Chapter 554 Chrysanthemum Breathes Fire

If you have already failed once, you will never fail again!

With such a firm belief in his heart, Klink concentrated his attention. In order to ensure that he could kill with one hit, this time Klink aimed the center point of the gun scope's sight at the side armor of the T34 tank. The loaded 88mm cap The hooded armor-piercing projectile immediately rushed out with flames and flames as the muzzle trembled.

Almost at the same time as Klink fired.

The T34 tank, which was still running at full speed, also flicked its muzzle and sprayed out flames at the last moment of life and death. The 76mm hooded armor-piercing projectile that rushed out of the smoke and smoke at high speed accurately hit the Tiger tank's chrysanthemum at an angle of 30 degrees. Above, an unexpected but common-sense scene happened next.

The 76mm hooded armor-piercing projectile, which had a small incident angle and therefore failed to ricochet, failed to completely penetrate the 82mm physical thickness rolled homogeneous steel armor of the Tiger tank chrysanthemum, and was embedded in the armor in a semi-penetrating manner, like a toy. Darts are average.

The armor-piercing delay fuse that was successfully triggered exploded immediately before the human brain could fully react. The warhead explosion of a projectile with an equivalent of less than 100 grams of TNT could not penetrate the thick chrysanthemum armor of the Tiger tank, but it would ignite. The engine compartment was full of volatile gasoline like a powder keg, but there was no problem at all.

The Tiger tank, with its fuel tank and engine stuffed into the rear of the vehicle body, started to catch fire on the spot. The Soviet gunner clearly saw this scene in the main gun sight, and the corner of his mouth raised and an upward arc appeared.

But before the excited words could be blurted out, the 88mm hooded armor-piercing bullet fired from Wittmann's car had already followed closely with a scream of death.

It only took a moment to break through the armor on the front of the body and pour death into the tank. The T34 medium tank, which had not had time to stop, maintained a high speed and was directly destroyed on the spot.

The small turret was detonated by the flames and flew over ten meters away like a hat-off salute. The vehicle body, which was charging at full speed, rushed forward for a long distance in the form of a ghost chariot before it could stop and brake. It took two people to stop. Klink, who had just taken out the last Soviet tank with artillery, was finally relieved.

"Phew, I killed him! Michelle! It's over!"

Before he could finish the words of a big stone falling to the ground, Wittmann directly poured a basin of cold water on him.

"Turn the turret around, Klink! The Russian infantry is coming!"

"What?"

Taking advantage of the short time of the tank encounter just now, the Soviet infantry, which had suffered some casualties, did not choose to retreat but surrounded the four Tigers from all directions.

It's just that these Soviet infantrymen, who only had light weapons and lacked anti-tank equipment, seemed a little unable to deal with it for a while. The Bobosha submachine guns and Mosin Nagant rifles made the armor of the Tiger tanks clang and sparks fly. Some The more daring Soviet soldiers also raised the cluster grenades in their hands and tried to get closer to blow up these Tiger tanks.

The situation that is even more deceiving for the four Tigers at this moment does not stop there.

A total of five members of the Tiger crew whose butt was caught on fire had jumped out of the tank screaming, but these relatively conscientious SS armored soldiers did not directly abandon the precious Tiger, but He took the fire extinguisher he took out from the car and sprayed it on the tiger's burning buttocks.

The German army was anxious to put out the fire for their wives, but the Soviet infantry naturally stopped doing it when they saw this scene.

Seeing the five Hans running around the burning Tiger tank, the Soviet infantry immediately began to receive a barrage of barrages. The mixed firepower network composed of Bobosha submachine guns and Mosin-Nagant rifles instantly hit all sides of the Tiger tank. It had to crackle.

Two of the five SS armored soldiers who were anxious to save their wives fell instantly. The remaining three, seeing the critical situation, immediately threw away the fire extinguisher cans in their hands, dragging their injured comrades who were lying on the ground and whose life and death were unknown, towards the Soviet infantry, which could not be covered by fire. The Tiger tank moved sideways to seek cover.

Only three of the four Tigers can fight now, and there is no infantry cover around them.

Logically speaking, Wittmann should have ordered a retreat at this time. After all, the purpose of destroying all Soviet tanks has been achieved, and the task of testing the performance of the Tiger tanks has been completed. The remaining dozens of Soviet infantry are completely useless. There is no need to continue to struggle with Tiantou.

But Wittmann was clearly thinking about more than that at the moment when bullets were flying.

The Tiger tank that was on fire just a short while after being put out had a fatal problem with its transmission system and was unable to move. Looking at the situation, there were only three people left on the crew, and it was basically equivalent to being scrapped.

The five people can also spread out and squeeze into the other three Tiger tanks and barely take them away. After all, the Tiger tank has a large body space and can force two people into it. It is no problem to squeeze in at most, but this is the only one. How to take away the 57-ton tiger has become a big headache.

The new tank that was put into actual combat for the first time was left on the battlefield and was captured by the Russians. This was an intolerable result for Wittmann.

In addition, Wittmann could also choose to destroy the Tiger tank with one shot and turn it into a pile of debris, and then lead the team to retreat confidently and boldly.

But this idea flashed in Wittmann's mind for a moment and was instantly dismissed. This was not only because the Tiger tank was expensive to build, but it was a pity to destroy it like this. At the same time, Wittmann did not want to make such an embarrassing joke the first time he led the team to attack, which would have some non-negligible impact on his future promotion and honors.

After some weighing, Wittmann decided to gather three Tiger tanks to kill these dozens of daring Soviet infantry.

The reason why I dare to do this is not because of Wittmann's reckless batch, but because these fully equipped Tiger tanks, which are the first batch of factory prototypes, are also equipped with a secret anti-infantry weapon: Nahverteidigungswaffe (close combat defensive weapon) , later called the S-mine launcher by Allied soldiers on the Western Front battlefield.

After a whole year of arduous fighting in 1941, the power of the Russian Ula Charge was fully realized.

I was shocked that my opponent dared to use such a dense infantry charge during World War II when automatic weapons were so developed. Some Soviet infantrymen who jumped on tanks during local counterattacks pried open the hatch cover and threw grenades inside to destroy the tanks, which triggered derivative thinking of the German tank design team.

Is it possible to install an anti-infantry weapon that is more effective than a machine gun on a heavy tank with a narrow and limited field of vision?

The answer is yes, and the S mine launcher came into being on the Tiger tank.