Chapter 29 Confrontation (Part 2)

After discovering that using high and low to deal with Soviet tanks can produce unexpected results, the anti-tank tactics of making full use of the advantageous geographical location to deal with Soviet tanks were quickly promoted and spread throughout the entire German front-line troops. Come.

But even so, in essence, the tactic of occupying a superior geographical location to carry out anti-armor missions against the Soviet T34 tanks is still only a temporary solution that treats the symptoms rather than the root cause.

The German army, which is in an overall offensive posture, takes the initiative in most cases, while the Soviet armored forces, which are responsible for defending the homeland and waiting for work, are more often in a defensive posture or limited local counterattacks. The level of the battlefield In fact, the active choice of terrain is more often in the hands of the defending side, that is, the Soviet army.

Obviously, the Soviet T34 tank's overall overwhelming advantage over the German armored forces in the three important indicators of firepower, mobility, and protection has given the German army an absolute advantage in the overall offensive strategy in local armored confrontations. Encountering serious constraints, it has become a top priority for the German army to develop a new tank that can effectively suppress the Soviet T34 tank as soon as possible.

As the saying goes, water far away cannot quench near thirst. Although the bidding plan for the new tank project has been issued to Henschel and Porsche for separate development, this new tank project with no details is still far away from being officially finalized and put into production. Far away, there is no way to solve the dire situation currently encountered by the German frontline troops.

Therefore, until the new German tanks that can effectively deal with the Soviet T34 tanks are officially delivered to the front line, the German frontline soldiers who set foot in the Soviet Union can still only rely on tactics and courage to make up for the lack of equipment quality and continue to compete with the Soviet armor. The army's monster-like T34 fought fiercely with the KV series heavy tanks.

Turn your view back to Broad Town on the front line.

During this battle, the German 1st Armored Group, which rarely fought on the defensive side, was waiting for work. It deployed an entire impregnable temporary defensive position along the entire front line from Lutsk to Brod. Among them, the defense line in the town of Brod deployed by the SS Adolf Hitler's Leibstandarte Division was the strongest.

As a border town located on the steppes in Ukraine in the western part of the Soviet Union, the site design of Brod Town is unique and very sophisticated.

When the summer rainy season comes, the low-lying areas above the vast Ukrainian steppes are bound to be flooded by a large amount of precipitation. Obviously, such a low-lying area is definitely not suitable as a location for a small town.

In order to avoid precipitation deposition and backflow during the rainy season, the entire Broad Town has been built on a relatively high slope since the initial site selection and construction.

In this way, the Soviets, who were not good at building and improving infrastructure facilities at that time, could take advantage of the innate terrain height to quickly drain the large amount of precipitation during the rainy season out of the town. This undoubtedly brought great relief to the town in peacetime when the war did not break out. It brings great convenience and living comfort to the residents.

But what the team of engineers who designed and built Broad Town never imagined was that their design masterpiece, which could be said to benefit future generations, would one day bring great harm to the invaders who invaded their homeland. strategic advantage.

Relying on the unique site selection and construction advantages of the town of Brod, the SS 1st Adolf Hitler Leibstandarte Division, which deployed multiple defensive positions outside the town of Brod, can be said to have taken advantage of the terrain.

Relying on the first defensive position deployed on the outermost edge of the town and looking around, the town of Broad, located on a small high slope, stands proudly on the high ground like a pearl held up by the hands of a giant. On the slope.

The downward slope with a depth of nearly 300 meters and an angle of 30 degrees is simply the worst way to attack for the T34 tank group led by Malashenko.

In addition, the SS troops deploying defenses close to the outside of Broad Town can also use the infrastructure roads in the town to carry out faster and flexible transfers, whether it is to resupply ammunition and materials, transport the wounded or even transport casualties. Mobilizing reserves to fill vacancies in the firing line has great mobility advantages.

Even in the worst case scenario where the Soviet offensive troops broke through the outer defensive positions, the SS troops who could advance, attack, retreat or defend could still choose to withdraw to the town and rely on civilian buildings to continue to resist the Soviet attack. This series of The defensive advantages coupled with the fanatical fighting will and morale of all the officers and soldiers of the Adolf Hitler Guards Division were even more powerful.

Silently thinking about the defensive advantages that the German troops facing the enemy face to face, Malashenko, who was becoming increasingly serious, was thinking about whether there was any effective tactical attack plan to implement. A burst of bright fire suddenly erupted from the German position that was already visible to the naked eye more than 500 meters away.

"Directly ahead, at one o'clock, aim at the leading Soviet T34 tank. It is about 510 meters away. Adjust the density and load armor-piercing rounds!"

"Loading completed!"

"Fire!"

boom--

Following the order from the gunner of the German anti-tank gun team, the gunner crouching behind the gun mantlet, who had already locked the Soviet leading tank with the optical sight next to the gun breech, immediately fired the 50 mm Type 39. The full-caliber capped armor-piercing bullet came out instantly in a burst of muzzle flash.

As the front-line basic main anti-tank gun deployed by the German army on the first line of defense, the anti-tank gun that first fired at the armored company led by Malashenko was none other than the PAK38 50mm anti-tank gun, which is the strongest main anti-tank gun in the current German anti-tank gun sequence.

This slender small-caliber anti-tank gun with a caliber 60 times the barrel length has a muzzle velocity of up to 835 meters per second when firing capped armor-piercing shells. This alone is superior to the F34 2mm tank gun equipped on the Soviet T34 tank at the same time.

The extremely high muzzle velocity brought this small-caliber light anti-tank gun a good armor-piercing ability at the time.

The Type 39 full-caliber capped armor-piercing projectile fired by it can penetrate up to 79 mm of vertical homogeneous steel armor at a distance of 500 meters. Considering that the German anti-tank artillery positions have a certain height difference and "high-to-low" advantage over the Soviet tank group that is charging.

This group of German anti-tank artillery teams with rich combat experience fired at the armor led by Malashenko at a distance of about 500 meters. In fact, it was not a stupid and useless effort, but a correct choice that could really threaten or even destroy the T34 tank.