Arc of Fire

However, by 1630, Wang Zhong and the others still hadn’t seen the enemy’s assault.

He stood beside the shelter of his No. 422 vehicle, continuously phoning the observation posts in various locations, taking advantage of the calls to confirm enemy movements within the observation posts’ range.

Although it wasn’t his own line of sight highlighting the enemies, on a plain as vast as Orachi’s surroundings, even without forced highlighting, a sweeping glance from an overhead perspective would reveal most of the enemies.

As he waited, Wang Zhong grew hungry and started looking for something to eat, only to find that he had to share the Ante Empire’s military rations with others.

They were truly inedible.

So inedible that Wang Zhong wanted to have everyone in charge of the Imperial Army’s food supply executed by firing squad.

But right now, their ambush positions were a little bit too far from Orachi, and it wasn’t feasible to bring the field cooking team’s girls to the front line.

Especially to a front line where the enemy could attack at any moment.

Wang Zhong ate the barely palatable military rations while pondering whether, besides grenades and submachine guns, he should pack a sausage in his personal belongings box in the future.

The sausages made by the Church Meat Union were thicker than an adult male’s arm, and the ingredients strictly contained 25% beef, 70% pork, and the last 5% eggs and dairy, highlighting a cost-effective, large, and filling portion.

As Wang Zhong began to fantasize about the taste of sausage, adding some flavor to the wooden-like bread in his hand, artillery shells fell.

Wang Zhong instinctively wanted to hit the ground, then realized that the shelling wasn’t targeting his location.

He and others turned their gaze toward the number one ambush position, observing the flames and smoke kicked up by the heavy artillery.

After a quick switch to the overhead perspective, Wang Zhong noticed that compared to the unreliable bombing of the Air Force, the Army’s own artillery fire was much more accurate.

Aside from the fact that it had been an empty position, it could be called perfect.

At this time, others on the position also looked in the direction of the first ambush site, everyone displaying a triumphant demeanor.

Everyone probably realized that the more ammunition the enemy wasted on an unmanned position, the less would fall on their own heads in the future.

Major General William Dietrich was in his command vehicle, issuing tasks to all tank officers from platoon level and above, “The enemy is heavily fortified in this stretch of woods. Our plan is to spread out as much as possible during the artillery’s fire suppression of the woods, engaging the enemy on open ground. The enemy’s tank gun accuracy is inferior to ours.

“If we don’t gain an advantage during the exchange of fire, deploy smoke bombs and feign a weak retreat to lure the enemy within range of our 88mm guns and PAK38 anti-tank guns.

“According to intelligence provided by the Front Army, this General Rokossov is very fond of launching attacks to fight tank battles. He has indeed obtained very impressive results from several proactive attacks.

“We have to lure him out with acceptable losses, as a tactic specifically against his personality!”

As Dietrich spoke, he turned to the chief of the divisional guard tank platoon, “Additionally, we have another bait. I’ll use my command vehicle and the spare radio truck as bait to hook Rokossov.

“Of course, based on previous battle reports, Rokossov might choose to shell a fake headquarters. If that’s the case, the guard tank platoon must evacuate the shelled area quickly.”

William Dietrich paused, contently scanning the plans already mapped out on the map before him, “In short, the mission’s focus is to lure Major General Rokossov into making a move.

“He is one of the most outstanding officers of the Ante Army at the moment, meaning, the most outstanding and yet to be killed or captured by us. Therefore, killing or capturing him is of great significance!”

No sooner had William Dietrich finished speaking than a lieutenant platoon leader commented, “Another tactic of feigning defeat to draw the enemy deeper, huh!”

“Because the enemy may use T34 tanks, which are difficult for us to handle! Brother units share their experience that jamming the turret ring or breaking the tracks is possible; it’s not that this advice isn’t good, but the 88mm gun is more cost-effective.”

Another platoon leader asked, “What if the enemy doesn’t come out?”

“Then we’ll call in the Stukas. The enemy will reveal their positions by exchanging fire with us. After previous communication, the Air Force promised that during our attack, a squadron of Stukas loaded with bombs will be ready to take off. Our Panzer IVs will shoot colored smoke bombs to mark the targets for the Stukas.”

The Panzer III’s 50mm gun doesn’t have smoke shells, with only a single-launch smoke bomb launcher on the tank.

The short-barreled 75mm howitzer of the Panzer IV can fire smoke bombs hundreds to thousands of meters away.

When the Panzer IV encounters sturdy buildings it can’t destroy with high-explosive shells, it does just this: firing a smoke bomb to mark the target and waiting for the Stukas to arrive.

Major General William Dietrich followed up, “Alright, is everyone clear on their combat mission? Once back with your units, make sure every person understands our mission, and then move out. The artillery preparation should conclude in about an hour and a half.”

The platoon leaders all stood up and filed out of the armored command vehicle.

“Wait a moment!” William Dietrich called to the last platoon leader, “You’re the company commander of the reserve team’s 5th Company, 3rd Battalion, right? I need to switch with you; I must go to the front line to see for myself how this White Horse General arranges his troops!”

The Chief of Staff expressed alarm, “Don’t do this! The White Horse General likes to target command posts and other key objectives with artillery. If you go to the front line and enter the range of his artillery observers, it will surely draw fire!”

William Dietrich looked at the Chief of Staff, “Which is exactly why I need to disguise myself. The White Horse General won’t waste precious artillery shells on a reserve tank platoon, especially one that’s expanded into a loose formation!”

Indeed, tanks are vulnerable to howitzer fire; if a shell lands too close, an entire tank crew is done for.

But as long as the distance between the landing point of the shell and the tank is increased past a certain threshold, tanks can survive heavy shelling.

Using heavy artillery to strike tanks deployed in a loose formation is, in fact, quite wasteful.

Only if there are no better targets and one doesn’t mind wasting shells would they do so.

The Chief of Staff was persuaded, “Well, then, I can only wish you a triumphant victory.”

William Dietrich nodded and began to exchange outfits with the chosen tank platoon leader.

On Wang Zhong’s side, the operation to deploy their formation against the enemy was crystal clear.

First, he wasn’t prepared for artillery fire, and second, the most important function of his add-on was to ensure visibility—most of the time it was its only function.

So he just watched as the enemy’s armored forces deployed their formation on the open ground.

You wouldn’t believe it, but with so many tanks spread out so widely, my own 30 tanks might not actually be able to take them all out.

Especially if the enemy charged with infantry aboard for an armored meat grinder, that would be even more troublesome.

Wang Zhong was somewhat uneasy, after all, he didn’t have a way to know if the enemy’s plan was to engage in long-range firing and then draw us deeper in.

He thought the enemy was about to surge forward and grind us to bits.

Wang Zhong’s ambush position, apart from the 30 T34s, only had four anti-tank guns and a small number of anti-tank mines on either side of the position.

The enemy had deployed almost two hundred tanks; if they charged from all directions, Wang Zhong would surely regret not having placed all his infantry in front of the ambush position—well, actually they wouldn’t have been able to deploy properly and would just become experience points for the enemy’s heavy artillery.

Wang Zhong smiled bitterly as he looked down at the enemy tank formation, thinking that if there was a KV1 in my troops right now, the situation would still be manageable.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t.

He continued to scan the enemy’s tank formation.

When highlighting enemy units, Wang Zhong’s add-on usually wouldn’t provide names for each enemy.

But there were exceptions, such as when division commanders entered Wang Zhong’s line of sight, they would be highlighted.

Sometimes there were names, sometimes not, the principle was unknown. But it was certain that division commanders would be specially marked, roughly equivalent to the red arrows in a monk’s vlog.

Now Wang Zhong had spotted a red arrow.

On the outermost side of the enemy’s tank formation, there were several widely spaced Panzer IVs, looking like the reserve force for the whole offensive.

A red arrow was floating right above the tank commander’s head as he peeked out.

Huh? That’s the enemy division commander… has he come to the front for reconnaissance?

And then, fearing that I might rush up and decapitate him, he’s disguised himself as a regular tank commander?

Oh my, I can’t justify not blasting him with one shot.

Wang Zhong turned and picked up the telephone handset, nodded at the soldier responsible for the phone, and the soldier began cranking the handle of the portable generator like mad to charge the phone.

After hearing the operator’s voice, Wang Zhong said, “Connect me to the artillery unit.”

The call was connected promptly.

Wang Zhong, gazing down from above, reported the coordinates of the Panzer IV the marked man was riding in, and then said, “Three rounds of rapid fire, no need to adjust. Just fire over. Make sure the man is blown to death.”

The artillery unit was confused for a moment, “Blow who to death?”

“Don’t worry about it, just fire it over quickly!”

“We are resetting the firing elements. Fire will begin in about five minutes.”

“As fast as you can!”

After hanging up the phone, Wang Zhong continued to look down on the enemy, like an eagle eyeing the rabbits scurrying across the plain.

Actually, resetting the firing elements took only two minutes.

Wang Zhong could already hear the whistling of the incoming rounds!

The target enemy sensed something was wrong and immediately retracted into the tank, closing the hatch.

No sooner said than done, the first barrage hit!

24 rounds of 152mm heavy artillery shells, though the lack of adjusted fire made the circular error probability a bit large, with sufficient firepower density, high inaccuracy could be overcome!

Wang Zhong was pleased to see the smoke arising from the ground engulfing that Panzer IV.

That was just the first round, and as the second round landed, the smoke from the previous explosion hadn’t cleared yet, making the whole scene from above look like a wall being repainted over and over again by two masters.

It was then that Wang Zhong realized, his 203mm heavy artillery wasn’t under the control of the artillery unit but was an independent unit, and he hadn’t called in firepower from the 203!

Forget it, he thought, let’s see if this can kill him, save some ammunition if we can.

The third wave hit, and Wang Zhong figured that Panzer IV must nearly be in pieces by now.

The smoke gradually dissipated, and Wang Zhong saw the charred and twisted wreckage of the Panzer IV.

The other tanks’ operators rushed out, heading for the tank that had been singled out for special attention.

Soon, a barely alive body was rescued from the tank by the crowd.

Wang Zhong was amazed; the guy still wasn’t blown to death, now what kind of justice is this?

He picked up the handset, intending to call in the 203mm heavy artillery and a second round of 152mm artillery fire, but then he saw a three-wheeled motorbike enter his field of vision, picking up the division commander and speeding out of Wang Zhong’s sight.

Well, forcing the enemy to change commanders in the middle of battle is also a good thing, let’s see what the newcomer has got in terms of offensive capability.

Whether they were transferring command or not, the enemy’s deployed armored line just sat there on the plain, motionless.