Chapter 447 Tiger Style
Wrecker infantry opened the way in front, and tanks moved forward while covering behind, and occasionally fired a few shots in the direction of the tracer bullets fired by the infantry.
At this time, the 1st Guards Tank Brigade has become accustomed to battles such as infantry and tank coordination, even the tank night combat ability, which is still very difficult at this time.
Line mines were cleared, barricades were opened... These things seem to be more convenient to implement at night, because the demolition infantry can operate in the dark and will not become the enemy's target like it is during the day.
Next is the barbed wire.
This is not difficult, just cut off the two ends, tie a sling and then drag it away from the side.
Even experienced veterans will use these barbed wire mines to clear them. They use slings to drag bundles of barbed wire past suspected mines. The weight of the barbed wire is enough to detonate anti-personnel mines.
As for anti-tank mines, they are not sensitive enough to be detonated even by standing on them... If they can be detonated, they will not be able to blow up tanks, so you only need to use military thorns to find it and dig it out, and you can use it if you keep it to deal with enemy tanks.
Then came the anti-tank trenches.
But this anti-tank trench is not actually an anti-tank trench.
There are actually no certain standards for anti-tank trenches, because the tanks they have to deal with are of different lengths and have different obstacle-crossing capabilities, so the requirements are also different.
If you are dealing with the kind of tank that can't even pass through the concrete pier, the anti-tank trench only needs to dig a small hole, and the irony is that such a tank dares to claim the number one in Asia in modern times.
Usually, the width of the anti-tank trench is more than half of the target tank body.
For example, the German army has to deal with the Soviet T34 tank, and the T34 tank is 6.1 meters long, so the anti-tank trench must exceed 3 meters anyway, otherwise most tanks can cross as long as the front and rear weights are the same.
The depth is determined by the height of the tank’s track and the obstacle-crossing performance, generally around three meters.
The anti-tank trench built by the German army is wide enough, about four meters, but the depth is only two meters, and part of it is covered with snow.
These are the intelligence Katukov received from the front.
Katukov breathed a sigh of relief: "Their anti-tank trenches can't stop us, they're not deep enough!"
After a pause, Katukov added: "Maybe it's because of the frozen soil, they couldn't finish it in a short time! Although they forced the Zhankoi people to dig for them!"
It can be seen that Katukov is most worried about this anti-tank trench.
This is actually understandable, because all these things are the most troublesome anti-tank trenches... If they can successfully build an anti-tank trench that meets the requirements, coupled with slippery ice, snow and frozen soil, it is indeed difficult for tanks to cross.
At that time, engineers will need to work under the enemy's artillery fire, and they can only advance from a few construction points, so they are easy to be attacked by the enemy's concentrated fire.
Because of this, Katukov breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this information.
But Shulka thought it was not that simple.
Even if the Germans failed to complete the anti-tank trench due to time constraints, they still had time to withdraw to Zhankoi to organize street fighting. After all, they also knew that an anti-tank trench that could not stop enemy tanks was not much different from nothing.
But the Germans did not do this, they still chose to stick to this line of defense.
This may also mean that they have other reliance.
Shuerka raised his binoculars and looked at the front line, where the flares were coming and going, lighting up, and from time to time, a few fireballs exploded from the shells.
Soviet tanks are crossing anti-tank trenches under the light of flares... As Katukov said, anti-tank trenches cannot stop them.
But at this moment, suddenly a T34 was hit and turned into a ball of fire.
At the beginning, Shulka thought it was just an accident. As I said before, any accident can happen on the battlefield. A large-caliber howitzer just hits, or an anti-tank gun or something like that.
But soon Shulka discovered that something was wrong, because the T34 tanks that were crossing the trench were destroyed one after another, and some of them even the entire turret was overturned and fell more than ten meters away.
Katukov obviously noticed this too, and he couldn't help cursing: "Fuck it, 88MM anti-aircraft gun!"
"No, that may not be the 88MM anti-aircraft gun!" Shulka said: "It is night now, and the 88MM anti-aircraft gun is huge!"
Katukov quickly understood what Shulka meant.
Although the 88MM anti-aircraft gun can penetrate the T34 at a distance of one kilometer, the problem is that the gunner cannot see the target at a distance of one kilometer in the dark.
If the distance is so close that the gunner can observe the target, then the huge gun body of the 88MM anti-aircraft gun has no shape, and it will soon become the target of Soviet firepower.
"Then what could it be?" Katukov asked suspiciously.
"I don't know, Colonel!" Shulka said: "But I think this is very likely why the German army dared to build a defense line against us in the wild!"
Katukov couldn't help being taken aback, and raised his binoculars to look forward again, but he saw nothing except for a few more destroyed T34s.
"Colonel!" At this time, the correspondent who was guarding the phone called this way: "Comrade Zahakovic is on the phone!"
Katukov immediately put away the binoculars and ran forward to pick up the microphone.
"What? Are you sure?"
"Do you know what model it is?"
"Withdraw the troops and suspend the attack!"
Katukov, who put down the phone, cast his eyes on Shulka and said, "You are right, Shulka, that is not an 88mm anti-aircraft gun, but a tank, a German tank!"
"What, tank?" Shulka was so surprised that his jaw almost dropped.
"Yes, tanks!" Katukov said. "We found them, they were hidden in tank shelters, you know, the hulls were below the ground, only the turrets were exposed, they were painted white to blend in with the snow, And then...they knocked out our tanks!"
"How far?" Shulka asked.
"About three hundred meters!"
"Where is our tank?" Shulka asked again: "We have already discovered it, why not destroy it?"
"We can't do anything about it!" Katukov said: "We can't destroy it, it is a new type of tank, we don't even know its model!"
Shure probably knows what tank that is.
If T34 can be destroyed but T34 has nothing to do with it, then there is only "Tiger".
But as far as Shulka knows, the "Tiger" took part in the battle for the first time in Leningrad a few months later, but now it has appeared in Zhankoy.
Shuerka thought, perhaps because of the existence of Shurka, the defense of Moscow was fought better than it should have been, so Hitler urgently sent the immature "Tiger" to the battlefield.
(end of this chapter)
