The decisive battle against the Third Reich

German artillery fire also roared.

Artillery battles always have the advantage of being the last mover. The reason is that the side that fires first will expose its position to the enemy. The enemy can take a long time to calculate and distribute its firepower and launch a violent and relatively accurate attack on the opponent at the same time. counterattack.

As a result, the British artillery fire quickly slowed down, but the German artillery did not dare to expose themselves too much, otherwise they would suffer another round of attacks from the British artillery.

They were replaced by British infantry mortars... These mortars were used to clear mines for tanks. This can be seen from the rows of shells hitting the position and extending forward.

The smoke from the shells moved forward, and the tanks also moved forward, getting closer and closer...

"Fire!" Following the order, various weapons on the defense line fired simultaneously.

Qinchuan pulled the trigger and shot a tank commander to death on the turret.

It is the norm in this era for the tank commander to direct operations outside the tank. This is not because the tank commander is brave, but because the tank has poor perception of the outside world. This is necessary in order to better coordinate with the infantry and maintain the tank's formation. .

Otherwise, once you hide in the tank, it will be difficult to get in touch with the infantry outside. Even if the infantry is bombarded by enemy artillery fire or even attacked by enemy armored forces, you may not know anything about it.

Qin Chuan's purpose was to get these people to hide in the tank.

Sure enough, after several were shot in succession, the tank commanders wisely retracted into the tank and closed the hatch cover.

Mortar shells hit him in rows, and Qin Chuan quickly retracted his head.

The mortar is different from other guns. Its trajectory is relatively curved, so theoretically speaking, if it is blown forward layer by layer, it will definitely explode directly into the enemy's trench.

The British army had abundant supplies and could afford to consume them. This could be regarded as providing fire cover for the charge of their tanks and infantry.

A mortar shell exploded in the trench, and several German soldiers were hit. Blood and soil splashed everywhere. Since the shell exploded in the semi-enclosed space of the trench, the bodies basically flew to both sides of the trench.

A corpse fell heavily to Qin Chuan's feet, face upward. Qin Chuan recognized him as the recruit who vomited in the car, Yacop's subordinate.

Qin Chuan did not check his injuries, because Qin Chuan knew that soldiers who were blown up like this were basically hopeless. Even if they were not hit by shrapnel, their relatively fragile internal organs would be injured and shattered. Well, trying to save them would just be a waste of time.

Sure enough, the recruit struggled a few times and then stopped moving.

Another artillery shell exploded in the trench. Qin Chuan reflexively lowered his body. A piece of shrapnel hit Qin Chuan's helmet and bounced off. This caused a loud metal collision sound that made Qin Chuan's ears buzz. .

Qin Chuan hurriedly touched his neck to see if there was any blood on his hands, but there was nothing on it. Qin Chuan's worried heart was relieved.

But actually saying he put it down was a lie, because the "rumbling" sound of the enemy tank was already within feet.

As soon as the artillery fire passed, Qin Chuan put his rifle on the trench again and stuck his head out... At this time, the enemy tank was only more than 300 meters away.

"Bang!" Qin Chuan fired a bullet.

The target Qinchuan chose was the British mortar team, which is similar to the German 50MM mortar. The British small-caliber mortar is a 2-inch mortar (2 inches is 51MM caliber), and its range is longer than the German mortar. The 50MM mortar is slightly shorter, only 400 meters, which is why the British army often suffers in close combat...

But in fact, this is not the real disadvantage. The British army does not organize the mortar groups into platoons like the German army, but uses them as a mortar squad commanded by the company headquarters. This will cause a problem in actual combat. : Mortars that are too concentrated can easily be suppressed by the enemy.

Just like now, Qin Chuan looked up and saw two mortars emerging from the gaps in the tank.

The correct firing posture of the mortar crew should be for both of them to lie down, because the 2-inch mortar barrel is very short, and the firing action can be completed lying down.

But perhaps to facilitate observation of the position of the German defense line, or to enable timely transfer, the loader loaded the bomb while half-kneeling.

Qinchuan's bullet penetrated his abdomen and hit another mortar operator in the head... This mortar lost two mortar operators in the first place.

The next bullet knocked down the loader of another mortar. Due to the smoke, Qin Chuan could not see where the bullet hit. Qin Chuan only saw him fall to the ground and scream.

A surviving mortarman realized that he had been targeted by an enemy sniper, so he quickly held the mortar and rolled it twice behind a jeep.

The British soldier reacted quickly, but he ignored the gap under the chassis of the jeep. A bullet fired by Qin Chuan passed through the gap and then penetrated his head. His body went limp and then stopped moving. .

The "Matilda" tank was getting closer and closer, and the German anti-tank guns hidden in the fortifications sounded like artillery fire, but as everyone imagined, these anti-tank guns could not penetrate the "Matilda" "In the armor of the tank, most of the artillery shells were bounced away. When they bounced off, they would create a dazzling spark on the tank armor. A few armor-piercing bullets would be embedded in the tank armor. Qin Chuan could see in the scope that the shells were deformed and expanded due to the violent impact. The tail of the armor-piercing projectile.

"What should we do?" Looking at "Matilda" getting closer and closer, Alfredo couldn't help but become anxious: "We can't deal with them!"

"Anti-tank grenade!" Werner shouted.

"No!" Bazel looked at the time and ordered: "We should retreat!"

This order was unexpected to all German soldiers, because their commanders had always ordered them to fight bravely.

"Retreat, you hear me?" Bazel repeated: "Leave some mines for the enemy!"

"Yes, sir!" the soldiers responded, and then they quickly planted some mines in front of and behind the trenches and ran along the traffic trenches to the second line of defense.

The traffic trench is in the shape of a zigzag... If it is a straight line, then the enemy only needs to set up a machine gun at the intersection of the communication trench to hit it from beginning to end. The zigzag-shaped communication trench can ensure the safety of the soldiers who have entered the communication trench. , because their backs will be blocked by the zigzag turns.

However, this actually had no effect, because the communication trench was only a faintly visible small ditch after the previous bombing by fighter planes and artillery fire. This caused the retreating soldiers to hear the whistling of bullets and artillery shells all over their heads and ears. .