Cannon Fire Arc

Wang Zhong naturally could not have known about the minor incident with Melania's First Division; he was already an Army Group Commander, and such matters were typically relegated to just a line of text in the daily and decadal reports.

On the evening of the 18th, within the First Mobile Group Army Corps Command, the "Big Three" were discussing how to employ the 40 tank armies that had just been assigned to their forces.

Wang Zhong dropped the just-received detailed organization chart for the 40th, sighed deeply, and said, "To be honest, I have very little confidence in these large tank units with a configuration of 100 KV tanks and a total strength of over 300 tanks."

Although Wang Zhong had been structuring model units in the first half of the recently ended year 915, and without his model unit achieving any noteworthy combat results, the Military Orders Department followed the previous year's experience to assemble a batch of units.

The 40th Tank Army was one of them; its designation had been eliminated during the catastrophic defeat from June to July the previous year, and the army was now being reorganized from scratch.

Although it did adopt some of Wang Zhong's military building ideas, incorporating a certain number of accompanying infantry and other auxiliary forces, that was the extent of it.

The circumstances of this year did not allow for the formation of many support units, so the Military Orders Department loaded it with relatively more infantry and a sufficiently equipped artillery, ostensibly adhering to Wang Zhong's philosophy that "armored forces should not operate alone."

However, the 40th Army's maintenance strength was extremely weak, the overall support force only equaling one and a half times that of the Guards' Mechanized Infantry, and not as much as the Guards' Mechanized Infantry plus the strength of the 225th Division.

Yet they had more tanks than the entire First Mobile Group Army.

On Earth, the Soviets typically only formed heavy breakthrough tank regiments, with a regiment having 21 heavy tanks, because this was the largest contingent they could sustain; the Sturmtiger had better support capabilities, with a typical Tiger company having 45 tanks and a Panther company, at its peak, 98 tanks.

But that was the limit; only a very few armored regiments received one Tiger company and one Panther company, this kind of super-elite large-scale heavy combat unit was virtually unique among the entire Sturmtiger forces.

It was simply because they were not able to be adequately supported.

Deeply aware of these issues, Wang Zhong, upon seeing the organization of the 40th Tank Army, was overwhelmed; he could almost immediately see that after the 100 KVs commenced their assault, it wouldn't be long before they became damaged and were left by the wayside.

Moreover, these abandoned KVs were essentially beyond repair, generally left on the roadside until the end of the war.

That's how the Soviets waged war on Earth, winning entirely through sheer numbers and the bravery and skillful fighting of seasoned soldiers starting from the midpoint of the war.

Wang Zhong couldn't see much change in this timespace—at least not from the organization of the 40th Tank Army.

Pavlov said, "The 40th Tank is now in our hands, and although there are problems with its organization, we still need to use it."

Wang Zhong pursed his lips, falling deep in thought.

Popov remarked, "Aren't you best at mixing all sorts of messy units into one? Look at the First Mobile Group Army now, it's all jumbled up—Pavlov has even lost a few hairs because of it—I mean, hairs that could have grown are now missing."

Pavlov bluntly retorted, "You haven't got many more hairs than me, have you? But indeed, with highly integrated units, the workload for the Corps Command has greatly increased. We can barely cope with three divisions of this kind. To expand and integrate more of these highly composite forces, I think we would need to double the size of the Corps Command."

Wang Zhong looked at Pavlov, "Why didn't you report earlier that the burden on the Corps Command had increased so much?"

"Because the units hadn't actually mobilized before. If they're just stationed without moving, there's no such problem, at most some extra paperwork. So we didn't foresee such pressure cropping up, and it's a good thing I expanded the command in advance," Pavlov explained.

Wang Zhong said, "So what you're saying is, the organization of such highly integrated combat units exceeds the capabilities of the command."

It made sense; by the time countries on Earth started to employ combined arms battalions, military command, and communications capabilities had evolved beyond those of World War II, with computational assistance allowing commanders to intuitively grasp the situation and adjust deployments.

But under the technical conditions of World War II, command capabilities became an obstacle to combined arms.

The Russians during World War II achieved combined arms to some extent, but often the various branches fought separately, probably for this reason. Later, they adopted a major branch system, which involved organizing each branch into very large units to simplify the command system.

Wang Zhong thought for a moment, then said, "Let's put a bit more pressure on the Corps' staff. I want to disperse the 100 KV tanks into four groups plus an independent tank brigade, with each group having 21 tanks, and the tank brigade having 16 KV tanks under Corps Command."

Pavlov's eyes widened, "Then you are planning to personally lead this brigade in a charge, right? It just so happens that the KVs have tank commanders!"

Wang Zhong patted Pavlov on the shoulder, "Don't worry, I didn't say I would do that. After reallocating the KVs, the remaining T34s will be formed into an assault group. Have the enemy's pincer movement forces all pulled back?"

"According to current intelligence, aside from the 14th Armored Division, the others are still in their original positions," Pavlov answered.

Wang Zhong thought for a moment and said, "According to reports from the Cavalry Troops, the enemy's armored forces still possess considerable fighting capacity. I think it would be too costly for us to assault the enemy's armored forces with our few hundred T34s."

Previously, with the 40-tank army, the plan was to wait until the enemy's supplies were exhausted and their troops were weary—specifically speaking, after the enemy had been trapped on the steppe for about a week, then launch an attack.

But now, with the enemy about to contract, the original battle plan was no longer applicable.

In battle, plans must be modified according to the situation; hardly any plan is carried out unchanged to the end.

Wang Zhong, "I believe, reinforcing a KV group with the T34s of the 40-tank army to strike the enemy's infantry units would be more appropriate. During this time before the 40th Army arrives, we can have the artillery advance."

Popov, "Using tanks to strike the enemy's infantry divisions? We're not going for annihilation?"

Wang Zhong, "We don't have the time. After the enemy has pulled back, we'll have to face one and a half—no, one and three-quarters of the enemy's Armored Divisions, plus two Armored Grenadier Divisions. I'm concerned we would suffer major losses." Enjoy exclusive content from empire

Vasily couldn't help but interject, "Our total manpower is no less than the enemy's."

Wang Zhong, "But the quality of our troops is not up to par. Think about the battle at Yeisk, just how much we lost in the brief time the 401st Division joined the fight. It's better to quit while we're ahead, lest we end up losing more than we gain."

Pavlov, "So the battle plan is, to have artillery and the 40-tank army launch a powerful charge against the enemy's infantry units, take advantage before the enemy contracts and then run? Run to where? Defend Yeisk?"

Wang Zhong, "Yes, we need to hold Yeisk until the retreat of Duke Meishikin's Front Army is completed."

As soon as he finished speaking, the communication staff ran over from the distant telegraph station, saying loudly, "Report! Today's battle status update has arrived."

Pavlov immediately took the telegram, glanced through it, handed it to the staff responsible for updating the map, and then said to Wang Zhong, "Meishikin has started to retreat, sooner than we expected, his staff has good efficiency."

Wang Zhong clapped his hands, "Great! This means we can retreat earlier, pulling out before we suffer any major losses."

At that moment, the phone rang. Since Pavlov had just taken a telegram and was a bit far from the phone, Wang Zhong answered it, "This is Rocossov."

The voice of General Golikov came through the receiver, "Aleksei, Meishikin has started to retreat, and we should launch some offenses to support them. The 40-tank army is already en route. You'll make good use of it, right?"

Wang Zhong, "No problem, leave it to me."