Chapter 1065: Subtle Changes

The German artillery fire preparation lasted for a full 45 minutes. Malashenko glanced at his watch and listened to the artillery fire gradually fading away. Naturally, he also knew that the final moment had arrived.

Malashenko was not alone in the brigade headquarters. He was with Iushkin, Kirill, and Seryosha, the three crew members of the No. 177 brigade commander's command vehicle.

Malashenko, who didn't say much, picked up the Suomi submachine gun hanging on the wall at the entrance. The other crew members behind him also responded with the same action, picking up their own self-defense weapons and holding them tightly in their hands.

Iushkin, who looked excited, was the first to come to Malashenko, with a gleam of absolute confidence in his eyes.

"Give the order, comrade tank commander, we can't wait to blow those Germans into pieces!"

Iushkin said so, and of course he did so in real action. The other members of the No. 177 crew behind him naturally had the same expressions and actions. Witnessing this scene, Malashenko naturally knew what he should say now.

"Get in the car! Teach those fascist running dogs a lesson and beat those German tigers and leopards into sick cats!"

Malashenko was right. The cessation of shelling was equivalent to the signal for the German ground offensive to be launched.

When the Stalin heavy tanks that started from the hidden point in the rear and drove to the position entered the combat position, the SS troops wearing double lightning marks on the opposite side had already rushed into the combat distance. The SS armored soldiers who took the lead quickly fired the first wave of shells at Malashenko.

Ding-bang--

Swish--

"Don't worry about the German shells, those rotten guns can't penetrate our armor!"

"Iushkin, aim at the black panther in the front, shoot the one you think is the most threatening!"

In the case of a large-scale battle with too many targets, Malashenko, who is also the brigade commander and needs to coordinate the overall command, has become more accustomed to handing the power of firing to Iushkin and letting him do it on his own.

The tacit understanding of the crew cultivated over a long period of time gave Malashenko reason to believe that Iushkin's keen judgment would not disappoint him.

Boom--

After the first wave of German fire, the first batch of Stalin heavy tanks that entered the combat position first also began to play their own counterattacks.

The heavy roar of the 122 heirloom resounded throughout the position, and the muzzle fire and shock waves from both sides of the recoil brake shook the ground under the tracks, rolling up the mud and debris bombarded by the German artillery and carrying it into the air.

Although the 45-minute artillery preparation had a good effect, many of the pre-set civil engineering works, communication trenches, and machine gun positions on the defensive positions were completely destroyed, and many Red Army soldiers were directly hit in the center and buried alive in the soil after the anti-artillery holes were blown down.

However, the German artillery that could destroy flesh and blood could not destroy the iron will of the father. Malashenko, who had long anticipated that the Germans would definitely come with a wave of artillery preparations, withdrew all his tanks that were still able to move from the positions in advance and deployed them in a position farther back to prepare for support at any time while avoiding artillery fire.

The simple tactical arrangement played the desired effect and was very effective. The Stalin heavy tanks that basically avoided the artillery preparations quickly returned to the positions with their excellent mobility, which was at the forefront of heavy tanks, and once again took on the task of blocking the German armored forces.

The roaring 122mm full-caliber wind cap armor-piercing shells penetrated the turret armor of the Panther tank and the upper defense of the Panzer IV tank without any suspense at a distance of 700 meters, and turned one German tank after another into a pile of burning steel torches.

But the SS, who did not expect the artillery to effectively destroy the opponent's heavy tanks, seemed to be well prepared. More Panthers and Panzer IV tanks knocked away the burning steel wreckage of their destroyed comrades, led the SS infantry behind them to continue charging forward, and killed the opposite position one after another.

The 122 gun is indeed powerful, and killing tigers and leopards and knocking down the Panzer IV are just a piece of cake.

However, the 122 gun, which has to endure a huge and long skill cooling time every time it roars, is not perfect. The SS armored soldiers who were hit on the head and still rushed forward with a big bag on their heads, fully utilized their loading advantages to stop the car and fire wildly.

The experienced SS tank commanders could even guess the opponent's reload time. The brutal battle that lasted for a whole day yesterday had allowed these SS armored soldiers to grasp a lot of important information at a considerable loss.

Those seemingly powerful Russian heavy tanks have a long main gun reload time. In the later stage of high-intensity continuous fighting, the reload time of the Russians firing one shot is even enough for their own Black Panther and No. 4 to fire three shots.

Reasonable use of the opponent's CD time to cast skills and hit a set of combos is the basic operation of competitive PK online games in later generations. The SS armored soldiers who are not stupid and naive naturally understand this truth.

"These Germans learn very quickly"

Holding the tank commander's periscope, Malashenko was somewhat surprised to find that today's group of SS armored soldiers who came back were really smarter than yesterday.

After the 122mm gun roared, the Panthers and Type 4s at the front would stop and fire fiercely at their own tanks that had just finished firing and were in the reloading state, firing two or even three shots in a row.

Although most of the shells were useless, the IS2 heavy tanks, which were by no means invincible in front of the Black Panther, still had many setbacks.

As usual, the IS2 heavy tanks were shot through the turret armor by the Black Panther's main gun from the front. Although they were not as bad as the Black Panther that was killed instantly by one shot, they could not withstand the opponent's three shots in the time it took them to fire one shot. The shortcoming in firepower projection was the biggest disadvantage of the IS2.

Less than ten minutes after the battle began, four IS2 heavy tanks were hit and lost their combat effectiveness and paralyzed on the spot.

Two of them had ammunition explosions and their bodies were separated on the spot. The other two seemed to be paralyzed on the spot because the Black Panther armor-piercing shells had too little charge. They only sprayed black smoke and became "zombie tanks" with a carload of people dead, but the car itself could still be repaired and driven.

When the 122mm shells were loaded again and ready to fire, the shrewd SS armored soldiers would start moving a few seconds earlier, trying to evade the fire with a small-scale, light-weight, and fast-accelerating maneuver.

Maybe the chance was not too high, but hitting a moving target was not as sure as hitting a fixed target, and considering the inclined angle of incidence of a moving hit, some crews still missed the target.

The shells either stuck to the edge armor of the Panther's turret, splashing a violent spark and passing by, or hit the Panther's tracks, lifting the skirt armor, and continuously shooting through five or six road wheels before crashing into the soil.

Although the broken tracks were equivalent to losing combat effectiveness and having to abandon the vehicle to escape, there was only one thing that had to be admitted.

Today's group of SS was indeed a little different from yesterday's. Even the SS infantrymen following the tanks knew to change their formations tactfully following the tanks' maneuvers.

As for the reasons, Malashenko, who did not know the truth for the time being and had no time to think about it, could only attribute everything to the fact that the Germans had learned their lesson after being beaten. It was that simple.