Steel Soviet Union

Ding-ding——

With a huge and dull sound like a brick hitting a steel plate, it echoed in Malashenko's ears like a monk chanting sutras. He realized that his precious car had just received a German armor-piercing round in the face, but it ricocheted. Malashenko immediately started shouting to the entire crew.

"The German's armor-piercing projectile, I don't know if it's a tank or an anti-tank gun, it's located right in front, find it!"

The muzzle velocity of the 50mm Type 39 full-caliber capped armor-piercing projectile is as high as 835 meters per second. The flight speed is more than twice the speed of sound. The sound of the German anti-tank gun firing is transmitted through the air before it is finally transmitted to Malashenko's ears. , the armor-piercing projectile it fired had accurately hit the upper part of the tank's nose.

Malashenko, who was attacked almost without time to react, only had the dull sound of impact echoing in his ears and could not judge the enemy's position through the sound of gunfire. The disadvantage of the battlefield where the enemy was in darkness and we were clear forced Malashenko to swing immediately. He picked up the wide-angle periscope in his hand and began to look for the target in the direction in which the shells might fly.

Before modern high-magnification electronic optical sighting instruments were installed on main battle tanks, all types of tanks from World War II to the early Cold War actually suffered from too narrow and limited fields of view.

At that time, when war technology was not as advanced as modern times, tank crews from all over the world had only one solution to this situation, which was also very simple. That was for the commander who was responsible for commanding the entire vehicle to uncover the top of his head. The top cover allows the upper body to be stretched out of the vehicle to observe the enemy's situation on the battlefield.

Situations like this were quite common among Allied tank troops and German armored forces at the same time. The best evidence is the photos of German tank commanders with their upper bodies sticking out of the vehicle that appear in various historical records.

However, compared to the Allies and the Germans, there were few photos of the tank commander of the Soviet armored forces in the early days of the Patriotic War with their upper body sticking out of the turret. Most of the photos left of the T34 tanks showed a The commander looked like an iron coffin hiding behind closed doors.

Could it be that the Soviet tank commanders, who were blessed by Soviet beliefs, were too timid and fearful of death that they did not stick their upper bodies out of the vehicle to observe the enemy's situation? No, the reason for this special situation is none other than a poor design flaw on the early 1941 T34 tank.

As the Soviet armored forces' design exploration of the first new tank with a systematic tilted armor arrangement in human history, the T34 medium tank left a mark in the history of human tanks, but it also had many shortcomings and Design flaws.

Take the 1941 T3476 medium tank currently commanded by Malashenko as an example.

Its huge integrated turret hatch was almost as difficult to open by manpower in the era of lack of hydraulic assistance as it was to do a set of gym exercises. Not only that, the ingenious Soviet engineer team also designed the tank's turret hatch to It opens by pushing half forward, rather than the rearward-opening hatch cover of German tanks of the same period.

The reason given for the design is that such a forward-opening turret hatch can serve as a ballistic shield for the turret, helping the crew members to provide a certain degree of protection against small arms when their upper bodies are stretched out of the vehicle.

Although this design reason is indeed understandable on paper, when the 1941 T34 tank was actually issued to the Soviet frontline armored forces and began to be installed in batches.

The Soviet tank soldiers, who had not warmed up their newly acquired precious new tank, discovered that once this extremely huge turret integrated hatch was fully opened forward during battle, Soviet tanks who wanted to observe the field of view directly ahead could The commanders had to stick their heads out to a position higher than the turret hatch to do it. At this time, the Soviet commanders had almost completely stood up and their entire bodies were exposed outside the vehicle.

On a battlefield filled with artillery fire, no one can tell whether a shell will explode next to you or behind the vehicle in the next second and penetrate your body with scattered shrapnel. There is also no guarantee that the shell that has just passed by will explode. Will there be a German ambush unit waiting to give you a fatal blow?

The commander of the Soviet T34 tank, with his legs from the knees up to almost the entire body exposed outside the turret, is undoubtedly the best target at this time, and once the Soviet T34 tank crew has the dual positions of gunner and commander, After a long battle, the T34 tank, with only a three-man crew remaining, would have lost its combat effectiveness in most cases, and in terms of the overall strategic layout, the entire tank would be written off.

It is precisely because of this poor design flaw in the 1941 model of the T34 medium tank that Soviet tank commanders not only had to endure the narrow field of vision brought by their own tanks' unadvanced optical sighting equipment during battle, but also had to He couldn't stick his head out of the car to observe the situation like his German counterparts on the opposite side to make up for the lack of vision. All this was simply the worst news for Malashenko, who was currently under attack.

After being attacked, except for the command No. 177 T34 tank commanded by Malashenko, all the other vehicles in the entire armored company were not equipped with radio stations for inter-vehicle communication.

It is obviously impossible to climb out of the turret and wave flags when the combat situation is already entered. Malashenko is annoyed that his subordinates lack effective communication means and the ability to command in a timely manner on the battlefield. One can only hope that his subordinates are not too blind and can find out the opponent's position in time before the German troops on the position open fire again.

Perhaps the goddess of fate heard the curses and prayers in Malashenko's heart.

Just as Malashenko, who was extremely anxious for fear of being hit by another armor-piercing bullet, was rotating the wide-angle periscope in his hand, trying to quickly find suspicious places on the German position, a car accompanying Malashenko next to Car No. 177 The fellow T34 tank suddenly opened fire at this time.

boom--

The muzzle shook as the fire jumped, and the shells that escaped from the barrel rushed straight towards the German position directly in front of them before the human brain had time to react, and turned into a ball of fire in the moment immediately following. A scorching and dazzling fireball stirred up a large area of ​​soil.

Without thinking too much, he followed the direction of the explosion and pointed the wide-angle periscope in his hand at the target location. Before the large pieces of soil scattered in the sky could completely fall from the sky, Malashenko had a very good look. After a gap was opened in the position by the shell, he could barely see a slender gun barrel that was half exposed.

"I got you, damn Spicy!"

"German anti-tank gun, one o'clock direction, reload with high-explosive shells, quick!"