Steel Soviet Union

The first one to fire was not Malashenko's side but the German army on the opposite side. It was normal for the German tanks that were stationary and parked to fire first. The assault vanguard led by Malashenko would face the German army directly. Tiger King's close shot.

The slender Chang 88 main gun can rapidly fire full-caliber capped armor-piercing projectiles at a muzzle velocity of kilometers per second. This is a very scary performance number. Few World War II tank main guns that fired full-caliber armor-piercing projectiles could do this. It also meant extremely high armor-piercing kinetic energy and armor penetration data.

No one said that King Tiger's Chang 88 was not powerful enough. In fact, it was already one of the most powerful tank main guns in World War II. But the key factor of whether it is strong enough or not depends on the opponent's protection. For example, Tiger King's long 88 is still insufficient in front of the opponent at this moment.

The armor-piercing shells that came rapidly hit the main armor belt on the front of the Stalin heavy tank. The IS6 heavy tanks, which had already completed the uniform change, were solidly charging forward while maintaining the momentum of the full-speed charge. The frontal main armor withstood the German attack without any evasive maneuvers.

Most of the armor-piercing projectiles hit the main armor belt of the car body, which has a relatively larger projected area. The IS6, which has a large upward and downward angle, withstood this powerful attack without any suspense and hit the oncoming German armor-piercing projectiles. Bounce them all away, or just listen to the sound after exhausting the armor-piercing kinetic energy.

The bombardment of the main armor belt on the front of the car body has no effect, and the bombardment of the front armor of the turret also has no good effect.

Compared with the previous generation IS2 heavy tank, the turret of the IS6 heavy tank is flatter and laterally widened. The front projection area is much smaller than that of the IS2 heavy tank, and the protection is better.

Except for the gun base, the armor inclination of the mantlet is small, especially the gun base on the gunner's side. Because a complete set of gunner's sighting equipment is installed and takes up a lot of armor defense space, it cannot withstand powerful armor-piercing projectiles. Beyond bombardment.

The other parts of the front projection of the turret have a very large arc of defense angle extending longitudinally. Any German armor-piercing projectile that hits the front will be in trouble, let alone causing a penetration effect, or if it does not ricochet on the spot.

The armor-piercing bullets stuck in the front of the turret made a jingling noise, but were all bounced away by ricochet, and none of them had any effect.

The German armored crews in the dozen or so King Tigers that survived felt really stressed, their heads were buzzing and it was almost maddening, as if they were going crazy.

"The Russian turtle's shell is too hard, we can't penetrate it at all!"

"Shut up and do it again! Keep loading the armor-piercing bullets!"

"Aim at the turret and hit its turret gun! There has been feedback that there is a weak point there and it has been destroyed by other vehicle crews, so hit there!"

The mass production of the IS6 heavy tank to replace the IS2 heavy tank and become the new generation of the Red Army's standard heavy tank began as early as last year, at the end of 2043. So so far, the IS6 heavy tank is no longer the exclusive equipment of the Stalin Guards 1st Tank Division. More elite Guards tank units have already used this powerful new vehicle.

Although the number is relatively small, it is far from being able to completely replace the large number of IS1 and IS2 heavy tanks that have been built. The combined proportion of the various Guards tank units on the front line only accounts for about 20%, which is really not a lot.

However, although this number is not large, it has appeared more or less on various battlefields on all fronts. When the Germans faced this new Russian heavy tank, they were no longer limited to sighting reports. They had already learned that its official name was the "Stalin 6 heavy tank", and even after suffering several deficiencies, I have killed this terrifying monster on the battlefield.

Therefore, the mass production of IS6 has certainly strengthened the overall combat effectiveness of the Red Army tank troops, and can even be regarded as a substantial jump in qualitative change. However, the large-scale investment in actual combat gradually allowed the German army, which was constantly facing this powerful weapon, to find ways to deal with the IS6 heavy tank, its actual combat experience continued to increase, and it even began to spread word of mouth about the basically identified weaknesses.

Many things can be good or bad. There is no way around it, and Malashenko himself understands this.

After a useless effort, the German armored soldiers were not fools. They quickly realized that continuing to attack those impenetrable armored areas had no effect. Then began to try to attack the weak areas mentioned in the rumors, that is, the cannon root areas that are very difficult to target, but are indeed very likely to be effective.

It's funny to say that neither King Tiger nor IS6 can do anything about each other at mid-range. They are quite heavy tanks. The weaknesses on the main armor belt on the front are actually relatively consistent, which is the gun root area on the front of the turret. It's just that the King Tiger's weakness is relatively larger, covering the entire vertical armor area on the front of the turret. Perhaps this can be regarded as an unexpected coincidence.

In any case, the German army, determined to try to shoot at the rumored weak spot, quickly took action and started the second round of firing. The faster loading speed of the custom-loaded 88mm armor-piercing projectiles showed a great advantage at this moment. .

"Loading completed, armor-piercing bullets!"

"Aim at the base of the gun!"

"Fire!"

When the German King Tigers started firing their second main gun salvo, the IS6 heavy tank group, which was still charging at full speed, had reduced the direct distance between the two sides to less than 500 meters, and was still stepping on the accelerator. , rolling up a big lump of splashing mud and rushing forward in the rain.

One of the most proud advantages of German tanks is their powerful optical sighting system. Even at long distances, the shooting accuracy is quite high. Hitting a tank-sized target with the first shot at a distance of one kilometer is just a routine operation for the King Tiger. There is no need to shout 666, and it goes without saying at the current distance of 500 meters. .

Even when dealing with targets in motion, this group of German King Tiger crews, which had many skilled gunners, still hit a considerable number of shells on the parts they wanted to hit, and hit them accurately.

But the ensuing effect did not surprise or satisfy the German army.

Ding-ding——

crackling——

Amidst the loud noises and splashing fire of armor-piercing projectiles hitting the armor, a considerable number of the armor-piercing projectiles hitting the gun base did not penetrate the armor. Instead, they had almost the same result as the previous salvo of armor-piercing projectiles. They simply hit it. After scratching a layer of paint or hearing a sound, it really "shocked" the German armored soldiers again.