.“ Reload the Type B grenade! ”

"Reloaded!"

"Aim...... Launch! ”

The recoil of the 75mm gun made everyone in the DV tank feel the tremendous power of the projectile in an instant. When the loader reopened the bolt, a pungent smoke suddenly filled the tank's small turret and compartment, and the residual heat in the chamber continued to warm the air, and although the tank's ventilation was still working hard, the tankers were still sweating profusely, after all, it was a hot summer in July.

Ever since the shell flew out of the muzzle, the commander's eyes had been watching his target through the vehicle's periscope, and after a few seconds, he raised his fist excitedly: "Oh, hit the target!" Reloader, next shot, reload Type B grenades! ”

The sturdy loader silently took out the shells with the time-delay fuses from the ammunition storage rack, and the long-term handling of these 5 or 6 kg shells allowed him to develop a good muscle, and the grenades he was loading into the chamber were specially designed to attack targets in field bunkers and fortifications.

After a crisp metal crash, the loader shouted in a very standard slogan: "Reloaded!" ”

Then there was another "aim...... Launch! ”

In this wilderness, 6 DV tanks and 8 Type 1918 assault guns are shelling American defensive positions 3 kilometers away with their 75mm guns, and next to them, 14 DDD tanks and 12 Type 1920 infantry fighting vehicles are watching the battlefield vigilantly. About 1,500 meters behind them, next to the grove are 1 wheeled armored communication vehicle, 17 half-track armored vehicles, more than 60 motorcycles and 6 Mercedes-Benz trucks, the German Army has been equipped with half-track armored vehicles since 1920 with a standard crew of 12 crews, fixed equipment with a 7.92 mm machine gun and a 50 mm mortar, and its role in the German armored forces is to provide infantry support for tanks.

In Rommel's 1st Panzer Division, the half-track infantry fighting vehicles were mostly Mexican infantry with long-term training, and they had shown the quality they needed in previous battles, and were generally much better than the American soldiers they had encountered.

After more than 10 minutes of shelling, the US position was completely silent, and there was no artillery counterattack. There was no more gunfire, as if the defenders were either dead or fleeing. At this time, the DDD tank and infantry fighting vehicles continued to be on alert, and the DV tank and the Type 1918 assault gun returned to the grove in batches, 6 Mercedes trucks loaded with the shells and fuel they needed.

After the German tanks stopped shelling, the wilderness became unusually quiet, and this past morning, the Luftwaffe ground aircraft group took turns to carry out heavy air strikes on Oklahoma City and the surrounding American positions 40 kilometers away. It is not yet known what the specific results of the battle were, but it is assumed that the US armored forces gathered there must have suffered considerable losses.

At this moment, clouds of white smoke suddenly rose from the American position, which was obviously caused by the artificial use of smoke bombs, although it was not clear what the Americans were going to do, but the German soldiers immediately became vigilant.

Although they had recently learned that the US armored unit had arrived in Oklahoma City, the German and Mexican officers and soldiers had never seen the US tanks with their own eyes, let alone how well they were performing.

Since yesterday evening. Rommel's 1st Panzer Division advanced less than 20 kilometers toward Oklahoma City. Four armored battalions were sent to carry out a tentative attack on the outermost defensive line of the US army, and this was the battle scene of one of the armored battalions. So far, the US military on the opposite side has not shown any fighting spirit that can be called tenacious.

A few minutes later. The smoke spread over a large area and showed no signs of abating. The German soldiers on the Mercedes Benz trucks quickly replenished the ammunition for the DV tank and assault vehicle, of which the standard reserve was 80 rounds, the ratio of armor-piercing shells to grenades could be adjusted according to the needs of the battlefield, smoke grenades were usually equipped with only a small part, and the task of fire cover was generally entrusted to the assault guns next to them. The 1918 assault gun has a standard reserve of 45 rounds, and smoke grenades, grenades, and armor-piercing shells are usually 15, 20, and 10 rounds.

The silence of the battlefield was finally broken by a familiar sound—the grinding of metal from tracked vehicles and the rumbling of engines at medium speeds. It seemed that this German armored battalion was about to become the first unit in the German Army to encounter American tanks.

The German communications vehicle quickly sent a report to the division headquarters, the D12V tank was re-opened to the DDD tank, the 8 assault gun was hidden behind the DV tank, and the infantry fighting vehicles with twin 20 mm machine guns, which could fire both ground and air, retreated to more than 100 meters behind the tanks and assault guns, and their slightly weak armor was not used for shelling. The half-track armored vehicles were also activated and scattered along the grove, and the Mexican soldiers on them clenched their weapons one by one, as for the "flesh-covered" German motorcyclists. In such a battle between tanks, it is better to retreat as far as possible.

At 2:25 p.m. tomorrow, the US tank fired its first shell since the war, and judging from the effect of its landing explosion, the experienced German ** officer judged that it was an armor-piercing shell with a caliber of about 40 mm!

Immediately afterwards, the sound of artillery in the smoke gradually increased, and one by one the shells drilled out of the thick fog and flew towards the German armored battalion, in view of the unknown number of the opponent, the German commander immediately ordered the whole battalion to maintain a defensive formation and reverse and retreat at the same time.

The wide smoke screen not only covered the American troops, but also seriously affected their firing accuracy, and none of the dozens of shells fired in the first few minutes hit the target, and most of them landed more than 20 meters away from the German array. Seeing that the German tanks and armored vehicles were about to retreat through the grove, the first American tank finally appeared on the edge of the smoke screen, and in just one minute, there were as many as twenty or thirty tanks out of the smoke, which also made the German officers and soldiers on the opposite side satisfy their long-standing curiosity!

On that German armored communications vehicle, the communications officer reported to the division headquarters by radio while observing:

"The front one was about the size of our Stone DD tank, with a barrel-shaped turret and a relatively short barrel. The caliber is about 37 to 40 mm, the grass green livery, and the turret is a little small compared to the body; Next to it was a slightly larger, but not as big as our DDD tank, with the same turret and short-barreled gun, and the turret was really ugly, like a pure square box, and the caliber of the cannon was about 50 mm. Both tanks maintained a speed of about 15 kilometers per hour. There are almost 40 tanks seen so far, and they are marching in a relatively neat formation! ”

Less than 10 kilometers behind this grove, Rommel was listening carefully to the description of the front-line commander in his temporary headquarters, and the appearance of this kind of radio walkie-talkie did benefit the German combat units a lot, and the combination of two old means of instant communication, the telephone and the walkie-talkie, created a wonderful new thing, and Siemens, a veteran German electrical company, made a very important contribution here.

A few minutes later, the voice of the battalion commander came over the intercom:

"Ah, another tank has appeared, it looks rather bulky and seems to be larger than our DV number. Right. It's definitely bigger than our DV, and it's not very tall including the turret, so it's pretty stocky. There were two guns, the lower one mounted on the right-hand side of the hull, which appeared to be a short-barreled 105 mm howitzer, and a relatively small turret on top, on which was a 20 or 25 mm light gun! ”

"Oh, another one! This one doesn't look unusual in appearance, it's not very large, and the turret resembles a low barrel. No, wait, I see it's moving forward on wheels! Side...... 4 wheels on each side. It was slightly smaller than the DDD tank, and it was supposed to be equipped with a 40-mm 2-pounder gun! ”

When the voice on the walkie-talkie stopped for a moment, Rommel turned and asked his adjutant: "When will the air cover arrive?" ”

"20 to 25 minutes, General!"

Rommel thought for a few seconds, grabbed the walkie-talkie, "Major, let your troops stop and organize shooting at the old kilometer behind the woods, and report back the shooting effect in time!" ”

Two seconds later, a "Understood!" voice came over the intercom. ”。 There was the sound of shells exploding not far away, and at this time, in Rommel's temporary headquarters, the distant sound of artillery was already faintly audible.

"Pass my order, the 1st Armored Regiment will enter the frontal position, the artillery regiment will prepare to carry out artillery bombardment 3 kilometers in front of the frontal position, the 2nd Armored Regiment will go around the right hill area to hide and stand by, the 3rd Armored Regiment will go to the left position to stand by, the 1st Mechanized Infantry Regiment H and the divisional anti-tank artillery battalion will enter the rear combat position of the 1st Armored Regiment, and the divisional armored battalion and the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Regiment will stand by in the rear as reserves!"

After a series of orders, Rommel was the first to walk out of the temporary headquarters, needless to say, he and his headquarters were soon on the front line, and the staff officers in the headquarters quickly packed their bags as usual. Fifteen minutes later, the armored command vehicle was running in the direction from which Rommel and a group of staff officers had come from.

"Onward! Advance! ”

On a T2 Christie fast tank, a guy with a cigar in his mouth was yelling in his rough voice, around him, hundreds of tanks were pursuing the slowly retreating German armored battalion at a speed of 15 kilometers per hour, but this speed was obviously not satisfactory to the guy holding the cigar, and he immediately shouted to the officer on the tank on his right: "Karl, you take the 3rd battalion to speed up and detour from the left, and you can't stop that group of hateful German devils!" Damn, weren't these guys very horizontal just now? How did they all become cowards all at once! ”

After a while, more than 20 T2 accelerated out of the queue, this fast tank was designed by Walter Christie, the owner and chief designer of Christie's company, since it is called a fast tank, its speed is obviously not blown, due to the use of balanced suspension and high-horsepower gasoline engine, T2 has a maximum speed of 40 kilometers per hour, if you remove the track and use the load wheels, the speed of driving on a better road surface can reach 70 kilometers per hour, This has to be said to be a small miracle created by Christie (historically, this benevolent brother has been playing with tanks since 1919, and has produced several models, but unfortunately the US Army has been speeding up tanks, and the US Army has barely ordered a few, and the walls are blooming and the walls are fragrant. The U.S. Army did not pay attention to this tank, but the Soviets regarded it as a treasure and based on it they created the later famous BT-7 fast tank, and the T-34 also completely imitated its suspension device.

The German armored battalion, which had planned to retreat, soon noticed the American tank detachment trying to outflank him, and after being surprised by the speed of the American tanks, the German commander immediately ordered the DDD tank on his right flank to fire at the target for a short time.

After receiving the order, the six DDD tanks began to turn the turrets, and after the commanders gave the driver the command to stop for a short time. The DDD tanks came to a stand, followed by their 50 mm guns, and the armor-piercing shells flew with straight ballistics and muzzle velocity of 800 m/s towards the T-2 Christie fast tank, which had armor thickness of only 8 to 15 mm. 1.6 seconds later, two armor-piercing shells hit a T-2 directly and easily tore off its weak armor, because of inertia, the tank was still moving forward after being shot, but the violent explosion instantly turned its 12-ton hull into a pile of burning scrap metal, killing three American tankers on the spot.

This was the first American tank destroyed by the German Army, and the German tankers were somewhat surprised at how easy the results came to be, and the destruction of the American tank was as easy as a normal target. Excitement is excitement. After a shot. The DDD tanks restarted and continued to retreat, the loaders taking advantage of this time to feed new shells into the chambers, and the commanders corrected their shots. Approximately half a minute later, the six DDDs again fired in short stops, this time with one armor-piercing round knocking off the turret of one T-2 and the other two destroying their respective targets.

Seeing that the opponent killed three of his companions in two shots, the American commanders were a little angry, and several of them used their 40mm guns to shoot at the German tanks without waiting for the tanks to stop. When the other T2s stopped to shoot at the ground, two shells obediently hit the retreating German DDD tank, one of which was deflected off by the DDD tank ground gun shield. The other shot hit the front of the hull and exploded - fortunately, the T-2 fired at a distance of more than 1,300 meters, and the 40mm armor-piercing shells did not kill the DDD tank with only 35mm frontal armor in one go, which became the first German tank to be damaged by an American tank since the start of the war.

At this time, the tanks of the German armored battalion stopped one after another, and according to Rommel's instructions, they were to shoot at various American tanks with 75-mm armor-piercing shells and 50-mm armor-piercing shells at this distance, so as to provide first-hand reference materials for the main forces of the armored division behind.

In the distance, Rommel was already able to see the figure of the American tank through his telescope, and through his own telescope. Patton also saw the defensive position of the main force of the German armored division in the distance, and a fierce duel was about to begin, but the position of the protagonist of this battlefield was coldly taken away by the German dive bomber group that quietly arrived!

When the heinous vultures appeared in his sight, Barton collected all the words in his stomach that could be used to curse, but in the end there was only one sentence: "Brothers, whether you use tank guns, machine guns, rifles, pistols, or stones on the ground, give me those German planes to smash down!" ”

If the pilots on the Vulture DD dive bomber heard Patton's words, they might have laughed so hard that they forgot to control the plane and fell, but they didn't hear Patton's anger. The open space between the white smoke screen and the woods was littered with American tanks and armored vehicles, and the vultures did not need much time to find their targets, one by one the vultures began to dive from an altitude of more than 2,000 meters, and then dropped bombs at a vertical angle of 70 degrees at an altitude of about 5,000 meters. This time, they carried a 200-kilogram fragmentation bomb under the fuselage and two 50-kilogram incendiary bombs under the wings, which was unprecedented for the US military, and it has been proved in previous exercises that this attack has a very significant destructive power against tank armored vehicles, especially thinly armored combat vehicles. More than 50 vultures threw bombs on the Americans, and in the continuous explosions, one American tank or armored vehicle after another was injured, paralyzed, and set on fire.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Americans were busy dealing with German bombers, the German armored battalion responsible for luring the opposing side was constantly "testing" the defense of American tanks with shells. The 75mm guns of the DV and the Type 1918 assault guns fired armor-piercing shells were almost indestructible, whether it was the fast-moving T2, the M-1919 Hamiton tank with a barrel turret, or the wheeled M-3 tank, all of which were killed in one shot, while the 50mm guns of the DDD tank were somewhat inpowerful as some German generals feared, and at a distance of 1500 meters they were difficult to armor the American medium tanks, but the speed and tactics largely made up for the lack of artillery power.

By this time, the only ones that had not been subjected to German shells were the stocky M-1923 heavy tanks, but they were so slow that they had barely crossed the grove by the time the German bombers returned. By this time, the German panzer battalion had begun to retreat again, and Rommel's Panzer Division had already been in full position, but Patton had to spend half an hour reassembling his tanks and armoured vehicles that had been messed up by dodging the bombardment, and the only good news for him was that after the bombing he still had more than 160 tanks and 210 combat armoured vehicles, more tanks than Rommel's, if not counting the Type 1918 assault guns.