Patton the guinea pig was already in high spirits at this time, his car was only four or five hundred meters away from the enemy's position, and even he could see the enemy walking around in the trenches. He couldn't help but tap the driver's head vigorously and motioned for the other party to speed up.

The FT-17's maneuverability is really not very good, even if the driver hits the accelerator to the end, it looks like a turtle crawling. Even because of the rapid acceleration, Patton's car stalled and broke down.

"Damn it!"

Barton cursed, and when he saw through the periscope his comrades overtaking him one by one, running over the barbed wire fence in front of the enemy position, he had the heart to kick the driver twice. Patton had always wanted to be the number one tanker in the U.S. Army, and the best way to fulfill that honor was to be the first to break through the enemy's trenches on the battlefield. Today was supposed to be a good opportunity, but it was all ruined by an incompetent driver!

Patton watched his comrades march forward, and he was really a little envious and jealous, and when the driver was back on fire and the tank was back on fire, he almost didn't sing: "G0!" GO！ GO！ "That's it.

The first row of FT-17s crashed into barbed wire, and Patton, the other tankers, as well as Greg and Clément, who were watching from behind, agreed that the rest of the battle was not too much suspense. For the FT-17, breaking through the barbed wire fence is nothing at all.

It is indeed a small meaning, and the FT-17 runs over with ease, effortlessly and easily. However, the next scene shattered Barton and the others' glasses.

The first FT-17, which had run over the barbed wire, continued to move forward less than a hundred meters before suddenly exploding. The explosion came so suddenly and inexplicably that Barton was puzzled. How did this tank explode? Could it be that the temperature inside the car is too high, and the ammunition has exploded? Or did you turn the ammunition off the rack because of bad road conditions?

Of course. Soon Barton's attention shifted. Because he felt that it was a small probability event that happened by chance. It was an accident. Anyway, it is not a big problem for one, two, or even ten or twenty tanks to break, or as long as they can break through the enemy's positions, such a small loss is acceptable!

Anyway, that's what Barton thought, he urged the driver to hurry forward, as a brigade commander, he can't crane the tail of the crane, let alone be the deputy squad leader! However, Barton soon realized that something was wrong, because the previous explosion was not a small probability event, let alone an accident. Many of the FT-17s in the charge were running quite happily just now, but in the blink of an eye, they separated or simply sat on a dirt plane.

When such accidents are more and more. It was also getting denser and denser, and Barton was shocked!

What's going on? The enemy's secret weapon?

In fact, Greg and Clement also noticed the unexpected situation on the battlefield, and when the charging tanks exploded without warning, they realized that something was wrong. The Russians on the opposite position are probably not the kind of leopards who are scared when they see tanks for the first time, and the other party probably expected that they would use tanks, and they have already made targeted arrangements!

Patton, Greg and Clément widened their eyes as they swept over the advancing FT-17 tanks, knowing that the best way to find out what the Russians were using was to keep their eyes open. See clearly at the first moment of the explosion.

Patton's luck was that they soon witnessed the explosion - it didn't come from inside the FT-17. The reason comes from the outside!

"Mines!"

Greg and Clément looked at each other, and from their expressions they could tell how surprised they were at the discovery. In their impression, ordinary anti-infantry mines are simply incapable of a strong tank because the explosive charge is too small. And they didn't storm the enemy's line of defense before, the infantry was still running around in this area a few days ago, and they didn't see any mines?

Poor Greg and Clement could never have imagined that there were no anti-infantry mines in this area, but there were anti-tank mines. Anti-tank mine infantry is unlikely to step on it, naturally fine.

Then Patton had to make a choice, whether to continue the attack regardless of the mines, or to retreat temporarily, and call for the supporting artillery to plow this piece again.

Soon the brave Barton chose the former, for the simple reason that the Patton family's creed was to attack, and it was better to let them retreat and run away than to kill them with a single sword. And Patton also knew very well that Greg and Clement could not plow the ground with any decent firepower, and their firepower was really scum compared to the Russian naval artillery support.

Soon, under Patton's leadership, the somewhat flustered American tank crews regained their composure. Because this crazy first tanker rushed to the front, telling his soldiers with practical actions that he was not afraid of any mines.

Yes, Patton liked to do this kind of crazy thing the most, during Operation Torchlight, this man braved artillery fire and air raids to help unload carts at the landing field, and later dared to drive a jeep alone to break through the mine array, and when it came time to break through the Atlantic barrier, in order to cross a "gutter", he personally went to measure the depth of the water under the attention of the Germans on the opposite bank.

Anyway, from a normal person's point of view, Barton belongs to the hole in his head, anyway, I think so. Of course, we have to admit that when the battle is at a stalemate, if you want to break the stalemate, you need a commander like him who has a hole in his head, and when they lead by example and experience it, it will definitely greatly boost morale.

This time was no exception, under the leadership of the brigade commander, the American tank crews went out, slammed the accelerator to the end one by one, and screamed and slaughtered the Red Army's position.

And in the command post of the Red Army position, Trian Dafilov looked at all the American troops' appearances, and for this commander with a somewhat scholarly temperament, the American tankmen's appearances were really not good. He constantly recorded in his little notebook, and all of this will be turned into the most valuable experience and lessons of the mechanized units of the Red Army in the future.

"Comrade Vladimir, the enemy has broken through the anti-tank mine formation!"

When the staff officer shouted this sentence, he was actually a little anxious. For the steel monsters that rumble and crush over. The infantry is indeed under a lot of pressure. And the number of tanks that the other side broke through the iron fence and mine arrays is really quite a lot. There were twenty or thirty vehicles at the beginning, and no matter how you look at the infantry on the front line, they are all under great pressure.

However, Triandafilov did not have any intention of hurrying, waved his hand and sent the staff officer away, and then raised his binoculars and continued to observe the surface of the enemy tank.

"It's too slow!"

"The ability to cross the trench is too poor!"

"Thin firepower!"

"Lack of effective command!"

In an instant, Trian Dafilov made several notes, and it was clear that in the face of this military genius, the tank that Russia needed in the future could not be the virtue of the FT-17. Even he felt that the FT-17, which had the best comprehensive performance in World War I and was also the originator of modern tanks, could really only be regarded as a large toy.

Also. The tank, which has just been born for less than two years, does have a lot of problems, and there is no need to talk about speed, which is a hard wound that cannot be solved for the time being. As for the firepower, it was also quite improvised, and the two models of the FT-17, whether equipped with a 37mm leather pit gun or armed with a machine gun, looked thin. For example, the 37mm pitot gun can really only be regarded as a grenade launcher, the maximum range and power are quite limited, and it cannot be used for reinforced fortifications at all. And what's even worse is that the hit rate is really miserable, so to speak. Beyond 200 meters, the truth can only be heard.

Of course. This is also the limitation of the times, you can't expect a tanker to shoot accurately without the most basic sighting equipment, and the 57mm guns of the British tanks are even more miserable than the French Pitos, and they are basically scaremongers.

In fact, among these shortcomings, the last one that Triandafilov attaches the most importance to is the lack of effective command. The performance of the tank in these years was so poor that after the engine began to work, sitting in the tank was no cleaner than sitting on the runway at the airfield.

Not to mention that communication basically depends on roaring, and you can't hear it when you roar, basically the communication within the crew depends on the clipboard and body language. This is still inside the tank, and as for the connection between the tank and the tank or between the tank and the rear command, there is basically no connection. At that time, in order to convey orders, the tank troops even used carrier pigeons!

For example, in the battle of Cambrai, which was relatively successful with tank assault, in order to achieve the attack effect of infantry and tank coordination, how did the infantry following the tank communicate with the tanker? Hit the hull of a tank with a hammer or sapper shovel!

Anyway, at that time, the commanders of the tank units were quite hard, and their perception and control of the battlefield were not ordinarily poor. A lot of the time, it's almost a headless fly!

And this kind of situation of a blind man touching an elephant is very passive on the battlefield, and it is easy to make a lot of mistakes and miss a large number of fighters. So in Triandafilov's opinion, in order to really bring out the power of the tank, the first thing to solve is the problem of command and communication!

However, for the time being, these are still a bit far away, and these problems need to be solved not overnight, and all that is involved is system engineering. And in the eyes of the other commanders of the Red Army, Trianda Filov did not have to think so far ahead, it was better to quickly solve the immediate troubles!

Is the problem at hand troublesome? In the eyes of some, such as Patton, he was ready to celebrate the victory, as long as he crushed the Russians' positions and occupied the breach, he was done! And how far is this journey? Less than 200 meters!

For Patton, for the officers and soldiers of the Entente, victory was so within reach. But at this moment, they were hit head-on!

After entering the range of 200 meters, the anti-tank weapons of the Baltic Front can finally be slaughtered. The first to strike is the recoilless gun, the static armor-piercing power of this 100-millimeter caliber guy is about 300 mm, and the real kinetic armor-piercing power is much more than 80 mm homogeneous armor.

And how thick was the armor of the FT-17? The thickest point is about 22 mm, which means that 100 mm armor-piercing shells can penetrate two FT-17s! Let's put it this way, as long as it is hit by a 100mm armor-piercing projectile, the FT-17 has no chance of survival.

It didn't take long for Patton to notice this, and an FT-17 in front of him on his left flew into the sky with a turret, followed by another one in the rear on the right that turned into a large fireball. FT-17s are constantly being destroyed, and in the face of 100mm armor-piercing shells, their appearance is completely like tofu dregs!

Patton later recalled: "The enemy used a very peculiar artillery, every time it was fired. will shoot out a lot of smoke and flames. The shells they fired were peculiar. It seems to have four wings...... Our tanks looked vulnerable and weak as butter under enemy fire...... Tanks are constantly being destroyed, and comrades are constantly being killed...... I'm stressed! ”

The only good news for Patton was that the accuracy of the 100mm recoilless gun was relatively acceptable, and the firing range was relatively short, so for his tank troops, as long as they buried their heads in the front, there was still a chance of survival!

Barton thought so at the time, leading his boys to charge with their heads. Prepare to cross the enemy's artillery blockade in one fell swoop. But it's not that simple, and Triandafilov has more than just a recoilless cannon in his hand. In addition to recoilless guns, the grassroots anti-armor teams also have smaller bazookas and anti-tank guns.

The PTRD-18 anti-tank gun, when using copper-clad armor-clad hard steel core armor-piercing shells, could penetrate approximately 25 mm of homogeneous steel armor at a distance of 100 meters. Although this power is a bit okay to hit the front face of the FT-17, it can hit other parts one by one.

So just after being ravaged by the recoilless guns for a while, Patton's tank unit ushered in the test of anti-tank guns. And this test is undoubtedly more difficult, after all, the target of the recoilless gun when fired is more obvious, and it can also be suppressed with fire. The movement of the anti-tank guns was much smaller, and in order to avoid exposing the target, the anti-tank gunners deliberately sprinkled water in front of the position.

In this way, Patton's tankmen often died, not knowing how they died. Patton himself was well aware of this, and a moment ago his driver was still rushing forward according to his orders. But at the next moment, with the sound of the car, the poor fellow's neck was crooked and he died.

Barton didn't know what was going on, and kept trying to kick the poor driver, trying to order the hapless man to move on.

For the next few minutes, Patton was frightened enough, the tank that stopped on the battlefield was undoubtedly the best target, and in an instant his car became a magnet for bullets, although the Red Army's machine gun and rifle bullets were not enough to penetrate the armor of the FT-17, but the dense impact of bullets on the steel plate could also deform the steel plate, and even cause the inner layer of the steel plate to break into pieces and fly around the cabin.

Mike, a tanker who participated in that battle, recalled: "Machine gun bullets pierced the hull at least once, causing minor injuries to me and the driver Evans......"

Of course, even if the rifle bullet did not penetrate the armor, it could still cause great psychological pressure on the tanker, and no one could watch the steel plate in front of him deform without being indifferent, and the clanging of the bullet hitting the steel plate was like a bell to hit the tankman's inner world.

Quite a few eyewitnesses claimed that "the tanks came back with scars, while the young man who drove them collapsed......"

Patton is the kind of soldier who is born to be a soldier, and his mental instinct naturally does not collapse, and in fact he acts like a man who is okay after discovering that the driver is dead. After an unsuccessful attempt to restart the tank, he removed the Hatch Chase machine gun from the turret. Holding this machine gun, Patton got out of the turret, and under the dense rain of bullets, the madman was unscathed!

I have to say, it's a miracle! Anyway, Patton did not leave the battlefield after leaving his car, but relied on the cover of his car and began to fire at the Reds on the opposite side, in his own words: "I killed at least two Russian minus before I could use all the ammunition!" ”

Regardless of Patton's personal successes, however, his tank assault had failed, and as more and more FT-17s burst into flames and exploded, and when the Red Banner Baltic Fleet began shelling again, the only thing the Allied soldiers on the battlefield could do was drop their weapons and pray for God's blessing.

It takes only an hour for a tank battalion to go from the attack to the time it fails. In this storm, only seven tanks returned to their starting positions, and the remaining ninety percent of the tankers and tankers were either destroyed or captured. Among them was their valiant brigade commander Patton.

After firing all the bullets, Patton tried to fight hand-to-hand with the Red Army soldiers who pounced on him with a sapper shovel, the big man who had won the fifth place in the modern pentathlon at the Stockholm Olympics really chose the wrong opponent, and the same tall and tall Mao Zi soldiers were not afraid of him, and after a few minutes, the future Admiral Patton was beaten with a bruised skin and swollen face and could not take care of himself, and was dragged back to the prisoner of war camp by the Red Army soldiers like a dead dog.

Of course, Barton will not be too lonely in his future career as a prisoner of war, because MacArthur, another second-generation officer, has been waiting for him for a long time, and it will be very speculative to compare these two guys who also like to be in the limelight.

"Damn, what now?"

After learning that Patton was defeated and captured, Major General Greg was dumbfounded, and not only lost nearly a third of the tanks in this battle, but also took in a brigade commander. How do you explain this?

However, Greg really asked the wrong person, Colonel Clément had not recovered from the tank massacre just now, and it was the first time he had seen an army that could deal with a large group of FT-17s so neatly, and the Russians opened his eyes to him, but also made him deeply worried - is the FT-17 really a failed weapon?

Truth be told, such an idea is really unnecessary, and the main reason why the FT-17 appears to have failed in Szczecin is that it has run into opponents who are ahead of its time. In terms of performance, the FT-17 is not outdated at all in this era, and after changing its opponent, its watch can only be described as dazzling, and who is the unlucky ghost who was unfortunately ravaged by the FT-17?

His name is Tukhachevsky...... (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you to Offen, hzwangdd and Juventus!