The decisive battle against the Third Reich

Qin Chuan had previously inspected a tank that was penetrated by a high-explosive armor-piercing shell. The death of the tank crew inside was very strange. On the surface, there seemed to be no external injuries, but the internal organs and even bones were broken, and blood oozed from the eyes, nose, mouth, etc., which is often said to be bleeding from all seven orifices, as if being sought by evil spirits.

Of course, Qin Chuan could not see the inside of the tank at this time. He only saw that one "Stuart" tank after another was blown up with black smoke and even a big fire.

It is obviously much more comfortable to use high-explosive armor-piercing shells than armor-piercing shells.

Once an armor-piercing shell is fired, even if it penetrates, it means that the tank is broken and cannot move. The people inside may even be safe and sound. High-explosive armor-piercing shells will cause smoke and fire. If the ammunition is detonated, the entire turret will be blown off and fall far to the ground. So soon, the wreckage of the "Stuart" tank will be everywhere.

This is the so-called visual impact.

And this kind of visual impact is not meaningless in actual combat.

Because looking around, the British tanks were damaged or even shattered everywhere, while the German tanks were all intact... In fact, the German "Phase III" tanks were not intact, but were penetrated by armored shells without much external manifestation, so the entire battlefield was completely a situation where the Germans crushed the British.

As a result, the confidence of the British tank crews and even the British infantry completely collapsed. They believed that the American tanks in their hands could not match the enemy tanks at all, so there was a lot of chaos at the first time.

In fact, objectively speaking, the "Stuart" and "Phase III" tanks are not much different, especially in close-range confrontations, because each can penetrate the other's armor, so there is not much difference between stronger or weaker armor-piercing capabilities. In particular, the British "Stuart" also has an advantage in numbers. If they fight to the death, it is really unknown who will win.

But war is always a combination of equipment and people, and morale and confidence are very important for people. The British army rushed to fight and lost morale and confidence in the strong attack of the German army. No matter how good the equipment is, the result will be the same.

"General!" The news quickly reached the headquarters of the 7th Armored Division, and the staff hurriedly reported to Major General Bolton: "We were ambushed by the Germans, and Colonel Colin requested to retreat!"

Colonel Colin is the commander of the 7th Armored Brigade, the main force of the 7th Armored Division. He is also an old tank soldier who has experienced World War I and made meritorious deeds. He even participated in and witnessed the first use of tanks by the British Army in World War I.

But he requested to retreat at the first time...

"No!" Major General Bolton replied: "Can't retreat!"

From the perspective of the tank unit, General Colin's suggestion may be right... "Stuart" is fast, and it will run away if it can't win, and then fight to the death after reorganizing the formation.

But the problem is that the 7th Armored Division not only has tanks, but also cars, infantry, artillery, etc. More importantly, General Bolton was worried that if he chose to retreat under such circumstances, the troops would lose their will to resist and be chased by the enemy like ducks.

So Major General Bolton loudly ordered the staff: "Order Colonel Colin to send all the tanks up and stop the enemy!"

"Yes, sir!" The staff responded and conveyed the order to Colonel Colin.

Colonel Colin felt a little incredible when he heard the order, but he only hesitated for a moment and then resolutely executed General Bolton's order.

It is difficult to say who is right or wrong. Major General Bolton and Colonel Colin have their own reasons for their ideas, but Major General Bolton is in the "Mammoth" command vehicle at the rear of the team and does not know the situation in front...

The 7th Armored Brigade has 200 tanks. According to Major General Bolton's idea, if they can rush forward and cooperate with infantry anti-tank guns, they can still fight with the German army.

The problem is that the British army has been in chaos, and chaos will cause congestion.

This is also partly due to the lack of quality and confidence of the British army. If it were the German army, they would know where to go or what to do at any time, even if they encountered an emergency.

The British army did not have such quality, so some people wanted to rush forward while some wanted to retreat, so the cars blocked the way of the armored vehicles, and the armored vehicles blocked the way of the tanks, and the infantry was still joining in the gaps.

The tanks that drove up could not see the enemy at all. There were soldiers running for their lives in panic everywhere. When they saw the enemy, they were destroyed before they could react...

The most terrifying thing was not this. The German tanks that blocked the flood were divided into three teams. The middle team continued to attack the British army head-on, and the two teams next to them surrounded the British army on the left and right.

Colonel Colin knew that this battle could not be fought when he saw this situation. If it continued like this, he was afraid that they would all be surrounded and annihilated by the German army, so he hurriedly changed the order: "Retreat, everyone retreat!"

But at this time it could no longer be called "retreat", but a veritable "rout".

From Qin Chuan's perspective, it was a sea of ​​people, rushing in the opposite direction like a rising tide, with cannons, cars, etc. abandoned... From this, we can see how panicked the British army was. You have to know that the German army was an armored division, and two legs could not outrun four wheels anyway, so the British army had only one possibility to escape, that is, to escape by car.

However, it is easier said than done. It is not easy to escape by car, because the car is facing the German army, and there are people everywhere around. Unless you run over your comrades at all costs, you can't turn your head.

A few cars luckily turned around and prepared to speed away, but in the next second they were blasted into the sky by German tank shells... Since the cars were filled with British soldiers inside and out, the shells that came with them were also Throwing them all into the sky, those people cast shadows in the sun. When they fell back to the ground again, they were already corpses.

Some British soldiers realized that they could not escape from the German guns and muzzles, so they raised their hands and chose to surrender.

But in order to catch up faster with the "Stuart" tanks that were turning around and escaping, the German tanks rushed forward without slowing down at all.

As a result, the British soldiers were crushed under the tracks, falling neatly in rows like car tires rolling over fields full of crops, leaving bloody paths as wide as tanks in the crowd. , the blood evaporated into the air as soon as it was exposed to the sun, and the disgusting smell of blood soon spread.