Cannon Fire Arc Chapter 332

Chapter 332: Chapter 18 The Western Front Army Breaks Its Spear

December 9th, Commander of the Western Front Army headquarters, 1240 hours.

Tukhachev looked at the newly updated map and repeatedly praised, “Very good, excellent! Must continue to advance, advance!”

Chief of Staff of the Front Army, “But we've already advanced so far, logistics can't keep up. The troops haven't had hot food since the day before yesterday, it's all dry rations. The cooking squad and laundry squad can't keep up.

“Moreover, the armored units have also reported many tanks abandoned due to mechanical failures, the First Assault Army Group reported as many as 221 tanks in need of repair this morning! They only have just over 100 T34 tanks in combat readiness left!”

“Should we stop and wait for the logistics to catch up before proceeding?”

Tukhachev angrily said, “Now, time is victory. When the enemy is attacking us, they relentlessly advance, preventing our army from organizing new defenses!

“We must learn from the enemy's approach, advance, advance, then advance some more! Rocossov was right, the line from Bokost to Shostka is indeed well suited for defense, so we must break through it before the enemy is ready!”

Tukhachev waved his hand dramatically and slammed his fist onto the map.

“Break through the defense lines! And then make that bastard Rocossov kiss my boots!”

December 9th, 1450 hours in the afternoon, east of Shostka, Prosen armored ambush position.

The 32nd Tank Battalion of the Asgard Knights' Said Armored Division had been in position for a day already.

This battalion was equipped entirely with prototype Panzer IV F2 tanks. These tanks, when they were first delivered to the front lines, still had the factory paint. It wasn't until they reached the front that they were repainted by the battalion's support troops into Prosen Army's signature gray.

Major Sheriff, the battalion commander, was in his own command vehicle, observing the distant railway line and the highway beside it.

His command vehicle, tactical number 201, was currently parked in a tank bunker that completely concealed the vehicle.

The whole bunker was primarily constructed based on the Rocossov model of tank bunker discovered in Orachi, but to save on earthwork and speed up the construction of positions, the structure in front of Rocossov's bunker that could completely hide the tanks was removed, leaving only a deflector for reducing the flash and smoke of tank fire.

It was said that the front line Panzer IVs had been welded with 50mm thick armor plates, increasing the front to a thickness that even the T34 could not penetrate, but such modifications had not been made to Major Sheriff's battalion.

On the one hand, this batch of prototypes had just arrived at the front line and there was no time to modify; they could only manage to have the paint applied in time.

On the other hand, with the addition of the long-barreled 75mm gun, the turret of the Panzer IV F2 was already a lot heavier. To balance the weight of the turret, a larger counterweight was added to the back.

Under such circumstances, welding a 50mm thick steel plate to the turret front would become excessively heavy.

Hence, the current frontal turret armor of these tanks remained the original 50mm of the Panzer IV, which could be penetrated if hit by a T34.

The response of Major Sheriff and his tank operators was to cover the turret front with a layer of camouflage netting, only leaving the gun itself and the gunner's sighting scope exposed.

However, although the Said Division itself had not engaged T34s, through exchanges with evacuated wounded, they knew that the T34's accuracy was very poor at distances beyond 800 meters.

And now, the distance between the ambush position and the highway was exactly 800 meters, the 32nd Tank Battalion intended to engage the enemy at this range.

Major Sheriff prepared himself for the potential loss of a third of his vehicles.

At that moment, suddenly a voice came through the radio: “Hound Hound, this is Sparrowhawk, we see an enemy armored column moving towards you, at least one hundred tanks, repeat, at least one hundred tanks.”

Major Sheriff picked up the handset, turned on the radio transmitter: “Sparrowhawk Sparrowhawk, this is Hound. Our meal is ready, repeat, our meal is prepared.”

“Sparrowhawk understands, we dropped two small bombs, didn't achieve much. It's up to you now.”

“Thanks for the info.” Major Sheriff put down the microphone, picked up a whistle and blew it, blowing one long and two short signals, then he shouted, “Battle stations!”

The tank operators, who were playing cards and bragging on the position, scampered onto the tanks, slipping into the hatches with practiced movements.

The infantry troops covering the tanks also sprang into action.

The accompanying infantry battalion of the 32nd Tank Battalion was called “57th Accompanying Infantry Battalion,” a specialized support unit.

And because it was infantry from the Said Division, the battalion's equipment was also luxurious, boasting twelve 50mm mortars, four 82mm mortars, and eight 75mm infantry guns, as well as two Bison 15CM self-propelled infantry guns.

Less than ten minutes later, the whole position went into combat readiness, everyone waiting for the arrival of the Ante armored column.

But the first thing that came was the sound of engines from the sky, a uniquely shaped FW189 reconnaissance plane whizzed past the ambush position, the pilot apparently looking for the Prosen ambush position below and clearly didn't spot it.

Major Sheriff felt somewhat smug, after all, the camouflage of his battalion was personally directed by him.

Even though Prosen's propaganda constantly boasted “The great Prosen soldier, as proud as an eagle, never deigns to camouflage himself,” experienced Prosen troops have never underestimated the value of camouflage.

Shortly after the reconnaissance plane passed, a rumble of engines came from the east.

Major Sheriff looked eastward and indeed saw the raised white smoke from the snow.

Major Sheriff straightened the Second Class Iron Cross on his collar, thinking that today was the time to earn the First Class Iron Cross.

He glanced at his own forces.

At the moment, to avoid alarming the enemy prematurely, the entire force maintained radio silence. However, Major Sheriff had already assigned targets for the 20 Panzer IV F2 tanks stationed on the ambush line.

The rest of the battalion's tanks were hidden in the forests further back from the ambush positions as reserves.

For some reason, Major Sheriff always felt that the reserves wouldn't be needed today.

Unfortunately, even the Said Armored Division, which received priority replenishment, only got these 20 Panzer IV F2 prototypes. A full rollout of the Panzer IV F2 might not happen until March next year.

If the Panzer IV F2 had been equipped in large quantities before Operation Typhoon, maybe the Central Army Group would have already broken into Ye Fort.

Finally, Major Sheriff saw the enemy's armored column.

Sheriff had only heard about how the Ante People liked to let infantry ride on tanks, but now he saw it with his own eyes, the leading T34 tank had seven or eight Ante infantrymen sitting on it.

It seemed that the Ante People really lacked half-track vehicles, so they had to let the infantry ride on tanks for mobility.

In contrast, the accompanying infantry of the 32nd Battalion could allocate 12 to 15 half-tracks per company, and didn't need to ride on tanks for combat.

Major Sheriff kept following the Ante armored column with his binoculars, watching the leading tank cross the roadside sign–this was the start of the ambush zone.

The ambush position of Major Sheriff's command vehicle was just 800 meters away from that roadside sign.

The Ante People didn't realize that the Prussians were only 800 meters away. The tank-borne infantry were all eagerly looking west, completely focused on Shostka ahead.

Major Sheriff patiently waited until the Ante vanguard was about to leave the ambush zone before he used the vehicle's communication line to order, “Fire!”

The gunner immediately opened fire, and the shell streaked like a beam of light, striking just above the idler wheel of the T34 that had just passed the sign.

The Prosen Imperial Academy of Sciences had carefully disassembled captured T34 tanks and knew that the T34's ammunition was mostly stored on the floor of the vehicle. The gunner aimed there, precisely targeting the T34's ammo rack.

No sooner said than done, the T34 blew up, sending the turret and the infantry sitting on it flying into the air. Scattered flesh and blood fell to the ground, staining the soil red with blood.

The other ambushing vehicles also opened fire immediately, hitting the entire leading column of the procession and turning it into a fireball.

Since there were too many enemies, Major Sheriff didn't wait for all of them to enter the ambush zone before opening fire. Now, about thirty T34s were blocked outside the ambush zone by wreckage.

Sheriff shouted loudly, “Rotate turret to the right 30 degrees, all enemies in sight, fire at will!”

The moment the words had left his mouth, another shot was fired by the gunner, and the T34 that was hit burst into flames, with the infantry on top desperately jumping off.

Gunner, “Load! Load quickly! There are still dozens of enemies!”

The third shot was fired promptly, and yet another T34 turned into a flaming coffin.

At this time, Major Sheriff was puzzled, “What's happening? Why does it seem like the enemy still hasn't spotted us?”

Through his binoculars, he saw the T34s firing at the machine-gun positions of the accompanying infantry and the positions of the infantry guns, but none of them fired at the armored ambush site 800 meters away.

As Major Sheriff was astonished, his gunner methodically turned ten T34 tanks into wrecks.

In the ensuing chaos, the Ante T34s began to retreat.

Breaking radio silence, Major Sheriff ordered, “Armored third, fourth, fifth, sixth platoons, engage in battle, move fast! All battalions, engage, the enemy is running! Break their tracks, jam their turret rings! Hurry!”

“Understood, battalion commander!”

The remaining troops of the 32nd Armored Battalion surged out of their nests, circled around the ambush site, and rushed towards the retreating–or rather, fleeing–Ante tank forces.

Major Sheriff, “We're moving out too. All F2s, reverse, leave the cover! Pursue the enemy freely!”

The engine of Major Sheriff's command vehicle, number 201, roared as it backed out of the tank shelter.

The Major, “Left turn! There are no pits ahead, move forward, move forward! Aim for a better shooting position! Destroy the enemy!”

The Ante Western Front Army Headquarters.

The telephone rang.

The chief of staff picked up the phone, “Front Army Headquarters. What? How many tanks?”

Tukhachev, who had been looking at the map, turned around and squinted at the chief of staff.

And the chief of staff's eyes were as wide as copper bells.

Finally, he put down the phone and looked at Tukhachev.

“Commander Sir,” the chief of staff said, “the First Strike Army Group reports that they were ambushed by the enemy and lost… lost 103 T34 tanks; now they only have 7 T34s operational.”

“What?” Tukhachev nearly fell over and had to steady himself with both hands on the desk, “Where did the enemy get those troops from?”

“Unknown, the vanguard of the First Strike Army Group was crushed, and we didn't capture any prisoners.”

Tukhachev sat down hard in the chair.

Then the chair cracked, nearly splitting General Tukhachev's backside.

Chapter end

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