When the earthen wall appeared in Wittmann's field of vision, he instinctively felt a kind of fear. Wittmann believed in his intuition very much. In the contest on the Eastern Front, especially when facing the Soviet Union,

This instinct had saved his life countless times when he was facing anti-tank gun positions. But this feeling of fear had never been so strong when facing this wall.

At this time, bursts of artillery sound came from behind Wittmann. This was the German artillery preparing for artillery fire before launching the attack. Considering that there were British bombers active in the sky, artillery fire at night was much higher than during the day.

The flames emitted when firing will be more obvious, and enemies in the air can easily see them from dozens of kilometers away. When the German artillery fires at night, the flames from the muzzles will attract a large number of bombers to them.

It's like lights attracting a lot of moths.

At this time, the German artillery bombardment can be described as risking one's life. In fact, the bombardment began to weaken significantly after less than fifteen minutes, and by twenty minutes, the artillery fire

It completely stopped. As for the reason for the stop, the sound of bombs exploding constantly coming from behind Wittmann was the explanation.

"Attack!" Wittmann saw that the grenadiers had begun to move forward, so he gave the order to his men, then got into the tank and closed the top cover. Then his tank started to start and headed towards the British

The human position passed by.

The shelling, as well as the sound of rumbling tank engines and tracks, had long announced their presence to the British. The British began to continuously fire flares towards the front of the defensive position. The front of the British position was almost as bright as day, and the entire attack group

All were revealed to the British eyes.

The British 25-pound howitzer opened fire first, and the shells continued to explode between the grenadiers and tanks. Although the firepower was not too intensive, the British naval artillery fire also joined the chorus. The British

The cruiser's 6-inch guns and 9-inch guns fired continuously. However, in order to avoid accidental damage, most of their shells were fired further back to block possible follow-up troops.

When Wittmann's tank advanced to a distance of about 1,000 meters from the earth wall, the British direct fire began to attack. The British "Firefly" fired first. The 17-pounder gun it was equipped with was at this distance.

, can be easily shredded except Tiger King

Except for the frontal armor of any German tank. However, the accuracy of this kind of artillery, especially after using gold coin bullets, is not particularly good. Therefore, the "Fireflies" only hit two in the first round of shooting.

target. A Panzer IV on Wittmann's left was not

Fortunately, I hit the jackpot. An armor-piercing bullet hit the front of the tank. The tank immediately stopped and smoke erupted. Two tank crewmen, who were on fire, jumped out of the destroyed tank.

He put out the flames on his body and ran wildly away from the tank. And these two were like this

The obvious target became the target of the British Bren machine gun. One was knocked to the ground directly, and the other also fell to the ground. However, judging from his actions, it seemed that he lay down on his own initiative. And after he fell down,

He also rolled on the ground and extinguished the flames on his trousers.

The infantry mortar unit accompanying the tank troops advanced began to fire flares at the British earth wall. Under the light of the flares, Wittmann saw that at the two o'clock direction, a round turret was appearing on the earth wall.

Above, the black barrel is pointed at his own tank.

"Brake the brakes!" Wittmann yelled.

His Tiger tank immediately braked suddenly, and almost at the same time, the "Firefly" with its turret exposed on the earth wall also fired a fatal shell. Due to the timely braking, the shell fired by the "Firefly" failed to hit Wittmann.

The Tiger. Wittmann also quickly directed the tank to turn its artillery towards the tank. However, before the Tiger tank's gun barrel could be turned, the tank disappeared behind the earth wall.

"Damn it!" Wittmann cursed. He knew that the current environment was so dangerous. The enemy must have relied on hidden observers to observe his position data, and then notified the "Fireflies". And those "Fireflies" also

He must be adopting a combat mode of prepare - fire one shot - retract and prepare - fire one shot. The time left for him to shoot was pitifully short, not even enough to turn the barrel of the gun.

"If this continues, I will definitely be hit!" Wittmann thought, "I must do something to change this situation."

He opened the hatch on the turret and risked sticking his head out. This was very dangerous. The shrapnel flying across the battlefield and the bullets fired by the enemy's machine guns and rifles could kill him. But this could kill him.

Giving him better vision gives him a better chance of spotting his enemies before they fire on him.

More than ten seconds later, Wittmann found another exposed turret on the left front. The "Firefly" did not fire at Wittmann. He quickly opened fire at a Leopard on Wittmann's left.

The cannon was fired, and then immediately disappeared behind the earth wall. The whole process took less than 20 seconds.

This time the British 17-pounder gun accurately hit the target. The Leopard's sloping front armor was actually thicker than that of the Tiger tank, and its crew also hung some road wheels and spare tracks on the front for added defense.

But in front of the powerful 17-inch gun, these armors are like paper. The armor-piercing projectiles are light

It loosely penetrated the armor, and the things hanging on the front flew up like shreds of paper. A few seconds later, the unlucky Leopard exploded again. The flames came from the muzzle and the top cabin.

Laogao spewed out of his mouth. No one climbed out of the tank, and the Panther tank became a steel tomb for its entire crew.

The German tanks also tried to fire back. But the time for the target to appear was too short, and the target itself was too small. A target as small as this, even in the daytime, even if it is stationary, at such a distance,

It is not easy to hit it with one shot. Wittmann felt that even his crew would never have a hit rate of more than 30% against such a small target at this distance. And now.

In this situation, the hit rate is probably not even 10%.

In peacetime, the German Tiger tanks are more willing to shoot at the "Firefly" at a longer distance, because the "Firefly"'s 17-pounder gun has a long-range hit rate that is not as good as the Tiger's 88mm gun.

It is more advantageous. But now, it is obvious that continuing to shoot at the enemy from a long distance is extremely detrimental to the Germans: this seemingly simple fortification adds too much to the defender.

Shortening the distance can increase the probability of hitting such a small target, but it also means that the probability of the opponent hitting you is also greatly increased. It is not easy to get closer. The German army does not know how many corpses need to be dropped before rushing up.

.

In front of the "Firefly", there is actually little difference between a tiger, a leopard and the thin-skinned Panzer IV. The turret of the "Firefly" is not indestructible, and the Panzer IV's 75mm cannon can also penetrate its armor.

In this case, the German army made an adjustment to make the armor thinner, but

There were also more Panzer IV tanks, and even things like the SDKFZ2342 "Puma" 8-wheeled armored vehicle equipped with a 50mm gun rushed in front, while the Tigers and Leopards followed behind. Such British tanks were at a numerical disadvantage.

You may fall into an overwhelming situation.

But when these Panzer IV tanks rushed up, the British 6-pound anti-tank guns also began to fire. The caliber of the British 6-pound anti-tank guns was 57 mm and could penetrate 90 mm of armor at a distance of 100 meters.

To be honest, this armor-piercing ability is really inferior compared to the Zis-2 of the same caliber in the hands of the Soviets. However, it can still be used to defeat the No. 4 tank.

Of course, these towed artillery cannot use the "Firefly" tactics, but they are also difficult to deal with. The British dug a deep trench in the ground and placed this anti-tank gun inside. Most parts of the artillery were in

Underground, only the gun barrel is almost flat on the ground. There is only a short section of shield above the ground. The British made a little cover for these shields, so that at night, if they don't fire, even if you directly fire from it

Pressing down from above, even the tank crews might not be able to detect it.

However, the British also made a mistake at this time. They did not remove the muzzle brake on the artillery in advance. This caused the muzzle flash of the artillery to be particularly obvious when it fired. This also made it possible for the tigers and leopards behind to attack them.

Fire indicated the target.

The British anti-tank artillery failed to calm down and opened fire before the German Panzer IV tanks could reach the optimal shooting distance. However, this cannot be entirely blamed on the British soldiers. At night, people always judge the distance.

Problems can easily occur.

The frontal armor of the German Panzer IV tank was not bad compared to the paper-like sides, and the British's misjudgment also led to a low hit rate in their first round of shooting. Many of the shells that hit were also due to the shooting distance.

and angle problems, but failed to penetrate the Panzer IV. And when they were preparing for the second and third rounds of shooting, the German counterattacks quickly fell on them.

The 75mm grenades of the Panzer IV and Leopard, the 88mm grenade of the Tiger, and the mortar shells of the infantry all fell towards the British towed anti-tank gun position. At the same time, the German infantry troops also approached them.

The British began to use machine guns to suppress the oncoming German infantry, while the German tanks following the infantry used direct fire to attack the British machine gun fire points. Every second, you can see the German soldiers being hit by machine guns and rifles.

Bullets fell to the ground, and every few seconds you could see the British machine guns, along with the machine gunners, being torn to pieces by German tank fire.

"Commander, should we replace the armor-piercing rounds with grenades?" Wittmann's gunner asked.
Chapter completed!