Chapter 540 MTY Armored Bridge Laying Vehicle

Erwin discovered the crisis, but he did not make it public.

He thought that making it public was meaningless, and it would only let the soldiers know that Charles' tanks could cross the anti-tank trenches and make them panic.

Although panic was inevitable, they could hold on for a while.

So, the battle was carried out in an orderly manner. Under the command of the front command, the soldiers fired at the attacking French army. They hoped to put pressure on the attacking enemy with rain of bullets, but most of them were blocked by the tank armor and failed to work.

Amid the dense gunfire, Erwin sat on the pedal and thought for a while, then got up and ran to the back.

He found the infantry artillery regiment headquarters, and the regiment commander was a young major named Benyamin.

The war has continued to this day. Due to the serious losses in the war, the senior officers on the front line have gradually become younger and lower-ranked.

Before Erwin could speak, Major Benyamin reported first: "Lieutenant Colonel, my artillery suffered heavy casualties, and I hope for support from the superiors."

"There will be no support, Benyamin." Erwin's attitude was firm and cold: "We can only fight to the end with the equipment and personnel in our hands. The goal is to hold on for three days until reinforcements arrive."

"But we only have 12 guns." Benyamin's eyes flashed with fear.

What he was really afraid of was the enemy's artillery.

The amount of ammunition that the artillery fire just now was ready to fire showed that the French army needed at least 10 artillery regiments.

Even if the enemy tanks could not cross the anti-tank trench, the German artillery regiment would be wiped out by the enemy's bombardment.

Erwin didn't say much. He took Benyamin along the communication trench for a while and then emerged from the trench, pointing to several positions among the enemy and said: "Do you see those tanks? There is also this one, there is also one there, order your soldiers to aim at them and kill them first!"

Erwin pointed out the tank carrying the steel frame.

"What is that?" Benyamin asked curiously.

"You don't need to worry about this." Erwin replied: "All you have to do is aim at them and then fire, understand?"

"Understood, Lieutenant Colonel." Benyamin's face turned pale.

As the commander of the artillery regiment, he knew that this was tantamount to a death warrant.

The enemy's artillery was staring at them covetously. Once they opened fire, it meant exposing their hiding place.

However, the existence of the 77MM artillery is for this, to blow up the enemy tanks!

Thinking of this, Benyamin gritted his teeth and took his men to the artillery position to command.

Erwin was optimistic about the counterattack of the 77 artillery. He found that the bombing of rocket artillery seemed to exist in the form of quantity, with hundreds of rockets attacking the same area each time.

The German 77mm infantry guns were scattered in various corners of the position, and there were not many of them, so it was not so easy for the rocket artillery to suppress them.

Even if it was possible, it would waste a lot of enemy ammunition.

However, what happened surprised Erwin again.

The 77mm gun had just fired a few rounds and only had time to destroy two target tanks, when a whistling sound like tearing rags came from the air.

The rocket shells were actually divided into several groups, each rushing to its own target for bombing. The scattered German 77mm guns were either blown up or hastily retreated to deeper bunkers and never dared to show their heads again.

What happened?

Erwin frowned. These rockets were fired from the height of the opposite mountain, which means that this type of rocket can also be used as an infantry gun!

Erwin was right. This is an army rocket.

They were split and moved to the highlands and forests, and fortifications were built to aim at the German positions.

Except for the different mobility methods of the army rockets and vehicle-mounted rockets, the rest are almost the same, but the tactics and organization are completely different.

As Erwin understood, vehicle-mounted rockets are indeed suitable for large-scale bombing against enemy targets. They are more likely to fight in regiments, and combat situations at the battalion level and below are not common.

Army rocket artillery often needs to deal with scattered infantry artillery and machine gun fire points, and sometimes bomb small units of infantry raiding.

Therefore, they often fight in companies, with 3 to 4 guns against one target.

It is also "making up for the lack of accuracy with quantity", but it divides more targeted small targets to improve the efficiency of bombing.

At that moment, Erwin realized that this battle was going to be lost.

Charles's new equipment has suppressed the artillery that the German army relies on most, as well as the strange-looking "steel frame tank" that may be used to cross the trench.

Erwin thought he had made sufficient preparations before the war, but he didn't expect Charles to make more preparations.

Erwin even felt that this was unfair. They were both making preparations, why could Charles's preparations be better than his and suppress him from beginning to end?

But after thinking about it, Erwin was convinced.

Erwin's preparations were all visible and very traditional, such as artillery blocking roads and anti-tank trenches.

They were all old-fashioned tactics. If there was anything new, only the anti-tank trenches could be counted.

However, Charles's preparations were full of creativity and were very targeted: the new rocket launcher was used to lift the blockade, and the steel frame tank was used to cross the anti-tank trench.

He was always ahead of Erwin, so how could he not suppress Erwin?

The battle situation did develop as Erwin expected.

Under Erwin's helpless gaze, the French "steel frame tanks" began to slow down, slowly drove to the anti-tank trench, and stretched out the steel frame with the sound of "clack clack".

The steel frame stretched longer and longer, and soon it crossed the anti-tank trench, and then the support point was lowered, and an arched steel frame bridge was built on the anti-tank trench.

The whole process took only a few minutes, and a bridge was built, and it was a steel bridge that could allow tanks to pass.

The same thing happened repeatedly in front of the anti-tank trench, and the French army built more than a dozen steel bridges one after another.

The German soldiers guarding the trenches witnessed this magical scene with their own eyes. They immediately realized that they could not stop Charles' troops. They were so scared that their faces changed drastically, and even the sound of gunfire decreased a lot.

Some soldiers turned back and asked Erwin loudly: "How can we stop them, Lieutenant Colonel?"

Erwin was speechless. How could he stop them?

It seemed that the only thing he could do was rifles and bayonets!

...

That was the Soviet-style MTY armored bridge-laying vehicle developed by Charles specifically for armored forces.

The reason for choosing this bridge-laying vehicle is that it is simple, reliable, easy to operate, has almost no technological content, and can be mass-produced in a short time.

(Most Soviet equipment has this feature, the disadvantage is that the performance data will be worse)

(The picture above is a Soviet MTY armored bridge-laying vehicle)

(The picture above shows the working method of the MTY bridge-laying vehicle. It uses a flat-push bridge-laying method, which is much simpler than the modern scissor-type folding bridge-laying method. The disadvantage is that the bridge body is only 18 meters, but it is enough to deal with the anti-tank trenches during World War I)

The tanks "clacked" onto the steel bridge and passed the anti-tank trench smoothly. Teams of French soldiers followed the tanks and approached the German defense line.

And Erwin could only watch this scene helplessly.