Iron Cross

When the sound of the rumbling engine sounded from far to near, the British soldier Diberti, who was packing and packing ammunition, showed a puzzled expression: he knew that the tanks of the armored squadron had just come back to assemble and were now doing routine work. The officers and soldiers were also taking a break for maintenance and upkeep, but where did this sound of tanks returning come from? He didn't remember that there were extra tanks waiting outside to catch the Germans off guard.

He casually asked Sergeant James of the 6-pound anti-tank gun group to which he belonged: "Brother, do we still have tanks in the front? Didn't the higher-ups say that we are the front-line troops?"

"Who knows?" James shrugged nonchalantly, "Maybe it's reinforcements coming from other places to discuss tomorrow's attack plan and use the tanks together."

As he spoke, he pointed at the Crusader tanks in the armored squadron, and said in a mocking tone: "Their firepower and armor are really poor, and they have many faults. I don't think they can tear Germany apart." The human defense line needs some American Sherman or Grant.”

The tank soldiers gathered in twos and threes under the shade of the trees did not pay any attention to the situation here in the anti-tank gun crew. They seemed very relaxed, some were bragging and chatting, and some had already played cards or dice and were ready to have a good time. Seeing that Betty was still looking around, James shouted dissatisfied: "Why do you care so much, why don't you come and help me put the artillery on the truck? If we launch an attack tomorrow, we will have to redeploy it."

Betty felt vaguely uneasy. She thought so but had no desire to get to the bottom of it, so she silently stepped forward to help. This 6-pounder is currently the best anti-tank gun in the UK. It can penetrate all German tanks it encounters and is deeply trusted by officers and soldiers. It is a key link in General Montgomery's defense plan. A few people had just leveled the muzzle of the gun and raised the gun hook. James skillfully directed the driver to reverse the truck and prepare to hang the tow rope on the truck's tail boom to the gun hook. Suddenly Betty yelled again: "Look, it's the Germans." …”

"Brother, come on, is this the first time you've done that today?" As an experienced veteran, James had suffered a lot from Betty's lies about the military situation today. He would say the Germans were coming, and then he would say Germany again. The enemy attacked, but in the end it was discovered that it was all an own goal, making the entire artillery crew nervous and complaining. Fortunately, James didn't have the habit of bullying new recruits. Anyone else would have beaten Betty to the ground long ago. The rest of the artillery crew also laughed and didn't take Betty's warning to heart. Some even complained: "Betty, if you keep doing this, You will suffer from neurasthenia in less than 2 months.”

"I'm serious, that looks like a German."

"Like?" James laughed, "They didn't come early, they didn't come late, they came just when we were retreating for dinner? You didn't invite us to be our guests, did we?"

Betty suddenly exclaimed: "Look, they are really Germans, I saw them."

"Where are the Germans?" James asked doubtfully, and he felt the obvious panic in Betty's tone.

"Look!" Following the direction of Betty's finger, James finally saw clearly the tanks coming in three rows under the smoke and dust. The Iron Cross logo was clearly painted on the front body.

"God, are they really Germans? Didn't they say they would turn around from the sand?" James also screamed, his hands shaking so much that he couldn't even hold the pulling rope and fell to the ground. The truck driver was looking at the rearview mirror nonchalantly, but after hearing their conversation, he shivered with fright, subconsciously loosened his foot, and the truck suddenly stalled with the clutch not firmly pressed.

"Quick, quick!" Betty untied the rope from the gun hook and called the rest of the gun crew to come forward, as if she wanted to push the 6-pound gun back to its previous position.

"It's too late..." James understood what Betty wanted to do at a glance, but he glanced at the location of the position and then at the sealed ammunition truck, and said dejectedly to Betty who was sweating profusely from work, "Hurry up and leave. , it will be too late if you don’t leave now

! "

Having said that, he didn't know where he got a burst of momentum. After taking two steps, he jumped up high, grabbed the truck's rear box rail and flipped over to get into the car. His skills were much more powerful than usual. times, several other people also boarded the carriage in a panic, and Betty was the last one to be pulled up. James, who had entered a frenzied state, did not wait for everyone to sit down, and violently slapped the railing behind the truck cab with his palm, shouting: "The Germans are coming, go quickly, go quickly!" The driver, who had just woken up from a dream, finally reacted, I started the engine again, then stepped on the accelerator hard, and the truck roared and ran, leaving only the lonely 6-pound gun behind.

"The German tanks are coming..." James urged the driver to speed up and motioned to several other members of the gun crew to shout with him, wanting to alert the tank crews still scattered outside the vehicle. But the distance between them was a bit far, and coupled with the interference from the driving noise of the truck itself, no one heard what the poor anti-tank gun crew was talking about. The casual atmosphere at the scene was as lively as ever. Seeing that the shouting had no effect, James suddenly picked up the Sten submachine gun next to him and started shooting into the air. While firing, he signaled for others to follow suit.

The crisp sound of "chunk, chunk, chukka" sounded like firecrackers, and yellow bullet casings fell into the carriage one by one. At first it was a gunshot, and then several guns rang out together, mixed with the sound of Enfield rifle shooting.

The tank soldiers under the shade of the trees finally noticed the truck running wildly on the road and the inexplicable shooting sound. They were stunned at first, and prepared to lie down to avoid the bullets as a conditioned reflex. After listening carefully, they finally understood what they were shouting - "The Germans are coming, the German tanks are coming..." A group of people were terrified and ran to their tanks at the speed of a 100-meter sprint. Their footsteps scattered everything around them on the ground. Poker cards, dice, gambling money, cigarettes, and coffee cups kept clanging. "Quick, quick!" Everyone was only concerned about getting into the tank, but no one thought of calling the headquarters.

In a flash, the tank column led by Heinz had passed the place where the James gun crew had abandoned the 6-pound gun. The leading tank first noticed the running truck on the road, and at the same time saw a group of British tanks not far to the right, which were shrouded in black smoke and could not move because the engine had just started.

"Go guys! Don't worry about the truck, just deal with the tank." Heinz had just said that, and the first tank had understood. It stopped briefly and turned the turret, and the muzzle quickly pointed to the 2 o'clock direction. The 43-caliber 75mm tank gun immediately loaded an armor-piercing shell, and the scale was set at about 800 meters.

"Fire!"

The shell jumped out of the muzzle with a clang. Because the road and the British tank parking place were not on the same plane but slightly higher, although this factor had been taken into account and the shooting angle was lowered, it still seemed a little high. The shell drew an arc and flew over the head of the farthest tank, hitting the pile of stones in the distance, causing stone chips to fly and dust to fly.

"Too high, half a point lower!" The commander instructed the gunner to adjust, and ordered the driver to continue moving forward so as not to block the road of the tank behind. The gunner quickly lowered the firing range and angle. Just as he was about to fire the second shell, other tanks behind him that received the order also stopped and fired. The tanks behind found that the favorable position in front of them had been occupied, so they simply bypassed the front tank and rushed to a place closer to the British tank to prepare to fire.

"Bang! Bang!" When 27 German tanks fired the first shell, and some of them fired two shells quickly, the muzzles of the British tanks did not even have time to turn around in a hurry. The outermost tanks were completely penetrated by shells. One tank was probably hit and the ammunition exploded. After the chain explosion, it quickly caught fire and turned into an iron lump with black smoke all over its body. The tank soldiers who survived by chance fled in panic, but were knocked to the ground by the 7.92mm coaxial machine guns of the German No. 3 tanks that were forced in front of them.

Only 3 minutes later, in the fierce shooting of German tanks, one British tank after another was destroyed. Only a few tanks fired back in panic, but the accuracy was so outrageous that they didn't know where to go. They could no longer wait for the opportunity to calmly adjust and shoot again. Several brave Type 3 tanks went far to the side and fired fiercely at these British tanks that resisted stubbornly with their 50mm tubes. The shells easily tore through the thin side and rear armor of the Crusaders. Several British tanks wanted to turn around and escape when they saw the situation was not good, but all the escape routes were blocked by their companion tanks that had been scrapped. They circled around and bumped into the wreckage but could not find a way out until they were finally destroyed. In less than 10 minutes of fighting, 48 tanks of an armored squadron of the 9th Armored Brigade were completely wiped out. There were British tank soldiers running around with their heads in their hands and continuous explosions everywhere.