As mentioned in the previous article, the German infantry lacked individual anti-tank training, and in fact, the German infantry did not have any anti-tank weapons in their hands, and the only two grenades could only scratch the patent leather of the tank shell at most.

In the war on the Western Front, in fact, this problem has been exposed, when encountering a target that the 37-millimeter knocking hammer attached to the company and platoon cannot deal with, the German infantry is powerless in the face of the enemy tanks rushing towards them, and at this moment, even the most elite troops will inevitably end up in a hurry.

On the Western Front, the German front collapsed, and German officers and soldiers fled in panic did not happen once or twice. For example, in the Battle of Arras encountered by Xu Jun when he first came to Guidi, the German infantry unit was destroyed by British tanks, and if it were not for the 88-mm anti-aircraft artillery unit to stabilize its position, the fate of the 7th Panzer Division was really difficult to predict.

Xu Jun did not think that the German infantry would be more powerful on the Eastern Front, and the historical "T34 panic" was first spread from the infantry units, in contrast, the German tank troops could at least have a few rounds with the Soviet tanks, but the infantry only had a 37mm knocker in their hands, and they could only let the other side kill when they encountered the Soviet T34.

A steel beast weighing dozens of tons pounced head-on at a speed of thirty or forty miles, and anyone who was mentally sound would feel panicked, especially when you knew that you couldn't hurt the other party at all, and few people could keep a calm mind at this time. Before obtaining effective anti-tank means, the T34 panic of the German infantry even developed into a tank panic, and the infantry would retreat in panic at the sight of a shadow with a turret from afar.

In fact, the German army's top brass had already learned about these problems before the war began in 39, and the German General Staff began to sum up the lessons of defeat after the defeat in World War I.

Normally, now that the problem is recognized, the Germans should consider strengthening the individual anti-tank training of the infantry to make up for this obvious shortcoming in the troops. But what no one expected was that they chose another solution, and the German staff decided to use artillery to take on the anti-tank task, and the priority tactic was to destroy the enemy's tanks with heavy artillery on the starting position. Although the German army did have similar successful examples in World War I, it was obviously too much to take it for granted as a conventional tactic, but the German military top brass at that time stubbornly insisted on their own judgment and wrote it into the German army's tactical manual in detail.

So when the German army declared war on Britain and France, the German army put all the front-line anti-tank tasks on the 11,000 Pak35/36 anti-tank guns equipped, if it were not for the extraordinary performance of the German armored forces and air force, and the British and French armored forces made serious mistakes in the choice of strategy and tactics, the German army may still win in the end, but the loss of infantry units on the Western Front battlefield will be quite ugly.

However, at present, after the German army has fully replaced the Pak40 and Pak41, it has finally reversed some of its disadvantages, at least in terms of positional defense, and the infantry units have the confidence to fight with the armored forces.

The question was how the German infantry would defend themselves against the surprise attack of the enemy after encountering enemy armored forces in the field.

Usually the German infantry company had a specialized anti-tank squad armed with three anti-tank rifles, which were evenly divided between the three platoons below. During the Weimar Republic, the German army was still equipped with the T-type anti-tank gun of the Second Reich, which was the famous Mauser Type 18, which fired a thirteen-millimeter steel core bullet that could penetrate twenty-five millimeters of homogeneous steel armor, which was not very outdated in the thirties, and was enough to penetrate the mainstream tanks equipped by European countries at that time.

Until Hitler came to power, the German army was armed with more than 1,000 of these bulky guns. The anti-tank gun was so bulky that it weighed 17 kilograms, and its range and power were already insufficient, so the Germans developed the expensive PzB38 as a replacement for it.

At that time, the anti-tank rifle was still regarded as an effective anti-tank weapon by the military of various countries, and European countries developed and equipped themselves with a number of anti-tank rifles, the more famous of which was the Z35 produced in Poland (remember the shot that the Führer received in Poland, which was fired with this rifle). ( ̄▽ ̄")), as well as the Finnish L39, the Swiss Surothorn SS-18 and the British Boys anti-tank guns, these anti-tank guns have different technical standards, but they can basically penetrate 12 mm armor at a distance of 100 meters, which is enough to penetrate most of the tanks popular in Europe at that time.

However, in the late thirties, when European countries were developing their own new tanks, they began to pay attention to the defensive capabilities of tanks, and the thickness of their armor was generally enhanced. France and Britain began to develop medium and heavy tanks with heavy frontal armor, with the intention of completely overpowering their supposed enemy's armored vehicles in terms of defense and on-board firepower.

So much so that by the beginning of the forties, only a few weakly armored and light tanks and armored vehicles were left against targets that these anti-tank rifles could deal with, and it was difficult to threaten the main tanks equipped by various countries.

However, Germany was still developing a new anti-tank rifle in 39 because the army felt that the price of the PzB38 was too expensive. Eventually, the PzB39 replaced the PzB38 as the only anti-tank equipment of the German regular infantry company, and this gun could penetrate 30 mm of vertical armor at 100 meters, but after 300 meters, this value was reduced to 20 mm.

In the Polish war, this rifle performed fairly well in the face of the British Vickers equipped by Poland and the 7TP tanks of its own production. But when they arrived at the French battlefield, in front of the pile of iron turtles equipped by the French Army, the German soldiers found that this thing could only be used to make a sound, and it could not penetrate the opponent's armor at all. Paradoxically, after the surrender of France, the German military top brass did not seem to have paid attention to the fact that the performance of this gun had fallen behind, and as a result, the German Army continued to use this useless anti-tank rifle until four or three years.

Xu Jun has decided to remove this weapon from the army, and at the same time develop an anti-materiel rifle on this basis, the caliber is back to the 13 mm of the T-type anti-tank rifle, using two types of ammunition: tungsten core armor-piercing bullets and armor-piercing incendiary rounds. These anti-materiel rifles will be assigned to paratroopers, Panzergrenadiers, Reconnaissance Forces, and Special Forces to snipe at valuable targets from a distance, such as oil depots, ammunition depots, airplanes and light armored vehicles at airfields, and can also be used to snipe at enemy targets if possible.

As for the original anti-tank squads in the regular infantry companies, they will be reorganized into heavy machine gun squads, equipped with two MG40 machine guns, to strengthen the company's defenses.

The Germans are about to embark on full-scale individual anti-tank training, first of all, to familiarize the soldiers with all kinds of armored vehicles, and then they must learn to find the key points and weaknesses of the enemy tanks, learn how to avoid and interfere with the enemy's attacks, learn to set ambush traps on the battlefield, and use the weapons at hand to destroy these steel behemoths. They are also trained in tank pressure, accustomed to the sensation of the tank roaring overhead, until they are able to face the tracks of enemy tanks without fear.

This is not a textbook invented by Xu Jun himself, in history the German army trained a group of combat engineers in the middle of the war, as a professional infantry anti-tank unit, these soldiers are called armored hunters, it sounds familiar, always feel that they are armed with large-caliber pistols, and there is a mining lamp hanging from their waists.

The Germans usually formed these soldiers into a series of three-man anti-tank teams, and then had them use a variety of individual anti-tank weapons to ambush and hunt enemy tanks on the battlefield.

The armoured hunters initially used various types of mines and anti-tank grenades, as well as some field-assembled improvised explosive devices, which was the main reason for choosing engineers, who were more adept at handling explosives than ordinary infantry.

In fact, at that time, the German high-level fully understood that the tide of tanks in the Soviet army could no longer be stopped by relying on one or two special arms, and every front-line soldier on the Eastern Front was actually under the threat of Soviet tanks, so anti-tank should not be the work of a professional unit, but a test that every German soldier had to face, so in this case, the Germans developed an iron fist.

PS: It took some time to check the information, and the update was a little late, thank you for your support.

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