Chapter 1034 Zoo Tragedy

After a flurry of rescue and firefighting, Buckman's car was finally saved, but it came at a price. (Yan Yan)

The Maybach HL230 12-cylinder water-cooled gasoline engine was burned to the point of being completely scrapped, leaving only a black empty frame. Without the heart of the 700-horsepower maximum output power, the Black Panther collapsed on the spot and could not move.

"It's like walking on the street in Kirsdorf and suddenly stepping on a pile of dog shit, Buckman! I'm not kidding, I'm serious! This is our new car, a new car! Now it's destroyed by a small Molotov cocktail, it's unbelievable and ridiculous!"

The ruthless and talkative gunner Kohlsten couldn't stop complaining and getting angry.

With his hands on his waist and his brows furrowed, Bachman looked at his poor Panther girl whose butt was smoked to pure black. He thought that his crew's experience was unlucky enough. If it was spread out, people would probably laugh at him for a month or even longer.

But what Bachman didn't expect was that what happened next was obviously more dramatic and funny than he expected.

After the entire Kharkov Campaign, among the 24 Panther Type 5 D tanks equipped by the armored regiment under the Waffen SS Imperial Division, a total of 21 Panthers were in a state of being immobile and waiting for repair.

Of course, the Soviet army, whose tank quality was surpassed by a large margin, did not have the ability to knock down 21 cutting-edge Panthers at once from the armored forces of the Imperial Division, which dominated the limelight.

These 21 beautiful Panther girls who were paralyzed in bed and unable to move had their own reasons for being bedridden.

Buckman's car was one of them, and the one whose rear end was set on fire by a Molotov cocktail. Another 13 Panther D-types were destroyed and caught fire because the drivers stepped on the accelerator to the bottom, and drove at an off-road speed of more than 46 kilometers per hour.

As for the remaining Panthers, some of them had the outer road wheels with inherent design defects flying away, causing the tracks to fall off, some of them had the gearbox gears broken on the spot during high-speed driving, and some of them were paralyzed on the spot because the poorly skilled drivers forced to operate on the ground that did not support in-situ turning, and broke the transmission shaft in a panic, causing the tank to be paralyzed on the spot.

After the third Kharkov battle, there were only 3 Panthers left in the entire Imperial Division that could still run. Such a bad situation directly angered the then Imperial Division Commander General Walter Kruger, who jumped up and cursed the idiots of MAN Company for only knowing how to cheat money but not making practical good things.

The only good news is that none of the 21 immobile Panthers were completely lost, and the German army, which was advancing rapidly all the way, successfully won the third Kharkov Battle, so these 21 Panthers were recovered one by one after the battle and waited for repair, including the Panther with a blackened butt of Buckman.

"These problems were discovered during the first batch of tank trials, General. But the production task is imminent, and we don't have enough time to improve the design. The pressure is huge. I don't mean that our company wants to shirk responsibility. Of course, we will continue to upgrade and improve the No. 5 tank and be responsible for providing maintenance plans, but there are really objective reasons for all this!"

The representative sent by MAN was quite sincere.

Buckman, who happened to go to the division headquarters for business, had the honor of hearing some of the MAN representative's excuses, but Admiral Kruger's subsequent reply obviously did not give any face to this elegant chief representative.

"Look at the iron garbage your company made! After a battle, twenty of the latest tanks broke their legs and lay paralyzed on the battlefield waiting for a tow truck to pull them! Oh, I almost forgot to say that the only one that didn't break its legs was destroyed by a small Russian Molotov cocktail! It was such a big Molotov cocktail!"

"Damn it! It's unbelievable! A glass bottle the size of Fanta destroyed a 45-ton German tank. Do you think this is normal? The Imperial Division is not those scumbags. We are the elite of the Führer. Your garbage tanks bring shame to the honor of our division! Go and repair them! Immediately!"

Bachman, who stayed outside the door and eavesdropped, saw that the situation was not good and ran away quickly. It was only then that Buckman, with his heart pounding, realized that among the 21 paralyzed Panther tanks, only his own tank was killed by the Russians.

The Panther, which was put into actual combat earlier than in history, failed to get rid of the difficult fate that had been lingering around it.

And it seems that because of the premature birth, these various problems that were already annoying in history have now become even worse.

After the end of the Battle of Kharkov, 137 of the 158 Panther D medium tanks under the Southern Army Group were in a state of being repaired and unable to move. This astonishing number even made Manstein, who had high hopes for new weapons, shake his head again and again.

"Report it truthfully and explain this unimaginable bad situation to Berlin."

"The new weapon units of the Southern Army Group have basically lost their combat effectiveness. Most of the Panther No. 5 medium tanks and Ferdinand heavy tank destroyers are waiting to be repaired. The situation of the Tiger No. 5 heavy tank is slightly better but not very optimistic. I cannot launch an attack before these main combat forces are restored. Please speed up the repair of equipment and provide more reliable supplementary forces."

Malashenko, who was ready to fight the Germans in advance, could never have imagined that the Germans, who had put new weapons into actual combat one battle ahead of time, would be hindered by the alarmingly high failure rate. No.

A rare large-scale plague broke out in the German zoos that had been given high hopes by the head of state. The German logistics and maintenance troops, who had encountered such a bad situation for the first time in history, quickly contacted for help. The bosses and capitalists of the companies in Germany behind the scenes were busy arguing. Talking shirking responsibility.

You said it was a problem with the raw materials, but I also said it was because of your poor process technology! Don't rely on our company's supply of materials because of your own abilities. Everyone uses tanks made of German steel. Why is Henschel's Tiger more reliable than yours? Isn't it because your own level is not up to the mark?

Playing football with each other and shirk responsibilities is the innate skill of capitalists. The German military-industrial enterprises and front-line logistics and maintenance troops were in a state of chaos. In the end, they only got a piece of chicken feathers that had no practical significance.

The quarrel was over, and the blame was placed on the unlucky guy who was blamed by everyone. The person responsible for the punishment was also invited by the SS to have a cup of tea with Himmler for a heart-to-heart talk. The Führer's violent spitting star was about to destroy the office. It has been cleaned seven or eight times.

Now, it's finally time to discuss how to properly repair those broken-down steel behemoths and take action.

It's just that the time wasted in this quarrel is indeed wasted.

But who cares?

At least not the imperial military capitalists who have vested interests.