Cannon Fire Arc - Chapter 173

Chapter 173: Chapter 24 Suspicion (Holy shit, it’s the fifth watch)

The Prussian Army’s Asgard Knights’ Ampulla Armored Division headquarters, Chief of Staff Kluge von Hessendaier grasped Division Commander William Dietrich’s hand, “Leave it to me.”

The lieutenant who brought back Major General William said, “I think the Major General is currently in a deep coma and probably can’t hear what you’re saying.”

“I know,” Kluge von Hessendaier glanced at the lieutenant.

The Asgard Knights, as confidants of the Emperor, tended to prefer officers not from Junker nobility. The establishment of the Knights was one of the means by which His Majesty sought to reduce the influence of the officer corps.

However, the position of staff officer is not quite the same as that of a military commander. First, staff officers don’t accumulate military exploits easily; even if the combat plan is wholly devised by the staff officer, and even if the plan’s execution is personally directed by the staff officer, any victory would still be credited to the military commander.

Second, staff officers value the ability to do paperwork on maps over qualities such as battlefield intuition. The development of a staff officer’s abilities also relies heavily on accumulation over many years.

Thus, the Emperor could not quickly promote staff officers without an officer corps background through military exploits, and in the Prussian Army, the staff officers mainly came from the Junker officer corps.

Kluge von Hessendaier was a member of the Junker nobility, but he had good relations with non-Junker officers who had rapidly risen since the Emperor began his conquest. This was why he had been placed in the Asgard Knights, the equivalent of the Prosens’ elite forces, to assist the star war general.

Now that the star war general had left the stage, Kluge had to shoulder the responsibility.

He turned his head to inquire of the lieutenant who had just spoken, “Why would the enemy specifically shell a tank platoon situated in a reserve position?”

The lieutenant shook his head, “I don’t know, Chief of Staff, Your Excellency.”

Kluge asked further, “Did the Major General do anything that could have revealed his identity?”

“There shouldn’t have been any such actions.”

At this moment, the vice commander of the First Armored Battalion said, “An entire artillery battalion launching three rounds of concentrated fire, all landing around the Division Commander’s vehicle… They were clearly targeting the Division Commander.”

“I know,” Kluge interrupted the vice commander, “but the question is, how did the enemy identify the Division Commander? That White General previously also had the feat of killing Major General Randolph of the 15th Armored Division. It’s hard not to be suspicious.”

Kluge paused, “Major General Randolph was killed in the general’s uniform of the defense forces, and he was with his command vehicle when it happened. That’s understandable, considering how conspicuous the defense force’s general uniform is, especially with that red collar insignia.”

The Prussian traditional military uniform featured a red collar insignia for generals, which could be discerned from a great distance in field conditions. There had already been precedents in the previous Carolingian campaign where sharpshooters from the United Kingdom had taken aim at generals.

For this reason, the uniform of the Asgard Knights removed the red collar insignia for generals.

And before Major General William went to the front line, he even swapped clothes with the tank platoon leader.

Kluge paced back and forth, and at this moment someone on the staff said, “Could it be the effect of that Voodoo Ritual?”

Kluge sneered, “How could that be possible. Merely wounding the Division Commander won’t paralyze our command. If the enemy wanted to deal with us, the Voodoo Ritual should have targeted our entire headquarters. No, it shouldn’t be that.”

“But,” the staff officer continued, “saying it’s the Voodoo Ritual makes it easier to explain to the higher-ups.”

Kluge clicked his tongue, “That’s indeed the case.”

Staff officers after all are non-combatant military officers, more adept at office struggles within the military rather than battlefield command.

Kluge said, “Then we should find those wounded soldiers who escaped and ask them in detail how the enemy’s Voodoo Ritual was conducted and write a detailed report to submit to the Armored Cluster Command.”

Just then a communications officer ran out from inside, “Chief of Staff—Acting Division Commander, the Second and Third Armored Battalions are both asking what to do.”

The Chief of Staff waved his hand grandly, “Haven’t they been given the battle plan? The Division Commander has been seriously wounded and gone back for treatment. We must execute his plan to the end! Attack.”

————

Wang Zhong was in a standoff with the enemy’s tank formation.

To be able to open fire and stop the enemy at the first chance, 30 T-34 tanks had backed up from their concealed positions to the firing platform, and similar to the first ambush, Wang Zhong had designated focus areas for each tank.

An armored battle was on the verge of breaking out.

But the enemy simply wouldn’t move, idling in place burning fuel.

Wang Zhong didn’t dare to move either as long as the enemy stayed put; he even stayed with the rookie holding the telephone the entire time.

Wang Zhong had counted already, the enemy had a total of 181 tanks. Although there were only 131 of models three and four, with the rest being the filler models two and 38T, models two and 38T could still break the T-34’s tracks and jam the turret rings when they got close enough.

Besides, the performance of models two and 38T was more than enough to slaughter infantry.

No, the 20mm machine cannon on model two might be even more efficient at killing infantry than the 50mm ‘candy dispenser’ on model three.

As Wang Zhong pondered these miscellaneous thoughts, the enemy made its move.

The exhaust pipes of the Prussian tanks arrayed across the plain simultaneously belched black smoke, and the roar of their engines markedly increased.

Wang Zhong immediately ran towards his tank, climbed into the turret, and then said to the soldier crouching beside the cover holding the telephone, “Get up here! Stand on the tank engine cover, I need to make calls to coordinate with the artillery battalion at any moment!”

“Oh!” The rookie promptly climbed onto the tank, appearing somewhat excited; he might have been looking forward to riding in a tank for a while.

The voice of the armored battalion commander came through the headset, “General! Shall we fire?”

Wang Zhong, “Are you stupid? Fire when the target is in sight, dammit!”

After several days of testing, Wang Zhong was already resigned to the poor accuracy of this batch of T-34s.

Hence, he intended to let the enemy get within 700 meters before opening fire. Although this distance might not be enough to stop so many Prussian tanks from closing in for melee combat, it was still better than wasting ammunition firing beyond their effective range.

Wang Zhong had emphasized the concealment of their positions before the battle precisely for this reason.

The Prussians were known for their excellent gunnery, along with superior sighting equipment and Zeiss high-magnification lenses. They often achieved hits at 1000 meters or even 1500 meters.

Letting the enemy get close before firing was the best strategy against Prussian armored troops.

Wang Zhong waited for the moment when the enemy tanks would cross the 700-meter mark.

However, the enemy stopped! They stopped 1,200 meters away!

Wang Zhong didn’t know what the enemy was up to.

The next moment, the enemy opened fire, targeting the decoy tanks and anti-tank guns Wang Zhong had prepared.

The wooden models were about to fulfill their purpose.

The gunner, Alexander, from tank #422 asked, “Should we fire now? I’m confident I can hit them at this distance!”

Wang Zhong, “Don’t rush, once we open fire, other crews—especially the new ones—will definitely fire indiscriminately. I can’t expect them to have your level of skill. You were an instructor for the Armored Troops, and the man who actually took down Division Commander Randolph!”

Alexander fell silent, probably dazed by Wang Zhong’s flattery.

After unleashing a barrage of fire at a distance of 1,200 meters, the enemy finally began to advance.

After all, Wang Zhong hadn’t given the order to open fire yet, and the camouflage on his own positions was too good. Even if the enemy wanted to engage in a fire fight from 1,200 meters away, they had no targets to shoot at.

Wang Zhong waited for the enemy’s attacking front to cross the mark.

Finally, enemy tank #313 closely passed by the target!

Wang Zhong, “Fire!”

He didn’t specify which target to fire at, but Alexander just happened to choose tank #313.

The precise attack punched a hole right through the front upper armor of tank #313. The tank immediately caught fire, and the enemy’s Armored Troops hurriedly abandoned it.

The results of the first salvo came quickly. Wang Zhong counted—out of 30 T34s that fired, six enemy tanks were hit.

In the morning ambush, with a firing distance of less than five hundred meters, we could only manage to take out one enemy with two Armor-Piercing Shells. Can we accept this result now at a distance of 700 meters?

A second volley was fired, and another five enemy tanks were abandoned.

By then, the enemy had figured out roughly where the shells were coming from, and fierce direct fire started to hit the second ambush position.

However, the enemy was not accurate, probably because the protective positions dug by Wang Zhong’s engineers and laborers were too scientifically done. The enemy couldn’t see exactly where the targets were; they could only guess based on the direction from which the shells came and fired wildly, hoping to hit some high-value units.

Both sides sketched outlines of each other for several rounds.

The enemy had lost over twenty tanks temporarily to combat incapacity, while Wang Zhong’s side didn’t lose a single tank.

It seemed the enemy was on the way to a “slow death”!

————

In the headquarters of the Ampulla Armored Division, Kluge pressed one hand on the field telephone, activating the “speaker” function, so the entire command vehicle could hear the soldiers from the Second Armored Battalion’s various screams of terror.

“Where the hell is the enemy?”

“We’ve poured seven or eight rounds of ammunition in the direction of the incoming shells, why are they still attacking?”

“The smoke from the enemy tank’s firing is blocking my vision! I can’t see anything at all!”

“I saw a tank turret, they are fighting us with tanks buried in the ground!”

More and more nonsensical reports emerged.

But what struck Kluge the most was that cry of “Mommy”.

Finally, Kluge couldn’t take it anymore and picked up the handset, “All units, execute Plan B!”

Plan B was to use Smoke Bombs to attack the enemy positions and then call in the Stukas to drop 500-kilogram bombs on the smoke-covered spots.

Kluge’s order was executed faithfully!

————

When the enemy fired smoke at the second ambush position, Wang Zhong initially thought they were going to retreat.

But when he saw the color of the smoke, he immediately realized what was happening.

“Enemy bombing is incoming, release smoke, and get the infantry to release smoke to cover our withdrawal. The infantry won’t be able to run in time, everyone hide in the anti-bomb shelters!”

The next moment, smoke rose before the infantry trenches at the ambush site.

Wang Zhong, “Hurry up! Reverse, move out!”

The infantry could actually find sufficient cover—if dive bombers were coming, only an incendiary bomb would be effective.

But tanks were another story; Wang Zhong still remembered the lessons learned from Peniye—if it hadn’t been for the Stuka dive bomber damaging tank #67, that crew would still be fighting alongside him!

Wang Zhong’s tank #422 backed out of the protective spot and onto the makeshift evacuation route.

All tanks with radios also got moving, but those without radios continued to fire from their positions.

Wang Zhong shouted at the Army personnel standing by, “What are you waiting for? Go knock on the tank hatches and tell them we’re leaving!”

At that moment, the sound of engines came from the sky.

The Stukas had arrived.

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