When the earthen wall appeared in Weitman's field of vision, he instinctively felt a kind of fear. Wittman trusted his instincts very much, and this instinct saved his life countless times in the battles on the Eastern Front, especially against the anti-tank gun positions of the Soviets. And this fear has never been so strong when facing this wall.

At this time, there was a burst of cannon fire behind Wittmann. This was the German artillery preparing for artillery fire before the attack was launched. Taking into account the fact that there were also British bombers active in the sky, the fire emitted by the artillery when they opened fire would be more noticeable at night than during the day, and the enemy in the air could easily see them from a distance of several tens of kilometers. When the German artillery units opened fire at night, the flames of the muzzles would attract them a large number of bombers, just as the lights attracted a large number of moths.

At this time, the shelling of the German artillery could be completely described by the four words of forgetting life and death. In fact, the shelling began to weaken noticeably after less than fifteen minutes, and by twenty minutes the shelling had ceased completely. As for the reason for the stop, the constant sound of bomb explosions coming from behind Wittmann is the explanation

"Attack!" Seeing that the grenadiers were already moving forward, Wittmann gave orders to his men, then got into the tank and closed the top cover. Then his tank started and drove towards the British position.

The shelling, and the rumbling of tank engines and tracks, long ago announced their presence to the British. The British began to fire shè flares in front of the defensive positions, and the front of the British position was almost as bright as day, and the entire attack group was revealed before the eyes of the British.

The British 25-pounder howitzers opened fire first, and shells constantly exploded between the grenadiers and tanks. Although the firepower was not too dense, the British naval fire immediately joined the chorus. The 6-inch and 9-inch guns of the cruisers of the British constantly opened fire. However, in order to avoid accidental damage, most of their shells were fired further back in order to block the possible presence of follow-up troops.

When Wittmann's tanks advanced to a distance of about 1,000 meters from the earthen wall, the British began to attack with direct fire. The first to fire were the "Fireflies" of the British. It was armed with a 17-pounder gun at this distance and could easily shred the frontal armor of any German tank except the King Tiger. However, the jīng degree of this artillery, especially after the use of gold coin shells, is not particularly good. Therefore, the first round of shè attacks of the "fireflies" only hit two targets. A No. 4 tank to Wittman's left unfortunately hit the jackpot when an armor-piercing projectile hit its front, and the tank immediately stopped, emitting black smoke. Two tankmen on fire jumped out of the destroyed tank, and without bothering to extinguish the flames on their bodies, they rushed to get away from the tank. And these two obvious targets became the focus of the British Bren machine guns, one was directly knocked to the ground, and the other also fell to the ground, but looking at the action, it seemed that he took the initiative to lie down. And he rolled on the ground after he lay down, extinguishing the flames on his trouser legs.

The infantry mortar detachment that accompanied the advance of the tank units began to fire flares at the earthen wall of the British army, and in the light of the flares, Wittmann saw that at two o'clock, a round turret was appearing on the earthen wall, and the barrel of the black hole was pointing at his tank.

"Brake!" Wittman yelled.

His Tiger tank immediately braked sharply, and almost at the same time, the "Firefly" with its turret peeking out of the earthen wall also fired a deadly shell. Due to the timely braking, the cannonball from the "Firefly" failed to hit Wittmann's tiger. Wittmann also hurriedly directed the tank to turn its guns towards the tank, however, before the barrel of the Tiger could be turned, the tank disappeared behind the earthen wall.

"Damn it!" Wittman scolded. He knew that the current environment was so dangerous. The enemy must rely on a hidden observer to observe his own position data and then notify the "firefly". And those "fireflies" must also be in the combat mode of being ready to fire a shot, retracting and preparing to fire a shot. The shè time left for himself was pitifully short, not even enough for himself to turn the barrel around.

"If you go on like this, you're going to be hit!" Wittman thought, "I have to do something to change this." ”

He opened the hatch in the turret and ventured his head out. It was very dangerous to do so, as shrapnel flying across the battlefield, and bullets from enemy machine guns and rifles could kill him. However, doing so gives him a better view, giving him more chances to spot enemies before they fire at him.

More than ten seconds later, in front of the left, Wittman found another exposed turret, this "Firefly" did not fire at Wittman, he quickly fired at a leopard on Wittman's left, and then immediately disappeared behind the earthen wall, the whole process did not even take 20 seconds.

This time the British 17-pounder gun hit the target accurately. The Leopard's sloping front armor was actually thicker than that of the Tiger, and its crew members also hung some load wheels and spare tracks in front for added defense. But in the face of powerful 17-inch guns, these armors were like papier-mâché. The armor-piercing shell easily pierced through the armor, and the things hanging in front of it flew high like shredded paper. Seconds later, the hapless leopard exploded again. Flames erupted from the muzzle and the hatch at the top. No one climbed out of the tank, and this Leopard became a grave of steel for its entire crew.

The German tanks also tried to return fire. But the time for the target to appear is too short, and the target itself is too small, such a small target, even in the daytime, even if it is fixed there, at such a distance, it is not easy to hit it with one shot, Weitman feels that even his car crew, at this distance, the hit rate of such a small target will definitely not exceed thirty percent. And in the current situation, the hit rate is only afraid that even one percent is not even.

In peacetime, the German Tiger tanks preferred to fight the "Firefly" at a greater distance, because the "Firefly's 17-pounder gun" was inferior to the Tiger's 88mm gun at long range, and it was more advantageous to shè to the Tiger at long range. But now, apparently, continuing at a long distance and the enemy against shè, was extremely detrimental to the Germans: this seemingly simple fortification added too much to the defending side.

Closing the distance can increase the probability of hitting such a small target, but it also means that the probability of the opponent hitting himself is also greatly increased. It was easier said than done to get closer, and the Germans didn't know how many corpses they would have to leave before rushing up.

In front of the "Firefly", there is actually not much difference between the Tiger, the Leopard and the thin-skinned Tank No. 4, and the turret of the "Firefly" is not indestructible, and the No. 75 gun of the No. 4 tank can also penetrate its armor. In this case, the Germans made an adjustment to make the armor thinner, but also more numerous, the tank No. 4, and even such things as the SDKFZ234/2 "Puma" 8-wheeled armored vehicle with a 50-mm gun rushed to the front, and the Tiger and Leopard followed. In this way, the British tanks, which were inferior in numbers, could be overwhelmed.

But when the No. 4 tanks rushed forward, the British 6-pounder anti-tank guns began to fire one after another. The British 6-pounder anti-tank gun had a caliber of 57 mm and could penetrate 90 mm of armor at a distance of 100 meters. To be honest, this armor-piercing ability is really unmatchable compared to the ZIS2 of the same caliber in the hands of the Soviets. However, it is used to fight the No. 4 tank, and it can barely be used.

Of course, these towed guns could not use the "Firefly" tactics, but they were no less difficult to deal with. The British dug a deep trench in the ground and placed such anti-tank guns in it. Most of the artillery was underground, with only the barrel lying almost flat on the ground. There was only a small stretch of shield above the ground. The British disguised these shields a little, so that at night, if they didn't fire, even if you pressed directly over them, the tankmen wouldn't be able to spot it.

However, the British also made a mistake at this time, they did not remove the brakes on the guns in advance, which caused the muzzle flame of the guns to be particularly obvious when firing. And this also pointed out the target for the tigers and leopards behind to fire at them.

The British anti-tank artillery did not hold their breath and opened fire before the German tank No. 4 could get close to the optimal firing distance. However, the British soldiers could not be blamed for this, and at night it was easy for people to have problems judging distance.

The frontal armor of the German No. 4 tank was passable relative to the same sides of the papier-mâché, and the British misjudged their first round of shè hits was not high. Many of the shells that hit failed to penetrate Tank No. 4 due to problems with the distance and angle of the shot. And as they prepared for the second and third rounds of shè strikes, the Germans' counterattack quickly fell on their heads.

Tank IV and Leopard's 75mm grenades, Tiger's 88mm grenades, and infantry mortar shells all fell on the British towed anti-tank gun positions. At the same time, German infantry units were closing in on them.

The British began to suppress the onrushing German infantry with machine guns, while the German tanks following the infantry attacked the British machine-gun fire points with straight fire. Every second, you can see German soldiers knocked to the ground by machine gun and rifle bullets, and every few seconds, you can also see British machine guns, along with machine gunners, being torn to shreds by German tank fire.

"Commander, should we replace the armor-piercing shells with grenades?" Weitman's gunner asked.

"No, we have more important goals!" Wittman replied.