While the Military Commission was still discussing how to thwart the German "Redbeard" offensive, Klinzi's battle had entered its most brutal stage. German armored units swarmed in, and with the support of one-sided artillery and air fire, wave after wave launched a fierce assault on the Red Army stationed in Klintsey.

Due to the relatively small number of Red Army units in Klintsey, which suffered heavy losses under German firepower, it can be said that the forward defense system was basically destroyed. Beginning on 8 October, the Germans reached Klintsy with little organized resistance. The Germans then began to encircle Klinzi on two fronts.

In order to hold Klinzi, the Red Army had to send a small number of armored units into battle, and a new round of armored battles began. At 11 o'clock on October 9, as soon as the German tanks came to a standstill, the Red Army's T-34-76 appeared in the sight of the Germans. The battle soon began.

On the German side, about 9 Tiger tanks went into battle, while on the Red Army side, there was a full tank battalion. It should be said that both sides have their own advantages, and in terms of single-vehicle combat effectiveness, the Tiger can completely blow up the T-34-76. But in terms of overall numbers, the T-34-76 has the upper hand again, and the key to who will win depends on the quality of the commander and tanker.

After the battle, the German tank crew soon found an unexpected trouble, because the Tiger tank has been acting as a "barrier breaker", in the previous battle encountered a lot of Red Army anti-tank gun attacks, although neither the ZIS-3 nor the 1937 45 mm anti-tank gun has the ability to penetrate the frontal armor of the Tiger tank, but the constant armor-piercing shell attack will make the tank armor metal fatigue, and because the hull and turret are subjected to too much shock. Caused the parallel collimation between the gun and the sight to be destroyed. The systematic error of the sighting device is greatly increased.

Let's put it this way. Many commanders of Tiger tanks found that the triangular indicators and differentiation scale markers in their sights had completely become decorations, so that the targets that were originally aimed at were actually several close positions. However, the battlefield conditions at that time were not possible to recalibrate, so German tankers often had to fire three shells before they could observe a more accurate error correction and re-aim accurately.

Of course, even so, the fire reconnaissance launched by the Red Army tanks was repulsed by the Germans, but the Germans did not dare to be careless. Because the Reds would certainly have called for fire support after a setback here, the area was covered with trees and bushes that also hampered the range of the Tiger tanks. The commander of the German tank company, Captain Rosen, decided to move to the southwest to re-fortify, where the terrain was relatively open and conducive to the fire of the Tiger 88 guns, so the nine Tiger tanks turned around and headed south.

When the German tank column turned west in a grove, two armor-piercing shells suddenly came from 1200 meters away. The frontal armor of the Tiger tank, which was at the forefront, was hit, and the shells easily entered the body of the Tiger tank, igniting the fuel tank, and soon after the tiger was surrounded by raging flames.

"Damn, there's an ambush!"

A cloud of sorrow crossed Captain Rosen's mind. Obviously, moving on in this case. Only the remaining 8 tanks will be trapped in the encirclement of enemy anti-tank fire. In a cautious and cautious manner, Captain Rosen immediately ordered the troops to retreat and then awaited further orders from the battalion headquarters.

In fact, there was no ambush in Captain Rosen's path, not a single Red Army in that direction, and it was the Germans themselves who destroyed the tanks of Commanders and Muller. An 88-mm anti-aircraft gun company mistook Rosen's troops for the enemy, which led to a farce of self-proclaimed oolongs.

In fact, the Red Army stationed in Klinzi at that time simply did not have anti-tank weapons that could penetrate the Tiger tank head-on from a distance of 1,200 meters. Even if the tiger was brought down within 500 meters, the Red Army did not have many methods.

After an hour's rest, Captain Rosen, who had figured out the truth of the matter, was extremely depressed, and he ordered the troops to continue to move south, while at the same time, the tank units of the Red Army also attacked again according to the instructions of their superiors.

Young Second Lieutenant Vasily led his platoon of tanks cautiously through the forest and trees, carefully searching for traces of the enemy. Vasily's tank platoon had four T-34-76s and two T-35A, and this was the first time that Second Lieutenant Vasily went to the battlefield. A month ago he was studying tactical theory at a tank school, and a month later, he is leading a group of the same rookies into battle against the Germans.

When he ran over the abandoned positions of the German army with his tanks and swept away a few German stragglers with machine guns, he couldn't help but have a thought - the "cruel war" was just a trick by the old guys to scare the newcomers!

Soon, however, Vasily would throw this naïve idea out of the clouds, and when T-34-76 had just rolled over a hedge, his vision suddenly opened up. Vasily immediately noticed that there was a behemoth moving slowly in the open ground on the left. The guy was twice as big as the T-34, with a long barrel spewing tongues of fire outward.

At first, Vasily was stunned, because he had never seen such a "monster", and the German vehicle identification manual issued to him by his superiors categorically did not contain such a monster. However, Vasily soon came to his senses, and he gave up on continuing to investigate what kind of tank it was, anyway, the iron cross on the opponent's turret clearly stated that it was the enemy. If you encounter an enemy, it doesn't matter what kind of species he is, let's fight first!

Vasily's idea was simple, that is, to destroy the enemy, who he did not realize was much stronger than him.

"Turn left in the turret! Steady! Fire! Vasily excitedly ordered the gunners.

And the gunner, after aiming, fired a shot at the Tiger at a distance of 500 meters. Then Vasily saw through the periscope that his shells hit the enemy's turret accurately, and then were catapulted into the air.

"Didn't break through! Fast! One more shot! ”

Vasily's loader quickly loaded another armor-piercing shell, and the gun commander immediately chose to fire, but to Vasily's shock and dismay, the artillery did not react at all.

"It's stuck. Comrade Vasily! There was a distinct trilling in the gunner's voice. At this juncture, where is the time to troubleshoot. I'm afraid before they troubleshoot. The Tiger tank's 88 guns had already lifted off their Celestial Cover.

Just as Vasily was anxiously contacting friendly forces, the Tiger tank returned fire, and the Germans fired their first guns, and in Vasily's words: "They were outrageously biased, which made me wonder if the German gunners had the most basic skills." ”

Of course, we all know that this is due to the problem of aiming of the Tiger tank, and the basic qualities of the German tankers are still very solid. Soon. The Germans fired another shot, this time better than the last, but still missed. At the same time, Vasily's comrades fired a shot, and the armor-piercing shell hit the Tiger again, and then again it was ejected.

At that time, Vasily couldn't help but burst into a foul mouth: "Lie in a big groove!" What kind of tank is this?! ”

And this was not the most shocking thing for Vasily, because soon another T-34-76 joined the battle group, and it fired two shots in a hurry, one of which missed, and the other hit the enemy's turret again. This time, the armor-piercing bullet was not ejected, but directly hit the tiger's turret to pieces.

All right. Vasily immediately understood that this terrible enemy was probably not something they could handle, and he urgently contacted the T-35A that was lagging behind, which was armed with a more powerful 100-mm smoothbore gun, and it still worked at the critical moment. On the other hand, he immediately gave orders to his comrades:

"Go around the wings, quick! Don't stop where you are! ”

In fact, Vasily's order was a little late, the Germans fired quite accurately the third time, and the 88 guns accurately hit the T-34-76 on the left, and the huge power of the shell directly knocked off its turret!

The drivers of the two T-34-76s immediately stepped on the accelerator to the end, and the B2 engine let out a series of roars, spewed puffs of smoke and rushed forward.

The T-34 was still very maneuverable, running fast on bumpy dirt roads, allowing the Germans to miss the next two shots.

300 meters, 200 meters, 100 meters, as the distance got closer and closer, Vasily's heart was pounding, and he secretly estimated that a distance of 100 meters should be able to penetrate the enemy's armor, right?

As if to verify Vasily's prediction, another T-34-76, which was moving at high speed on the other side, suddenly stepped on the brakes, and the tank weighing more than 30 tons creaked to a halt, and after a short aiming, it opened fire!

A hundred meters is too close, and at such a close distance, the huge Tiger tank is almost crammed into the gunner's scope, and for the gunner, he needs to think not about whether he can hit the target, but about where to hit.

With a bang, the 76-mm tank gun spewed out a cloud of flames, and almost instantaneously fired an armor-piercing shell that hit the Tiger's turret, and Vasily, who was watching the battle, even shouted "Ula"! In his opinion, this time the enemy was doomed.

But for the next second, to Vasily's astonishment, the Tiger remained unscathed, and the 76mm armor-piercing shell only cut a small hole in the Tiger's turret, which was negligible.

What made Vasily even more angry and embarrassed was that the Tiger's commander actually opened the hatch and leaned out of the turret, and the blonde German took out a handkerchief and dusted it on the part that had just been hit, as if to wipe the dust on the turret.

"Too much deception!"

Yes, this was Vasily's truest thoughts at that time, but what made him depressed was that he didn't have much to do with the arrogant enemy, and the stuck bullet still could not be eliminated, of course, even if it was eliminated, the power of the F34 tank gun could not penetrate the opponent, and it could only tickle the enemy.

Just when Vasily was frustrated, the German commander returned to the inside of the turret, and soon the Tiger fired a shot at another T-34-76, which was also stunned. The shell passed through the upper armor of the T-34-76, killing the driver and loader on the spot, and the commander and gun commander of the tank had to flee in confusion.

And that's not all, after solving this little trouble, the Tiger's turret began to slowly turn, and it became clear that the Germans also wanted to deal with Vasily. At that moment, Vasily shuddered, reacted suddenly, and suddenly screamed: "Bump into it!" Fast! ”

Almost at the same time as Vasily roared, the Tiger tank fired a shot. This shell hit the barrel of the T-34-76. Break the tube in two and start tumbling and spinning. When it hit the upper part of the T-34 turret with a bang, it was catapulted away.

"When the enemy opened fire, I thought I was going to die, but after two seconds, when I realized that the shell had only destroyed our tank guns, I sighed...... Of course, the crisis is not over, and we are still a certain distance from the tiger. That's enough time for the Germans to fire another shot. ”

However, the tiger did not shoot again, but tried to clumsily dodge the T-34-76 that slammed into him, but this was of no avail, because the tiger's mobility was really good, and Vasily's side ran fast.

The T-34 crashed into the left middle of the tiger, accompanied by a piercing metal crash, and the two steel behemoths stopped abruptly, but the tiger was caused by the violent impact that caused the engine to stall, and the diesel engine of the T-34 did not have this problem, so the main reason why Vasily had to stop was. The crash hit the driver's brain the periscope, and the poor boy fainted.

There was a sudden silence all around. The Tiger burst its fuel tank during this impact, and the leaking gasoline was ignited by the flying flames of the martyred T-34 on the other side. Both the Germans and the Russians almost subconsciously made a similar choice - abandon the car!

When the crew members of the two tanks pushed open the hatch and rushed out to flee for their lives, a funny scene appeared. Vasily managed to get out of the long door, jumped out of the tank and collided with the Tiger's radioman next to the hull, and then the two rolled into the nearby crater to avoid the fire.

According to Vasily's recollections: "At first, we were all going to continue fighting, but when we looked at each other, we all gave up on this idea. We both shrugged our shoulders with a smirk, and ran back to our positions in the gap between the shelling......"

Vasily's encounter was typical of this day's fighting, and the Red Army tankmen who encountered the Tiger tank for the first time were at a loss for the monster. The T-34-76 was equipped with an F34 tank gun with limited power, and could not penetrate the Tiger's frontal armor even at zero distance. A considerable part of the Red Army tankmen had to disperse and attack the flanks of the Tiger from both flanks in a roundabout way. And in this death roundabout, the Red Army had to pay a heavy price.

Let's put it this way, when the T-34-76 encounters a Tiger, it takes an average of 3-4 tanks to destroy a Tiger. Such a battle loss ratio is undoubtedly still too high. Therefore, after Klintsy was surrounded, the defenders gave Rokossovsky a special mention of the German Tiger tank, bluntly saying that with the current configuration of the troops, it would be difficult to destroy such heavy tanks. The Front was strongly urged to immediately reinforce more advanced and powerful anti-tank weapons.

Rokossovsky attached great importance to this report and immediately fed back it to the Central Military Commission, strongly urging him to urgently deploy more advanced tanks and tank destroyers to his front army.

Rokossovsky said this: "The troops urgently need the T-54, and it is okay to give us the T-35A without the T-54, and the situation on the battlefield shows that for the time being, only 100-mm smoothbore guns can effectively destroy the enemy." Anti-tank guns, including ZIS-2 and ZIS-3, proved to be difficult to threaten the enemy's heavy tanks ......"

Of course, Rokossovsky's words are a bit absolute, and they are not entirely correct, in fact, both ZIS-2 and ZIS-3 actually have the ability to destroy the tiger, and the ZIS-2 needless to say, if the high-speed armor-piercing projectile with the most advanced tungsten carbide core is fired, it can kill the tiger in about a thousand meters. But the problem with ZIS-2 is that there are problems with advanced high-speed armor-piercing projectile technology and production capacity, and it is simply impossible to widely equip it to the front line.

As for the ZIS-3, its problem is actually more serious, as I said before, this cannon is actually a DIY build product. It is an emergency cargo that takes the gun carriage of the ZIS-2 and the barrel of the F22 cannon to deal with temporarily. In essence, its anti-tank capabilities are limited.

However, from the perspective of latecomers, ZIS-3 actually still has potential to be tapped, if it is equipped with a more advanced tungsten carbide core of high-speed armor-piercing projectiles, at a distance of 300 meters, in fact, it can penetrate 100 mm thick vertical armor, barely able to penetrate the tiger's face.

Of course, this is reluctant. But the potential of what I'm talking about isn't just about new munitions. From the point of view of the ZIS-3 gun itself, in fact, it also has considerable potential. For example, in World War II, Germany captured a large number of ZIS-3s, on the one hand, using this Stalin gun in its own troops, and on the other hand, even making significant improvements to the ZIS-3!

Yes, comrades, you read that right, the Germans turned out to have improved the ZIS-3. The improvement strategy is simple, that is, to replace the ZIS-3's medicine room with a large medicine room that is compatible with German 75 mm ammunition. How awesome is the ZIS-3 with such improvements? Just look at this set of data, at a distance of a thousand meters, it is possible to penetrate vertical armor 125 mm thick. This data is not much worse than that of ZIS-2!

In fact, many Red Army artillerymen were very dissatisfied with the fact that the ZIS-3 was only issued with old-fashioned armor-piercing shells, and they knew that the ZIS-3 still had a large safety margin in the body and tube, and it was completely possible to use more powerful anti-tank ammunition. It's just that what makes them depressed is that they just don't care about it.

So why is the Military Commissariat of the Red Army of little interest in this? Let's take my time...... (To be continued.) )