"It was a completely irregular, unequal war, and it was terrible that our opponents were a group of Spanish rioters with no proper military training, who attacked without discipline, but who were always able to surround us and then strike at night or when we were tired!"

An Italian second lieutenant wrote in his diary that as a member of the Multinational Joint Rapid Reaction Force, he and his unit participated in the intervention in the Spanish Civil War, and about one-third of the Italian soldiers were killed or captured in action.

"We must beware of every Spaniard, whether he is a soldier or a civilian, male or female, we have been attacked by a whole company of renegade Spanish government troops, which has caught us off guard and caused us great losses! I kept asking myself why we had come to this chaotic country to get involved in this chaotic war, but I couldn't find an answer! May God forgive us! ”

In his war memoirs, the Greek officer Damas, who made no secret of his confusion, said that he had not fully figured out the question until many years later.

"As a German soldier, I participated in the military operations against the United States in 1924, against Russia in 1928 and then in Asia, I respected each of my opponents, and never shot at enemy civilians, but in Spain, I could not tell which people were anti-government rioters and which were innocent people, because most of our attackers did not wear military uniforms! As I shot one such enemy after another, I began to wonder about my war creed, had I fallen into a cold and cruel demon? ”

- In an interview with a war correspondent, Huttbarerts from the German Army appeared very depressed.

"I'm ashamed to retreat, but in Spain we had to retreat and retreat, and we were beaten passively and often inexplicably, hell, what kind of war is this?"

- This is the complaint of a Turkish soldier. It is also the voice of many JRS soldiers.

※※※※※※※※

Dawn of February 14, 1932, Madrid, Spain, on Avenue Raimondo.

As soon as the sky dawned, the whole city seemed to have not yet woken up from its deep sleep, and everything around it was quiet. Rubbing his tired eyes, the 26-year-old young officer and his crew arrived at midnight to defend the important junction leading to the palace in cooperation with the Multinational Joint Rapid Reaction Force and the Spanish Royal Guard, who had arrived in advance.

The main fortification was a barricade made of various pieces of furniture, including chests, cupboards, beds, and sofas. The Tiger-1 tank, numbered 036, commanded by Conrad, was the only heavy weapon here, and they were placed in the middle of the barricades, while the 72 German soldiers, 30 Greek soldiers, and a company of Spanish Royal Guards who had arrived before were mostly in firing positions at windows on both sides of the street.

After a deep yawn, Conrad continued to maneuver the 7.92mm G-7 tank machine gun on the turret, and watched warily ahead. It was the time of the day when people were most sleepy, and when they were most likely to relax, and the Spanish anti-government forces liked to attack at this time, as Conrad had heard from a German infantry officer.

There was a faint snoring from beneath the turret, and Conrad knew it must have been from the loader Hahn. This muscular guy is full of strength, considering that the 88mm cannon currently equipped with the Tiger-1 weighs 10 kilograms per armor-piercing shell. And the full weight of the howitzer shell is more than 14 kg. In the era when automatic loading technology was not yet developed, tank guns relied entirely on manual loading, which was difficult to complete without a certain amount of strength. So. Hahn, despite his size, incredible appetite and thunderous snoring, is coveted by the captains of all cars, just imagine, who wouldn't want to have a strongman in their crew who can complete 20 standard loads in a minute?

Fortunately, the interior space of the Tiger-1 has increased compared to the 3rd and 4th, and the comfort of the crew seats has also been greatly improved, Conrad thought, if this is not the case, the five crew members will turn the inside of the tank into a large sardine can.

Suddenly, there was a faint murmur in the silent street, and the soldiers of the Spanish Royal Guard, who were standing in front of the barricade with long rifles, immediately asked loudly in Spanish. There was no response, but instead of disappearing, the chattering voices were getting denser and closer.

"Who? If you don't answer, you'll shoot! ”

The Royal Guard soldier pulled the bolt and took two steps forward, just then a crisp gunshot woke everyone up. Under Conrad's gaze, the unfortunate Royal Guard soldier fell to the ground.

"Enemy attack!"

Regardless of whether the others understood it or not, Conrad shouted loudly in German, turning on the safety of the machine gun and shrinking his body as far down as possible to reduce the chance of being hit by a bullet. And with his leather boots, he kicked the gunner and loader, who were sitting and sleeping on the seat below. In fact, they were already awake after the first shot, and before they could figure out what was going on outside, Conrad was already firing.

Da Da Da ......

The G-7 tank machine gun, which was an evolution of the MG17 infantry light machine gun, inherited the high rate of fire and good firing stability of the former, and its crisp and coherent sound woke up every soldier guarding the barricade and made them feel grounded. Soon, the soldiers of the Spanish Royal Guard joined the battle with the barricades as cover, the two Maxims they had placed there also began to roar, and the three machine guns quickly blocked the front of the street with a dense rain of bullets, and the raiders completely failed, and by the time the soldiers of the combined forces fired at the front of the street from the windows and vantage points of the buildings on both sides, the attacking crowd had disappeared, and only some corpses were left on the opposite street.

After the gunfire subsided, the thick smoke still filled the street, and the smell was a little choking, and it also drove away the residual sleepiness of the people. Conrad leaned out, exhaled deeply, and then opened the machine gun's feed cover with his hands and feet, and removed the circular drum on the right side of the machine gun.

The battle was short, but with the high rate of fire of the G-7, a lot of ammunition was still consumed, and there was only enough ammunition left in the original drum containing 105 rounds, so there was not so much time and space to change the ammunition of the machine gun during the battle. So he simply replaced the commander's machine gun with a new drum. Before he could make a new move, he took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lit one for himself.

"Ensign, do you want to start the tank and change positions?"

The driver, Karegarin, opened the front hatch and poked his head out, as if he was not very comfortable with the wooden barricade in front of him, which obviously would not be able to protect him if the cannon was to be fought.

Conrad puffed out a puff of white smoke from his nostrils, "Not for now!" ”

He turned his head and saw the infantry commander of the combined forces, a German second lieutenant of about his own age. The officer, after determining that there was no danger on the street. Also took out a cigarette from his pocket.

"Second Lieutenant, can you get us some sandbags?" Conrad wanted to make this request when he first arrived. Maybe the rebels on the other side don't have decent anti-tank weapons in their hands, but that's by no means a reason for him to be careless. What's more, over the years, Alfonso XIII's government has purchased a lot of weapons from abroad, ranging from battleships and cruisers to all kinds of guns and ammunition, and it is difficult to ensure that there are no such powerful guys as 75mm anti-tank guns, and it is even more difficult to ensure that these weapons do not fall into the hands of the anti-government forces.

The infantry officer glanced helplessly at Conrad on the tank.

"There were only a few bags of flour. I don't think that will help! You see. Even if we empty the bag, there's no sand around here! ”

By this time it was much brighter than before, and Conrad looked back and forth, left and right. As the infantry officer said. There is really nothing to be used here except for a large number of houses. Look at the three-story buildings on both sides of the street. Conrad quickly gave up his plans to hide the tank in the house.

"In your experience, will they drag the cannons?" Conrad asked again.

"It's hard to say!" The infantry officer naturally raised his left hand, which was holding a cigarette, and spat out an irregular ring of smoke from his mouth.

Conrad was about to continue. But he was stunned by the crisp sound of "dang", which was clearly the sound of bullets hitting the thick steel plate, and the sparks from the collision of the two were a few centimeters away from him, and the crisp gunfire poured into his ears at the same time. He wasn't sure what kind of rifle it was, but Conrad chuckled violently. I'm afraid this is the targeted shooting of the opponent's sniper, if the opponent's technique is a little better, that bullet is probably going to penetrate his body!

Half a second later, the frightened Conrad retreated into the turret of the tank, and at the last moment, he saw the infantry officer also rolling into the side of the room.

"It's all right! Lieutenant! ”

The second person in charge of the crew, Gun Commander Eber, asked with concern. Although they had been inside the tank all the time, the sound of bullets hitting the outside of the turret was very real.

Conrad gasped for air, and a complicated emotion of passing by death suddenly came to his heart. Let his mind appear to short-circuit in an instant. Two seconds later, he turned to look at Abel and shook his head expressionlessly.

Abel patted Conrad on the shoulder and whispered to the loader, "Jahn, grenade reload!" Then he pressed his eyes to the scope, his hands constantly adjusting the distance and angle of sight, trying to find the sniper through those windows.

Bang. Heavy shells were stuffed into the breech.

Syllable......

Another gunshot rang out, and this time Conrad, who was sitting inside the tank, didn't hear it so clearly, but he came back to his senses in an instant.

"With a machine gun!"

Conrad looked at Abel who was about to press the main cannon button, and when Abel turned his head in some surprise, he whispered:

"Save shells!"

After a brief silence, Abel nodded slightly, put his hand on the main gun button to the firing button of the machine gun on the tank turret, and when the third shot rang out a dozen seconds later, he finally found his target and responded forcefully with a long shot.

The sniper didn't fire a fourth bullet, but he managed to shoot and kill a Royal Spanish Guard officer. Next, the street entrance was not quiet for long, and the anti-government forces launched a second attack, but on this street with limited width, they could not give full play to their numerical superiority as in the field, and several machine guns on the side of the barricade successfully blocked the street entrance until the opposing infantry artillery came on.

As soon as the cannon sounded, Conrad recognized the identity of the other party - it was a German-made or imitation German 1914 37mm infantry gun, this kind of artillery is characterized by light carrying, strong mobility, short firing adjustment time, and can be used against lightly armored targets and fortifications, the disadvantage is that the range and power are relatively insufficient. For many reasons, the German Army largely abandoned this weapon after 1918. However, by the early 30s, this low-cost, low-tech and easy-to-copy infantry gun was still being mass-produced by many countries around the world, so there was still a detailed description of this weapon in the German Army Equipment Manual, and as a qualified tank commander, it was necessary to understand these possible "opponents".

"Kill it!"

Conrad knew that the infantry cannon would not be able to penetrate the armor of his Tiger -1 even when he was facing each other, and his 88mm tank gun was more than a level stronger than his opponent, so he was very composed. Gun Commander Abel quickly put this order into place, and a normal howitzer easily blasted the 37mm gun and the gunner away, and before that it had fired a total of two shells at the barricade, the first of which blew a gap in the fragile barricade, and the second missed the turret of the Tiger-1, only to blast a large hole in the wall of an old building behind the side.

Once again, the anti-government militants retreated like a tide, and thanks to the presence of the Tiger -1 under the command of Conrad, the defense line at the street intersection still seemed very solid. Conrad guessed that the other five tanks would be in the same position, and that by the time the Panzer Regiment had all the men and equipment arrived, the tide of the war in Spain would be completely reversed.

As a professional soldier, Conrad's idea seemed to overly simplify, and the fact that the German government was not willing to expend too much energy in the Spanish Civil War as long as the fortified area of Gibraltar was not threatened, but not every country shared the same view.

In the midst of the fierce battle for the defense of Madrid, the Italian government suddenly announced that it would increase its troops in Spain to assist Alfonso XIII's regime in better quelling the rebellion, and the Spanish government welcomed this decision. (Full Text)