Battle of the Third Reich
v5 Chapter 132: Annihilation (4)
"Oh! God!" Major Philip just got up from the bottom of the turret, his hand covering the back of the knocked head, where the scalp was torn and the leather gloves were covered with blood. ◇↓三◇↓江◇↓阁◇↓Fiction. $f
At this time, he could not care about any pain, and there was a violent explosion in his ear, as well as the exclamation of the driver of his car.
"What happened?" Philip finally settled his heels, he climbed up to the captain's seat and asked the gunner.
"Captain Blanche's tank exploded just now." The gunner turned to the company commander with a sad face.
"Do any of you see what happened?"
"Damn it, it's German!"
"Where did the attack come from?"
"I did not see anything."
"It's an anti-tank gun! Watch out!"
"What happened? Who did something wrong?"
"It's the deputy company commander."
"Oh my god, is it a mine?"
"The shelling! It came from the opposite hill!"
At this time, there was a mess of shouts in the car radio. Because of the sudden incident, most tanks in the rear team did not even know that the pilot car was destroyed. They only knew that there was an explosion in front. Most people ignored the radio communication rules and began to communicate with each other on the radio. Inquire.
"Shut up for me and keep the radio channel clear." Philip endured the pain in the back of the head and stopped the subordinates from talking loudly.
"The whole company turned, followed me in two rows, three rows and four rows on the road, pay attention to search for the enemy, and found that each row can shoot freely after the target." Philip issued a combat command.
Major Philip responded very quickly, and the decision he made was also in line with the conditions at that time. Until this time, he had not made any obvious mistakes, and he also affirmed this in the German report after the war.
At that time, the British army was still lined up in two columns, and the company commander and deputy company leader lined up at the head of the two columns. So when attacked, the company commander became the first target, and because of this, the deputy company commander could find the attacker's position and fight back in the first place. At this point, it can be seen that the training level of this British tank unit is still good, at least it can be said to be qualified in response speed and combat capability.
At the same time, it was because the counter company's counterattack was too quick. The German tank transferred the attack target from the company's long car to him, which can be regarded as a fool.
At this time, the British army was attacked and a tank was destroyed, but no one could tell the exact location of the enemy. I don't even know what attacked me. The enemy’s situation is unknown, and the enemy’s position is unknown, but the British tank company was exposed to the bright flames because of the burning of the company’s auxiliary seat. The enemy’s secret situation is extremely unfavorable to the British tank company. The destroyed tank blocked the path of the following vehicles, while the company commander led another column to move on. The march has been disrupted.
In this case, it is obviously stupid to continue the original marching route. The enemy in the dark can knock out the tanks in the column one by one as easily as a target. Philip judged that the attacker should be a German artillery, but he didn't know which one. Since it can easily penetrate the front armor of the cockpit up to 75 cm thick, the caliber of this artillery must not be too small.
When did the Germans set up artillery positions on Mount Arkham, and the Cox Hill position in the immediate vicinity turned out to be unresponsive to this. This was simply a scandal. The **** lazy infantry were indirectly Having killed his deputy company commander, Major Philip was prepared to make a good mention in the post-war combat report. Be sure to get this justice for your deputy company commander.
The British tank company followed the command of the company commander and began to change its formation. Philip knew that he could never stay in the bright spot as a target at this time, so he took one of his leading columns to the left, and the other column bypassed the wreckage of the first car and suddenly Go on the road and keep parallel with the team of the first column.
The two teams of tanks proceeded in parallel along the highway, using the dense roadside trees to cover themselves, while searching for the enemy and waiting for the opportunity to counterattack. It is not in the style of the British Army to just fight back and not fight back. At least let the enemy shed the same weight of blood to restore the honor of the Viscount Philip.
Major Philip’s judgment was not accurate, but with the information he had at the time, it was amazing to be able to think of so much in a short time. This is the essence of the British military aristocracy. These people have been militarized since they were young, and their military knowledge and literacy are no worse than that of the Junker aristocracy in Germany. In fact, this set of models originally came from Germany, that is, the English revision of the Germanic barbarian development plan. Although the soup is different, the medicine still has the original taste.
However, due to the sudden incident and at the same time due to human inertial thinking, Major Philip still missed some details. It may not matter in the usual training and exercises, but it is fatal in real combat. When Major Philip responded. An irreparable loss has already been made.
The British tank made a ninety-degree turn in front of Mount Arkham and began to move slowly along the Arkham Highway towards the west. Major Philip’s tactics were based on the enemy’s large artillery, which generally turned Difficult, it is difficult to accurately aim for a laterally moving target. If the other party fires, it will definitely reveal its position. On the contrary, their tanks do not have this defect, they can attack enemy targets in 360 degrees. Once the German artillery exposed its position, the tank could quickly suppress its opponents with rapid-fire guns and machine guns, and then the tank company chose to switch to assault or two-wing roundabout outs, depending on the mood of the company commander.
The British turrets all pointed to the hill on the right, and the machine gunners and the captains clung to their respective periscopes, not daring to miss a sign. At this time, only the bushes on the dark hills that were lit before were burning, but the light could not shine far, and it was not far away from the flames. It was like being swallowed by the darkness around, and the nearby bush jungle was completely shrouded. In the dark night, the flares in the distance from the sky can't show them their original appearance. The unburned ashes are like fireflies scattered in the sky with the evening wind. This was originally a beautiful and wonderful scene, here In the eyes of the British army at that time, it seemed to be murderous, and the ghosts of the mountains fell.
Suddenly a whole row of fire flashed on the mountainside, accompanied by a series of shining meteors. In Philip's angry eyes, he quickly crossed the sky and swarmed into a neat British tank array. .
"God, that's a German tank!" Although it was far away. But Philip still saw his opponent's appearance clearly. In the flash of the enemy's muzzle flames, the founder's body and turret of the German tank were clearly discernible.
"Damn it! Turn off the lights! Turn off all the **** lights." Philip realized at this point how a low-level mistake he had made. That's how they differed from those old units. Although they received the same training, they all lacked actual combat experience. Veterans will never drive with lights on the front line, which is equivalent to marking their position to the enemy. This is not as good as drawing a white cross bullseye directly on the body, just like the Germans did when they first started the war.
But Philip has been training in the country all the year round. The first thing to focus on is driving safety. Although there are some night-lighting driving training, it is mainly used as part of air defense operations. It is not recommended to engage in this kind of tricks in the usual combat confrontation exercises, because it is easy to cause accidents.
Not to mention the use of spotlights to search for enemy troops in the British Army Tank Night Warfare Order, so each Matilda tank’s captain has a small searchlight next to the control tower to search for enemy targets at night, but The final statement also states that it can only be used when fighting against enemy infantry, otherwise Major Philip will go further on the road to death.
Since the company has been driving with lights on, the brain is used to the existence of these lights. Philip actually knew that the firelight would reveal his position, but he automatically ignored the two bright lights in front of his car, which exposed his position. In fact, not only the two bright light sources, but also the two lights on the fender. The wide lights, these two orange small lights are actually more conspicuous, but they are also ignored by the British tank driver unconsciously.
As the target was moving laterally, the German round of shelling was not particularly accurate, but it still produced a good result. The three Matilda tanks in the middle of the team were completely destroyed, and one of them was also hit by two. Armor-piercing shells. I don't know which German vehicle group counted the wrong target.
One of the armour-piercing rounds was shot into the body of the car, and the other shot into Matilda's engine compartment. The former exploded the ammunition in the turret, although it was just some 40mm grenade, it still had a full sound and light effect when it exploded. The latter penetrated the entire six-cylinder engine, the fuel pump was torn to pieces, a ball of fire rose, the entire heat dissipation system and the shell cover plate flew into the air, and a violent explosion took the other six-cylinder engine. Throwing the engine compartment, the engine wrapped in flames rolled off the road and fell into the bushes on the roadside. Suddenly, a fire broke out again.
What's more serious is that the firelight illuminates several British tanks in the army column on the road, and these green camouflage behemoths are completely exposed to the sight of the German tanks.
"Spread the formation, turn around, switch the assault formations in each row, and assault towards Mount Arkham." Philip was really anxious at this time, and he fell into deep regret, but at this time there was no time to worry about Right or wrong, the primary goal now is how to escape from the German attack.
Yes, Philip first thought of escape at this time, he no longer considered whether he could defeat his opponent, because the answer was obvious, his tank company had been completely crushed by the opponent, regardless of terrain or equipment, the Germans Both have obvious advantages.
At this time, running away from the enemy was obviously a dead end. The accuracy of the German shooting and the fierceness of the firepower have been undoubtedly revealed. Philip firmly believed that the correct approach at this time was to hedge against attacks and to survive. First of all, the vehicle must face the enemy and use the thickest frontal armor to resist the opponent's shelling. Of course, reality shows that the armor cannot block the enemy's armor-piercing projectile, but it is always stronger than the weaker side armor and tail armor.
The key to Philip’s tactics is to keep the distance between the two sides as close as possible, and use the high rate of fire of the two-pound gun to suppress the enemy’s firepower. Although the enemy’s appearance is exposed for a short time, Philip is convinced that it is a medium tank, it should not be two. What a pounder cannon can penetrate in the usual combat distance, not to mention the accuracy of the two pounder cannon is also very problematic in the case of poor sight at night, so only close distance can effectively damage the enemy. Maybe you can still get some results. Anyway, you have to disrupt the fighting rhythm of the enemy, and then see if there will be a turnaround. Once in a melee, it is the most ideal situation for Philip. At that time, it will depend on the performance of each car team. Well, if you are lucky, some people may survive.
By this time Philip had not lost his keen judgment. When he discovered his mistake, he immediately adjusted his existing tactics and made a new assessment of the German combat effectiveness. Reality is really cruel to Major Philip. The German tank that appeared in front of him was obviously the latest model. Due to the lag in intelligence, he didn’t even know that the Germans actually made this kind of thing. This was the reason why the Germans were large-caliber artillery, because in the concept of Philip, Germany There is no tank that can destroy the Matilda II at this distance, even the latest German tank No. 4.
The reality was a slap in the face of Philip. He secretly cursed the incompetent intelligence agency in the United Kingdom. He even knew nothing about such important equipment intelligence. The number of enemies in front of him is definitely not less than one. Obviously, this new type of tank has begun mass production and replacement.
I have long heard that the MIA group of foolish eaters will only take the fat of the British Empire to the Royal Casino, and I heard that there is a very famous guy who likes to drive a German car with a German gun and steal the world. ...Wait a minute, to put it this way, where is the goods? (To be continued.)