Arc of Fire

Chapter 125: A Battlefield Full of Surprises and Delights

It could only be an ammunition truck exploding.

The rising fireball and mushroom cloud were the first things Wang Zhong had encountered that he couldn’t see from an aerial perspective, but could with the naked eye.

It seemed his shelling had hit something, so should he take advantage of the enemy’s anti-tank position being in chaos and make a move to score a little?

After some thought, Wang Zhong eventually decided not to take the risk.

He had two reasons: First, the heavy artillery had hit something, proving that the enemy really had anti-tank guns in those positions. It was a trap. And his own strength wasn’t overwhelming enough to forcefully break through this trap.

Second, the enemy tank operators were too elite. Just yesterday, some had been aiming at the tracks and turret rings.

Today, using pre-set protective covers, he finally managed to protect the tracks and turret rings, temporarily solving the T34’s blindness issue. Now, the casualty rate looked good—no, right now, Wang Zhong’s side had no casualties.

But the situation would be different without the covers. In the confusion of close combat, the elite Prussian veteran tank operators would definitely have a greater advantage.

These two reasons made Wang Zhong give up the idea of taking a gamble.

Hey, what’s wrong with acting like a tortoise? What’s wrong with hiding in my shell? Come and bite me if you can!

If the enemy brought up the 88 guns, Wang Zhong would call for the 203 to deal with them. An 88 gun, a fixed weapon that needed to be set up, would just be asking to be shelled once it entered the line of sight.

Without an 88 gun, my armor has a 40-centimeter-thick layer of sandbags—neither the Panzer III’s 50-millimeter “little water pipe” nor the Panzer IV’s 75-millimeter “short fatty” could scare me!

—And I still have infantry cover, so I’m not afraid of infantry charging to grind meat.

The most important thing was that these more than 20 T34s were a mobile force. Even if the enemy saw a tank line as solid as a rock and wanted to shift the main attack direction, the tanks could quickly provide support, even encircle from the flanks.

The more Wang Zhong thought, the more he felt he shouldn’t move.

He started to think from the enemy’s perspective: How would they knock on this tortoise shell?

After much thought, he felt the only option was for the Stuka to drop 500-kilogram or even 1000-kilogram “gas cans.” Otherwise, there was no breaking through!

Following that line of logic, Wang Zhong naturally considered using smoke bombs to counter the enemy bombing—if the target couldn’t be seen, it naturally couldn’t be bombed.

Not to mention the Stuka’s dive bombing, even on Earth, the Sturmtiger’s Fritz X radio-controlled bombs feared smoke, as these devices were guided by an operator on the plane relying on sight. Once the target was obscured by smoke, remote-controlled bombs would mostly miss their mark.

Then, Wang Zhong thought further, realizing that even if a 500-kilogram bomb didn’t hit the tank directly, being dropped nearby would still be quite troublesome.

It might not kill everyone inside the tank, but it could damage the tank.

Even if it just blew off the tracks, it would greatly reduce the tank’s combat effectiveness.

When a tank could move, it could back away and create distance from the infantry, using firepower to inflict casualties. A stationary tank approached by infantry would turn into an experience farm.

Because of this, by the middle and later stages of the war, tank operators all carried submachine guns, so they could climb out and fight if they found infantry getting too close.

Wang Zhong understood this, and the enemy Stuka pilots probably did too. Would they dare bomb through the smoke?

After much consideration, Wang Zhong decided to be one step ahead of the enemy and ordered the tanks to move to reserve positions. Then, he planned to have the Guardian Army equipped with smoke bombs hide near the empty tank covers, ready to throw smoke bombs.

When Brother Peter heard the Stukas approaching, he would use the smoke to cover the empty tank covers.

You didn’t expect that, I’m on the second level!

The best part was that this was risk-free. The reserve positions had been carefully chosen; they could also block the enemy’s advance, although the field of fire was worse than the first position, and there were no covers to hide the weak spots, which might result in broken tracks and turret rings.

Having made up his mind, Wang Zhong waved to the Priest of the Guardian Army standing by his side, “Come over here! I have a task for you!”

The Priest ran over, “Yes, General! Speak, please!”

From the Priest’s expression, it was clear that the huge fireball and mushroom cloud in the distance had also boosted the morale here.

Wang Zhong gave his instructions, then used the radio to call all platoon command vehicles, arranging for the tanks to retreat to the reserve positions.

————

“Call the Air Force!”

Major General Franz said resolutely.

“It’s impossible to push the eighty-eight millimeter guns forward, as long as the enemy’s 203 hasn’t been countered or destroyed, we can’t possibly bring our slowly deploying anti-aircraft guns to the front line. Although we still have half of our anti-aircraft ammunition, I think that white horse general won’t be fooled.”

Actually, Major General Franz made a mistake here, he overestimated the white horse general too much, just like the staff officer of the 15th Division yesterday.

It wasn’t his fault, really. His carefully designed ambush didn’t catch the enemy, and instead, they retaliated with a blind artillery strike, which landed precisely on the most favorable position set for an anti-tank gun ambush.

What does this indicate? It demonstrates that the enemy has meticulously scouted the entire battlefield and has thought through all possibilities from a comparative perspective!

This is the quality of a top tactician.

The key fact was that the position chosen by the white horse general was identical to the one Major General Franz had selected. Had the chosen positions been even slightly different on either side, the artillery strike would have hit nothing.

This realization instantly elevated the enemy to the same level as himself in Major General Franz’s eyes, with a certain newfound respect.

Of course, the Major General wouldn’t admit this, for according to the Imperial Propaganda Minister, Ante is an inferior race, and so the generals of Ante must be inferior as well. The Prussians would prove their racial superiority in the process of conquering Ante, just as they did when they conquered Carolingian.

No, he could never admit the enemy was strong; he had to display contempt for the enemy.

Thus, Major General Franz calmed his emotions and made excuses, “Although we can also deal with those tanks in the covers!”

The matter of enemy tanks hiding in covers had been reported by the bait troops that had retreated.

In the Prussian military textbooks, when setting up armored defenses, they would dig tank covers to protect the tanks’ weak spots. Although this practice had not been used by the Prussian Army so far, the Armored Troops were very familiar with it given their professional level.

Franz said, “But! The Air Force can handle it more conveniently, more effectively! We are calling for Air Force support not because we fear the white horse general and his new tanks!”

“Then…” asked the staff officer of the 15th Armored Division cautiously, “the Air Force probably won’t arrive until two or three in the afternoon, four o’clock is possible. What do we do until then?”

Major General Franz said through gritted teeth, “Do you even need to ask? Before the appearance of Armored Troops, we were an army that fought with artillery and infantry, and we’ve won countless victories! We have the finest infantry and artillery in Europa! Use Xu Jin barrage, infantry attack!”

————

When Wang Zhong saw the Xu Jin barrage, just as he was about to order the tank operators to take cover from the artillery, he noticed his subordinates had already sprung into action.

In the blink of an eye, the tank operators all dove into the nearby cellars to lie low.

The Xu Jin barrage passed quickly, and by the time Wang Zhong and his men climbed out from the cellars and back onto the tanks, the field outside the city was engulfed in smoke. The last wave of the enemy’s Xu Jin barrage had been smoke bombs!

No, this smoke…

Even though Wang Zhong was far away from the smoke, he started coughing and felt a burning pain in his eyes! It was tear gas smoke!

Through the smoke, the sound of a whistle could be heard.

Wang Zhong had heard this sound in World War I themed movies; it was the whistle used by the Sturmtiger during attacks.

The piercing sound of the whistles rose and fell.

Then, Prosen infantrymen emerged one by one from the smoke, all wearing gas masks, the reflective surfaces of which looked like the eyes of demons from hell.

A Guardian Army machine gun had just fired a burst when the gunner, with tears and snot running down his face, was fatally stabbed by a Prosen soldier who had darted out from an angle. The man fell limply over the machine gun.

That Prosen pulled out his bloody bayonet and tossed a grenade through a nearby window.

The explosion shattered the window glass, and the Guardian Army inside screamed in agony.

Wang Zhong crawled into the tank, almost instantly realizing that these Guardian Army soldiers were not the elite 31st Guards Regiment; they couldn’t outfight these seasoned Prosen veterans!

To make matters worse, his own tanks weren’t suitable for this sort of close-quarters combat!

He had been so focused on how to counter the Stuka and hadn’t expected them to resort to such a simple and unadorned tactic!

The battlefield truly was full of surprises and “delights”!