Novel Full Chapter 62 One with the Void
Yeisk, First Mobile Army Headquarters.
Pavlov: “What if the enemy adopts a strategy of hunkering down and not coming out? Cavalry have no siege capabilities at all.”
Wang Zhong: “Think about how this situation was dealt with in the era of line infantry.”
When Pavlov stroked his chin and fell into deep thought, Vasily spoke up: “In the era of line infantry, square formations were used to deal with cavalry, which basically had no way to overcome the squares, and a direct charge would not work. The solution was to bring the square formation within the range of the artillery.”
Wang Zhong: “Right, if the enemy shuts themselves in and adopts a turtle formation, our artillery can demonstrate its might. Where our cannon fire can’t reach, the Air Force units can strike.”
Pavlov said: “Actually, we don’t even have to deal with the enemy’s turtle shell, our goal is to delay the enemy, not to annihilate them. If the enemy hunkers down and doesn’t move, we’ve achieved our goal.”
Wang Zhong snapped his fingers: “You’re right—”
At this moment, a commotion came from the door.
“What’s going on?” Wang Zhong turned his head and asked.
Senior Sergeant Grigori: “I’ll go and take a look.”
Soon Grigori returned, bringing with him the old herdsman who had provided Wang Zhong with map information earlier.
The herdsman was wearing an old cavalry uniform, a leather hat, and on his chest shone the bright George Cross Medal.
Upon closer inspection, the old man’s walking stick had been replaced with a military saber.
Vasily took a sharp breath.
Wang Zhong quickly asked: “What’s wrong?”
Vasily: “That saber, it must have been bestowed by the Tsar, that model is a royal ceremonial saber.”
Well then, a die-hard royalist.
The old man’s son said to Wang Zhong: “Please persuade my father! He insists on going to the front line!”
Wang Zhong: “Old man, you’ve already been a great help by providing information on the steppe…”
“I am eighty-five years and five months old, in very good health! When the Anatolians invaded, I chopped off their heads with a saber!” the old man patted his chest, “I want to defend Ante as I did before, how can you not let me?”
Wang Zhong: “You’re 85 years old!”
“Ha!” The old man looked down on Wang Zhong dismissively, “Compared to riding a horse and chopping off heads, General, you might not even match me! Let me go, General!”
Wang Zhong: “Leave it to the younger ones, they can handle it.”
As he spoke, Wang Zhong told the son: “Hurry and help your father rest, it would be terrible if he fell.”
Just then the phone rang, and Pavlov, who had been enjoying the spectacle, rushed over to answer it: “This is the Corps Command, how many enemy planes? Understood.”
Before he could put down the receiver, the air raid alarm sounded outside.
Pavlov looked at Wang Zhong: “48 twin-engine, and the same number of Stukas, with 24 109s escorting.”
Wang Zhong: “This fleet of planes, lucky for us we left early, or the losses would have been heavy.”
“What? You’ve set out? All the cavalry outside the city have set out? Take this old man with you!” the old herdsman shouted, deliberately standing without leaning on his saber, and stood on his legs, “Look! Look, General!”
At that moment, the sound of anti-aircraft gunfire and the screeching of Stukas diving came from outside.
Wang Zhong and the others all got down.
The old man’s son tried to throw his father to the ground, but the old man pushed him away: “Don’t shove me! I’m not afraid, it’s just planes!”
The sound of explosions came from outside the window, shaking down debris from the ceiling of the warehouse.
Standing in the dust, the old man swung his saber: “I’m not afraid! Planes, those effeminate things, can’t scare the sons of the steppe! Can’t scare me!”
————
At the same time, Delachenko once again led the Fourth Combat Bomber Group on a patrol in the sky.
“What’s that running on the ground?” he muttered, then opened the radio to ask his wingman, “Hey, deputy squadron leader, take a look at what’s running on the ground?”
The deputy’s aircraft banked its wings slightly, then came back with an answer: “It looks… not like armoured forces, the dust is too small, too fine. The dust raised by treads shouldn’t be like this.”
Then the radio fell silent for a moment.
Suddenly someone blurted out: “Could it be cavalry?”
“Cavalry? Didn’t they say that the cavalry units have been downsized recently? How could there be so many cavalry?”
Everyone started discussing.
Suddenly Delachenko chimed in: “Never mind that, one thing is certain, the Prussians have no cavalry! These are our troops! With such a massive charge, they’re definitely attacking! We’ll fly ahead of them and bomb the enemy’s defensive positions first!”
“Right, makes sense!”
Delachenko gently pressed on the rudder, making slight adjustments to the aircraft’s course, flying towards the direction of the cavalry’s attack.
Soon, the dust raised by the cavalry became invisible.
After another ten minutes, someone shouted through the radio: “There! Armour is circled up on the ground!”
Delachenko rocked his wings and took a glance down, confirming almost immediately: “That’s right! And the armoured vehicles are all painted grey! First squadron goes down with me, second and third squadrons go a bit further ahead, see if there are other enemies! We can’t waste firepower!”
“Alright!”
As his subordinate responded, Delachenko’s plane had already rolled 180 degrees and flipped over.
During the dive, Delachenko suddenly thought that he should learn from the Prussians’ Stuka and fit his plane with a siren to strike fear into the enemy with its sound.
Like now, the Prussians hadn’t even noticed the air raid!
No sooner had he thought this than a Prussian pointed at the sky, his mouth agape, probably shouting.
The next moment, the Prussian camp was like an ant nest drenched in water, swarming with ants running helter-skelter.
“Too late!” Delachenko pressed the bomb release button.
————
Lieutenant Joseph of the Prussian rear maneuver brigade lay on the ground, a lot of dirt falling on the back of his head and sliding down into his clothes through the opening around his neck.
He loudly cursed in Prussian profanities.
Ever since the Ante People equipped these ugly, fat-looking bombers, the intensity of their air raids suddenly increased.
At the beginning of the year, when Lieutenant Joseph was receiving reinforcements, he told these fresh troops that the enemy’s Il-2 looked terrifying but that most of its attacks would miss, and they relied on the density of fire to compensate for poor accuracy.
He also said that only the very unlucky would get hit during an Il-2 air raid.
And indeed, that was the case; last year, the rear maneuver brigade also suffered several Il-2 air raids, typically with hundreds of sorties causing only two to three hundred casualties, averaging three deaths per plane.
The loss of trucks was slightly higher, but generally did not exceed ten percent of the total number of trucks.
So the brigade’s conclusion was that the Il-2 posed not a significant threat, especially when there were friendly antiaircraft guns for cover; Ant pilots would attack recklessly before fleeing and rarely returned for a second strike.
In contrast, the twin-engine bombers of the Ante People posed a much greater threat because these planes had higher attack precision and the bombs were more powerful.
The Il-2 had too much armor and carried too few bombs and rockets.
But this year things had changed.
First, the Il-2 began using cluster munitions, covering a large area and causing significant casualties among the unprepared Prussians.
But soon the Prussians discovered the rockets’ flaws and began to increase the parking distance between vehicles, spreading out formations, which greatly reduced the lethality of the cluster munitions.
Then came the enemy dive bombers.
These fat fighters that resembled milk bottles could carry large-caliber ammunition and drop it with relatively high precision, retreat quickly after bombing, and even engage in air battles with the approaching 109s, which was extremely terrifying.
If the troops lacked antiaircraft gun cover, these bombers would even return for strafing runs, using fierce machine-gun fire to kill personnel and light armored vehicles on the ground.
Their 12.7mm ammunition could even penetrate the roof armor of a covered 251 half-track.
Since the introduction of this new bomber, the enemy’s aerial attack efficiency had greatly increased.
It was said that this was because the Ante People selected elite pilots for the new planes; only those who had shown results in Il-2s were transferred into bomber regiments equipped with new aircraft.
Regardless, by April, Lieutenant Joseph could no longer reassure the new recruits that enemy air raids were no big deal.
Instead, he would instruct them that if they heard engines from low altitude, they needn’t worry too much; that was an Il-2, but if they saw something reflecting in the high sky, they’d need to be cautious, as it might be a milk bottle or a Pe-2 bomber.
Lieutenant Joseph looked up and listened attentively for a while, making sure the enemy planes had flown away before standing up and trying to clear the mud that had gotten inside his collar.
While shooing away the mud, some lice were disturbed and hopped into the nearby grass.
“Anyone injured?” he shouted.
“Hans got hit in the shoulder by a machine gun!”
“Sanitater!” Lieutenant Joseph yelled.
The medic, carrying a red cross bag, immediately ran over, “Lieutenant, are you hurt?”
“No, our Private Hans got shot by a machine gun. Over there!” he pointed in the direction from which the voices had come.
The medic hurried over and crouched next to a new soldier cradling his comrade, “Let me see!”
“Please, save him, Doctor!”
“I’m not a doctor, just a medic, trained in field first aid,” the medic said, feeling the wounded man’s pulse, “Put him down, he’s dead.”
“What?” the new soldier’s eyes widened.
“He’s dead. I suggest you check his body for letters or other belongings that could be sent to his family. Then put him on the truck for transporting bodies.”
The new soldier immediately covered his face, “He’s the only fellow townsman in the whole brigade! How… how am I supposed to break this to his mother!”
Lieutenant Joseph was about to go over and comfort the new recruit when he heard someone shout, “Achtung! Dust clouds approaching from afar!”
Lieutenant Joseph raised his head and indeed, saw dust rising from the direction of the horizon.
Headquarters had just radioed a message, warning that the enemy might launch a cavalry attack, and here they were now!
Right after the enemy planes had raided!
The lieutenant stepped forward, grabbing the still-crying recruit, “Get up! Enemy cavalry is coming! If you don’t want your head split in half, get to the side of the half-track! Move it, you swine!”