Battle of the Third Reich
v5 Chapter 133: Fight of annihilation (5)
At this time, the British tank company had lost its formation, and each car group blindly followed the leader of each row. ↑,. The general leader is the platoon long car, following the command of the company commander, each tank platoon begins to choose the line of attack by itself.
During night operations, it is very dangerous to expose your position. The three destroyed Matildas are now burning red, and the vehicle ammunition is still decimated, adding to the friends in the column. Horsepower quickly escaped from these three expensive artificial light sources.
Now Philip has only twelve Matilda tanks left, barely making up four platoons. In fact, these tanks belong to six units, and the remaining vehicles that lost command have joined the nearest platoon. However, due to the haste, some chaos in the order was caused. As a result, there are now four or five tanks in some platoons, while others are left alone.
Philip’s Matilda II tank roared across the road, crushing a row of low shrubby walls on the other side of the road, and began to climb towards Arkham Mountain. I didn’t know when it was, and I followed him all the time. The left wing car disappeared, and now only one tank left him in the command platoon.
"Pay attention to the formation of each row, don't concentrate, keep the distance between the vehicles, as soon as each team finds the target, it can attack freely. Gentlemen, now fight for your honor and life. Maybe we will all fight. Died here, but the final victory will definitely belong to Britain, God bless the king, and God bless the British Empire."
Philip can only do this step at this time. This command means that he is ready to give up the unified command of the tank company, giving each platoon group the freedom to move. The tank platoons are now fighting independently, no matter they choose to continue fighting. Or retreat, all responsibilities will be borne by his company commander.
"Fire! Kill the Germans!"
"Nice to be able to fight under your command, sir."
"How could we die here, watch out for the right wing and accelerate! Accelerate!"
The noise in the headphones that has been silent from the beginning has suddenly become noisy, and the repressive atmosphere that has been shrouded in the company has been wiped out by the company commander. Indeed, there is nothing to fear until now. It is nothing more than death in battle, the enemy is extremely powerful, but I am not a soft persimmon that I can let go of. If you want to take Lao Tzu's life, then use your head to change it.
The elders and Wu Yong in the bloodline of the Anglo-Saxon barbarian began to wake up. These soldiers did not have the eloquence as good as the company commander, but they expressed their determination to the commander with their own actions.
The **** of Mount Akaham is a little steeper than Mount Oaks, and is almost close to the critical point of the maximum climbing **** of the Matilda tank. At this time, the tank drivers could no longer care about the two engines that were compassionate. All vehicles raised the speed to the highest. The engine roared wildly. This heavy infantry tank began to occupy the German army at a speed of eight kilometers per hour. Assault on the hillside.
In order to increase the grip when climbing, and to avoid the German artillery bombardment, some platoons began to take the zigzag route, and at the same time they continued to shoot at the position where the German army opened fire with weapons on the turret.
For the German tank company, this attack is fragile and ridiculous. Neither the coaxial machine gun nor the 40-mm rapid-fire gun can cause damage to the latest tank No. 4. Unless the outbreak of the opponent's character hits the tank's track, but this also makes the No. 4 tank lose its maneuverability at most, it still can't cause fatal damage to it.
However, the German 75mm main gun is very powerful. It has previously been proven that it can penetrate the Matilda II frontal armor at a distance of 1000 meters, and it is not the 75mm vertical deck of the cab, but the body of the car. The 78mm curved armor in the lower front, this steel plate that once made the 37mm and 50mm guns at a loss, is like a glass in front of the new 75mm tank gun. The Germans prefer to use a hot knife to cut the butter. To describe the scene at that time, the warhead penetrated into the armor plate without any hindrance. A bullet hole with melting edges was left on the steel plate, and then a **** was created behind the armor plate.
The night also brought some difficulties to the Germans. The existing night observation technology of the German army was not much ahead of the British. It was still dominated by flares and searchlights. In general, we still have to rely on the naked eye to search for targets.
When the British army turned off the lights and started to rush down the road, the German tanks also began to maneuver. The originally hidden bushes have lost their hidden meaning, and the bright muzzle flashes have also hindered the German observation.
The German tank company had a good start. Only half of the tanks participated in the attack, but caused damage to the other four tanks. Captain Snyder was very satisfied with this. This was not the first night battle his tank company participated in. But this is the first time after changing this new type of tank, which is very commemorative for the company.
The performance of the German Type 4 g on the battlefield made these experienced veteran tankers put it down. After using this tank, the pile of old models became garbage in their eyes. I do not deny that these models are somewhat desirable. At the same time, compared with the type 4 g, it is not a level thing at all.
Major Philip climbed all the way up the hillside. The engine was showing signs of powerlessness. The tank used a civilian vehicle engine. It was a trick made by a group of miserly ghosts in the Army Department. The engine of a car is equipped with two if one horsepower is not enough. They only considered the price of the whole car, but did not think about how the soldiers driving this kind of thing would feel. The heads of the Ordnance Bureau saved the army a sum of money As a result, soldiers on the battlefield have to pay their lives for this.
The gunner used the coaxial machine gun to continuously shoot back and forth toward the edge of the woods on the hillside. Blue and white tracers hit the trees behind through the bushes. Some bushes and grass blades were lit, and stars appeared from the woods. A little bit of fire, the blades of insufficiently burning grass emit thick smoke, but instead they cover a large area.
The German did not stay where he was, and Philip also guessed. He thought that the German would not be stupid enough to stay in place and wait for the beating, and he would definitely respond accordingly. But where are the Germans hiding? Philip held the periscope armrest and searched carefully. Suddenly he saw a series of tracers fired from a row of shrubbery walls on the left, like a shiny ruby chain, sweeping out from under the dark bushes and whipping to the left. On a Matilda tank next to the front row.
Philip seemed to be able to hear the crisp metal chisel from the bullet hitting the body of the car. Looking through the periscope, he could clearly see the tracers flying in the dark, which were flying by the turret armor and fluttered in the air. In the wake, these 7.9mm bullets are useless and can only scratch Matilda's camouflage paint at most.
The problem is that the shooting position of this machine gun is a bit strange. For a tank, the angle is too low. Do the Germans install the machine gun on the tank floor?
"Attention! There are German infantry!" A loud warning from the driver came from the headset. This made Philip suddenly realize that his thinking was somewhat limited, so low position, is it not the German infantry.
The German infantry joined the night battle, which is definitely not good news for the British tank company, but the current situation is already terrible, plus some other troubles will not make things worse.
"This is Mrs. Blue! Tanks, enemy tanks are on the right side of that big house! They rushed down! Attention! The German tanks rushed down the hill...I" exclaimed the captain on the radio. Philip remembered that Mrs. Lan was the nickname of the three-row No. 2 car, and the captain was Max, the army's top soldier.
The warning in the headset came to an abrupt halt, and a fireball was raised on the hillside in front of the left side of the Philip car. The bright fire outlined the outline of the Matilda tank.
"I saw it, tank, eleven o'clock, 170 yards!" the gunner reported loudly.
"Fire, fire!" Philip shouted, upset. The German tanks made a circle on the hillside. They had already reached the left side of the British tank company. The British tank company had to turn immediately. The two sides were close to within 200 yards. This is only happening during night battles. .
"Shoot flares, fire flares over the enemy's head. Fire free!" Philip shouted loudly with a microphone, wondering why the Germans did not use flares first.
British tanks began to make emergency turns in twos and threes, and maneuvering on this kind of ramp took a lot of risk. Once the movement was not smooth enough, it was likely to break the track. A Matilda suffered this kind of doom. Due to a previous engine failure, the vehicle's power was insufficient. When the driver was in a hurry, the driver had no time to change the appropriate gear. As a result, the steering was a bit fierce. The track on one side failed to withstand this sudden torsion and broke directly from the position of the traction sheave.
At this time, the driver did not know that his tank had a fatal failure. He still stepped on the throttle and climbed up. The tank continued to advance for four or five meters. The left track shoe completely fell off the wheel hub. The load wheel on one side was directly crushed on the **** of the land, while the crawler on the other side continued to rotate under the drive of the engine. Due to the uneven force on both sides, the tank suddenly deflected to the left. The wheel was deeply shoveled into the mud, and the tank turned half a circle. With a harsh mechanical friction, the engine stalled.
The crew of this tank knew that they were going to be unlucky. It was the worst thing to encounter this situation on the battlefield, but the crew members were not prepared to give up resistance. They began to turn the turret and fired a series of tracers towards the mansion in the distance. The two-pound guns also started firing in succession. They no longer care about whether they can hit anything. They just want to use their shooting to hinder the enemy and allow their companions to take the opportunity to attack.
The car was clearly prepared to sacrifice itself. The Germans met their expectations with no politeness. A series of tracers blasted this immobile British tank leaning on the hillside. After three seconds, they continued from two directions. The high-speed armor-piercing projectile hit the stubborn target almost at the same time, and instantly killed the lives of the four brave British tank drivers. (To be continued.)