Andrea Pol, April 15, 1944. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

No sooner had the Soviet bombardment ended than Lieutenant Colonel Skornez crawled out of a damp and muddy bomb crater, jumped onto a damaged BT-7 tank and began to observe the situation on the front line - the tattered remnants of a failed night raid by the Soviets the previous night.

The 13.9-ton BT-7 tank was destroyed by a Pak38 50mm anti-tank gun, which was almost as old as the BT-7.

And this "old gun" is now equipped with German paratroopers who have always used the latest equipment, but this does not indicate that German military production has reached the limit and cannot supply the growing army. In fact, the European Community with Germany as the core does not only have production capacity, but only the sum of the steel production capacity, the number of machine tools, the output of electrolytic aluminum, and the shipbuilding capacity of the four industrial countries of the European Community, including Germany, Britain, France, and Belgium, are on the same level as the United States on the other side of the ocean. The oil bottleneck that has long constrained Europe's industrial power has eased due to the rapid increase in oil production in the Middle East.

So it was not that Germany was now incapable of equipping the most elite paratroopers with expensive concher-bore guns, and the reason why the old 50mm guns were handed over to the paratroopers was because the armor-piercing technology provided by the British increased the power of the 50mm anti-tank guns by about 50% overnight. In the case of the use of shell-piercing shells, the 38mm anti-tank gun of the Pak-50 type could penetrate a homogeneous steel plate of 126mm thick at a distance of 500 meters at right angles. If you close the distance to 250mm, this 50mm anti-tank gun can have a homogeneous steel plate at a right angle of 140m, which can already penetrate the front of the JS-2 heavy tank!

As a result, the Pak38 50mm anti-tank gun, weighing only 813 kg (a few tens of kilograms if the gun shield is removed), was given a new lease of life in 1944 and was given to German paratroopers and mountain soldiers as the main anti-tank weapon.

At the same time, the "Little Panther" reconnaissance tank used by the German paratroopers is also equipped with a 50mm 60 times caliber tank gun, which can also fire shell-piercing shells, which can also threaten the Soviet JS-2 tank in defensive operations!

As for the Pak40 type 75mm anti-tank gun owned by the German ordinary infantry division, in the case of the use of shell-piercing shells, it was possible to ensure the penetration of the front of the JS-2 tank at a distance of 800 meters - theoretically it could penetrate the front of the JS-2 at a distance of 1500 meters, but the hit rate of the shell-piercing shells at a distance of 800 meters would drop sharply, so they were usually used to shoot at closer targets.

In addition to armor-piercing shells, German (EC) infantry are now heavily armed with cheap Iron Fist-100 anti-tank grenade launchers and more expensive Doll 88mm rocket launchers.

Among them, the Iron Fist 100 anti-tank grenade launcher can reach a range of 100 meters, and the armor penetration depth is as high as 220mm! The "Doll" 88mm bazooka can reach an effective range of 300 meters, and the armor-piercing depth can reach 200 mm, a distance that is really lethal enough for a small rocket launcher that can be used by individual soldiers.

In other words, the powerful Soviet JS-2 tanks were prey to 50mm and 75mm anti-tank guns that used shell-deshelling armor-piercing shells at a distance of 800mm, and when they rushed to a distance of 300 meters from the German infantry, they were hit by anti-tank bazookas (Tekken-100 was actually a bazooka)!

As for the thinly armored BT-7 tank, it has now become a live target for various infantry anti-tank weapons. In the forests and swamps around Andreapol, the wreckage of the BT-7 tank and the remains of the Red Army fighters lying on the ground are now everywhere.

The fierce fighting, which lasted for several days, caused heavy losses to the attacking Soviet troops!

However, the losses on the part of the Germans were not small, and their "Little Leopards" also lost a lot in the past few days of operations, and the 45 "Little Leopards" belonging to the 2nd Airborne Armored Battalion of the 2nd German Paratrooper Division were only 19 that could still be driven after a few days of attrition.

Less than 50 meters to the right of Lieutenant Colonel Skornez, there was a blackened and twisted "Little Panther" tank. This tank was destroyed by Soviet infantry with a "red iron fist"!

Like the German infantry, the Soviets, who were inferior in the number of tanks/assault guns, also made the development of infantry anti-tank weapons a priority.

In addition to the anti-tank grenades, anti-tank rifles, anti-tank cocktails and anti-tank mines that originally existed in history, the "Red Iron Fist" imitating the German "Iron Fist", the "Bazooka" rocket launcher provided by the United States, and the American-made M1 57mm anti-tank gun, which was also transported through the North Pacific Lifeline.

Although there are no shell-piercing shells provided by the British, the M1 anti-tank gun produced in the United States still has good performance, and can penetrate a homogeneous steel plate with a thickness of 112mm at a right angle at a distance of 500 meters. Although not enough to threaten the frontal of the Tiger H and E-50A, it is still a deadly threat to weakly defended armored vehicles such as the No. 4 tank and the No. 3 assault gun.

According to the statistics of Army Group North, in the fierce battles from April 5 to the present, the ratio of loss exchange between coalition tanks and Soviet anti-tank guns (including ZIS-57, M1-57, ZIS-3) is about 1:2 (without encountering the Tiger and E-50), although the advantage is still on the side of the tank, but the era of tank invincibility has obviously passed!

In the case of infantry defending with "tank destroyer battalions" or "tank destroyer brigades" (the "tank destroyer battalions" of the coalition forces and the "tank destroyer brigades" of the Soviet army are actually combat units of the same level), it is completely possible to repel far more enemy armored vehicles than itself, and even have an advantage in the loss exchange ratio.

In other words, with the support of a small number of mobile and armored self-propelled anti-tank guns, the infantry could withstand a large number of enemy tanks in a defensive battle.

From April 5, later historians called the "Battle of Kalinin-Tver" (Tver Oblast is the old name of Kalinin Oblast), tank units and mechanized/semi-mechanized infantry fought inextricably on the main battlefields of Rzhev, Kuvshinov, Torzhok, Likuslavl, Andreapol, Toropets and Valdai.

"Boom la la ......"

The sound of tank tracks rolling and diesel engines roaring at the same time resounded, and Skornez knew that the defense line of the 2nd Paratrooper Regiment was about to be tested by the tide of Soviet tanks and infantry.

Just as Skornez was about to order the four "Little Panther" tanks under his command to be used as tank destroyers, someone around him suddenly cheered: "Plane! Our plane is coming! ”

Skornez raised his head and looked into the sky, only to see 8 Hs-129 anti-tank attack aircraft and 8 Fw-190F8 fighter-bombers, appearing on the battlefield at a height close to the treetops, and then rushing towards the Soviet tanks and infantry in heat!

The first to attack was the Fw-190F8 fighter-bomber, which had a triple 88mm rocket launcher under each wing on each side, which could fire ammunition similar to the "Doll" 88mm rocket launcher, capable of destroying enemy tanks at a distance of 300 meters, and could also be used to kill and infantry.

Before the Soviet anti-aircraft artillery could react, more than 40 rockets dragged tail flames and white smoke through the air, although the accuracy of this rocket was not high, but it still had obvious advantages over the bombs dropped by dive bombers. Barely before the Soviet officers and soldiers on the ground could react effectively, these rockets were already roaring, causing a series of explosions among the attacking Soviet tanks and infantry!

Then, the Hs-129 anti-tank attack aircraft, equipped with a powerful 50mm cannon (modified with the Pak38 model), began to wield its might - a flying tank with far more solid armor than ordinary aircraft, and could maneuver through the enemy's dense anti-aircraft fire. And that 50mm cannon can also fire powerful armor-piercing shells!

When the plane swept over the Soviet tank cluster from the treetops, any kind of Soviet tank, including the JS-2, would become extremely vulnerable.

Tanks, wrapped in heavy armor, are becoming more and more vulnerable to blows under increasingly powerful infantry and anti-tank fire from the air.

Seeing that the Soviet tank and infantry clusters in front were engulfed in flames, Skornez shouted excitedly: "The Panther tanks entered the positions, and all the anti-tank groups entered the positions and prepared for battle!" ”

……

"Damn German planes!"

While the 16 German fighters flapped their wings and flew away unscathed, General Chuikov was supervising the battle in a forward position of the Soviet army on the Andrey Boll front. Looking at the cluster of Soviet tanks in front of which was blown up by German planes, Chuikov couldn't help but curse.

He is also a battle-hardened general, commanding mechanized troops since the outbreak of the world revolution. But he never imagined that the once majestic tank has now almost become a deceitful existence. Not only was it blown up by the planes in the sky, but even the infantry on the ground casually took out a bazooka and threw an anti-tank grenade to blow up the tank wrapped in steel plates.

It seems that Andre Bol's hard bone is not easy to gnaw!