October 24, at noon, at the 51st Army tank assembly point on the East Bank of the Valdai Hills River, corps commander Korodov was anxiously pacing back and forth.
The liaison officer from the engineering troops reassured him, "We'll definitely have the pontoon bridge set up before the deadline, just be patient."
"I know you can. But I wish we could cross earlier! Prosen's anti-tank units and tank units are highly elite. If we could attack earlier and catch them off guard! By the time they react and gather their tank units for a counterstrike, we... We would be..."
Korodov flung his arm in frustration. "Anyway, just earlier!"
He ended up not finishing his sentence.
In fact, all the tank officers present knew what was left unsaid: we would be annihilated by the Prosen tank operators.
The war had been going on for over a year, and Ante tank operators had accepted the reality that they would face severe losses against Prosen tank units.
