Arc of Gunfire

As soon as Wang Zhong entered the headquarters the next day, he asked: "Did we stop the 504 tank destroyer battalion yesterday?"

He almost said the enemy's number, but if this thing is not obtained through external plug-ins, it can only be obtained by interrogating prisoners or seizing enemy maps and documents.

Pavlov: "Oh? You already know the enemy's number? Very quickly. I just got the report!"

Wang Zhong: "I heard it on the way, so it was blocked?"

"It has been eliminated. They bypassed our blocking position, but were ambushed by another guerrilla when passing through the village. Most of the new tank destroyers were burned by Molotov cocktails, and only a few that did not have time to enter the village were captured by the guerrillas."

Pavlov paused and added: "But unfortunately, they followed their No. 3 assault gun battalion and ran away."

It seems that the village road is not long enough, the enemy's long snake formation was eaten halfway, and the three bald battalions that served as the tail of the snake escaped.

Wang Zhong: "It's good that they have been destroyed. Immediately send out the Dragon trailer to transport the captured vehicles to the rear for comprehensive testing to understand their performance."

Pavlov: "I have sent people to organize a trailer team. However, Bogdanovka has not been taken yet, and there are still many enemy stragglers near the ambush site. Large trailers are not suitable for going there.

"So I asked Yegorov to transfer troops to Nolinka to guard these vehicles. After a few days, when the surrounding Prosen stragglers have been almost cleared, they will be towed back by trailers."

Wang Zhong: "Just arrange it."

After a brief pause, he asked: "How many tankmen survived the tank army ambushed by the 504th Battalion?"

"Irrecoverable losses 271." Popov replied immediately, "Half survived. ”

The so-called irreversible loss is the total number of people who were killed in action and unable to return to the front line due to injuries and disabilities.

110 T34Ws were lost, each with 5 crew members, a total of 550 people, and exactly half of them were left.

It was neat and looked like a cruel joke.

Wang Zhong: "The enemy should be equipped with 75mm guns, but half of them survived."

The tank crew members who were destroyed by Proson's 75mm guns and 88mm guns before were basically lucky if one survived.

Pavlov: "The young men on the front line also found it strange. We have to wait for our technical experts to investigate what happened to find out."

Wang Zhong: "Okay. Let's change the subject. So what is the movement of Proson's armored forces today?"

"There was no movement in Proson's armored forces yesterday." Pavlov took out another report and threw it in front of Wang Zhong, "All day yesterday, no troops reported encountering Proson's organized armored forces. ”

Wang Zhong picked up the report and flipped through it in a pretentious manner. He knew that Pavlov’s summary would not be wrong: “So we have exhausted Proson’s armored forces?”

Pavlov: “It’s possible. It’s also possible that they counterattacked for a few days and the motorcycle hours of the vehicles were used up.”

Wang Zhong: “So how many results did our troops report?”

“One thousand five hundred.” Pavlov replied immediately, “The statistics team I sent out is counting the wreckage, and there must not be so many.”

Wang Zhong: “We must rectify the bad habit of the troops to report results blindly, and try to ensure that the results statistics obtained by the front headquarters are closer to the actual situation.”

Vassily: “As for how much to exaggerate, it is decided by the propaganda department of the front, right?”

Wang Zhong: “It is decided by the propaganda hall of the church. And is this called exaggeration? It is difficult to count the results of battlefield battles, and some errors are acceptable. Especially the results of the air force, how can you be sure that the air force did not destroy so many tanks behind enemy lines?

"If there are not so many wreckages found behind enemy lines, on the one hand, the enemy has strong repair capabilities, and on the other hand, the enemy must have blown up all the wreckage that cannot be repaired!"

This is the situation on Earth. It is very difficult to confirm the results of the air force's ground attack. The main reason is that there was no reliable positioning method on the aircraft at that time. Basically, the pilots relied on identifying the landmarks on the ground to "guess" their own positions.

It sounds good to say that it is speculation, but in fact it is just guessing based on experience.

Under the state where the positioning problem cannot be solved, even if you want to send a special reconnaissance aircraft to confirm the results, you can't do it.

So the results of the air attack in World War II are basically in a state where the pilots claim as much as they want.

In the middle and late period of the United States, the family was rich, and they began to equip the ground attack aircraft with camera guns. There were even aircraft in the entire fleet responsible for taking pictures to confirm the results, so the water injection situation was slightly better.

At that time, several fighter squadrons of the United States competed for the results of ground attacks, and there was a very dramatic scene: the dust had settled, but several pilots who were captured by Sandezi after the forced landing were rescued by the ground forces.

After the forced landing, these pilots immediately removed the film of the camera gun and hid it in the tree hole. After being rescued, they forcibly retrieved it, and the ground attack results were reversed.

Decades later, this reversal became the first fighter squadron in the ground attack, and was equipped with F15E "Strike Eagle".

Of course, the current Ante Air Force does not have the conditions to equip every aircraft with a camera gun to confirm the results, so it is still in a state where pilots claim that they have destroyed as many as they want.

Of course, for attacks on some key nodes, such as stations and dispatching yards, there will be special reconnaissance aircraft to take photos to confirm the results, but in such a vast battlefield in Ante, there is plenty of room for water injection.

Pavlov: "We estimate that the results of the war should be cautious in order to have a correct understanding of the enemy's strength. The above exaggerated results are to boost morale, and there may be some intention to put pressure on the allies. There is nothing wrong with that."

Wang Zhong smiled and said nothing. Just then Nellie came over with coffee. He took the cup and took a big sip. Neri: "How about the milk produced in the newly liberated city I used today?"

Wang Zhong looked down at the coffee and smiled: "I didn't drink it. But...well, I drank the enthusiasm of the local people!"

————

Marshal Shipling held the receiver, and the staff officers around him were burning documents in an orderly manner.

In the receiver, Emperor Prosen was asking in an unwilling tone: "Four armored divisions! Four! Or the two-battalion armored divisions before Barbarossa launched it? You told me that they were all used up in less than a week?"

"These four armored divisions are all No. 3 and No. 4. The new tanks facing the enemy do not have the advantage of facing armor bombs."

"But the Prosen armored soldiers are the most elite!"

"The enemy has also become more elite." Marshal Shipling said in a very patient tone. "The Ant armored troops who can drive new tanks are all elite soldiers with the title of Guards. These troops are composed of veterans and top students from training schools. The soldiers are The quality is no worse than ours.”

Shipling also hid something.

The armored divisions transferred from the Western Front had never experienced such brutal tank battles on the Eastern Front.

The two more experienced armored divisions only faced each other on the Mamluk and Matilda lines of the United Kingdom. The intensity of the confrontation was not even close to that of the Eastern Front. The tank crews of the United Kingdom did not fight as tenaciously as the Ant tankers. will.

The United Kingdom's tank crew usually abandons the vehicle and gives up the battle when one man is lost, but Ant's tank crew often continues to fight even after two members are killed.

All in all, although the four divisions transferred from the western front played a role in delaying the Ant attack, they were only a delay.

Shipling: "The good news is that the enemy's armored forces also suffered huge losses. It is expected that Rokossov's offensive will be almost over after capturing Ronezh. We can still maintain part of Khazalia's land."

The emperor's silence was deafening, making Xiplin uneasy.

He thought for a while, and it seemed that he had nothing to say, so he simply shut up and waited for the emperor to speak. As long as he didn't speak, he would not make a mistake.

Finally, the emperor sighed: "In two years, we have spit out all the land we acquired on the southern front. All the plans we made for the black land of Khazalia have come to nothing.

"This was supposed to be the granary of the Prosen Empire! There were also important coal and iron ores! Now they're all gone!"

Shipling did not dare to speak, for fear that the emperor would start lamenting "the incompetence of the Junkers' officer corps" in the next sentence.

But the emperor did not say so.

"How can we explain to the people of Plosen now? In the past two years, we have relied on wheat from Kozalia and Moravia to suppress the price of bread. What will we do next year?

"There is still food in Moravia. If Moravia is also lost, maybe the people will have to eat cabbage to satisfy their hunger! The bread may rise to 500,000 marks a piece! 500,000 marks! This is going to happen Big problem!”

Shipling Khan came down, thinking that it would be better to let the emperor scold the officer corps for being incompetent.

He felt that he could no longer remain silent: "We will try our best to ensure the cultivated land in West Kosalia."

"Unless you guard the Tiber River, nothing you do will be useless." The emperor's voice was full of despair. "I will discuss with the propaganda minister how to explain to the people of Plosen. Be mentally prepared."

Shiplin's heart suddenly dropped, because from what he heard, the emperor would at most let him disarm and return to his field.

It might be a good thing to be disarmed and return to the field now. It would be best not to use him again until the battle is defeated. For a moment, Shiplin really thought so.

However, the quality of Juncker's officer corps still made him quickly put away this idea.

Shipling: "In order to explain to the people of Plosen, I am mentally prepared!"

"That's good." The emperor asked after a brief silence, "Do you have any other requirements? I will try my best to satisfy you, even though it won't help anymore."

Shipling: "No, I will try my best to withdraw all the troops to the border."

"Um."

The emperor hung up the phone directly.

Shipling put down the receiver, and his adjutant immediately asked with concern: "What did your Majesty say?"

"For publicity purposes, I may have to retire and return to work. That's fine, I can go and have tea with those retired old guys."

Adjutant: "Would you like to show your face at the Valkyrie Club?"

"No." Shipling said seriously, "Absolutely."