Chapter 1723: The Eleventh Tiger Company Died
After getting close enough, the armor-piercing shells that Malashenko had kept as a trump card finally worked at the most needed moment.
Boom boom boom——
The Stalin heavy tanks that were stationary on the battlefield and acting as anti-tank bunkers fired again, and the roaring main gun muzzles burst out surging flames, which scattered from the muzzle brakes and burned people.
What whizzed out of the black muzzles were no longer full-caliber armor-piercing shells, but those sub-caliber armor-piercing shells that automatically separated from the outer shells immediately after leaving the barrel, leaving only the core armor-piercing body to continue moving forward at high speed.
The huge and bulky Tiger Kings relied on the powerful long-range direct firepower cover behind them, and had advanced to the last distance of only 300 meters away from the position with a dull steel roar.
The accuracy of the armor-piercing shells was very poor, so poor that even Comrade Ma called it a "peeing shell" with a lot of complaints. But no matter how poor its accuracy is, there should be a limit. It is not a problem to hit the frontal projection of a giant like the King Tiger at a distance of 300 meters.
If the accuracy is so poor that it can't even hit it, Malashenko doesn't have to keep this thing as a trump card. What's the use of a useless shell that can't hit it at a distance of 300 meters! ?
Just like the armor-piercing shells that faced the tough and thick Jagdtiger when they first appeared, it turned out that Malashenko's estimation was completely correct. The armor-piercing shells were really easy to deal with those clumsy and heavy King Tigers at the last 300 meters.
The scorching and whistling shells were like a red-hot knife piercing a cream cake, easily penetrating the King Tiger's most solid upper front inclined armor plate.
The amazing chamber volume of the 122 heirloom main gun gave the core armor-piercing body a very high muzzle velocity and firing kinetic energy.
Although there is no detailed verification data to indicate the muzzle velocity of this new type of armor-piercing shell.
But according to Malashenko's own estimate, the muzzle velocity of this thing must be at least 1,200 meters per second. Just from the visual experience of the tracer after it leaves the barrel, it is obvious that the flying speed of its core armor-piercing body is far higher than the Tiger King's Chang 88.
You should know that the Tiger King's Chang 88 is the main gun with the highest muzzle velocity when firing full-caliber armor-piercing shells throughout World War II. It has broken through the thousand-meter-per-second mark and has strong kinetic energy, especially when engaging in fire at long-range targets. It is a huge advantage. From firing to hitting, it is almost a fleeting moment that time is difficult to capture.
And now, the muzzle velocity of our new armor-piercing shell is even better and faster.
This concept is like the moment the gun is fired, before people have time to react, the shell has already broken through the wind and whistled through the upper armor of the Tiger King's body and poured into it. All the naked eye could see was the hole in the King Tiger's armor.
Unless the uncharged core-piercing shells were fueled or exploded with ammunition, it would be impossible to tell whether the enemy tank was destroyed just by looking at its appearance.
In theory, if it is not certain that the target is destroyed, it is undoubtedly the best choice to fire a shot at the right time.
But the remaining armor-piercing shells of the Stalin Guards 1st Tank Division were already insufficient, and it was only a little bit. It was obviously unwise to continue to vent firepower here.
These artillery shells, which are impressive in accuracy but can be used at critical moments, must be used sparingly. Otherwise, if they are wasted and the Germans are not suppressed, there will be no regrets.
The Red Army crews who fired a shot were looking forward to a surprising and satisfactory result, and the fact that followed did meet their wishes, just as Comrade Lao Ma expected.
Most of the Tiger Kings that were hit by one or even several shots at the same time, continued to move forward slightly under the action of inertia, then slowly stopped and stopped on the spot, and there was no follow-up movement, just like a zombie car whose engine suddenly died, standing there motionless.
It cannot be said that these Tiger Kings that were hit into zombie cars are lucky, and it seems a bit inappropriate to describe it this way, but the reality is that there are indeed more miserable Tiger Kings than these, and they are right next to us.
Those Tiger Kings that were unfortunately hit in the vital parts proved the strong armor-piercing power of the Red Army's experimental armor-piercing shells with facts.
The core armor-piercing body that broke through the main armor belt on the front and drilled into the car with strong residual kinetic energy continued to fly forward at high speed along a slightly changed ballistic trajectory, easily tearing apart the fragile flesh blocking the road in front, and smashing various soft tissues mixed with blood on the spot, making the flesh and blood fly everywhere and fragmented.
After destroying the fragile flesh and blood of humans, the core armor-piercing bodies with residual kinetic energy that has not been exhausted can continue to cause damage. The end point of its trajectory is either the ammunition rack or the huge fuel tank. In short, it is inseparable from the word "fire" under the kinetic energy impact.
Ignition of fuel and fire in the car can only be regarded as an insignificant small fire now. The strong ammunition explosion caused by the ammunition rack being pierced by a cannon is a real volcanic eruption.
Boom boom boom——
The Tiger Kings, which were filled with overloaded ammunition and saturated fuel, were almost torn into pieces, and various debris and armor fragments flew in the air and were blown all over the sky.
It should be a happy and lucky thing to be able to get enough supplies to cope with a brutal battle.
But the unlucky German armored soldiers who died and even had their ashes scattered in the car would never have thought that this full car of fuel and ammunition would become the last "additional meal" on the road to the underworld, and send them on their way to the underworld.
The motionless King Tiger after being turned into a zombie car, plus the hot wreckage that had experienced strong ammunition explosions or caught fire, had become a flaming coffin and emitted black smoke.
Just this wave of main gun salvos after switching to armor-piercing shells, killed as many as 11 King Tigers!
What is the concept of 11?
Calculated based on a full complement of 45 heavy tanks in an independent heavy armored battalion of the Wehrmacht, this is equivalent to a wave of salvos that cut off up to a quarter of the combat power of the entire battalion.
In other words, if there are three more salvos like this, the entire battalion can be completely wiped out from the German combat sequence.
Well, the premise is that the last King Tiger is not counted as a battalion.
Especially when the independent heavy armored battalions of the Wehrmacht were almost not fully equipped by 1944, either because there were not enough tanks or because they had some broken Panzer IVs and Panthers to make up the numbers, it is easy to imagine what the instant destruction of these 11 Tiger IIs meant to the German army.