At nightfall, Cape Verde did not calm down, although the US offensive was temporarily stopped, the large-scale landing operation continued, and the officers and men under Collins continued to land, and by 9 o'clock, the officers and men of the whole regiment had finally landed, and he could not help but breathe a long sigh of relief. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

This afternoon's attack was really too aggrieved, he had never fought such a battle, and he felt as if he had all the strength to use it, but he couldn't use it, and he was caught off guard for some reason. He didn't want to blame the navy, the navy had already worked hard enough today, the naval guns and shells were bombarding the island as if they didn't need money, in order to destroy the enemy's coastal fortifications, one precious battleship was also sunk, and in addition to the continuous sorties and air strikes of naval planes desperately, he thought that he had done a good job, and if he wanted to blame, he could only blame the Germans for being too cunning: the endless minefields, the mortar companies deployed in the depressions, and the fast-moving rocket artillery units all taught him a vivid lesson.

The U.S. military also had mortars, but they were obviously not as skilled as the Germans, and the U.S. troops also used Sherman tanks to equip rocket artillery, but they didn't even think to bring them with them when they landed first. The U.S. military likes to suppress the artillery in the back the most, and the aircraft bombs in front open the way, and then let the tanks rush when the time is about the same, and rush over is basically considered a victory, thinking that it should be easy to fight after the side has the absolute upper hand in air raids and artillery firepower, but I didn't expect to encounter such a tricky and complicated situation. At first, Collins was full of confidence that relying on the strength of his regiment would be enough to take Cape Verde, a small place, and not only did he think that the 5th Army Division did not need to be dispatched as a whole, but also that the Navy's request for an additional division was complete nonsense and fearful of the enemy.

Reality gave him a blow in the face, so that he quickly came to his senses, it was absolutely extravagant to take Cape Verde by relying on one of his own regiments, and he sent a telegram to the division commander and the other two regiments, hoping that they would be ready for battle as soon as possible. The night was getting thicker and thicker, and as the first dark night of the landing campaign, Collins and his officers and men were very nervous, and before they set off, they conducted targeted training, and the veterans who had returned from the Pacific theater had taught them about the examples of landing, seizing islands, and defending, and told them about their combat experience in the Pacific direction.

According to the experience of the Pacific theater, the Japanese army usually chooses to attack at night and launch a "long live charge", although I don't know what the Germans' war routines are, but no one dares to take it lightly, at least from the perspective of daytime battles, the German tactics are more skilled and skillful than the Japanese army, and the firepower and technical weapons are also much fiercer. In order to deal with the night attack of the German army, the American officers and soldiers on the beachhead were ready to fight: there was a ring of fortifications on the perimeter, a large number of Browning 12.7mm heavy machine gun bunkers were mixed in, all the infantry stared nervously at the opposite side, followed by Sherman tanks, M6 heavy tanks, and M10 tank destroyers as covering fire pillars, they were scattered for use, and basically each platoon could get 1-2 vehicles to be attached to.

Using tanks as artillery to suppress the main force is a last resort, because of the need to transport the materials and soldiers urgently needed for the beachhead, and the floating dock is still in the process of intense construction, the relatively clumsy US artillery unit has not been able to go ashore, out of respect for the German defense system, the 75mm howitzer US army instinctively does not take out the embarrassing eye, and the firepower prepared for the German army in Cape Verde is 105mm or 155mm (long-legged Tom), but this is the second batch of troops to be landed, and I really can't count on it tonight.

Out of precautions against night attacks by S-boats, the naval ships also began to move to the deep sea, the battleships were protected by freighters and other warships in the middle, and the periphery was patrolled by light warships, it was Admiral Ingersoll who gave the order, and the matter of reimbursing 2 escort aircraft carriers and 1 light cruiser in one night greatly stimulated him, and if 1 battleship was sunk tonight, it would be a complete shame. Moreover, the staff officers had vaguely analyzed on the basis of intelligence and yesterday's battle situation that the torpedo used by the German army was the mysterious and powerful torpedo that the Pacific Fleet had encountered in the South Pacific. General Nimitz had asked such a serious philosophical question as "how far is it?" and Ingersoll didn't want to capsize in the gutter himself.

The army howitzers did not have time to go ashore, and the navy's naval guns were greatly reduced, and now Collins could only count on the tank guns, especially the new M6 heavy tanks, to compete for the troops.

The M6 tank is a product of the U.S. Army stimulated by the German Tiger tank, formerly known as T1E2, and renamed M6 after it was officially installed. In history, this is not a mature design tank, the United States only produced a very small amount, basically did not participate in the actual combat, but now the situation is completely different, the German Tiger tank is far more successful than in history, the threat is greater, the number is more, the African battlefield Sherman in the face of the Tiger vulnerable situation greatly stimulated the Americans, plus the US military's follow-up development of the T25 \ T26 heavy tank has not been successful, so knowing that it is not very mature, the War Department can only build more than 1000 M6 and assign it to the front-line troops.

President Roosevelt was very relieved about the production of weapons for other armies, but he paid special attention to heavy tanks, not only personally checking and inquiring about them, but also repeatedly asking his secretary to call to ask about the progress of development and equipment. The Germans have been on the battlefield for a year with the Tiger pose.

In the face of the great threat of the Tiger tank and the No. 4 torrent, this 60-ton behemoth has been targeted armor strengthened, with 8lmm on the front, sides and rear of the turret, 25mm on the top armor, 81mm on the upper part of the hull, 57mm under the front, 5l~52.3mm on the upper side part, and 51mm on the lower side and rear part. In terms of armor thickness alone, this level is significantly better than that of medium tanks such as M3 and M4, but slightly worse than that of the Tiger. Although the Soviet Union had come up with a better IS-1, it was clear that Comrade Stalin would not share this weapon with Britain and the United States, just as the latter would not have let Stalin share jets.

If it is designed by German designers, no matter how much the tonnage is wasted according to the armor configuration, it will not get 60 tons, the key is that the M6 is seriously oversized (body length: 8.81 meters, width 3.95 meters, height 3.19 meters), after Hoffman's suggestion, the 48-ton tiger length, width and height dimensions are 6.3 meters, 3.25 meters and 2.88 meters, even the historical 56-ton Tiger 1 tank, the length, width and height dimensions are only 6.28 meters, 3.7 meters and 2.93 meters, in other words, for this large and inappropriate volume, the Americans wasted too much tonnage.

Of course, it is also biased to buckle the hat on the head of the American tank designers who do not know how to do it, and the key problem is not that the designers are too stupid, but they are dragged down by the tank engine, because the US military cannot find a suitable high-horsepower tank engine, and finally the G-200 star-type 9-cylinder engine equipped on it is forcibly pulled down from the ranks of aero engines, and the US imperialists cannot find a mature high-power vehicle engine so they hit the idea on the air-cooled aircraft engine head of the Wright Company, and after some modifications, it is stuffed into the tank. Although the power is very large (the maximum power is more than 970 hp), which is more than the 700 hp engine used in the Tiger, its size and weight are far greater than that of the Tiger engine, and the final measured power per unit weight is not as good as the compact 12-cylinder V-type liquid-cooled HL230 engine.

M6 has such a huge size, it is due to this oversized, super fuel-consuming aircraft caused by (large fuel tank will also cause large volume), what is more embarrassing is that although the engine power is very large, but the United States can not find a suitable and stable working gearbox, in order to solve the gearbox problem, several large companies in the United States have participated in this project - Schneider Hydraulics proposed the use of torque converters, General Dynamics submitted a new hydraulic gearbox program, General Electric Company proposed a gas-electric transmission program, the program has better performance but is seriously overweight, which weighs more than 5 tons than other systems, and finally chose the General Dynamics scheme after comprehensive comparison.

Originally scheduled to deliver the hydraulic gearbox in May 1941, but it was not done until August, the anxious Ordnance Committee immediately changed the design to adopt the Schneider scheme, but the test was full of problems, resulting in the tank can not turn or shift, when rotating the turret, the pinion shaft is broken directly resulting in the turret being stuck, in front of many senior officials to lose face, and finally was dragged out of the test site, its experience of ups and downs and embarrassment, far more than the first appearance of the Tiger.

After the Pearl Harbor incident, the United States entered the war, the demand for heavy tanks became more and more urgent, and the T1 tank could only continue to be modified until the middle of 43 years because of the threat of the Tiger tank, and then the 76.2mm tank gun was replaced with a 90mm tank gun, and finally the batch construction began when the performance was relatively stable and balanced in all aspects. But it only meets the minimum standards for deliverable troops, and is completely scum compared to the proven and reliable Sherman tank, which has superior mechanical properties. The officers and men on the front line were very dissatisfied with this, and although the deputy chief of general staff of Devers, who led the troops out this time, said that the 60-ton M6 was not as effective as the two 30-ton M4s, in consideration of the special nature of the island-seizing war, and in addition, the War Department's Ordnance Committee vigorously encouraged the troops to test their performance with new tanks, and the 5th Marine Division still took them out and even arranged six vehicles for the first wave of troop landings.

It is worth mentioning that at the time of landing, this batch of noble tanks (because there is always a failure and need someone to maintain and serve, the US officers and soldiers call the M6 noble tank) did not drop the chain, and the one-time landing was successful, so that Collins was not only eager, his idea was very simple, even if the M6 could not rush to the front to charge, it was good to be a fixed firepower fulcrum on the defensive line. (To be continued.) )