Arc of Fire

Wang Zhong: “My brother still has to go see it… He arrived at St. Ye Katerina Fortress so early, how come he didn’t stay at his own house?”

“Who knows. I’m not your housekeeper. Let’s talk about the proper business.”

Wang Zhong stared at Chekhov for a few seconds: “We don’t need to fill out a form this time?”

“If you want to fill it out, that’s fine,” said General Chekhov.

Wang Zhong: “No, I don’t want to fill it out. But didn’t you say last time that filling out forms was already a special procedure for special cases?”

“You misunderstood, forms still need to be there, but our side can take care of it. Anyway, with so many forms thrown there, no one is really going to scrutinize them. The key is what gets summarized on the dispatch sheet.

“This practice is a violation of the rules, but the situation is so urgent, even the Crown Prince has sacrificed his life for the country, of course, we can omit some red tape.”

General Chekhov spread his hands.

Well, this guy last time simply didn’t want to be the one to take the blame, so he went through all the procedures.

Wang Zhong: “Alright, then I want T34s.”

“We don’t have any ready-made T34s now. List your needs, and we will allocate T34s from future factory output to you.”

Wang Zhong: “Then I’ll take a hundred!”

“Do you have that many tank operators? No, no, that’s not appropriate. And if you ask for so many at once, other people will have objections. Our logistics headquarters mainly act as a water-carrying department, you understand?” General Chekhov leaned forward, staring at Wang Zhong. “Don’t take so many all at once. The right way to go about it is to have a large total number, but each item is small, spread out across countless requests.”

Wang Zhong: “Then how many do you suggest I take?”

“How many tank operators do you have? You must have suffered heavy losses in Orachi, right?”

That was indeed true.

Even adding up the surviving tank operators from the Fifth Tank Army, Wang Zhong could not make up thirty crews.

But he planned to ask for thirty tanks, plus the ones left from the last battle, he would have thirty-six—although, the ones leftover from the last battle all went back to the factory for repairs, and it would probably take at least half a month before they were returned. R̃

Wang Zhong: “I’ll take thirty tanks, don’t worry about the crews.”

General Chekhov rapidly noted it down on the notebook he had spread open: “One battalion, that’s acceptable. Not too excessive.”

“Then there’s the ZIS3…”

“We really don’t have many of those. The main production factories are retreating, and the production has basically dropped to zero. But we have ample capacity for the 45mm guns. How many do you want?”

Wang Zhong: “Let’s start with one battalion, then I also need heavy mortars. I hope to enhance the infantry battalions with heavy mortars.”

“You have two regiments?” asked Chekhov.

Wang Zhong: “Yes, two infantry regiments.”

“That’s six heavy mortar companies, not too many. Actually, the front line’s demand for heavy mortars is not high right now, everyone is crying for ‘anti-tank, anti-tank’.”

Wang Zhong pointed his finger toward the sky: “This is also driven by war. The enemy likes to use reconnaissance planes to observe our artillery positions, then bombard them. If we don’t have enough MiG-3s to take down their high-altitude reconnaissance planes, then heavy mortars are necessary to cover positions occupied by the enemy.”

“The Air Force is now focusing on protecting St. Ekaterina Fortress, and most of the MiG-3s are deployed near St. Ekaterina Fortress. Some fighter squadrons have been sent to the front lines, but not many,” Chekhov said. “Anything else?”

Wang Zhong: “Heavy artillery; my artillery battalion lost all its heavy guns, and my anti-aircraft battalion is gone as well. At the very least, provide me with 24 pieces of 152mm howitzers.”

General Chekhov raised his eyebrows: “Don’t want the B4 anymore? Not a good experience using it?”

Wang Zhong: “It’s too cumbersome, and loading it takes too long, indeed not as convenient as the 152 howitzer. Rather than replenishing me with B4s, it’d be better to give me an extra 12 pieces of 152mm howitzers.

“The enemy’s division-level artillery firepower is very strong, and at the army level, it’s incredibly powerful. Without the support of army group-level, even strategic-level artillery clusters, we must have sufficiently strong firepower.”

What Wang Zhong said was actually a bit of an anachronism, as the officers of Ante couldn’t possibly be aware of the Prosen Army’s artillery configuration, at most knowing it as “a lot.”

But Wang Zhong had read a lot of military history, and he knew that the Sturmtiger’s artillery was mainly dispersed among division-level units, he even knew the specific artillery configuration of the Sturmtigers.

General Chekhov made a note in the notebook, and then looked up: “Anything else?”

Wang Zhong: “I want the BM13 rocket launcher.”

General Chekhov frowned: “How do you know about the existence of such a weapon?”

At this time, the existence of the rocket launcher was still a secret, and even long after the weapon had been deployed to the front lines, the troops did not know that the thing was called BM13; that’s why it got the nickname Katyusha.

Wang Zhong smiled: “The Crown Prince and I are good buddies.”

Major General Chekhov was astounded, “Indeed. You… you really will become a prince?”

“No,” Wang Zhong said confidently, “Anyway, can you get them?”

“Can’t,” all rocket launchers are being used intensively, they won’t be allocated to you, so give up on that idea.”

Wang Zhong sighed, resigned to the fact. He began to ponder what other powerful weapons he might be able to secure at the time.

At that moment, Major General Chekhov said, “Based on frontline experience, we have produced a type of incendiary bomb that is simple in construction and more effective and safer than the ones you make with bottles. It also has a white phosphorus self-igniting feature; it ignites as soon as you open the lid.”

Wang Zhong: “Really?”

“Really. The troops reported Molotov cocktails were very useful, but they had to be lit before throwing, which occasionally resulted in the fuel spilling and igniting the person throwing it… so our design bureau’s engineers made some targeted improvements.”

Wang Zhong: “That’s excellent, I want enough of them.”

Chekhov continued, “We also sped up mass production of the DShK heavy machine gun, which performs much better than the older models.”

Wang Zhong: “I need them, we lost all our heavy machine guns when we broke out of Orachi, and now the troops only have DP light machine guns. Our light weapons deficit isn’t that bad, but if there are Tokarev semi-automatics available, that would be even better.”

Major General Chekhov nodded: “We’ve also tried copying some of the enemy’s combat armor, which could be used by your combat engineers. Do you have combat engineers?”

Wang Zhong: “No, but I can have them. I’ll take it!”

Major General Chekhov: “There are also light mortars, which would be excellent support weapons for the infantry platoons…”

“I want them!” Wang Zhong said in advance, “Wait a minute, why do I feel like I don’t need to ask, I just leave it to you?”

Major General Chekhov: “No, no, no, you still need to approve, how could I make decisions for you? I can’t decide on your behalf. But you see, as a logistics major general, I am certainly more familiar with what we have. It’s reasonable for me to make suggestions, right?”

Indeed… That makes sense!

Wang Zhong asked, “Then, Major General Chekhov, who is knowledgeable about equipment, do you know if we have anything that can make up for our deficiency in anti-tank firepower besides the 45 mm guns?”

“There is, as I just said…” Major General Chekhov paused, furrowing his brow.

Wang Zhong sat up straight, “Is there? Is there really?”

The general: “There is a trial-produced gun that has not undergone detailed range testing due to urgency. Do you want it?”

Wang Zhong: “What gun is it?”

“A 57 mm gun that was originally sent back for redesign due to design flaws. It’s been improved, but not tested because of the urgency. The Ordnance Department decided to utilize the production line by ordering its manufacture, although the output isn’t very high, I estimate we can provide you with 24 units by the 15th of next month.”

Wang Zhong raised an eyebrow, “57 mm?”

Could it be the legendary “57 God Needle”? On Earth, this was one of the Soviet Union’s most outstanding anti-tank guns.

Even in the latter part of the war, facing a large number of Sturmtigers, the 57 God Needle still had useful penetrating power.

However, this gun had a fatal flaw; it was very difficult to manufacture, requiring a lot of man-hours and skilled workers, hence its production never scaled up.

So in the end, the Soviets chose to simply increase caliber, using the crudely made 85 mm gun to overwhelm Sturmtiger units. The performance of the 85 mm gun was actually quite mediocre among the various anti-tank guns used by the combatants in the latter stages of the war, but its ease of production was unparalleled.

Wang Zhong now felt like he had found a treasure upon hearing that there were 57 mm guns that nobody wanted.

He wanted to confirm, “Can you give them to me? These 57 mm guns?”

“Yes, we didn’t have guns of this caliber previously, with zero design and usage experience, and then this gun was found to have a significant design flaw, so nobody wanted it. Of course, the fact that no one knows these guns exist is a big reason, too.”

Wang Zhong: “Give them to me! However many there are, I want them all!”

Major General Chekhov stood up, went over to the filing cabinet, and pulled out a stack of files. He riffled through them and said, “Here’s a production plan: On August 22, No. 912 Military Factory will commence production of the ZIS30 tank destroyer, also using this 57 mm gun. If they are all issued to you, then there’s no need to distribute 57 mm ammunition to other units.”

Wang Zhong: “What’s this, trying to make things easier for yourself?”

Major General Chekhov shrugged: “My principle is to equip a unit with one type of gun, avoid mixed calibers as much as possible. Your unit already has so many 45 mm guns, then there are also so many 152s, adding 57 mm ammo to the supply isn’t too much, especially since there’s rail access to your location. Since you want the 57 mm guns, how about I don’t resupply you with 45 mm guns?”

Wang Zhong snapped his fingers: “Deal!”

57 mm guns, plus ZIS30 tank destroyers… All of a sudden, the anti-tank firepower was plentiful!

Major General Chekhov added, “Oh, right, looking at this document, I just realized we also have plenty of machine-gun tanks, those only equipped with machine guns. How about I treat those as half-track transports and assign them to you? They’d be great for transporting ammunition or towing anti-tank guns.”

Wang Zhong frowned, pretending to be upset, “What do you take me for? A scrap collector? But since you put it that way, give them to me. And make sure you provide drivers too.”

Major General Chekhov said earnestly, “I’m in charge of materials. If you want people, go ask the church yourself; I guess there must be quite a few young villagers who learned to drive tractors and have just been conscripted.”