Redemption of WWII

Chapter 52 Armor Showdown 3

How long is the distance of 1000 meters, the answer is definitely different. 【】For cheetahs, it takes less than 1 minute.For snails it might be forever.

For the attacking British 1000st Armored Division in the North African desert, the distance of 8 meters is [-] 'Sherman' American tanks that were torched.

The tanks commanded by Michel and Wittmann carried only 25 rounds of high-explosive howitzers.In this way, they stopped 3 kilometers away and fired at the dense tank formation of the British army. 25 rounds of grenades directly hit 10 of the cannons, and 7 of the high-explosive grenades directly ignited the gasoline in the engine of the Sherman tank, including the tank that was smashed for the first time just now. Wittmann's record rose directly to 8 cars.The British are terrified by the fact that nearly 3 shots can destroy a tank. If all German tanks have such a fatality rate, then there is no need to fight, just surrender.

There are many reasons why Michel and Wittmann are so brave. The first one is that the German "Panther" tank is really good. The weight of 44 tons is enough to withstand the nearly 5-meter-long gun. The recoil produced by the tube.Although the track and suspension system of the tank were often damaged, and the engine of the tank was more often caught fire due to overheating, it cannot be denied that the most powerful tank in the world at that time was the 'Panther' tank.Said to be a small tank, in fact, according to the standards of World War II, the Leopard is already a heavy tank of the small tank.

The second reason is that the US-made 'Sherman', also known as 'M4' tank, is not used to fight killers like 'Panther' at all.Sherman's strengths are reliability, ease of maintenance and versatility. M4 Sherman is the most reliable tank in World War II. Its power system is so durable that it is even inferior to the Soviet T34 tank, and the German tank is far behind.The high precision of German tanks also makes German tanks have to be overhauled after running thousands of kilometers, while Sherman tanks only need the most basic field maintenance.

Reliable performance and few failures make the attendance rate of American tanks much higher than that of German tanks.The production design of the Sherman tank was probably the best in World War II.American manufacturers of tanks are General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and other automobile factories. They adopt the production line principle advocated by Henry Ford, so they can produce in large quantities and greatly reduce costs.

The most interesting thing is that the size of the Sherman tank is based on the cabin design of the American "Liberty Wheel", which is very convenient for ocean transportation.Coming to the US military has a very thorough understanding of the importance of logistics.

But all this cannot cover up the shortcomings of 'm4 Sherman', the Sherman tank has a thin and tall appearance, up to 34 meters.Stagger through the battlefield like a lady.It is very attractive to the German tanks looking directly at the Germans in the mirror.If you can't face a lady, you are a fool.

Gasoline engines only use a very thin layer of steel armor due to cost issues.This malady earned the Sherman tank the nickname 'Ronson Lighter' because the lighter was advertised as 'one hit, every hit. '

The third reason is the problem of the armored commander of the British team.The United Kingdom is an island country, and the Royal Navy has always been in the United Kingdom.The British only knew how to build larger and more heavily armored battleships.There is no special emphasis on Army tanks at all.

The United Kingdom was the first country to use tanks. In World War I, it was to break through the defensive positions of the German army's trenches, wires, and machine gun fire points.Britain used automobiles, tractors, gun manufacturing and metallurgical technology to trial-produce a prototype of the tank. On September 1916, 9, 15 "Mark" 60 tanks were put into the Battle of the Somme for the first time.At that time, in order to keep it secret, the British described this new weapon as a 'water tank' (English 'tnk') to deliver water to the front line.As a result, the name is still used today, and 'tank' is the transliteration of this word.

However, after the First World War, Britain returned to its old state, and did not conduct in-depth and high-cost research on this king of land warfare at all.It is taken for granted that the tactics of the Army's military academy still use tanks as infantry support tools. For 20 years, the level of tank use in the UK has remained at the level of World War I.

When the Germans used tanks to capture Poland, the British repented and made new improvements to the tanks.And developed a series of tank tactics, one of which is, 'When tanks attack without the cover of infantry, the distance between tanks should be shortened as much as possible to play the role of mutual cover. '

British armor commanders are all top students who graduated from the Armor Academy with high marks.Those textbooks can be memorized backwards, and they are also very strict in accordance with the requirements of the book on the battlefield.Because if you don't do it the same way, you will be regarded as an alternative and kept at a distance by others, and your boss will not like you, a guy who is old and new.

The results of the book were finally shown in the deserts of North Africa, using the lives of dozens of British armored officers and soldiers. Even Rommel later sighed and said "dogmatism kills people" after learning about this incident.After speaking, she pretended to shed a few crocodile tears.

The long 1 kilometer passed in a few minutes, and the distance between the tanks of the two armies was less than 2 kilometers.The German tank commanders in the front row all got into the turret one after another. At this time, the guns of the British tanks were able to shoot over, but the accuracy was simply outrageous.

What the British army fired was high-explosive armor-piercing. The British tanks with a range of only 1500 meters couldn't stand the blow from Michel and Wittmann just now, and they all opened fire in advance.

However, due to the too long distance, the fired gun had already lost the kinetic energy of the fire, and just hit the leading German tank by inertia.But this kind of smashed iron block is still very harmful to the human body.The tank commanders of the German army did not want their bodies to have any intimate contact with them.So no one was directing outside, and everyone covered the top of the tank one after another.And raised the periscope on the turret.

The British guns fell around the German tanks one after another, but the armor-piercing kinetic energy had already been exhausted, and even hitting the German tanks was not enough to cause the explosion of the armor-piercing powder.So not only the British army was surprised, but even the German army was puzzled.How come there are so many 'stinky'.

However, the German army was still injured. A coaxial machine gun on a "Panther" tank was hit by this "stinky guy". A dragon swung its tail at the back of the gun and hit the shoulder, which directly broke the arm of the unfortunate German soldier. Fortunately, it was not the head. If it hit the head, it would definitely be dead.

Of course, the "stinky" launched by the United Kingdom could not stop the German tanks that had already been prepared. The tank commander, who was usually an instructor of the Armor Academy, gave an order, and the tanks stopped advancing.

Of course, these tank instructors will not make some novice mistakes, firing the gun while driving the tank.One by one, they adjusted the precision of the tank's periscope to the maximum, and issued extremely precise coordinate commands directly to the gunner. The angle of the turret and the elevation angle of the gun barrel were all accurate to the degree of 'minutes'.

炮管的仰角是在28度个5度之间。而一度的角度又分为60‘分’。1‘分’又等于60‘秒’。教官们平时早就让他们养成了精确计算的习惯。直接报出的坐标都是论‘分’算的。而这些精确的数据就是目标远近的唯一标准，也是炮手调整坦克炮的依据。

This is something that the armored commanders of the field troops cannot do, and it is usually when the battle is miserable.The armored commanders of those field armies were pretty good at visualizing the approximate location of the enemy, and the reported coordinates could be measured in degrees, not to mention the exact location.

Fortunately, the scale of the German direct sight mirror is the lowest, which is calculated in terms of 'points'.Only the approximate position of the tank can be hit.If it is calculated by 'seconds', those instructors must figure out which part of the tank to hit is better.

Fortunately, most of the other members of these tanks were former students of these instructors, and they did not dare to neglect the instructor's orders at all, and carefully adjusted the turret and barrel to the position required by the instructor.Wait for the command to be launched by the commander.

这些坦克指挥官在弄好坐标以后，并没有急于发射，而是在线电里大声的喊道‘2号’‘1号’‘5号’‘8号’‘9号’等术语。直到1到10号都有人报过以后，线电才又停了下来。

The members of the unreported tanks wondered why their commanders did not report the numbers.But good discipline makes people compare their mouths.However, their commander ignored their questions, but looked at the periscope again and then reported the next coordinates.The coordinates this time are still accurate to the unit of 'point' level.

At this time, the commanders of the tanks that reported the numbers 1-10 just now gave orders to shoot.Ten Panther tanks fired their guns almost at the same time.

2秒不到的时间英军的10辆‘谢尔曼m4’坦克分别收到了这十个标着‘危险品，禁止碰撞’标志的礼物。穿甲都一例外的打在了坦克炮塔的前装甲上。高达1200每秒的初速度使这种合金钢头，在飞行了2000米以后动能依然是十分的强悍，直接打穿了‘谢尔曼’那防护效果相当于88毫米钢板正面装甲。

After piercing the steel plate, the head of the cannon detonated the fuze of the zh powder wrapped in the core under the reaction force of the steel plate. The air wave produced by the explosion of the zh powder wrapped the alloy head fragments that had just collided with the steel plate and melted and deformed, turning into metal jets, raging towards the inside of the tank from the hole pierced through the steel plate.

In just one second, the metal jets that had gone back and forth dozens of times in the tank killed all members of the British tank.Of course, British soldiers did not feel pain before they died.This is because the speed of nerve transmission has not been reflected in the brain, and the body has been reduced to pieces.

The low-level tank officers and soldiers of the German army were a little stunned when they saw this, and they were all wondering what kind of shooting calculations would allow ten tanks to be shot 2000 meters away, and all of them were turrets.And those ten instructors all calculated the tank shooting positions a few seconds in advance, and the waiting time was actually not bad.Every tank turned out to have solved the problem with only one shot.And there is no 'misfire' of 2 rounds hitting a target.

If the body of the tank is a huge target, then the turret of the tank is undoubtedly the position of the red heart between the targets.The ten British 'Sherman M4's all looked like someone had drilled a hole in the same part with a large drill bit, and even the parts had to be measured with a caliper to distinguish a little difference.

Later, some explanations from the instructors made these soldiers feel a little failed.

The original words of the instructors were "We all strictly follow the requirements of the armor manual, visually measure the target distance, and then input the target coordinates. Notify the shooting target order to avoid repeated shooting, which has the effect of saving medicine. Finally, the order to launch. Just So simple."

All the students collapsed.

No one dared to say that there was something wrong with the instructor's behavior of saving medicine.The point is that no trainee can do what the instructor does, not to mention hitting the target with one shell, even a tank that can hit the enemy with five shells, in the eyes of tankers, it will become a super deadly marksman.

Later, when Montgomery learned about the battle, Comrade Montgomery couldn't help saying the same sentence as his old friend Rommel, "Doctrine kills people."

However, what remained from Meng Ge's eyes were abnormally bitter tears.