Chapter 274 Bazooka

As soon as the British tanks started to fight, the powerful firepower suppressed the German army. Tank guns, heading machine guns, coaxial machine guns... Instantly, the German defense line was full of bullets and shells.

"Sherman" was indeed extraordinary.

In history, the British army turned to counterattack at El Alamein because they got 400 "Shermans" and destroyed 200 German tanks in just one battle.

Before that, the loss ratio of German tanks to British tanks had always been 1:4, that is, the British army had to pay an average of four tanks for every German tank destroyed, even if they were equipped with American "Stuart" and "General Grant" tanks.

From then on, Rommel's African Army was in a state of decline until it was completely driven out of Africa.

At this time, if the rocket launcher could not deal with the "Sherman" tank, this scene would also be staged on the Alexander Line, and it might even be worse, because the African Corps had only 100 tanks at this time, and there was a 90th Light Division even on Crete.

But Qin Chuan knew that he would know the result soon.

The German soldiers were still waiting, waiting for the British infantry to catch up, so that they could give them a "hard lesson", or let them "taste the power", or "avenge their comrades in the 15th Armored Division"...

No matter what the reason, the German soldiers just wanted to inflict the greatest damage on the British.

Sure enough, a large number of British infantry rushed down the hill soon... Because there were dozens of tanks suppressing the Germans in front, they rushed very easily, and only a few fell under the shells of the German 50MM mortar.

"Kill them all!" Colonel John shouted excitedly. He thought that the overall situation of the battle had been decided by now, and he was just waiting for the British soldiers to clear the mines in front and then the tanks to slowly push forward. The battle should be over.

If we follow the previous battlefield thinking, it is true. The most feared thing for tanks on the battlefield is separation from infantry. Although it has powerful firepower and defense, its external perception ability is very weak. In addition, there are likely to be anti-tank mines on the road ahead, and it is unknown when the enemy infantry will approach and blow it up from a blind spot.

But as it is now, the British tanks and infantry are well combined again, and the British army has occupied a favorable terrain on the hill and cooperated with the tanks to completely suppress the German army, so victory is at hand.

But at this moment, a group of well-camouflaged German soldiers emerged from the individual bunkers behind the defense line. They held a strange thing in their hands that the British soldiers did not recognize and aimed at the British tanks...

These strange things are of course "bazookas". The German bazooka shooters are waiting for this moment. In principle, the German defense line in front is just used to attract the firepower of the British army and its tanks.

The Germans did it very successfully. All the bullets and shells from the tanks and the British covering units smashed into the German defense line, which made the German rocket launcher shooters very safe in this short period of time... In fact, this time was not short, because the tanks had low perception, and there was a cloud of smoke in front of the defense line. The tanks basically did not notice the rocket launchers behind the defense line, so of course they could not transfer their firepower in time.

Then, with a "chi chi" whistle, the first batch of more than 50 rockets flew towards the British tanks with a long tail...

After a burst of "boom boom", at least 20 tanks were destroyed on the spot.

The reason why I say "at least" is because it is difficult to know whether some tanks have been destroyed. As mentioned before, not all destroyed tanks will smoke, burn or explode.

In fact, only three of the tanks exploded due to the detonation of the ammunition inside, but this was enough to scare the British army... At this time, the British tank crews didn't even know what happened. Many tank crews were still excited and fired machine guns and tank guns at the German trenches.

These tank crews shouted while firing: "Go to hell, Germans, I'll show you how powerful your father is!"

However, the next second, another batch of rockets with long smoke rushed straight towards the tanks, and then after an explosion, most of the tanks fell silent.

"Colonel!" The signalman shouted to Colonel John on the other side of the hill: "Our tanks were blown up!"

"How many?" Colonel John asked indifferently.

He thought that only one or two tanks were blown up by the German anti-tank mines or anti-tank grenades, and these losses were nothing to the British army.

"I don't know!" The signalman replied, "I only know that if we don't retreat, they won't be able to come back!"

"What?" Hearing this, Colonel John looked up at the signalman: "What did you say?"

"Colonel!" The signalman replied, "The Germans have new anti-tank weapons. They can easily destroy our tanks from more than 100 meters away!"

Colonel John's head was half a beat slower, and then he replied, "No, this is not true! Their anti-tank weapons only have a range of 30 meters!"

"This is true!" The signalman replied, "Because our tanks have been almost wiped out!"

"Colonel!" The staff officer said anxiously, "Order a retreat!"

Colonel John shook his head and replied, "No, they can't retreat back!"

Colonel John was right. If these Sherman tanks were attacking on flat ground, it would be fine. The Sherman tank is different from other tanks... Most tanks in World War II did not have reverse gears, but the Sherman did. It could always retreat with its thickest frontal armor facing the enemy.

This was very useful on the battlefield, especially under Montgomery's strategy of "only long-range combat, not close combat"... Because if the enemy tanks were approaching the British tank group, the Sherman could retreat while shooting, so that it could maintain a certain distance from the enemy and keep itself out of the enemy's range.

But at this time, the British army was crossing the hills to attack the German army, so it was not easy to retreat.

"Abandon the tanks!" Colonel John ordered: "Order the tank crew to abandon the tanks and retreat with the infantry!"

"Yes, Colonel!"

The order was quickly passed down, and the British army retreated like a tide.

But the German army didn't want to let them go so easily. Bullets and shells poured down on the hill, knocking down the British army in groups on the road of retreat. Soon the hill was full of British corpses, and the foot of the hill was full of tank wreckage.

A few surviving tanks drove to the flank, as if they wanted to find a place to escape, but soon a few rockets fired and paralyzed them on the spot.