Chapter 511 Battle Interval

Major General Schneider did not return to the headquarters of the 9th Armored Division of the 14th Panzer Corps in Plossen until 2 a.m.

Major General Hopp, the commander of the 9th Panzer Grenadier Division, was already waiting at the division headquarters.

Major General Hope was Schneider's classmate. Seeing him come in so dusty, his eyes widened: "Did you encounter a night attack?"

"I survived the bombardment. Rokossov may have used a thousand cannons to shoot at me. My armored battalion commander and the command team of your first regiment were all killed because they were in a meeting when the bombardment came!" Schneider paused and continued, "You leave my division headquarters quickly! We can't let Rokossov take over the headquarters of both of our divisions!"

Major General Hope frowned: "He doesn't know where the division headquarters is, and your division headquarters is 15 kilometers away from the front line. The enemy should not be able to bomb our artillery positions.

"Remember our instructor Elvin in the military academy? He always emphasized that the distance between the division command post and the front line should not exceed 10 kilometers. If it exceeds this distance, the division commander will not be able to figure out the situation on the front line.

"We have violated the instructor's teachings."

Major General Schneider shook his head repeatedly: "No, no, no, Instructor Erwin is on the front line every day in the African Corps. He will definitely go to Rokossov's trophy rack as soon as possible."

Major General Hope frowned: "Trophy rack?"

"Yes, the Ante nobles will make specimens of the bears or deer they hunted and hang them on the trophy racks on their walls. And Rokossov is the highest-level Ante noble. He might melt the medals and ranks of General Proson, who he killed, into one piece, engrave his name and rank on it, and display it on the trophy rack."

Major General Schneider said "maybe", which is a speculation, but because what he said was too shocking, Major General Hope was shocked and didn't notice that it was a speculation: "Will he actually do this?"

Schneider then realized that his friend had misunderstood, and hurriedly corrected: "I mean, it's possible! This Rokossov is a bit weird. He definitely has a way to know the location of senior generals who are within the artillery range. Remember how the major general of a division of the Asgard Knights died?

"He got on a tank to the front line to see what was going on, but was covered by Rokossov's heavy artillery."

Major General Hope shook his head, turned his head and said to his orderly: "Bring my collection of whiskey, I think my old friend wants a drink."

Orderly: "Is it the bottle of whiskey that Carolingian brought over?"

"Yes, that bottle, and bring the carved cup I brought from Florence. You should really see the Florentine craftsmanship. These Sardinians are not good at fighting, but they are really good at art. "Major General Hope said the second half of his sentence to Major General Schneider, and he wanted to pat his shoulder while speaking.

But Major General Schneider waved his old friend's hand away: "I am not crazy, nor am I hysterical because of shell shock. It's just a coincidence. I just arrived at the front line and the bombardment came."

Major General Hope: "In fact, just now, all our army's offensive starting points and assembly points were bombarded. Rokossov guessed the location of the assembly point from the daytime attack, got a round of blindness, and then you just happened to be there."

"Can it be so coincidental?" Major General Schneider asked suspiciously.

Major General Hope: "Of course, there are not enough coincidences on the battlefield? I can get a basket of stories about amulets by just taking a walk around the troops. Someone's amulet disappeared one day, and then he was shot in the head.

"Are all those true? No, it's probability and survivor bias. Only those that happen to come true will be recorded. There are also countless people who went to the battlefield with amulets and were killed. The amulets did not play any role.

"The same thing happened to you. Rokossov happened to bombard the front line. This is his routine operation. In fact, many troops who moved and camped after nightfall were not bombed by him.

"You just neglected it and let the troops rest at the assembly point, and then it was a big disaster."

Major General Schneider touched his beard and stared at his friend.

Major General Hope: "That's it, old friend!"

At this time, Major General Hope's orderly came over with wine and carved wine glasses.

"Come on, you should drink a little to calm down. You are just scared after escaping death, and then you start to have wild thoughts." Major General Hope took the wine and the wine glass, filled a glass and handed it to Schneider.

Schneider grabbed the wine glass and gulped it down.

After drinking, he seemed to calm down a little. After taking a few deep breaths, he said, "Think about it carefully. You are right. I just happened to be bombarded. I shouldn't be so scared. It's embarrassing for the Imperial Military Academy."

Major General Hope nodded: "Yes, if you were seen by people who are dissatisfied with our Junker nobles, they would say that we only learned to eat with knives and forks when we went to the Military Academy."

"Go to hell with them!" Schneider seemed to have regained his confidence and courage through alcohol, "Let's plan tomorrow's attack. My first battalion was bombarded like that. If we don't inspect the tanks tomorrow, we can't attack. When I was there, I saw that many tanks' tracks were blown off. And many radios were also blown up."

In fact, Schneider didn't say something important: the tank's sighting system.

After being bombarded like this, almost all tank sighting systems need to be readjusted, but this problem can be solved by the tankers themselves when dawn comes. Most sighting systems do not need to be repaired, only recalibrated.

As a professional tank officer, Schneider subconsciously thought that there was no need to worry about this matter and ignored it.

In other words, the Plossen armored troops were indeed elite, so there was no need to worry about this matter. When the training level of the armored troops was lowered by the reinforcements, Schneider might pay the price for his carelessness.

Now, Schneider gave orders on his own: "Tomorrow, the second battalion will take over the attack from the first battalion. All the tanks of the first battalion will be towed to the maintenance battalion for preliminary inspection. Those that need major repairs will be transferred to the armored military repair factory."

"Yes." The division chief of staff quickly wrote down Schneider's order.

"Hope, my old friend." Schneider turned to his friend, "Your first armored grenadier regiment should also be replaced. There are only a few lucky guys left as battalion and company commanders."

"Don't worry, my troops can do it well. Even if they are the second echelon in the command sequence, they are experienced officers. There is no problem." Major General Hope said confidently.

Schneider nodded: "That's good. My forward reconnaissance this time was effective. I saw through Rokossov's trick. Tomorrow I will use all the artillery assigned to us to fire smoke bombs to cover the entire nameless highland, and then conduct close-range combat."

Hop: "Then it all depends on my grenadiers?"

Schneider waved his hand: "Don't worry, we attacked for a day today. The positions are all mobilized soldiers. The unit numbers have the word "temporary" in front of them. The Ant troops with this suffix are very rubbish."

"You were resisted by temporary troops for a day?" Major General Hope widened his eyes, "How is this possible? When I came here, I thought this highland was Ant's Guards! For example, Rokossov's elite, the First Red Banner Infantry Division of the Guards."

Schneider shook his head: "When the attack was frustrated at noon, I specifically asked, and the troops resisting our The army did not raise red flags, and the tanks that came to support did not raise red flags. We were blocked by Ant's ordinary troops - no, it was Ant's temporary infantry troops for a day. "

Hop pursed his lips, and after a few seconds of silence, he said: "It seems that after more than a year of fighting, the quality gap between our troops and Ant's troops is not that big."

Schneider: "Don't be so worried, we just advanced such a long distance in three months, so long!"

He pointed to the huge map on the wall of the division headquarters and repeated it again: "Look! So long, so far!"

Major General Hope looked at the map and nodded slightly: "Yes, it's farther than last year, and more land has been occupied. Except that the number of troops annihilated is not as many as last year, it can be said that we have achieved a brilliant victory in the summer offensive. "

When it comes to annihilating less troops than last year, everyone is silent.

Schneider took the bottle from Hope's orderly, filled it for himself, and then drank it all.

After drinking, he poked the cup on the table and said loudly: "No matter what, this attack will end the war anyway. Then we can return home in triumph and concentrate on preparing to attack the United Kingdom."

Major General Hope nodded: "Yes! Tomorrow we will take down this unnamed hill in front of us, and then push all the way to the city of Abawahan."

The mission of the 14th Armored Corps is to push the front line from the open areas on both sides of the city to the densely built areas.

After taking down the unnamed hill, the 14th Armored Corps will enter an area similar to the urban-rural junction. Although there are more masonry buildings, it is still an open area.

According to the offensive plan, the 14th Armored Corps should arrive in the city of Abawahan on the 23rd.

And this offensive plan now has a small problem.

Major General Schneider is determined to correct this small problem tomorrow.

He whispered as if to comfort himself: "It's just some temporary infantry, there will be no problem!"

————

"The enemy certainly didn't expect that we replaced the brother troops." Brigadier General Aromeyev of the 393rd Marine Infantry Brigade said, "According to the intelligence obtained by catching the tongue, an armored grenadier division has just come up, and we just happened to collide with these elite troops. They have always been known as the strongest light infantry! Let's see how strong they are!"

Brigadier General Aromeyev patted his chest, and the strong muscles under the sailor shirt made a popping sound.

The officers and soldiers of the 393rd Brigade gathered in the small bunker smiled knowingly: "Let them see!"

Brigadier General Aromeyev: "General Rokosov has always valued us! Everyone can feel this! We have also fought side by side with the elite 225th Division Tank Destroyer Battalion! Tomorrow, the enemy will definitely not return!"