Chapter 1343 The Good Times Were only Yesterday

The front end of the half-penetrating armor-piercing hooded projectile had completely penetrated the vehicle and plunged into the head of the Tiger King's turret.

The armor fragments that were shattered by the kinetic energy of the projectile bounced around in the vehicle, causing a bloody storm. The commander and gunner, who were guarding the main gun on the left and right, became the first to suffer.

The large piece of armor fragments first hit the gunner's head, right in the middle of his eyebrows. The hardest part of the human skull was so vulnerable and brittle as thin paper under the kinetic energy impact of high-speed armor fragments.

The high-speed armor fragments cut through the flesh and blood, instantly penetrated the skull between the eyebrows, and then continued to move forward and instantly opened a gap in the fragile brain tissue wrapped in it.

The blood and brain matter rushed out crazily under the pressure of the advancing fragments. If you want to describe it more specifically, it can basically be regarded as a soft rubber leather case filled with water being cut by a knife, which is impossible to suppress.

When the head is shot through, there is no way to make an autonomous conscious reaction, to raise his hand to cover the wound and suppress the blood. The German gunner, who has lost his eyes, is destined to become a cold corpse in just a few seconds.

The armor fragments flying to the other side also hit the commander in the turret, but this guy's luck is obviously better. He was not shot in the head on the spot but was shot through the chest.

A large ball of dark red blood rushed out of the five-centimeter-long wound, instantly soaking the collar. Feeling the severe pain in his chest, the first instinctive reaction of the German commander was to raise his hand to cover his wound and suppress the outflow of blood.

It was just a short moment, which would at most give him a chance to react, but not time to put it into practice. The 122mm full-caliber armor-piercing projectile stuck in the front armor of the turret, with the warhead completely immersed in the vehicle, was not a dud, but a projectile that had triggered the armor-piercing delay fuse and was about to explode.

The violent explosion of the projectile followed immediately after that. It was natural to imagine what would happen to the Tiger King, whose armor was in a semi-penetrated state and whose warhead had penetrated into the vehicle.

The raging flames and blasts that instantly rushed into the turret burned and burned everything around. The flesh under the torn and ignited military uniform had already determined the end of its fate at this moment.

The warhead charge of the 122mm full-caliber wind cap armor-piercing projectile far exceeded that of conventional small guns. As for the charge of the shell, as long as it exceeds 100mm, almost every additional ten millimeters will have a qualitative change in power.

As the heirloom of the Red Army's heavy tanks, the 122mm gun was loaded with explosives. Its devastating aftereffects meant that once it penetrated a German tank, it would explode on the spot.

Even if the bullet exploded when it did not completely penetrate the armor but only partially penetrated, the power was still beyond the narrow space inside the turret.

The first ammunition rack placed at the end of the turret was spared because it was too far away.

The explosion of the warhead charge, which was limited by the semi-penetration after the power was attenuated by the distance, did not detonate the pile of fixed-loaded 88-inch shells.

But the failure to destroy metal products does not mean that the explosion power cannot kill people.

Humans, who are mortals and may die on the spot if they are hit by a small bullet, are definitely the most vulnerable participating units on the cruel battlefield created by themselves, without a doubt.

The raging flames of the projectile explosion burned and engulfed the German tank commander, who was already dying and half of his body was lying in the coffin. By the way, the powerful explosion shock wave completely shattered his flesh, and it was paste into a meat paste with two parts.

The situation of the other two crew members in the turret was not much better. Under this kind of close-range large-caliber projectile explosion, even if the power was limited due to the semi-penetration effect, the power released by the restraint was still not something that ordinary people could bear. Being blown to pieces on the spot was the only possible outcome.

The projectile explosion not only completely killed the three German armored soldiers in the turret, but also the flames rushing down along the turret seat ring, and also affected the two drivers and mechanics at the front of the vehicle body.

Although they didn't die instantly like the three unlucky guys in the turret, leaving no intact body, the explosive power of the 122mm full-caliber armor-piercing shell was still very powerful.

Even after filling the turret, it still had enough terrifying power to severely injure a flesh-and-blood human body.

The driver and the mechanic of the Tiger King finally abandoned the vehicle with their clothes on their backs almost completely torn and burned, large areas of their backs burned to black, vomiting blood, and their internal organs severely injured by the shock wave, so they were able to crawl out of the tank.

The German infantrymen around them rushed forward to rescue and help them, but the two men, who were destined to die soon, died on the spot before the medical soldiers arrived to rescue them after being dragged into the trench bunker and temporarily hidden.

There is no need to say much about the final cause of death. The severe burns on the back were at best an additional factor. The severe rupture of internal organs and internal bleeding were the ultimate causes of death.

The obvious result of semi-penetration made Malashenko fully aware of the seriousness of the situation. Even if he was lucky once and still killed the crew members under semi-penetration, it was equivalent to solving the problem of this tricky Henschel turret Tiger King heavy tank.

But Malashenko, who had already reached the final conclusion that "effective penetration in actual combat is still not guaranteed at a distance of 300 meters", was still not happy and could not raise any interest that could be called joy and excitement.

Although the Long 88 equipped by the German Tiger King was also helpless against the Red Army's heavy tanks, Malashenko, who was used to bullying and beating up the German stick boy, could not accept the disgusting reality that if he wanted to penetrate the Tiger King's big pancake turret at a distance of 300 meters, he had to mix some luck factors and consider the variable angle of incidence under actual combat conditions.

The appearance of the Tiger King showed that the good times of blasting the crispy Tiger had become yesterday's flowers. What the Germans had to do next was to replace the Tiger with the Tiger King and mass-produce it, which was almost certain.

This also means that no matter whether Malashenko wants to or not in the future, the reality that he must fight close combat whenever he encounters the Tiger King is so abruptly placed in front of him.

The shortcoming of insufficient armor-piercing firepower has been exposed again. If Malashenko wants to change the situation where he must fight close combat to win, he must come up with a feasible response plan as soon as possible and put it into practice.