Berlin. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Rokossovsky raised his binoculars and glanced in the direction of the Brandenburg Gate, but he could not see anything in the way of the numerous buildings. The only thing he could see from Lichtenberg was the Church of the Holy Spirit, which undoubtedly made him a little distracted.

Equally interested was Zhukov, who at this time was on the south bank of the Tyre River, and could see the Berlin-Tempelhof airport without having to raise a telescope. Now the airfield is within the range of his artillery, and the artillerymen of the 2nd Ukrainian Front are firing heavily at it.

Shells rained down on the runway of Tempelhof Airport, and the few civilian planes were quickly blown to pieces, and the terminal was hit with a major attack, being beaten into a sieve under direct fire.

However, this did not please Zhukov, for the simple reason that his troops arrived in Berlin almost at the same time as Rokossovsky's troops, and this great honor was still not exclusive to him.

"Get across this damn gutter as soon as possible! I will be the first to plant the flag of the Front Army on the roof of the Prime Minister's Office! ”

After giving this order, Zhukov left in a huff, not even glancing at Berlin, which was being devastated by artillery fire. Similarly, in Lichtenberg, Rokossovsky gave the same order, and the competition between the 2nd Ukrainian Front and the 2nd Belarusian Front continued.

The old Hermstra's armoured units are stopping at the Frankfurt Boulevard for their final rest, and soon they will be along the Frankfurt Boulevard - Karl Brown. Mark. Head straight to Alexanderplatz and the Berlin Hotel, then make a slight turn and cross the River Spree to Humboldt University. After taking Humboldt University, it was very close to the Chancellery and the Reichstag.

In terms of distance, the rivalry between Rokossovsky and Zhukov was somewhat unfair, and it was obvious that Rokossovsky's distance was shorter. Of course, distance was not the first factor, because in terms of the defense of the German army, Zhukov had a certain advantage, since the enemy in front of Rokossovsky was clearly stronger.

The armored train looked at the swastikas and slogans on both sides of the streets of Berlin with some distraction, and to tell the truth he still couldn't believe that it had hit the Nazi homeland. It's all like a dream.

Yevgeny also felt a little emotional, a year ago he thought that it would take at least three years to end this war, but in just one year they entered Berlin from Belarus, and the German army was simply vulnerable under their blows, what a moment and that time!

As for Fat Ivan, he didn't have much emotion at this time, as a foodie he had been attracted by the captured German smoked sausage, and he ordered his subordinates: "Do a little more, let all the comrades taste it." By the way, prepare one for me, the battalion commander, the political commissar and the deputy battalion commander, and send it back to let my relatives in my hometown also taste the taste of the Germans! ”

The offensive began, and urban warfare was no longer unusual for the Red Army, and along the way, they crushed countless times what the Germans called an impenetrable fortress, and Berlin was only the next one.

"Attention! Tanks are let's go! Let the engineering vehicles of combat sappers pass! ”

A strange-looking tank or armored vehicle caught the attention of the Release, the vehicle looked so thick, the nose, sides and rear of the car were heavily protected by heavy armor, and the turret was completely different from the T-34, T-35 and T-54. The turret was thick and heavy, the armor was thick at first glance, and the barrel was thick, visually measuring 152 mm.

"New Su-152?" Shi Neng asked.

"It doesn't seem like it! The barrel is too short! Boris, who was smoking on the T-34-85 next to him, replied, "This cannon is more like a mortar!" ”

Boris's answer was not wrong at all, it was indeed a self-propelled mortar. Specifically, the siege assault guns that the Soviet combat engineers had just been issued. This is a monster made from a combination of the chassis of the T-54 and a 160-mm mortar. It was fully armoured, with a 300 mm bow and 200 mm sides, and its mission was to strike through the streets, clearing the way for infantry with the 160 mm breech-loaded high-level mortar.

The armored vehicles that followed the siege assault guns were also fully reinforced, each MT-LB was covered with iron cages, only the rear of the car was not strengthened for the convenience of combat sappers up and down. Once the siege artillery has opened the way, the battle sappers will quickly move forward, capturing important buildings on both sides of the street and building advance support points for follow-up troops.

"What should I do if I encounter a tank of the German devils?" Zhang Huangxin, who was standing on the side and watching with great interest, asked, "The German devils have arranged super-heavy tanks in the surrounding towns, it is impossible that Berlin does not have them, right?" ”

That's a good question, in the face of the super-heavy tanks of the German army, the existing armored forces of the Red Army really did not have a very good way. But the military. The committee had already thought of this problem and urgently issued a rushed 120-mm recoilless gun for the combat engineers attacking Berlin. The level of armor-piercing 120 mm armor-piercing projectiles fired by the gun was close to 400 mm, which was enough to open cans for the E-100 and the rat.

Of course, this does not mean that the tanks of the Red Army can only be watched in vain, they also have to go into battle, supporting the combat sappers to clear the German fortifications and firing points.

When the battle began, the first combat sappers soon met with German resistance, and Hitler transformed the whole of Berlin into a giant fortification complex, with barricades on the streets, houses on both sides of the streets with firing points, and even some of the buildings reinforced with reinforced concrete, in which anti-tank guns and machine guns were placed.

The siege assault gun in front of the assault gun was quickly attacked by the Germans, the PAK40 opened fire violently, and the projectile duang smashed on the bow of the siege assault gun, the combat sappers in the car obviously felt that the hull of the car was shaking, but there was no more damage, and the 300 mm frontal armor was immune to the PAK40's attack, even if it immediately fired again and hit again.

"11 o'clock direction, two hundred distances. High-explosive shells, get ready! ”

The loader struggled to remove a 160 mm high-explosive shell from the cartridge rack, stuffed it into the tail of the mortar, and immediately notified the gun commander after locking it. Soon the mortars raised high began to descend slowly, and five seconds later, with the commander of the gun, he said: "Release!" ”

The projectile, weighing several tens of kilograms, burst out of the chamber and smashed the building 200 meters away into smoke and dust. This one seems to be a bit high, and it didn't hit the PAK40 directly, but the building above it. However, the force of the explosion was considerable, and the four-story building was half collapsed, and the bricks and rubble fell to block the pak40's firing range.

"Clear the obstacles! Fast! "The German artillery commander gave the order.

Soon a detachment of German soldiers rushed out of their hideouts and began to move rubble under heavy machine-gun fire from the Red Army. They are so fearless of death that they carry out their work almost one after the other.

"One more shot!"

Soon, the second 160mm high-explosive shell flew out again, this time the gun commander lowered the firing angle, the shell accurately hit the front of the PAK40, and another puff of smoke and dust flew, when the smoke and dust dissipated, the original PAK40 had disappeared without a trace, and with it disappeared those heroic German soldiers.

"Keep going!"

The tracks creaked incessantly, and the armored group, led by siege assault guns, slowly advanced, straight forward along the narrow streets. This road will certainly not be easy, and the Germans will not rest on their laurels.

Less than ten meters had just advanced, a tongue of fire erupted from the roof of the building on the left, and the rocket struck the roof of the siege gun, tearing through the 60 mm thick armor with ease. Soon the siege assault artillery stopped. The commander of the T-54, who was following it, hurriedly used the anti-aircraft machine gun to fire at the roof of the building, fired hundreds of rounds of ammunition in one go, covered the combat engineers, and dragged the wounded comrades out of the siege assault gun.

"We have to be more careful not to blindly put siege vehicles into them until we have cleared the houses on both sides of the street!"

The Red Army quickly learned its lesson, the biggest hit of the siege assault gun was the top armor, and there was really no way to strengthen it here, based on the T-54 turf modification, because a large amount of additional armor has reached the limit of the vehicle's suspension system. Now its maximum highway speed is only 20 kilometers per second, and with the top armor strengthened, the car will not be able to walk at all.

The Red Army adopted a new tactic, first bombarding the buildings on both sides of the street with mortars, killing or driving away the German soldiers hidden inside, and then committing troops to occupy these houses, and then the siege assault guns followed up, moving forward steadily and steadily.

This tactic did work, but it was undoubtedly time-consuming, and it only advanced more than 100 meters after each day of fighting. Because the German counterattack and resistance were too fierce. You blow up the roof of the building, and they resist in the rest of the building, even wearing fireproof suits and attacking the armored fighting vehicles of the combat engineers with iron fists in the enclosed space. They did eliminate some of these special vehicles, forcing the Red Army to go into battle more cautiously.

"This battle is too tangled!" Yevgeny said.

"Well, the enemy's resistance is too stubborn," the armored train agreed, "and the street fighting is not conducive to our superiority in armor and firepower, and it is probably impossible to defeat the enemy quickly!" ”

Both the armored train and Yevgeny were observing and adjusting tactics in order to speed up the advance and reduce losses as much as possible. But to tell the truth, there is quite little room for adjustment in such a combat environment, and urban street battles are always narrow encounters, and the brave wins.

"The coordination of infantry and armored units needs to be strengthened," the armored train advised, "and more mortars are needed!" ”

Why mortars? The reason is very simple, the Red Army's tank artillery has a limited elevation angle, and it is basically difficult to threaten the enemy above the second floor, and only mortars can collapse the floor layer by layer and kill the devils hiding inside.

"A grenade launcher is also needed, this thing is also very useful to clean up the room!" Yevgeny added.

Previously, the Red Army fighters did not have much interest in the grenade launchers issued above, believing that the power of the 40-mm small smashing gun was too small, and the ability and range to attack strong fortifications were seriously insufficient. Red Army fighters generally preferred traditional mortars, believing that mortars with high power and long range were more reliable.

But after this siege and street fighting, fewer and fewer Red Army soldiers did not like grenade launchers, and more Red Army soldiers began to accept this weapon, the most popular of which was the underhung grenade launcher attached to the AS-30 assault rifle handguard. Fighters generally believe that the grenade launcher is small, lightweight, and easy to use, making it the best partner for street fighting.

Yes, the Red Army fighters in street battles have figured out a whole set of good ways to use underhung grenade launchers. Each infantry squad is equipped with at least two under-mounted grenade launchers, so that the infantry squad can be divided into two assault groups. One group is the main attacker, and the other is responsible for covering. In standard combat procedures, the team in charge of cover first uses underhanging grenade launchers to deliver two grenades to the target building, 40mm grenades can easily penetrate the glass and fly into the room, and the shrapnel from the explosion can bloodied the enemy behind the window. Normally, after eating a grenade, the Germans in the house were either killed or wounded, and could no longer attack the Red Army offensive group that was approaching them.

After the attacking team arrived at the target building, the standard procedure was to throw grenades first, and the German devils who had just eaten the grenade and the grenade were generally incapacitated, and the Red Army soldiers could easily occupy the target building.

Of course, this is only ideal. There are always accidents in actual combat, such as the lack of power of the gun grenade to completely deal with the German fire point in the house. It's dangerous. Occasionally, the Germans would use a target to draw the Reds closer, and then suddenly storm the approaching Reds from other directions. In this case, the only thing that could suppress the German fire in the house was the grenade, which is why the Red Army's attacking group was also issued with a down-mounted grenade launcher.

However, although the underhanging gun grenade launcher is simple and easy to use, there are also problems, that is, the fire is not sustained, only one grenade can be fired at a time, and then it has to be reloaded, and in street fighting, because of the close distance and the enemy's extensive use of submachine guns and other automatic weapons, often do not wait for you to reload the second launch to knock you down, so after a series of setbacks, the Red Army soldiers found that they needed a grenade launcher with a longer fire duration and ammunition capacity.

Only then did they turn their attention to the RG-6 grenade launcher, commonly known as the revolver grenade launcher, which had been issued by their superiors. The principle of the RG-6 is actually based on the later South African MGL grenade launcher, which also uses a coil spring to drive a 6-round runner magazine. The difference is that the RG-6 uses Soviet-style 40mm caseless grenades, including the VOG-25 and VOG-25P. Therefore, in terms of specific structure and operation mode, RG-6 and MGL are quite different.

First of all, the MGL is the same as an ordinary revolver, in which only the chamber of ammunition is held, and in front of the revolver is a rifled barrel, which plays the role of orientation and rotation stability. And the "barrel" in front of the RG-6 is fake, just a smoothbore tube slightly larger than the diameter of the bullet, and the shot warhead does not come into contact with the inner wall of the fake barrel. The real barrel is actually the chamber itself inside the revolver, so there are 12 right-handed rifling wires in the chamber. In fact, the revolver of the RG-6 is simply a spinner runner with six underhung grenade launcher barrels arranged in a plum blossom shape. The RG-6's dummy barrel was really only used to secure the front grip, mechanical sights, and the round cover in front of the nest.

Secondly, the MGL, like the revolver, reloads from the back of the revolver, while the RG-6 reloads from the front of the revolver. Moreover, the MGL must draw out the empty shell after launch before it can be reloaded, while the RG-6 can be reloaded directly without the need for shelling after launch.

However, the RG-6 was not much faster than the MGL in terms of actual loading speed, because the grenade had to be loaded from the rifled muzzle and stuck on the positioning pin, otherwise the grenade might move forward when the muzzle hung down, causing the firing pin to not hit the bottom fire. As a result, while the RG-6 does not need to draw out empty shells when reloading, it is slightly slower than the MGL when reloading.

The reason why the RG-6 uses this strange design is nothing more than to save money, so that it can be compatible with underhanging grenade launchers to the greatest extent, and the Soviet Red Army attached great importance to this at that time.

In addition to its lack of power and range, the Red Army soldiers did not like to use the RG-6 very much, and the reloading method of egg pain was also one of the important reasons. However, after repeated street battles, the Red Army soldiers found that although the RG-6 was painful to load, its firepower was indeed much better.

An infantry squad of two underdogged grenade launchers can only attack two targets at most at a time, and even in order to ensure the lethal effect, generally two underbarreled grenade launchers will attack the same target. Unlike the RG-6, which can rain six grenades at a single target in one go, or attack six targets in a row, it can also take time to reload. This is very useful in street fights against hidden firepower that suddenly pops up.

Not only the RG-6 began to be accepted by the fighters, but the AGS-42 fully automatic grenade launcher was also becoming more and more popular among the fighters. Previously, this 40-mm grenade launcher received a lot of criticism for its excessive combat weight (45 kg with a tripod, 59 kg with a tripod and 30 grenades). According to the Red Army's establishment, such fully automatic grenade launchers were supposed to be equipped in the fire platoon (three) of each infantry company, but the reality was that the fire platoon of the Red Army infantry company preferred two more 60-mm mortars than such grenade launchers. At one time, there were widespread calls for the withdrawal of such useless weapons.

However, as the Red Army advanced all the way to Germany, as the Red Army became more and more mechanized and motorized. This weapon is also becoming more and more popular. In particular, the crews of armored troops, wheeled and tracked infantry carriers will definitely do everything possible to get an AGS-42 to replace their original anti-aircraft machine guns. In their words: "The anti-aircraft machine gun is too weak against ground targets, especially not suitable for attacking surface targets, and there are not so many air targets that it turns to attack, this weapon is very weak...... The AGS-42 is different, the duration of fire is quite good, and the 40-mm grenade is completely sufficient against exposed soft targets and vehicles in general! ”

After the invasion of Berlin, almost every crew of armored vehicles and tanks was trying to get the AGS-42, and they would trade their "captured" booty with the infantry in exchange for the AGS-42 they didn't want to replace the anti-aircraft machine gun that didn't mean much in street fighting.

For example, the elder Helmstra thought: "The AGS-42 can shoot both straight and curved, and the angle of fire is high enough to attack a target seven stories high, with which we can sweep the German mongrels entrenched in the building and beat them to the ground!" ”

And this formed a whole set of tactics, the Red Army would first bombard the German troops on the rooftops and streets with mortars, driving them into the houses. Then the Red Army armored and infantry would shoot at every window with grenade launchers of various models, blasting the Germans hiding inside into a sieve. Eventually, the infantry will slowly approach the target, and if there is still resistance, they will load grenades or simply call in grenade launchers to continue the fire.

You have to admit that this method of warfare worked quite well, avoiding the Red Army soldiers from falling into the quagmire of street fighting and the traps set by the Germans, the only worse thing was that the consumption of guns and grenades was amazing. According to incomplete statistics after the war, the Red Army soldiers used a total of 100 million rounds of various guns and grenades in the Battle of Berlin, and every window of every building in Berlin was greeted by grenades.

Of course, it was not the street fighting that caused the Red Army the most trouble for the Germans, but the doomsday chariots of the German army gathered in Berlin. A number of super-heavy combat vehicles, including the Rat tank, E-100, and E-50, served as mobile firepower points in the city. These rough-skinned guys are quite difficult to deal with, even if they are military. The urgent issuance of 120-mm recoilless guns could not fully offset their effects. In order to destroy these behemoths, the Red Army had to pay a heavy price!

"Attention, there's a situation on the corner! Be careful! ”

Just as Zhang Huangxin spoke, a T-34 next to him that cooperated with the operation was hit by a 128mm armor-piercing bullet. The turret was pierced by a half, and almost all of its comrades inside were killed.

"Reverse, quick! Reversing! Call in combat sappers to clear the obstacles! Zhang Huangxin shouted nervously.

Now the armored corps of the Red Army has developed a set of terminology, and the so-called call of combat engineers to clear the obstacles is actually to call them anti-armor. None of the existing tank guns and anti-tank guns worked in the face of the doomsday monsters of the German army. When faced with such a nasty target, they can only temporarily avoid its edge.

For the Red Army armored soldiers, the only consolation is that the mobility of these doomsday monsters is generally scum, as long as they want to run, they can generally run away, and even some of the monsters are not equipped with engines at all, and are directly thrown in the middle of the street as a fixed battery.

As mentioned earlier, the combat engineer is not able to solve these giant beasts every time, and many times even they will fall into it, generally at this time the big guys are more willing to call for air support, and the new Su-6 attack aircraft carrying advanced guided munitions is the best way to hunt these giant beasts...... (To be continued.) )