The decisive battle against the Third Reich

"You'd better get out of here, sir!" Alfredo advised the lieutenant: "They are not easy to mess with!"

"But you are an Italian soldier in name only, Alfredo!" said the lieutenant.

The lieutenant actually didn't care about this. In fact, it had nothing to do with him at all. He just felt a little embarrassed.

"I know, sir!" Alfredo said, "But if the Germans asked for help from a soldier who knew English and could communicate with them, it would be easy, wouldn't it?"

The lieutenant nodded, then glanced at the German soldiers with a guilty look and left in despair. There was only a burst of cheers from the German soldiers behind him.

"You won't regret it!" Qin Chuan asked Alfredo.

"What?" Alfredo was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and said, "No, of course not! If you ask me to go back now... you know, I won't be used to being like them!"

Qin Chuan nodded to express his understanding, because Qin Chuan himself was like this, and if he were allowed to return to a peaceful society, he would probably not be used to it.

Then there was a rare period of calm in the North African battlefield... Both the enemy and ourselves were exhausted from the fight, and they were all accumulating strength to prepare for the next attack.

It was only then that the German soldiers had time to conduct some necessary desert combat training.

The training includes understanding various desert diseases, as well as field exercises and learning how to cross the desert... Most of this content has been experienced by the soldiers in previous battles and has learned to deal with it on their own, so it is not difficult to teach them. Big meaning.

It is worth mentioning that the equipment shipped to Africa has been upgraded to some extent...

All PAK36 anti-tank guns have been replaced by PAK38, which is exciting news for anti-tank artillery, tank troops and even infantry.

Because before this, the German army had only a few 88 anti-aircraft guns that could deal with the British "Matilda" tanks. This situation changed after the emergence of the PAK38.

PAK38 has a caliber of 50MM. It can penetrate 78MM armor at a right angle at a distance of 500 meters, which is exactly the thickness of the frontal armor of the British "Matilda" tank.

Of course, it is not satisfactory to be able to penetrate at a distance of 500 meters, but it is undoubtedly much better than the helplessness of being unable to penetrate even the rear armor when using PAK36.

Correspondingly, the newly shipped "Type III" tanks are all equipped with PAK38 modified 50MM caliber tank guns.

This made the German soldiers cheer even more, because in this way, the "Plank 3" tank that was originally unable to fight the "Matilda" would instantly gain an absolute advantage... The "Plank 3" tank may be at a distance of 500 meters. It penetrated the "Matilda", but the two-pounder gun of the "Matilda" tank could not do this.

Coupled with the speed advantage of the "Plank III" tank, the "Matilda" tank will undoubtedly become an iron coffin.

Qin Chuan was not surprised by this. He knew that the German army's equipment should be upgraded at this time.

In fact, the German army has had these equipment from the beginning, and there are quite a lot of them.

But Hitler was unwilling to put them into the African battlefield.

This is partly because Hitler believed that defeating the British colonial troops did not require advanced equipment. After all, Africa was also a secondary battlefield for the British, and most of the German troops faced were British colonial troops.

In fact, Hitler was completely wrong about this. The German army did not launch a land attack on the British army, so the British army could completely invest its elite army in the African battlefield. At the same time, Churchill paid more attention to the African battlefield than Hitler imagined. This was mainly due to the issue of control of the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea. This led Churchill to tighten his belt and fully support the African battlefield, even breaking through the German submarine blockade and bypassing the Cape of Good Hope to transport troops and equipment from the British mainland.

Another more important reason is that Hitler had been planning to attack the Soviet Union at this time, so he was unwilling to invest too many troops and equipment in Africa.

It wasn't until Hitler received a report from Rommel that the equipment of the Afrika Korps was completely unable to deal with the British "Matilda" tanks, so he had to change the equipment.

This can also be regarded as Hitler's mistake. Before that, he should have collected enough intelligence, such as the thickness of the "Matilda" tank armor, the number of British troops, etc.

If Hitler had known this from the beginning and equipped the African Corps with PAK38, Rommel might have been able to take down Egypt in one go.

Qinchuan has seen this "No. 3" tank equipped with a 50MM tank gun.

That was when the German army was testing the new "Plank 3" tanks on the battlefield...Compared to the British attitude of dividing tanks into "infantry tanks" and "cruise tanks" with a slap on the head, the Germans are still very rigorous Yes, they want to see the penetration effect of the new tank on the "Matilda" tank in actual combat.

It is actually very easy to do this. The German army has a large number of "Matildas" captured from the British army.

Of course, the German army was still reluctant to use those usable "Matildas" as experimental subjects. They used trailers to drag several tanks that were broken down and beyond repair, and whose useful parts had been almost dismantled, to the experimental site.

Qinchuan's company was also present at that time, because those scientists wanted to make the experiment as close to actual combat as possible, so they asked soldiers to follow the tank... Qinchuan didn't like this task at all, because it meant that he and his comrades had to stand in the scorching sun. The next one eats dust behind the tank.

The "No. 3" tank stopped, and then there was a "boom", the tank body shuddered, and a shell was fired.

"Six hundred meters, impenetrable!"

The tank then moved forward, firing once every 50 meters at first, then every 10 meters after 500 meters, and at least three rounds... At a distance of 500 meters, it can penetrate armor at a vertical angle. It means it can really penetrate the armor of the "Matilda" because the armor of the target tank is sloped.

Finally, the first shot penetrated at 450 meters.

The scientific researchers couldn't help but let out a burst of cheers, which almost meant that there was no problem with this tank.

They guessed correctly. The final test result was that it could effectively penetrate frontal armor within 400 meters, side armor within 500 meters, and rear armor at a distance of 900 meters.

(Note: The PAK38 anti-tank gun can penetrate an armor plate with an angle of 30 degrees and a thickness of 50.8mm at a distance of 914 meters. The rear armor of the "Matilda" is 50MM)

The technicians were very satisfied with the experimental data. One of the officers with the rank of colonel recorded the data and said to Qin Chuan with a hint of arrogance: "They can protect you very well!"

Qin Chuan replied: "Sir, I just want to know why you don't put a phone in this thing!"