Arc of Fire

The two tanks flanking the enemy came to a halt upon seeing the smoke, likely opting not to charge through it for caution’s sake.

So Wang Zhong ordered, “Now is the time, floor the accelerator!”

The tank’s engine roared, but Wang Zhong quickly realized the problem with this approach.

In “Hero Tank Operator,” Tank 215 was stuck in a shell hole and couldn’t move, despite the tracks spinning wildly with the gears engaged, it still couldn’t get out. That’s why he floored the accelerator with the gears in place, making the tracks turn.

When the tracks turned, there was not only the roar of the engine but also the noise of the gearbox.

Tank 422 was merely revving the engine now, with the gearbox not engaged, meaning only the gears connected to the engine were spinning freely without that characteristic grinding noise of meshing gears.

Wang Zhong hadn’t thought of this before, and now the sound made him a bit flustered.

He began to worry that the enemy might see through the ruse, switching to a bird’s-eye view to watch the two Prosen tanks on the other side of the smoke.

The tactical numbers on the two tanks were 151 and 152, with Tank 151 sporting a longer antenna, suggesting it was the vehicle of a company or platoon commander.

From what Wang Zhong remembered, the real-life German army didn’t have so many command tanks with antennas, yet this Prosen army seemed to equip them quite commonly, with at least one or even two such tanks in a group of more than ten.

The enemy clearly valued radio communication!

Behind every military practice lies a wealth of bloody lessons. Is there something in this world that forced the Prussians to pay particular attention to radio communication?

Wang Zhong suddenly realized he shouldn’t be distracted; he was in the middle of battle, where any lapse could mean mortal danger, with distractions possibly proving fatal.

By now, the driver had begun to gradually reduce the throttle as instructed, causing the engine noise to decrease slowly.

Wang Zhong could only hope that the fierce gunshots and explosions in the village would drown out the noise from the gearbox and deceive the enemy.

The hatch of Tank 151 opened, and a black-uniformed officer wearing a tilted boat-shaped cap poked his head out, lifting his headphones as if listening.

He promptly picked up the handset and issued commands.

The two tanks slightly changed direction, beginning to bypass the smoke curtain’s flank—they had the same idea as Wang Zhong, to circumvent the smoke and seek a range advantage!

Wang Zhong had thought that if the enemy charged through the smoke, he would take the opportunity to fire a blind shot from his advantageous overhead perspective.

Now that the enemy was running laterally, Wang Zhong didn’t dare take the risk. Targeting a moving object was already challenging, and blindfiring at a moving target set too high a demand on the gunner’s skills.

It wasn’t about the gunner’s technical skills, but rather about luck.

He could only wait for the enemy to emerge before firing.

Wang Zhong, “Turn the turret left, the enemy will definitely bypass the smoke, we just aim at the edge of it. Set the sight to—”

He made a quick estimate.

“300! Adjust according to the situation!”

Over the tank’s intercom, the gunner asked, “What if the enemy charges through the smoke? If they come out and we can’t swing the turret fast enough, wouldn’t we be done for?”

Wang Zhong, “The enemy fears infantry Molotovs and doesn’t know the situation behind the smoke; they won’t dare!”

The rationale sounded convincing, and the gunner immediately dropped his objections.

In fact, the turret had already been turning when he had asked the question, indicating his complete trust in Wang Zhong’s judgment; it was just a matter of querying.

Wang Zhong nervously watched the enemy tanks, with Tank 152 taking the lead, about to flank around the smoke.

Despite the risk of being discovered for cheating, Wang Zhong still warned, “Get ready! The enemy is coming out!”

At this point, Tank 422 still had an advantage. The direction the enemy’s turrets were aiming clearly presupposed that the 422 had fled, but it hadn’t moved.

Therefore, when both sides established a line of sight, the enemy’s turret would probably need to turn an additional ten degrees or so to aim at the 422.

The time needed to rotate those ten degrees was the advantage of Tank 422.

Enemy Tank 152 charged past the smoke screen!

Wang Zhong, “Wait for it, wait for him to make an emergency stop!”

However, the commander of Tank 152 didn’t peek out, and didn’t see Tank 422 right away. It kept advancing!

Wang Zhong, “Never mind, fire!”

The shot struck the rear of the tank’s hull, hitting the engine directly, and Tank 152 lost power, starting to glide forward.

The crew smoothly popped the hatch and climbed out.

Wang Zhong’s heart skipped a beat, and he shouted, “Don’t shoot! Don’t reveal our position! There’s another one!”

But the electrotechnician had already pulled the trigger, and by the time he let go, a tracer round had already been fired off.

Wang Zhong watched as the tracer hit the gliding enemy tank and ricocheted into the sky.

It was over; unless the enemy were fools, they would have guessed their position by now.

From the overhead perspective, sure enough, Tank 151 began adjusting the angle of its turret.

Loader: “Armor-Piercing Shell, ready!”

Because the situation was so tense, he forgot to say “loading complete” and just shouted “ready.”

At that moment, Tank 151 suddenly changed its direction and charged through the smoke!

Good grief, the enemy changed tactics too, planning to rush through the smoke and catch Tank 422 by surprise as it aimed at the edge of the smoke.

Soon both sides would need to take aim again, and it would come down to a matter of professional skill level.

Unfortunately, Wang Zhong didn’t want to compete with the enemy.

"Rotate turret to the right, watch my signals!”

Having said that, Wang Zhong grabbed Su Fang’s hand and pulled the trigger.

The machine gun bullets included tracer rounds, which pierced through the smoke and struck the other side.

Wang Zhong, relying on the overhead view, adjusted the firing line of the tracer rounds until the red whip swept over the enemy tank.

The commander of Tank 151 immediately ducked, obviously not wanting to be hit by the machine gun fire.

But Tank 151 still continued in its original direction.

The turret of Tank 422 had already turned in the direction of the machine gun fire.

Wang Zhong: “Fire!”

Never mind whether it hits or not, let’s take a blind shot!

In the glow of the setting sun, the Armor-Piercing Shell traced a shining straight line, hitting Tank 151 on the side of its turret. Wang Zhong didn’t see clearly where it hit, he just saw a burst of sparks.

Right after that, the side hatch of Tank 151’s turret opened, clearly forced open by the damage from the Armor-Piercing Shell.

Tank 151 didn’t stop moving forward.

After the morning’s live combat, Wang Zhong already knew that in reality, it was very difficult to tell if a tank had been destroyed.

Quite often, tanks that were taken out did not catch fire or smoke; they just sat there, and you couldn’t tell from the outside that they’d been destroyed.

But Wang Zhong could easily judge if a tank was knocked out using his overhead perspective because enemies within his field of vision would be highlighted.

Conversely, if the enemies “went out,” then they were really gone.

Wang Zhong clearly saw that the enemy loader was gone.

He also noticed that the outline of the gunner was missing an arm.

But the gunner was still operating the turret with the remaining hand and both feet.

Aryan Superman, huh?

In the game, encountering this scenario, the most one would do is curse, “The planner’s mom has flown out of the solar system,” but in reality, this was deadly!

Tank 151 charged into the smoke and was about to burst through!

Wang Zhong: “Hurry up and load!”

Loader: “Armor-Piercing Shell, ready!”

Tank 151 burst out of the smoke, made a sudden stop, and its barrel was actually pointed right at Tank 422!

No, that’s not right, the enemy tank operators were well-trained; maybe they determined their direction using the tracer rounds from Su Fang just now.

Both sides fired almost at the same time!

The enemy didn’t even wait to come to a stop before firing!

Wang Zhong thought to himself: Please let it fly away!

Tank 151 exploded.

Wang Zhong burst into laughter; in War Thunder, he had seen this kind of scenario many times – firing without waiting to stop, then the shell flying off into the sky.

At that moment, the two tanks still positioned in the rear began to move.

Wang Zhong: “Quick! Load! There are still enemies waiting for us to take care of!”

However the loader didn’t respond.

Wang Zhong: “Loader!”

Suddenly, the gunner said: “He’s sacrificed himself, someone help me load!”