If you have already failed once, you will never fail again!
With such a firm belief in his heart, Klink concentrated his attention. In order to ensure that Klink could kill with one hit, this time he aimed the center point of the gun scope's sight at the side armor of the T34 tank, and the completed millimeter hood.
The armor-piercing projectile immediately rushed out with flames and flames as the muzzle trembled.
Almost at the same time as Klink fired.
The T34 tank, which was still running at full speed, also flicked its muzzle and sprayed out flames at the last moment of life and death. The 76mm hooded armor-piercing projectile that rushed out of the smoke and smoke at high speed accurately hit the Tiger tank's chrysanthemum at an angle of 30 degrees.
Above, an unexpected but common-sense scene happened next.
The 76mm hooded armor-piercing projectile, which had a small incident angle and therefore failed to ricochet, failed to completely penetrate the 2mm physical thickness rolled homogeneous steel armor of the Tiger tank chrysanthemum, and was embedded in the armor in a semi-penetrating manner, like a toy.
Darts are average.
The armor-piercing delay fuse that was successfully triggered exploded immediately before the human brain could fully react. The warhead explosion of a projectile with an equivalent of less than 100 grams of TNT could not penetrate the thick chrysanthemum armor of the Tiger tank, but it would ignite.
The engine compartment was filled with volatile gasoline like a powder keg, but there was no problem at all.
The Tiger tank, with its fuel tank and engine stuffed into the rear of the vehicle body, started to catch fire on the spot. The Soviet gunner clearly saw this scene in the main gun sight, and the corner of his mouth raised and an upward arc appeared.
But before the excited words could be blurted out, the millimeter hooded armor-piercing bullet fired from Wittmann's car had already followed closely with a scream of death.
It only took a moment to break through the armor on the front of the body and pour death into the tank. Before it could stop, the T34 medium tank maintained high speed and was destroyed on the spot.
The small turret was detonated by the flames and flew away more than ten meters like a hat-off salute. The vehicle body, which was charging at full speed, rushed forward for a long distance in the form of a ghost chariot before it could stop and brake. It took two
Klink, who had just taken out the last Soviet tank with his artillery, was finally relieved.
"Phew, I killed him! Michelle! It's over!"
Before he could finish his words as a big stone fell to the ground, Wittmann directly poured a basin of cold water on him.
"Turn the turret around, Klink! The Russian infantry is coming!"
"What?"
Taking advantage of the short time of the tank encounter, the Soviet infantry, which had suffered some casualties, did not choose to retreat but surrounded the four Tigers from all sides.
It's just that these Soviet infantrymen, who only had light weapons and lacked anti-tank equipment, seemed a little unable to do anything for a while. The Sand submachine guns and Mosin-Nagant rifles made the armor of the Tiger tanks clang, sparks flying, and some courage
The older Soviet soldiers also raised cluster grenades in their hands and tried to get closer to blow up these Tiger tanks.
The situation that is even more deceiving for the four Tigers at this moment does not stop there.
A total of five members of the Tiger crew whose butt was caught on fire had already jumped out of the tank screaming, but these relatively conscientious SS armored soldiers did not directly abandon the precious Tiger, but
He took the fire extinguisher he took out from the car and sprayed it on the tiger's burning buttocks.
The German troops were anxious to put out the fire for their wives, but the Soviet infantrymen naturally stopped doing it when they saw this scene.
Seeing the five Hans running around the burning Tiger tank, the Soviet infantry immediately hit with a barrage of barrages. The mixed firepower network composed of submachine guns and Mosin-Nagant rifles instantly hit all sides of the Tiger tank.
There was a crackling sound.
Two of the five SS armored soldiers who were anxious to save their wives fell instantly. The remaining three, seeing the critical situation, immediately threw away the fire extinguisher cans in their hands, dragging their injured comrades who were lying on the ground and whose life and death were unknown, towards the Soviet infantry, which could not be covered by fire.
The Tiger tank moved sideways to seek cover.
Only three of the four Tigers can fight now, and there is no infantry cover around them.
Logically speaking, Wittmann should have ordered a retreat at this time. After all, the purpose of destroying all Soviet tanks has been achieved, and the task of testing the performance of the Tiger tanks has been completed. The remaining dozens of Soviet infantry are completely useless.
There is no need to continue to struggle with Tiantou.
But Wittmann was obviously thinking about more than that at the moment when bullets were flying.
The Tiger tank that was on fire but just extinguished had a fatal problem with its transmission system and was unable to move. Looking at the situation, the crew only had three people left, and it was basically equivalent to being scrapped.
The five people can also spread out and squeeze into the other three Tiger tanks and barely take them away. After all, the Tiger tank has a large body space and can force two people into it. At most, they can only squeeze in a little, which is no problem. But this is the only one.
How to take away the 57-ton tiger has become a big headache.
The new tank that was put into actual combat for the first time was left on the battlefield and was captured by the Russians. This was an intolerable result for Wittmann.
In addition, Wittmann could also choose to destroy the Tiger tank with one shot and turn it into a pile of debris, and then lead his troops to retreat confidently and boldly.
But this idea flashed in Wittmann's mind for a moment and was instantly dismissed. This was not only because the Tiger tank was expensive to build, but it was a pity to destroy it like this. At the same time, Wittmann did not want it.
The first time he led his team to attack, he made such an embarrassing joke. This would have an impact that cannot be ignored on his future promotion and honors.
After some weighing, Wittmann decided to gather three Tiger tanks to kill these dozens of daring Soviet infantry.
The reason why I dare to do this is not because of Wittmann's reckless batch, but because these fully equipped Tiger tanks, which are the first batch of factory prototypes, are also equipped with a secret anti-infantry weapon: nahverteidigungswaffe (close combat defensive weapon)
, later called the S-mine launcher by Allied soldiers on the Western Front battlefield.
After a whole year of arduous fighting in 1941, the power of the Russian Ula Charge was fully realized.
I was shocked that my opponent dared to use such a dense infantry charge during the Second World War when automatic weapons were so advanced. Some of them were destroyed during local counterattacks by Soviet infantry who jumped on the tank to pry open the hatch cover and throw grenades inside.
Tanks triggered derivative thinking of the German tank design team.
Is it possible to install an anti-infantry weapon that is more effective than a machine gun on a heavy tank with a narrow and limited field of vision?
The answer is yes, and the S mine launcher came into being on the Tiger tank.