Chapter 462: Chapter 73 lania’s First Division Attacks
The 21st Army’s night attack was successful, and at the sa ti, the 20th Army’s cavalry also harassed the Prussian supply convoys on the grasslands.
Even the herdsn on the grasslands joined the attack, reportedly because the Prussians forcibly abducted their cattle, sheep, and so horses.
The herdsn’s livelihoods heavily relied on cattle and sheep, and without them they might not survive the winter. What to do if they couldn’t get through? They had no choice but to damn well fight the Prussian devils.
In the blink of an eye, the sun rose again, and the morning of the 18th arrived.
The Prussian 10th Army Group had planned to launch a pincer movent that morning, but all units designated for the offensive were now preparing to consolidate their forces, then join in the operation to relieve the encircled 190th Division.
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First Mobile Group Army Headquarters.
Pavlov looked at his watch, then turned his head to Wang Zhong.
Wang Zhong, “Wait a minute, didn’t this scene happen yesterday?”
“Yes, but the target of the bombardnt is different. Yesterday we mainly bombarded the flanks of the 190th Division, and only carried out a feint attack on the core positions. Today we will focus on bombarding the core area.” Pavlov paused, then asked, “So shall we begin?”
“Of course, let’s start, please!” Wang Zhong gestured towards the telephone invitingly.
Pavlov picked up the receiver, “Artillery position, are you there? Fire.”
As he put down the receiver, the sound of rolling “thunder” erged from outside.
Wang Zhong switched his view. He couldn’t directly see the lania 1st Division preparing to attack from the headquarters, but he could see the artillery positions.
All types of artillery from the entire Army Group were roaring in anger, a scene reminiscent of an iconic mont from “The Great Battle.”
Wang Zhong searched for a mont and indeed found birds flying in the sky. Although he couldn’t rember the voice-over for this scene, the image of the birds calmly flying amidst the sound of gunfire was deeply etched in his mory.
At this ti, Pavlov gave the order to fire to the rocket artillery brigade, and Wang Zhong consequently got the perspective of the rocket artillery brigade.
From the overhead view, you couldn’t hear the sounds from the field, but the sight of Katyushas firing in unison, with such a destructive force, led Wang Zhong to automatically fill in the “whizzing” sound of the rockets firing in his mind.
With such intense firepower, the enemy deployed on the grasslands was surely already blown to pieces—this was what Wang Zhong thought.
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By this ti, the lania 1st Division’s troops were deployed less than three kiloters from the enemy. The shells passed over their heads one after the other, emitting a buzzing sound that made their scalps tingle.
When the rocket artillery opened fire, the noise in the sky reached its climax, causing even the bravest of veterans to shrink their necks.
The uniform of the lania People’s Army was based on that of the Ante People, but so modifications were made to reflect their cultural identity. Mainly, so decorations were added, and their hats were different from those of the Ante People—this highlighted the differences from the Ante troops without putting too much pressure on supplies.
Now, the lanians, who had been trained for more than half a year, were waiting for their mont of vengeance.
So of them had been forced to leave their holand three years ago, unable to contact any friends or family. Others had escaped from lania to Ante within the last two years, already familiar with the Prussian atrocities before leaving their holand.
Now, all these experiences were transford into fury and courage etched on young but weathered faces.
They awaited the cessation of artillery fire, waiting for the whistle to attack.
The veterans who had fought with the lania National Army were the first to notice the artillery fire transitioning to the Xu Jin barrage.
“It’s starting!”
“You Prussian bastards born of bitches! Your lania grandfathers are coming for you!”
The call to attack spread across the entire starting line.
The next mont, the rumble of tank engines drowned out the whistles.
The lania 1st Division’s Shermans and M3 Grant tanks took the lead, with half-track vehicles and infantry lines following behind the tanks.
Not long after they set off, soone started singing the famous lania song “Wisława Waltz”: “The wind of hatred roars overhead~”
Others imdiately joined in: “The demon has played his cruel hand!”
“Get up and fight to the death with the enemy, no need to ask what lies ahead!”
“Rise bravely, rise proudly!”
“Brave falcons, fight for the cause of liberation!”
The red flag with the white eagle of lania flew at the forefront of the troops, the eagle on the flag seed to co alive, leading a flock of falcons over the prairie.
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On the Prussian side, because the prairie was really not suitable for digging anti-gun bunkers, the troops had already lost more than half.
The surviving machine gunners were struggling to dig out their machine guns from the dirt, while the surviving gunners tried hard to flip the overturned anti-tank guns back over.
dics were running everywhere, vainly trying to snatch so lives back from the hands of the Grim Reaper.
Suddenly, soone shouted, “Listen!”
Everyone stopped.
The roar of tank engines and solemn singing floated through the air.
So of the veterans understood: “lanian language! Damn it, it’s the lanians, I’ve seen their thods when I was fighting bandits in lania, they don’t take prisoners! Falling into their hands ans having your eyes and nose cut off, tied to a tree, and left to die slowly!”
No sooner had the voice faded than the red flag appeared.
This ti many reacted, “It’s Rocossov’s troops!”
In the Prussian forces, the red flag equaled Rocossov’s troops, a widely known fact.
At that mont, an officer ran along the trench that had been blasted into segnts, “Gather the weapons of our fallen comrades! Prepare to fight!”
“Prepare to fight!”
The Prussians repositioned their machine guns and readied their anti-tank guns.
On the severely reduced artillery positions, sergeants replaced the fallen officers, observing the approaching tanks with blood-stained binoculars.
“Damn, I’ve never seen such tanks, they don’t look like T34s! Nor do they look like Matildas or Valentines (both are tanks from the United Kingdom, seen in the Carolingian campaign)!”
The gunner asked the acting commander, “Where should we aim?”
The Prussian anti-tank gunners all had a manual that taught them where to aim when facing different tanks.
But there were no instructions for this new type of tank in the manual.
The sergeant hesitated for a mont and then said, “Just aim for the front of the chassis near the driver’s observation window!”
They didn’t know that this model of Sherman had no driver’s observation window; the driver mainly relied on a periscope to observe the outside during combat.
The correct action was to aim for the machine gun muzzle.
Following the sergeant’s instructions, the gunners searched for the observation window and soon found sothing amiss, “How could the observation window be on the top of the tank chassis?”
However, by that ti the enemy’s tanks had moved past the target.
“Fire!”
Despite their doubts, the Prussian gunners still executed the order, so the shells hit the upper front of the hull, deflecting off the highly angled armor.
The tanks did not stop their advance but instead fired back while moving!
The stabilizer, kid!
The mixed contingent of Shermans and Grants just like that stord over the Prussian positions.
The artilleryn scattered, leaving the anti-tank guns to be flattened by the treads—just as the Prussian tanks had done to the Ante people’s 45mm anti-tank guns last year.
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