Judging by the technical standards of the mid-to-late 40s, both the 34-ton "heavy infantry" and the 27-ton "Teutonic Knights" have their own defects and weaknesses, and they can no longer adapt to the fierce confrontation of modern warfare. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 However, the armed conflict that broke out in the Palestinian region is far from a modern war: the regular troops of the Arab kingdom and Syria and other Middle Eastern countries are basically equipped to the level of European and American powers before and after World War II, but their technical and tactical awareness and air-ground coordination capabilities are not comparable to the armies of the great powers during World War II, and the weapons and equipment of Arab tribal armed forces and Jewish militia organizations are still in the twenties or even earlier, so in the eyes of many international observers, The armed conflict in Palestine is a fight between a group of indigenous people of the Middle East!

In the town of Hadera, north of Tel Aviv, more than 2,000 Jewish militiamen and nearly a battalion of Irish Foreign Legion soldiers engaged in an unprecedentedly fierce "firefight" with a multi-brigade Syrian army. After the tentative offensive was thwarted, the Syrian army organized a rapid and fierce offensive led by artillery cover and barrage advances, and the focus of the battle was soon focused on the exchange of chariots in the forward positions of the defenders. On the Syrian side, 11 Teutonic Knights, four of which were MK-IIIC guns armed with 60x caliber guns, were prepared by 14 "Conqueror" armoured personnel carriers and a large force of infantry, intent on destroying the Jewish tanks one by one. On the Jewish side, eight "heavy infantry" vehicles, all early models of MK-29A, relied on the defenders' positions to mount a stubborn resistance......

"450 meters ahead...... Enemy medium tanks...... Aim for the frontal ...... Hit the armor-piercing bullet! ”

In the "heavy infantry" chariot numbered I-022, Frederick Anderson, a Dane belonging to the "Viking" battalion of the Irish Foreign Legion, shouted in English with a strong accent. Like the four "heavy infantry" that entered Hadera, the four that advanced to the right flank blocking position had a leader car with two experienced Irish Foreign Regiment instructors - Anderson, who had been in the army for 16 years, was the commander and squad commander, and Russe Christensen, a veteran sergeant from Denmark, was the gunner.

Just as the "Muhammad" battalion was predominantly Turkish, and the "Nikolai" battalion was mostly Russian, the "Viking" battalion was composed mainly of people from the Nordic countries, including Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Scotland, England, and a few Germans, and English was the lingua franca of the battalion. However, Anderson and his partner Christensen joined the Irish Foreign Legion not because the old regime was overthrown or personally***** but half out of personal interest and half out of a living and money, and finally chose the adventurous life of militarized mercenaries, who were also called "real volunteers" by their peers.

The Irish army was a team tactic, so the "heavy infantry" was not equipped with rear-firing machine guns like the heavy tanks of many countries of the same period. In order to maximize protection and increase ammunition reserves, a four-man crew of commander, gunner, loader, and driver was adopted, with the gunner taking care of the forward-facing coaxial machine gun, the loader taking care of the radio equipment, and the commander and driver focusing on combat command and vehicle driving.

Following Anderson's order, Christensen ordered the loader: "Type C armor-piercing bullets!" Reload at full speed! ”

The loader of the chariot, a young Jewish man with a baby face, quickly removed a cap-piercing shell from the ammunition rack, quickly filled it into the chamber, and immediately reported to the gunner in a loud voice: "Type C armor-piercing shell...... Reloaded! ”

Christensen had previously aimed the muzzle at the target's "face", which is the frontal position of the body. As soon as the loader shouted "reloaded", he tightened his eyebrows and fired decisively.

A moment later, the two Danes in the chariot shouted in unison, "Hit the target!" ”

In sight, the "Teutonic Knight" hit by the armor-piercing shell did not explode violently, but the crew members opened the turret hatch and evacuated rather embarrassed, and smoke could be seen coming out of the hatch. In fact, this was the first time that Jewish armored forces had destroyed an enemy vehicle on the battlefield, and it was also one of the few cases in N Palestinian clashes in which a vehicle, one side, had destroyed the other's vehicle head-on.

Every member of the Irish Foreign Legion who came to fight in Palestine had signed a contract with the Zionist organization, and was rewarded for every combat attendance, with a large reward for killing enemy soldiers and even destroying enemy vehicles, but Anderson and Christensen were not thinking about the money they were about to come into, but about how to turn things around in such a disadvantaged battle. Therefore, while having his partner attack the enemy tank at a position of 500 meters in front of the right, Anderson contacted the other three tanks in the squad through the on-board radio: "Attention, everyone, our guns are enough to penetrate the frontal armor of the enemy tanks at a distance of 500 meters, so let go of the fight!" Aim for the frontal hit of the enemy's vehicle! Don't be afraid to retreat, at a distance of 500 meters, the probability that the enemy's tank artillery will penetrate us is only 10%! ”

The "10 percent" mentioned by Anderson is neither a precisely calculated figure nor an estimate based on experience, but a rhetoric used to encourage his peers and stabilize the morale of the military. As far as technical data are concerned, the German-made 60 times diameter 75 mm gun is enough to penetrate the frontal armor of the body of the "heavy infantry" at a distance of 1,000 meters, the front armor of the turret of the "heavy infantry" can be completely exploded at about 600 meters, and the 50 times diameter 75 mm gun is enough to chisel through the so-called indestructible front face of the "heavy infantry" at about 500 meters. Fortunately, the Syrian armored troops only got seventy or eighty percent of the skills of their Turkish counterparts, and the Turkish armored troops only learned seventy or eighty percent from the German instructors of that year, so the ability of the Syrian armored troops to seize opportunities on the battlefield was still far from that of the Germans, and when they hit the Jewish tanks with only their heads and some faces four or five hundred meters away, the hit rate was indeed only about 10 percent......

Thanks to the steady performance of the instructors of the Irish Foreign Regiment, the defending chariot group knocked out three "Teutonic Knights" one after another, and the Syrian armored soldiers saw their companions abandoning the vehicles in a panic through the observation hole, mistakenly thinking that there were enemy soldiers with strong firepower in ambush in front, and hurriedly reported the situation to their superiors through radio and asked for fire support. The commander of the Syrian army in the rear did not know the specific situation at the front, and the artillery position had just been attacked by enemy tanks, so he ordered his tank troops to retreat and stand by. As soon as the chariots withdrew, the infantry that accompanied the attack also retreated, and a huge attack ended hastily.

Seeing that the Syrian army took the initiative to retreat, Anderson did not hesitate to order the armored squad to move their positions. As he expected, within a few minutes, the Syrian shells rained down like hailstones, blowing up the firing positions they had previously been in. The turret and body of the "heavy infantry" tank use inclined armor, so it has a good horizontal protection ability, and the top armor is no different from the traditional tank, once hit by a shell or bomb, it is basically a dead end, even if it is not smashed, it is quite a bad thing to be blown up and the track is damaged on this battlefield.

After moving positions, Anderson's team soon joined forces with the "Patrolmen" team. Although the two "patrols" fought a good sabotage battle, which silenced the Syrian artillery for half an hour, they also stabbed the hornet's nest, provoking the Syrian army to dispatch a team of soldiers and horses to come from the periphery in a roundabout way, and whether this roundabout force was frustrated or not, the Syrian commander might send combat vehicles withdrawn from the frontal battlefield to reinforce this side, and take advantage of the situation to make dumplings for the Jewish defenders of Hadera town.

Seeing from a distance that the enemy detour force was approaching with two medium tanks and a number of armored personnel carriers, Anderson took the initiative to propose to the command to ambush the enemy soldiers on the spot, and in view of the possibility that the enemy troops would increase their combat strength on this side in the future, he asked the command headquarters to send him at least one company of infantry to fight together.

Nominally, the defense of Hadera was jointly carried out by the head of the local militia and a special commissioner sent by the Tel Aviv militia command, but neither had actual combat experience, and the actual operational command was given to Colonel Vayukin, commander of the "Nikolai" battalion of the Irish Foreign Legion, and a five-man staff team led by him. As a fierce general of the White Army of Tsarist Russia, Vayukhin led his troops to fight against the Soviet Russian Red Army many times in the mid-to-early 20s, and won several victories. After joining the Irish Foreign Legion, Vayukin worked hard to study various offensive and defensive tactics and used the opportunity of drills to test them, gradually becoming an expert tactician in this militarized mercenary force.

Just after Anderson reported the enemy situation and made tactical recommendations, Tel Aviv Aero Club planes ventured to Hadera and informed the defenders of what they had observed from the air. Based on the valuable information obtained from aerial reconnaissance, Colonel Vayugin judged that the next move of the Syrian army was likely to be as Anderson feared, and that he would divide his troops to outflank him from the perimeter and cut off the rear route of the defenders of Hadeira. Suffering from repeated artillery fire and ground attacks by the Syrian army, hundreds of Jewish militia guarding the town of Hadera have suffered hundreds of casualties, morale has declined, and the morale of the army has been shaken.

In view of this, Colonel Vayukhin ordered the headquarters of the "Nikolai" battalion, which served as the reserve, to take up the first line, replace the two Russian combat platoons with few casualties, and move to the right flank together with the two militia squadrons in the reserve, so as to provide cover for the Andersen armored squad to block the enemy.

(End of chapter)