Arc of Fire

At the same time that Major General Rokossov was mourning the fallen soldiers,

twenty-five kilometers east of Bogdanovka, the town of Grezno, the estate of the largest landowner in the town, Boye, had been occupied by the Prosen soldiers and converted into the headquarters of the First Armored Cluster.

At seven in the evening, General Ewald von Steyr-Mark entered the main building’s hall surrounded by a large group of aides and staff officers.

Steyr-Mark looked up at the magnificent chandelier above the hall and said, “This thing will fall and hurt someone when it’s hit by shelling, take it down.”

The staff at headquarters immediately sprang into action, bringing a ladder to remove the chandelier.

Steyr-Mark’s aide-de-camp made a gesture of invitation, “General, the map room is set up this way.”

“Let’s have a look at the bedroom where I’ll sleep tonight, since you guys definitely haven’t updated the map information yet,” the general waved his hand.

The aide-de-camp immediately changed direction, “This way, please, up the stairs.”

A few minutes later, the general entered the bedroom and frowned at the sight of the luxurious velvet bed, “What is this! Heidlin, you should know I don’t like this sort of thing! Throw this out, burn it, bring my field bed here!”

The aide-de-camp Heidlin quickly issued instructions to the orderlies, and within minutes the velvet bed had been dismantled and thrown out of the window.

General Steyr-Mark’s field bed was set up in the original position.

Once all was completed under his supervision, the general nodded in satisfaction, “Heidlin, as a soldier, you must always remain vigilant. Velvet is not suitable for soldiers.”

At that time, a communications officer appeared with a telegram, “General, an urgent message from the 15th Armored Division.”

“Read it.”

The staff officer immediately read, “To Armored Cluster Command, my unit is facing resistance in the attack at Loktov, the enemy has deployed the new model tanks, T-34, mentioned by High Command, posing a significant armor advantage to our forces.

“My division now has only 53 operational Panzer IIIs and 4 Panzer IVs. Moreover, because the battlefield is under enemy control, we are unable to retrieve and repair abandoned tanks.

“The enemy used their mobility to launch a surprise attack on our headquarters, General Randolf died for his country! 15th Armored Division Headquarters, July 7, 1730 hours.”

The general turned his head to the communications officer, his brows furrowed. He stepped forward, took the telegram, and read it several times before exclaiming, “Major General Randolf is dead?”

Chief of staff: “He may be the highest-ranking officer we have lost since the beginning of our offensive.”

“I know,” the general put the telegram behind his back and began pacing the room, “New tanks! High Command said there were at most a hundred of these tanks! Did the 15th Division report how many new tanks they encountered?”

“No. The report they sent back is the one you’re holding,” answered the communications officer.

Chief of staff: “I remember yesterday—that is, on the 6th, the 15th Division reported that after a failed probing attack, they still had 91 operational Panzer IIIs and 27 Panzer IVs.

“Such a heavy loss in one go; the enemy must have deployed over 50 of the new tanks.”

Steyr-Mark complained as he paced, “The intelligence department of the Southern Army Group told us that Loktov only had two infantry brigades, yet there emerged corps heavy artillery and now organized new tank units. Did these enemies sprout from the ground?”

As soon as he finished speaking, another communications soldier entered the room with a telegram and handed it to the communications officer, “Just finished decoding.”

Steyr-Mark went up and snatched the telegram to read for himself, “Telegram from Southern Army Group headquarters: According to aerial reconnaissance, an infantry army group of the enemy is advancing towards Loktov, expected to arrive tomorrow evening.

“The First Armored Cluster should attempt to capture Loktov before the arrival of the army group.”

After reading, Steyr-Mark handed the telegram to the chief of staff, “An infantry army group, no mention of tanks.”

Chief of staff: “Perhaps tomorrow we could have the 15th Division try again?”

“No, no,” General Steyr-Mark waved his hand, “The offensive operations of these past ten days have proven one thing, that is, our armored divisions are assigned too few infantry. If the enemy has heavy artillery and possibly fifty new tanks, then they might have seven to eight infantry battalions. Our armored divisions only have four armored grenadier battalions, one of which is motorized reconnaissance!”

After another round of pacing, he stressed once more, “We need to increase the number of armored grenadiers! Ordinary infantry can’t keep up with armored units and always fall out of step during the attack.

“The Ante people were in disarray, allowing our armored forces to break through with ease, but lately the Ante have started to put up a stubborn fight! We need infantry to conquer those well-defended towns!”

The chief of staff tentatively asked, “So… we’re not attacking anymore?”

“We will attack! Once the enemy’s infantry army group arrives, taking Loktov will be even more difficult. Have the 24th Armored Grenadier Division join the attack. Now that Major General Randolf has died a glorified death, command of the assault will be handed over to Major General Franz of the 24th Armored Grenadier Division.”

The chief of staff nodded, “Having an infantry officer direct the fight to capture a city is very sensible.”

Steyr-Mark nodded and then said, “And one more thing! Have the Air Force bomb the enemy’s positions hard! Especially those tanks! Since the enemy’s new tanks are so troublesome, let the Air Force deal with them!

“50 tanks are hard to hide!”

Having said this, Steyr-Mark waved his hand.

As the communications officer who received the orders was about to leave, the general spoke again, “Who commands the enemy forces at Loktov?”

“It’s said to be Major General Aleksei Konstantinovich Rokossov.”

General Steyr-Mark frowned, “These Ante names are so long. So, who is that?”

“The White Horse General,” said the chief of staff.

Steyr-Mark frowned, “The White Horse General? The young officer trusted by the emperor used to shift blame?”

The chief of staff: “If I remember the name correctly, it’s him.”

Steyr-Mark frowned, “Randolf was killed by this man? Communications officer, wire the 15th Armor and inquire about the details of Major General Randolf’s death!”

————

Karlinovka, July 7, 1940

“I saw it with my own eyes!”

Old soldier Hans told the others gathered around the fire, “That new tank was painted all white! It charged across the battlefield and destroyed seven of our tanks before reaching headquarters!”

“The headquarters’ guard tank platoon immediately advanced, and bang, bang, bang, the pure white new tank blew them all up!”

“That white figure was like a demon arriving! It was the white demon summoned by the Ante Army!”

Someone by the fire immediately objected, “You’re talking nonsense! I clearly heard it was painted red like the Red Baron!”

“What are you saying!” Hans was displeased, “They call him the White General! How could it be red? I saw it with my own eyes and it was white!”

“Who cares about red or white! What happened after it charged up close?” someone was only interested in the outcome.

“What else could happen? With one ‘boom’ from the tank’s gun, the major general was dead! And several staff officers too!”

While the old soldier was vividly describing the scene, someone beside him shouted, “Hans! Your coffee tastes terrible! What is this stuff?”

“Be grateful for what you’ve got!” Hans shouted back without hesitation.

At this moment, someone spoke mysteriously, “About this White General, there’s a rumour. It was told to me by a fellow sapper from my hometown! In this village, the White General planted 20 devious mines, and the sappers only managed to remove four and one exploded.”

“The remaining fifteen mines have not been found at all!”

This statement made everyone around the fire tense up.

The person who shared this news seemed pleased, “So be careful, stay away from anything suspicious, or you won’t be keeping your life!”

The Prosen soldiers looked at each other in dismay.

If the White General could take out 12 tanks and kill General Lendorf all by himself in a single tank, then he surely could have planted 15 mines.

There was no logical connection between the two, but the grunts didn’t care about that; they just believed the White General could do it.

Everyone secretly swore that when it came time to sleep, they would definitely sleep outside the house—they dared not even consider using a bed.

————

At ten fifty in the evening, Wang Zhong rode his white horse out of the city and found the mechanics fervently trying to save tanks at the repair factory to understand the situation.

“Your Excellency General,” said the same old worker who was assembling the cannon, “You asked us to repair tanks, but we’re car mechanics, not very familiar with tanks. So we’ve enlisted the help of maintenance workers from the tractor station; at least they can reattach the tracks.”

Then the old worker introduced a colleague to Wang Zhong, “This is the foreman from the tractor station, let him explain the situation.”

Wang Zhong nodded, “Please, go ahead.”

“Your Excellency General! We’ve checked several abandoned tanks, and three of them can move once the tracks are reattached, and the turrets are functional.”

“Of the remaining five, one has a damaged leading wheel that needs replacement parts. The turrets on the other four are jammed by enemy armor-piercing shells.”

“We plan to use pliers to pull out the armor-piercing shells wedged between the turret and the body.”

“As for the other faults, we aren’t familiar with cannons, so we can’t inspect the condition of the cannons. The machine guns, only a few of us reservists have seen them during mobilization training, we can’t guarantee that they’ll be fixed.”

Wang Zhong, “How many do you estimate can be rescued?”

“If given time, we can fix them all. But will you give us the time?”

Wang Zhong, “Time is tonight, I hope to have these tanks back in fighting condition before six or seven o’clock tomorrow morning.”

“That will be difficult,” said the foreman of the tractor station, “We don’t have the specialized repair equipment, nor are we professional logistical mechanics. By the time you’ve set, I think we can only repair five.”

Wang Zhong was taken aback; it seemed that couldn’t be demanded of them, so he changed the subject, “What about those Prosen tanks?”

The foreman shook his head, “Those tanks are vastly different in design from ours, and the width of the tracks is different—we don’t have the specialized tools to reattach tracks.”

“Plus, it’s clear they are high-quality manufacturing, very precise. Such finely made things are harder to repair.”

“However…”

Wang Zhong, “However?”

“However, we found that some of the enemy’s tanks didn’t really have any problems, just that their crew was severely reduced after being penetrated, so they were abandoned.”

“We’ve inspected these tanks, and at least three are still operational, even able to fire shells.”

Wang Zhong, “Only three, huh…”

5+3, not to mention anything else, it was truly a relief to have restored the fighting capability of 8 tanks—regardless of whether they were T34s or not.

But these few tanks were far from enough!

Who knows how many enemy tanks they will have to face tomorrow!

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