Chapter 370 pak40
Shuerka led the troops to guard the throat of the street, which is a few buildings slightly below the corner.
The building at this position will naturally "fold" the enemy, that is, the vanguard will always rush up, and the follow-up troops will be on the other side of the corner and can't even see the situation ahead.
On the other hand, if the tank comes out of the corner, it will be within the range of the rocket launcher immediately.
In order to get a better view and prevent other buildings from blocking the shooting range of the rocket launcher, Shulka also ordered the blasting of two buildings, and then piled a few sandbags on the roof and in front of the windows to build good bunkers one by one. alright.
Then hide two tanks a few hundred meters away at the other end of the street and pull up the telephone line, and a defense is deployed.
These two tanks are mostly "Matilda".
Shulka has to admit that although "Matilda" has many shortcomings, it is still very useful at times.
So, there is a saying that is true, there is no useless equipment, if it is useless, it is only because it is not used in the right place.
Such as "Matilda", its thick armor is very useful at this time.
German artillery fire could not penetrate it...of course, the tank guns of "Matilda" could not penetrate the opponent either.
But that's not a problem.
Because the task of "Matilda" is to deal with enemy infantry and attract attention, as for the German tanks, it is handed over to the bazooka.
Everything is ready, just waiting for the German army to attack.
The first to come up was the German infantry.
They are the vanguard of the German army...Because there are too many buildings on the street, one building after another, no one can tell which building has the enemy, and they don't know the position of the enemy's line of defense, so some infantry are needed to test.
These German infantrymen are very careful and professional. They hold their rifles and use everything available on the road, such as open doors, half-collapsed walls, statues and other things that can be used to cover each other and move forward. step into.
Behind it is the sound of the motor of the tank, and Shulka knows that it is the "No. 3" tank from the sound.
"Let the infantry go!" Shulka ordered: "Let the tanks deal with them!"
"Yes!" The communications soldier responded in a low voice, and then used the phone to convey the order.
After receiving the news, two "Matilda" tanks slowly drove out of the hiding building, one on the left and one on the right... It seems unwise to reveal the position of the tanks when they start shooting, but this is exactly what Shulka hopefully.
At this time, whether it is the Soviet army or the German army, its attention will always be on the tank.
Because it is the most dangerous and threatening equipment.
Sure enough, the attention of the German infantry was immediately attracted by the tanks, so they urgently called the rear tanks while hiding themselves.
What came up was indeed a "No. 3" tank. It clung to the corner building and turned, and even smashed the protruding corner of the building.
This action proves the strength of the German tank crew...it is to not expose their side armor to the enemy's guns.
The side armor of the "Panz No. 3" tank is only 32MM, and there is basically no inclination, so even if the opponent is only a small 40MM caliber gun, the German tankers dare not be careless.
Then there was only a "boom", and the "No. 3" tank opened fire first.
At this time, Shulka was a little strange. The German army came prepared. They should know that the "Pan. 3" tank cannot penetrate the frontal armor of the "Matilda". Isn't it a waste of effort to fire so eagerly now?
Then Shulka quickly understood, because in the field of vision of Shulka's telescope, the German army seemed to be busy with something after seeing the tank.
"It's an anti-tank gun!" Shulka said: "The Germans have anti-tank guns hidden behind the tanks!"
This approach is very clever. Tanks are used in the front to attract the attention of the Soviet army, and anti-tank guns are deployed in the rear. Then, as soon as the tanks get out of the way... the anti-tank guns can open fire on the Soviet tanks.
"But their anti-tank guns can't penetrate our tanks either!" said the instructor.
"No!" Shulka said: "If they will make such an arrangement, it means that this anti-tank gun can penetrate the 'Matilda'!"
After a pause, Shulka ordered again: "Pass on the order, the Germans are probably equipped with anti-tank guns that can penetrate the 'Matilda'! Let the tanks be careful!"
Shuerka guessed right, the German anti-tank gun is PAK40.
This anti-tank gun was developed by signing a contract with 39, but because the German army's active PAK38 anti-tank gun is still enough, so the PAK40 project has been proceeding unhurriedly.
It was not until the outbreak of the Soviet-German War that the German army suddenly discovered that the tanks in front of them were actually tanks like T34 and KV1, so they urgently raised the priority of PAK40.
Its first prototype gun was sent to the battlefield for testing in November. Due to logistical and transportation problems, it was only a small amount of equipment until then.
PAK40 anti-tank gun has a caliber of 75MM and can penetrate 116MM vertical armor at a distance of 1000 meters.
The "Matilda" tank is only 90MM thick even if it is equipped with additional armor.
So, the PAK40 anti-tank gun can undoubtedly penetrate the "Matilda" head-on.
Of course, if you can penetrate the "Matilda", it means you can penetrate T34, KV1 and other heavy tanks.
This is also one of the reasons why Lucas, the commander of the Sixth Armored Division, dared to fight against the 1st Guards Tank Brigade... He knew about the battle between the Seventh Armored Division and the Soviet army, and knew that "No. 3" and "Matilda "Even at close range, they cannot penetrate each other.
If this is the case, that is to say, when the German army still relies on the "No. 3" tank and the PAK38 anti-tank gun, it is basically impossible to fight the enemy at a long distance... If they cannot penetrate each other, they will only surpass The closer the fight, the closer it eventually turned into "hand-to-hand combat", otherwise the German army would not be able to advance at all.
Fortunately, the Sixth Armored Division was equipped with 9 PAK40 anti-tank guns.
(Note: 9 PAK40 anti-tank guns are an anti-tank gun company. Each gun is equipped with 5 artillerymen, plus tractor drivers, backup guns and logistics personnel, the company has more than 100 people)
Lucas believed that anti-tank guns could destroy enemy tanks.
The problem is that the combat weight of the PAK40 anti-tank gun is 1425 kg. It needs to be towed and deployed by a car. This will only become the target of enemy tanks on the battlefield, especially in offensive battles.
So Lucas thought of this method:
First use the "Pan 3" tank to launch an attack, and secretly deploy the PAK40 under the cover of the "Pan 3" tank, and then only need the tank to move aside...the PAK 40 can open fire on the target.
"We can shoot and destroy the tank!" The instructor said: "If the tank can't move, the anti-tank guns behind it won't work either!"
"No!" Shulka said: "We are going to fight anti-tank guns!"
(end of this chapter)
