It was an anti-tank trench, a hidden anti-tank trench.
It is actually very simple to hide it. You only need to lay wooden boards on it and then lay a layer of soil... From a distance, it is no different from other places, and it does not even affect the passage of infantry.
However, it is obviously unbearable for a tank weighing more than ten tons to roll over.
It is exactly 100 meters away from the Soviet tank defense line.
In other words, the German army actually had no chance to get within 100 meters of the Soviet tank from the beginning.
Major General Schroeder should have thought of this a long time ago: if the Soviet army had enough time to build a tank bunker for the 2.7-meter T34 that could completely hide it, then of course they would have time to build an anti-tank trench, although the surface
Can't see it from above.
But even if Major General Schroeder thought about this, nothing would change.
Just as he thought, if the 79th Armored Division retreats, it means that it will be chased and killed by the Soviet army... This is actually just Major General Schroeder's wishful thinking. Another Soviet tank battalion has already attacked from both sides.
Outflanked and cut off their retreat.
At this time, the German tanks and the soldiers following them were all confused.
German tanks could not move forward because moving forward would mean falling into anti-tank trenches and waiting to be captured by the enemy.
At the same time, the German tanks were unable to retreat because they were too close to the Soviet tanks, only 100 meters away... Retreating at this distance was no different from committing suicide, because it would completely destroy the overly large side armor and weak rear armor.
Exposed to enemy fire.
In fact, not to mention ordinary officers and soldiers, even the experienced Major General Schroeder didn't know how to deal with this situation.
"General!" came the walkie-talkie from his subordinates asking for instructions one after another:
"what should we do?"
"What are your orders?"
"We are blocked by the anti-tank trench and cannot move forward!"
…
Although the weather was cold, big beads of sweat still oozed from Major General Schroeder's forehead.
After thinking about it, Major General Schroeder ordered: "Shoot on the spot and destroy them!"
"Yes, shoot on the spot!"
"Fire on the spot!"
…
I have to say that the German army's communications were very efficient, and orders were quickly conveyed layer by layer.
Then, the surviving German tanks formed a formation and lined up along the anti-tank trench to engage in an artillery battle with the Soviet tanks.
This can hardly be said to be a tank battle, it is more like a battle in the medieval flintlock era...playing bagpipes and rhythmic war drums, approaching each other in a neat formation, and then facing each other face to face from more than a hundred meters apart
Shoot with a gun.
The only difference is that it's not soldiers who are shooting at each other on the battlefield, but tanks.
With the "boom" of artillery, a burst of thick smoke came out of the neat barrels of both the enemy and ours, and the artillery shells flew back and forth between the two rows.
However, it was obvious that the German tanks were at a disadvantage, even though they had the numerical advantage.
T34 sloped armor has two advantages:
First of all, the artillery shell easily bounces away after hitting it... The armor-piercing projectile commonly used during this period was the pointed armor-piercing projectile. After it hits the inclined steel plate, it will change the direction of the projectile due to the torque, which is often called a ricochet.
Just like now, one shell after another hits the T34, but it only makes a scratch on it. The shells are shot straight into the air or in other directions. Of course, they cannot penetrate the armor and cause damage to the tank.
Another advantage is that according to the armor-piercing bullet formula, the tilt angle is constant, and the penetration power of the armor-piercing bullet is proportional to the caliber.
Therefore, when shot by German artillery, the T-34 tank's 45 mm thick armor with a 60-degree bevel was nearly 90 mm thick.
This equivalent thickness basically rendered the German tank gun useless.
Therefore, even if the German tanks had superior performance in other aspects, even if the German gunners were well-trained, and even if they hit the target accurately... they could not pose a threat to the target at all.
The shortcoming of the Soviet tank is that the 1941 version of the T34 has a two-man turret... This is because the turret space is too small for three people, so the T34 tank that should be controlled by five people is compressed to four people.
As a result, the commander of the vehicle must be concurrently served by the gunner, and sometimes the loader or even the driver.
For example, Kalashnikov was both the driver and the commander.
The consequence of this is that the response of the T34 tank is relatively clumsy... The part-time crew member must perform dual tasks or even multiple tasks. On the one hand, he must complete his own tasks and be responsible for commanding and coordinating the entire vehicle crew.
However, this problem is not so obvious here, because there is no difficulty in commanding, they only need to aim at the targets one after another and fire.
As a result, one after another the German tanks were beaten until they emitted black smoke and even exploded into a ball of fire, while the Soviet tanks suffered almost no losses... If there was any loss, it was that the tracks of several tanks were hit by enemy tanks.
Broken, this may be the only damage that the German tank gun can cause.
Colonel Katukov did not even order the tanks to advance, because he believed that it would be more beneficial for the Soviet army to continue fighting like this.
This is indeed the case. If the Soviet tanks advance even a few dozen meters at this time... it will actually give the German tanks a chance to destroy them.
Finally, the German tanks collapsed, and they retreated desperately, then turned around and tried to escape from the battlefield.
In fact, at this time Major General Schroeder also realized that if the battle continued like this, the number of German tanks would only decrease one after another, and their only role would be to consume enemy artillery shells.
Therefore, they had no choice but to order a retreat.
Only then did Katukov order the troops to advance... There were several gaps in the anti-tank trenches that only the Soviet army knew about, and Soviet tanks chased them one after another through these gaps.
When pursuing, they would stop and take aim from time to time, and then with a "boom", they would turn the fleeing German tanks into a ball of fire... Facing the enemy's weak rear armor, the Soviet tanks did not need to use armor-piercing projectiles.
, high-explosive grenades can penetrate it.
In this case, Soviet soldiers preferred to use high-explosive grenades, not only because they could save more expensive armor-piercing shells, but also because after hitting the target, high-explosive grenades had a higher chance of igniting a gasoline engine or
Detonating explosives...soldiers enjoyed the feeling of their target tank being ignited or exploding.
Shurka, who was pushing forward behind the tank, looked at the wreckage of German tanks one after another around him, and knew that the outcome of this battle had been decided.
Major General Schroeder on the other side also knew this at the same time, because he received a report from his subordinates in the front or the rear:
"General, a large number of enemy tanks appeared in the north, it's T34! Our retreat has been cut off!"