When it got dark, finally, the roar of the engine broke the silence.

During these hours, the fighters of the armored division, busy in the rear, carried out routine maintenance of the tank, adjusted the tracks, cleaned the chambers, and when all this was done, they carried out some additional projects.

For example, the gaps in the tank were plugged, the barrel mouth was tightly plugged, and the rain cloth was wrapped, and at the same time, the valuable infrared night vision device on the turret was removed, wrapped tightly in the rain cloth, and placed in the body of the vehicle.

Now, they are only waiting for one thing.

In the armored division, the number of trucks was several thousand to supply the armored division's offensive needs, and this time, the convoy transported not ordinary fuel and ammunition, but some special large pipes.

"Quick, get to work!" The commander of the 5th Panzer Regiment, the main force of the Viking Division, Modlin, shouted loudly to his men.

The large pipe on the top of the truck, which was more than one meter thick and more than five meters long, was carried by several people and slowly came to the side of the tank.

In the field, there are only a few cranes, and in order to quickly assemble these large pipes, they have to be manually deployed.

At the top of the tube, there are four holes, put four wires into it, and then pull it, you can put the tube upright.

"Slow down, slow down!" The commander of each tank was in command, watching the erected tube, slowly lifting up the turret of the tank, and then, in the reserved position at the top of the cockpit canopy above the turret, accurately matched.

Underneath the tube, there was a rubber spacer, and on top of it was a ring of screws, and now, everyone was quickly turning the screws, and with the constant crunching sound, the tube had been installed in place.

Then, the four wires at the top were fixed to the four corners of the tank hull, and the tube could finally be securely fixed!

At this time, the tanks looked very strange, and the thick pipes turned the tank queue into a forest of thick pipes.

"Our scouts have already carried out reconnaissance along the river bank, and at a position five kilometers downstream, the river is open, the water depth is no more than five meters, and the current speed is not urgent, and our tank units can completely pass through." The division commander Felix came to the 5th Panzer Regiment and said to the regiment commander Modrin: "At nine o'clock in the evening, our tank units rushed over and opened up a riverbank position so that our wheeled infantry fighting vehicles in the rear could cross the river, and then, this night, we will defeat the Soviet troops on the opposite side!" ”

"Yes, division commander, please rest assured, we will not be afraid of this little river, nothing can stop us from moving forward." "Although we are not Germans, our will to fight is no worse than that of any army. ”

Felix nodded, the expression on his face was extremely solemn: "The Empire will not forget any of the warriors who fought bravely for the Empire. ”

They were going to cross the river, and although they had been trained in a similar way before, they were still in great danger now, and even when danger arose, they had no time to escape.

However, no one will be afraid!

One by one, the tanks started with a bang, and under the guidance of the scout's motorcycle in front, they headed downstream, ten kilometers of road, and walked for twenty minutes, and then they saw a wide and calm river.

"Be careful, in the event of danger, immediately start an escape operation, at this time there is no shame in discarding our tanks." After giving this order on the radio, Mordrin began to climb up from the inside of the turret.

The tube was mounted on the top of the hatch above the commander's head, so when they entered the tank, they got into the turret from the hatch on the other side, and now, the commander of each tank opened the hatch on top of himself and began to climb up.

The inside of this huge tube was large enough for a man to pass through, and when it climbed to it, Modlin left the upper half of his body exposed, and then shouted loudly downward, "Forward, into the water!" ”

At this time, the driver in front checked the hatch cover above his head again, it was well sealed, and inside the tank, a dim small light was on, the driver stepped on the accelerator, hung up the first gear, and the tank was slowly moving towards the water.

Can tanks cross the river? The answer is yes, and the current device, which is said to have been developed at the suggestion of Führer Cirek, refers to the principle of the snorkel of the submarine, through this thick tube, to allow the tank to obtain fresh air.

However, after all, a tank is different from a submarine, for example, a tank does not float, it can only move at the bottom of the river.

This requires the bottom of the river to be very strong, and if it comes into a soft place, once the tank gets into it, it will be completely stopped. At this time, the personnel on the tank were left to survive on their own.

At the same time, the depth of the river should not exceed the height of the snorkel, otherwise the snorkel will be flooded by the water, and the people inside will not end well.

Of course, there is another point, which is the tightness of the tank.

The tank is a land combat weapon, and there is no sealing at all, even in later generations, in order to pass through the nuclear, biological and chemical battlefield area, the overpressure method was adopted, and the tank was still not completely sealed.

In this era, tanks are even worse, for example, the driver of the tank, when observing the front inside the tank, is carried out through a slit in the front, if it encounters the most unlucky time, the machine gun bullets fired by the opponent, through the slit intact, may kill the driver behind.

And now, all the gaps around the tank have been blocked, and they use some devices at hand to seal them, and even drip wax on them, even so, when the tank hull enters the water, there are still many gaps, slowly penetrating the water.

It is impossible to completely seal.

The driver is still driving the tank cautiously, and now, the entire tank has completely submerged in the water, and he can't see anything, but he can still feel that if he suddenly hears the engine behind him starting to struggle, and even the risk of stalling, it means that the situation below is complicated, and the car is trapped, and he must quickly adjust the direction or something to dodge.

The rest of the people inside the tank were carefully observing, looking at the gaps around them, if there was a sudden increase in the water in the gaps, or even flowing in, then they had to use everything at hand to quickly block it!

At the top of the snorkel, Mordlin was responsible for directing the whole car, it was already more than nine o'clock in the evening, the stars above his head were good, and at the same time, he was holding an MP40 with a single soldier night vision device in his hand, with the help of the night vision device, he looked at the river in front of him.

Soon, the surrounding river flooded the snorkel to a height of less than a meter, and the whole tank was like a turtle submerged in the river, leaving only Modlin, as if he were sitting on a bathtub on the river.

Onward, Vikings!