E: The previous chapter is numbered incorrectly, it's chapter 2l.

Indeed, as Yang Ning said, the artillery currently fired by the German army is mainly howitzers, and grenades are used, and this way of shelling is really not very effective for moving armor. It is very difficult to destroy these iron turtles unless it is a direct hit.

Of course, if it is a heavy gun with a caliber of more than 20 mm, it can still be effective, and the violent shock can shock the crew in the tank to death, and even the shock wave during the explosion can overturn the tank. However, the number of such heavy guns cannot be too much, and the reaction speed and rate of fire are very slow, so if you add and subtract, it will be similar to other artillery.

Of course, the Germans also knew that it was best to use direct-aim artillery to deal with such moving hard targets, but the range of direct-aiming artillery was limited, so they had to use howitzers to shoot at the corners of the formation first, even if the effect was not large, and some could be lost.

However, they also know better that to deal with such a large-scale armored cluster, artillery and everything are auxiliary forces, and in the end, they have to rely on their own armored clusters. Before the advent of helicopter gunships, the most effective weapon against tanks was the tank itself.

Now the German tank cluster has made the final checks, the engines have been ignited and are ready to strike.

At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the long-awaited direct-aim artillery began to roll call the British and French tanks. The most powerful direct-aim artillery of the German army is the Krupp 19-year 15um long-barreled cannon, which is 40 times the caliber, the muzzle velocity of the shell reaches 6l m/s, and the firing range can reach 2 kilometers, but the disadvantage is that the rate of fire is very slow, at most it can only reach five rounds per minute. And there were not many of them, less than forty on the positions.

But like howitzers, shells from direct-aim guns must also have a direct hit to be effective, and in the face of fast-moving tanks, the hit rate of such large-caliber guns is not to mention.

On the contrary, those with smaller caliber guns are more useful, such as the 6mm rapid-fire field gun, which can reach a rate of fire of 15 rounds per minute, and the firepower is very flexible, and the aiming speed is much faster. As for those 47 mm and 37 mm machine guns, the rate of fire is fast, the former is 8 rounds per minute, and the latter can reach a speed of 20 rounds per minute, which is very powerful.

Under the bombardment of direct-aim artillery, the losses of British and French tanks began to skyrocket, and more than fifty tanks were destroyed in a few minutes. However, the British and French forces were not stupid, and they were also mentally prepared for this situation, and braving artillery fire to advance was the price that they had to pay as an attacker.

They were also prepared for the Germans' direct-aim artillery, and shortly after the end of the air battle, the heavy artillery they hauled in cars began to be deployed. At 4:06 p.m., the Allied artillery rang out.

"Boom, boom... Boom Boom "This is the French "CAMC6" 19 powerful gun and the "PT11" 15MD long-range cannon with a range of up to 2 km. The French artillery technology of this era was relatively good, no worse than the Germans.

However, the first round of shells they fired was no ordinary shell, dozens of shells whizzed down in front of the German lines, but they only made a slight explosion sound disproportionate to their size. As soon as the flames of the explosion dissipated, the tail of these shells erupted a yellowish billowing smoke, which dispersed quickly and soon enveloped the front of the position.

Smoke grenades

That's right, the Allied artillery fired smoke grenades, and that's how they came up with a way to deal with the Germans' direct-aim artillery.

It's not complicated at all, but it's quite effective. The smoke completely obscured the sight of the German artillery, and the thousands of direct-aim guns on the German positions were suddenly dumbfounded, so they had to fight without a head and a brain, and then began to shift their positions. If you don't run, you can't do it, since the artillery of the Entente countries has hit the front of the position, it means that they will soon be able to hit the artillery positions on this side, and they will start to fight so happily, the position has long been exposed, and if they don't move, they will wait to be bombed.

It was also time for the German tanks to come out.

At 4:06, three green flares were raised over German positions, models of sorties by armored forces.

The 60 tanks on the German position let out a loud roar, and the exhaust pipe spewed puffs of green smoke as it slowly drove forward. The power generated by the two 3 kW diesel engines gives them excellent acceleration and a maximum speed of 6 km/h.

After just ten seconds, their speed increased to 3 kilometers per hour and they quickly rushed out of the smoke zone.

This is the "Wolverine" from China, the Type 2 Type 192 "Wolverine" tank. Germany imported 20 vehicles from China and sold a full set of drawings and production licenses. Compared with China's own "Wolverine", the "Wolverine" of the two Dezi only replaced some sensitive equipment, such as transistor radios, high-performance sights, and other things such as artillery, armor, and power systems have not shrunk at all.

Less than two minutes after the German tanks left the assembly area, the heavy artillery of the Allies fell. Not only the tank assembly area, but all the exposed artillery positions just now also received warm greetings, and a few artillery positions that were slower to evacuate were directly unlucky, turning into piles of garbage in the violent explosion.

From the sky, the armored clusters of the two armies are galloping head-on, and in a few minutes at most there will be an exchange of fire, which will be a fierce clash of steel for steel.

The German tanks were relatively simple, there were only two types in total, in addition to the "Wolverine", which accounted for the majority, there were also a few "Hound Dog" anti-aircraft combat vehicles. This is the anti-aircraft version of the "Wolverine", which still uses the chassis of the "Wolverine", replaces the original turret, and replaces the 45-mm tank gun with a twin-mounted 2-mm cannon.

There are three types of tanks in the British army, and in addition to the male and female tanks of the Mark 4, there is also a type of NK. A "Whipbit" tank, which was much smaller than the Mark 4 type, was only 14 tons. It was not equipped with artillery and was armed with four 7-mm machine guns, which were mainly used against infantry and aircraft.

There are as many as four kinds of French tanks, in addition to the main Renault PT-16 and a very small number of -2 super heavy tanks, there is also a "Saint-Chamond" assault tank, this tank is an improved version of the first French tank "Schneider CAL" barbed wire destruction vehicle, it also has no turret, a 75 mm cannon sticks out directly from the front of the body, and an RMM Hotchkiss NL914 machine gun is set on the left and right sides of the hull, and the front of the car is tilted forward at a large angle and protrudes greatly from the chassis. You can basically think of it as a tank destroyer or an assault gun.

In addition, there was an anti-aircraft model of the Renault PT-6 in France, called the "Boileau", which replaced the 37-mm gun with a twin-mounted 13-mm anti-aircraft machine gun.

German tank No. 37.

Captain Guderian, who was in the vanguard, stuck his head out of the commander's window, carefully looked at the formation of the other side, and soon he picked up the radio and said: "Come with me, go around to their side......" At the same time, he also reported his observations.

In addition to its superiority in speed and armor, the "Wolverine" also has the ability to communicate. Unlike the British and French armies, where only the command tanks above the company commander level were equipped with radios, the German army looked completely to China in this regard, and all tanks were equipped with radios, although they were only tube radios, but there was a difference between having and not having them

Moreover, this is a special car radio for armored units, equipped with a throat microphone and headphones, which is integrated with the in-car intercom system. Even in a noisy in-vehicle environment, it is possible to clearly communicate with friendly forces and crew members.

The Germans already knew that the Entente's "Mark 4" tanks were superior to their own "Wolverine" tanks in terms of firepower, and one 45-mm gun against two 57-mm guns could not be taken advantage of. And the French 2C super heavy tank and the "Saint-Chamond" assault tank, both of which are armed with 75mm cannons, are even more terrifying

If it is carried head-on, even if the armor of the "Wolverine" is stronger, it is definitely not cost-effective. Therefore, they took advantage of the speed of their "Wolverine" tank and the popularization of radio to each vehicle, boldly deployed the tank, and adopted the tactics of "fast to defeat slow, side detours, and hand-to-hand combat".

At the beginning of the engagement, the tanks of both sides rushed towards each other like a torrent of steel, and the tank group of the German 1st Panzer Division was the first to fire full speed and fully detour to the flank of the British 1st Tank Brigade in front of the breakthrough. The German tanks had the advantage of communication, and their command and communication were very smooth, and they were divided into small groups of platoons, with three or four "Wolverine" in each panzer platoon fighting one "Mark 4" at the same time

I saw that the German 1st Panzer Division quickly broke into the battle queue of the British army and carried out close-range fire with a three-to-one advantage. The British did not expect that the Germans would have so many tanks coming from the flank, and they still fought more and fought less, and suddenly the formation was in chaos.

In the eyes of the British armored troops, the chariot is similar to the ancient heavy cavalry, since it is a heavy cavalry duel, then it should be a frontal hard bar, you are so obscene to stab from the side, it is really despicable

The "Mark 4" tank is a multi-turret tank, but its two turrets are on the left and right sides, and this configuration allows for full firepower in the front, but once it reaches the sides, only half of the firepower is available. And its turret is rotated by manpower, and the reaction speed is very slow. And the German "Wolverine" is an electric turret, which can be turned much faster.

As soon as the battle began, the British suffered a heavy loss, the "Wolverine" used machine guns and artillery to fire fiercely at the vulnerable flanks of the "Mark", and within three minutes, more than 6 tanks were destroyed, while the German tanks did not lose a single loss and only 3 were slightly damaged.