Chapter 1402: Locking the Weakness

It was not Malashenko who opened fire first, but the German army on the opposite side. It was normal for the German tanks, which were in a parked state, to fire first. The assault pioneers led by Malashenko would face the approaching direct fire of the German King Tiger.

The slender Long 88 main gun can rapidly fire full-caliber capped armor-piercing shells at a muzzle velocity of 1,000 meters per second. This is a very scary performance number. Few World War II tank main guns that fired full-caliber armor-piercing shells could do this. It also means extremely high armor-piercing kinetic energy and armor penetration data.

No one said that the King Tiger's Long 88 was not powerful enough. In fact, it was already one of the strongest tank main guns in World War II. But the key factor of whether it is strong enough depends on the opponent's defense. For example, the King Tiger's Long 88 is still insufficient in front of the opponent at this moment.

One after another, the armor-piercing shells hit the front main armor belt of the Stalin heavy tank. The IS6 heavy tanks, which had already completed the unified replacement, maintained their full-speed charge momentum without any reduction, and firmly withstood the German attack with their front main armor without any evasive maneuvers.

Most of the armor-piercing shells hit the main armor belt of the vehicle body with a relatively larger projection area. The IS6, which had a large inclination angle at the front and the front, withstood this powerful attack without any suspense, and bounced all the German armor-piercing shells that came head-on, or just heard a sound after exhausting the armor-piercing kinetic energy.

The bombardment of the main armor belt on the front of the vehicle body did not work, and the bombardment of the front armor of the turret also had no good effect.

Compared with the previous generation IS2 heavy tank, the turret of the IS6 heavy tank is flatter and widened horizontally, and the front projection area is much smaller than that of the IS2 heavy tank, and the protection is more in place.

Except for the gun root part, where the armored shield has a small inclination angle, especially the gun root part on the gunner's side, because a complete set of gunner sighting equipment is installed, which occupies a lot of armored defense space, it cannot withstand the bombardment of armor-piercing shells with too strong power.

The other parts of the front projection of the turret have a large arc defense angle extending longitudinally. Any German armor-piercing shells that hit it from the front will not cause penetration, and it will be a blessing if they don't ricochet on the spot.

The armor-piercing shells stuck on the front of the turret were all ricocheted after a series of clanging noises, and none of them worked.

The German armored vehicle crews in the dozen or so Tiger Kings that survived were really under great pressure, their heads were buzzing, and they were maddening, as if they were going crazy.

"The Russians' tortoise shells are too hard, we can't penetrate them at all!"

"Shut up, come on! Keep loading armor-piercing shells!"

"Aim at the turret, hit its turret base! There was feedback that it was a weak point and was destroyed by other crews, so just shoot there!"

The mass production of IS6 heavy tanks, which replaced IS2 heavy tanks and became the new generation of standard heavy tanks of the Red Army, had already begun as early as the end of last year, that is, at the end of 1943. So far, the IS6 heavy tank is no longer the exclusive equipment of Stalin's First Guards Tank Division, and more elite guards tank units have already used this powerful new vehicle.

Although the number is relatively small, it is far from being able to completely replace the IS1 and IS2 heavy tanks that have been built in large numbers. The comprehensive proportion of the various guards tank units on the front line is only about 20%, which is really not much.

However, although the number is not large, it has appeared more or less on various battlefields on various fronts. The Germans were not limited to eyewitness reports when facing this new Russian heavy tank. They had learned that its official name was "Stalin 6 Heavy Tank". They even killed this terrible monster on the battlefield after several setbacks.

Therefore, the mass production of IS6 certainly strengthened the overall combat power of the Red Army tank forces, and it could even be called a substantial leap in the effect of qualitative change. However, the large-scale actual combat also gradually allowed the Germans, who were constantly facing this powerful weapon, to find ways to deal with IS6 heavy tanks, increase their actual combat experience, and even began to spread the basic weaknesses by word of mouth.

Many things have good and bad sides, and this is unavoidable. Malashenko himself understands this.

After doing useless work, the German armored soldiers were not stupid and soon realized that continuing to attack those impenetrable armored areas would have no effect. Then they began to try to attack the weak areas mentioned in the rumors, that is, the gun root areas that were very difficult to aim at but were very likely to be effective.

It's funny to say that the Tiger King and IS6 are both equally matched heavy tanks that can't do anything to each other at medium distances, but their weaknesses on the front main armor belt are relatively consistent, both of which are the gun root on the front of the turret. However, the Tiger King's weakness is relatively larger, covering the entire vertical armor area on the front of the turret. Perhaps this can also be regarded as an unexpected coincidence.

In any case, the German army, who was determined to try to shoot at the rumored weak point, quickly took action and started the second round of firing. The faster loading speed of the fixed 88mm armor-piercing shells showed a great advantage at this moment.

"Loading completed, armor-piercing shells!"

"Aim at the gun root!"

"Fire!"

When the German Tiger Kings began firing the second round of main gun salvos, the IS6 heavy tank group, which was still charging at full speed, had already reduced the direct distance between the two sides to less than 500 meters, and was still stepping on the accelerator, rolling up large lumps of splashing mud and rushing forward in the rain.

One of the advantages that the German tanks are most proud of is their powerful optical sighting system. Even at long distances, they have a very high shooting accuracy. Hitting a tank-sized target in the first shot at one kilometer is just a routine operation for the Tiger King, and there is no need to shout 666, let alone at the current distance of 500 meters.

Even when dealing with targets in a moving state, this group of German Tiger King crews, who are not short of skilled gunners, still hit a considerable number of shells on the parts they want to hit and hit them accurately.

But the effect that followed was not a surprise or satisfaction for the German army.

Ding-bang--

Crack--

Amid the loud noises and sparks of armor-piercing projectiles hitting the armor, a considerable number of armor-piercing projectiles that hit the gun base did not penetrate the armor, but had the same result as the previous wave of armor-piercing projectiles, which simply scratched a layer of paint or made a loud noise, which really "shocked" the German armored soldiers again.