The decisive battle against the Third Reich

"Armored troops, move forward!" The commander of the armored troops shouted majestically at the intercom, but Qin Chuan felt that he was deliberately showing off in front of the head of state, because Qin Chuan heard some nervousness and unnaturalness in his voice.

In this respect, the major was successful, because Hitler looked at all this with satisfaction, almost smiling with his eyes.

It didn't take long for the "Tiger" formation to encounter the Soviet defense line, and the major immediately gave the order to open fire.

Ten "Tiger" vehicles stopped one after another, and then each adjusted the turret to find its own target... Their movements were very skillful, which at least shows that in addition to the well-trained crew of the tank, the operation should be similar to other German tanks, because Only in this way can they reach this level after a short period of training.

"Boom boom", the two "Tiger" vehicles opened fire first, hitting a civil fortification and a sandbag machine gun fort with grenades respectively... Of course they could not withstand the bombing of the "Tiger" 88 gun, and were destroyed in the flames. Exploded to the sky.

Then other "Tigers" fired one after another, some hitting and some not hitting. One of the high-explosive armor-piercing rounds hit the wreckage of the T34 tank on the opposite side, exploding from the inside and immediately blew up the entire turret and was thrown high.

The crowd watching with telescopes couldn't help but cheer. Kruger looked at Qinchuan and Manstein somewhat triumphantly, and then said to Hitler: "Your Excellency, as I said, they are indestructible... The Soviets No anti-tank weapon can destroy them, but we can bomb the Soviets until they run out of shells!"

"Brilliant, perfect!" Hitler put down the telescope and sighed: "That's what we need. They will crush the Soviet Union under its tracks, and Stalin will beg for our forgiveness under its barrels..."

But before he finished speaking, a tank stopped on the spot on the exercise ground and failed to keep up with the moving convoy. This was obviously abnormal.

Hitler raised his telescope and looked at it, and then asked Kruger doubtfully: "What's going on?"

Kruger didn't know what was going on. He asked the major commander from a few meters away: "What's going on?"

"Your Majesty Marshal!" the major replied awkwardly: "The transmission device of the No. 7 tank is faulty!"

"This is an accidental phenomenon, Your Excellency the Führer!" Kruger said: "They will deal with it soon!"

Qin Chuan added: "How about we go take a look?"

"Good idea, Lieutenant Colonel!" Hitler replied, and then walked towards the tank.

The faulty tank was not far from where everyone was, about 200 meters wide. A few minutes later, everyone arrived at the tank. The commander and driver were struggling to deal with the mechanical failure... The transmission was broken. When I stepped on the accelerator, I could only hear the engine. The sound of the tank did not move at all.

Seeing Hitler and a group of people approaching, the crew members immediately put down their work and lined up to salute.

"Leave me alone!" Hitler criticized: "You want to treat this place as a battlefield, so you should repair it as quickly as possible and then go into battle again!"

"Yes, Your Excellency the Head of State!" the crew members responded, and then immersed themselves in "dealing with" the tanks.

But not long after, another tank had another problem. The report received by Hitler and others was: "Engine failure."

Then another tank got stuck in a snow pit and couldn't move. This is a common thing on the battlefield, especially in terrain like the Soviet Union and the "Tiger" weighs 56 tons.

At this time, the major commander made another wrong decision. He ordered another "Tiger" to drag out the one stuck in the snow pit...

Qinchuan almost stopped him because he knew that there was a ban among German tank soldiers: "Tiger tanks are strictly prohibited from towing."

The reason is very simple. The "Tiger" uses a gasoline engine, and its own weight has overwhelmed the engine... This is one of the reasons for the high failure rate of the "Tiger". If other tanks are towed, it will It will exceed the load of the engine and cause failure or even fire.

But Qin Chuan immediately realized that he should not stop it at this time.

On the one hand, this is because he should not have known that the "Tiger" trailer would have problems... the "Tiger" is a new type of tank, and Qin Chuan was not involved in it.

On the other hand, the more "Tiger" malfunctions, the more it will dissuade Hitler from taking the initiative to attack.

then……

Amidst a "rumbling" roar, black smoke suddenly appeared from the towed "Tiger" engine.

At first, everyone thought this was normal. After all, it was using super power to try to drag out another tank. But when the black smoke turned into flames, everyone knew that the other "Tiger" was finished.

The major commander hurriedly stopped the exercise. If it continues like this, it won't be long before each of these "Tiger" vehicles will be trapped.

This is no surprise to Qin Chuan. The failure rate of the "Tiger" is notoriously high, especially when the "Tiger" first entered service... The first four "Tiger"s took to the battlefield. "After only one hour of fighting, three of them broke down. Because they were worried that the new tanks rushing to the front and lying down would be captured and studied by the Soviet army, the Germans could only blow them up.

The responsibility for this lies largely with Hitler.

Because as mentioned before, the "Tiger" tank was Hitler's dream. He hoped to use this tank to completely defeat the Soviet Union, so he ordered that the "Tiger" be put into use in 1943 no matter what difficulties he encountered. Go during the summer offensive... So, the "Tiger" that had just been developed and had a lot of problems unsolved was sent to the front line and handed over to the troops.

Seeing this situation, Hitler's face turned gloomy and ugly.

Manstein and Qin Chuan looked at each other and said nothing, because there was no need to say anything in this situation. Everyone knew what the problem was... It was unreliable to use such a tank as the main offensive force, although it was It is indeed excellent in terms of firepower and defense.

At this time, even Marshal Kruger, who had always advocated attack, did not dare to say anything more.

Marshal Manstein whispered beside Qin Chuan: "Well done, I think the head of state will give up the idea of ​​attacking!"

But Qin Chuan is not so optimistic, because Hitler subjectively hopes to attack, which can be seen from his expression at this time... If Hitler was just hesitating between the two, seeing this situation, he should be glad that he did not insist on having his own way. Order the attack, instead of being as disillusioned and disillusioned as you are now.

Sure enough, after a period of suppressed silence, Hitler ordered: "Solve these problems with the Tiger as quickly as possible, no matter how much money and manpower is invested!"