.“ Yes! Kill another one! ”

Oakman flailed his fist excitedly, accidentally slamming into the hard steel plate, but he didn't care about that, waiting for the loader to fill the next armor-piercing shell into the chamber while looking for the next target. Although this chaotic scene made it very difficult to confirm the record, two or more tanks or assault guns could fire at the same target at close proximity to each other, or accidentally hit someone else's target, so that Oakman was able to confirm only three of them, and the other three were still to be determined.

"Sergeant, there are only 5 armor-piercing shells left!" The loader wiped his sweat and "shouted" at Oakman next to him, the diesel engine was so loud that even the two people sitting side by side could have a hard time communicating, and even if they were using the in-car communicator, "shouting" was inevitable.

"What? 5 rounds? Oakman happened to put a black object in the distance in the scope, because it was night, the distance can only be guessed by experience, and when the disarmed shell fell on the ground and exploded, Oakman was frustrated to find that the positioning was a little closer, the yellow-green Russian tank only appeared at the moment when the explosion fire jumped, and then disappeared into the darkness again. At the beginning, the distance between the tanks of the two sides was only 5 or 600 meters, and the fire of each other was relatively accurate, but after the tanks at close distance were killed, the two sides were able to carry out very shell-consuming mobile stations at medium and long distances. German tanks and assault guns fired at short stops, while Russian tankers used the same method of fire - without a stable fire control system, even if they were moving slowly, they would only waste shells.

"4 rounds!" The loader panted and filled the next shell into the chamber, because he did not expect to encounter the Russian tank unit here, the 42 shells carried by the assault gun belonging to the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Regiment of the Rapid Armored Brigade were 18 armor-piercing shells, 18 grenades and 6 smoke grenades, it is clear that the armor of the Russian tank is not something that ordinary grenades and smoke grenades can deal with.

"Damn! There are still a lot of Russian tanks! Oakman said as he raised the muzzle elevation angle slightly, and the assault gun shook violently, and the penultimate armor-piercing shot ejected, this time accurately hitting the Russian tank, which was about 25 meters high. When a ball of fire rises, its small turret is gone, leaving only a still burning hull.

Although the 43-fold diameter 75-mm gun mounted on an 18-ton assault gun gives the impression of "too long a nose", the power of this gun against tanks is obvious. After another armor-piercing round was fed into the chamber, the loader reluctantly reported:

"3 shots!"

In the opposing Russian camp, most tankers don't need to worry about their ammunition - on the "86A" tank equipped with 57mm guns, armor-piercing shells, grenades and smoke grenades have a reserve of 60, 50 and 10 rounds, while the B model with 75mm guns also has a total of 90 rounds of ammunition. At a certain weight, the armor of both tanks was correspondingly weakened. Under the Japanese peculiar approach, the Japanese "Support Army" even added an additional loader to the tanks, making them much faster than the German Tank IV.

However, on this battlefield, the rate of fire of Russian tanks did not play a decisive role, and the shells that rained down rarely hit German tanks and assault guns accurately, but also damaged the tracks of many German tanks, and seriously threatened those German half-track armored vehicles with only thin armor protection, the final result of this battle was that both sides failed to outflank the opponent's attempts to outflank them, and the Russian army, which had an advantage in the number of tanks, suffered heavy losses under the combined attack of German tanks, assault guns and infantry. The Germans also lost a lot of vehicles and soldiers. During this period, Luftwaffe fighters also carried out several limited bombing of the Russian army, but the overall effect was still not good.

2 a.m. Several military airfields more than 200 kilometers away from Smolensk were brightly lit, and the single-wing, twin-engine Dornier 101s had already stopped beside the runway, while the crew was using small carts to carry round and fat bombs from the ammunition depot to the bombers, and then hoisted the bombs one by one into the belly bomb bay.

"Boss, what kind of bombs are these? Why does it seem like it's never been used? A young crew member asked the older team leader next to him softly.

"Look what's written here!" The team leader pointed to a line of small print at the end of the bomb.

The former struggled to read: "Dedicated ...... Air Force ......"

The team leader interrupted him indignantly, "Stupid, it's an incendiary bomb for the Air Force!" Everyone, be careful, these big guys are no less powerful than bombs! ”

A crew member next to him didn't believe it, "Boss, bluff us!" How can the power of an incendiary bomb be compared to a bomb. A single bomb can blow up several houses, but the Molotov cocktail just ignites them! ”

"yes, yes! The incendiary bomb is only for setting fires, at most bang it! "The other, younger one, made do.

"You ...... Hum! You don't understand it, but these things are very powerful! ”

The spirit of a team leader who is well versed in the principle of secrecy would rather be ridiculed by his peers than reveal a single thing he knows, and this spirit is commendable. In fact, ever since they had tasted the sweetness of the use of incendiary bombs in the air raids on major industrial areas of the United States, the technical experts of the Luftwaffe became very interested in this particular weapon, and samples of various compositions and powers were developed, in addition to the original thermite and yellow phosphorus. There are also two-thirds of gasoline mixed with one-third of sugar, one-third of washing powder (Henkel of Germany in 1907 with borate and silicate as the main raw material invented washing powder) mixed with two-thirds of gasoline and a small amount of other oil, three-quarters of potassium chlorate mixed with a quarter of sugar and many other combinations of combustion, and the most satisfactory of these incendiary agents is the gelatinous substance mixed with gasoline and coagulant, which can splash around and emit a high temperature of about 1000 degrees when it explodes. And it can stick to other objects and burn for a long time.

And the crews are hoisting on the Dornier 101 are napalm of 500 pounds and 750 pounds. Around 3 o'clock, most of the incendiary bombs had been loaded onto the bombers, and the pilots, who had finished breakfast early, arrived at the airfield one by one. Although the crews were always meticulous in their work, they still had to check the bombs, fuel, and machine-gun ammunition themselves, and by the time the first bomber began to tune its engine, it was nearly 4 a.m., and the summer dawn was soon approaching.

On the battlefield west of Smolensk, the battle has descended into a kind of stalemate tug-of-war. As time passed, German tanks and assault guns, which had a serious consumption of ammunition and had no time to replenish it, began to use grenades to attack the opposing side.

The anti-tank group, composed of infantry alone, was strong in defense, but it was not suitable for attacking, and the Russian army, which was afraid of the terrible anti-tank weapons of the German army, did not dare to rush forward.

Under heavy artillery fire, one Russian tank after another retreated into the woods along the road from which they came, and once dawn, the tanks exposed in the wilderness were mercilessly destroyed by German dive bombers. These land beasts are helpless against the air.

"Idiot! A sucker! Coward! ”

In a Type 86 tank, the disgusting shouting was even ten times harsher than the sound of a gasoline engine. In the overnight battle, the tank under the personal command of the Japanese "Volunteer Army" Akashi Hisaka hit the German tank no less than 20 times, although Akashi Shaosa decided to "truthfully" report this number, but in fact some of the later shells did not cause much damage to the German tank IV in front of him, but at the beginning, two unfortunate tank III were destroyed by this guy. In this way, Akashi has become the number one tank ace in the Japanese Army.

After the Russian tanks retreated into the woods, the German side also stopped shelling. According to a rough count, Colonel Moder found that he had lost 1/4 of his tanks, 1/6 of his assault guns and at least 820 soldiers overnight, which was arguably the heaviest loss of a native German force since the beginning of the German-Russian war—the Polish, Hungarian and African divisions that had been used to paralyze the enemy were now mostly tasked with defending logistics and transport, building bridges and roads. It's a good use. The front-line operations were all well-trained native German troops, and losses in a series of previous combat operations were minimal.

When the fighting stopped for a moment, Sergeant Oakman finally let out a long sigh. The demand for ammunition in the heat of battle was so high that he almost had to use smoke grenades against Russian tanks, as was the case with other assault gun crews. Fortunately, the assault gun itself suffered little damage, and as long as it rereplenished its ammunition, it was able to continue fighting.

However, the next battle changed the protagonist, and the German officers and soldiers who had fought hard before made a wall watch.

As the sky gradually brightened, the Luftwaffe, which had been depressed all night, finally made a big move, first flying over the woods with ground fighters and dive bombers, so that the Russian tank units were as atmospheric as seeing cats and mice. However, since the opponent has discovered hiding here, the Russian army's previous "hide and seek" tactics will not work, but they have not been able to complete the scheduled ambush mission before dawn. Now they had to rely on the wooded terrain to avoid German air raids as much as possible.

German warplanes circled and dropped bombs over the woods over and over again, but some Russians and Japanese, who did not know whether to live or die, thought that it was better to cool off under the trees, and at this time they did not rush to replenish their tanks with ammunition and fuel, completely unaware that their deadline was approaching.

German fighter and dive bomber attacks were of limited power to targets hiding in the woods, but at sunrise the western sky was buzzing with a roar. In a few moments, the roar went from slight to tingling, even if it was a hundred flies lingering in the ears!

Outside the woods, calm had long since returned, and charred bullet casings and wrecked tanks could be seen around fields, roads, and a shallow ditch. Next to some German tanks and armored vehicles that were immobilized because they were wounded, the armored soldiers were anxiously waiting for the arrival of battlefield maintenance vehicles. On the enemy side near the woods, most of the fifty or sixty yellow-green tanks were lying quietly facing the Germans, some of them had been burned beyond recognition by the explosions and fires, and some of them had only broken tracks and were abandoned by the tankmen, during which there were hardly any armored vehicles to be seen, let alone infantry living and dying with rifles.

As the bombers approached, several Vulture IIs hovering in the middle of the air suddenly dropped some strange-looking bombs, which did not explode immediately after landing on the ground, but instead released brightly colored gases.

At the same time, German howitzers on the ground fired smoke grenades into the woods. From the air, these are undoubtedly the best targets for bombing.

After flying over the target, the belly bombing hatch of a Dornier 101 medium bomber opened, and immediately after, the chubby incendiary bombs fell in strings.

The Russians and Japanese in the woods did not feel honored at all to be the first victims of German-made napalm, and when hundreds of napalm fell, most of them just covered their ears tightly, but these 500-pound bombs did not make a deafening noise when they fell, the thumping sound was more like the muffled sound of depth charges, but when the sky-high golden fire burst out, the Russians and Japanese felt that something was wrong......

In just a few minutes, more than 200 Dornier 101 bombers dropped 500 tons of napalm in the woods where the Russian tank units were hiding, and the skyrocketing fire even made the German officers and soldiers outside the woods feel palpitations, and the heat wave set off by the fire hit one after another, so that everyone could feel the amazing heat, and in the woods, the hairy screams were endless, and the Russians and Japanese, who were lucky not to be burned to death, fled in a panic like rats attacked by fire, But when the surrounding fire gradually surrounded, even if you dig a hole, you can't hide.

When the first Russians fled the woods, they were greeted by shells and bullets from their weapons, and the Russians, who were caught in the fire and flanked by the Germans, quickly chose the path of light, but the fire in the woods continued for several days and nights.

The battle ended without any suspense, because the power of the incendiary bombs was so great that almost all the Russian tanks in the woods were burned to scrap metal, and the Germans captured only those tanks that had been damaged outside the woods the night before, and some of them were relatively intact and sent back to the German mainland for "dissection" and research.

At the beginning of the battle, less than 500 of the 5,762 Russian officers and men and 55 Japanese "volunteers" survived, and the battle loss rate was as high as more than 90 percent.