This way we can retreat earlier and break contact before suffering heavy losses."

Before, the 40th Tank Army was planned to be launched after the enemy's supplies were exhausted and the troops were exhausted-specifically, the enemy was trapped on the grassland for about a week before launching an attack.

Wang Zhong thought for a while and said, "Then let's make the army's staff suffer a little more. I want to split the 100 KVs into four groups plus an independent tank detachment, with 21 tanks in each group and 16 KVs in the tank detachment under the army headquarters."

The plan must be modified according to the situation on the battlefield, and almost no combat plan is implemented unchanged to the end.

Wang Zhong looked at Pavlov: "Why didn't you report it before? The pressure on the headquarters has increased so much?"

But under the technical conditions of World War II, command ability became an obstacle to synthesis.

Even if the Russians synthesized the various arms in World War II, they often fought each other, probably for this reason. Later, they adopted the large-scale military system, and each arm was independently organized into a large unit, so that the command system could be simplified.

Wang Zhong: "But the quality of the troops is not good. Think about how much the 401st Division lost after joining the battle for such a short time during the battle of Yeisk. We should stop while we are ahead, so as not to lose more than we gain."

Popov: "Use tanks to attack the enemy's infantry division? Don't fight a war of annihilation?"

On Earth, the Russians usually only organize heavy breakthrough tank regiments, with 21 heavy tanks in a regiment, because this organization is the largest organization the Russians can support. The support capabilities of the Germans are better than those of the Russians. Generally, the Tiger Battalion has 45 tanks, and the Leopard Battalion has 98 tanks at most.

Pavlov: "So the battle plan is to use artillery and the 40th Tank Corps to launch a powerful attack on the enemy's infantry, and run away before the enemy shrinks and take advantage? Where to run? Hold on to Yeisk?"

But in this situation, the enemy is about to shrink, and the original battle plan will no longer work.

"According to the current intelligence, except for the 14th suit, the others are still in place." Pavlov replied.

Wang Zhong: "In other words, this highly integrated combat force organization exceeds the capabilities of the command headquarters."

Wang Zhong: "Yes, we need to hold on in Yeisk until Duke Myshkin's front retreats."

Pavlov immediately took the telegram, read it, handed it to his staff officer who was responsible for updating the map, and then said to Wang Zhong: "Mei Shijin has begun to retreat faster than we expected. His staff is very efficient. "

This is how the wars of the earth are fought, and the victory depends entirely on the numbers and the bravery of the veterans starting from the mid-term.

Pavlov: "40 tanks have been obtained. Although there are problems with the organization, they must be used as they should."

As soon as he finished speaking, the communications staff officer ran over from the telegraph group in the distance and said loudly: "Report! Today's battlefield situation report is here."

However, the most important maintenance force of the 40th Army is very weak. The overall maintenance force is only equivalent to 1.5 times that of the Guards One Machine Infantry, and is less than the maintenance strength of the Guards One Machine Infantry plus the 225th Division.

Pavlov's eyes widened: "Then you want to personally lead this detachment to charge, right? It just so happens that KV has a commander!"

Wang Zhong: "We don't have enough time. After the enemy shrinks back, we have to face one and a half - no, one and three-quarters of the enemy's armored divisions, and two armored grenadier divisions. I'm worried that we will suffer heavy losses." ”

But this is the upper limit. Only a few armored regiments are assigned a Tiger Battalion and a Leopard Battalion. This super elite large-scale heavy-armed unit is basically the only one in the entire Santoku Army.

The voice of General Gorky came from the receiver: "Alexei, Myshkin has begun to retreat. We should launch some offensives here to support them. The 40th Tank Army is already on the way. Will you make good use of it?"

Wang Zhong: "No problem, leave it to me."