Chapter 220 Panzer Vor

Even though the number of opponents was only one-fourth of their own tanks, the commander of the German armored forces, who knew that they were at an absolute disadvantage in the quality of tank equipment, still did not dare to take it lightly. After finding out their intentions, the Soviet tanks that were coming towards them, whether KV1 or T34, were powerful opponents that could make the German armored soldiers feel like they were facing a great enemy.

"All tank crews, load armor-piercing shells and prepare to fight! The target is the flank of the Soviet tank column. Only from the side can they be destroyed, and attack in a roundabout formation!"

Even the combat room and turret, which were given a larger internal space by the vertical armor layout and thus improved the human-machine efficiency advantage, were still not very comfortable. The pungent smell of gasoline volatilization permeated the entire turbid tank space for a long time.

The communication order from the radio station of the superior command vehicle in the headset indicated that a brutal head-on armored fight was about to begin. The driver, who had already accelerated the engine to the combat gear and rushed forward with the large force, spoke without looking back.

"What are your plans, Bolt? Are you going to charge directly into the Russian tanks or what?"

The not-so-loud words can still be clearly transmitted among the crew members in the noisy engine noise with the help of the throat voice machine and the headset. The calm expression of the German tank commander named Bolt, holding the tank commander's periscope, seemed to be as calm as a drill in the eyes of others.

"Relax, Derek. You just heard the order given by Rakel. We must outflank the flanks of Ivan's tanks. We must use the advantage of numbers to make them unable to take care of each other."

Even with Bolt's calmness and calmness as an example, the young driver who had fought with the Soviet tank troops many times and knew how terrible they were still unable to hide his panic. Those T34s with sparks and ricochets all the way and the KV1 that seemed to be invincible really gave this young heart a great shock.

"The great Reich Propaganda Minister Dr. Goebbels keeps repeating the same old tune on the radio all day long, saying that our brave German soldiers are using the best weapons in the world to expand the empire's territory. Humph, I hope he can come to the front line to see Ivan's tank in person before drawing a conclusion. This damn Type 4 small tank is just like a baby rocking car in front of Ivan's monster."

Deaf to the ironic echo of the gunner beside him, Bolt, who visually judged that the leading enemy tank was less than 600 meters away from his car, immediately issued an order.

"Twelve o'clock direction, the leading Soviet T34 tank, aim at the junction of the turret and the body, and fire!"

"You have the final say, boss."

Although the gunner kept complaining, he had actually adjusted the position of the main gun and aimed with both hands.

Being able to aim the main gun with the naked eye while operating the hand-cranked main gun elevation and turret direction machine to complete the main gun aiming, this kind of exquisite and difficult skill that can be done in one go is obviously not something that a rookie gunner can possess.

The reason why Bolt ordered the gunner to aim at the junction of the turret and the body of the Soviet T34 medium tank leading the way was actually very simple.

The T34 medium tank, which uses 45mm rolled homogeneous steel armor to arrange the front armor of the body at a 60-degree tilt angle, can provide more than 90mm equivalent thickness of armor defense when facing shells that are horizontal to the body.

And because of the large angle of the tilted armor, it also comes with a great chance of ricocheting, which is obviously not something that the 24-caliber short-barreled 75 gun equipped with the early Type 4 tank can penetrate.

But even the most powerful weapons are not invincible. Since the start of Operation Barbarossa, the German armored soldiers who have fought against the Soviet tank troops many times have gradually summed up some methods that can barely deal with the Soviet T34 tanks and cause fatal trouble to them with their rich combat experience.

The T34 tank turret, which has a very small frontal projection area, has a very conspicuous "neck" exposed on the front of the tank at the connection with the lower body, and the turret rotation steering machine of the T34 medium tank is placed in this neck.

Under the premise that both luck and shooting accuracy are good enough, the German armored soldiers who hit the vulnerable neck of the T34 tank will have a chance to send the shell fragments into the steering machine in the neck of the T34 tank, causing its mechanical failure to paralyze and unable to rotate.

The T34 tank with an immobile turret was almost equivalent to losing its combat effectiveness in front of the German tank with good mobility. The German tank, which could not threaten its frontal armor, could take this opportunity to outflank and attack the relatively weak armored side and rear of the Soviet tank.

The T34 tank, which had lost the ability to rotate its turret, was almost like fish meat being slaughtered by a knife in this situation, and it could be said that there was no room for fighting back.

This response method, which was really difficult to be called an effective method, could be said to be a temporary emergency work that the German armored soldiers came up with out of helplessness when they were unable to change the disadvantages of their existing equipment.

The early No. 4 tank equipped with the KWK37-L24 short-barreled 75mm tank gun had a short main gun barrel, so the acceleration process of the fired shells in the barrel was severely restricted.

Not only did the muzzle velocity of the armor-piercing projectiles it fired only reach a pitiful 410 meters per second, the entire projectile's flight trajectory was like a parabola, which was really unacceptable. The aiming accuracy of the main gun was greatly reduced due to the influence of the short barrel, just like a "peeing cannon".

The Panzer IV tank in Bolt's car, which was moving forward at a low speed in the first combat gear, was still not sure that it could hit the fragile neck of the T34 tank with a small projection area even when it was close to a shooting distance of less than 600 meters.

The 75mm capped armor-piercing projectile that was ejected from the barrel still fell severely even with a flight distance of less than 600 meters.

The armor-piercing projectile, whose accuracy was greatly reduced by this, finally hit the lower part of the upper armor of the fast-moving T34 tank and was instantly bounced off. This was both a reasonable and extremely frustrating result, and the gunner of Bolt's car punched the breech block next to him and cursed loudly on the spot.

"This is the so-called good equipment in the hands of our German soldiers! Why don't we modify this damn broken car and use it for firefighting by the Berlin Fire Department? This terrible piece of junk can only give those Soviets on the other side more reasons to laugh at us!"