"What 'T34' unit!" Major General Andreas retorted: "Are you frightened by the enemy? The 'T34' unit is in Volokolamsk!"
"No, General!" the tank battalion commander replied loudly: "They are right in front of us. In fact, they are on our flanks..."
Before he finished speaking, several gunshots were heard, and there was only noise on the walkie-talkie.
Shulka and his men followed the tank forward.
A tank battalion of more than thirty tanks from the German army was quickly wiped out.
This was not only a problem in terms of protection and firepower, but also because the German tanks were concentrated on the road in the middle and unable to move.
It is not an exaggeration to use the word "unable to move" to describe them. Their front, left and right are all minefields. This tank battalion should not have rushed forward so recklessly.
However, this does not seem to make much difference, because the entire German 3rd Armored Division is in a minefield.
The Soviet army, led by demining tanks, can encircle roads and railways on both sides at will, change directions, shoot flares to the middle, and then adjust the muzzle to hit the enemy tank group in the middle one after another...
The German tanks, which had basically lost their mobility, could only turn chaotically and anxiously on the road. They wanted to face the enemy with their frontal armor... This is the basic principle of tank combat.
But this effort is obviously in vain, because the T34 tank can easily penetrate its front armor at long distances, so there is not much difference between front armor and side armor. If there is any difference, it is that the side armor surface is larger.
Easily hit.
There was a "boom" sound, and Tank No. 239 fired a shell.
It uses grenades. Tank operations do not necessarily require the use of armor-piercing projectiles. For example, when facing the back or side armor of an enemy tank, using grenades aimed at the position of the target engine can often have a good effect.
German tanks use gasoline engines, which can easily ignite and explode if hit, causing much more damage than armor-piercing bullets.
Just like now, a grenade went over and immediately set a "Type III" tank on fire... The Soviet army was outflanking the German army from both sides of the road. If the German army wanted to face one side, it would inevitably turn its rear armor towards
The other side.
So, with just a "boom" sound, the tank instantly burst into flames, which burned more and more intensely within a few seconds and then turned into a ball of fire.
This flame instantly illuminated other tanks, and even due to the "dark under the light" problem, the German tank crew under the flames could not even see the T34 in the darkness.
Needless to say, the result was that one tank after another was destroyed by the Soviet army, as if they were lined up on the road waiting to be shot.
But this is just the beginning.
T34 ignored the German soldiers who were hiding in a mess around the tank wreckage... Their target was not the infantry, but the enemy tanks. If the enemy tanks that were too lazy to attack were destroyed, the German infantry would be like tigers with their teeth pulled out.
It's easy to deal with.
What's more, this area is a minefield, densely covered with mines, making it difficult for the German infantry to move forward.
Only then did Major General Andreas realize that something was wrong. Although he still did not understand the situation at this time, he was already aware of the danger.
"Second Battalion cover, Third Battalion retreat immediately!" Major General Andreas ordered.
The tank troops of the 3rd Armored Division were advancing along the road in the order of the first, second and third battalions. Of course, if they wanted to retreat at this time, they would have to go back in reverse.
The order for the Third Battalion to retreat was easy to carry out. The road cleared by the German engineers was quite wide and the tanks could turn around on the road.
It was difficult for the Second Battalion to cover. The road was wide for marching or turning around, but for combat it was just a narrow passage, and the tanks could not deploy at all.
Major Paul, the commander of the second battalion, was an experienced veteran. When his men were at a loss, he firmly ordered: "Expand the battle formation and ignore those mines!"
"But Major!" the subordinate replied: "We will be blown up by mines!"
"Those are anti-infantry mines!" Major Paul replied: "There are no anti-tank mines buried on the roadside...at most they only cause damage to the tracks!"
"Yes, Major!" the subordinates responded and then drove the tanks off the road and formed a circle to cover each other.
Sure enough, most of the landmines on both sides of the road were wooden shell mines. Those mines made a "bang bang" explosion under the tracks of the tanks, just like setting off firecrackers.
Soon, the tracks of several tanks were blown off... This was related to the fact that German tanks marched for a long time. The tracks of tanks needed to be maintained every time they marched a certain distance.
At this time, the German tank had not stopped all day. After being hit by several landmines, it soon became unable to withstand the fracture and became unable to move.
But even so, the situation is much better than that of the previous armored battalion. They lined up back to back in a circle and waited for the enemy's arrival.
Then the surroundings became quiet, and apart from the sound of the tank's motor, the only sound left was the sound of the loudspeaker on the telephone pole a few hundred meters away: "Hitler made a wrong calculation. He thought we were fragile and vulnerable.
They wanted to eliminate the Soviet Union in one and a half to two months, but in the past four months of the war, although our army suffered heavy casualties, it blocked their attack..."
The German army called these loudspeakers on telegraph poles "Stalin mouths". They were everywhere in the Soviet Union, and they would carry out propaganda at any time. The first thing the German army often did after capturing a place was to dismantle them and destroy them.
Or control.
Then the "rumbling" sound of the motor soon sounded from the darkness.
"Flares!" Major Paul ordered.
The illumination bombs were fired in all directions with the German army's location as the center, and then released light in the air to illuminate the surroundings...
Groups of T34s soon appeared in front of them, led by some strange tanks with rollers. They rolled out a passage in the snow and led directly to the 2nd Armored Battalion.
"Fire!" Major Paul ordered.
"Boom" the German tanks adjusted their turrets one after another to fire at the target.
But unfortunately, at a distance of more than 200 meters, the German tanks were simply not enough to penetrate the frontal armor of the enemy tanks.
Major Paul hoped that the enemy tanks would continue to advance, but the T34 stopped one after another, and then aimed at the German tanks behind the stabilized gun.
So Major Paul knew that his unit was going to be doomed... Unless it could rush into the enemy tank 100 meters away, it would only be used as a target by the T34.
However, it is basically impossible to rush into the enemy 100 meters away in this minefield.