Arc of Gunfire

Attack starting point.

The ground shook when the artillery groups in the rear opened fire.

The T34s painted in snow camouflage formed a loose formation across the river. The tank crews all leaned out of the hatch and looked behind.

"My dear, this is enough for the Prosen devils to endure."

"I heard that thousands of heavy artillery were concentrated. General Rokossov said that the enemy's trenches would be wiped out directly from the position."

"Really or not, then you don't have to cut off three meters of soil from the position?"

At this time, a messenger came running down from the upstream on horseback, shouting as he ran: "Start the engine, start the engine! Final check! Start the engine!"

Wherever the messenger ran, the engine roared and the tank's exhaust pipe spewed thick black smoke.

The entire river beach was filled with the sound of rumbling engines, which even overshadowed the sound of cannons for a time.

Then the rocket launcher opened fire.

Fire dragons jumped towards the opposite side, like meteor showers rising against the trend, and the roar of the rockets drowned out the sound of the engines.

————

Prosen Sixth Army Headquarters.

Admiral Wilhelm von Frederik - The Admiral woke from his sleep. He had been suffering from insomnia since the day before yesterday, and he was so exhausted last night that he didn't even want to take off his clothes and just lay on the bed like this.

As a result, he seemed to have caught a cold, and he sneezed several times the moment he sat up.

He didn't bother to wipe away the snot and saliva that came out of his nose. Instead, he went straight to the window, opened it and looked outside.

There was still a little time before dawn, but the night sky was already lit up with flashes of light.

There were constant flashes of light on the horizon, and correspondingly, there was a rumble of "thunder."

General Frederick raised his forehead and said: "It's over, I knew Rokossov was going to attack."

The orderly standing behind him was shocked: "Rokosov attacked?"

"Otherwise, what is this?" The general pointed at the flashing light in the distance, "Christmas fireworks? But Ant people's Christmas is January 7th next year! Are these fireworks too early?"

The orderly was silent for a few seconds and asked, "What should we do now?"

General Frederick: "There is nothing we can do. We should have retreated when the snow stopped. If we had not retreated at that time, the future was already doomed. Rokossov deliberately let us capture a red flag and gave me the rank of general." , now it’s my turn to pay the price.”

The general returned to the bed, sat down and yawned.

The orderly wanted to close the window, but he stopped him: "No, there is no need to close the window. I haven't slept well for a few days. Now that the window is open to let the sound of gunfire come in, I have a feeling that I can have a good sleep."

"What?" The orderly seemed to doubt his own ears, "This..."

General: "Just like the people above you throw boots every day, you have to hear two thumps before you can sleep peacefully. One day, suddenly there is only one thud, and you can only sit still and wait for the second thud, which will not sound. Just can’t sleep.”

The orderly's eyes widened: "Do you want to sleep now?"

"Yes, I don't have a reserve force at the moment. The armored army that I promised to reinforce me has been delayed on the road and hasn't arrived yet. The other troops have been seriously reduced in number. The remaining ones are sallow and thin, like a group of skeleton soldiers. The equipment is also The losses are so severe that some armored divisions reported on the 10th yesterday that only seven tanks were ready for combat.

"Seven! How can I deal with Rokossov's million-strong army and hundreds of thousands of tanks? Our aerial reconnaissance obviously captured so many tanks, but the high command insisted that they were fake tanks!

"Even if our tank crews can destroy all the enemy's tanks, we don't have that many armor-piercing bullets anymore! We've shot them all! So, what else can I do besides sleeping?"

The orderly hesitated and said, "You can at least boost morale. Maybe a miracle will happen."

General Frederick sat silently on the cot, as if he was struggling.

At this time, the chief of staff of the group army opened the door and rushed into the bedroom: "General! The enemy has launched a full-scale attack. We have now received news that in addition to shelling the Moravia troops, they are also shelling the coast of the inland sea."

"We need to land on the seaside and launch a pincer offensive." General Frederick sighed, "He has learned all our tactics. It is a different style from General Gorky of the Western Front."

Chief of Staff: "Then what should we do?"

General Frederick: "We can...well, send a telegram to Army Group B headquarters and tell them that we are about to be surrounded and annihilated."

"That's it?" The chief of staff's eyes widened, like a goldfish being caught out of the water, with his eyeballs bulging out.

General Frederick: "That's it."

Seeing the chief of staff's expression becoming increasingly desperate, the general stood up and said, "Okay, we still have to struggle. In order to deal with the enemy's possible pincer offensive, we have asked the Eighth Infantry Army to repair fortifications at key locations. Maybe we can Delay until the new armored corps, which has been working hard, arrives."

"Do you want to resist?" asked the chief of staff. "Do you really want to resist?"

"Yeah, we can't let Rokossov eat us up so easily. Even if it's based on the honor of being a soldier, we should still struggle."

After a brief pause, the general added: "In addition, each department has begun to prepare for a breakout. If other troops are rescued, it is not impossible to break out."

"yes."

————

November 20, 0900 hours, the position of the 1st Infantry Division of the 1st Army of Moravia.

The entire position no longer exists. The terrible heavy artillery flattened the entire hilltop. The trench that was originally one person deep was blown down to only 50 centimeters deep.

Such a trench can't provide much cover for adult men.

The roar of the engine came from afar, but no one on the position shouted "prepare for battle".

The Moravians had abandoned the position and ran away.

A large number of T34s appeared from the morning light, roared up to the position, crushed the bodies and helmets left on the position, and rushed to the vast snowfield behind the position.

The cavalry army cooperated with the tank unit to form a retro wedge formation, as if a black wave swept across the snowfield.

After the tanks and cavalry rushed over, the entire position was quiet for a long time, and then a Stupunk truck carrying people who cleaned the battlefield came to the position.

"Strange," the hired worker who got off the car looked puzzled, "There are no bodies of our army?"

"How is it possible!" The priest who led the team walked to the hired worker with a curse, and then froze.

The priest looked back and forth at the battlefield, and finally he took off his hat in confusion: "Am I seeing a ghost? How can there be no corpses of our army? Are the Moravians... so lame?"

Hire worker: "Yes, the commander said something about half-cooked rice before departure, I don't understand, it's just that it's difficult to fight and there are a lot of casualties, right? I thought I had to collect the corpses of our good guys again, but... Father, what do you think we should do?"

The priest took out a cigarette, lit it with a match, took a big puff, and then answered: "Collect the enemy's corpses. If we don't deal with it, it will be bad if the plague comes."

————

Abavakhan Front Headquarters, 1000 hours

"The Moravian troops have collapsed." Pavlov threw the report in front of Wang Zhong, "We are currently facing a relatively resolute resistance in Badayev, and the armored troops have bypassed it as ordered."

Wang Zhong: "The Prosen infantry troops are dedicated to defense, and they will not use infantry to attack in the wilderness. We can safely bypass the enemy's solid support points and let the heavy artillery handle it."

Pavlov: "You are not going to drive your prototype again?"

Wang Zhong: "You know the condition of my prototype."

He used the No. 422 prototype too much before, and now the maintenance department reports that it must be returned to the factory. The front line can't repair it by just replacing the engine.

"When I go back, I will scold the designer severely. This reliability is not good!" Wang Zhong said.

Popov: "I think it's good enough. You have been racing in the city for so long and have eaten so many armor-piercing shells, and it is only broken now..."

Wang Zhong: "Keep improving."

At this time, a staff officer came with a report and handed it to Pavlov.

Wang Zhong: "What's going on?"

"Our offensive spearhead encountered the Proson armored forces."

Wang Zhong: "Go around them. In their current state, most of their tanks will break down after a while of maneuvering in the wilderness."

"No," Pavlov handed the writing board with the report to Wang Zhong, "Look for yourself, we destroyed an armored division of Proson."

Wang Zhong's eyes widened: "What? How is this possible..."

Then he saw the number of tanks destroyed written on the report: 5.

Wang Zhong: "How is this possible!"

"That division only has five tanks left to deploy." Pavlov said, "Look at our losses. In order to destroy these five tanks, we lost 22 T34s."

Wang Zhong: "A combat loss ratio close to four to one?"

Popov: "It's an improvement over last year."

Wang Zhong put down the writing board with a complicated expression, stood up and paced in the headquarters: "Although we destroyed an enemy armored division, but... I can't be happy, everyone, I can't be happy. We are the Guards Tank Army! Guards! This shows that most of the crew are experienced veterans."

Pavlov: "I heard that the T34 will be discontinued next year, and the troops will get the T34W model with a commander."

Wang Zhong: "But the T34W has no advantage in fighting against armored shells. And the new tanks of the Prosens should also go to the front line."

Before in Yeisk, Wang Zhong's vortex killed all the Tiger prototypes that came to the front line for testing. The Prosens will definitely have to redesign it. I don't know what they will come up with.

While Wang Zhong was thinking, another staff officer came running over with a report. After hesitating for a moment, he bypassed Wang Zhong who was blocking his way and handed the report to Pavlov.

Pavlov glanced at the report and said, "The landing operation at sea was also successful. This is really a pincer attack. It seems that our plan can be advanced."

It turned out that Wang Zhong's plan was to close the encirclement within 72 hours.

Pavlov came to the map, looked at the updated situation of the staff officers, and said to Wang Zhong: "Maybe we can close the pocket in 48 hours."