Later generations of people who played "World of Tanks" joked about the T-34 tank: a racer may not be able to control the T-34, but a good T-34 driver will definitely be a good racer!

The company commander of the 5th Company of the 10th Battalion of the 112th Tank Brigade, which was attached to the 112th Tank Army. Captain Samokin would have agreed with this if he had heard this. Because under his boots, there was a brilliant T-34 tank driver www.biquge.info, Shevchenko, who was as Ukrainian as the Nazis who were now stuck inside Farm Building No. 13. But this is a good Ukrainian, an honorable member of the Bolshevik Party, and a pretty good T-34 driver, who can drive this difficult vehicle with the same agility as an American-aided off-road vehicle.

Without him, Captain Samokin would not only not have the status and achievements he has today, a tank company commander and a Hero of the Soviet Union, but would probably have been killed by German tanks on the battlefield in Poland.

However, even with a good driver and an ace commander/gunner (Captain Samokin himself, who has 19 verifiable successes, all of which were achieved with the T-34/57 tank), it is still very difficult to destroy a German tank or a strong artillery gun with the T-34/57.

Because what is being fought on today's Soviet-German battlefield is not a heads-up between tanks and tanks, but a contest between the mechanized combat systems of the Soviet and German armies! Even if it is a trump card, it is just a relatively good quality "screw" in this system, and it is impossible to change the weakness of the entire system.

Although he was reluctant to admit it, Captain Samokin knew very well that even if the T-34/57 and KV-85 became the main force of the Red Army's tank forces, and there were strong attack guns with excellent anti-tank capabilities such as the Su-85 and Su-122, the advantage on the battlefield still belonged to the German army.

And the Germans have a very big advantage! They had better tanks and more powerful guns than the Soviets - in fact, there was not much difference in numbers between the two sides, but the quality of German tanks was better than that of the Soviets, so the sortie rate was higher.

In addition, the infantry and artillery of the Germans also had stronger and more anti-tank means, including anti-tank grenade launchers of the Iron Fist series, recoilless guns of various calibers, and 75mm class anti-tank guns that were basically "self-propelled" and "armored".

However, the biggest threat to Soviet tanks on the battlefield came from the sky, and the French Breguet attack aircraft and the German HS129 were simply two tank killers! And the dive bombers of the Fokker Zero D, FW-190F series and JU87 Stuka series were able to inflict fatal damage on Soviet tank units.

Therefore, the tactics of the Soviet tank units are now very different from those in 1942, and the maneuver of the troops in the front-line areas is basically arranged at night. The attack was also carried out as far as possible at night, under the cover of night. During the day, the troops are generally concealed and defended.

In addition, the use of tank/assault artillery for defense and ambush became increasingly the main means of warfare of Soviet tank forces.

The battle of PF No. 13, which reached its climax from the evening of May 9, also began with the German offensive and the Soviet defense.

Since the living quarters of the woods and farms occupied only a small part of the battlefield, there was simply no way to place an entire tank army. Therefore, most of the Soviet tanks/guns could only be placed in very lush wheat fields. Captain Samokin and his tank company (full of 10 T-34s, but now there are only five, of which three are T-34/57 and two are T-34/76, the rest have either broken down or have been blown up by German planes) were placed in a wheat field less than 10 km from PFG No. 13 (living quarters).

All five tanks were covered with camouflage nets covered in leaves, and they also relied on a mound of earth excavated with buckets (buckets that could be attached to tanks). A 25mm anti-aircraft artillery position was also deployed nearby, and 6 M1940 anti-aircraft guns were placed. In addition, a company of infantry with machine guns and "red iron fists" was scattered around the tanks.

Samokin opened the hatch at the top of the tank's turret, half exposed, holding a telescope in his hand, looking around.

Suddenly, he heard a strange "boom" sound, which was the sound of rocket launchers.

"Rocket artillery! Hide! Samokin shouted, and quickly retreated into the stuffy, cramped T-34 tank, which was filled with diesel and engine oil temperatures, and closed the hatch.

Then, he heard a dull thud coming through the thick armor of the T-34 tank.

It is clear that the Germans are shelling the "tank defense positions" where he is located with rocket artillery. Of course, the T-34 was not very afraid of rocket artillery, but it was difficult to say about the nearby infantry and anti-aircraft artillery positions.

Without the cover of infantry and anti-aircraft artillery, Comrade Samokin's company would have been in a very dangerous situation.

While Comrade Samokin was worried about his comrades-in-arms, in a wheat field less than 5000 meters from him, a tank commander with the Blue Max medal around his neck (only the commander who destroyed more than 50 enemy tanks/assault guns was eligible) Kut. Sergeant Major Kenspel was poking half out of the turret hatch of his Tiger G tank, also holding a telescope to observe the surrounding terrain.

Sergeant Major Kenspel is a German tank ace commander and is now the platoon commander of the 1st Company and 2nd Platoon of the 506th Heavy Armored Battalion (usually attached to the 6th Panzer Division) and the commander of the Tiger tank. Born in 1922, Kenspel was conscripted into the army in 1940 and trained as a tank gunner after joining the army, fought in the 1941 battle in North Africa, and then trained as a commander. Before the outbreak of the Soviet-German war in 1942, he became the commander of Tank 4H, participated in the Battle of Belarus and the First Battle of Leningrad, and destroyed 32 various Soviet tanks/assault guns with Tank 4H.

He then attended a training course for Tiger commanders, and in April '43 he was given a brand new Tiger G-2 tank. Although the armor protection ability of this "Shrinking Tiger" (which can also be called "Water Injection Leopard") with a total combat weight of 48 tons is not as good as that of the Tiger E type, the reliability of the equipment has been greatly improved, and the endurance has also increased a lot, and the extremely accurate 88MMKWK36L/56 gun has not shrunk in the slightest!

So today Sergeant Major Kenspel is holding his back and ready to go big and use his Tiger tank to take out some more damn Soviet tanks.

The rocket artillery bombardment did not last long - the rocket artillery battalions of the three divisions under the 11th Panzer Corps and one rocket artillery regiment directly under the corps took part in the shelling. In total, there are 6 battalions (each battalion has 24 48-track 80mm rocket artillery vehicles), 144 rocket artillery vehicles, and a single salvo can fire 6912 80mm rockets. With a length of 705 mm, a weight of only 6.6 kilograms, and a warhead charge of only 0.69 kilograms, this rocket has little lethality against enemy fortifications and armored targets. However, because of the high density of firepower and wide coverage, it is effective against soft targets and minefields, and because it is a self-propelled rocket artillery, it can be put into battle from the march quickly.

So this light and cheap rocket artillery was massively assigned to the German Panzer/Panzergrenadier Divisions, which cleared the enemy with a salvo or two before the tanks and Panzergrenadiers attacked.

After the salvo of rocket artillery, 40 Tiger G tanks, 20 Type 4F tanks (Short Tube 4) and more than 340 Type 4H tanks, which had already lined up in attack formation on the battlefield, began to rumble forward under the cover of tens of thousands of Panzergrenadiers/dismounted cavalry and 45 "Rhino" tank destroyers.

The tank units of the Soviet Red Army on the battlefield of Collective Farm No. 13 were about to learn how terrible the attack of a German panzer division (with a part of the cavalry) could be!

……

"Comrades, for the sake of Ukraine, prepare to fight!"

Sergeant of Honor, Pavlyuchenko, shouted loudly, and the thirty or so ethnic Ukrainian Germans huddled in the basement of the GFM 13 building heard her shout and crawled out of the bomb craters in the basement and walked to their combat posts - the windows that were exposed to the ground.

Pavlyuchenko also went to her post, and although she now commanded a platoon battle group (the previous commander, Sergeant Poroshenko, was seriously wounded by the Soviets' Spitfire tank and is now probably dead), she still had to take part in the battle herself. Because every German soldier in this building who could still move, including the lightly wounded and Major Zintz, was fighting.

This was probably the only thing they could do until they were killed or rescued.

But no one, including Pavlyuchenko, has little hope of being rescued. Because the Soviet Su-122 assault guns have been placed in the square a few hundred meters in front of the building, the starting position of the Soviet infantry is less than 300 meters away from the building.

Fortunately, the Soviet tank army was not equipped with 203mm B-4 howitzers, otherwise Pavlyuchenko and others would have been buried in the collapsed houses. But the Soviets threw in another weapon - the Spitfire!

"Ulla! Ulla! Ula ......"

A deafening shout soon rang out, and looking out of a window that had been converted into a firing port, Pavlyuchenko saw the approaching Soviet infantry and T-34 tanks (the Spitfire OT-34) approaching in the moonlight. (To be continued.) )