The towering and huge steel body is like a hill slowly moving forward on the ground. The powerful main gun barrel stands straight at the front of the turret like a sharp sword. It is ferocious, slow but extremely powerful.
The forward speed can almost make people feel the approaching terror.
Even though he was just watching from a distance, observing through the telescope, and not standing next to these monsters, Major Jackson still felt that he was almost out of breath and had difficulty breathing.
What kind of monster did those Germans use against themselves?
Could a human being make this thing?
Hey! Compared with the previous one, this Sherman of ours looks like a son-of-a-bitch baby rocker!
"Sir...sir, the German tanks are approaching! What should we do!?"
what to do?
Major Jackson, who was distracted for a moment, was suddenly startled. Then he suddenly realized that the shabby cars of the German guys on the opposite side were here to kill him! They were now less than one kilometer away, and
Still approaching slowly, looking for a better firing position.
The few rounds of artillery shells just now were just an appetizer at the extreme effective range. If these German steel monsters were to ride on their faces, Major Jackson felt that he might have to account for his more than 160 kilograms here today.
"Turn the muzzle! Let our tanks turn the muzzle and kill the Germans! They are keeping moving, we have the upper hand, fire quickly and kill them!"
Major Jackson is not a professional armor soldier, but as a graduate of the infantry department of West Point Military Academy, he still understands the most basic principle of tank warfare: a stopped tank will always have the advantage of firing first against a moving tank.
This is part of the infantry-tank cooperative command course in school. Every infantry commander who graduates from West Point is required to graduate from this course, and it must not be discounted.
Fortunately, Major Jackson's grades in the infantry-tank coordination course were pretty good, and he has not forgotten all the knowledge he learned in school.
After receiving the order, the Sherman tanks responded quickly. While shaking their fat bodies, they also rotated the turret and accelerated the direction of the muzzle. An ordinary rookie crew might not be able to do this, but at least they had to withstand it.
Only the crews who have a basic tacit understanding of systematic armor training have this awareness, which shows that the combat quality of these first batch of US armored troops washed ashore is quite good.
The reaction speed of the Sherman tank, which has a balanced overall performance, is really not slow. Before the German steel monsters on the opposite side opened fire again, it had already adjusted its attitude. The 75mm full-caliber fixed-caliber weapon was pulled out from the wet ammunition rack on the chassis of the vehicle.
The armor-piercing bullet has been pushed into the chamber.
In Wittmann's eyes, the short-barreled 75mm main gun, which looked more like a pig's nose, roared and fired. The shells that came out of the barrel went straight towards the target with the same shrill scream of the air. It was the first time I participated in the war.
The nervous American gunners and vehicle commanders stared closely at their sights, expecting those German monsters to be blown to pieces on the spot after a burst of fire.
However, there are always some unsatisfactory situations that occur in real development. The difference is that in some cases, extremely unsatisfactory bad things happen that may kill you.
Ding-ding——
crackling——
call out--
There was a burst of tinkling sparks, accompanied by the harsh sound of distortion and deformation in the impact of metal. Sitting in the turret, Wittmann didn't even shake his body. A sinister smile burst out from the corner of his mouth. The words that blurted out in an instant fully reflected his truest feelings at the moment.
thoughts and moods.
"This bunch of Allied trash can't even reach the soles of the Russians' feet!"
"Stop! Target enemy tank, each crew fires at will!"
The nearly 70-ton heavy steel body withstood the fierce bombardment of the enemy's armor-piercing bullets and braked to a sudden stop without being affected at all.
The main gun barrel, which is like a fishing rod, quickly points to the target driven by the electric turret steering machine. The final fine-tuning of the main gun elevation machine corrects the remaining slight error. It has firmly trapped the steel garbage of the Allied forces.
On the scale line of the gun scope, the SS gunners, as cold as skeletons, immediately pulled the trigger that symbolized death.
Boom boom boom boom——
Not a single shell missed the target. Counting Wittmann's own vehicle, a total of 13 King Tiger heavy tanks accurately hit the target at a distance of 700 meters. It took 13 rounds of 88mm full-caliber hooded armor-piercing rounds to
8 vehicles of Xie Mantou were sent to heaven again.
In an emergency combat situation where targets were not allocated in advance, two or even three armor-piercing rounds hit the same steamed bun vehicle. Although the results were the same, it was indeed a waste of firepower.
Otherwise, Wittmann was confident that this salvo could take away at least 10 or even more enemy tanks.
Because the armor of those Allied junk iron cans was as vulnerable as paper.
That is, at the last second before the King Tigers roared and opened fire, Xie Mantou's men, who had an advantage due to the reloading speed of their main guns, actually fired another salvo.
However, this static-to-static round of armor-piercing bullets that hit the face was no different from the static-to-moving salvo just now.
After being stuck on the King Tiger, the armor-piercing projectiles on the face were ruthlessly bounced away again. The Xie Mantou men, who were fighting for their lives, could not even semi-penetrate the shells and let the projectiles get stuck in the armor plate of the King Tiger.
Either it scraped off a piece of the Tiger King's paint and then bounced off on the spot, or it smashed into the Tiger King's solid armor plate and was smashed into pieces. In the end, only a shallow dent was left as a reminder of the past.
evidence.
The U.S. armored soldiers, who had not yet had time to feel the despair and shock, no longer had any chance to struggle.
Death on the spot in the blaze of ammunition and fuel explosions and the impact of the huge explosion was the only fate for these US armored soldiers who were initially confident when they encountered their opponents for the first time.
The Germans on the opposite side only opened fire in two waves, but already 7 Shermans and 8 Shermans on our own side were sent to the sky. A total of 15 vehicles were sent to the sky. All the people in the vehicles were flown by local aircraft and no one was spared.
Such horrific battle losses in less than two minutes almost scared Major Jackson to the point of urinating. He had never even dreamed of such a horrific scene, let alone from his own experience.
My father, a lieutenant general who had fought in World War I, had never heard any description of how fierce the Germans were.
To be honest, Major Jackson felt that this was a bit of a deception. It was his father who deceived his son, not himself.
But, now is not the time to complain about this.
Having realized that his own tanks were unable to deal with those German monsters, Major Jackson, who was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot, suddenly remembered that he had just said that a group of aircraft carrier-based aircraft were on standby and could rush over to support him?
Now is the damn time!
"Quick! Contact the navy and tell them we need air support! We also need naval guns. I want them all!"
Although the words were shouted out, there were serious problems in the implementation of the order. The completely unexpected situation made Major Jackson's face turn into dust on the spot.