In the face of the sudden appearance of the enemy, the gunner did not aim, and directly fired the first 88mm shell by feeling, and in a blink of an eye, the first KV-3 was beaten to the ground, and the other one did not seem to react, only quietly pointed at the place where the Tiger had just stayed with the muzzle, and did not rotate with the rotation of the Tiger turret, seizing this critical opportunity, the 88 gun "clang" was two consecutive guns, and the second KV-3 was also successfully reimbursed, and even the tank crews failed to escape. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Just as Karius was looking for other possible tanks, his comrades behind him also opened fire: behind the two tanks they found more enemy tanks, as many as five, they were alarmed by Karius's firing behavior, desperately rotated the turret to try to attack, the remaining three Tigers in the second row killed three more, but the fourth and fifth KV-3 found an opportunity to attack, the two sides were less than 500 meters away from each other, and they all aimed at car No. 3 - The silhouette of this tiger is most visible.

With a "boom", car No. 3 was hit by an 85mm shell from the KV-3 and penetrated, and the first battle damage appeared in the second row. Karius didn't have time to get sad and quickly opened fire on the newly emerging enemy tanks, and under the concerted efforts of the rest of his comrades in the second platoon, all 5 KV-3s were finally destroyed. Karius ordered the driver to speed forward, and then asked the other two tanks on the radio to follow quickly, because he found that after the exchange of fire here, the enemy tanks in the depression were also alarmed, and they were driving out of the depression, and the enemy infantry in front of him began to pour out in large numbers, and he was afraid that he would be attacked from both sides - in a narrow area, tanks could not take advantage of the infantry.

Only car No. 2 followed him, and car No. 4 shouted anxiously on the radio: "Car No. 3 is blocking the road, I can't get around, I have to change the way." ”

"U-turn! Turn! Karius shouted hoarsely, "Immediately get out and attack with the other tanks on the other side." ”

"Yes!"

This was Bubnov's elaborate layout: let some tanks hide in a depression to attract the attention of the Germans, and then ambush the rest of the troops on the flanks of the German army's inevitable path. If a German tank in a hurry wants to attack a tank in a depression, it must go through the side path, and then expose its silhouette in front of the Red Army tank in ambush if you are not careful. It's just that he never expected that just after he finished deploying and before he had time to explain the relevant combat coordination matters, Karius came to the door with a Tiger tank in a menacing manner, and was caught off guard, and the Red Army tank that was not in place in ambush only destroyed one Tiger, but he was destroyed 7 vehicles.

Now that Karius had only 2 Tigers around him, but was faced with 6 KV-3s pouring out of the depression at the same time, he estimated the distance to the infantry and decided to take the risk of firing at the tanks: he was 1,500 meters away from the Russian tanks, and he was not worried about what the opponent's artillery could do with him, the only thing to worry about was the infantry less than 800 meters in front of him - he was afraid that the Red Army would suddenly launch anti-tank guns.

The six KV-3s in the depression roared as fast as they could, and they knew that they couldn't help the Tiger tanks at this distance, and tried their best to close the distance to meet the enemy. In order to ensure the hit and destruction, the loader used special armor-piercing shells for the first shell, but unfortunately it was high, and it swept high above the head of the last KV-3, and the gunner lowered the firing angle, but the second shell missed again.

Three successive firing failed to hit the maneuvering enemy tanks, and the opposite side began to return fire, although not a single shell hit the own side, it was still inevitably impetuous.

"Don't worry! Hold your horses! Aim and hit again, they can't hit us. Karius comforted the crowd and tried to calm them down as quickly as possible.

By the 4th shot, the gunners finally found their senses and accurately hit the opponent, at a distance of less than 1200 meters, the special armor-piercing shells penetrated the frontal armor of the KV-3 at once, Karius observed it clearly, and the enemy tankmen left the damaged tanks and ran away. Car No. 2 then also made a hit, destroying another column of tanks at the head.

The remaining Russian tanks hesitated, but only for a moment's time, and they pounced again on Karius's position - this time they learned to do so, and instead of forming two columns, they went around the wreckage of their comrades' tanks and attacked in a horizontal formation, trying to suppress the Tiger in front of them with crossfire.

Karius was so busy that he was keeping an eye on the movements of the enemy tanks on the left and the infantry on the front. The gunner aimed at the KV-3 on the far left and closest to the car, and before he could fire, an 85mm shell suddenly hit the left side of the turret. The gunner quickly launched a counterattack, this time directly hitting the opponent, and the No. 2 car following behind opened fire on the second KV-3 on the left, and after wasting 4 shells, it also succeeded in destroying the opponent.

The battlefield situation was 6vs2 at the beginning, 4vs2 after the first round, and now it has become 2vs2, and the remaining Red Army tanks can't help but retreat and begin to slowly retreat, at this moment, Karius decisively ordered: "Retreat, retreat!" Face the enemy head-on! ”

The driver hurriedly put the gearbox into reverse gear, and the 48-ton Tiger tank's tracks reversed, "rumbling" backwards, and the turret rotated back to the center in sync. Of course, it was not that Karius was frightened by the enemy's remaining two tanks, but that he found out with his eyes that the enemy infantry had launched two 76.2mm anti-tank guns and was about to open fire on himself, and every additional second of delay would be fatal, because the distance was too close. Seeing car number one retreat, car number two instinctively followed back - his vision was blocked by car number one in front of him, and he did not know what was happening in front of him.

Half a minute back, the anti-tank guns fired at Karius's No. 1 car, and a shell made a shallow hole in the tiger's thick pig-head shield, and thanks to the heavy defense of nickel-containing armor steel, it finally survived the severe test without danger. Retreating to a distance of 1,100 meters, the Tiger was able to launch a counterattack with relative calmness, and the gunner fired 9 shells in just 2 minutes, successfully eliminating the anti-tank gun fire in front of him. However, when Karius tried to move forward to find the enemy tanks, he found that the two remaining tanks in the depression had slipped away.

The battle lasted only about ten minutes, but it was quite thrilling, and the second platoon of Karius's side destroyed 11 KV-3 at the cost of 1 tank, and by the way, 2 anti-tank guns.

Although the enemy tanks had retreated, the enemy infantry was still there, and it was not a tiger's strong point to deal with them, so he immediately beckoned the cricket self-propelled guns over the radio, otherwise it would be a trouble for so many infantry to pounce on them. But what he didn't expect was that just when he and the No. 2 car attracted most of the attention of the Red Army Guards Tank Brigade in front of him, the No. 4 car, which had initially retreated, together with the other 10 Tigers of the battalion, launched a fierce attack from the other direction, and in one fell swoop, the six KV-3 tanks on the other side were eliminated, and the Red Army who was hastily facing the battle was all destroyed after damaging one Tiger.

The lieutenant of the Hunter Tank Destroyer Company had a good estimate of the remaining strength of the 11th Guards Heavy Tank Brigade, and after a fierce battle last night, there were still 22 KV-3s left in the entire Guards Tank Brigade, and in addition to the 19 encountered by Karius and others, there were still two tanks that could not be used due to mechanical problems and Bubnov's own command vehicle. In the end, the 11th Guards Heavy Tank Brigade, which originally had a strength of 60 vehicles, was left with only three intact tanks - one was Bubnov's command vehicle, and the other two were KV-3s that had just escaped from the depression.

But now, not only were the tanks of the 506th Heavy Armored Battalion surrounded, but there was also a ring of pursuers, cricket self-propelled guns, and Himmler organs around them, and the 508th Heavy Armored Battalion was also speeding forward a little farther away. Half an hour later, Major Verin, who was in charge of the field command, coordinated all the troops to launch a fierce attack on the Red Army that refused to surrender, and a bunch of Tiger tanks, tank destroyers, and artillery surrounded the Red Army infantry with only light firepower, and blew them up to the point of a wolf. Bubnov did not wait for the fuel he needed, but lost the entire tank brigade here.

By 18 March, the 130,000-strong Red Army was defeated and retreated to Baku, and the rest of the troops were annihilated after being divided and surrounded near Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan.

Now the Middle Eastern Army Group and the Turkish units began to attack in the direction of Baku, and as long as this last Red Army stronghold was taken, there would be no more formed Red Army units in Transcaucasia.

The Axis forces besieging Baku included 110,000 Germans, 20,000 Iranians, and 100,000 Turks, with 400 tanks and 500 aircraft, and the Red Army holding out in Baku was left with only 60,000 demoralized, incomplete, and disorganized troops, less than 50 tanks, and almost no aircraft. What made them even more desperate was that they received a message from the General Staff in Moscow and Stalin "Hold on to the last man!" No support or supplies were obtained, the Caspian Sea was empty, and there was not a single ship on it.

Their only commendable move was to blow up Baku, the most famous oil city in the Soviet Union, to the ground, but this did not stop the Axis from marching in, and the fall of Baku was imminent. (To be continued.) )