Cannon Fire Arc

Chapter 374: Chapter 56 Mobile Army Formation

Wang Zhong's First Mobile Army indeed had significant differences from Asgard Knights of the Prussian Army and was not the Tsar's imperial guard either.

The official name of the First Mobile Army was the High Command's directly subordinated instructional unit First Mobile Army, and according to the documents Wang Zhong personally oversaw drafting, it was "a unit formed to explore more war-adapted methods of troop organization".

This army was only affiliated in logistics and personnel matters with the Yeborg City Defense Command—the troop was a significant consumer of supplies, and even without engaging in combat, the daily expenses of nearly two hundred thousand combatants and hired workers for food, drink, and the like, were a considerable expenditure.

These regular consumptions were processed through the logistics of the city defense troops.

Therefore, there was no need to generate many speculations upon seeing the troop listed under the name of the City Defense Command.

Of course, the First Mobile Army did indeed get some convenience in acquiring equipment, but that was only because this unit had many logistical support units. The reliability of new equipment was low and they could cope with it, whereas typical units would probably discard malfunctioning new equipment by the roadside.

First Mobile Army had three divisions under its command: the Guards First "Red Banner" Mechanized Infantry Division, the 225th Mechanized Infantry Division, and the Melania People's Army First Division.

All three divisions were formed based on the template of the Guards Mechanized Infantry.

The Guards Mechanized Infantry consisted of one tank battalion, one reconnaissance battalion, one engineer battalion, one anti-aircraft battalion, one tank destroyer battalion, one anti-tank artillery battalion, and they also had a mechanized infantry regiment, an artillery regiment, an automobile regiment, and a support regiment.

In addition, a cavalry platoon was reinforced to serve as reconnaissance and emergency communication forces.

The fifth Blysk Infantry Regiment, which originally belonged to the Guards Mechanized Infantry, was reorganized into the 41st Guards Infantry Regiment and transferred to the 225th Mechanized Infantry Division as the division's core force.

The current organization of the Guards Mechanized Infantry reflected Wang Zhong's summary of combat experiences over the past year. Other technical services in the division had only one battalion each, while infantry, artillery, automobile, and support troops were organized into regiments.

The division's Guards 31st Mechanized Infantry Regiment was Wang Zhong's old unit, which was the original Third Amur Group. This regiment was reinforced with a large number of M3 half-track vehicles to achieve true mechanization.

The most exaggerated aspect of this regiment was its infantry gun deployment. Due to the large number of M3s, Wang Zhong stuffed a large number of 75mm infantry guns into this unit, with M3s towing them, increasing the number of 75mm guns in each battalion to 12, and 82mm mortars were even distributed as supporting firepower down to the infantry platoons.

Without exaggeration, just by counting the number of artillery pieces, one battalion of the Guards 31st Regiment could match a typical Ante Infantry Division with moderate equipment.

The tank battalion below the Guards Mechanized Infantry didn't have excessively luxurious tank equipment—one platoon consisted of 4 tanks, one company of 12 tanks, and three companies formed a battalion.

Production of the T34W had risen considerably, so an armored battalion with this number of T34Ws was common within the Ante Army.

What was truly outrageous was the number of accompanying troops Wang Zhong equipped for this battalion. He stuffed into each armored company a reconnaissance platoon with three squads in jeeps and a mechanized infantry platoon equipped with four M3 Grant Lee tanks.

Yes, a mechanized infantry platoon, but the infantry fighting vehicle was the M3 medium tank.

It wasn't a joke—the interior of the M3 tank was very spacious, able to cram in eight fully-armed Ante soldiers, so Wang Zhong used it as an infantry fighting vehicle.

If a half-track couldn't match the T34W in terms of off-road capability, then the same was applied to a full-tracked tank.

This way, even if the tank company moved rapidly forward, at least there were 60 infantrymen accompanying the advance, who could dismount and scout ahead in complex situations to "clear the view" for the tanks.

Besides mechanized infantry, Wang Zhong also squeezed into each tank company an SU76 self-propelled artillery piece as accompanying indirect fire support.

Adding infantry to tanks was drawn from Wang Zhong's own experiences, while shoving indirect fire guns into tank companies was a direct copy of Soviet Union tactics on Earth.

When a Soviet tank company advanced, it was not only equipped with mechanized infantry but also a 122mm gun mounted on vehicles. In this way, once a tank company encountered entrenched enemy infantry, they could use the 122mm gun alongside the accompanying infantry to attack.

Wang Zhong didn't yet have a vehicle-mounted 122mm howitzer. For now, he made do with the SU76. It was just 46 millimeters smaller in caliber—enough to get by for now.

Once the SU152 became available in the future, that would be allotted to the tank companies.

Besides the infantry and artillery, the tank battalion under the Guards Mechanized Infantry was also provided with a support force far surpassing that of other tank battalions. Wang Zhong even followed the standards of Earth's U.S. military and inserted a tractor into each company to tow immobile tanks.

Wang Zhong also wanted to acquire Dragon-type trailers, but unfortunately, the Federation currently needed them for themselves as they hadn't begun to explode in production capacity.

The artillery regiment of the Guards Mechanized Infantry was lavishly equipped: 36 pieces of 152mm heavy artillery and an additional 24 pieces of 122mm howitzers. To tow these cannons, Wang Zhong assigned 150 tractors and 100 automobiles to the artillery regiment.

Yes, besides the automobile regiment, an additional 100 trucks were provided.

The automobile regiment also had 500 vehicles, making a total of 600 trucks just within the division!

Thanks to the generosity of the Federation.

Wait, the anti-aircraft artillery battalion also had eight Crusader anti-aircraft guns, it should be thanks to the generosity of the Federation and the United Kingdom.

With such generous provisions in the division, the First Mobile Army had three of them.

Of course, only the Guards Mechanized Infantry had a tank destroyer battalion equipped with Whirlwind tank destroyers. The other two divisions temporarily lacked this formation because the Whirlwind was a newly designed piece of equipment with extremely low production capacity.

By the end of April 915, there were only 36 vehicles, just enough to outfit one battalion.

By the end of April, aside from the underequipped tank destroyer battalion, each division was essentially fully staffed, and support personnel and hired workers were also fully-equipped.

In addition to the divisions, Wang Zhong also formed a large field hospital and a large battlefield repair workshop under the army, utilizing the battle tank repair vehicles provided by the Federation.

Beyond these, the army headquarters directly controlled a rocket artillery brigade and a tube artillery brigade, giving Wang Zhong's army over two hundred large calibers of 152mm and above, initially possessing the capability to shave a meter off a hilltop.

Yet, Wang Zhong still felt the firepower was insufficient—those who have been on the battlefield probably all have this concern.

If you can bomb the enemy to death, why bother to engage in close combat and risk your life, right?

Wang Zhong, with his military equipment, should no longer have too much of a gap compared to the forces of Prussia. The key lay in training.

From the moment they stationed at Kubinka, intensive training had never ceased, and Wang Zhong even emulated the monthly exams from his high school days. During the last week of each month, for the three days of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, they would hold comprehensive martial contests.

On one hand, it stimulated everyone's enthusiasm through competition—and prizes—and on the other hand, it allowed the soldiers who had trained intensely for a month to take a break.

Latter, he simply extended the contest period to a whole week, first having each company conduct internal contests, followed by the battalions, fighting their way up level by level, and then awarding a mobile red flag to the division that garnered the most victories according to the results of the contests.

Thus, during the last week of every month, Kubinka was filled with an atmosphere akin to that of a sports meeting, with exceptional results! Especially after Wang Zhong added Havana cigars from the Federation into the prize pool.

Every last Sunday evening of the month, in the Kubinka barracks, one could always see the individual event champions striking a very show-offish pose while smoking their cigars, enjoying the envious gazes of others.

Wang Zhong had never expected that the things he learned in military training, as well as in high school, would be so useful!

By the end of April, Wang Zhong was fairly certain that the training level of his troops wasn't much different from that of the Prussians. However, there was still some gap in terms of cultural education.

Over the past few months, he had occasionally interacted with the captured prisoners and realized something: the high school enrollment rate among Prussians was truly high. The students were intellectually nimble, with a strong sense of initiative, which was why the Prussian Army was of such high quality.

In contrast, on the Ante Army side, there were soldiers who hadn't completed tenth grade and whose hometowns had not been overrun. Many joined the army simply because "the local priest called for it," so Wang Zhong had to start with teaching them the meaning of "protecting our homes and defending our country."

Fortunately, the priests in charge of the night school had abundant experience dealing with children from rural areas. They quickly made them understand the meaning of the battle and also why Ante would inevitably win and Prussia would fail.

By the end of April, the First Mobile Army was also ideologically prepared to engage the enemy in combat.

However, the attack by the Prussian Army on the Coastal Fortress-Bolsk defense line that Wang Zhong predicted had not started.

————

Early in the morning of May 1, just as Wang Zhong got out of bed and was having breakfast, Mikhail, the butler, entered the dining room and reported, "General Golikov is waiting in the reception room."

Wang Zhong, "If he hasn't eaten, invite him to have breakfast together."

Mikhail saluted and left.

A moment later, General Golikov sat down opposite Wang Zhong and his wife-to-be, looking at the dishes on the table, "Even you can only eat SPAM canned meat now, huh..."

Wang Zhong, "Many livestock froze to death last year. Supplies won't recover until the second half of this year. Thanks to SPAM canned meat and the catch from the North Sea for feeding the people of Ante. So what brings you back?"

General Golikov, "It seems they want to make me the Chief of Staff."

Wang Zhong asked in surprise, "Wasn't Marshal Boris doing well?"

The one who answered this question was Ludmila, "The marshal has fallen ill and might retire. That's what his wife said."

Wang Zhong, "I see. Are there any other adjustments?"

General Golikov, "General Tugenev is going to be promoted to full general. He got his general rank after the civil war ended, but so many years have passed without a promotion. Now, he's finally getting his general stars... although I think he might not care much about that."

Having said that, the general shrugged his shoulders.

He continued, "Also, Chekhov will be promoted to general and might be transferred to the General Logistics Department, taking over for General Sergey of the Ordnance Department."

Wang Zhong, "Is Sergey being replaced... To be honest, aside from always opening doors for his son-in-law, he doesn't have many faults."

That was true, as Wang Zhong, the head of the Ordnance Review Committee, interacted with the Ordnance Department daily. General Sergey handled most matters without flaws, except for his fondness for protecting his son-in-law.

But clearly, Major General Chekhov, who was 'non-stick,' was better.

General Golikov observed Wang Zhong's expression and laughed, "It seems you are quite satisfied with these changes as well. The Military Orders Department and the Ministry of Defense have been entrusted to the reliable General Tugenev, while logistics will be under the responsibility of the reliable Major General Chekhov..."

Wang Zhong corrected, "The reliable and 'non-stick' Major General Chekhov."

"Hahaha." General Golikov laughed heartily.

Just then, Mikhail entered with a solemn expression, holding a telephone in one hand and a receiver in the other, stepping forward to hand the receiver to Wang Zhong, "A call from the palace."

Wang Zhong took the receiver and heard Olga asking anxiously, "General Golikov is there with you, right?"

Wang Zhong, "Yes."

Olga, "The enemy has attacked. I think High Command has already been notified, but I got the jump on them."

Wang Zhong, "They've finally come, is it the southern line?"

"Yes, the Coastal Fortress is reporting heavy artillery preparation, and Prussian Army battleships have been spotted at sea, currently exchanging fire with the coastal defense batteries."

Wang Zhong, "Understood."

"Will you come to the palace for an emergency imperial meeting?"

"Of course."