It was difficult for the KV-3 to aim at long distances for these tankmen, as the outdated sighting system and the extremely dispersed 85mm tank gun did not provide such convenience. In the intercourse of fire with an unequal degree www.biquge.info of sight between the two sides, only the shells fired by the Tiger kept hitting the KV-3, while the shells of the Red Army's counterattack rarely hit the Tiger, and it was rare for a single shot to hit the front of the Tiger and could not penetrate the heavy inclined armor.

However, the Germans also found that the Russian tanks on the opposite side were a little difficult to bite, at a distance of about 1500 meters, if the opponent was a T-34, basically as long as it hit, there was no reason to survive, but today it was different, several shells hit the opponent, but it didn't work: either it couldn't penetrate, or it produced ricochet. Later, the Germans learned that the thickness of the frontal armor of the KV-3 tank reached 120mm, which was not as good as the defense level of the Tiger 100mm inclined armor, but it was two notches higher than the defense level of the T-34. The test results also showed that as long as there were no quality problems with the Russian armor steel, the Tiger 88mm gun could not penetrate it at a distance of 1,500 meters.

There is a T-34 production line in the Czech Republic that is responsible for the repair and transformation of captured T-34 tanks for subsequent use, German military experts are very sensitive to the quality of Russian tanks, and they are puzzled by the fact that the overall quality of the T-34, especially the quality of the armor steel, is very unstable, some models and batches of T-34 are of good quality, and the level of defense meets or even exceeds the design indicators, while the quality of some T-34s is very bad, The fragile armor could not even protect the 37mm anti-tank gun from firing tungsten-core armor-piercing shells - and the 37mm anti-tank gun had been withdrawn from the German army. Some armored commanders even lamented why they couldn't touch such a poor quality T-34 during the Typhoon campaign. Otherwise, the T-34 crisis would not have arisen at all.

Although the quality system of mass production in wartime tends to be weakened, the German side is also so surprised by such an unstable quality system, so much so that the factory also adds additional testing and inspection links to the captured tanks, and those products of poor quality are mercilessly dismantled and only the chassis is kept for further assembly - this not only increases man-hours but also reduces production, and the Ministry of Armaments is considering whether to stop modifying the captured tanks and simply produce all the spare parts, but this seems to contradict concentrating on ensuring the production of key models.

To put it bluntly, this problem is actually worthless, because the Red Army could not obtain a stable, high-quality supply of armor steel, and after the armor steel promised by Britain and the United States to support was repeatedly lost or intercepted by Germany, the shortage of armor steel has become the core problem restricting the production of tanks in the Red Army, and the self-produced armor steel is not only small in production but also very unstable in quality. If it were peacetime, the officials in charge of production would have been sent to Siberia to "build" socialism, but the idea is not the same in extraordinary times, first to ensure the availability and then the quality. Besides, the quality doesn't affect the combat too much, and a 200-hour aircraft engine can be used just as much as a 2,000-hour aircraft engine -- most pilots won't survive the first 200 hours anyway; Good or poor armor steel can be used to produce the T-34 - they can't withstand the Tiger tank anyway. However, this batch of KV-3 is a new piece of equipment that the Red Army has high hopes for, and all the high-quality materials and accessories used are imported, so the quality of the armor is very good.

"The frontal armor of the enemy is very thick, change it to special armor-piercing shells."

With the order of Karius, the loader immediately pushed a tungsten core sub-caliber armor-piercing bullet into the load, after the large-scale mining of tungsten ore in Austria, the sale of tungsten ore in Spain and Portugal to Germany, and the trade and exchange of materials with Japan, Germany's overall tungsten resource demand has been satisfied, and after the full supply of machinery, armor and other equipment production, there is still room to supply the one-time consumption of artillery shells. The tank crews of the Tiger Heavy Armored Battalion are far happier than in history, each tank can get 16 tungsten core sub-caliber armor-piercing shells that are more expensive and more difficult to manufacture but also have much stronger armor-piercing ability (historically, a Tiger rarely gets more than 5 rounds, considering that the overall ownership of Tiger tanks is now several times that of history, Hoffman is also qualified to pat his chest and pretend to be a local tyrant).

Karius muttered to himself, "If you can't penetrate it, you can only get closer......

With a "clang", the shell was quickly fired, and the special armor-piercing shell, which carried everyone's expectations, did not disappoint, decisively penetrating the heavy frontal armor of the KV-3 and destroying it.

"The third result."

Seeing that his tanks only had the ability to parry and had no power to fight back, Colonel Bubnov was in a hurry, and he ordered the infantry to follow the tanks to rush out to find a way out for the troops, even if the sacrifice was great, it was better than being named by the enemy one by one with long-range artillery fire, but the vanguard of the Red Army had just come out, and the Himmler organists, who had already been prepared and hiding in the shadows, immediately launched an overwhelming salvo according to the direction and distance provided by Karius, and the rockets fired out were far more powerful than the Stalin's organ. Immediately after the salvo, the half-track armored vehicles left the scene and disappeared in the night.

Unable to fight, he had to retreat - this was the only feeling that welled up in Bubnov's heart, and taking advantage of the slight abdication of the fire and the fact that the Germans were not outflanked, he led the rest of the brigade to retreat to the rear. But the originally well-arranged and orderly retreat turned into a rout, and the officers and men of the tank brigade were okay, not only cooperated tacitly, but also were able to quickly transfer with the help of tanks, but those infantry and artillery who lost cover were killed, either hiding in the depths of the woods and being burned alive by the fire, or being cleared one by one by the Tiger tanks in the distance, or rushing out to die and being reimbursed after a salvo from Himmler's organ.

After a night of fierce fighting, by dawn the fire was finally extinguished, and the 506th Heavy Armored Battalion took over the enemy's hiding place yesterday, and Karius's strategy to drive the enemy out of the rat's nest was a perfect success. The battalion made a major breakthrough at the cost of the loss of 3 Tiger tanks and more than 20 soldiers, and took control of the entire village of Mazarari, and after an inventory, it was found that the results of last night's battle were quite a lot, including at least more than 1,500 bodies mixed with infantry, tank crews and artillery, and the wreckage of 32 new Russian heavy tanks was found, and more than 200 pieces of heavy equipment such as trucks, armored vehicles, anti-tank guns, and towed artillery, including the Stalinist organ that had always made the German soldiers hate their teeth.

The only thing that is a little unacceptable is that the smell of barbecue is always in the air - everyone knows what this smell is, even the most incomprehensible sight of those charred corpses can be imagined, many people vomit on the ground, and it is estimated that the meat and sausages in this lunch's lunch will trigger some disgusting associations.

"A large part of the enemy slipped away, and the wreckage at the scene did not match the number reported." After seeing the scene, Karius calmly reported, "We'll have to catch up." ”

"We'll have to refuel and replenish our ammunition first...... Major Verin shrugged with a wry smile, "let the infantry's pursuers catch up first." ”

The Stalker is one of two other key pieces of equipment that are deeply affected by the crossing, the other being the Assault Gun No. 3. After Hoffman decided to concentrate on the production of the No. 4 tank, the production of the No. 4 tank was greatly increased, but this increase was not without other costs -- since September last year, the Ministry of Armaments has stopped the production of the No. 3 tank in accordance with the requirements of the tank armament reorganization case, and the relevant production lines have been successively changed to the No. 4 production line, and the No. 3 assault guns that left the factory in the later period are all converted from the recovered No. 3 tanks, and the number of production is much less than that of the same period in history due to the limited number of chassis and modifications. As a result, the name of the Assault Gun III was not as loud as it was in the original plane.

After the number of assault guns No. 3 was reduced by one, the Stalker, which was converted from a 38-ton tank chassis and a captured 76.2mm anti-tank gun, took over the role, and was very popular with the troops as soon as it was launched, and production increased rapidly. However, as time went on, the Stalker also underwent significant changes, and the stock of captured 76.2mm anti-tank guns became smaller and smaller (many of which were directly used to replace the barrels of the Stalkers that had already been produced), so they began to be equipped with 75mm/L48 tank guns (the same as the No. 4 tank).

After hearing the news that the destroyer came forward, Karius did not feel relieved, but said: "I'm afraid this is not appropriate, we fought with the Russian tanks last night, their frontal defense is stronger than the Russian tanks we have encountered before, we used special armor-piercing shells at a distance of 1,500 meters to crack open this heavy turtle shell, if you change the stalker to deal with them, you must get at least close to 1,000 meters - at that distance, the enemy's tank is enough to tear any pursuer to pieces." ”

"What are you going to do?"

"Don't hesitate to catch up." Karius laughed, "The honor of completely annihilating the enemy's new heavy tank brigade cannot be divided by the 507th Battalion - it was us, not them, and the Russians fought hard last night." ”

"Good." Verin also laughed, "You'll be the first to attack with your own platoon in a moment!" Do a good job, young man, a new heavy armored battalion is still being formed, and there is an urgent need for experienced armored commanders, I don't think you will have any problem in becoming a company commander after a while. ”

"But I have only been a platoon commander for 2 months, and this is still thanks to the blessing of completing the candidate officer course, I was supposed to be a commander at most......" Karius laughed embarrassedly, "The company commander didn't dare to expect extravagant hopes, I would be very satisfied if I could get a medal." ”

"In times of war, anything is possible, and I have declared you the Iron Cross of the Second Degree, and if you continue to perform like this in the next few months, I believe that a Knight's Cross will not be difficult." (To be continued.) )