Arc of Gunfire

At 0400 hours on July 25, the headquarters of the Khazalia Front.

Wang Zhong entered the headquarters in the morning light.

Pavlov: "You only slept for more than three hours, is that okay?"

"It sounds like you have been asleep for a long time." Wang Zhong replied.

Pavlov: "Considering my age, it's normal for us old people to sleep less and less. You young people still need to sleep more."

Pavlov was indeed much older than Wang Zhong, and was the father of several children.

Wang Zhong looked at his bald head, decided not to care about his fatherly speech, and directly asked about the situation: "How is the situation on the front line now?"

"The cavalry troops reported many results and returned many prisoners."

Wang Zhong: "Send back the prisoners? We haven't started the armored assault yet. The distance between the cavalry troops and our control areas is generally tens or hundreds of kilometers. How can we send back the prisoners?"

"Use Wave 2 aircraft. Wave 2 can land at will on the grassland at this time, as long as it doesn't hit the vole hole, it can come and go freely. So the cavalry troops built an airstrip to transport prisoners." Pavlov explained, "Wave 2 only needs One pilot, but two seats.”

Wang Zhong: "I see. Isn't the efficiency too low? To transport ten prisoners, ten Wave-2 biplanes would be needed."

Pavlov: "So those who were sent back were all school officers. The trial court was very happy. They interrogated them non-stop every day and basically figured out the current situation of the enemy."

Pavlov came to the map: "The enemy has now dispersed anti-aircraft vehicles equipped with rapid-fire machine guns on the retreat road, and used machine guns to drive away the cavalry.

"This approach reduces their defense capabilities against the Air Force, so the Air Force guys are having a blast these days."

Wang Zhong: "I know this. I talked to the pilots when I went on a reconnaissance flight. But I didn't expect that it was because the anti-aircraft guns were used to deal with the cavalry."

Pavlov nodded: "Cavalry troops cannot conquer the enemy's solidly fortified strongholds. Even so, they play a huge role on the grassland. The main reason for achieving such an effect is that the grassland is too vast.

"The fully motorized enemy army cannot handle the cavalry troops on the grassland. Their mobile troops can catch up with the cavalry, but the losses are too high."

At this time Popov interrupted: "I heard that the enemy's Central Army Group began to use armored trains to deal with cavalry troops. During General Gorky's summer offensive, the cavalry did not play a big role."

Wang Zhong: "No, no, the Western Front cavalry did not play a big role. The main reason is that there are too many woods on the terrain. Although there are large grasslands and wheat fields between the woods, they are not connected."

The cavalry is particularly suitable for grasslands like Kozalia and Nanant, but as you advance further west, the role of the cavalry gradually becomes smaller.

The same is true on Earth. Maozi planned to take advantage of the cavalry after crossing the border, but he began to hit a wall. The villages in the Eastern European plains were densely populated and the cavalry could not be used.

Wang Zhong remembered that there were still Mao Zi's meritorious cavalry troops on earth. After they broke into the Hungarian plains, they were surrounded and annihilated. The villages and buildings were too dense, and there were a lot of barns and farmhouses in the wilderness. The defenders could set up fire points, but the cavalry could not use them.

Pavlov: "Judging from the lessons learned from the cavalry operations of the Western Front, if we continue to advance westward, the role of cavalry will become less and less. Maybe we can recommend to the headquarters to stop expanding the size of the cavalry force."

"Don't worry. When His Majesty the Tsar talked to me on the phone before, he complained about the shortage of cavalry horses and the inability to form more cavalry units. Now the size of our army's cavalry has reached its upper limit."

After Wang Zhong finished speaking, the staff officer sent a document and handed it directly to Pavlov.

Pavlov opened the brown paper bag of the document, took out the contents, looked through it, and said to Wang Zhong: "This is the evaluation of the enemy's new tanks recovered from the battlefield by our maintenance troops.

"The maintenance team can't figure out why the Prosins use such a complicated suspension."

Of course Wang Zhong knew what being in charge of suspension meant, but he had to pretend to be stupid: "Complex suspension?"

"Yes, they seem to have adopted a new double-row road wheel design in order to widen the track contact area. According to the maintenance department's report, this thing is extremely difficult to maintain. If the inner wheel fails, the entire row of road wheels must be removed. Ours Tanks - and the enemy's Panzer III and IV tanks can complete the replacement of road wheels in one hour, but the new tanks will take at least five or six hours to complete. "

Wang Zhong: "(Surprised) Five or six hours?"

Pavlov: "Five or six hours, this is still a conservative estimate. The enemy's new tanks are very troublesome to maintain.

"This is one, and the other is that our people find it strange that the enemy's new tanks are very heavy. For example, the heavy tank they call King Tiger weighs more than 70 tons.

"But after the evaluation of our maintenance engineers, the protection capabilities of Proson's new tanks are far inferior to our tanks."

Wang Zhong pretended to be surprised: "Is there such a thing?"

Pavlov: "Yes, the maintenance department estimates that the defense capability of the 70-ton King Tiger is about the same as that of the 40-ton Rokosov I."

Vasily: "Really or not, where did they use the extra 30 tons? Is it the designer's belly?"

Wang Zhong: "Wasting tonnage is Prosen's tradition. Look at their battleships."

Pavlov: "In short, the enemy's new tanks are incredibly heavy and may even crush their own road wheels. The maintenance department believes that there is no need to worry too much about these tanks. As long as we equip our 100mm guns with better armor-piercing shells, we can deal with them perfectly."

Wang Zhong: "What the maintenance department said makes sense, but it still needs to be handed over to the rear for specific evaluation. So have we repaired these tanks? Can we get them on the train and send them back to Yebao?"

Pavlov shook his head: "Most of the new tanks were burned, and the maintenance department is trying to find new tanks that have not been ignited."

Wang Zhong: "Then let them look slowly. How are the preparations for today's attack?"

"The troops reported that they are ready for the attack." Pavlov stopped, threw down the assessment report on the enemy's new tanks in his hand, and took out a stack of aerial photos from the table. "According to aerial reconnaissance, the Prosen people may have added a relatively complete armored division."

Wang Zhong frowned slightly: "Is the situation true?"

"Indeed. If you don't believe it, look." Pavlov took out a photo and pushed it in front of Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong picked up the photo.

In that photo, a train full of tanks was being unloaded.

Wang Zhong: “Why didn’t you send out Pei-2 to bomb him?”

“We did, but the effect will have to wait for today’s reconnaissance results to come out.”