Chapter 977 Nimitz's Counterattack (10, 2100 Votes Plus More)

The US military does not believe that the M26 or M26/SP can overwhelm the Tiger. There is another product that can compete with the Tiger - the T29 test vehicle.

T265 double-diameter tank gun and 770-horsepower engine, the total weight exceeds 70 tons, and the frontal armor is 180mm thick. The United States believes that the German army will improve the Tiger sooner or later, and it is necessary to leave some forward-looking capacity. This "forward-looking" directly affects The jump from 120mm to 180mm not only greatly exceeds the Tiger 2 already produced by Germany, but is even 20mm thicker than the 160mm front armor thickness of the ultimate Tiger variant, the King Tiger.

This is the American version of Tiger King.

This is not all. In addition to the T29, the US military also has T30 (installed with a 155mm gun), T34 (not the Soviet T-34, planned to be installed with a 120mm gun), T95 (front thickness 300mm, installed with 4 tracks) and other models. Development has always taken more effort and cost than ever before.

U.S. diplomats in the Soviet Union received news that in the final decisive battle in the Caucasus from May to June, the German army invested in the new heavy tank Tiger 2, which had more firepower and stronger defense than the Tiger. The IS-2, which the Soviet side had high hopes for, was not The expected results were not achieved. As for the T-43/85, it could not stop the Tiger 2 once it entered the 2,000-meter range. This makes the Americans very nervous. According to the usual practice, after Germany comes up with a new model, there must be a new model that is close to being used, and there must be a larger and more powerful design in the design bureau.

The former guess is good. Germany has indeed completed all preparations for the production of Tiger 3, and is just waiting for the HL234 engine to be put into mass production to start production at full capacity. As for larger and more powerful designs, there are none - only the E-45 is the only new German tank model to be redesigned, and the mid-level major facelift is only the Panther. E-45 has only just got a clue so far - if the performance of the HL234 engine is stable, the E-45's first choice engine will be an improved version of this model (expected 900-1000 horsepower).

As for the other requirements of the E-45 put forward by Hoffman: such as composite armor, high-performance 105mm tank rifled gun, advanced fire control rangefinder, ballistic computer, advanced night vision system, etc., there is no trace yet, but he is not in a hurry. The King Tiger and Leopard 2 alone were enough to keep the Americans busy. The existing German tanks had a steady advantage until 1950 (the Americans only used Pershing and Patton in the Korean War).

Now Shaoken will use Tiger 2 to give the US military some color.

Due to the tenacious blocking of the 442nd Regiment, most of the US division escaped, which made Shaoken very frustrated, but there was nothing that could be done. He doesn't have enough troops at hand. He has to deal with American troops, storm the airport, help Montero stabilize the situation and mop up opposition forces, and control various material bases. Even with three heads and six arms, he can't do it, and the Americans Don't do anything, just run away.

After stabilizing the situation, and then thinking about the pursuit, the 442nd Regiment had retreated while fighting, and had found a very favorable blocking point, and it could also get cover from the nearby US Army Air Forces.

After receiving the tank battalions and anti-tank destroyer battalions allocated by Clark, this temporary defense line has become very strong. This is why the Dulat government can only barely control three states: there is a US military blocking defense line to the north, and there is a blocking defense line of the US military to the south. It is the territory of the American Republic, and it does not have enough troops to expand in depth.

In the first two days of exploratory attacks, Shaoken had his troops launch an attack, but the US military responded well. The combination of Tiger and Fw-190 was not enough to overcome this line of defense. Originally, he hoped that Krank or Hintz You can use naval guns to help him clean it up - the idea is exactly the same as Clark's. Before the fleet set off, he received news that the main US fleet was approaching.

Shaoken also studied a detour from the mountainous area. Not to mention whether the road was good or not, he couldn't stand the distance alone - it would take a detour of more than 170 kilometers. The detour may not necessarily be successful, in case the Americans are on the trail. Where's the ambush? Even without an ambush, a U.S. air strike would be terrifying.

During the war in South America, he clearly felt the difference from the Eastern Front: the US military's land combat level was really ordinary. Not to mention that it could not compare with the Russians, it was also much worse than the British. At most, it was only at the level of the Italians - even if the Italians were If you can get such good equipment, your performance will be better. However, the U.S. Army Air Forces is very threatening. The 1944-type unit of its own can achieve results by directly commanding the Fw-190 ground attack aircraft. The U.S. Army Air Forces can use 3 times or even 4 times the force to overwhelm them and force them to retreat. The high-altitude cover of Ta-152 and Do-412 prevented the 190 that attacked the ground from acting recklessly.

However, the US military did not take much advantage. The Americans also suffered enough from their 88mm anti-aircraft guns and ball lightning.

There is no end to the road, and Krank sent him new reinforcements-the renovated 508th and 509th Heavy Armor Battalions arrived in Brazil.

These two heavy armored battalions have obviously been upgraded. In addition to the daunting Tiger 2 tanks, their main equipment also has two more pieces of heavy equipment:

The first type is called the Sherman organ. The German army used the Shermans that captured and cut off the turrets (these turrets were all served on the Sibel landing craft, and behind each Sibel-class landing craft were the ghosts of 4 Shermans). The rocket launcher came out. Engineers tried to use the No. 4 tank chassis for magic modification, but found that it was not as large as the Sherman, with sufficient horsepower and good load-bearing capacity, so they finally switched to the Sherman. The Sherman organ had many important improvements over the Himmler organ.

The first improvement is the use of 122mm caliber rockets, which seem smaller than the 150mm caliber used by the Himmler Organ, but the latter is only 1020mm long. The new 122 rocket is nearly 2.1 meters long, much thinner, and the warhead charge is nearly twice as much. The maximum range exceeds 12 kilometers. At the maximum range, the longitudinal deviation is more than 400 meters, and the lateral deviation is more than 150 meters, which is much more accurate.

The second improvement is the increase in carrying capacity. The Sherman Organ has a 36+36 tube combination device. 36 tubes of rockets can be fired in one salvo, and the automatic loading device can be used to reload within 5 minutes. It can pour 72 rockets in 7 minutes at the fastest, which is more powerful than the Himmler Organ. Just think about it, how can the Sherman's carrying capacity and chassis passability be compared with the half-track vehicle?

The third improvement is the most significant. The rocket launch tube of the Sherman Organ is located at the original turret, and is equipped with a hydraulic lifting and rotatable device, which can freely adjust the landing distance and launch angle. Generally, vehicle-mounted rockets can only be launched to the front of the vehicle body, and the launch distance and launch angle are basically fixed, but the Sherman Organ can be adjusted, and can be launched to the side flexibly, which greatly increases the combat effectiveness.

Each heavy armored battalion is equipped with 8 Sherman Organs on the basis of 54 Tiger 2 tanks.

The US military also has an improvement of installing rocket launchers on the top of the Sherman (called T34 Organ), but because it does not give up the turret and artillery, its rocket power is much smaller and much closer. Because it is installed above the turret, the height is higher and the target is more exposed. After the German magic modification, the Sherman Organ is already an authentic tracked rocket launcher.

The second important equipment is the Sherman Ball Lightning. The main technical features are almost the same as the Ball Lightning self-propelled anti-aircraft gun using the No. 4 chassis. The difference is that the use of the Sherman chassis increases the amount of ammunition and speeds up. This was specially allocated to the South American combat troops by Hoffman considering the obvious air superiority of the US military. The reason for using the Sherman chassis was that, on the one hand, they hoped to achieve common parts with the Sherman Organ, and on the other hand, they considered that in the battle with the US military, if the local parts were damaged and there was no backup, they could dismantle the parts from the US tanks for common use.

Each battalion was equipped with 6 Sherman ball lightnings, and when necessary, the muzzle could be flattened to carry out anti-general armored targets and personnel targets.

With these two battalions in hand, Shaoken's confidence increased greatly and he was determined to fight a surprise attack. As for tactics, he was not afraid of fighting at night with the help of the Night Fighter! One advantage of fighting at night is that it can eliminate the interference of the US Army Aviation to the greatest extent. He was really fed up with these annoying flies.

At about 11 o'clock in the evening of July 24, the long-silent German army, under the guidance of 8 Night Fighters, used 16 Sherman Organs to open the curtain of a violent joint attack, and the ruler firmly locked the firepower points and anti-tank positions on the US defense line.

The 8-kilometer defense line guarded by the U.S. military was immediately bombarded with rockets. The flames from the launch illuminated the entire east coast of Brazil, and the entire position became a sea of ​​fire. Long-legged Toms in the rear of the U.S. military tried to counterattack, but were shocked to find that all the rockets were fired from 10 kilometers away - almost at the limit of Long-legged Toms' range. Even so, they still fired back without hesitation.

Before their shells were fired, the Sherman Organs, who had finished the first round, had begun to reverse, unfolding and reloading while reversing, preparing to start the second round of shooting.

The Tiger 2 tanks that attacked forward relied on the instructions of the flames on the U.S. military positions and began to accurately call the roll. One by one, M26 and M36 were called and written off at a distance of 1200-2000 meters. The U.S. military's random counterattacks did not hit the German tanks several times. Even if they did, most of them were bounced off by the 130mm inclined armor on the front of the Tiger 2.

After the Sherman Organs finished reloading, they did not stay in the original position to continue the second round of firing - this section of the scale had been locked by Long-legged Tom, which could easily lead to quick retaliation. They advanced all the way to the back of the Tiger 2 tank, and launched the second round of firing when they were only 3-4 kilometers away from the enemy line, completely covering the enemy's deep position.

At dawn, Nimitz received a telegram with frustration, saying that the army's defense line at the forefront had been lost, and the 442nd Regiment, which had made great contributions some time ago, along with two battalions, had lost their combat effectiveness and was forced to retreat...