Chapter 338 05.0337: "'Hill of the Natural Chasm'"

The land Horatio was standing on was located in a compression zone between continental crustal plates.

The Montachia Mountains, a hilly belt stretching for dozens of kilometers in the peripheral agricultural area, are the product of this compression zone.

It is not high, with the highest altitude being 67 meters and the average altitude being 50 meters.

But on the flat plain, there is a 50-meter-high hilly belt located horizontally, and Highway 54 is sandwiched in the middle, so this place is destined to become a "natural moat".

Horatio still stood straight, looking at the terrain through his monocular.

Montachia is more of a 'cannon hill' than a mountain.

The entire middle of the continuous mountain has been hollowed out, and a group of bunkers have been built on all sides of the hill to provide complete defense against incoming enemies.

Judging from this meticulous, rigorous and detailed architectural style, the permanent fortification line here is likely to be a masterpiece of the Iron Warriors.

There are heavy weapons bunkers, machine gun bunkers, artillery bunkers, and each bunker is well camouflaged.

Although the Hell's Vanguard had indeed discovered a firing point in the distance before, due to the existence of camouflage, they were still unable to accurately locate it and launch an effective air strike.

Horatio tried to have the Starhawk bombers bomb several times, but with little success.

It was not until the heavy artillery of the Astra Militarum plowed the entire hill from top to bottom that these quick-setting earth bunkers that blended into the natural environment and blended seamlessly with the white snow truly revealed their true form.

At this time, although some artillery bunkers had lost their function due to the collapse caused by the carpet bombing before the war, some of them had their gun barrels and other devices damaged by the artillery and tank guns of the Astra Militarum.

But there are still many bunkers that are still outputting firepower.

In a crude Normandy-style infantry bunker that was obviously added later and made of quick-cement, two rebel soldiers set up lumbering guns on the left and right, and fired at the British soldiers who were charging on the plain with the help of the Leman Russ hull, trying to suppress them and slow down their advance.

Under the continuous shooting, their gun barrels had overheated, emitting a red to white light, and the projected ballistics swayed and scattered like a smoothbore rifle, but the pressing Astra Militarum troops left them no time to replace the red-hot gun barrels.

Magazines filled with large-caliber live ammunition were delivered by the rebel soldiers in the rear through the open bunker door. The thousands of rounds of ammunition fired here so far have caused the deaths of several Astra Militarum soldiers.

Faced with the bunker spewing flames, the Astra Militarum would naturally not sit idly by.

After clearing out the surrounding enemies, the heavy weapons team of the British infantry squad advanced through the trenches, set up heavy bombs and heavy logging guns on the ceramic steel breastworks of the rebel defense line that had been controlled, and carried out reverse fire suppression on the bunkers.

Beep, bang, bang!

With the help of long-range sights, the automatic artillery team used a burst of precise short shots and luckily shattered the upper body of one of the machine gunners.

But in the fortress, the deputy shooter at the side picked up the red-hot logging rifle without hesitation, set it up at the firing hole in the bunker, and continued to fire outward. One of the rebel soldiers who were carrying ammunition also stepped out to serve as the deputy shooter.

The exposed automatic artillery team was immediately counterattacked by the rebels' light weapons fire from two directions. With the deputy gunner injured and bleeding, they had to change their positions and let nearby infantry take over.

"Tank No. 311, go blow up that damn bunker, coordinates 259.173!! Quick!"

The sergeant of the infantry platoon initially assessed the fortress in front of them, which was obviously built by the rebels themselves, as having poor construction quality. Even the shooting holes had obvious flaws and the openings were too large, so he could not help but look down on it.

He thought he could take it down with the infantry and weapons team at hand, but ended up suffering a small loss.

The sergeant quickly adjusted his emotions and grabbed the communication sound array microphone behind the platoon signalman, contacted the leading Leman Russ tank that was suppressing the trench in front with firepower, requested tank artillery support, and opened fire at the bunker where two logging guns were mounted.

At this moment, there were too many bunkers firing at the front line, and the commander was unable to identify them for a while after receiving the message. After observing and calculating the direction through the periscope, he finally identified the target that was spewing flames.

Soon, Leman Russ turned the short, black muzzle of the gun and aimed it at the bunker.

boom!
A grenade hit the outer wall of the quick-concrete breastwork. Inside the fortress, several black shadows flew out like rag dolls, and the gunfire stopped temporarily.

The British line soldiers, advancing on Leman Russ tanks, seized the opportunity to maneuver quickly, but before long, the fortress, whose surface had been bombed into pits and pockmarks and looked like it was covered with pockmarks, began shooting outwards again.

No one knew how many rebels had hidden in this hollowed-out hill.

A huge cannon protruded from the bunker, which was only slightly higher than the ground and covered with camouflage nets and snowy grass. Because of its low terrain, it survived the artillery battle last night.

boom!
The cannon fired unexpectedly. Boom!
An armor-piercing shell hit the front armor of the Leman Russ tank, but fortunately the angle was not good and it ricocheted obliquely.

The entire vehicle body was still shaking slightly from the impact just now. The commander hurriedly looked for the enemy's shooting direction. At the same time, because there were Astra Militarum infantry everywhere around the tank, he did not dare to maneuver and dodge at will.

boom!
Another shell was fired at the Leman Russ tank. This time, the thick armor-piercing warhead was embedded in the vehicle body and failed to penetrate the thickest and strongest front armor area of ​​the Leman Russ. The metal flowers turned outward near the warhead emitted wisps of white smoke.

The commander finally discovered the sneak attack from the Hongsheng cannon and reported the enemy's position with gritted teeth. The gunner immediately manipulated the turret and pushed the muzzle downward, but found that the position of the bunker was lower than the depression angle of -8 degrees.

Seeing that he could not destroy the target, the commander immediately sought support from other crews on the channel and used the vehicle's sound array to notify the infantry following the vehicle, urging them to disperse. The heavy body of the Leman Russ slowly retreated, trying to pull out a depressed firing range.

boom!
Another shell hit the vehicle, this time hitting the track on the rigid suspension.

A big hole suddenly appeared in the middle of the thick steel track. Under the huge impact, the two nearby tracks became dislocated and fell off, with the lower half hanging weakly from the drive wheel to the ground.

Higher up, a 180mm earthshaker with a dozen armor-piercing shells embedded in its several-meter-thick gun shield slowly turned its muzzle and aimed at the Leman Russ tank whose tracks were broken and could not move.

The rebel gunners used the Z-shaped light-refracting sight and the combined image rangefinder installed in the quick-concrete on the artillery bunker to aim at and lock the paralyzed Leman Russ tank.

boom!
A conspicuous golden flame spewed out from the muzzle, and in just a blink of an eye, the No. 311 Leman Russ tank was directly hit by a 180mm high-explosive shell.

The fire came before the sound.

The huge car body was instantly blown into pieces by the shells. A transmission wheel was thrown out in the explosion, leaving a puff of snow and mud mixture floating on the road.

The surrounding infantry had dispersed when the Leman Russ tank reversed, but several people were unable to dodge and were blown away by the explosion caused by the 8mm shell with 180kg of explosive. Their lives and deaths are unknown.

"Find cover! Find cover!" Without the cover of the Leman Russ tanks, the infantry on this section of the front could only look for cover nearby. Before the Leman Russ tanks of the third echelon in the rear arrived to fill the position, they lost the ability to advance the attack.

Any flesh and blood body is vulnerable to the gunfire in the bunker.

"Roar! Kill all the Corpse King's lackeys!" The rebels who were beaten to the point of being unable to raise their heads by the Astra Militarum saw a Leman Russ tank being blown to pieces, and they raised their arms and shouted excitedly.

"Oh! God-Emperor! May the God-Emperor redeem the souls of those poor young people."

This scene caused the noble ladies who were watching the battle through small gold- and diamond-studded telescopes around the brigade headquarters to exclaim in surprise, and they touched their red lips with lace gloves with a hint of fear and sympathy.

Sir Wellesley's face was not looking good. Even from a distance, Horatio seemed to be able to hear the sound of his gnashing teeth.

As early as the previous reconnaissance phase before the Astra Militarum landing, Horatio discovered that bombers had little effect on camouflaged bunkers.

He had requested to use a light spear to bombard the middle of the hill, far away from the road.

Captain Peru also immediately submitted the process to the Ministry of the Interior official on board, requesting the use of minimal orbital bombardment to carry out orbital fire strikes on the bunker cluster before the Astra Militarum launched its next offensive.

However, the Interior Ministry officials on board the ship also need to contact the Agathon Sector Interior Ministry, which dispatched this expedition mission.

A few weeks later, the group of people, holding a parchment map that was probably hundreds or thousands of years old, rejected the application for orbital bombardment on the grounds that "the area is an important agricultural production area."

Even when the administrative review was subsequently filed, the materials were specially uploaded with markings of some of the bunkers discovered by the reconnaissance scouts, but the Ministry of the Interior, which received the news, still rejected the only review and approval, completely cutting off the last chance.

"After evaluation by multiple expert groups, it was determined that the area is an important agricultural production area. Orbital bombardment will lead to the irreversible loss of the Empire's precious assets. In addition, the Imperial Navy should not interfere with the strategy and tactics of the Astra Militarum."

Now, the Imperial Navy is completely not allowed to use light spear bombardment here.

In this regard, Horatio couldn't help but sigh that the Ministry of the Interior's actions were as outrageous as using a tourist map to command a battle.

But unfortunately, the Ministry of the Interior is the common superior department of the Ministry of the Navy and the Ministry of Military Affairs. Without the authorization of this group of civilian officials, the Imperial Navy cannot pretend to obey and secretly disobey. After all, the Military Supervisor is watching nearby, and he is not Farida, so he is not so easy to talk to.

So Horatio had to find another way to support the Astra Militarum's advance.

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(End of this chapter)