Chapter 2000: Reloading

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Relying on their thick armor, they thought they were fearless. Even when facing the Soviet heavy tank clusters with an absolute advantage in numbers, these German heavy tanks, which in Malashenko's view were basically the same as seeking death, continued to move forward. It is likely that they really had no idea what kind of attack they were about to face.

"Load high-explosive bombs, load! Quick!"

Not only did he order the IS6 heavy tank cluster under his command to replace the high-explosive bombs, but even for his own IS7 prototype with a 130mm large barrel, Malashenko still asked to load the high-explosive bombs instead of continuing to load the armor-piercing bombs, which surprised Iushkin who was standing by.

"High-explosive shells? Why high-explosive shells? Can't we penetrate their armor?"

The new 130mm main gun gave Iushkin great confidence, as if the armor of any German tank was as thin as paper and could be broken with a poke under the terrifying power of this majestic main gun.

Obviously, Comrade Lao Ma did not agree with Iushkin's view and decided to teach Iushkin a lesson with a casual remark.

"That's the King Tiger, not the Black Panther! The armor-piercing shells will only make a small dent that is slightly larger than the 122mm gun armor-piercing shells. If you don't believe it, after the battle, you can find the wreckage of the German King Tiger to test it yourself, and I will approve two shells for you, how about it?"

""

Iushkin did not go to Leningrad to pick up the car in person, so he could not understand some detailed and specific test conditions, but Malashenko obviously knew about these conditions.

During the factory test, the team led by Shashmurin conducted a detailed and comprehensive test firing and target shooting test on the new main gun of IS7, which was transplanted from the Red Navy's 130mm naval gun. One of the shooting targets was the captured King Tiger dragged back from the battlefield.

Although the armor penetration depth of the 130mm main gun is indeed very strong, it has basically reached the ceiling of the penetration depth of the tank main gun firing full-caliber armor-piercing shells. Even if there are stronger main guns that fire full-caliber armor-piercing shells in the future, the penetration depth will not be much higher than that of the IS7 gun.

But one fact that needs to be made clear is that, with the current technical level, the actual upper limit of the penetration depth of full-caliber armor-piercing shells is actually quite low, and the level that the IS7 main gun can achieve is already very close to the limit.

It is precisely because the upper limit of the penetration depth of full-caliber armor-piercing shells is very low, so Malashenko, who traveled from the future, also knows a very important reality more clearly.

If we only talk about the tank main gun, it is a waste of time to think that a full-caliber armor-piercing shell can break the upper front armor of the King Tiger under the premise of a horizontal angle of incidence.

Although this does not mean that a full-caliber armor-piercing shell cannot penetrate the upper front of the King Tiger, it must be at least a cruiser-level main gun to do so, at least a destroyer-level main gun cannot do it with a full-caliber armor-piercing shell.

Is the IS7 gun bad?

Of course it is good, but the full-caliber armor-piercing shell with a too low upper limit limits the penetration power.

If the IS7 is replaced with a sub-caliber armor-piercing shell, Malashenko can guarantee that even if you pull the American T95 big bastard over, let alone the upper front of the King Tiger, the IS7 can still penetrate the front of the battleship main armor belt with a physical thickness of 305 mm, and pierce the engine from the head.

But at the moment, there are no sub-caliber armor-piercing shells available. If full-caliber armor-piercing shells are used, it is indeed difficult to accurately hit the front of the moving Tiger King's turret in a medium-range exchange of fire instead of hitting the front of the vehicle body.

For the sake of safety, Malashenko decided to use high-explosive shells to try the effect.

After all, Shashmurin's test report clearly mentioned that "130mm grenades have a good impact on the front armor of the Tiger II heavy tank." This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to conduct a real-life test.

What's more, the first ammunition rack has been used up, and it is very difficult to load each shell manually, and it must be used with caution. Rather than using armor-piercing shells that are known to not penetrate the front to try to hit the front of the turret, Malashenko prefers to use grenades to send the Germans to the sky.

After all, if the Tiger King can be hit by a 122mm grenade, there is no reason to say that the more powerful 130mm grenade cannot be hit. This makes no sense.

The tense and cramped battle will not leave Iushkin too much time to think about the reaction. Since the commander has given such an order, he will just do it.

As for why and those trivial matters, it is not too late to think about them after the battle.

Iushkin has always been like this "act first and think twice" and trust Malashenko unconditionally, and this time is of course the same.

Although the type of ammunition has been changed, the 130mm full-caliber high-explosive grenade is still very difficult to load.

As for how difficult it is to load, you can get a rough idea by just looking at how "ferocious" Artyom's expression is when he holds the propellant cartridge and tries to send it to the rear slide of the breech block. It obviously takes some time to complete the entire loading work.

Although the firing rate of the division commander's vehicle dropped sharply, much lower than the extremely powerful burst rate of 7 rounds per minute just now, the IS6 heavy tanks surrounding the division commander's command vehicle still maintained their firing rate.

Only a few shots were fired in the uniform-speed shooting. This kind of warm-up-like loading intensity is far from exhausting the strong and sturdy leader division loaders.

After all, they are provided with first-class food on weekdays, and there is no such thing as "not enough meat". The elite loaders of the leader division, who are blessed with special treatment, are indeed stronger than the ordinary brother guards loaders, and are more capable of loading the 122 main gun sub-loading shells, which consumes a lot of physical strength.

So it is natural that after the division commander issued an order to change the type of ammunition, the group of German Tiger Kings on the opposite side who knew nothing about it soon ushered in the first wave of fierce bombardment.

"High-explosive shells are good!"

"Aimed!"

"Fire!"

Boom boom boom --

When a large group of IS6 heavy tanks fired one after another or almost at the same time, you can't hear the specific sound of each gun. The only thing you can feel is the thunder-like sound of thunder falling from the sky.

The first echelon of Tiger Kings, who were rushing forward at full throttle, were hit by 122mm grenades in the face in a series of shocking explosions. Soon, they were collectively blown up and confused.

Being hit by a 122mm grenade head-on is not as simple as hearing the sound of an armor-piercing bullet that did not penetrate.

The huge explosion sounded as if the whole world was turned upside down in an instant. People's thinking consciousness either went black on the spot or flew away like an immortal. In short, they knew nothing and were disconnected immediately.

When the surviving German armored soldiers who felt that their brains were shaken by the explosion slowly regained consciousness and perception in their vehicles, where they didn't know whether they could continue to fight.

The battlefield situation outside the car was obviously very different from a few seconds ago.

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