The Rise of the Third Reich

1944, the night of April 28.

The fighting was already intensifying on the Telvivo front. On the 27th and 28th, the German 48th Panzer Corps invested hundreds of Tiger tanks and Grizzly assault guns as well as tens of thousands of well-equipped paratroopers, armored grenadiers and infantry. With the support, they launched round after round of fierce attacks on the Soviet Red Flag 1st Army in front of Telvivo.

The Soviet Red Flag 1st Army also showed the greatest determination to hold on and consume the German troops in front of them at all costs.

The sound of artillery and explosions echoed on the muddy Russian land. The battle line has moved to the small town of Telvivo. The surroundings of this small Soviet city are now filled with high and low columns of smoke. The German self-propelled artillery, Rhino tank destroyers, and Grizzly assault guns all drove outside the city, desperately tilting their shells towards the Soviet defensive positions in the small town. This small town happens to guard a high-grade highway that is rare in the Soviet Union today (this is Moscow State after all, so the road conditions are naturally much better than other places). As long as this is captured, the German tanks/assault artillery can get rid of the nasty mud and drive on roads with hard pavement.

The Soviet 1st Red Flag Army also knew the importance of this small town, so it deployed an elite division-level battle group to defend it here. The battle lasted from the early morning of the 28th until late at night. The German infantry, supported by tanks and assault guns, rushed into the small town several times. However, each time they were unable to gain a foothold, they were beaten out by their opponents with a sea of ​​​​people offensive regardless of casualties. In the area where the small town and the surrounding countryside combine, there are traces of fierce fighting everywhere. The fortifications and buildings the defenders relied on have been almost leveled. The Red Army soldiers were almost relying on the craters and piles of rubble and ruins to carry out the most tenacious resistance!

Amidst the explosion of artillery shells, Major General Marx, who has the same surname as the great god whom the Red Army believes in, was standing on a chair in an armored command vehicle, holding an FG-1250 night vision telescope to observe another attack launched by his subordinates.

On the muddy ground not far from the command vehicle where Major General Marx was riding, there was a strange-looking half-track armored vehicle parked. The armored vehicle's compartment was equipped with a 60 cm diameter thick and short cylinder, which seemed to be a searchlight, but there was no visible trace. of light emitted.

It turns out that this is the German army's weapon in night warfare - a powerful infrared searchlight! The infrared rays emitted by it can detect targets 1,500 meters away, but are invisible to the human eye. Only the FG-1250 night vision telescope in the hands of Major General Marx can see people or objects "illuminated" by infrared rays. .

And this set of infrared night vision equipment is the German army’s biggest weapon in the upcoming tank battle!

Because everyone knows that the Soviet army does not dare to attack German tank groups during the day. Otherwise, there would be no need for E-50 tanks. The Luftwaffe's Fw-190F/G and Hs-129 alone could defeat the Soviet JS-2 and T-34/85.

In night battles, night vision goggles are undoubtedly a huge golden finger!

However, this golden finger was not opened by Hessman, but a "black technology" that already existed. In fact, it is not unique to Germany. The German opponents, the United States and the Soviet Union, actually have similar equipment. However, the Americans' night vision equipment has not yet been equipped with troops, while the Soviet night vision equipment is still in the exploration and research stage. Historically, no truly useful equipment was produced until the end of World War II.

The bodies of all E-50A and "Cheetah" participating in the "Triangle Tank Battle" (this was later named) were equipped with infrared searchlights with smaller power and size (each vehicle had 2 searchlight) and 2 FG-1250 night vision binoculars. The Tiger H tanks, Panzer IV H tanks (there is a Panzer IV tank company in both the heavy armored battalion and the heavy tank destroyer battalion), Rhino tank destroyers, Stalker tank destroyers and Grizzly assault guns participated in the war. On the vehicle, a FG-1250 night vision telescope is installed, which can use the infrared rays emitted by the large infrared searchlight on the half-track armored vehicle (called the "Owl" night combat search vehicle) to find targets.

According to the original plan, these "black technology" equipment would only be used in the most critical tank battle.

However, the resistance of the Soviet army was unexpectedly tenacious. In order to advance outside the city of Klin as quickly as possible, General Hermann Hoth had to give an order to General Balck of the 48th Armored Corps: start using night vision equipment on the night of April 28. And E-50 tanks, Jaguar tank destroyers!

The effect of using "black technology" is still satisfactory. The Soviet Red Army, who did not know that Germany had a "high-tech cat eye", wanted to fight the Germans in close combat at night as usual. All the SU-57s that had been hidden for anti-tank artillery were fired out, and together with the large groups of Red Army death squads armed with RPG-43 anti-tank grenades, "Red Iron Fist" anti-tank grenade launchers and bazooka rockets, they headed towards the The German armored group attacking in the dark launched a counterattack!

As a result, before the group of people and vehicles got within 1,000 meters of the German tanks and assault guns, the 75mm, 88mm, 105mm and 150mm artillery guns equipped with muzzle suppressors started firing at the same time.

Before the Red Army soldiers understood what was going on, they were knocked down piece by piece by artillery shells flying from the darkness, and more than a dozen SU-57 tank destroyers were also smashed into pieces. The Red Army in front died heroically, but the Red Army behind did not know what was going on, and still followed the original order and rushed out of the darkness in groups like a tide. As a result, they all hit the muzzle of the German artillery! Under the flash of artillery fire, the Soviet corpses were piled up layer by layer, which was shocking!

The heroic Soviet Red Army was defeated by the German army's extremely precise artillery fire in this night attack, which they were originally good at!

By the early morning of the next day, the tricolor Russian Imperial flag and the German swastika were already flying over the small town of Telvivo.

…

The same night battle defeat occurred not only in the small town of Telvivo, but also on all fronts where the reserve front troops were stationed.

All night counterattacks seemed to hit the steel plate, and nothing was achieved except terrible casualty figures.

After a night of hard fighting, only rough statistics show that the casualties and missing persons of the Red Army Reserve Front reached as many as 21,000 people. In the early morning of the next day, the German army took advantage of the fact that the Soviet army had not yet recovered from the huge casualties and launched another forceful attack.

This time they invested in the legendary E-50A tank and a previously unknown large tank destroyer with a 105mm cannon!

As a result, under a fierce attack, the Red Army Reserve Front, which fought well on the 27th and 28th, almost collapsed. In one day, the German army advanced 30 kilometers and reached the outside of Vysokowsk, which was only 11 kilometers away from Klin.

However, the battle on the 29th was not all bad news for the Soviet army. General Beloborodov, commander of the 1st Red Banner Army, who was defeated in the city of Telvivo, personally commanded the ten troops during their retreat. Several A-1 cannons and several thousand Red Army soldiers fought an ambush. Although he failed to repel the German army, he witnessed an A-19 cannon destroying a German E-50A tank at a distance of 800 meters.

And it was destroyed from the front!

"Are you sure it's an E-50 tank?"

On the night of the 29th, Zhukov called General Beloborodov, who had just lost the battle, to the General Staff bunker in Moscow.

Zhukov didn't seem to take it to heart about the disastrous defeat of the 1st Red Flag Army. After all, this group army coming from the east had been fighting hard on the front line in the Western Front battle that began on the 20th, and the troops suffered heavy losses. It was not surprising that a collapse occurred under such circumstances, so Zhukov did not criticize General Beloborodov, but asked about the destruction of the E-50A tank.

What he is most worried about now is that the armor of the E-50A tank is too strong and cannot be penetrated by the JS-2's 122mm cannon (the JS-2's cannon is the same as the A-19).

"It's an E-50. I saw it with my own eyes. An A-19 cannon destroyed the lower front of its body at 800 meters." General Beloborodov answered.

He was not mistaken. The E-50A tank could of course be destroyed. After all, this tank only weighed 55 tons. Even on the front, it was impossible to have no weaknesses. Although the armor thickness of its front lower body is also 130mm, the inclination angle is not large, only 30 degrees, which is only equivalent to 150mm in vertical armor. Even taking into account the super bulletproof capabilities of nickel-chromium-manganese-molybdenum rolled steel, it cannot withstand the power of the BR471B armor-piercing projectile at a distance of 800 meters.

"800 meters... is enough!" Zhukov showed a confident smile, "Maybe not during the day, but the distance for night battles is usually within 300 meters. I believe that the front body of the E-50 tank cannot stop JS- 2’s 122mm cannon. This time we will win!”

His estimate was correct. At a distance of 300 meters, the E-50 and the JS-2 were "crossing each other", and each could defeat the other with one shot. Even the T-34/85 can penetrate the front lower hull of the E-50A tank with one shot at a distance of less than 250 meters.

The number of tanks concentrated by the Soviet army is definitely much more than what the German army can invest, and the Soviet army also has more infantry. It is completely possible to defeat the Germans at night using the tactic of a sea of ​​people plus a sea of ​​tanks.

It seems that the Soviet Union’s national destiny is not over yet!