Chapter 79: A Flood of Steel
While the soldiers who broke through the defense line sharpened their knives and headed for pigs and sheep, the second squad of Weisan and Ma Youde also rushed into the trenches of the American army.
Unexpectedly, after the soldiers of the 38th Army broke through the defensive line, the US army no longer insisted on fighting, and began to retreat towards the dense forest in the rear.
After the 38th Army broke the defensive line, the American troops didn't even mean to struggle, which made Wei San very suspicious, because after he rushed up and killed an American soldier on the chariot, he clearly saw that the American soldier's armband had a horse's head painted on it.
"The First Cavalry Division is here? Why are they in such a hurry to escape, it doesn't look like the style of the first cavalry division? "Wei San is worried about what conspiracy the U.S. military is holding back.
The soldier hiding on an M24 light tank, seeing that the battle line was about to be lost, stopped the Browning heavy machine gun in his hand, and wanted to hide in the tank, and wanted to close the hatch of the tank. The moment the hatch closed, it was jammed with a bayonet, and the tank started, but the hatch did not close, and the soldier who had just taken cover pushed the hatch open again.
Wei San's steps were so great that he pulled out the Mauser pistol from his waist as he went, and with one shot he exploded the head of the soldier who came out, and after a few quick steps, he jumped on top of the tank that was about to escape, grabbed the hatch and jumped into the tank.
Before the GI in the tank could react, he saw his teammate fall into the cabin, and then another figure jumped into the hatch, and at this time there was one driver and one co-shooter left in the tank, and the shooter was the first to spot him when Wei San jumped in.
In a hurry, he shouted: "The enemy has come in!" He was about to pull out the revolver in his waist, but he was immediately hit by Wei San's body, his body was shaking, and there were three more bullet holes in his heart, and the soldier who was controlling the tank, after witnessing the death of his own person, hurriedly stopped the tank, raised his hand and surrendered: "Don't shoot, I surrender!" ”
However, Wei San did not give him a chance to continue to live, the Americans could not believe it, and after also blowing the driver's head, Wei San was left in the tank as a living person, at this time, Ma Youde, who was following Wei San, also jumped into the tank, slightly adapted to the depressed feeling in the tank, and asked: "Squad leader, are you okay?" ”
Wei San dragged the body of the driver's seat out of the driver's seat and sat down by himself, at this time Gao Baoguo also came in, the turbid gas and the strong smell of blood in the tank made Gao Baoguo choke for a moment, and then said: "My God, this is to grab a tank?" ”
Wei San controlled the tank and said to Gao Baoguo: "Don't waste time, go control the heavy machine gun outside the tank, let's catch up!" ”
The M24 is a traditional turret tank, and its firepower and armor protection are the most powerful of World War II light tanks, and its mobility is comparable to that of similar tanks in World War II.
The M24 light tank is a traditional three-man turret tank with a wheelhouse, a fighting compartment and an engine room from front to rear.
The total combat weight is 18.37 tons, the maximum armor thickness is 38 mm, the maximum speed is 58 kilometers per hour, and the crew is 5 people, namely the commander, the gun commander, the loader, the driver and the co-pilot.
The length of the vehicle (cannon forward) is 5.486 meters, the width of the vehicle is 2.95 meters, and the height of the vehicle (to the top of the conning tower) is 2.46 meters.
The driver is located on the left side of the front part of the body, and the co-driver (who is also an electrician and a former machine gunner) is located on the right, and they each have a toggle hatch and a periscope, as well as a safety door.
There is a hexagonal window in the middle of the inclined armor plate on the nose, and a movable cover plate is installed, and the cover plate is opened to facilitate the maintenance of the vehicle steering mechanism.
1 front machine gun mounted on the right side of the window. The Commander is located on the left side of the turret, and the Gun Commander and Loader are located on the right side of the turret, each with a forward-opening hatch.
The commander's control tower is fixed, its roof compartment can be rotated, and it is equipped with 6 observation glasses and 1 periscope. There is 1 spare seat in the turret for the use of the unit commander.
The main gun is an M6 75-mm gun, which can fire cap-piercing shells and grenades, with an ammunition base of 48 rounds. Among them, the muzzle velocity of the armor-piercing projectile is 860 m/s, and a single flesh body tube, a semi-automatic horizontal wedge bolt and a concentric anti-recoil device are used.
The recoil device is concentrically installed with the barrel, in addition to having the effect of standing the leg and retreating, it also plays the role of reversing, and the gun is equipped with two devices: electric shock fire and hand fire.
The fire control system includes electro-hydraulic control and manual steering of the turret, gyro-ceremonial artillery stabilizer, sighting device, quadrant and azimuth meter.
The firing range in the direction of the artillery is 360 degrees, and the high and low firing range is -10~+15 degrees. The secondary armament consisted of an M2 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine gun with an ammunition base of 440 rounds, and a Model 1919 7.62 mm parallel machine gun and a front machine gun of the same model with an ammunition base of 3,750 rounds on the right side of the gun.
Gao Baoguo got out of the hatch, and stood behind the machine gun outside the hatch, he had already seen the firepower of M2, and he was so excited at this time that he couldn't do it, he held the grip of M2 with both hands, looking at the American troops who were about to flee into the forest, his eyes showed fanaticism, and he roared in his mouth: "Ah~" M2 spewed out a two-foot-long flame, and the American troops who had time to hide in the depths of the dense forest were knocked over by this wave of bullets and more than ten people.
The tank moved, Ma Youde sat in the co-pilot's position, and also picked up the machine gun in front of him, after the two machine guns fired at the same time, not only strangled the American troops, but also saw many tanks hidden in the woods outside the tank through tracer.
The existence of the 1st American Cavalry Division is destined not to end the battle so easily, and after Wei San saw this scene through the observation window, his eyelids jumped: "MD, it turned out that he was hiding in the woods!" ”
At this time, a large number of flares were raised in the rear, in order to provide a field of vision for their troops to continue the pursuit, the vision brought by the flares allowed Wei San to see more clearly, the situation in the woods, I saw that the woods were about 100 meters in, and the U.S. Army had cut down an extremely vast open space, and the open space here hid various types of tanks, including M3 Stuart light tank, M3 "Grant/Lee" medium tank, M4 "Sherman" medium tank, M10 tank destroyer, M18 Hellcat tank destroyer, M24 Xiafei light tank, M26 Pershing heavy tank, etc.
Tanks appeared from their line of sight, all the way to the distance, the number is extremely amazing, roughly estimated, this torrent of steel composed of no less than 200 vehicles, this is the real strength of the 1st Cavalry Division, and this discovery not only made Wei San's eyelids jump, more volunteer soldiers who had already charged up to pursue the heart was even more heartbeat.
They seemed to be able to foresee what terrible consequences the U.S. military's strike would bring to them next, and the tank controlled by Wei San stopped abruptly, roaring to Gao Baoguo: "Come in, Gao Baoguo, you TM come in!" Let's all hide behind the tanks and retreat! Fall back! ”
Gao Baoguo also woke up from the shock, the US tank moved in his eyes, he suddenly woke up and shouted loudly: "Hide behind the tank, run, hide behind the tank!" Withdraw to the trenches! ”
The steel front formed by the American tanks moved in the next moment, and a large number of thigh-thick trees were pushed to the ground by the tanks, and the tracks of the tanks crushed them, and they rumbled towards the pursuing volunteer soldiers.
Seeing that in the woods in the distance around him, the roar of Browning's heavy machine gun sounded again, and the pursuing soldiers were immediately beaten to their stomachs, and the soldiers near Wei San hurriedly hid behind the tank controlled by Wei San, and retreated to the American trench that had been approaching, and the American tanks that were already less than 100 meters away also opened fire at the same time.