Chapter 319: Rejection of the Plan to Retake Shepetovka

The situation on the battlefield is indeed unpredictable.

The Marina Fortress resisted for eighteen days and kept reporting that "the pressure was not great" and "the Rokosov-style defensive position was performing well." However, on the morning of May 19, the Marina Fortress suddenly reported that the outer defense circle had been breached.

Of course, Binhai Fortress has two other lines of defense and can resist for a while, but everyone's expressions at the imperial meeting were not very good.

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May 19, Yebao, Summer Palace, Imperial Meeting.

General Turgenev was introducing the Air Force reconnaissance situation: "The high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft we used to carry out the reconnaissance was intercepted by the Proson Air Force during the reconnaissance, and was unable to obtain the situation around the fortress.

"But the low-altitude penetrating Il-2 reported that the enemy had a lot of anti-aircraft firepower at this location."

The general drew a circle on the map.

“In addition, the penetration reconnaissance team of the defense forces also reported that the patrol density in this area will suddenly increase, and they are equipped with military dogs, so there is really no way to penetrate.

"Based on the survey of the craters left by the enemy's heavy artillery, we speculated that this may be a heavy railway gun. At first, the fortress headquarters thought it was the shelling of the enemy battleship, but even the naval gun could not leave such a terrifying crater. It cannot penetrate the 30-meter-thick roof of the underground ammunition depot.”

Wang Zhong: "Do you have any information from the Allies?"

"No." Cardinal Rafkid shook his head, "We have been exchanging information with the Allies, and they did not mention this super cannon."

Wang Zhong: "In short, it was originally well-defended, but today it was suddenly penetrated by the ammunition depot. The explosion was too loud, and the front line had no time to stabilize the morale of the troops, so they lost part of the defensive position. Is that true?"

"That's it," General Turgenev nodded, "and there is also a practical problem. The artillery firepower of the fortress is basically provided by the naval coastal artillery regiment. The coastal artillery regiment mainly operates the fortress's fortress artillery. It can support the fortress until now. The artillery in the breakthrough area needs to be fed by the bombed underground ammunition depot.”

Wang Zhong: "The ammunition was cut off after blowing up an underground ammunition depot?"

The Major General of the Engineering Corps who attended the meeting explained: "Instead of being cut off, the coastal artillery can still get ammunition from other ammunition depots.

"The ammunition depots of Marina Fortress are like this. Each ammunition depot supplies a group of artillery. There is an underground rail connection between the artillery positions and the ammunition depots, and ammunition trains can be used to deliver ammunition to the artillery positions.

"It is not so convenient to transport it from other ammunition depots. The ammunition must be moved to the ground first and then transported by truck. The enemy air force is currently carrying out heavy air strikes, and there is no way to transport it by truck."

After the Major General of the Engineering Corps finished speaking, Turgenev quickly took over the conversation: "Previously we thought that the coastal fortress using new defensive tactics could withstand for a longer period of time, but now it seems that we must be prepared to lose the coastal fortress.

"After the fortress is breached, Myshkin's troops may be outflanked, and we may have to abandon Borsk."

Wang Zhong: "Then retreat to where? The grassland is not suitable for defense."

General Turgenev replied: "There are still some. The Suhayaveli River can provide the barrier needed for defense. We have deployed defenses on the riverside since January this year.

“In order to ensure its own logistical supply, the enemy will definitely break through the Suhayaveli River to the east and then continue to advance towards the Valdaichu River.

“There are a large number of industrial areas along the Valdaichu River, and we rely heavily on shipping on the Valdaichu River to transport supplies southward from Yebao.

"As long as the enemy pushes the front to the banks of the Valdaichu River, we can only rely on the inland sea route to transport supplies to the Southern Front."

Wang Zhong added: "The only way to transport fuel from Kuba is through the inland sea route."

"Yes." General Turgenev nodded, "So the defense of the Suhayaveli River is crucial. We dispatched the 51st Army Group led by Lieutenant General Kashukh. This Army Group was expanded on the basis of the 51st Army. , in addition, the 52nd and 54th Army were sent to the banks of the Suhayaveli River."

Wang Zhong: "I remember that these group armies all participated in the battle from September to October last year, and Kashuhe's army also suffered considerable losses."

General Turgenev: "They have finished resting and are now fully loaded."

"That means my First Mobile Army is no longer needed to defend the Suhayaveli River?" Wang Zhong asked.

"Yeah, you get more training time."

Turgenev continued to explain the map: "Of course, the defense of the Suhayaveli River is not as reliable as that of the Duva River, because there are open grasslands on both sides of the river and there is a lack of large cities as support points. Last year we were in The same terrain was broken through by the Prosens one after another.

"The good news is that these armies have been reinforced by heavy tanks. We followed Lieutenant General Rokossov's suggestion and organized the heavy tanks into battalions of 21 tanks, and strengthened them to the infantry divisions in need as a kind of 'Mobile support point'.

When Wang Zhong heard his name, he immediately raised his chest and raised his head.

In fact, he also copied Earth's Soviet military establishment. In the middle and late stages of the war, the Soviet army did not use a large number of heavy tanks intensively because the Soviet army's maintenance and support capabilities were so poor. A unit of 21 heavy tanks was the largest unit that could be supported.

The Ant Army's maintenance and support capabilities are equally bad. Because heavy tanks are heavy, their failure rate is much higher than that of medium tanks. Therefore, it is logical to disperse the use of heavy tanks to reduce the difficulty of support.

Wang Zhong just pointed out in advance the experience that Antejun himself could sum up later, and then regarded this as his own credit.

Turgenev continued: "In addition, in accordance with our new field defense manual, we dug many tank bunkers along the river with only the tank turrets exposed."

This new field defense manual was also created by Wang Zhong.

The entire Ant army is currently using the combat rules Wang Zhong borrowed from Earth.

Turgenev: “Judging from the results of the defensive battle between Primorye Fortress and Bolsk, the new defense system performed well. I personally think we can look forward to their performance on the Suhayaveli River.

"That's probably it for now."

Wang Zhong: "Aren't there any offensive actions by the enemies on the central and northern fronts?"

"No. However, we have received a lot of intelligence, indicating that the target of the Prossen's attack this summer is still Yebao." General Turgenev looked at Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong: "This is an action to deceive the enemy. The enemy's target is the oil field. General Gorky and I both judged this."

"The same goes for the high command. So I just mentioned it casually." General Turgenev said, "Then the situation is like this, Your Majesty, I'm done."

Olga, who had been holding back, immediately spoke: "Alyosha..."

Wang Zhong: "In work situations, it is called military rank."

Olga pouted, but immediately put her expression back: "Lieutenant General Rokossov, the Operations Section has submitted a combat plan to launch an offensive on the southern front to retake Shepetovka. What do you think?"

Wang Zhong: "Okay, what troops are you planning to invest?"

"Mainly the newly formed tank brigades, five brigades are planned to be invested, plus two infantry divisions."

Wang Zhong’s brows were twisted into knots.

In the second year of the war, the Soviet Army on Earth had some very abstract formations, such as forming a large tank army with 600 tanks. As a result, the commander had no experience in commanding such a large tank force, and the battle was in a mess.

In addition, this tank group still has only a few auxiliary troops, and they are taught by the highly synthetic Sandoku.

In the end, even the commander of the tank group was directly killed by Santoku.

Starting from the mid-term, the Soviet army also knew that the tank force needed to be equipped with a large number of auxiliary troops. A tank corps would be organized into a large number of self-propelled artillery and infantry. Instead, the number of tanks was reduced to about 200, but the name was still stubbornly called a tank corps.

And Ant is luckier. Thanks to Wang Zhong, the Ant people have taken this step less.

But this does not mean that these tank brigades formed by the Ant Army are not abstract.

These brigades do combine infantry and artillery, but the total number is very small, giving people the impression that as long as the problem of whether or not the brigade is solved, the strength of the brigade will increase by leaps and bounds.

In addition, these brigades are still extremely lacking in support capabilities, with only a few maintenance and support personnel.

Mainly, not every commander has the dignity to second a large number of skilled workers from the church and navy to form a support force. Of course, not every tank battalion has the conditions to assign the tractors that rescue and recover tanks to the company like Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong had strongly suggested reducing the number of these tank brigades, but Turgenev convinced him.

Turgenev said this at the time: "You are special. Just because you can form a highly integrated force with luxurious configurations does not mean that the military command department can also form it. I have tried my best to equip them with auxiliary forces. Let's put the tank brigade first. Establish them and fill them into the battle lines. After all, we have produced so many tanks.

"When the infantry troops see the tanks, their combat confidence will be greatly improved. In this way, at least they will not see Proson's tanks rushing a hundred meters in front of the position, abandon the position and start to flee."

Wang Zhong's own troops have passed the test of blood and fire, and they can survive more than half of their casualties without retreating.

However, most of the Ante Army's troops do not have such a will to fight and will need another year of training.

The same is true for the Soviet army on Earth. In 43 years, there are still troops who fled before the enemy could rush into position. Even in the movie "Liberation" shot after the war, the first one also had scenes of a large number of Soviet soldiers escaping - the first one was about Kursk in 1943.

Now, let this kind of tank brigade, which lacks support capabilities and has a low degree of synthesis, and infantry that will retreat when the enemy tanks come up, launch an attack on the Plosans, and also retake the important town of Shepetovka, it feels like A little overthinking.

So Wang Zhong said: "Shepetovka is a city, and there are a large number of reinforced concrete buildings nearby. With so many tank troops and so few infantry troops, what do the people in the combat department think? No, no."

Olga: "But didn't you support General Gorky's offensive plan?"

Wang Zhong: "General Gorky's offensive plan mainly relies on infantry and artillery. The armored troops only play a supporting role. The purpose is only to contain the enemy's troops on the front line and to train the offensive capabilities of the troops.

"This is two different things from confidently wanting to retake a major town. I am opposed to this aggressive attack plan and to wasting precious technical equipment and soldiers' lives in such a place."

Olga nodded: "Okay, then I won't approve this plan!"

Wang Zhong nodded and complimented "very good" casually, and then realized that this was wrong: It looks like the tsar is just my puppet! No, no, no, you misunderstood!