Chapter 46 Tank War

"Boom..."

The next morning, the sun had just emerged from the top of Dongfangzhe Mountain when a burst of cannons came from the battlefield.

On the contact line between the Volunteer Army and the United Nations Army, such gunfire sounds have long been no longer strange, but unlike usual, the gunfire sounds this time came from the Volunteer Army's artillery units.

I lay on the trenches and took out my pocket watch in my pocket and looked at the time. The pointer just pointed to seven o'clock, and it was not bad at all. I chose this time because I found that the US and British troops rarely launched attacks in the early morning. I think this should have something to do with their superior living conditions! Rich British and Americans! They are used to leisurely life and always regard the early morning as the starting point of the day, so they are always used to hoping for a good start...

It is precisely because of this habit that the early morning is often the safest on the positions where the British and American troops are duel. Sometimes they will fire a random gun at the volunteers' positions aimlessly, but that is just their artillery is bored in the morning exercise.

But I didn't let them do what they wanted, and I chose this when they just got up and were about to wash. I could almost see those British guys brushing their teeth naked and shaving while listening to music, suddenly a burst of artillery fire broke out to make them feel embarrassed and panicked, and they looked furious.

This is exactly what I want, to irritate my opponents first and make them lose their minds. Although this method is a bit old-fashioned, it is very practical.

The shells exploded on the enemy's positions one by one, and dust and smoke were raised on the enemy's positions. I raised my telescope and looked at the enemy's positions. At first, I saw several enemies running in panic in search of cover, but after a while, I could see nothing. There were only a bunch of loess soaring into the sky, barbed wire and sandbags thrown into the sky...

Fifteen minutes passed quickly, and the artillery fire began to slowly move towards the enemy in depth. In order to better lure the enemy out of the fortifications, the soldiers fired machine guns and rifles, and at the same time they also blew the charge. Then the unique shouts of killing sounds also sounded, as if the entire army launched a general attack on the enemy's position. However, no warrior on the position launched a charge against the enemy.

The enemy was indeed fooled. In the aperture of the telescope, I could clearly see the British soldiers on the opposite position emerging from their heads and put up various weapons on the trenches. Some British soldiers even felt strange because they only heard the shouts of killing but did not see the volunteer soldiers, and they poked their heads out and looked around.

But before they could react, another violent bombardment rushed them all into the air, and then they fell heavily to the ground along with the dust and sandbags.

At this time, even if they found out that they were deceived, I nodded with satisfaction. If the shelling can achieve such an effect, the pressure on the soldiers to charge will be much less.

"Tututu..." Ten minutes later, three red signal flares rose in the sky. The charge sounded again, and the shouts of killing sounded. At the same time, the volunteer artillery also began to suppress the enemy's deep artillery. This time the charge was real!

I saw eleven T-34 tanks that had been ready for attack, and they emerged from the tunnel first, lined up on the open ground, making a huge roar and majestic roar towards the enemy's position.

The soldiers also jumped out of the trenches, holding bayonets, holding submachine guns, machine guns and other weapons, and followed the tanks toward the enemy's positions. Even if the soldiers did not have the cover of the tanks, they would charge towards the enemy with the enemy's artillery fire and bullets without hesitation. Now they have their own tanks in front of them, and I don't know if it's a psychological effect. Even I think the soldiers' steps are particularly firm and the shouts are particularly powerful! Although the dust and exhaust gas raised behind the T-34's butt can almost be compared with the US smoke bombs, the soldiers didn't mind at all and kept drilling into the smoke...

"Boom!" The volunteer tanks fired several shells while advancing, and several earth pillars exploded, and several barbed wires arranged by the British army in front of the position were also blown into the sky.

"Good fight!" I couldn't help but praise.

If the period when the Volunteer Tanks were not counted as artillery "to use war instead of training" was not included, it was the first time they went to the battlefield. When they went to the battlefield, they could accurately hit the enemy's barbed wire while the tanks were marching, which shows that the Volunteer Tanks did put a lot of effort into shooting skills.

Think about it, China has just been founded and is still in a period of poverty and in ruins. At this time, the people of the whole country tightened their belts on hungry days, and many elderly people even donated their coffins to get money to buy weapons and equipment from the Soviet Union. How could the soldiers not cherish the tanks obtained in this way?

Moreover, the Volunteer Army has always done a good job in propaganda to the soldiers. The Propaganda Department, Art Troupe, Political Commissar, Instructor, etc., through flyers, slogans, volunteer military newspapers, performances, and even meetings, heart-to-heart talks, etc., are promoting the soldiers the contributions made by the domestic military and civilians to fight against the US aggression to the Korean War. So the soldiers all know how difficult these tanks and these shells are for us. In this case, the tankers of the Volunteer Army can not practice their skills and operation techniques without hard work. Isn’t this? We can see the greatness after firing a few shots at the beginning.

The British troops stationed on the high ground were not weak. Although they suffered heavy casualties under the two rounds of artillery fire of our army, they were shocked to see the volunteer army, which was usually very poorly equipped, suddenly drove more than a dozen tanks from the front. But they are worthy of being recognized as the world-renowned ace troops. These unexpected blows did not scare them. The surviving soldiers had already emerged from the trenches and raised various weapons to fire at the charging volunteer army.

But unfortunately, the Volunteer Army soldiers, who have always been at a disadvantage in equipment, have gained unprecedented advantages in equipment on this local battlefield, because the Volunteer Army now has tanks called the King of Infantry War...

Rows of machine gun bullets on the 237th Highlands were fired, but then they realized the helplessness of the volunteer soldiers in the past duel. The bullets had almost no effect except for making sounds like fried beans on the tank armor.

On the other hand, the tanks of the Volunteer Army were showing their power at this time. They slowly rushed forward, rotating the turret and adjusting the angle. Then, with a "boom", a shell directly hit the British trenches piled up with sandbags, and immediately bombarded the trenches and sandbags.

Speaking of T-34, I think even modern people will be well aware of this kind of tank that defeated Germany. During World War II, T-34/76 created the famous "T-34 crisis". The so-called "T-34 crisis" refers to Germany launching a "blitz war" in the early stages of the war. In the manufacture of tanks, it pays more attention to the mobility of tanks rather than the firepower and protection of tanks. Therefore, when it invaded the Soviet Union, it was found that no tank could compete with the T-34 tank. The "T-34" tank is also famous all over the world.

However, due to the emergence of the German Tiger tank, the 76-mm cannon equipped with the t-34/76 could not pose a threat to it, so it developed a more powerful t-34/85.

t-34/85 is the tank that the volunteer soldiers are now equipped with. The "85" behind it refers to the caliber of its tank gun with a caliber of 85 mm. Like the advanced tanks of this era, the tank gun used by the t-34/85 is also an anti-aircraft gun. Because it increases the caliber of the tank gun, it uses a turret with a larger space redesign, so it is also called the "big-head t-34".

The Volunteers had never used tanks on the battlefield before. Because of habit, the British troops guarding the high ground were helpless until this time that they had almost no anti-tank weapons. Even though they had a large number of recoil-free cannons and rocket launchers in their hands, they were all high-explosive bombs, incendiary bombs and smoke bombs against infantry... The armor-piercing bombs used to deal with tanks were long gone.

So, without any effective interception, the eleven "Big Head T-34" drove slowly in front of the soldiers, leading a large number of volunteer soldiers to charge towards the 237 Highland. As the team was about to successfully attack the 237 Highland, an enemy "Churchill" tank suddenly appeared at the corner of the road at the foot of the mountain. And listening to the roar of the motor, there seemed to be many tanks driving up behind them.

The British were beaten up!

Seeing this, I couldn't help laughing secretly. They might have lost their minds by the bombing of the artillery, or they were panicked by the volunteer tanks like this. Otherwise, they would never let such slow and low-fire infantry tanks take the lead. This would have almost no effect except that it would block the intersection.

The tankers of the Volunteer Army must have always paid attention to the road intersection at the foot of the 237 Highland. At this time, when they discovered the figure of the enemy tank, three tank turrets immediately swirled towards the "Churchill" tank...

Seeing this, I couldn't help frowning. Although the soldiers were well-trained, they were inexperienced and did not have enough understanding of the enemy's tanks. Although the "Churchill" tank had poor performance in all aspects, its biggest feature is that its protective performance is quite good, especially its front armor reached 152 mm thick, which far exceeded the German "Tiger" tank. It is impossible for an 85 mm anti-aircraft gun on the T-34 to penetrate the "Churchill" in the front!

Seeing this, I didn't curse myself secretly. Why didn't I expect to tell our tank soldiers about all aspects of British tanks before the war? It's too late to regret it now...

With a few roars, the t-34 fired. The tankers of the Volunteer Army were indeed from the "Hero Tanks 1st Regiment". After three shells hit, two shots were hit, which was already a high hit rate for the tanks advancing. Unfortunately, the result was as I imagined. After the smoke dissipated, "Churchill" still slowly drove forward.

With a "boom", what makes me a little funny is that the Churchill tank also fired, and it can actually hit... However, the 57mm cannon on the Churchill tank has no effect on the armor of the T-34 tank at all, although the armor of the T-34 tank is only 45mm.

The armor thickness of the 45 mm of the t-34 tank is not much thicker than the 30 mm armor of the "Xiafei" light tank equipped by the US military, but the unique inclined appearance of the t-34 is the real magic weapon for its protection. First, the inclined armor is easily bounced after being hit by the shell, that is, a "bounce", which greatly reduces the power of the shell. Secondly, according to the principle of triangulation, a horizontal shell shot after hitting the inclined armor, the thickness of the steel plate that needs to pass through is equivalent to the triangular oblique edge. Therefore, the t-34 tank has a 45 mm thick front armor with a 32-degree oblique angle of the front armor, and the protection ability of the 49-degree oblique angle is equivalent to 54 mm.

Because of these two points, although the armor thickness of the t-34 is similar to that of the light tank, its protection is comparable to that of the medium tank. However, it still cannot compete with the enemy's heavy tanks such as the "Pershing" and "Captain Hundred-Man" styles on the front.

As if I was responding to me, two tanks followed behind the Churchill. When I arrived at the fourth one, my brow frowned - the heavy tank of the "Captain Hundred-Man" appeared.

The enemy tanks are advanced than our army in terms of quantity and equipment, so it is obvious that once enemy tanks surge out of this intersection, it will not only put our tank troops in a passive position, but also cause the soldiers who are charging towards the 237 high ground to suffer a large number of casualties. At that time, it will be impossible to capture the 237 high ground within half an hour.

It was a long time to talk about it, and that was soon! Just as I was secretly worried about the soldiers, our tank troops realized the danger and soon divided four tanks into several directions to surround the intersection.

"Beautiful!" Looking at their reaction, I couldn't help but scream.

The soldiers' reactions may be out of instinct. If they cannot penetrate the enemy's front armor, they will go around the side of the enemy tank to fight! This is something that all tankers will fight for, but this move is exactly the fatal point of the "Churchill" tank.

The reason why the "Churchill" tank is called an infantry tank is because it was developed to cover infantry rather than to conduct tank warfare. Covering infantry is not very demanding on speed, but in tank warfare, if the speed is not fast enough, you can only allow the opponent to go around his side or even behind and attack weak parts of his armor...

The maximum itinerary of the t-34 is 55 kilometers per hour, which is more than twice the speed of the Churchill tank from 20 to 25 kilometers per hour. So just when the second Churchill tank drove out of the intersection, the three T-34s had already gone to the side of the Churchill.

At this time, "Churchill" faces a dilemma. If they drive straight forward, they will expose their side to the three T-34s. If they turn around and face these three T-34s, they will expose their other side to all the other T-34s.

Seeing this, I couldn't help but feel relieved. I almost saw the tank being hit and flames popping up, blocking all the tanks behind it's moving forward. But at this moment, an unexpected thing happened.

The first "Churchill" suddenly drove at full speed and made a ninety-degree turn and stopped on the side of the road. Almost at the same time, the tank hatch opened, and all the tankers inside actually abandoned the car and fled...

With a "boom!", our tankers would certainly not miss this opportunity. Several tanks fired shells at the unmanned "Churchill". With a roar, the "Churchill" turned into a bunch of fireballs. Of course, the soldiers would not easily give up the British tankers who abandoned their cars and fled. After a few machine guns, the fleeing British tankers were knocked to the ground.

Just as I was secretly wondering why the enemy's tanker did this, the second "Churchill" slowly drove out of the intersection, just like the first one, driving the tank to the side of the road and then the crew fled...

When the third Churchill drove into the open ground with fearlessness, I understood their intention - they were using explosive tanks to protect the flanks of other tanks. Now our army was going around the three tanks on their flanks, most of the firepower was blocked by the two burning Churchills, and the flames and smoke produced by their combustion were effectively prevented from being accurately aimed!

Damn! Seeing this, I couldn't help but punch my fist hard. How could these British guys have such a tacit understanding! They would sacrifice themselves to open a channel for their comrades behind them... Is this a manifestation of the gentlemanly demeanor of the British? Or did they usually train like this?

I was powerless now, so I had to watch the first "Churchill" driving into the open space, followed by three "Captain Hundred-Man" heavy tanks in the back. A flexibly rotating turret led by the leader, then a "boom" knocked a T-34 into a ball of fire.

This guy's tank gun is 105mm caliber, which is 20mm larger than the t-34. The 45mm thick armor of the t-34 is not like a toy in front of it.
Chapter completed!