The decisive battle against the Third Reich

Colonel Olbrich was an expert in commanding tanks. He certainly knew that this was the time for tanks to go into action. So with one order, twenty tanks drove out of the tank bunkers and divided into two parts to encircle the two wings of the British tanks. (The other four were kept as reserves in case of emergency)

Encircling the two wings means that these tanks are moving diagonally.

As mentioned before, the German tanks were very scattered, at least hundreds of meters apart from each other. At the same time, there were infantry following each tank, which meant that their speed was not fast, otherwise the infantry would soon be left behind and it would be meaningless.

Generally speaking, if tanks were so scattered in combat, it would be tantamount to seeking death, because tank combat not only emphasizes the coordination between infantry and tanks, but also the coordination between tanks, so they usually lined up in combat formations with a distance of more than ten meters to charge the enemy, so that in a certain unit area, when one of our tanks is targeted by the enemy, there may be another tank targeting the enemy at the same time, so as to destroy as many enemy tanks as possible in the same time and finally win.

If the tanks are too dispersed, it is possible that one tank of the enemy will have to face two, three or even more tanks at the same time per unit area.

Just like now, the British army has more than 50 tanks and the German army has only 20, and the number comparison is already two to one.

If the German army disperses its tanks again, it is possible that the German tanks will be one to three or even face more British tanks.

If the British tanks are not "General Grant", it should be said that the British army has a great chance of winning.

Because it can be imagined that if the performance of the tanks is not much different, three or more "General Grant" tanks will face one "No. 3"... It will be quickly destroyed in a short time, and then these three "General Grant" tanks can look for new targets, and soon the German tanks will be defeated like an avalanche.

The problem is that the British army uses "General Grant" tanks...

The German army still uses the short stop shooting method, that is, driving a distance and then stopping to aim and shoot.

It's just that the time for the German tanks to stop and shoot is very short.

This is determined by the quality of the German gunners. On the other hand, it is also because the British tanks are densely packed and large in size, so it is easier for the German gunners to find the target.

If you look deeper, the German "Phase III" tank is lighter and has a symmetrical body, which allows it to stabilize faster when it goes from moving to stationary.

So the German "Phase III" tank can always complete a short stop in just a dozen seconds, and start again to move forward.

On the other hand, the British "General Grant" tank...

First of all, the British tank crews are of poor quality and difficult to coordinate. This is very important in tank combat, especially the "General Grant" tank, because if you want to operate the 75MM gun, you must require the driver and the gunner to cooperate almost perfectly... The driver drives the tank to turn. If the turn is not in place, such as the angle is too small or too large, then the gunner of the 75MM gun will not be able to aim at the target anyway, which will undoubtedly bring great difficulties to the British tank crew.

Secondly, the "General Grant" tank body is heavier and uneven... The dead weight of nearly 28 tons is 8 tons heavier than the "Phase III".

What's worse is that its turret is on the left, the 75MM gun is on the right side of the middle, and the body is more than three meters high and the center of gravity is unstable... This is mainly caused by the design of the "General Grant" tank.

When the "General Grant" tank was first designed, there was no 75MM tank gun, that is, a double-layer design with a standard chassis and a 37MM tank turret.

But just when the design of this tank was completed and was about to be put into production, German tanks blitzed Poland and France and won a series of victories. This made the Americans realize that the "General Grant" tank could not meet the needs of the battlefield before it was produced, so they forcibly added a 75MM caliber anti-tank gun to it... A tank that looked like a four-in-one was produced.

These reasons caused the "General Grant" tank to shake violently every time it turned, and the gunner had to wait for a long time to aim.

But often before the gunner aimed at the target, the German tank started moving forward and escaped the gunner's firing range.

Then an interesting scene appeared. The German soldiers in the trenches watched the new tanks in front of them turn, turn, and turn again like monsters, but they just didn't fire. Occasionally, a shell flew far away and didn't hit them at all.

"What are they doing?" The baker asked in surprise.

"Who cares what they are doing!" Kuhn shouted: "Just beat them back!"

Kuhn was right. At this time, the firepower of the British tanks was attracted by the "Type 3" tanks. If they didn't seize this opportunity to hurt them, they would have no chance.

So the sound of gunfire and artillery soon rang out... dense bullets and shells poured like raindrops towards the British army. Among them, the mortar played a greater role. Its shells could bypass the tank body and hit the infantry behind it. A round of artillery fire only made the British army scream.

Because the German mortars successfully suppressed the British army, the German anti-tank guns became active again... Especially at this time, many British tanks had their side armor facing the Germans because they had to aim at the German tanks.

The side armor is thinner, only 38MM.

But this is not the most important, because there is not much difference between 51MM and 38MM when it can be penetrated.

The important thing is that the projection area of ​​the side armor is larger, which makes the British tanks stand in front of the German gunners like targets.

Of course, the German gunners would not let go of such a good opportunity. They fired rows of high-explosive armor-piercing shells at the fastest speed... There was a burst of "boom" and "General Grant" tanks came one after another. exploded in front of the soldiers.

In fact, the "General Grant" tank has another shortcoming. Its body is made of rivets.

A tank with a rivet structure may be fine in normal times, but once the body is hit by a cannonball...the rivets will burst out from the inside due to the huge energy transmitted from the body, and then become bullets and shoot around.

Of course, there are rivets inside the tank, so many "General Grant" tanks were not actually penetrated by enemy shells, but the rivets flew around inside, killing the tank crew and paralyzing the tank.

This is why the British army calls this tank the "Six Brothers Coffin".

(Note: The M3 medium type that was modified at the request of the British Army, also known as the "General Grant" type, has six tank crews, so it is called the "Six Brothers Coffin". The original M3 medium type, that is, the "Lee" type, has seven tank crew members and was Called the "Seven Brothers Coffin")