The Japanese army treasured heavy artillery to the extreme. In order to prevent these important technical weapons from being destroyed prematurely and ineffective, they were reluctant to use them even if the battlefield situation was extremely unfavorable.
Until now, the roaring heavy tanks of the Leader's Army had already hit the face.
These Japanese heavy artillery pieces, which were just being bastards in concrete fortification bunkers, finally started to unleash their power on targets within effective range.
The Type 91 105mm field howitzer is a Japanese imitation of the French Schneider 105mm howitzer.
It is a relatively new type of heavy field artillery in the Japanese artillery system, with relatively good performance. It is of course also an elite piece of equipment. Only brigade/division-level troops with relatively good combat capabilities of the Japanese army, as well as independent heavy artillery regiments, will be equipped with this type of heavy field artillery.
A pretty good howitzer.
Now, these artillery pieces, which were deployed and protected in thick turtle shells, were lowering their barrels and firing flatly at the oncoming Red Army heavy tanks.
Earlier, in order to deal with the "Pacific Tiger" - the Miju Xie Mantou medium tank, the Japanese army developed and equipped full-caliber 105mm hooded armor-piercing grenades specifically for this howitzer, which was originally used for long-range direct fire strikes.
Just like the full-caliber armor-piercing projectiles used by Western powers in the early days, the projectile itself adopts a capless design with a built-in warhead charge, and only has a hood used to reduce drag and increase the projectile's velocity.
Therefore, the performance of this improvised emergency armor-piercing elastic is not outstanding. If it hits the US military Xie Mantou at a slightly bad angle, it will not even be able to penetrate the head and will be bounced away by a direct ricochet. This is not true for its 105 mm high weapon.
It is almost unacceptable for large diameters.
But there was no way. Army Red Deer's knowledge of large-caliber artillery was just that. He was dissatisfied with the art of rubbing cannons, and half of them were dangling. It was even more unrealistic to expect to be able to rub out useful armor-piercing projectiles.
The crawler tracks, which continued to move forward without being hindered, were crushed into the soil immediately after.
It directly penetrated the inner wall of the Japanese concrete bunker. The steel projectile, which had little kinetic energy left, hit the inside of another concrete wall.
What I didn’t say is that this thing is perfect for hitting the Japanese army’s concrete bunker.
"Loading complete!"
The 105mm howitzer installed in the bunker in the form of a fixed gun mount opened fire. The huge muzzle flash even rushed out of the firing hole and sprayed directly outside the bunker, which was particularly conspicuous.
At the same time, in order to explode inside the warship and cause as much damage to cabins, compartments, equipment, etc., although not as many high-explosive grenades of the same caliber were inserted, the charge coefficient was still much higher than that of the Army's full-caliber armor-piercing projectiles.
Warhead charge.
Semi-armor-piercing bullets that are not common types of ammunition are not placed on the ready-to-fire ammunition rack of the semi-automatic loader. Instead, they need to be taken out from the reserve ammunition rack on the floor of the vehicle body and manually loaded by two loaders.
At the same time, the leader's attack troops, who had learned this information, also made preparations for counter-fortifications.
The protection coefficient is far not as strong as actual homogeneous steel armor. The concrete walls of the Japanese bunker, which are just over half a meter thick, look thick, but they are still not enough in the face of 130mm semi-armor-piercing grenades.
The final impact is that the armor-piercing ability of this semi-armor-piercing grenade is not strong. The 130 mm full-caliber projectile cannot even penetrate hundreds of millimeters, but the explosion yield is equivalent to that of the same-caliber grenade.
more than half.
Boom——
The projectile itself is designed to penetrate the not-so-thick protective armor of ships such as destroyers and light cruisers, so a thick-walled steel armor-piercing warhead is used.
It was directly embedded into the wall with the last trace of kinetic energy, and it was stuck in it without being able to move or fall to the ground, just like a hand-thrown dart stuck on a target.
I estimated that the time from breakdown to detonation is almost five seconds. I feel that the delay fuse of this naval semi-armor-piercing grenade is set a bit long. This type of ammunition is not often used, and the commander is somewhat unfamiliar with it.
Then add an additional order.
"Baga! It's an artillery shell! Russian artillery shells are coming in!!!"
Not only was it bounced off the upper armor plate, it flew diagonally upwards with its hood shattered, and then hit the IS7's huge oval turret with a clanging sound.
From the periscope, we could clearly see the scene of a large number of Japanese army debris being thrown into the sky together with concrete debris.
"Get out of here, run! Get out—",
"Load armor-piercing shells! Prepare to fire! Aim at the Russian tanks!"
The IS7's 130mm cannon is directly taken from the Red Navy destroyer gun. One of the benefits of this is that the unique ammunition types of the naval gun can also be used by IS7, such as the semi-finals with naval characteristics.
Armor-piercing grenade.
Boom——
The armor-piercing projectile, which was so severely deformed and shattered that the delay fuse had failed, and completely lost its ability to detonate independently, rolled from the IS7's huge turret to the ground like a piece of hot scrap metal.
The armor-piercing bullet hit the upper part of the car body, instantly bursting out with a series of lightning flashes, and was directly bounced away by the ricochet with a tooth-piercing metal scream.
"500 meters from 11 o'clock, Japanese bunker artillery! Load semi-armor-piercing shells, gunners prepare!"
Before the sergeant and gunner who led the team could finish his words, a huge explosion directly swallowed up everything in the bunker.
"receive!"
Flesh and blood rose up from the ground together with steel fragments, soaring straight into the sky. The bunker, which could not withstand the huge internal pressure, was like an exploding pressure cooker. It started performing a "volcanic eruption" on the spot and blew off the roof.
The high-speed whistling artillery shells passed directly over the heads of the advancing infantry of the Leader's Army, and the advancing IS7 heavy tank was hit directly and without missing a beat.
"shooting!"
"What is that!? What's coming in???"
During the earlier aerial reconnaissance of the Japanese positions, it had been confirmed that the Japanese army's semi-permanent fortifications group could not be hidden under any circumstances. Only in this way could it attract heavy firepower from the Red Army aviation tactical bomber force.
Two consecutive kinetic energy impacts directly consumed all the kinetic energy of the armor-piercing projectile.
The huge sound when the howitzers in the Japanese bunker fired could not escape the eyes of the commander, and the order to counterattack was immediately issued.
Now, the Japanese army is using this kind of armor-piercing projectile, which is not necessarily effective against the Sherman, to deal with the IS7 heavy tanks of the Leader Army. The results are almost predictable.
"Reset the fuse and shorten the time. The bunker doesn't have as much penetration space as a warship, so you don't need a long delay fuse. Let's fire another semi-armor-piercing projectile!"
The powerful heavy blow from the IS7 main gun directly smashed the concrete exterior wall into pieces, broke the steel bars, and instantly opened a hole big enough to put a child's head in.
As we continue to move forward along this huge hole, semi-armor-piercing grenades that have not yet exhausted their kinetic energy continue to drill in.
Take out the warhead of a semi-armor-piercing bullet and hold it upright on the floor. Use a handy file to readjust the fuze to shorten the detonation time.
After finishing, he directly hugged the projectile with both hands, straightened his waist and put it on the ammunition belt; on the other side, the deputy loader who bent down to retrieve the ammunition was already carrying the cartridge and was ready.
The two loaders shouted in unison, almost at the same time as the dull impact of the breech closing.
"Accept cordial greetings from the Red Navy! Sukabule!"
I had diarrhea and sat in the toilet for a long time. The second update is being processed. Guys, wait a moment, or you can watch it tomorrow morning.