Arc of Fire

After the inspection, Wang Zhong returned to the Expeditionary Army Headquarters and made a few phone calls to arrange for the transfer of the First Mobile Group Army’s support brigade, which was now part of the reservist Front Army.

Once the transportation and other arrangements were in order, Wang Zhong headed to the map room, where he saw for the first time the map outlining the combat plans within the Kingdom of Balas.

The plan was very straight-forward, simply advancing in coordination with the troops from the United Kingdom from the north and the south.

Wang Zhong felt a bit of PTSD from "XX advancing" plans as they reminded him of vibrantly competitive scenes from nature.

Fortunately, the deployment of the Balas Army on the map, resembling the Changshan Snake, alleviated some of Wang Zhong’s worries.

Upon Wang Zhong and others’ arrival, Colonel Benjamin from the United Kingdom came forward immediately and handed Wang Zhong a thick stack of documents, saying, "General, these are the intelligence reports on the Balas Army acquired by MI6."

"Thank you," Wang Zhong said as he took them and first glanced over the summary, then spotted the words "low combat effectiveness." "This… How weak is the combat effectiveness of the Balas Army?"

Colonel Benjamin replied, "Except for the Imperial Guard trained by a retired Prosen instructor, other troops resemble personal armies of local tribal chiefs. Many of these tribal chiefs have been bribed by us and will not support the Kingdom’s army in combat."

Wang Zhong then asked, "What about the level of those troops trained by the retired Prosen instructors?"

Colonel Benjamin, carefully choosing his words, answered, "They already represent something of a prototype of a modern army. They have a crushing advantage over the tribal militias in Balas."

It seemed that the Balas Army was indeed lacking.

Having just familiarized himself with the strength of the Expeditionary Force, Wang Zhong was slightly relieved.

Wang Zhong commented, "Oh… I see."

Colonel Benjamin added, "But we must not let our guard down. According to the intelligence we’ve gathered, Prosen might deploy light infantry into Balas territory. Our spies in Anatolia indicate that some Prosen soldiers, disguised, have passed through Anatolian territory into Balas."

As a Neutral Country, Anatolia has maintained ambassadorial diplomatic relations and allowed personnel flow with Prosen but prohibits their Navy from entering the Aegean Sea through the Anatolian straits.

Wang Zhong asked, "You mean, we might encounter Prosen soldiers without heavy equipment?"

"Yes. Furthermore, the Royal Air Force once shot down a Lufthansa passenger plane on the western border of Balas and discovered personnel and equipment in the wreckage."

It appeared that the King of Balas was not completely without Prosen’s support.

However, in this era, air transportation could only carry infantry and light weapons; they likely wouldn’t encounter Prosen’s armored troops.

Even the most elite light infantry, when facing tanks, would be at a disadvantage.

Wang Zhong casually flipped through the information he had just received to make a show of it, then handed it over to his deputy officer, Yakov.

Pavlov had certainly read through it all, so there was no need to worry.

He moved to the map that detailed the entire combat plan, where Pavlov immediately picked up a map pointer and began to explain, "We anticipate the main difficulty in the operation to be here."

The pointer landed on a place named Moha.

"Here it is defended by the 2nd Division of the Kingdom of Balas’s Imperial Guard, a division established after the model of Prosen’s Armored Grenadier Division. It boasts over twenty thousand combat troops and weapons, including the Mark I and Mark II tanks purchased before the war as well as Matildas."

Wang Zhong’s voice suddenly rose, "And Matildas?"

Colonel Benjamin awkwardly explained, "Yes, they were sold to us in an effort to win over the King of Balas. After the outbreak of the war between Prosen and the United Kingdom, Prosen’s sources of weapons were cut off, and the Kingdom of Balas’ military equipment mainly came from us."

Wang Zhong glared at Colonel Benjamin, "Besides Matildas, what else is there? Are there any Churchills?"

The only good thing about the Churchill was its annoyingly tough armor; if Balas had Churchills, they’d have to deploy Whirlwinds.

Colonel Benjamin shook his head, "No, they only have the Infantry Tank Matilda Mark I and Crusader Cruiser Tanks."

The United Kingdom called tanks with thick armor and slow speed ’infantry tanks,’ which were used with large caliber short barrel guns, while they referred to fast-moving, lightly armored tanks as ’cruiser tanks.’

These tanks were used according to their names: infantry tanks to support infantry movements and cruiser tanks for swift raiding maneuvers, akin to cruisers.

Simply put, they were like heavy and light tanks.

Wang Zhong recalled the specifications of the Matilda Mark I tank and said, "So, they basically have no armor advantage against T34s, right?"

"Exactly. And the United Kingdom troops to the south will be using Churchill and Valentine tanks, as well as M4 Shermans, which also afford them an armor advantage. This operation will be like a ceremonial parade— the only question is how long it will take us to reach the Capital."

After a moment of thought, Wang Zhong said to Pavlov, "Our tank units will dock at the port and then hoist the tanks onto shore, right?"

"What else?" responded Pavlov.

Wang Zhong scratched his head; indeed, in this era, there were no tank landing ships — at least Ante didn’t have them.

"So, how are the infantry units supposed to deal with the enemy tanks?"

Pavlov: "Incendiary bombs and anti-tank rifles, according to the technology parameters provided by the United Kingdom, anti-tank rifles can penetrate Crusader Tanks and can also attack Matilda viewing ports. And incendiary bombs... as long as you can throw them, the effect will not be bad."

Wang Zhong: "Equip the troops with light anti-tank guns. If the enemy chooses a good position, relying on anti-tank rifles and incendiary bombs might not be enough."

Pavlov: "Hmm, a 45 mm anti-tank gun could indeed be placed on assault boats, directly storming the beach, and the troops could also drag it along conveniently."

Wang Zhong paced back and forth in front of the map, turning twice, and said, "What about this, can we directly rush a boat onto the beach, then cut open the front part of the boat with something like a jet cutter, and have tanks directly drive out from the boat onto the beach?"

Colonel Benjamin expressed a look of disbelief: "That... is a bit too brute force, isn’t it?"

Wang Zhong: "I want my troops to have tank support, and right now we don’t have time to mess with amphibious tanks or to build tank landing ships."

Pavlov: "Wait a second, the T34 is too heavy, a wooden boat might not carry it, but if we use the extensively equipped ZIS-3 self-propelled anti-tank gun from the First Mobile Group Army, we could use a wooden boat to carry it. After storming the beach, cut the bow of the boat and it can be driven onto the sand."

Wang Zhong: "Okay, then we’ll borrow a company of ZIS-3 from the old troops. When does the operation start?"

Colonel Benjamin: "D-Day is currently set for the 28th of this month."

"That should still be in time," Wang Zhong ordered Pavlov. "Develop the transportation plan as fast as possible, the troops will pull... from the 225th Division’s Anti-tank Battalion, as the 225th Division has not been through extensive tank battles and is relatively well-preserved."

Pavlov nodded: "Alright. Since we’re pulling troops out, why not bring Whirlwind as well? The Whirlwind troops have basically no losses and have also rested for half a month now."

Wang Zhong: "Can the wooden boat carry it? Whirlwind and T34 are of the same tonnage."

Pavlov: "Although it can’t storm the beach, it can be used later to deal with the enemy’s fortifications. Whirlwind has a 100mm gun, and the equivalent of its high-explosive shells are enough to destroy most bunkers, and incidentally eliminate tanks."

Wang Zhong: "Is the transport capacity enough?"

Pavlov: "It’s sufficient."

"Very good, that settles it."

Colonel Benjamin became even more cheerful: "Will we get to see Whirlwind in actual combat? That’s great! We intercepted a telegram from Prosen that described Whirlwind as very formidable; we can finally see it with our own eyes."

Wang Zhong had not taken his words to heart, but jumped at this sentence: "Wait a minute! You’ve already managed to decrypt the Enigma code?"

Colonel Benjamin was embarrassed: "Uh, that... it was their unencrypted telegram..."

Wang Zhong: "According to the Allied Mutual Assistance Treaty, I have the right to demand that the Allied Nations share intelligence. Yakov, start drafting a formal application immediately, requesting the Allied Nations to disclose information related to the decryption of the Enigma code."

Yakov: "Eh? How should I write this application? I don’t know the format!"

Wang Zhong wanted to facepalm, thinking that if Vasily had already started performing, Colonel Benjamin should have been fooled.

Fortunately, Pavlov took over the responsibility: "I’ll draft it personally. Colonel Benjamin, you’ve always wanted us to launch an attack to relieve your pressure, but you’re not sharing the secret of the Enigma code with us; isn’t that a bit inappropriate?"

Colonel Benjamin: "Alright, we have indeed decrypted the Enigma code, but it’s a complex cipher, and even after decrypting, it requires a massive amount of decoding work. We have gathered a bunch of mathematicians working day and night to decrypt..."

Wang Zhong: "As far as I know, although our Ante is a bit behind the United Kingdom in other scientific fields, we are not at all inferior in mathematics."

Colonel Benjamin was embarrassed again: "Uh, this..."

Wang Zhong: "Here’s what; we’ll submit a formal application, please hand over the complete method of decrypting the Enigma code to us, and we will organize our own mathematicians to decode it."

Colonel Benjamin: "Honestly, this isn’t something I can decide. But I think the Prime Minister won’t refuse; it might just require you to launch some substantial offensive."

Wang Zhong: "We will. So that’s settled, Pavlov, remember to write the application."

Colonel Benjamin: "Let’s continue discussing the upcoming D-Day."

Wang Zhong: "Sure."

Colonel Benjamin: "At 4 AM on D-Day, the special task force of the First Paratrooper Division will parachute outside Moha to control the airport and cut off the enemy’s aerial support."

Pavlov joined in, "An hour later, the Naval Infantry 393rd Brigade will land on the east side beach of Moha. Landing here would allow us to directly flank the junction between the port and the main urban area."

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Wang Zhong: "Then our troops will directly rush into the port?"

"Yes, the enemy virtually has no navy, so we plan to drive gunboats into the harbor area to provide direct fire support," Pavlov remarked as he firmly tapped on the port location on the map.

Wang Zhong: "Feasible. The beach naval infantry’s Davarish has already surveyed it, right?"

"Surveyed," said Aromeyev, the brigade commander of the 393rd Brigade.

"Leave it to you then," said Wang Zhong.

Aromeyev saluted: "Mission will be accomplished."