In the face of the enraged Montgomery, de Lagan was silent, and the rest of the command was silent, and no one dared to defend Major General Langton. Although the 7th Panzer Division seemed to have lost only a little more than a quarter of its personnel, it was basically finished with all tanks, artillery, and broken up, and the division was basically finished.

"Langton was ordered to be immediately suspended for introspection pending a court-martial's investigation into whether he had miscommanded."

"I'm afraid there won't be a need for this...... De Lagan's voice quickly lowered when he received the latest telegram, and said in a sad tone, "I just received the news that he died, and when he retreated, the armored vehicle in which he was riding was hit by a shell and died on the spot. ”

"This ......" Montgomery didn't expect this to happen, sighed, and said slowly, "In other words, report to the top, Major General Langton was honorably martyred in battle to cover the retreat of his troops, and requests that he be given corresponding bereavement and decorations according to the regulations......"

The news of Langton's death cast a shadow over the entire Eighth Army Command, and the mood of the people was invisibly much lowered, and de Lagan wanted to cheer up the staff team, but he really did not know what to say, so he had to deal with the telegrams sent from all sides in silence, trying to suppress the gloom in his heart with a busy and tense battle.

The Poles and the French were also locked in bitter fighting on their positions near Baldia in the east, and at first the two brigades fought with ease, quickly breaking through the first line of German defense under artillery fire and tank cover. However, when expanding to depth and flanks, they suffered from being beaten by the German crossfire, which was either light or covert, criss-crossed, especially the scorching fire of the MG42 machine gun. The rate of fire of the newly commissioned machine gun ranged from 1,200 rounds per minute to a maximum of 1,500 rounds per minute, and because the rate of fire was so fast, the sound of firing was different from that of Czech or Browning machine guns, and more like the "snort" of a high-speed chainsaw, and before the Poles and French could react to what was going on, one infantry after another had been killed by the sound of tearing linen.

The new machine gun is also one of Hoffmann's new equipment to support the Afrika Army. As an important breakthrough in German firearms production technology, the MG42 transformed the previous metal-intensive and time-consuming production process with a cutting process into an extremely simple metal stamping manufacturing process, which looked like a patchwork of iron pieces and a pipe of iron. In fact, the structure was very compact, which was very conducive to production, and Hoffmann not only accelerated the finalization and production of the MG42, but also gave priority to sending this machine gun to Guderian's Afrika Army and Manstein's Army Group South. The new weapon is also beginning to be widely equipped on new armored vehicles.

It is said that in real history, when the MG42 was just born and equipped with the German army. Allied spies generally regarded it as a crude weapon, believing that Germany was no longer good - not only was there an extreme shortage of raw materials, and even the machine gun, which was the core of the tactics, could not guarantee the manufacturing process, but the British and American gunsmiths were shocked when they learned of the situation, because only when the technology was mature could the stamping process be used, and Germany was far ahead in the field of machine gun manufacturing. In real combat, recruits are afraid of artillery, and veterans are afraid of machine guns. I don't know how many veterans died at the hands of MG42, and now the French and Poles are new victims.

When the bunker lifts the camouflaged, black hole of the muzzle to reveal the firing hole. The nightmare of the Poles and the French came, the flank fire that burst out from all directions instantly knocked these advancing infantry to the ground, under the effect of the MG42's ultra-high rate of fire, a slight pull of the trigger is more than a dozen bullets fired, as long as the vital parts are hit, there is no reason to survive, and several tanks and armored vehicles that tried to break through the cover were blown up because of anti-tank mines, and the battlefield situation suddenly fell into a state of dogs' teeth. The British artillery that cooperated with the infantry attack did not dare to open fire indiscriminately, and now that the forces of the two sides were intertwined, any shell could cause accidental injury, and they could only cut off the reinforcements of the German follow-up troops from a distance, but they had no way to deal with the German infantry who had been elusive in the trenches, and could only count on their own infantry to clear their positions.

Sergeant Rudolph is now a member of the fierce fight in the trenches, as a senior squad leader of the Panzergrenadier, he was an excellent anti-tank shooter, and he can accurately shoot the important parts of the tank with an anti-tank gun at a distance of 200 meters, but as the tank armor becomes thicker and thicker, not to mention the anti-tank gun is useless, even the 37mm anti-tank gun has been reduced to a stepping stone and forced to retire, and the infantry anti-tank weapons are even more pitiful, this situation changed more than a month ago. He was given the opportunity to try out new individual anti-tank weapons.

The commander gave him a bunch of oddly shaped weapons and told him that they were all called Iron Fists, and that the difference was No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3. After testing the three weapons separately, he had a unique opinion: Iron Fist 1 is obviously a very light and easy-to-carry thing, and it is not difficult to master, but the action distance is too close, and the distance of 40-50 meters is basically impossible to retreat after launching, unless there is street fighting; No. 2 has the best distance, accuracy and power, but unfortunately it requires the cooperation of 2 people, and the target and volume are large, which is very easy to expose; Only No. 3 was a good thing, and after trying it a few times, he fell in love with it - a single-man, tripod-mounted launcher ensured direction and accuracy, the distance was farther than No. 1, and it could form a lore against armored targets at 80-100 meters, which could be called the best killer of individual anti-tanks, and in the end he resolutely chose No. 3.

Before today's battle, he was told by his commander that the tanks would basically not be dispatched, and that the 88 guns would be mostly hidden, and that if the enemy did not have too many tanks, all anti-tank tasks would need to be carried out by infantry, and he did not feel afraid, but thought that his chance to show his skills had come.

Now, he nimbly weaves his way through the dense trenches with the Iron Fist No. 3 launcher in his hand, and in addition to the one armor-piercing grenade on the launcher, he also carries four additional refill rounds in his body, and he tries to find a suitable ambush spot - the tank is not stupid to stay in the trench, so that it will have to be beaten into a sieve by the enemy infantry accompanying the operation. He carefully selected an abandoned trench, stripped open the corpses of the Poles and lurked underneath, carefully observed the surroundings and set up the launcher, while also cleverly clearing the rear barrier to prevent the tail fire from rolling back and threatening him. A few minutes later, a Churchill tank drove more than 50 meters to his left, stopping from time to time to suppress the German fire in front with machine guns and artillery, not expecting the danger hidden in this already calm trench.

That's it! He aimed at the iron turtle that was staggering and pausing from time to time, suppressed the excitement of the "bang" jump, quietly pulled the trigger, and the ****** under the electric shock was quickly ignited, pushing the Iron Fist No. 3 to fly forward away from the launch canister, and opened the stabilizing fin in a few moments, and hit the side of Churchill while spinning, and after more than half a second, the "boom" exploded on the surface of the armor, and the metal flow formed by the cavity effect quickly penetrated the side armor, He didn't have time to observe the results before he dodged into a crater more than 5 meters away with a clever roll on his side, and then the enemy strafed the position he had been in.

In a fierce battle that lasted more than two hours, he single-handedly destroyed two Churchills and one General Grant - this impressive feat earned him an Iron Cross of the First Class and a tank destruction armband.

"It was reported from the front that the Polish and French brigades were in a fierce exchange of fire with the enemy, the battle lines were staggered, our army front advanced about 2,500 yards as a whole, and the troops suffered heavy losses, more than 20 tanks, more than 40 armored vehicles, and more than 1,500 infantry casualties......"

"So much to lose? How many tanks did the Germans use? ”

"Not one."

"Not one?" Montgomery paused for a moment, "It's all anti-tank artillery?" How many 88 guns are there? Is the position locked? ”

"A rough estimate is that there may be 8 gates, and it is difficult to judge the position of the position, so you can only lock on the approximate position......" De Lagan paused, his brow furrowed tightly, "The French also reported that the Germans used a new weapon, the infantry individual anti-tank weapon, which was very lethal to armored targets. ”

"Anti-tank guns? Anti-tank grenades? Recoilless guns? Or something else? Montgomery was clearly not happy," said the report, making it clear why. ”

"The French say they don't know what, it's certainly not an anti-tank gun or a grenade, it's probably close to a new type of artillery, but one person can operate it -- or, call it an anti-tank rocket?" De Lagan smiled wryly and handed the telegram to Montgomery, who looked at it carefully and couldn't figure out what it was.

First heavy tanks, then new machine guns, and now unknown but powerful infantry anti-tank weapons - God knows how many good things the Germans hid, and what made Montgomery even more upset was that the Germans did not send out tanks, and the 88 guns were found very few, which meant that the Germans had hidden a huge strength, and if they rashly let the 1st Panzer Division attack, they would probably crash headlong into the pegboard, looking at the sky as late as it was late, he thought for a while and then told De Lagando, "Let the French and Poles withdraw, Tomorrow let the air force launch air strikes on German positions, and try to clear the way for the ground forces first. ”

Night fell quietly, and the fighting on the eastern and western fronts gradually entered a period of calm, but the troops attacking to the south began to move...... (To be continued.) )