In fact, the process of taking Yeisk was not as simple as Pavlov had imagined.
Even as Wang Zhong reached the place where he could see Yeisk in his vehicle, he could still hear the sound of Prussian machine guns firing in the city.
“This Pavlov, he swore that once we moved in the resistance would be over,” Wang Zhong shook his head, “He really should be dragged over here to see for himself.”
Moving the Corps Command involved a lot of trouble, so Pavlov was still in Trinka commanding, while Wang Zhong had arrived first with the communications and clerical staff who were supposed to lead the way. The clerical staff was responsible for communicating with the locals and arranging housing, while the communications department was to set up telephone lines.
Wang Zhong changed his view and found that it only spread to the edge of the city, not knowing the situation inside, he turned his head and asked Vasily, “What’s with the gunfire?”
Vasily pointed ahead, “The frontline commander has arrived, why don’t you just ask him?”
Wang Zhong turned his head, and sure enough, he saw a Willis Jeep coming towards them, stirring up rolling dust.
Before the vehicle even came to a stop, Yegorov stood up in the Jeep and saluted Wang Zhong, “General!”
Wang Zhong returned the salute, “What’s with the gunfire?”
Yegorov replied, “There’s a particularly sturdy reinforced concrete building, not the type with steel reinforcement only in the support structure and the rest brick walls, but truly all reinforced concrete. The 75-mm gun on the M3 and the 100-mm gun on the Vortex can’t deal with them.”
Wang Zhong said, “Then let’s bring up the artillery regiment’s 203. I’ll give the order, send a messenger.”
He was about to reach for his pen and notepad when he suddenly remembered he had aides now, so he turned to Vasily and said, “Write the orders and send a messenger to deliver them!”
Vasily immediately pulled out his notepad and pencil and wrote the orders quickly, then turned his head and shouted, “Messenger!”
Someone immediately came up driving a Jeep.
Vasily tore off the note and handed it to the driver, “Deliver this to the 204th heavy artillery regiment.”
The messenger saluted and drove off in the Jeep at full speed.
Yegorov was astonished, “Even messengers are using Jeeps now, we really have upgraded from bird guns to cannons.”
Wang Zhong inquired, “What are your troop losses?”
Yegorov pointed toward the city, “I don’t know about the inside, we haven’t tallied it yet. We estimate we’ll get a preliminary infantry casualty report by tonight. Confirmed losses outside include twenty T34s abandoned, seven of which caught fire and can be considered total losses; the others need inspection from the repair battalion.
“The accompanying M3 Grants had two casualties, both of which caught fire and burned.
“The Vortex had six with broken tracks, and one exploded after being hit on the side. The anti-tank guns completely lost two crews, and there were casualties in other crews too, all hit by the enemy’s high-explosive shells.”
Wang Zhong was astonished, “The losses are greater than imagined.”
It was clear that the performance of the T34Ws had fallen behind; using these tanks to contend with the enemy’s long-barreled Panzer IVs was not a wise choice.
Yegorov nodded, “The enemy’s long-barreled Panzer IV tanks pose a significant threat. They can penetrate the T34’s armor head-on, and basically render them combat-ineffective with a hit. If we hadn’t been broadly equipped with smoke bombs, the situation would have been worse.”
Wang Zhong stepped out of the car and walked a few steps towards the outer city tank battlefield, gazing at the battlefield while asking, “How many of the enemy did we take down?”
Yegorov responded, “Heavy artillery immobilized half of the enemy tanks on the spot, so most of them became the 225th Division’s achievements. We destroyed about 23 long-barreled Panzer IVs and 49 Panzer IIIs. In addition, we captured six of the enemy’s new heavy tanks!”
Wang Zhong nodded, “Good, very good! Just counting the long-barreled Panzer IVs, you’ve got a favorable exchange ratio! The Panzer IIIs are a bonus! Congrats!”
Yegorov smiled, “Mainly because we won and controlled the battlefield, so the enemy couldn’t repair their damaged tanks. When you win, the exchange ratio looks much better.”
Wang Zhong nodded, “Indeed.”
“By the way, there’s one of the new tanks that is relatively intact. Would you like to take a look?”
Wang Zhong said, “Sure, let’s take a look. The heavy artillery won’t be here for a while, and there’s still gunfire in the city. If I go in now Pavlov will start nagging again.”
Yegorov teased, “Are you worried about Pavlov complaining? No, you just want to wait for the heavy artillery to arrive so you can personally direct it.”
Wang Zhong blinked and hurriedly said, “Let’s go see the tank, see the tank!”
————
As he made his way to the front line, Wang Zhong encountered several of his own troops.
Seeing the red flag approaching, they all shouted “Hurrah.”
For a moment, Wang Zhong felt as if he had become Napoleon; unfortunately, this time he hadn’t ridden in. Bucephalus was still in the stables at Trinka, and now that he was further from the front, the stables wouldn’t be bombed again, and Bucephalus couldn’t make a run for it.
After passing several units, Wang Zhong approached the still burning tank wreckage on the fields, and from a distance, he saw the remaining tank units stopped at the edge of the battlefield. The tank operators had used the tanks to flatten the grass on the prairie, creating a clearing where they then sat down, using the crushed grass as mats.
Wang Zhong commanded the driver of the Jeep, “Stop next to the tanks ahead.”
“Yes, sir.”
When the Jeep stopped, the tank operators all stood up and saluted toward the red flag.
Wang Zhong stood and returned the salute, then asked, “How many crews are without a tank?”
The commander of the Guards Tank Battalion immediately answered, “We’ve cobbled together 10 crews without tanks, just waiting for the tanks to be repaired so we can continue the battle.”
The tank operators of the First Mobile Group Army were all required to master the skills needed for all combat positions, enabling more convenient combination into complete crews in the event of casualties on the battlefield.
This was also learned from the Prussians.
Wang Zhong remarked, “Only ten crews.”
The battalion commander said, “The power of the enemy’s long-barreled guns is astonishing. Seven tanks caught fire immediately after being hit, and in two cases only one crew member managed to escape. It’s only been a year, and already our tank armor isn’t sufficient.”
Wang Zhong conceded, “Indeed, when I was working on the Vortex, there were people who ridiculed me, saying I had overestimated the Prussians, claimed that the T34 was enough. These people have no idea how fast modern military technology advances in war! These outdated old fogeys will get us killed!”
“Luckily, we have you!” the battalion commander said sincerely.
Wang Zhong originally was just criticizing the old-timers and hadn’t meant to boast about himself; caught off guard by the compliment, he couldn’t very well say “Right, it’s all thanks to me,” could he?
Then a familiar tank operator asked, “We’ll be getting the new model tanks soon, won’t we?”
Wang Zhong: “It’s almost done, the factory relocation is nearly complete. I was actually ready to start working on the deployment of the new tanks, but the Prussians aren’t giving us any time. Before the new tanks are put into service next year, we’ll still have to contend with the enemy using T34s for a while.”
“But we do have eddy currents, so we shouldn’t suffer too much.”
Company Commander: “The enemy’s smoke greatly limits the effectiveness of the eddy currents. To prevent our entire sniper position from being obscured by smoke bombs, we should disperse the eddy currents.”
Several tank operators immediately agreed: “Right!”
“We should disperse them. Our centralized configuration this time was specifically targeted by the enemy’s smoke bombs.”
“Spreading them out reduces the density of the fire, making it impossible to eliminate the enemy’s tanks all at once and dealing heavy damage, but at least it gives us all the opportunity to fire!”
Wang Zhong nodded, then pointed to the Company Commander: “You write the summary report, include all this, and summarize the lessons learned from this encounter.”
The Company Commander was at a loss for words.
Wang Zhong sat down in the jeep and said to the driver: “Go find that relatively intact new heavy tank.”
Yegorov: “I’ll lead the way, just drive ahead, see those two block-like tanks stuck together over there, one of which is still burning? Head over there.”
————
The jeep soon stopped beside two heavy tanks that were side by side.
Wang Zhong got out of the vehicle and closely examined the shattered road wheel.
Yegorov misunderstood his expression and commented: “You didn’t expect it, did you? This road wheel is so complex!”
Wang Zhong: “Don’t forget, I captured one of these intact. I’ve seen this type of road wheel.”
He had even seen it before his transmigration and had actually disassembled and reassembled this road wheel in a game, gaining an in-depth understanding of the problematic nature of this walking mechanism.
After inspecting the road wheel, Wang Zhong turned to observe the grass nearby.
“It’s clear that the tank slid after the road wheel shattered first,” he said, pointing to the flattened grass on the ground. “I guess this sudden turn of events caused the shells aimed at it to miss their target. Then this tactical number 203 heavy tank charged up and used its body to shield the damaged one.”
Wang Zhong then turned to examine vehicle 203, which was still on fire, the air filled with the smell of burning metal and the foul odor of burned flesh.
As a general who had personally fought on the battlefield, Wang Zhong was already quite familiar with this scent.
This is the smell of the battlefield.
Wang Zhong then asked, “Why are there our infantry’s bodies nearby?”
“I ordered the infantry to approach through the grass, and they got close to the tank, then they were strafed by machine-gun fire, likely from another vehicle providing cover.”
“And this number 201 tank, there are no bodies inside?”
“There are, there’s an electro-mechanic inside, his body has been blown to pieces, the front full of shrapnel, as if he’d been lying on top of a grenade. The driver was inspecting the road wheel when his throat was slit by the infantry. But the bodies of the others weren’t found.”
Yegorov paused, then as if remembering something, he added:
“The Guards Tank Battalion reported that they had fired at the battalion, and then the battalion immediately used smoke to cover their line of sight.”
Wang Zhong: “The tank commander still had the will to fight, it’s just that the smoke blocked their line of fire, and the infantry surrounded them, so they abandoned the tank.”
He turned his head to look at a half-track that was well-preserved: “What about this vehicle?”
“Its wheels got entangled in the grass. That’s why we took a detour coming here; if we drove through this taller grass, our wheels would get caught too,” Yegorov explained.
Wang Zhong clicked his tongue: “This area of tall grass isn’t on my map, we should mark these areas where the grass could tangle the wheels on our maps in the future.”
Having said this, he glanced at Vasily.
Vasily: “Alright, I’ll note it down.”
Wang Zhong: “You’re getting the hang of it!”
Just then, he saw a jeep approaching from a distance.
The jeep apparently did not expect the tall grass to entangle its wheels and charged straight into the grassy area.
Then the jeep broke down.
The people in the jeep cursed as they got out, parted the tall grass with their bodies, and cursed their way over: “Salute to you, General!”
It was the company commander from the 225th Tank Battalion.
“I came straight over when I saw the red flag.”
Wang Zhong: “Did your division suffer heavy losses?”
“Not much, the enemy’s gunnery suddenly became very bad, only two heavy tanks could hit their targets! We used smoke to cover the heavy ones and then had ourselves a feast!”
The Company Commander said gleefully.
Yegorov sneered: “Yes, indeed, we fought the tough battle!”
The company commander from the 225th said seriously: “We thank our older brothers!”
Then he saluted Yegorov.
Yegorov pursed his lips, no longer angry.
Wang Zhong patted him: “Remember to stay united. It’s good for brother units to compete, but we must not harm our camaraderie.”
Only then did Yegorov reluctantly reply: “Congratulations on your success! Salute to you.”
With that, he returned the salute.