Chapter 47: Picking up the rags

On the two small turrets of the "T-35" tank, one 45-mm tank gun (with a total ammunition base of 200 rounds) and one 7.62-mm machine gun were mounted on each of the two machine gun towers, and one 7.62-mm machine gun was mounted on each of the two machine gun towers. The ammunition base of the 7.62 mm machine gun cartridge was 10080 rounds. With 3 guns and 5 machine guns, it was a "land battleship" with superior firepower at that time. At the time of the debut of the "T-35" tank at the military parade on Red Square in Moscow, the USSR proved to the world its ability to create the most complex and heavy tanks. For a time, the "T-35" tank became the pride of the Soviet military industry. Germany, France, Britain and other military powers highly regarded it as the standard for multi-turret tanks, and they have followed suit.

After the "T-35" tank was equipped with troops, its extremely poor mobility and flexibility were largely revealed. For example, the commander of a "T-35" tank made the following report: "The tank can only pass a 17° slope. It can't even cross a large puddle. "Although the "T-35" tank has strong firepower, its weaknesses in poor mobility and poor protection are also very prominent." The shortcomings of the T-35 tank were so obvious that the Soviet side seemed to be aware of this, and only used the "T-35" tank as a demonstration of the strong production capacity of the red Soviet tank. The production of the "T-35" tank, including modifications, was only 61 units. On June 27, 40, a meeting was held in Moscow, where the Soviets discussed the issue of armored vehicles in tank units. During the controversy, a question arose about the tank "T-35". Some officials believe that all "T-35" tanks should be converted into heavy self-propelled guns, others want to transfer all "T-35" tanks to military academies. Interestingly, almost no one mentions using them as front-line battle tanks. However, due to the rapid reorganization of the tank forces of the Soviet army, and the formation of new mechanized corps, "these tanks should be used at the front," this decision was carried out. As a result, all the "T-35" tanks were incorporated into the 8th and 64th tank regiments of the 34th Tank Army of the Soviet Army.

After the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, the "T-35" tank participated in the operation against the German army as special equipment, and its huge size really frightened the German army as soon as it appeared on the battlefield. However, the "T-35" tank was really a good thing, because its design was seriously out of touch with the reality of the battlefield, and its size was too large and the armor was too weak (the frontal armor was only 35 mm thick), and it was easily penetrated by German tanks. Most of the 48 "T-35" tanks of the 8th Front were lost in the first month of fighting, 7 were damaged, and the rest were abandoned due to mechanical problems that did not have time to be repaired, after which the "T-35" tanks disappeared, which also marked the end of the era of multi-turret tanks.

But now that Sun Hui saw this abandoned "T-35" tank, he felt that it was a pity, and he had the idea of repairing it and allowing it to rejoin the battle.

At about 12 noon, the tank platoon withdrew from the town. "Hammer" went along the abandoned convoy of Soviet troops, and "Scythe" and "Mother Fatherland" followed it. They passed several blocks and squares, however, did not find any German targets. Suddenly, the "hammer" in front began to shoot with its 76.2-mm gun. The "Scythe" moved to the left, but due to the smoke after the cannon fired, Commander Yurkin could not see what was really going on in front of him. "Hammer" continued to move forward after firing, and after firing a few shots, headed towards the center of the town.

"Scythe" is about 100 meters behind it. Suddenly, Sergeant Ansakov spotted the target: a long line of German armored vehicles and light tanks parked on both sides of the road. "Hammer" turned to an adjoining road 150 meters in front of the "Scythe". After the "hammer" fired, on the church square at the end of the road, several German armored vehicles had already begun to catch fire. The "Scythe" began to take out the German armored vehicles parked on the side of the road one by one. The "Scythe" made two round trips along the road east of town, firing at every German tank it saw.

The "Scythe" later lost sight of the tank "Hammer" and the "Fatherland Mother" of the commander Captain Ivar, who believed that the stone bridge over the river crossing the area was dangerous and that the Germans might have deployed heavy defenses here. But in reality, the Germans had only two 37-mm anti-tank guns defending here. Their shots at Soviet tanks were completely ineffective and were quickly destroyed by the artillery of the "T-34" tanks.

Sun Hui saw that there were about 200 German tanks and armored vehicles in this town. Yurkin's tank destroyed two 37-mm anti-tank guns and a large number of armored vehicles. During the engagement, the Germans, with the exception of the anti-tank gunners, almost all of the other German soldiers took refuge in buildings on both sides of the road. The German anti-tank guns were completely ineffective against the "T-34" tank; And the guns of the "Scythe" tank, without the use of armor-piercing shells (because there were none), easily destroyed the German half-tracks and turned them into clumps of flames. Then the "Fatherland Mother" also joined the battle, and after achieving significant results, Sergeant Yurkin ordered the tanks to withdraw from the battlefield and hand over the remaining German tanks to the "Fatherland Mother". During this attack, at least 100 German tanks and vehicles were destroyed. During the battle, the "Scythe" fired a total of 68 76.2-mm shells and 450 machine-gun rounds, and the "Fatherland" fired 42 76.2-mm shells and 320 machine-gun rounds.

At 12:25, 20 minutes after the attack, the "Scythe" advanced along the main road. During the advance, Yurkin's tanks also freed 23 Soviet prisoners of war. Soon the "Scythe" joined up with the "Hammer" and "Mother Fatherland", as well as several other scattered Soviet "BT-7" fast tanks. At this time, they learned that the Germans had ambushed and routed a Soviet tank force here, but just when they thought they had won and let their guard down, the 117th Tank Platoon arrived, and two "T-34" tanks and one "KV-1" tank easily turned the tide of battle.

After the battle, Sun Hui asked Ye Chuchu to propose to the commander Captain Ivar that the basically intact "T-35" tank be recovered, although he didn't understand what Sun Hui was going to do, but Ye Chuchu still did as Sun Hui requested, and the commander agreed, but thought that there was no way to drag the tank back now, and he could arrange for someone to come back after returning to the fortress.