Arc of Fire

October 26, 0300 hours, Central Army Group Command.

"Do you think your Army Group is the only one under attack?" Marshal Von Bock, holding the receiver, said to General Walter Mendel of the 9th Army Group on the other end of the phone, "The entire line, I mean the entire line is under attack. All the Army Groups are telling me that the Anteans have made a breakthrough!"

Mendel shouted back, "But not all breakthroughs are lethal! They are indiscriminately attacking every sector; as soon as they break through, they start committing troops, but the mass of troops pouring through can’t really cause too much damage!"

Marshal Von Bock shook his head, "No, you feel the threat to you is not great because you have nearly three hundred thousand men; you are the strongest in the entire Central Army Group. Look at those Army Groups with only about a hundred and fifty thousand soldiers—Antean breakthrough troops are appearing less than five kilometers from the Corps Commands!

"If you’re calling to ask me for reinforcements, then I’m telling you there are none. I’ve already sent the last of my reserve forces to those crumbling Army Groups.

"They have been calling me complaining for a while now; you are the last one, do you understand, the last one!"

Walter Mendel: "What if I am breached?"

"If you are breached, the Central Army Group would be on the verge of total collapse, and there would be no point in any ’Blue Plan,’" Marshal Von Bock picked up a waffle from the table, dabbed a bit of cream on it, but didn’t rush to put it in his mouth.

Mendel: "So, we have no reinforcements?"

"At least not until High Command sends us new troops. High Command should still have the strength of a few divisions on the Eastern Front, and if things get dire again, we could only pull from the homeland or other fronts, which would also take several days at least."

Marshal Von Bock paused, as if to let General Mendel feel the weight of his words.

After enough time had passed, he continued, "You must find a way to deal with the Antean offensive yourself. You have two Armored Armies, two! The Sixth Army Group, which is the main assault force in the Blue Plan, also has only two Armored Armies. Drive the Anteans back!"

Having said that, Marshal Von Bock hung up the phone directly.

When he put down the receiver, the marshal let out a long sigh, "I hope the air I just put on has fooled General Mendel."

"Of course, it will," the Deputy Officer chimed in beside him, "I thought you were really angry."

Von Bock did not respond; he finished the waffle he had been holding, stood up with his hands in his pockets, walked over to the map, and stared at it for a good while.

"Suddenly, I’m a bit worried," he turned his head to his Deputy Officer and the Chief of Staff of the Army Group, "What if we have too many breakthrough points and the whole line collapses? This possibility does exist, doesn’t it?"

Deputy Officer: "How could that be? A collapse of the entire line due to tactics like this has never happened in military history. The Anteans are just wasting manpower. Their only successful offensive to date came after they drained our supplies, and then they got their chance.

"And now we have ample supplies because we anticipated that mud could impact our supply lines, and all the Army Groups have stockpiled in advance. The Anteans will surely gain nothing."

Marshal Von Bock, with his hands behind his back, stared at the map for a few seconds, then shook his head, "Still, we must prepare for the worst scenario. Chief of Staff, organize the staff to estimate how many Ante troops we are likely under attack from. The standard for assessment can be appropriately relaxed, exaggerate the gravity of the situation a bit." Find your next read on

The Chief of Staff shook his head, "The reports we’re receiving now are definitely exaggerated. The command posts below are surely thinking of inflating the situation a bit in order to get more reinforcements."

Marshal Von Bock waved his hand, "I am the Commander of the Central Army Group. My responsibility is to ensure that my Army Group is not in danger and to maintain control of the current front. So, asking High Command for more troops is just fulfilling my duty. Without troops, there is no way to guarantee the front, understand?"

The Chief of Staff nodded: "Got it. I’ll start the assessment right away."

Marshal Von Bock: "I’m going to take a short nap. When I wake up, I hope you will have finished the assessment and drafted the telegram to High Command. I want to see the first draft of the telegram. Gentlemen, thank you for your hard work, and... good night."

Von Bock looked at the time, corrected himself, "Good morning."

"Good morning," General Gorky yawned as he entered the Western Front Army Headquarters, "How’s the progress up to today?"

Chief of Staff: "We’re seeing small-scale breakthroughs, with only five points of significant value across the entire front."

General Gorky: "The second echelon to advance to these five breakthrough points!"

"We’re on it, but because we’ve spread the second echelon across the entire front, and now it’s the muddy season, I think it will be difficult to form a decisive advantage quickly at the five breakthrough points," the Chief of Staff said while gesturing on the map with a pointer.

Gorky’s attack plan, which nobody knew where a breakthrough would occur, was designed to ensure that troops could quickly follow up on any breakthrough anywhere along the front, with the second echelon deployed evenly along the entire line and the third echelon’s troops concentrated at a few points where progress was anticipated.

The result is that the second echelon can be immediately committed, but only a little bit at a time, and it cannot form an overwhelming advantage quickly like a flood breaking through a dam.

General Gorky frowned, "Even the mud starts to block us now."

Chief of Staff: "It has always indiscriminately affected everyone, it’s just that we’re used to the mud and have the advantage due to shorter supply lines."

General Gorky didn’t answer; he stared at the map for several dozen seconds before suddenly pointing at Shostka and asking, "Can tanks cross over to the landing field north of Shostka?"

The Chief of Staff replied, "No, we don’t have that many heavy ferries, and as for pontoon bridges—the heavy pontoon bridges supported by the Federation are with the Saint Andrew Front Army and the Abawahan Front Army; we don’t have any."

General Gorky asked, "Then have we sent them anti-tank weapons?"

"Some ZIS-3 anti-tank guns have been sent over, but the 85 anti-aircraft guns have not."

General Gorky said, "Immediately send anti-tank guns over there. If the Prosens counterattack, they’ll deploy armored troops, at the very least armored grenadier units. Without anti-tank firepower, it’s not going to work."

"What about our air force strength? Can we airdrop some light anti-tank guns?"

The Chief of Staff glanced outside and said, "With this rain, I estimate the air force won’t be able to take off. Even if they were forced to, they wouldn’t be able to see where to airdrop."

General Gorky sighed, "Then our warriors will have to face the enemy’s tanks with their flesh and blood."

October 26th, 0700 hours, Prosen Sixth Army Group Headquarters.

Army Group Commander William von Frederick held a radio handset and demanded, "What do you mean the enemy tank force has disappeared?"

"General, that’s the situation. According to the prisoners’ confessions, the regiment we destroyed belongs to the Ante 51st Tank Army, 124th Regiment. This army should still have several tank regiments, but now we can’t find them anywhere," said Hosette, the Division Commander of the Fifth Armored Division of the Asgard Knights, who were part of the counterattack.

General Frederick was about to speak when his Chief of Staff reminded him, "These tank regiments are ravaging our artillery positions and supply lines. Several artillery battalions have lost contact, and all reported tank assaults before losing communication."

Immediately, General William von Frederick shouted into the microphone, "They are attacking our artillery positions. Find those regiments and wipe them out!"

Division Commander Hosette said, "General, I have a better suggestion. We attack the beachhead and cut off their supply lines. That way, the tank units will have to come back to save it."

General Frederick thought for a moment and then laughed, "Good, do that."

The command vehicle of the 123rd Tank Regiment of the 51st Tank Army.

The regiment’s Deputy Officer climbed onto the command vehicle and said to the regiment commander, "We’ve been unable to contact Headquarters for seven hours now. The troops are running seriously low on ammo. Do you think we should return to the beachhead to resupply?"

The regiment commander replied, "No, the order we received is to advance, keep advancing, all the way back to the suburbs of Abawahan where our army’s positions are. Once we rest, the whole regiment will continue to advance!"

The Deputy Officer said, "But that’s still so far away. And before we reach our army’s positions, we’ll first encounter the enemy’s attacking units won’t we? Without ammunition..."

The regiment commander said, "Look at the river next to us."

The Deputy Officer turned his head toward the Valdai Hills River, where a large number of ships were streaming downstream.

The regiment commander said, "If the pontoon bridges were still there, the ships couldn’t come down. Even if we returned to the beachhead, there would be no supply waiting. Let’s keep moving forward and unleash our last shells on the Prosens!"

The Deputy Officer stood on the engine hood of the tank, gazing at the Valdai Hills River, looking at the ships on the river, and gently biting his lip.

He said, "At the beginning of this year, when General Rocossov drove the enemy away from near Yeburg, my wife insisted that we have a child. She said she didn’t want one before because she didn’t want them to be a slave. The due date is within these few days."

The regiment commander also looked at the Valdai Hills River, "I have two daughters, the younger one is only three years old this year. I hope their stepfather takes good care of them."

"Yes," the Deputy Officer agreed. "Hope their stepfather can take good care of them. By the way, General Rocossov’s wife had just given birth not long ago too. It seems she’s also on her way to the front."

"I heard about that. Perhaps that’s why the general hasn’t jumped onto a tank and charged into battle at the frontline again."

"The Front Army Commander jumping onto a tank and personally leading a charge would indeed be a bit uncouth," the Deputy Officer laughed.

"Indeed."

Both men laughed for a while, then fell silent at the same time.

A few seconds later, the Deputy Officer pointed at the signal vehicle, "I’ll go back to man the radio."

"Go ahead. If Headquarters has any news, let me know immediately!"

"Don’t worry." The Deputy Officer waved his hand and climbed into the open door of the signal vehicle.