Chapter 38: Life and Death
"Boom!" The grenade made a loud noise outside.
A grenade can't blow up a tank, of course, but a grenade can kill or injure the British infantry that follows the tank...... This is also Qin Chuan's purpose.
Almost at the same time as the explosion, Qin Chuan jumped off the table and jumped to the window and raised his gun...... At this time, the tank had already opened the window, so it completely exposed the infantry following behind it in front of Qin Chuan.
And these infantrymen were dizzy by Qin Chuan's grenade just now, and they either lay on the ground or had no ability to fight back.
"Bang!" With a bang, Qin Chuan pulled the trigger.
Qin Chuan didn't take aim, the distance between the enemy and us was only a few meters away, and the gray and black dust on the faces of the British soldiers could even be seen clearly.
It was almost impossible to miss at this distance, and the bullet hit a British soldier without incident, and the inertia of the bullet carried his body backwards, as if a rope was dragging him behind him, and then he slowly fell.
Qin Chuan saw unwilling remorse in the eyes of this British soldier...... He held a Mills grenade in his hand and told Qin Chuan the answer, as long as Qin Chuan was a few seconds late, he would pull open the safety pin of the grenade and throw it through the window.
Obviously, if he succeeds, then it will be Qin Chuan who will die.
But there is never an ifs on the battlefield, a few seconds late is the difference between life and death.
"Bang!" Qin Chuan didn't dare to think about it, pulled the bolt as fast as he could, and then pulled the trigger again to knock down a British soldier.
At this time, Qin Chuan was a little nervous, because he noticed that there were seven or eight British soldiers behind the tank, and they had already recovered from the explosion of the grenade and noticed the window where Qin Chuan was.
Qin Chuan knew what this meant: he only had a K98K in his hand, but the British army had a much faster "Enfield" rifle in his hand, and even Qin Chuan found that a British soldier was holding a "Thomson" submachine gun in his hand.
(Note: The British army lost a large amount of equipment in the Dunkerke retreat, and the Stern submachine gun that it urgently developed was not yet installed in large quantities at this time, and most of the submachine guns equipped in the early days of the North African war were "Thomson" submachine guns provided by the United States.) )
Needless to say, what will happen next, the British army will block the window of Qinchuan with firepower, and then throw a few grenades in...... Qin Chuan's life came to an end.
"Bang!" Qin Chuan gritted his teeth and fired another bullet.
The bullet hit a British rifleman and then a submachine gunner behind him.
Before, Qin Chuan had heard that the secondary injury was more serious than the primary injury, and Qin Chuan had been skeptical about it until he saw the British submachine gunner in the rear being knocked to the ground on the chest as if he had been hit hard, and he was killed on the spot.
This is probably because the bullet is no longer enough to penetrate the second person, so all the kinetic energy is released in the body. But before and after death, what is the difference between which way of death?
However, at this time, Qin Chuan had no time to load and shoot...... The disadvantage of the pull-bolt rifle is that the rate of fire is too slow. At this time, several British soldiers had already raised their guns towards Qin Chuan, and Qin Chuan didn't even have time to dodge...... For the first time, Qin Chuan felt that death was so close to him, and he seemed to see a bullet shoot out of the chamber of the gun and then make a bloody hole in his head.
At this moment, with the sound of a "da-da-da" gunshot, the British soldiers all fell down screaming.
It was Werner and Keller, who leaned out from the other side of the street and knocked the British to the ground with MP40s.
Qin Chuan was stunned for a few seconds, and then realized that the battle was not over, so he raised his gun again and aimed at the British soldiers in other directions and pulled the trigger.
At the same time as bullets were fired from the chamber of the gun, Qin Chuan found that he didn't know when a cold sweat had broken out on his back.
The British infantry was successfully blocked on the other side of the street by Qin Chuan and others, but the tanks still didn't know anything and kept moving forward...... The tank's external perception is very poor, especially during the battle, the commander does not dare to open the turret and poke his head out, so he can only hide inside and use the periscope to observe, and their attention is almost entirely focused on the front, and what happens behind the scenes can only be handed over to the infantry or God.
So, a German soldier emerged from the building with an anti-tank grenade in his hand...... It was a PWM bumper anti-tank grenade, similar in appearance to a common flask in chemistry class, with a long mouth, a semicircular hood on its head to ensure accurate throwing direction, and an umbrella-shaped stabilizing tail on the handle to further ensure stability during flight.
The German soldier slammed an anti-tank grenade at the tank...... The anti-tank grenade spread its tail in the air, like a small umbrella, and then slammed into the rear of the tank with its steady head forward.
"Boom", after a violent explosion, the tank caught fire.
Matilda uses a petrol engine, which can easily ignite. Soon, the ammunition in the tank exploded, and after a bang, the entire turret was thrown into the air and fell to the ground, and the tank crew must have died, and the figure was nowhere to be seen.
The German soldiers couldn't help but let out a cheer.
However, before they could breathe a sigh of relief, there was another "rumbling" of motors from the other side of the street.
The soldiers can't help but look at me and I look at you, they don't understand how there are so many British tanks in this inconspicuous town, and if the British army has so many tanks, why should they be deployed in a city that is not suitable for tank combat?!
At the same time, the German soldiers were glad that otherwise, these tanks would have been lined up outside the city and supplemented by infantry fire...... In the absence of the 88 anti-aircraft gun, it is not known how much it will cost to take it.
Now it's another matter, because it is well known that tanks are not suitable for street fighting.
This is due to the fact that the buildings in the city can obstruct the tank's line of sight, preventing it from taking advantage of its long-range firepower, and it is also inconvenient to maneuver. On the other hand, it is because the infantry can approach the tank from all directions and destroy it with the help of the cover of the building.
As a result, one British tank after another was blown up by the Germans.
The British soon found that they could not achieve victory, so they chose to surrender.
To the surprise of the Germans, it was found that there were a total of 38 "Matilda" tanks in Tengeten, of which 20 were blown up by the Germans during the battle, and the other 18 all fell into the hands of the Germans, and they were well preserved.
In fact, the British army had the option of blowing up the tanks and surrendering them, but the British did not do so, because they feared that the Germans would retaliate for killing them all.
But it turned out that even this could not save their lives.