The current Soviet Red Army does not have the T-34/85, nor does it have the heavy tanks of the IS series named after the great leader Stalin, and the most effective tank killer in their hands is this T-34/57 tank. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

However, because this tank only began to be mass-produced after the outbreak of the world revolution, and the 57mm main gun was difficult to process because of the high diameter of 72.9 times, the production was always not high, which greatly limited the production of the T-34/57 tank.

More than three months after the outbreak of the world revolution, the Soviet Red Army had less than 800 T-34/57 tanks, which was not much more than the Tiger tanks owned by the German army.

But now, this very scarce T-34/57 tank appeared in large numbers in Yakov. In Zhugashvili's sight, there are more than 200 vehicles!

It is clear that the commander of the Belarusian Front, Vasilevsky, has now made the greatest determination to fight a vigorous tank battle between Rakov and Zaslavl with the invading Germans. But can more than 200 T-34/57 tanks alone win?

The armored clusters of the Red Army, which were gaining momentum, included not only T-34/57 tanks, but also T-34/76 and KV-1 tanks. Driving on the highway so mightily that you can't even see the edge.

Seeing this scene, the soldiers of the 9th Motorized Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment, which was setting up blocking positions, let out bursts of cheers: "Ula! Ulla! ”

But Yakov. Dzhugashvili quietly took a breath. Although he only attended a military school for one year, he could not even be considered a truly qualified career officer. But after all, he had the experience of the Warsaw battlefield and knew that the ZIS-2 anti-tank gun was not as sharp as advertised against the German Tiger tank.

It can only threaten the Tiger at a distance of about 500 meters, and because the 57mm armor-piercing projectile is not enough to damage, although it can damage the Tiger tank, it is difficult to destroy it to the extent that it cannot be repaired. In addition, it is possible that due to the fact that the gearbox of the German tank was front-mounted (at this time the gearbox of the tank was large and heavy), it was equivalent to providing additional protection for the crew members. Therefore, Yakov often saw the crew members of the Tiger and No. 4 tanks on the battlefield in Warsaw, one by one intact and crawling out of the tanks that had been hit by 57mm shells.

The crew can run, the tank can be repaired. Such a "defeat" for Germany is nothing more than a matter of changing a steel plate and a gearbox. As far as the Soviets are concerned, once their T-31 and KV-1 tanks are destroyed by the Germans' 75mm or 88mm guns, it is likely to be a real car crash!

Therefore, in the battle between the tank forces of the two sides, the real exchange ratio was very unfavorable for the Soviet Union. So Yakov . Dzhugashvili really had little confidence in the decisive battle of tanks that was going to take place, to be honest.

"Victory of the world revolution! Ulla! ”

"Defend the Soviet Motherland! Ulla! ”

"The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army! Ulla! ”

At a time when Yakov was shaken by the prospect of the inevitable victory of the GCIST cause, the morale of most of the Red Army commanders and fighters on the battlefield was instantly at its highest point because of the massive reinforcement of tank units and the encouragement of political cadres.

Their cheers reached the ears of the German officers and men, who had finished their formation and were preparing to charge again.

"Reinforcements from the Soviets have arrived! It seems that there are quite a few! Major Schwarzenegger muttered, having heard such cheers more than once on the battlefield of Warsaw. Such cheers, which did not take place before their large-scale offensive, necessarily meant that a large number of reinforcements had arrived.

A Soviet counterattack is now impossible, because the German advantage is too great, so there must be a large number of reinforcements arriving.

Obviously, the breakthrough in the Rakov area was expected by the top of the Soviet army long ago!

While Major Schwarzenegger was making wild guesses, the order to attack was given again. I don't know if it was because when I broke through the first line of defense of the Soviet army before, I encountered an ambush by a T-34/57 tank lying behind an earthen mound.

So this attack was first launched by the "Rhino" tank destroyer. On a front of more than 10 kilometers, 11 battalions of "Rhino" tank destroyers (362 in total) rumbled into an area less than 3,000 meters from the enemy's position, and then used their 88mm guns to target any object suspected of being a "tank bunker" on the Soviet position.

After a while, 10 more battalions of Wasp self-propelled howitzers (105mm caliber) and No. 3 assault guns rumbled to the front from the rear, joining the chorus of artillery fire initiated by 88mm guns. The targets of the bombardment were no longer limited to the "mounds", but were expanded to various positions of suspected forward gun emplacements, machine-gun bunkers, and front-line headquarters. The Red Army soldiers who were rushing to the front from their reserve positions were also shelled, but now the situation was critical, and they had no choice but to retreat, and the motorized infantry of the 9th Mechanized Corps could only continue to move forward, and people were constantly killed and wounded by shells that fell in the communication trenches!

The T-34/57 tanks, T34 tanks and KV-1 tanks, which were lining up behind the Soviet front, are now also in trouble. They had just come out of the concealed assembly area when they were spotted by German reconnaissance planes hovering in the sky. During the march, they were bombarded indiscriminately by DO217 medium bombers with huge bomb loads, and although the loss of tanks was not large, many vehicles carrying ammunition and fuel, as well as some poorly armored armored vehicles and maintenance vehicles, were damaged, and the infantry that followed them also suffered heavy casualties.

By the time the tanks began to line up, BR.703 attack aircraft armed with 50mm cannons and HS129 attack aircraft armed with 47mm cannons also came to the battlefield in groups.

These sturdy belly armor were not afraid of ground fire, hovering at altitudes of tens of meters or even less, and attacking the tank's weak rear and top armor with high-velocity armor-piercing shells from the cannon hanging under the belly.

For these two aircraft, which are similar to the Il-2, but far exceed the firepower of the Il-2, the Soviet Red Army has no way to deal with it, except to increase the anti-aircraft firepower of the tank brigade, that is, to concentrate the P51 and Yak-1, desperately providing air support. However, the German Fokker Zero and the French D.550 are very good low-altitude fighters, enough to control the sky over the battlefield.

As for at higher altitudes, the FW-190A-4, with its powerful firepower, has long been the master of the air!

And the Soviet tanks, which had lost air supremacy, now had to go into the woods all over the battlefield and hide themselves.

At this time, Yakov. Dzhugashvili realized that the battlefield he was on was covered with small woods, and there were places to hide. Obviously, the Front Command carefully selected this place as the battlefield for the decisive battle with the German panzer clusters.

By this time, the close shelling by German tank destroyers and assault guns and 105mm self-propelled guns had ended, and the Tiger and No. 4 tanks began to advance step by step. And the Soviet artillery group, which had been suppressed since the outbreak of the decisive battle, opened fire with all its strength at this time, regardless of the threat from the air. The shells carved a high wall of artillery fire at the front of the second line of Soviet positions, impartially and in front of the German tank cluster. However, for the German panzers advancing in tanks, the fire from howitzers and rocket artillery was nothing to fear.

Major Schwarzenegger's half-track armored command vehicle did not have a roof, but it still fearlessly advanced against Soviet artillery fire. The heat wave and the choking smell of gunpowder smoke poured into the compartment from the top of the open vehicle, and Major Schwarzenegger, with a steel helmet on his head, leaned against the steel plate on the side of the carriage, and prayed silently in his heart.

I don't know if it was God who showed his might, or whether the German and French bombers suppressed the Red Army artillery group, anyway, after a few minutes the Soviet artillery fire gradually thinned out. Major Schwarzenegger immediately stood up, leaning on the armored baffle of the carriage and looking left and right, only to see the surrounding vehicles rumbling forward in the smoke of gunfire.

He looked behind him again, and saw that there were many burning vehicles scattered around the place where the surface of the moon was beaten by the artillery fire of both sides! Most of them are half-track armored vehicles, these light armored vehicles without a roof are still easily set on fire in the face of dense Soviet fire, and I don't know what happened to the people who rode on them?

He finally turned around and looked forward, only to see that the Tiger tank and the No. 4F tank at the head of the platoon had rushed to a distance of more than 1,000 meters from the Soviet position, and the vehicle-mounted machine gun was about to play a close-range suppression role. Suddenly, a cloud of smoke suddenly appeared at the bottom of one of the Tiger tanks, and then the whole tank jerked forward a few times before it came to a screeching halt. Then another tank No. 4F did the same thing, also stopping after smoke from the bottom.

Obviously, such a coincidence could not have been a mechanical failure, and Schwarzenegger did not see a flash of muzzle flame from the Soviet position. Then the only thing that can be: anti-tank mines!

Schwarzenegger thought to himself: "The land ahead has been bombarded by artillery fire repeatedly, and there are still mines." If it weren't for the two particularly lucky mines, they must have been the ones whose sappers rushed out of the position to bury the mines during the Soviet shelling just now. The bravery and fearlessness of these Bolsheviks far surpassed that of the French and British! ”

At this time, the German tank group did not stop advancing because of the mines, and all the tanks, assault guns and armored vehicles still maintained their original formation, and they rushed forward violently.

The two sides were getting closer and closer, but there was no counter-fire from the Soviet positions.

Did the Soviets give up? Just when Major Schwarzenegger was feeling strange, someone suddenly shouted in his headphones: "Soviet tank cluster found!" Here they are, right in front of us! There are a lot of them, maybe hundreds or thousands of vehicles! (To be continued.) )