695 Battle of Augusta (6)

"Enemy!"

"At 12 o'clock, fire!"

"Boom, boom, boom....... (Full text reading, all in. (.i. Want. Wen. Learning Network)"

In an instant, as many as 40 St. Chamont assault tanks opened fire at the same time, as if they were naval guns firing a salvo, spectacular and impressive.

This change made Li Dong open his mouth wide, blink his eyes, and immediately became angry!

I haven't fired yet, you guys are, it's still 3,000 meters away!

Not to mention Li Dong, the other gunners were also stunned, and they fired at a distance of 3,000 meters, can they hit? You must know that although the Siberian Tiger's 76mm gun can also hit 3,000 meters away, the rifled gun can only fire armor-piercing shells at a distance of about 1,300 meters, and the hit rate and armor-piercing effect will be greatly reduced if it is farther, so everyone will be surprised that the US tank fires so far.

Could it be that they are armed with 75-mm guns that are more advanced than themselves?

As the thought arose, the shells suddenly fell around, and the clumps of mud and sand splashed by the explosion rattled on the steel shell, which really made everyone dumbfounded.

In fact, Li Dong thought wrongly, although Hua did not dare to say that it was more advanced than Europe in terms of artillery, but at least it would not lag behind, not to mention how could Emperor Li suffer a loss in the vital tank gun, if it were not for material and technical problems, it is estimated that he would directly go to the cannon with high muzzle velocity and long barrel, plus the tail stabilized tungsten alloy Tok armor-piercing projectile!

The reason why the US tanks on the opposite side will fire at 3,000 meters, in addition to being nervous, is mainly because they don't know what tank engagement is, so firing artillery is similar to a naval artillery duel, not to mention that to be honest, the empire has already carried out tank combat training this year, and other countries are mostly in a hurry, and most of them regard tanks as tools and temporary batteries to support infantry, and the design is also based on the premise of this purpose.

For example, the St. Chamond assault tank, which was developed by France according to the 7V tank given to Germany by Zaohua, weighed 22 tons, and 4 machine guns were installed, especially the 75 mm gun in front, which was simply moved from the army's "Miss 75" without changing it, and the main use was to support the infantry and provide firepower, so the elevation angle was very large, and all the fuses used were high-explosive shells, so they could shoot at long distances, and borrowed the wide space inside, and fully prepared 106 shells.

Miss 75 is a good gun, there is no doubt about it, but it is only on the land battlefield, and it looks out of place when placed in a tank, not to mention that it is not equipped with special armor-piercing shells, even if it is equipped with a chamber pressure, it is seriously insufficient, not to mention that the St. Monzaar tank is not equipped with a shooting sight at all, and it is completely aimed by the human eye.

Sure enough, 40 Saint-Chammon tanks and 10 Ford tanks opened fire one after another, except for one that exploded at close range in front of the Siberian tigers, which was slightly startling, and the rest had no accuracy at all.

"Grandma!"

Li Dong spat and shouted excitedly at the driver in front of him: "Old horse, drive a little and rush over, it's not grandpa's style to be beaten like this!" ”

"Take care of your cannons!"

The tank driver waved his hand at Li Dong, stepped on the accelerator with his left foot, and the engine suddenly erupted into a violent hiss, and suddenly the Siberian Tiger tank, which had just been relatively stable, suddenly jolted violently, and instead of walking in a straight line, he rushed left and right to dodge the shells.

"Damn!"

Li Dong secretly cursed, in this case, the difficulty of hitting the opponent was more than doubled, so he also calmed down and aimed the muzzle of the gun at one of the Saint Chamon who was firing.

"1400 meters!"

"Fire!"

The commander just shouted, Li Dong also suddenly shouted, only to hear a loud bang, the fast-moving Siberian tiger seemed to hit the iron wall and paused abruptly, if you look from the outside, the dust covering the body seems to be swept up by something, and a bright yellow cannon immediately exploded in front of him.

The cannonball pierced the void like a flaming meteor, rushing towards the enemy with Li Dong's hope, and in the aftermath of the cannon fire, a flame suddenly exploded in the distance.

Hit!?

"Li Dong, what the hell are you doing, don't you have a distinction between primary and secondary!"

After the company commander saw the target that was hit, not only was he not happy, but he complained for a while, only let Li Dong flatten his mouth and shouted: "How do I know that there are incidental casualties here!" ”

"Don't me poor, come again!"

Li Dong looked at the destroyed Ford light tank aggrievedly, but he really didn't expect that at the beginning of the long-awaited tank battle, his first shot actually hit an oolong, and he didn't hit the threatening St. Chamon, but he overturned a not very important Ford, a 3-ton gadget, no wonder the company commander couldn't lift his strength. (Full text reading, all in. (.i. Want. Wen. Learning Network)

The machine-gun loader also shook his head, pulled the bolt, and the yellow-orange-orange hot shells were immediately withdrawn, falling into the sound of the steel cart and clanging, and then rolling down the slope to the grid-like collection box below.

Li Mo did not think about installing an automatic debombing device, but he never made a breakthrough, so the shell had to remain in the body of the vehicle, instead of being thrown directly out of the tank through the debomb unloading port as in later generations.

"2 rounds on standby."

In the shouts of the loader, Li Dong quickly fired a second armor-piercing bullet, his eyes firmly against the target, even if the same vibration as Gang did not make him blink half of his eyes.

"Boom......."

An orange-red flame burst from the front end of the targeted St. Chamont assault tank, and before he could take a closer look at it, he heard a violent explosion, and the St. Chamont tank was like an egg squeezed from the inside, the steel plate burst open, and then it was completely engulfed by the flames.

Looking at an American tanker who was lucky enough to rush out of the sea of fire and swayed twice before falling again, Li Dong also swallowed his saliva and hit the ammunition depot!

Compared with the Siberian tigers, there are too many shells inside the St. Shamon tank, although there is a layer of steel plates, but there is no specially designed ammunition compartment, and the thickness of the armor on its front is only less than 17 mm, plus the bulletproof partition is only 30 mm in total, it is still an ordinary homogeneous steel plate, not to mention the 76 mm gun, I am afraid that even the 37 mm gun can be pierced with good luck.

"3 rounds on standby."

"Three o'clock, Saint-Chamon, fire!"

The shouting made Lidong wake up from the shock, and quickly pointed the muzzle of the gun at another St. Chamont assault tank, compared with the opponent who can only shoot forward, the Siberian Tiger tank's rotatable turret has too many advantages, not to mention that as a generation and a future tank ruler, the Siberian Tiger also installed a gyroscope and simple optical aiming equipment for the first time, which is close to 1200 meters at the moment, and the high accuracy of this distance is completely ahead of this era.

"Boom, boom, boom......."

Shells burst out from the muzzles of 10 Siberian Tiger guns, and the distance between the two sides was less than 1,300 meters, and at this distance, the 76mm rifled guns could already penetrate any part of the opposing side, and several even penetrated the frontal armor and continuously penetrated the central engine compartment and exploded in the tail.

In an instant, this US tank unit was hit hard, although it has a numerical advantage, but other aspects are controlled everywhere, especially the shells, armor and speed, the trigger fuse can only deal with exposed targets, and it can't penetrate the frontal armor of the Siberian Tiger at all, even if it hits, it can only break a hole, and there is an engine behind it to block.

The armor is weak, and the important thing is that the speed of the St. Chamont tank is too slow, 8 kilometers per hour, which is slower than a bicycle, how can it be an opponent of the Siberian tigers who can reach 25 kilometers per hour on this kind of road, and they can't even escape!

In just 15 minutes, 25 St. Chamond and Ford tanks were destroyed, and the American commander no longer dared to fight, but he could not escape, so he had to order the formation to be disbanded and take one by one.

But his order is so confused that he can't escape if he escapes in a centralized manner, how can he escape if he scatters it?

At this time, due to the wrong muzzle pointing of the St. Chamoun tank, the tank body had to be adjusted every time it fired, but the Siberian tiger could easily rotate the turret and carry out a point kill.

"13 on standby!"

As soon as the loader finished shouting, Li Dong, who was extremely excited, opened fire, and after a burst of gunsmoke, the 5th Saint-Chamond was opened on the side, and the smoke and fire frightened the American tank crews to drill out of the tank regardless of the danger, but they forgot to raise their hands when they drilled out.

In fact, even if he raised his hand, Li Dong didn't want to move forward with the prisoner, it must have been a sudden attack, which is good, there is no need to fight ideologically, and he was swept into a sieve with a synchronous machine gun.

The armor on both flanks rammed into the scattered American tank units at the same time overnight, using almost the same method, and the slaughterers had no opponent to fight back.

20 minutes later, when dozens of cheetahs rushed over to pick up the leaks, there was nothing to be seen on the entire battlefield except for scattered scrap iron and corpses, and the angry regiment commander didn't say hello, and directly stomped his feet and rushed towards Yanta, which was more than 30 kilometers away.

"Colonel!"

"Oh no, they, they ......." The staff officer rushed to the temporary headquarters out of breath, pointing to the outside but panting vigorously and couldn't speak, the anxious partner hurriedly brought water to let him breathe a sigh of relief, but he was immediately pushed away, took a sharp breath and shouted: "They are coming, defeating the tank troops, coming, just outside." ”

"Chinese?"

"Yes, it's ......, boom!"

Before the staff officer could finish speaking, he was interrupted by a violent explosion, and MacArthur, who had just arrived at Yanta, hurriedly grabbed the telescope and looked out, but when he walked to the window, he knew that he no longer needed a telescope.

The twin-engine planes that had been seen before had appeared in the distance, and the Kunpeng bombers that arrived in time began to drop terrifying bombs one after another, and more than a dozen two-winged camels arranged in Yanta were swept to pieces by the escort mustangs before they could take off, and even a few that barely took off were beaten into flames when they were just pulled up.

The bombs ravaged the town of Yanta, with a total population of less than 2,000 people, and by the time the bombers left, the artillery several kilometers away was ready.

Thirty-six Warhammer 152mm guns and 48 105mm towed howitzers erupted at the same time, and a dense rain of bullets swept through the town like a whirlwind.

"Damn it, Jackson, hold the road to the west!"

"William, get out of the house, let everyone get out of the ......."

Rumble.......

In the midst of the screams, a house that had been hit by a 152 mm shot burst open like a broken egg, and the reapers' lives were mercilessly splashed with mud and tiles, and the entire 30 British soldiers hiding around the house were blown up into blood before they could even shout.

The shells were still falling, and at this time, 6 large airships had appeared overhead, and when several soldiers were still trying to shoot with their rifles, they saw that the hatch of the airship led by them had slowly opened, and several huge black dots suddenly appeared in the field of vision.

"Chubby" 1800 kg extra-heavy high-explosive bomb!

MacArthur and everyone saw that 4 black dots fell rapidly from a height of 1,000 meters, and when they just touched the ground, 4 extremely bright fireballs almost appeared in front of them, and the power of the 550 kilogram standard n explosion was unparalleled, and the powerful blast wave swept through like a violent tornado, and dozens of houses were directly destroyed by the cyclone.

The power of a "little fat" is enough to sweep away anything within a radius of 1000 meters, and the black mushroom cloud up to 100 meters high is to make the scalp of all coalition soldiers tingle, what kind of bomb is this?

Little Fat hit a section of trench north of Yanta, and the blast wave swept past the trench, and countless sediment was directly filled with nearly 100 meters of trenches, and the soldiers who thought they could hide in the trenches could avoid the shells didn't even shout, they were tore apart by the air waves, and the sand and gravel it rolled up became a big killer, and at least 300 soldiers died directly under this bomb.

Especially when the two airships flew towards the train station in the distance, MacArthur's face changed suddenly.

On the railroad tracks, a section of the burning carriages has been faced, two of them have even been directly overturned by the air waves, densely packed with Australian soldiers who have just arrived from Adelaide to support looking at the small town of Yanta where shells rain in the distance, just escaped death in the bombing, and was hesitating whether to rush to support immediately when they found that two airships had arrived overhead.

8 little chubby bombs scattered around, looking at these bombs that were obviously bigger than just now, these soldiers immediately lay on the ground and prayed to dodge again, but this time they thought wrong!

One fire ball after another, violently swept away against the ground, and one soldier even saw that an entire truck was directly swept up by the air wave, and then dilated in the pupils until it hit his body.

Many of the soldiers didn't even shout, they were directly shocked to death by the blast wave, and even if they didn't die on the spot, they were all injured in the subsequent fall of mud and sand and "rain of rubble".

MacArthur and the officers hiding in the bunker were already drenched in a cold sweat, and they didn't need to look at them to know that under such a violent explosion, the thousands of soldiers there were probably all finished.

"Stop them, you must stop these devils!"

"Send a telegram to Major General Jim, and Lieutenant General Quinta for immediate support!" MacArthur shouted hysterically, although the 6 Hippopotamus-class airships can only carry 24 little fat, and the hit accuracy is not high, but the extra-heavy bombs were not born for accuracy, not to mention that the shock wave they swept is enough to make up for the lack of accuracy, and the mental pressure it brings is too great, no one knows if these bombs will fall!

By the time the airship gradually left, 24 mushroom clouds had risen over the town, and the nearly ten-meter crater made people shudder and make everyone tremble.

"Tank!"

Suddenly, a hurried shout woke up the soldiers in a daze, and tens of thousands of surviving Entente soldiers immediately entered the battle position, although it seemed to be fully defensive, but the officers actually knew very well that Yanta could no longer hold it, because the enemy's offensive means were too rich!

Four Siberian tigers, three cheetahs, and three wild cats, flocks and cars, rolled up sand and dust, broke through the smoke of gunpowder, and rushed along the nearly 15-kilometer-wide defense line north of Yanta like terrible beasts.

Countless tongues of fire exploded from the opposite side, and the muzzles of the guns flickered endlessly, especially the number of machine guns, which even exceeded the entire firepower of the three infantry divisions deployed in Yanta.

Brigade of infantry followed behind the tanks, their cats bent over their waists, skillfully using tanks and armored vehicles to dodge bullets, like red-hot iron cheese in the gaps torn by these steel monsters.

"Commando, sweep the trenches!"

The soldiers of the armored infantry regiment took advantage of the gap torn by the tank and rushed into the trench on the spot, and the few people who ran in front were all equipped with submachine guns, so when they took the lead into the trench, countless screams rang out from the trench.

After sending the commandos and infantry into the trench, the Wildcat armored vehicles, which were temporarily unable to cross the obstacles, began to move sideways along the trench to provide fire support, while the remaining tanks began to accelerate and continue to charge towards the town of Yanta with the infantry.

"Kolov, machine guns, block them!"

Several Australian soldiers rolled out an undamaged Makqin machine gun and opened heavy fire on the cheetah, and when they set the cheetah on fire, they did not notice that the two Chinese soldiers following the tank had aimed an iron pipe at them.

"Fire!"

The loader slapped his companion's steel helmet and squatted on the ground, and almost at the same time, the 40mm Iron Fist rocket burst out of the launch tube with a red light, and the machine-gun position hiding behind the rubble became a ball of fire.

Several tank crews quickly dropped the burning Cheetah and joined the sweep with submachine guns, their red eyes venting their anger at the loss of tanks on the fleeing Australian coalition soldiers, and the submachine guns were almost better than the Death Scythe at close range.

"Machine guns, occupy the heights!"

"Mortar, 230 meters, rush fire!"

"Be careful to spread out, do not go near the main road and open areas, and use more trees and rubble for cover."

The truck arrived in front of the battle with 2 infantry divisions, and tens of thousands of infantry began to jump out of the truck amid the shouts of the officers, and then quickly dispersed into a scattered line and rushed towards the town of Yanta.

"How long will it take?" Although the attack went smoothly, Wu Peifu still didn't dare to be careless, because he knew that there were still hundreds of thousands of Entente soldiers in the direction of Flinders Ridge, and he not only wanted to take Yanta, but also needed to hold out here for at least 2 days!

"The assault force has rushed up, the assault force has already stormed the town, and the infantry has begun to clear the trenches, and three more hours will be the end of the main battle!"

Wu Peifu nodded, he knew from the beginning that Yanta couldn't stop him, and the key to this battle was to wait until Flinders Ridge failed to block the hundreds of thousands of Entente soldiers who were ready to flee back to South Wales from here!

That's at least 100,000 remnants of soldiers who are bent on breaking through and escaping, and their eyes are red!

Wu Peifu took a deep breath and looked at his watch, the general assault on Flinders Ridge had already started three hours ago, so at noon tomorrow, the first batch of remnants who had fled would begin to storm their own defenses!

"Build a defensive line, we're going to prepare for a sniper battle!"

RO！ ~！