Cannon Fire Arc

Chapter 723: Chapter 61: Summary of the Situation

July 25, 0400 hours, Kazarlia Front Army Headquarters.

Wang Zhong entered the headquarters at dawn.

Pavlov: “You’ve only slept for a little over three hours, are you okay?”

“You talk as if you have had a lot of rest,” Wang Zhong replied.

Pavlov: “Considering my age, it’s normal for us old folks to sleep less, but you young people need to sleep a bit more.”

Pavlov was indeed much older than Wang Zhong, and also a father to several children.

Wang Zhong glanced at his bald head and decided not to take issue with his father-like statement, but instead asked directly about the battle situation: “What’s the situation at the front now?”

“The Cavalry Troops have reported many victories and have brought back many prisoners.”

Wang Zhong: “Bringing back prisoners? We haven’t started the armored assault yet. The Cavalry Troops are generally tens to hundreds of kilometers from our control area; how did they bring back prisoners?”

“Using Pe-2 aircraft. In this season, the grasslands allow Pe-2 to land almost anywhere as long as they avoid the field mouse burrows. Hence, the Cavalry Troops constructed makeshift airfields for transporting prisoners,” Pavlov explained, “Pe-2 needs just one pilot but has two seats.”

Wang Zhong: “I see, but isn’t that very inefficient? Transporting ten prisoners would require deploying ten Pe-2 biplanes.”

Pavlov: “That’s why only officers are brought back. The Tribunal is thrilled, interrogating them daily, and has basically clarified the current situation of the enemy.”

Pavlov moved to the map: “The enemy has now dispersed anti-aircraft vehicles equipped with rapid-fire cannons along their retreat routes to chase the cavalry.

“This has decreased their defense capability against the Air Force, so these days the boys in the Air Force have been having a blast bombing them.”

Wang Zhong: “I knew that from when I went on a reconnaissance flight and talked with the pilots. But I didn’t expect it to be because they used their anti-aircraft cannons against the cavalry.”

Pavlov nodded: “The Cavalry Troops can’t take down the enemy’s heavily fortified positions, but even so, they have had a huge impact on the plains, mainly because the plains are so vast.

“Fully motorized enemy forces can’t handle the Cavalry Troops on the plains; their mobile units can catch up to the cavalry, but the cost is too high.”

At this moment, Popov interjected: “I heard that the enemy Central Army Group started using armored trains against the Cavalry Troops, and during the summer offensive by General Gorky, the cavalry didn’t play a significant role.”

Wang Zhong: “No, no. The main reason the cavalry from the Western Front Army didn’t play a significant role was due to the landscape being too forested, though there were large expanses of grasslands and wheat fields between the woods, but they weren’t continuous.”

Cavalry is particularly suited to the steppes of Kazarlia and Nan’ant, but as they pushed further west, the role of the cavalry began to diminish.

It was similar on Earth; when the Russians planned to exploit the advantages of cavalry beyond their borders, they began facing setbacks as the villages in the Eastern European plains were closely packed, making it difficult for cavalry to maneuver.

Wang Zhong remembered that on Earth, there was also an instance where a Russian cavalry unit had been surrounded and annihilated in the Hungarian Plain—the villages and structures were too clustered with a plethora of barns and farmhouses scattered across the plains, which the defending forces used as points of fire, restricting the cavalry’s mobility.

Pavlov: “From the lessons of the cavalry operations of the Western Front Army, as we continue pushing west, the effectiveness of the cavalry will continue diminishing. Maybe we can suggest to the High Command to stop expanding the scale of the Cavalry Troops.”

“No need to worry; His Majesty the Tsar and I had a phone conversation earlier, and he complained about the shortage of cavalry horses and the impossibility of forming more Cavalry Troops. Our cavalry has already reached its limit.”

Having said that, a staff member brought a document directly to Pavlov.

Pavlov tore open the kraft paper bag of the document, took out the contents inside and glanced through before saying to Wang Zhong: “This is our Maintenance Troops’ assessment of the newly recovered enemy tanks from the battlefield.

“The Maintenance Troops can’t understand why the Prosens would use such a complicated suspension system.”

Wang Zhong, of course, knew what was meant by suspension, but he had to feign ignorance: “Complex suspension?”

“Yes, it seems they adopted a new dual-row load-bearing wheel design to expand the track’s ground contact area. According to the Maintenance Department’s report, this device is extremely difficult to maintain as the entire row of load-bearing wheels needs to be dismantled if there’s an issue with the wheels on the inside. Our tanks—and the enemy’s Panzer III and IV—can complete a load-bearing wheel replacement in one hour, but the new tanks need at least five to six hours.”

Wang Zhong: “(Surprised) Five to six hours?”

Pavlov: “Five to six hours, and that’s a conservative estimate. Maintaining the enemy’s new tanks is very, very troublesome.

“That’s one thing; another is that our staff found it odd that the new tanks are very heavy, such as the one they call Tiger King, which weighs over seventy tons.

“However, according to our maintenance engineers’ assessment, the defensive capabilities of the Prosen new tanks are nowhere near our tanks.”

Wang Zhong pretended to be surprised: “Really?”

Pavlov: “Yes, our Maintenance Department estimates that the seventy-ton Tiger King’s defensive ability is about the same as the forty-ton Rokossovsky Type.”@@novelbin@@

Vasily: “Really? Where did they put those extra 30 tons? Did the designers eat them?”

Wang Zhong: “Wasting tonnage is a tradition for Prosens; just look at their battleships.”

Pavlov: “Anyway, the enemy’s new tanks, astonishingly heavy, might even crush their own load-bearing wheels. The Maintenance Department believes we needn’t worry about these tanks; just issue our 100mm cannons better armor-piercing shells, and they’ll handle them perfectly.”

Wang Zhong: “The Maintenance Department makes a good point, but still, we have to hand it over to the rear for a thorough assessment. So, did we repair these tanks? Can we get them on a train to Yeburg?”

Pavlov shook his head: “Most of the new tanks were burned; the Maintenance Department is working hard to find new tanks that weren’t ignited.”

Wang Zhong: “Then let them keep looking. How are today’s attack preparations?”

“The troops report that they are ready to attack,” Pavlov paused, dropped the enemy tank assessment report he was holding, and took out a stack of aerial photos from the table, “According to aerial reconnaissance, the Prosens might have reinforced a complete Armored Division.”

Wang Zhong slightly furrowed his brows: “Is that so certain?”

“Definitely. Don’t believe me, take a look.” Pavlov pulled out a photo and pushed it towards Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong picked up the photo.

In the photo, a train loaded with tanks was being unloaded.

Wang Zhong: “Why didn’t we send Pe-2s to bomb them?”

“We did bomb them, but the effect will have to wait until today’s reconnaissance results are in.”