A German tank No. 3 located on the left side of the Beret tank opened fire. Although it was equipped with only 37mm artillery, the German tank soldiers in the car felt that they were sure to open fire at a distance of more than 40 meters, and they had such a precedent before.
However, the next scene made the German tank soldiers' smile froze on their faces. After the armor-piercing bombs were launched, they turned into jumpers, leaving only a white mark on the armor plate.
The German chariot carefully observed the concentrated place through the lookout in front and found that there was only a small white pit there. He murmured: "My God, when it was fired at such a close distance, it could not penetrate the side armor of the Russian tank."
Bere, who was sitting in the car, said to his gunner: "First kill the No. 3 tank that fired at us, and then deal with other German tanks."
After completing the rapid loading, the gunner opened fire on the German tank No. 3. The armor-piercing bomb accurately hit the turret, and a hole was instantly penetrated in the middle of the turret. The metal jet formed by the armor-piercing bomb produced a splashing effect after penetrating the armor, splashing everywhere in the tank body, killing the tank crew inside one by one.
Seeing that the tank was not moving, Bere commanded the tank to select a new target and continue to attack. Although Berere's tanks were constantly hit during the attack, the damage caused by the German tanks No. 3 and No. 4 were limited. On the contrary, as long as Berere's tanks selected the target and fired, they could immediately destroy the enemy's tanks.
Alitai, who was on the side, was not willing to be outdone. He commanded his subordinates and successfully destroyed three tanks, thereby narrowing the number gap between the enemy and us.
When the German commander saw that more than ten tanks he commanded, except for the initial destruction of a Soviet T-34 tank, although he had a numerical advantage in the rest of the time, he could not do anything to the remaining two tanks. On the contrary, nine tanks on the side were destroyed.
Thinking of the fifteen tanks he brought out, and now there were less than half of them left, the commander was a little anxious. He quickly ordered his subordinates through the radio station, "Storm up, rush up, and shoot next to the Russian tank. I don't believe that it will not be able to penetrate the Russian tank armor at a distance of two or three meters."
However, just as the remaining German tanks rushed towards Bere and Alitai's tanks and tried to launch a close-fitting attack, a moving No. 4 tank exploded from the inside. Amid the gust of fire that kept gushing out, a tank soldier covered in fire climbed out, screamed and jumped down, fell in the snow and rolled desperately, trying to extinguish the flames on his body. However, his efforts did not succeed. After rolling for a long time, he finally lay motionless on the ground.
The German commander at the end saw seven or eight Soviet T-34s coming in the distance. He knew that continuing to fight would definitely be a dead end. He quickly conveyed an order to his subordinates: "Retreat, retreat quickly!"
Tank combat is different from infantry combat. The retreating side will be chased by the winning side. Seeing that the German tanks began to retreat, the Soviet tanks launched a pursuit and stopped from time to time to fire at the German tanks.
After a battle, only the German commander and another No. 4 tank escaped, and the rest were destroyed by Soviet tanks on the edge of the forest.
Seeing that the German tank was repelled, Berec climbed out of the tank and inspected it carefully. He didn't know that he was shocked when he saw that the bombings on the tank were actually as high as fifteen places. In other words, if they had encountered not the German tank No. 3 or 4, but the Tiger tank today, they would have been destroyed fifteen times.
Seeing this, Bere was lucky in his heart. If he and Alitai were driving the new T-34/85 but the old T-34, they would have been destroyed by the German army long ago. Although the German tank troops have been repelled, who knows whether they will make a comeback? He feels it necessary to report this to Sokov.
When Bere came to Sokov's command center, Sokov, who was talking to Vitkov and Lunev, was startled. He came to Berere and asked in surprise: "Comrade Colonel, what happened? Why did he look so embarrassed?"
Bi Lei raised his hand and wiped his face. Not only did he not wipe his face clean, but he looked even dirty. He smiled wryly and said, "When I went out to patrol today, I encountered the German tanks."
After hearing what Bore said, Vitkov immediately asked nervously: "How many tanks do the Germans have?"
“15.”
"Where are us?"
“3.”
"What, our three tanks are against the fifteen tanks of the German army?" Lunev asked in surprise: "Comrade Colonel, I want to ask, how did you escape from danger?"
"Comrade Military Commissioner," replied Bere, "When we encountered the German tank, a T-34/76 was destroyed. Fortunately, the remaining two were T-34/85 tanks, with 49-degree bevel angled 45 mm side armor, equivalent to 100 mm, and the enemy's No. 3 and No. 4 tanks could not hit us at all. As long as we fired, we could easily destroy the enemy's tanks."
Sokov noticed that Lunev's eyes were on him, and knew that he was not familiar with the tank model, so he explained to him: "Comrade Military Commissioner, the earliest T-34 tank was equipped with 76mm artillery, and the latest tank was equipped with 85mm caliber artillery, and the armor was also strengthened. Therefore, when facing the enemy's No. 3 and No. 4 tanks, the chance of our tanks survival was greatly improved."
After listening to Sokov's explanation, Lunev finally understood what was going on. He nodded and said, "Not only what, you can use three tanks to deal with fifteen German tanks. This is an amazing victory. I think you should report it to your superiors immediately."
"Comrade Military Commissioner, I think there is no need to report such a small victory to the superior." Sokov did not agree with Lunev's statement, so he said tactfully: "I think it's not too late to report to the superior when we achieve greater victory."
Sokov turned to Fare: "Comrade Colonel, do you think we should take some measures recently?"
"Comrade Commander, in order to prevent the enemy from carrying out sneak attacks on our army through the path beside the forest, I think anti-tank forces should be deployed in that direction."
"Anti-tank force?" Sokov asked with interest: "Comrade Colonel, what are you going to do?"
"I think in addition to setting up a tank company there, we also need to arrange at least two sets of anti-tank hands." Bi Lei said confidently: "With them there, it will not be that easy for the enemy tanks to sneak over like this again."
"In addition to tanks and anti-tank hands, I think anti-tankre should also be arranged." Witkov interrupted and said: "If possible, even anti-tank tripods should be installed."
Regarding Vitkov's proposal, Sokov smiled and shook his head and said, "Comrade Chief of Staff, I think Colonel Berlei's arrangement is very reasonable. If we really set up minefields and anti-tank tripods there, it means we have to deploy infantry there for defense."
"The enemy has very little time out of that direction, and I don't think it's necessary to arrange infantry for defense." Witkov insisted on his point of view: "I think it's enough to lay mines and install anti-tank tripods."
"Chief of Staff, this won't work," Sokov shook his head and said to Vetkov. "If we do not arrange infantry nearby to defend against mines or obstacles, then the Germans can send their engineers to calmly raise out the mines we buried, clear the tripods that block the road, and open up a passable road for their tanks."
"Comrade Commander makes sense." Lunev agreed with Sokov's statement: "I think there is no need to lay mines or place anti-tank tripods after the tanks and anti-tank hands are arranged there. Because these things are hindering the enemy's advance, they also cause inconvenience to our movements."
"Military Commissioner is right." Bellei agreed: "If a minefield is laid, it is equivalent to limiting our range of activities, so that our defense will become passive defense."
"Okay." Seeing his opinion, everyone was opposed by opposition, Witkov was disappointed and had to compromise: "Then I will arrange two groups of anti-tank players there to do day and night duty." He turned to Bere and said, "Comrade Colonel, you will be responsible for how many tanks you arrange there."
After Bere left, Lunev asked Sokov: "Comrade Commander, tell me, will the Germans go around the line of defense of our army from that secret road and rush directly to the headquarters?"
"Comrade of the Military Commission," King Sokov, Holunev: "There is such a possibility. The Germans found that the attack from the front was not easy to succeed, so they would definitely choose other paths to try to bypass our army's defense line and sneak attack my rear."
When Lunev learned that there might be a German attack here, he was frightened and quickly said to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, see if we should strengthen the defense work near the division headquarters."
"In theory, it is understandable to mobilize troops to strengthen the headquarters' defense. However, the current situation is confusing, and it is still an unknown number of how long we will stay here next." Ding Rong explained to Lunev: "If we spend a lot of manpower and material resources to build fortifications near the headquarters. But if it is useless, we have to transfer to other places. Isn't this a waste? I have no right to let my soldiers and the residents of the city do such useless work."
…………
Just as Sokov and the members of the Army Command discussed whether necessary defenses should be arranged near the command, Haussel received a call from Etlin, the commander of the 17th Armored Division: "Genius General, I have some bad news to tell you. A fast column of 15 tanks I sent out to try to bypass the Russians' defense from the forest. But unfortunately, when they came out of the forest, they encountered the Russians' tanks."
"How many tanks do the Russians have?"
“3.”
"3?" After hearing the number of Soviet tanks, Hauser showed a smug smile on his face: "Our army has 15 tanks, while the Russians only have 3, which means five are beaten one of them. It's really strange that they can't beat them."
"God General, we lost." Etlin said timidly: "And after some battle, only two tanks escaped, and the rest were destroyed by the Russians."
"What?" Hausel was shocked when he heard the news: "What did you say? Only two of our 15 tanks were used to deal with the Russians. What was going on?"
Etlin quickly explained: "Genius General, we dispatched tanks No. 3 and No. 4. During the battle, our heroic tank soldiers successfully destroyed a T-34 tank, but the remaining two were not only able to destroy it. I think the Russians must have launched a new tank."
Knowing that the Soviet army might have launched a new tank, Hauser's expression became serious, and he asked cautiously: "General Etling, do you know what tank the Russians used?"
"Listen to my subordinates," Etlin replied: "From the appearance, it is similar to the original T-34 tank. At that time, the caliber of the artillery became larger. I guess it was an improved version of the T-34 tank. Since our No. 3 and No. 4 tanks are equipped with 37 and 57 mm opposing artillery, it is difficult to penetrate the armor of the Russian tanks, and they can destroy our tanks with just one shot."
"So Is there any way to deal with them?"
Hauser seemed a little nervous when he learned that the Soviet army's new tanks were so powerful.
"Don't we have tiger tanks?" Etlin replied: "I think using tiger tanks can destroy Russian tanks at a distance."
"Okay, general." Haussel replied, "I will report this to Marshal Manstein immediately and ask him to send Tiger tanks to your division to deal with the new Russian tanks."
After explaining the call with Etlin, Hausel did not call Manstein. Instead, he called Ximon, the acting commander of the Skeleton Division: "Mr. Colonel, I have a task to hand over to you now."
"General Haussel," Colonel Ximeng heard Haussel say so, and asked respectfully: "I wonder what tasks you are going to assign to us?"
"General Etling's 17th Armored Division launched a tentative attack on the Red Army Village has ended in failure. I now order you to send a small team to the Red Army Village for reconnaissance and to find out the Russians' defense situation as soon as possible."
"I understand, General Hauser, I will arrange it immediately."