Chapter 371: street fighting
There is usually nothing wrong with choosing this, as tanks are always a threat to bigger gear.
But not now:
Both the enemy and our tanks are helpless to each other, that is to say, the tank is no longer the biggest threat, but the biggest threat is the anti-tank gun hiding behind it.
If you attack the tank first as the instructor said... Even if the tank has been destroyed, the subsequent anti-tank guns can still be manually maneuvered to attack with the tank wreckage as cover, and even at this time because of the smoke, it is difficult for the bazooka to hit the target accurately.
But this is not the case now, the bazooka shooter just needs to aim at the tank's position and wait for it to get out of the way.
Sure enough, after waiting for a few more seconds, the "No. 3" tank gave up its gun position with a "clack-clack" and a thick and long anti-tank gun barrel was exposed.
The German artillerymen are even ready to shoot, they only need to adjust the muzzle slightly to aim at the "Matilda" tank to fire.
But they were still one step too late.
"Fire!" Shulka ordered.
There were a few "swish", and a total of four rockets on both sides of the street went straight to the anti-tank guns with howling noises.
The bazooka shooter is only 70 meters away from the anti-tank gun. The point is that they hide in the building and are condescending, and they still launch the bazooka on a fixed point such as a sandbag or a window sill. This is essentially the same as shoulder-mounted launch on a tense battlefield the difference.
So two of the four rockets hit.
The rocket hit the gun mantlet of the anti-tank gun. From the front, the anti-tank gun is the gun mantlet except for the barrel, so the hit can only hit the gun mantlet.
The thickness of the gun mantlet is usually only a dozen millimeters, and it is used to prevent bullets and shrapnel. Of course, it cannot stop armor-piercing projectiles that can penetrate hundreds of millimeters of tank armor.
Only two "booms" were heard, and then screams followed... The high-temperature, high-pressure jets of the rockets sprayed through the gun mantlet to the German anti-tank gunners gathered in a pile behind.
Don't think about it, someone must have been pierced or burned by the jet.
After the war, Shulka saw their tragic scene, and his whole body seemed to be rotten. One piece of black here, one piece of black there.
Of course, that's not really "rotten", but the high-temperature, high-pressure jet flows out like a fountain after passing through the gun mantlet... It's like the situation where the faucet is blocked. If you slowly increase the water pressure, the faucet will be blocked The plug can't withstand the pressure and suddenly pops open, and the water will rush out and splash around randomly.
The difference is that the high-temperature, high-pressure metal jets that the German soldiers were subjected to, the taste of it splashing on their bodies was unpleasant, and what was even more painful was that quite a few of them died after struggling for a while because they were not hit in the vital parts.
The two rockets that missed hit the corner and exploded, and the fragments and rubble that exploded also injured several German soldiers.
But these are not important, the important thing is that the anti-tank gun is no longer usable.
The "No. 3" tank didn't feel the danger until then, and it hurriedly adjusted its muzzle to find the target.
If the "No. 3" tank can accurately and quickly find the target and fire grenades, it can still cause certain casualties to the Soviet troops in the building.
The problem is that it is difficult to do. Tanks only use one observation port to observe the outside world. It is difficult to find anti-tank guns on an open battlefield, let alone in a city where there are buildings blocking everywhere and blind spots everywhere.
It adjusted the muzzle clumsily, and fired a cannonball in a hurry, blowing up a building with shrapnel flying.
However, Shulka knew that the "No. 3" tank had never found the target at all, because the building it attacked had only two observers.
The "No. 3" tank adjusted its muzzle and continued to attack, but it was too late.
After a few whistles, the "No. 3" tank emitted a cloud of black smoke... The black smoke came out of the tank compartment, which was a sign that the tank had been penetrated.
As soon as the tanks and anti-tank guns were destroyed, the German attack was blocked.
The Germans tried several times to charge with infantry, but there was no doubt that any charge was pointless when there were enemies on both sides of the street and tanks in the middle.
Similar battles like this were also going on in other directions of Tver, except that the German PAK40s succeeded in some positions, that is, they used this method to destroy the "Matilda" tanks blocking the middle of the street.
But the "Matilda" tank is not the point.
The German army tried to use the cover of the tanks to launch a storm, but the storms ended with the tank being destroyed by the rocket launcher... The rocket launcher is impossible to defend in street battles. Houses, ruins, even a bomb crater or a wall can become its hiding place.
It only needs the cooperation of two people to run around. It can destroy tanks within a minute when it sees them at any time. It is very flexible to move immediately after fighting.
In contrast to tanks, they have to move along the streets, clumsily looking for targets, and even taller buildings are still unable to attack outside their angle of fire.
Lucas, the commander of the Sixth Armored Division, understood the point of the problem at this time.
"Your Excellency Lieutenant General!" Lucas reported to Kubiler: "This is not a problem with the enemy's tanks. I even believe that they will be able to block our attack even without tanks... The enemy's new equipment is terrible. We Our tanks are like a target in front of them, a moving target. Our tank crews can't even feel their presence!"
"What's the meaning?"
"Tankers were shot and killed before they found them!"
"No matter what, find a way to deal with it!" Kubiler ordered: "You know the importance of the Tver Bridge!"
As he spoke, he hung up the phone involuntarily.
This is obviously a difficult problem for Major General Lucas.
Of course, the bazooka is not a panacea, and it also has disadvantages, that is, short range and poor accuracy.
According to this shortcoming, armored forces should fight against them in open fields with a good view, and street fighting just makes up for this shortcoming.
Therefore, Kubiler's order "find a way to fight it" makes no sense... because the way to deal with it is not to fight it in the streets. If you insist on using tanks and rocket launchers to fight street fights, it is almost impossible to solve it. The short attack the other's long.
But of course, Kubiler doesn't need to think about this issue.
Lucas held an emergency meeting to discuss with his subordinates, but no one found a solution.
In desperation, Lucas could only say: "We can only try to launch an attack after the sky darkens. I hope the enemy's new equipment will not be able to exert such terrifying combat effectiveness at night!"
(end of this chapter)