Chapter 137: A Surprise Attack

The wind and sand had died down that day, and the Germans blew the whistle to get up and assemble as usual when it was still light. After staying in the desert for a long time, you will naturally sum up some experience. For example, before the sun comes out, the temperature is still around zero degrees, which is very suitable for tanks to drive, so tanks can move at a faster speed.

The British army followed the Germans for two days and formed a habit...sleeping in for half an hour longer.

This was determined by their faster speed than the Germans. Anyway, if they got up too early, they could only wait for the Germans to leave first, and they had to stop and go on the road and could not chase them. Therefore, the British army usually followed with scouts in front, and the main force followed behind with the scouts leading the way.

This time, a company of the British 3rd Mechanized Cavalry Regiment was responsible for tracking. It was composed of 6 "Stuart" tanks, 10 armored vehicles and two cars. The commander of this unit was Captain Cecil.

Captain Cecil immediately felt that the German army's march today was a little different. They were moving very fast, as if they wanted to get rid of him.

"It seems that the Germans are a little impatient!" Captain Cecil stood on the Humber armored vehicle and looked at the German army in the distance with a telescope.

"Don't they know that tanks will leave deep track marks?" The driver replied: "They can't get rid of us!"

The driver was right. Tanks will leave deep tank marks in the sand. As long as it is not too long, the British army can easily find the German army's advance route. In addition, the speed of British tanks is faster than that of the German army, so it is almost impossible for the German army to get rid of the British army... This is also the importance of speed in desert warfare. The British army suffered a lot in this regard before, but they didn't expect that the situation would change now.

But what the driver and Captain Cecil didn't expect was that the German army didn't want to get rid of them at all, but wanted to destroy them.

"Speed ​​up!" Captain Cecil ordered: "Don't let them escape!"

"Yes, speed up!" The messenger shouted and gave orders to the surrounding soldiers with flags.

For a company, it seems more convenient and faster to command with a small flag.

So the British armored vehicles and tanks accelerated to chase the Germans, and suddenly the Germans disappeared because there was a small hill in front of them blocking their sight.

But Captain Cecil was not panicked, because as the driver said, there were tracks there, and he was not worried that the Germans would disappear under his nose.

However, when Captain Cecil rushed up the sand dunes with his men, he found that he was wrong...

Suddenly, tanks lined up in neat formations appeared in front of them, the German "No. 3" tanks, followed by teams of infantry, and a row of black gun barrels and gun barrels pointed at them, all with murderous eyes.

"Squeak!" The driver slammed the brakes, but due to the slipping of the sand, the armored vehicle drove forward for a while under inertia before stopping, so that the armored vehicle almost hit the gun barrel of the tank.

Captain Cecil only had time to shout: "God!"

Then the tank gun made a loud "boom" and Captain Cecil and his armored vehicle were blown up to the sky.

Then other tanks opened fire one after another, and soon more than a dozen British tanks and armored vehicles were blown into pieces. The British scouts had no time to fight back and were wiped out within a few minutes... The reason why it took a few minutes was that from time to time there were a few survivors who climbed out of the armored vehicles and tried to escape, but they were quickly knocked to the ground by the bullets fired by the German soldiers.

This is a very common scene on the battlefield, but it is very cruel when you think about it. These British soldiers are definitely willing to surrender...This is a common feature of the British army and even the European and American armies. When they cannot change the situation or are unable to resist, surrendering is a natural choice and will not be considered a shame.

But the German army did not give the British army time to surrender, so more than a hundred British soldiers were gone. More than a hundred people who were still alive and kicking just now turned into a pile of bloody corpses in the blink of an eye.

Then Colonel Olbrich waved his hand, and the tanks "rumbled" across the sand dunes and advanced in the direction of the British 7th Armored Division.

At this time, the British army did not know what had happened. Although they faintly heard a few artillery and gunshots, small-scale battles had occurred from time to time in the past few days, so they thought it was just that the scouts were too close and were attacked by the Germans, so they did not take it seriously and marched forward as usual.

As a result, they had not walked for ten minutes when they saw a group of tanks in the wind and sand ahead... Of course, it was the enemy's tank group, and the British army realized that the danger had come to them.

"Deploy the formation and prepare for battle!" The British officer shouted.

But it was too late at this time, because the German tanks had accelerated and rushed into the range in one go... To be precise, it should be within the sight. Affected by the wind and sand, the enemy and us could only vaguely see the enemy's shadow at a distance of 200 meters.

"Free fire!" Colonel Olbrich ordered.

After receiving the order, the "No. 3" slowed down, and then stopped for a few seconds from time to time... The moment when the tank went from moving to stillness was actually not suitable for shooting, because the tank body would shake violently due to inertia, so the gunner had to wait for the tank to stop and then adjust the parameters to find the target... This is the so-called "short stop shooting", and it is also the reason why the tank has to slow down.

The British "Stuart" tank on the other side also did not have the ability to fire while moving, so it also responded in the same way.

But in a head-on confrontation, the "Stuart" is obviously not as good as the "No. 3" equipped with a 50MM tank gun, not to mention that the "No. 3" has already deployed its battle formation and has an absolute numerical advantage in the local area.

So there was only a loud "boom" sound, and the dozen "Stuarts" that the British army hurriedly came up to fight were blown up by the high-explosive armor-piercing shells of the "No. 3" at the first time.

The advantage of high-explosive armor-piercing shells is that they have both armor-piercing ability and explosive lethality, but the disadvantage is that the armor-piercing ability is not as strong as pure armor-piercing shells.

If the "Matilda" or "Valentine" in front of them has extremely thick armor, the German gunners would not dare to choose high-explosive armor-piercing shells anyway.

But they are facing the "Stuart", and the distance to the target is only about 200 meters at this time, so they can use it boldly.

If a high-explosive armor-piercing projectile can penetrate the target, its lethality can be described as "inhumane"... Although it does not contain much explosives, it explodes in a confined space, especially inside a tank with thick armor. The energy of the explosion is all locked tightly inside the tank cabin and borne by the human body. Therefore, the shock wave, shrapnel and sudden increase in pressure in the tank cabin after the explosion are enough to kill any living thing inside.