Chapter 85
At the end of September 1944, the Germans completely abandoned Cherbourg in the south of Normandy and Calais in the north. In the north, it retreated to the Belgian front and organized a defensive line around the Somme and Amiens, in the center it established a defensive line with Rouen as the core, ready to turn Paris into a sea of fire at any time, and in the south, it abandoned the peninsula and retracted to the first line of defense in Argentão. At the same time, the arrangements for the transfer of troops were stepped up, and one after another domestically reorganized divisions were transferred to the German-French border area to strengthen the defensive line.
The strategic posture of the Germans was already in shambles, and they were once again caught in the nightmare of a war on two fronts. To the east, the Soviet Red Army launched a powerful offensive in which Fafnir had participated in the first and second offensives, but now the fifth offensive has crumbling the front of Army Group Center, with heavy losses in various units and a large number of units being annihilated in formation, and the imminent expulsion of Belarus and Lithuania. Fortunately, the Germans are still barely holding the front and have not yet been expelled from Belarus and Lithuania, which is much better than in real history, but the next stronger offensive of the Soviet Red Army is imminent, and whether it can hold this time is completely uncertain. It was in October that Fafnir received an order to rebuild the 503rd Battalion and put it into the Belarusian front, and he was accompanied by tanks that returned to the factory to be improved into E50ausfB- All the E50 that survived after the first batch of production and the E50 produced in the second batch were uniformly improved into the ausfB type, the 88mmL71 gun was removed and replaced with a 105mmL52 gun, the transmission mechanism and suspension mechanism were improved, so that the road speed increased to 55km, the off-road speed increased to 38km, the travel remained unchanged to 150km, the hull became 48 tons that can be attached to the armor plate, and the side track armor was all changed to a fixed type, and the code name was still "Lynx". There are also some mysterious big guys who are also loaded onto heavy trains, and they are out day and night, braving Allied air raids to rush to the Soviet Union and the Belarusian front. The skies over Germany are no longer a safe place......
Fafnier taught the Allies an unforgettable lesson before leaving France. "Albert Road Massacre" was the name of the Allies, and "Albert Road Hunt" was the name of the German army.
On 28 September, the U.S. 1st Infantry Division attacked the German line in northern France as the main force, trying to cut off the German retreat to Belgium and close the German army at Calais and Piccardy before annihilation. Fafnier's No. 223 E50B "Lynx" happened to be refitted, and another "Tiger Hunter" assault gun and a "Hunter" assault gun were defending the German positions outside Albert, and the Tiger Hunter and the Pursuer were all Fafnier's acquaintances. The Tiger Hunter's gunner was the big boy Sergeant Dornberger - thanks to the Tiger's large and spacious fighting compartment, which was equipped with a newly developed automatic reloading system, which used the original turret rotary motor to raise the warhead and the powder bag, and fed both into the breech, the whole process only required a little effort to fix the grappling hook and press the button, and the Tiger Hunter's rate of fire became quite fast. The commander of the Stalker is also an old friend, Second Lieutenant O'Brien, and now the Stalker is not powerful enough, and many of them have been sent to be converted into large rocket launchers.
On the morning of that day, they received information that the convoy of Americans appeared to be on the Abel road. Fafnir decided to go on reconnaissance in a tank and, if possible, to teach the Americans a lesson, while Tiger Hunters and Hunters went out together.
At noon, the three vehicles arrived at 4 kilometres from the Abel road. The Tiger hunter found a lowland and began to camouflage itself with shrubs, and the pursuers drove closer to the road and hid. Only Fafnier's No. 223 "Lynx" drove directly to the road, and he did not see any signs of the Americans along the way, so it seems that it is likely that it is just a misinformation: "Let's wait an hour and go back." Fafnier thought that he gave the order to the two wingmen to stop and standby, and he drove the car not far from the highway and began to camouflage, and the three cars formed an unequal triangle, and the spearhead pointed to the highway and waited quietly.
Seeing that it was about an hour, the Allied planes in the sky came and went, and they did not find the appearance of these three German tanks, and Fafnir and they did not see the traces of the Yankees' ground troops, but as the Allied planes flew frequently today, it was difficult for them to leave for a while, so they decided to prepare to wait until it was dark before going back, and after contacting the troops by radio, their superiors approved their actions.
At 4 p.m., the sound of an engine could be heard in the distance of the road. The men on the three tanks immediately lifted their spirits, and Fafnier, taking advantage of the fact that there were no reconnaissance vehicles approaching and no Allied planes in the sky, jumped out of the tank, climbed up a small slope nearby, and began to watch with binoculars—about twenty American tanks and more than a hundred trucks were marching along the highway in a mighty way. He quickly returned to the tank and asked the two assault guns to be ready, wait for his tank to launch a surprise attack and open fire, giving priority to attacking the American open road and downed tanks.
After another half an hour, the American vanguard finally drove within visual distance, and they swaggered forward, looking at the markings on the bodies that should be the troops of the 1st Infantry Division of the United States, just the other day when they had broken through the German line in front of them and were complacent.
The nearest Fafnir was two kilometres from the road, and it was a burnt grove of burnt woods, and the E50 was too close to spot the trees lying across the trees, and the tiger hunters and pursuers were even further away, and the Americans did not notice them at all.
"Start! Assault begin!" Fafnier ordered in a low voice! The sound of the engine of the Americans on the road drowned out the sound of the engine starting the E50, but there was no way to hide the figure of the E50 - the Americans immediately spotted the German tank that had started the attack. But just then, the Tiger Hunter just the right time to start firing, and the first shell hit the American M4 tank that hit the head and destroyed it. The American M26 hurriedly turned the turret to try to aim at the E50, at which time the pursuers also opened fire, and the shells tore a truck to shreds, but after all, it was the Americans' "Big Red First Division", and the soldiers did not panic, but launched a battle formation and began to counterattack. More than 20 U.S. tanks didn't have time to turn around to attack the rushing Favnier, and the American M26 tanks on the side of Fafnier's assault took the lead and began to turn and shoot. Fafnir was an old bird, and a quick stop knocked out the American fire, while his short-stop fire turned an M26 into scrap metal. The Tiger Hunter had a faster rate of fire than Fafnier's 105 gun after loading the loader, and it only took a few minutes to turn 3 American tanks into scrap metal, and Fafnier gave full play to his trump card nature, using his hunch ability to dodge the American shells, and the counterattack was extremely sharp, and every shell was bound to suffer American tanks. The pursuers concentrated on attacking the American trucks and infantry, and soon even the Tiger Hunter approached the road to attack, and after only thirty minutes, Fafnir and the wingman retreated, in order to avoid retaliation from the Allied air forces......
The Abel Highway has become a hell of fire and flesh, littered with wrecked tanks and trucks, and wounded and undead American soldiers moaning among scrap metal. Everything was recorded by the cameras of American military correspondents. Olsen was a military correspondent who jumped out of his car at the start of the battle and began to take pictures, a daring reporter who was even desperately shooting when Favinir's tank was approaching - his photographs faithfully recorded three German murderers, less than 50 meters head-on towards him, the turret turned to the E50 tank firing at 90 degrees, the 223 and tiger skull patterns on the side of the turret were clearly visible, the tiger hunter with the side and the huge fighting compartment in the distance, and the faint little pursuer.
The battle was over, the Americans lost 21 tanks and 45 trucks, and the prestige of the "Skeleton Tiger" spread among the Americans. After the war, Fafnier set out on his way to Belarus, while Dornberger and O'Brien continued to fight on the French front. Seven days later, during the battle on the Belgian border, when the Tiger Hunters of Dornberger were making every effort to turn the Allied tanks in the distance into scrap metal, the Allied tanks took advantage of their numerical superiority to suppress and surround the other German tanks. An Englishman firefly rushed to a distance of only 400 meters from the Hunting Tiger, at which time the Hunting Tiger exposed his side, and the Firefly's 17-pounder cannon was aimed at the side of the Hunting Tiger and fired a shot, although the Firefly was immediately beaten into scrap metal by the panther on top, but the 17-pound cannonball finally hit the target.
The Tiger was hit, the loader was killed on the spot, the commander and gunner were injured and unconscious, but fortunately the ammunition was not detonated, and the driver immediately began to retreat, and the Panthers and other German tanks on one side also began to rescue the Tiger after repelling the Allied offensive. Dornberger was lucky to save his life, but he was seriously injured - one of his balls was cut off by shrapnel and he fell into a coma and did not wake up until 3 days later. After spending 3 months recuperating from his injury, he retired, and finally saved his life and went back to his hometown to marry his childhood sweetheart.