Arc of Fire

Wang Zhong, while playing Company of Heroes 2, liked to use flamethrowers, yet the game’s flamethrowers, although powerful, were not invincible.

The Company of Heroes series of games featured a retreat mechanism: Press the T key, and your troops would sprint away (the latest third installment seemed to have changed the key). If confronted with a flamethrower, pressing T fast enough could save the burning troops and allow them to retreat back to base engulfed in flames.

But reality was not so forgiving; in real life, those hit by a flamethrower would lose their combat effectiveness instantly, left to roll on the ground unable to do anything else.

Only those with extremely tenacious willpower could continue to fight while engulfed in flames.

The current Third Company of the Amur Group, although high in morale, had not yet become a disciplined force with that kind of willpower.

Wang Zhong had to eliminate these combat engineers quickly, or else they might just take over the whole village.

————

The company commander, Sherchev, shouted loudly, “It’s the combat engineers, the submachine gun bullets are too weak to penetrate their armor, use rifles!”

"But Commander, most of us are equipped with submachine guns for close-quarters combat!”

"Then fucking use machine guns!”

As Sherchev grabbed the machine gun from its operator, an explosion sounded from the backyard of the house he was in; the combat engineers had likely blown up the yard’s wall with explosives.

Brandishing the machine gun, Sherchev rushed to the window and began to fire through the breach.

The first combat engineer to enter the door hadn’t yet squeezed the trigger before being hit by bullets, causing him and his armor to be pushed back several steps, with blood flowing from the gaps beneath his armor—clearly, the machine gun was loaded with full-powered rounds that had penetrated the armor.

The enemy still managed to pull the trigger, but due to falling backward, the flamethrower was raised high, and flames spouted into the air like a fountain, crossing the opposite wall and landing in the neighboring yard.

As he continued firing, Sherchev yelled, “You see? Their armor weighs at most a dozen kilos, it can’t stop full-powered rifle rounds!”

Submachine guns fire pistol ammunition, which has questionable penetrating power.

Sherchev had barely finished speaking when a grenade was thrown into the yard.

This was no ordinary stick grenade, but a combat engineer’s breach grenade, noticeably larger than a regular grenade.

Even elite combat engineers couldn’t throw such a grenade to the second floor from that distance, so Sherchev laughed, “A bigger grenade’s no good if you can’t throw it up here—”

The grenade on the ground floor exploded.

The wooden floor beneath Sherchev’s feet, along with the brick wall of the first floor, collapsed.

The adjacent submachine gunner cried out, “Commander!”

In that critical moment, combat engineers took advantage of the lull in machine gun fire to breach through the hole in the wall.

The submachine gunner immediately opened fire, with bullets clinking and clanging off the metal armor.

The Prussians laughed, and the flamethrower was aimed at the second floor—

Suddenly, a bullet struck the flamethrower’s fuel line; the high-pressure fuel sprayed out and vaporized in the air.

The vaporized fuel, contacting the flames at the head of the flamethrower, ignited and instantly engulfed the combat engineer in flames.

Screams echoed through the courtyard.

At that moment, Sherchev struggled to his feet and began firing the machine gun.

True Ante men fire machine guns standing up; accuracy be damned, the point is to appear fierce.

The combat engineer, barely alive from the fire, was finished off by a few rounds from the machine gun.

However, another grenade sailed over the wall, the same type of breach grenade as before.

Sherchev dropped the machine gun, picked up the grenade intending to throw it back, but just as he was getting ready, the thing exploded.

Sherchev was blown to pieces, his blood splattered all over the wall.

A third combat engineer clambered over the wall and directed his flamethrower towards the second floor.

————

Wang Zhong had witnessed the entire battle of Company Commander Sherchev; although he did not know the commander, he was still moved by his bravery.

Sherchev’s actions confirmed what Wang Zhong suspected: machine guns or rifles could penetrate the iron armor head-on.

After all, the level of technology in this world was similar to that of World War II. Soviet combat engineers back then couldn’t charge machine guns either; their armor was primarily designed to protect against submachine gun bullets and grenade shrapnel.

It was precisely because of this that the enemy’s combat engineers did not take to the roads but rather chose close-quarters combat where machine guns and rifles were less effective.

But they couldn’t stay off the roads forever.

It’s true that there are only three main roads forming a Y-shape leading to the village of Peniye, but there are also complicated side streets within the village. If the tanks block the intersections and wait at ease, they might be able to capture all the combat engineers in one fell swoop.

At that moment, Wang Zhong noticed that the half-track vehicle carrying the combat engineers had driven along the southwestern edge of the village to a lane leading out of the village and stopped next to a large pile of compost.

Next to the vehicle was a yard with a gate leading outside the village; obviously, the vehicle was waiting here to resupply the combat engineers once they reached this yard.

Wang Zhong decided to target this vehicle first.

By now, the tank had arrived in front of the mechanical mill, with two roads leading westward stretching out to both sides in front of the tank.

In the morning’s battle, Wang Zhong found that as long as the enemy’s tanks were stationed at the two western intersections, they could block the whole street. Ludmila’s Divine Arrow squad was trapped because of this and almost got caught by enemy infantry.

It was Wang Zhong himself who commanded the tank to fight against four and broke the encirclement.

Therefore, Wang Zhong specifically ordered Yegorov to drive the captured Prussian trucks onto the street, which along with the wreckage of the tanks, formed a blockade. Even if the enemy tanks were to reach the entrance of the village, they could only block the road from the village entrance to the blockade.

With the infantry crouching and relying on the blockades, they could still move freely on both sides of the main street.

The firepower of our machine guns was on the second floor, allowing it to sweep over the blockade and clear the enemies on the road.

Now, Wang Zhong realized that this blockade also limited the effectiveness of his own tank gun. Previously, stopping in front of the mechanical mill allowed control over the entire road, but now only half could be controlled.

But this was also good; approaching the alley, the tank’s body was covered, and only half of the turret was exposed, so there was no worry of being ambushed by enemy tanks.

Wang Zhong: “Take the left road. Move about fifty meters and stop at the alley’s entrance! Do you see the alley entrance fifty meters away?”

The driver responded to Wang Zhong with actions, as the tank directly took the left road heading straight for the alley entrance fifty meters away.

Wang Zhong: “Turret, turn left!”

The turret immediately began to turn left.

Su Fang was about to use the machine gun to shoot at the enemy on the street when the turret turned, causing the machine gun to move away from in front of her.

Wang Zhong and the tank hatch blocked Su Fang’s access to the machine gun.

Su Fang: “My machine gun!”

Wang Zhong ignored her as the tank had reached the alley entrance and came to a sudden stop, shaking a little from front to back.

The half-track vehicle parked on the other side of the alley saw the tank; the Prussians on it shouted “Akh-toong,” and turned the vehicle-mounted machine gun towards the tank, only then realizing that the firing arc was insufficient—the machine gun could only cover a frontal arc, but the vehicle was parked sideways at the alley entrance.

Wang Zhong had not yet shouted fire when the tank gun fired.

The half-track vehicle must have been loaded with a lot of explosives, and flame-thrower fuel or something, as it immediately burst into an orange fireball that slowly rose, resembling a nuclear explosion.

Wang Zhong just watched as fragments bearing the Prussian cross flew past him, embedding themselves into the brick crevices of houses on the other side of the street.

Su Fang was blown off the tank by the blast wave, landing butt-first on the ground, and immediately started howling, “Ahh ahh ahh, my butt!”

Wang Zhong was about to say something when the enemy’s combat engineers climbed over the blast-damaged courtyard wall.

The enemy was clearly dazed by the explosion, freezing for a moment upon seeing the tank.

Wang Zhong immediately grabbed the anti-aircraft machine gun on top of the tank turret—the one Su Fang had been using—and fired at the enemy.

The sight was set to 300, but Wang Zhong didn’t aim; he just shot guided by the tracer rounds.

The combat engineers were hit by several shots and fell to the ground.

Wang Zhong switched to the overhead view and immediately ordered, “High-Explosive Shell, hit the courtyard next to it!”

"No firing angle!”

"Shoot the floor!”

A High-Explosive Shell hit the ground, and from the overhead view, Wang Zhong could see the combat engineers inside the courtyard being thrown onto the ground.

But their armor served its purpose; after all, the main gun of Tank 422 was only 45 millimeters, and its fragments might not penetrate the steel, only able to injure the enemies’ limbs.

At this moment, Sherchev’s subordinates appeared.

They charged across the alley shouting “Ura!” and crossed the flames left by the recent explosion, using their bayonets to finish off the still-grounded combat engineers.

The enemy’s neck did not have any protection!

Wang Zhong yelled: “Be careful to capture the flamethrowers! Be careful to capture the flamethrowers!”

Then he heard an engine sound, quickly searched for its source, and saw the enemy tanks that had been two hundred meters away starting to advance.

It looked like the fireworks Wang Zhong had caused had made them restless.