Chapter 402 Rokossov's Prediction

At eight o'clock in the morning on the 19th, Wang Zhong heard the roar of tanks outside. He switched the view and saw the leading brigade of the 40th Tank Army coming in a mighty manner.

After switching back, he gestured to Pavlov and Popov: "It should be the 40th Tank Army. Let's go out to greet them and see how many tanks are broken."

Popov: "I think one-fifth of them are broken?"

"Based on our previous experience of long-distance maneuvers, one-fifth, but they should not have such good maintenance as us, I guess one-third." Pavlov said.

Wang Zhong: "Then I can only bet on one-half."

Everyone else laughed, and Wang Zhong himself laughed with them. Obviously, everyone did not think there would be so many non-combat losses.

After laughing, Wang Zhong made a gesture, and then led everyone to the gate.

Just after leaving the warehouse gate, I saw a T34 tank with a flag hanging in it, with the tactical number 4022. Wang Zhong always felt that this tactical number was also a way to get in on the No. 422 tank.

Although the No. 40 in the tank should mean the 40th tank army, the number behind it is just a serial number, and there may be tactical numbers such as 40122.

After the No. 4022 tank stopped, the turret hatch opened, and a tank soldier in a general's uniform came out, took off his anti-collision tank cap, put on an officer's cap, jumped off the tank, adjusted his clothes, and then walked towards Wang Zhong.

When he arrived in front of Wang Zhong, he saluted and said loudly: "Greetings to you, General Rokosov! The 40th Tank Army has arrived!"

Wang Zhong saluted back, and then asked: "Is the 40th Tank Army just this small?"

The commander of the 40th Army turned his head and looked at it, and corrected awkwardly: "The vanguard of the 40th Tank Army has arrived."

Pavlov stepped forward and asked: "How many tanks were lost on the march?"

Commander: "The vanguard I led, the 112th Tank Brigade, was organized with 70 T34s, and the actual arrival was 41."

Pavlov looked back at Wang Zhong: "Commander, you really won the bet."

Wang Zhong: "I'm not happy at all."

He turned to the commander of the 40th Army and switched on the plug-in to see the commander's name - in fact, he could see it when he looked at the organization table before, but he disliked Ant's name because it was too long and was too lazy to read it, anyway, there was a plug-in.

Wang Zhong: "General Kosikov, your tank brigade has lost half of its troops before it even reaches the battlefield. How can you fight the enemy?"

"The grass is too difficult to walk on, and our support force is insufficient." Kosikov defended, "Besides, the quality of the new tanks is very poor now, you can't blame us."

Wang Zhong wanted to say something, but Popov smoothed it over: "General, you just bet on a loss of half, which shows that you also expected this situation."

Bullshit, I just chose half after you have chosen the others!

Wang Zhong's actual prediction was also based on the loss of his troops entering here, so it was similar to Popov Pavlov and others' estimates.

I didn't expect that a tank brigade could actually break 40% of its tanks.

Wait a minute, Wang Zhong suddenly thought of something: a large part of the tanks that were broken by the mobile army were recently replaced.

So he asked Kosikov: "Among your damaged tanks, are most of them new tanks that have just been delivered not long ago?"

Kosikov frowned: "I really didn't notice... Barev!"

Soon a colonel who looked a bit bookish ran over: "Hello, General, what can I do for you?"

Kosikov: "Are many of our broken tanks new tanks?"

Barev: "I have reported to you that so many tanks may be broken because the quality of new tanks is not up to standard. This conclusion is drawn because two-thirds of the broken tanks are new tanks, and all of them have engine problems."

Pavlov looked at Wang Zhong: "It seems that this is the case. Although a series of measures have been taken, the decline in equipment quality has not been avoided."

Popov nodded: "If this is the case, the whole army should have a lot of reports."

Barev: "Before that, can we send rescue forces to tow all the tanks we left along the way? Some tanks have normal running mechanisms, but their engines are broken, so they can be towed."

Wang Zhong looked at Pavlov, and the chief of staff shook his head directly: "Although we have a lot of tractors, we can't tow so many at once. It will probably take a week to tow back all the stranded tanks."

Wang Zhong took over Pavlov's words: "That's it for now. When all four of your armored brigades arrive, gather them together and form an assault group."

Kosikov saluted: "Yes, form an assault group. Then what?"

Wang Zhong: "Then take advantage of the enemy's inability to react, and with the support of artillery, attack the remaining three enemy infantry divisions in front of us."

Kosikov was immediately overjoyed: " Yes! We will complete the mission! We will lead with 100 KVs to raid the enemy positions! "

Pavlov coughed: "Regarding the 100 KVs, we have decided to disperse them to various units and use them in a dispersed manner. Rokosov believes that 100 KVs are too concentrated, and will be dragged down by logistics capabilities. "

Kosikov was shocked: "Are you going to take my 100 KVs away? I don't see why this is necessary! KVs do have a high failure rate, but shouldn't more be concentrated if the failure rate is high? This way, more tanks will rush to the Prosen people! "

Wang Zhong was also shocked. There is such an idea? Not to mention, this idea is quite deceptive.

Maybe the Russians on the other side of the earth really thought so at the beginning, but it didn't work in the end.

Wang Zhong: "How can it be calculated like this? The real situation is this: your support capability can guarantee 21 tanks to rush to the enemy. No matter how much you pile up, in the end, 21 tanks will rush to the enemy, because the extra tanks are not sufficiently supported and will break down on the road.

"So you should invest as many tanks as you can guarantee, instead of simply piling up the quantity. Piling up the quantity will easily lead to the already weak support capability being dragged down and flattened. Originally, it could guarantee 21 tanks to meet the enemy, but now it can only guarantee 15!"

Kosikov widened his eyes: "It seems to make sense!"

Wang Zhong: "This is the truth! How much logistics capacity you have determines what kind of war you fight. Modern warfare is a logistics war. Do you understand!"

"I understand! "Kosikov said loudly - probably because Wang Zhong just raised his voice.

At this time, a lieutenant ran over and whispered a few words in Barlev's ear.

Wang Zhong: "What's going on? Just tell me."

Barlev glanced at Kosikov, and then reported loudly: "Just received a report from the heavy tank brigade, the number of broken-down tanks reached 55, and other tanks also had some minor problems. They plan to stop and repair the tanks and set off again at dawn."

Popov looked at Wang Zhong: "You are still as good as a god."

Wang Zhong wanted to curse in his heart.