Arc of Fire

Nelly truly received a Mosin-Nagant rifle.

Then she regretfully realized that, even though she was eighteen and even without the cumbersome long bayonet attached, she was still not as tall as the rifle.

The Quartermaster who handed her the rifle was serious, "We Naval Infantry don’t have optical sights, you can only get used to the mechanical sight."

"I’m very used to it," Nelly said, "When I was shooting rabbits, I used a mechanical sight."

The old Quartermaster looked at Nelly skeptically, "The General and the former Crown Prince went hunting, and it was really you who did the shooting?"

"Mhm," Nelly nodded.

"Alright, come, take these clothes and this military uniform. This is the smallest uniform we could find here."

"I can just wear my maid outfit."

"No, that’s too conspicuous."

Nelly, however, pointed at the mud spots on her skirt, "It won’t be long before the white turns to the color of mud, don’t worry."

The old Quartermaster sighed, "Even a girl like you has to roll in the mud, war is truly detestable, the Invaders are truly detestable."

Nelly didn’t respond, she bent her head to check the bullets she had been given.

At that moment, the Naval Infantry Brigade Commander, carrying the rank of Brigadier, approached, "Are you the General’s Orderly? Come help make coffee at the Brigade Headquarters."

"No, I want to fight the Prosens, to be with the warriors," Nelly coldly said, "I’m just a hired worker, and not under your command."

"In theory, even a rabbit on this battlefield falls under my command," the Brigadier stopped, watching as Nelly expertly checked the Mosin-Nagant’s bore.

The old Quartermaster beside her said, "She might shoot better than most of our recruits, you can rest assured, Brigade Commander."

"How could I be assured, what if General Rocosov asks me later, and I say your Orderly..." At that moment, a howling sound came from the sky.

Nelly immediately threw herself against the trench wall, her reaction faster than both the Brigadier and the old Quartermaster.

While taking cover, the Brigadier shouted, "Take cover! Artillery is coming, take cover!"

The shells fell, but they did not shake the ground as intensely as anticipated.

The Brigadier lifted his head, "What’s going on? No Heavy Artillery? It feels like the biggest tubes are just 105 millimeters."

In fact, 105mm howitzers were already powerful enough, perhaps the Naval Infantry’s perception of cannon caliber differed from the Army’s. After all, they were Navy, and on a warship, a 105mm gun was only considered a fire poker, the main guns on a Destroyer were 127mm.

The bombardment lasted for 20 minutes, a rather short period of time for a preparatory barrage.

Moreover, the density of the falling shells was not very high.

Nelly got up, looked down at her maid outfit, and sure enough, the white had nearly disappeared. One more bombardment and she would blend completely with the position.

The Brigadier seemed to want to persuade Nelly again, but a loud call came from the observation post, "Tanks! Enemy tanks approaching!"

Following that, the roar of engines pierced everyone’s ears.

The Brigadier turned and ran towards the command post, shouting as he went, "Into the positions! Get into positions! Anti-tank guns and Anti-tank Rifle bearers get ready! Grenadiers, check your ammunition!"

After the Brigadier left, Nelly turned to the Quartermaster and said, "I’m also going to fight, you—"

She stopped, seeing the old Quartermaster fallen in the trench.

After a moment of silence, she reached out and gently closed the old man’s eyes, then pulled a letter, now half stained with blood, from his pocket and stuffed it into her maid outfit.

Then she adjusted her beret, took her Mosin-Nagant which was taller than herself, and quickly moved along the trench until she arrived at the foremost firing pit in no time.

An old non-commissioned officer named Malov was in the pit, encouraging the new recruits. When he saw Nelly show up, he exclaimed, "How did you get to the firing pit, get to the back! Wait until you hear someone shout ’Medic’ and then come to rescue us!"

Nelly patted her Mosin-Nagant.

Malov: "Nonsense! Look how many Papashas we have! Are we missing your one Mosin-Nagant? We know you’re representing the General here, but—"

A shrapnel round fired from a Prosen tank exploded behind Malov. Zaitsev, lying next to Malov, turned his head and said, "Damn, what’s that explosion? Our machine guns haven’t fired yet! Wait, we don’t have machine guns here, do we?"

Malov smacked him on the head, "It’s to scare new recruits like you! The machine guns will open fire soon!"

Before he could finish, the Prosens’ tanks opened fire, and bullets swept over the heads of the warriors like a violent storm. At this moment, whether they were veterans or new recruits, even Malov himself ducked.

"See!" he shouted loudly, "That’s how it is, this is suppressive fire."

Even seasoned warriors cannot change their instinct to avoid danger; when a large number of bullets are landing all around, most will have adrenaline surging and heart rates accelerating.

Those who are more afraid of dying will curl up in a ball, unable to even shoot.

Zaitsev: "Then what do we do in this situation?"

"Wait until the enemy comes within 100 meters, then the Papashas can achieve better accuracy. Before that, the machine guns will block the enemy infantry," Malov patted Zaitsev’s shoulder.

That’s when he noticed Nelly lying at a specifically designed firing port in the pit, her rifle already propped up.

"What are you doing? If our anti-tank guns haven’t opened fire then that means the enemy tanks are still beyond 500 meters, and their infantry is behind the tanks, so right now..."

Nelly ignored Malov and carefully adjusted her range to the 700-meter mark.

Yes, the Mosin-Nagant’s mechanical sight can be set to that range, but ordinary people wouldn’t need to use that sight setting.

Then Nelly aimed at a target.

At that distance, with the naked eye, it was impossible to distinguish which black dot was an infantryman and which was an officer, so Nelly simply picked a target at random.

She pulled the trigger.

Beside her, Malov commented, "The shooting posture is quite standard, no buttstock hitting the shoulder. But can you really hit accurately at this distance, young lady?"

Nelly didn’t answer, but Zaitsev shouted, "Down! An infantryman is down!"

Seeing the enemy fall, Nelly breathed a sigh of relief, then worked the bolt to eject the spent cartridge case, which flew out of the ejection port, bounced once in the trench, and finally rolled to a stop at Malov’s feet.

Malov stepped on the cartridge case and squinted at Nelly.

At this time, she fired again.

The platoon leader was running towards them, shouting, "Malov, why is someone here firing single shots? Tell her not to shoot!"

"We’ve got a female sniper here!" Malov shouted back, "She’s already taken down two."

"I wasn’t informed that a female sniper had joined," the platoon leader approached and, upon seeing Nelly, he changed his tune, "That’s good, but Miss Nelly, if you could just obey the trench discipline a little better. When the enemy gets closer, you can target officers and those sergeants with submachine guns, even aim for their Wound Badges and Iron Crosses."

Those with Wound Badges were likely the core returned from injuries, and those with Iron Crosses went without saying.

Nelly nodded: "Understood. I’m sorry."

"No problem, it’s good as long as you’re taking out the Prosens," the platoon leader nodded and turned to walk back the way he came.

At this time the anti-tank gun fired, indicating the enemy tanks had crossed the marked distance.

Malov lay on the edge of the trench, cautiously peering out and indeed saw a Panzer IV engulfed in flames.

"Good!" he shouted with a clenched fist.

It was of course the naval infantry who were equipped with 45mm anti-tank units, but the anti-tank gun units at the beachhead were now equipped with ZIS-3 type 76mm anti-tank guns. It was quite easy to penetrate a Panzer IV’s weak points at a distance of 500 meters.

After all, the Panzer IV was fundamentally designed that way; after being equipped with a heavier long-barrel 75mm gun, there wasn’t much weight redundancy left for reinforcing armor.

The second shot from the ZIS-3 hit a Panzer III but only stopped the tank.

The Prosen Tankers swiftly ran out of the tank and lay flat on the ground for concealment.

Clearly, they too were well versed in this drill.

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At the same time, several Panzer IVs returned fire, and explosions immediately came from the anti-tank gun positions.

Malov: "Let’s see how reliable the shelter we worked overtime to build last night without sleep is! It has to hold against the Panzer IV’s shrapnel!"

Before he finished speaking, another Panzer IV was hit, but this time the armor-piercing shell didn’t hit a weak spot accurately, and due to a bad angle, it was deflected by the front armor of the turret.

The Panzer IV continued to fire, as the anti-tank gun positions were engulfed in smoke from the shrapnel explosions.

The Panzer III tanks, meanwhile, fired a barrage while advancing towards the trenches.

When they crossed the 200-meter marker, machine guns opened fire, and the crossfire forced the infantry following the tanks to go prone, disrupting the entire assault formation.

The naval infantry Grenadiers hidden in cat ear holes in front of the main firing trench quickly popped their heads out, tossing the first wave of incendiary bombs onto the Panzer III tanks within arm’s reach.

Several Panzer III tanks were instantly enveloped in flames.

Tank with the tactical number 143, a Panzer III, was hit on the engine vent cover and immediately came to a halt. The hatch of the turret opened, and the tank commander, holding an MP40, popped his head out to shoot at the Grenadier.

Nelly fired.

She had reset the sight to the default distance and relied entirely on instinct for the shot.

The Prosen tank commander was shot in the head, the bullet lifting the scalp and even breaking the crossbar on the headset.

As Nelly was pulling the bolt, the door of the Panzer III turret opened from the side, presumably the Gunner climbing out and jumping off the tank to run.

So Nelly sent a bullet into his back.

As she was working the bolt, Nelly heard Zaitsev nearby saying, "Malov, why do I feel the Mosin-Nagant is more useful than the Papasha?"

"That’s because she shoots accurately. Stick to your Papasha!" Malov scolded.

Nelly took out another Prosen officer, then pulled a cartridge from her pocket and placed it by the edge of the trench, starting to load and fire one round at a time.

Malov came over and said, "Let me help you with the magazines; you focus on firing."

"Thank you," Nelly whispered gently and took down a Prosen sergeant who was firing a submachine gun – the MP40 magazine was inserted vertically, requiring the upper body to be propped up while firing prone.

Malov finished loading the magazine and handed it to Nelly.

At that time, the Prosens began to retreat, releasing smoke.

Zaitsev asked in surprise, "Is that it?"

"This was a probing attack. Didn’t you notice the enemy numbers were very small? Not many accompanying infantry, and even the fire preparation was quite sloppy," Malov said while loading, "If I’m not mistaken, the real test will come tomorrow."

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