"Five minutes. If you can't arrive within five minutes, Malashenko, you can come and collect the body for me. I'm not kidding!"
"...."
"We are already at the fastest speed. Comrade Commander, please hold on! The road is too difficult to walk. We have just bypassed a battlefield ruins. There are craters left by shelling and air raids everywhere. Even if the tank can get over it,
But the half-track will definitely get stuck, and we can only make a detour! We will arrive within five minutes, I guarantee you!"
Malashenko could feel that something was not going well with Vatutin. Otherwise, with Vatutin’s character, it would be impossible for him to speak to Malashenko like this. If he could speak to Malashenko, he must have arrived.
It's the last moment.
Although Vatutin's words were very pessimistic, Malashenko really had no choice at the moment.
I drove all the way here by slamming the accelerator to the bottom and moving forward at full speed. I didn't care about the number of hours the tank was motorized or the degree of wear and tear. I just ran as fast as I could, even if the tank engine exploded after the battle.
A tank is fine.
But as Comrade Lao Ma said, the road conditions in the battlefield ruins where a large-scale battle just took place are really difficult. If you want to go in a straight line and rush over as quickly as possible, it is impossible. Some of the battlefield ruins lie in front of Malashenko.
The density of craters was comparable to that of the moon's surface, so taking a detour became the only feasible option. However, it would also waste time, so there was really no way around it.
After finishing his call with Vatutin, Malashenko put down the radio transmitter in his hand and continued to pick up the telescope hanging on his chest and look toward the distant horizon.
The winding and gently sloping hilly terrain made it difficult for Malashenko to see what was happening far away. He was in a blind spot. Although the distance was close enough to hear the sound of firefights and intensive artillery explosions, there was still a lot left.
It is still unknown how far down it is to reach the target. In the case of a blind spot, there is no way to stop the tank to provide long-range direct fire support.
Malashenko, who was depressed and had nowhere to vent his anger, really felt that he was aggrieved. But at the moment, he had no other choice but to keep the troops moving at full speed. This was the situation he was talking about with anxious stares.
"Where's the map? Iushkin, look at the map. How far are we from now?! Give me a number!"
Iushkin, who no longer knew how many times Malashenko had asked the same question, was in the gunner's position. He sighed softly and spoke quietly again facing the map spread out in front of him.
"There are no landmarks around, so we can only roughly estimate the distance. Judging from our traveling speed and rough route, there should be only the last two kilometers left. This is a straight line distance. If it is a detour, it is another matter."
Two kilometers, which is a distance that is not considered a distance to tank soldiers on ordinary days, can be reached in less than a cigarette by stepping on the accelerator.
Malashenko, who was holding a telescope in his hand, estimated that the large gentle slope in front of him that blocked his view was about 500 meters away from where he was now and he could climb over it.
In other words, if you are lucky enough and there is no gentle slope or undulating terrain that blocks the view after climbing this slope, Malashenko can immediately see the battlefield situation clearly from a distance of about 1.5 kilometers.
For a tank that does not need precise aiming and can destroy a large number of enemy soft-target infantry by relying only on the AOE range of high-explosive bombs, it can stop and fire immediately at a distance of 1.5 kilometers to carry out direct-aimed bombardment of the enemy.
The accuracy of this kind of ultra-long-distance firing is almost impossible. Anyway, the high-explosive shells will cause damage in a wide range, and there are unprotected infantry on the opposite side. Even if some shells miss the target, they will continue to come one after another.
The sound of the explosion was enough to disrupt the opponent's offensive rhythm, which was enough for Malashenko who was anxious to rescue Vatutin.
"Damn, I hope I can go farther this time! Don't jump out of the next slope after this one!"
The last 500 meters of distance can be said to be fleeting when the accelerator is stepped on at full speed. When Malashenko's command vehicle, which was at the front of the team, drove up to the top of the slope and looked around, I felt a sense of luck.
The ecstatic feeling of being favored by the goddess instantly filled my mind.
"Bullshit! Lucky me, jackpot! The view is perfect!"
After this is actually the last big gentle slope that blocks Malashenko, the road ahead is an endless flat wilderness, straight to the horizon with no major fluctuations, no obstructions, no obstructions.
This also corresponds to the fighting situation on Vatutin's side: the infantry on both sides have no natural bunkers to use, which is especially disadvantageous for the attacker who lacks offensive weapons and only has infantry.
But the current situation is completely different. Malashenko, who can be regarded as the attacker, has led a large number of tanks, armored vehicles, and mechanized infantry to support.
Although this mechanized infantry still uses a low-end version of a half-track vehicle, even a half-track vehicle is an armored unit that is immune to direct fire from small arms. It is also equipped with anti-infantry weapons such as machine guns. The battle situation will be different later.
How can it actually be predicted now?
"Leave one platoon behind, load high-explosive bombs to provide fire support, aim at the enemy's infantry and give me the fastest rate of fire! The rest of the vehicle crews all step on the accelerator and follow me, the half-tracks follow up, and the infantry are loaded with bullets and ready for battle!
"
The Yankee's M3A1 half-track is also equipped with a radio station, which greatly facilitates direct communication between Malashenko and the infantry. Orders can be conveyed instantly without having to reach out and pull the turret apart.
Shouting with a loud voice, the best part of mechanized coordination was immediately revealed.
Following Malashenko's order, a row of three T43 medium tanks quickly stopped at the highest point of the slope, with the best view, and began to turn the turret while loading high-explosive shells, preparing to aim and shoot at the enemy.
But what even Malashenko did not expect was that these three T43 medium tanks, which were preparing to shoot directly at the enemy infantry in the distance on the top of the slope, encountered a little ridiculous accident.
"Comrade commander...I, I can't lower the muzzle, the helicopter is shaking all the way! We don't have enough depression angle."
The view on the top of the slope is indeed wide and unrestricted, making it an excellent shooting position.
However, due to the fact that the top of the slope itself has a certain slope and is uneven, the gunner responsible for gun aiming quickly discovered a rarely encountered and very embarrassing situation: the tank's main gun depression angle was not enough.
The tube can no longer be suppressed, and there is no way to target the enemy.
However, this cannot be entirely blamed on the terrain. After all, the main gun depression angle of the new T43 medium tank still inherits the glorious tradition of the Red Army tanks "never bow their head".
What is the angle of depression?
Of course it’s the classic negative fourth degree.
In the end, the gunner's confused look was only rewarded by the comrade commander's merciless scolding.
"Suka! Are you a pig!? Isn't the depression angle not enough for the car to move? Drive forward and park the car downhill. Isn't the depression angle enough? Drive quickly!"