Steel Soviet Union

Following Malashenko's order, the 76mm high-explosive shell instantly escaped from the gun and shot straight towards the German 88th artillery position like an arrow. The warhead TNT charge triggered by the collision of the warhead with the fuze was instantly Even at the targeted German gun emplacement, a dazzling burst of fire burst out.

"Did it?"

Following the direction of the explosion flames, he held his own periscope and looked quickly. The scene after the soil that had been blown away by the explosion shock wave fell was not what Malashenko had hoped for. .

"Asshole! These German guys actually put the 88 gun behind the slope!"

The 88 gun, which was designed with the flat-fire function in mind, not only has a super-large anti-air shooting elevation of 85 degrees, but also has a negative 3-degree barrel depression angle. In addition to taking into account the air defense mission, the 88 gun can also Use a condescending posture to achieve some cross-terrain strikes, such as deploying behind a small back slope to serve as a temporary bunker to perform anti-armor missions.

It can be said that the German army took great pains to protect these 88 guns in their own hands as much as possible and prevent them from becoming disposable equipment.

The tall shooting base of the 88 gun, which is required to perform air defense missions, not only makes it extremely poor in battlefield concealment, but also makes it difficult to provide effective all-round protection. After considering the protection based on local conditions, the German army finally deployed it in After a small hillside, they hoped to use the protection of the terrain to resist any possible Soviet counterattack.

This hillock, which was deliberately cut off by the German engineers, was neither high nor low. While exposing a small gap so as not to affect the firing of the 88 gun, the thick soil layer and the hill itself were also used to hide behind it. The combat 88 gun battery provides efficient protection covering more than 85% of the front projection area. Afterwards, a certain degree of green camouflage was added to the hill, making it look more like a huge bush than a terrain bunker.

The 76mm high-explosive bomb just fired from Malashenko's car not only blasted a crater in the front of the hill, but also blew up the bushes and grass used for camouflage and flew into the air. . The German 88 artillery group hiding behind the hillside and being reloaded did not suffer even the slightest substantial damage except for the shock that made some ears ring.

I was really fooled by the Germans' painstakingly disguised terrain defense bunkers. I never thought that the 88 gun could have such amazing gameplay when performing anti-tank missions. After a lot of eye-opening, Malashenko was not discouraged but chose to continue to face the difficulties.

"Kirill, change to armor-piercing bullets! I still don't believe that we can't smash the turtle shells of these Germans today!"

"Iushkin! Fire at the weak position in the soil near the edge of the hillock near the German 88 battery. Make sure not to trigger the armor-piercing delay fuse and at the same time penetrate that damn hillock for me! No matter what the killing effect is , at least let those Germans have a taste of our shells!"

As one of the classic 76mm armor-piercing projectiles equipped in the Soviet Red Army during World War II, the armor-piercing and killing principle used by the BR-350B hooded armor-piercing grenade can be said to be very simple.

When a BR-350B hooded armor-piercing grenade is ejected from the chamber, the tip of the warhead contacts the armor-piercing hood of the enemy tank, which is used to reduce wind resistance and increase the remaining velocity and kinetic energy of the shell when it reaches the target. It is the first to deform and break when subjected to external force.

After that, the armor-piercing bullet itself, which is covered under the hood, will continue to push forward and penetrate the enemy tank armor with the help of the residual launch kinetic energy.

When the remaining launch kinetic energy of this BR-350B hooded armor-piercing grenade after arriving at the target is enough to penetrate the target armor plate, during the process of penetrating the enemy armor, the thickness of the penetrated armor reaches the impact fuse requirement. A delayed fuze will be triggered.

In this way, it can detonate the warhead charge after penetrating the enemy tank armor and entering the enemy tank crew fighting compartment, causing severe damage inside the enemy tank with broken shrapnel and small-scale explosion of the warhead charge.

The sensitivity of the armor-piercing time-delay fuze equipped on the Soviet 76mm BR-350B hooded armor-piercing grenade is roughly about 15mm thick homogeneous steel armor due to fluctuations in production batches and workers' manual craftsmanship.

In other words, only when the total equivalent armor thickness of the penetrated armor on the ballistic advance route exceeds 15 mm, the armor-piercing delay fuse of the BR-350B hooded armor-piercing grenade will be triggered to detonate the warhead charge. .

On the contrary, if the total equivalent armor thickness of the penetrated armor on the ballistic advance route is less than 15 mm, then the armor-piercing BR-350B hooded armor-piercing grenade will most likely not trigger the armor-piercing delay fuse. Naturally, it is impossible to detonate the warhead charge, which is what we usually understand literally as "over-penetration".

At present, the high-explosive bomb in hand cannot cause any substantial damage to the German 88 gun battery hidden behind the hill bunker due to the sensitivity problem of the impact fuze that "explodes at the first touch".

Malashenko had an idea and immediately thought of using armor-piercing projectiles to try to penetrate the weak spots on the edge of the small soil slope, allowing the armor-piercing projectiles to pass through the soil and kill the German artillery crew hiding behind them.

Even so, this method is indeed feasible in theory, but the soil structure of the small slope in front of us is so hard and the thickness is geometric. After the armor-piercing projectile is hit, how thick the soil layer will trigger armor penetration? Delay the fuze, resulting in the wasted result of the direct ineffective explosion of the armor-piercing projectile.

Naturally, Malashenko had no intention of thinking about this series of problems involving field inspections and geometric calculations. At the moment, Malashenko could only hope that the gunner Iushkin's gunnery skills could indeed be as good as he hoped.

"I understand, Comrade Commander! I'll give it a try right now!"

Second Lieutenant Iushkin, a gunner who also graduated from the Tank Corps, is much younger than Malashenko, but his superb gunnery skills were demonstrated in the previous battle from Lutsk to Brod and was captured by Marashchenko. What Shenke likes. Otherwise, there is no need for Malashenko to let such an injured guy take on such an important position as his gunner.

At a distance of less than 100 meters, with the four-fold optical magnification sight in his hand, Iushkin, who was holding his breath, could completely and intuitively see the hill where the German artillery battery was hidden.

Just like the feeling that time seemed to slow down when master swordsmen dueled each other in ancient times, Iushkin, who was almost in a trance, was already aiming at what he thought was the right place. , he instantly stepped on the launch pedal with his right foot without any hesitation.

"Spot on the bull's-eye, Kraut."