07:48
Along with HE rounds, we start to see smoke dropping to our front. Clearly we aren't meant to see what is building in the distance.
08:00
For fifteen minutes we have experienced continuous incoming fire from enemy artillery and mortars. This is a new experience and provides stark evidence that Ivan is far from defeated.
First contact in the north comes in the form of a pair of scout cars and a single T-28 tank with mounted infantry. One of the scout cars is dispatched and the mounted infantry quickly bails from their ride at the sign of our first incoming round.
The northern platoon of 5cm guns while waiting for enemy contact has seen quite a bit of artillery land to their front.
One can sometimes tell just from the number of incoming rounds what is coming our way. The Soviet 122mm batteries fire twenty four rounds at a time compared to sixteen from their 82mm mortar sections. The fire seems rather haphazard, but with all the tubes available to him, he can afford to be. Sooner or later one or more rounds are bound to find their mark. In fact, one such round caught one of our southern AT gun trucks square, and scattered the attending gun crew.
Also in the south, the first Russian armor appears. Four luckless T-60 light tanks fall victim to StuG section #2.
So far, nothing we haven't been able to handle.