The decisive battle against the Third Reich

This is exactly what the Soviet army did.

Of course they have to do this because it directly affects their lives.

So the importance of the driver immediately increased... The secondary weapon of the T34 is two machine guns, one is controlled by the gunner on the turret, and the other is controlled by the driver on the right side of the cockpit.

But the parallel machine gun on the T34 turret is actually basically useless.

Mainly because of the identity of the gunner, or it can be said that it has too many things to do... The early T34 had a very small turret space due to the inclination of the turret, and could only accommodate two people: the gunner and the loader.

This directly leads to the commander of the T34 tank being concurrently held by the tank crew, mostly the gunner.

Therefore, the gunner is not only responsible for the coordination and command of the entire vehicle, but also controls the artillery and the machine gun.

In a tense battle, it is unimaginable that one person can complete so much work. Because of this, the T34 artillery fire rate will not be slower than that of the German tanks, but the actual rate of fire is only one-third of the German "Penzer IV" tank. Quarter.

It wasn't until the T34/85 was developed at the end of 1943 that it was modified into a three-man turret to make the commander independent.

In fact, these are not important. The most important thing is that the parallel machine gun needs to rotate the turret when aiming at the target... This will make its response clumsy. By the time the parallel machine gun finds the target, the "tracking rocket" may have already hit the tank. .

Therefore, the important task of suppressing "tracking rockets" falls on the driver.

Rotmistrov even ordered: "Once the tank driver finds the contrail of the rocket, don't hesitate and shoot all the bullets in that direction immediately, even if you don't see anything!"

This order did play a role on the battlefield, or to be precise, it played a partial role.

Every time the German anti-tank team fires an ME63, several machine guns will immediately shoot bullets in this direction... This is another kind of fire coverage, and this fire coverage is still scattered. Defense cannot solve it.

Therefore, as time went by, the casualties of the ME63 operator also increased, while the Soviet tanks were getting closer and closer, and were about to approach the German defense line.

At this time, General Strike issued an order that surprised everyone: "Armored troops, advance! Destroy them!"

Go forward and hang with the enemy?

This is not a good option for German tanks, but German armor will not back down if it cannot be avoided.

So the next moment, the German tanks started. Following General Strike's order, the German tanks jumped out of their hiding places one by one and then increased their horsepower and rushed towards the Soviet tank group.

In an instant, the "steel torrents" from both sides merged and collided.

If we only analyze it from the comparison of combat effectiveness and quantity, the German tanks are undoubtedly committing suicide... As mentioned before, the German tanks do not take any advantage in close combat, and they are absolutely disadvantaged in terms of numbers.

But war is not just a simple comparison of data, but also psychological and tactical advantages and disadvantages.

The Soviet tank crew did not expect such a move from the Germans, so the first group of tanks who basically had no reaction missed the opportunity to fire at close range... This also has a lot to do with the two-person turret of the T34 tank. The gunner must also The commanding members have to control the artillery, so their reactions will inevitably be a little slow.

And just this slow beat prevented the Soviet tanks from seizing the opportunity to fire at close range, allowing the German tanks to pass by.

The German army has no such problem...

The command of the three-man turret was very smooth, and the tank crews were all well-trained veterans. The tank was as flexible as one person in their hands. When the enemy tank passed by, the turret followed the side. It rotated to the right, and when it passed the flank of the enemy tank, it fired a high-explosive armor-piercing projectile with a "boom".

Soviet tanks exploded from the inside. The turrets separated from the body in the firelight, spinning high into the air and then falling back to the ground.

And this is just the beginning.

After that, the German tanks actually ran all the way into the formation of Soviet tanks, firing here and there, and beating the Soviet tanks into terrible chaos.

Afterwards, Qin Chuan believed that part of the reason for this situation was that Soviet tanks did not have as smooth command as German tanks. Coupled with the backward communication equipment, Soviet tanks were generally clumsy.

But more importantly, the Soviet tanks focused too much attention on suppressing or even countering "tracking rockets", so they basically ignored another terrible opponent...German tanks.

Although the number of German tanks is not large, they are all elite, especially the 21st Armored Division, which were all fought on the African battlefield.

Even if some of them are still backward "Plank 3" tanks, they can still play a role at this time... The "Plank 3" tank has been replaced with the short-barreled 75MM gun eliminated by the "Plank 4" tank at this time. This gun When firing armor-piercing projectiles, it can penetrate 43MM armor within 700 meters. Although it is unable to deal with the 45MM sloped armor on the front of the T34, it has no problem at all against the straighter armor on the side of the T34 at close range.

The German infantry also followed closely, using everything they could use such as anti-tank grenades and rocket launchers.

Soon, the Soviet army finally reacted and hurriedly slowed down and put down the Soviet soldiers on it to join the battle group.

Thus, a chaotic and tragic tank melee began in the plains.

Hundreds of tank engines and tracks were strangled with artillery and machine guns. Sometimes soldiers and sometimes tanks passed by the tanks, some were enemies and some were their own. This made the gunners and machine gunners not know when to choose to shoot or fire... They were worried that the bullets or shells they fired would not hit the target but would accidentally injure friendly forces.

In fact, such accidental injuries were common in such melees. The German army and the Soviet army also had them, but it was obvious that the Soviet army had more accidental injuries. The reason was still as mentioned before, their command was not smooth and flexible.

The sky was soon covered by black smoke, and a large number of tanks that were hit were burning like torches in the snow. Prokhorovka in the fierce battle was bleeding, spreading flames, and tearing steel.

The war was full of bizarre horrors. Some Soviet tankmen screamed as they climbed out of their tanks in the flames. Out-of-control tanks crashed into each other. Some tanks were unable to change direction in the snow in time and crushed the escaping tankmen or infantrymen into meat paste. The burning soldiers rolled and struggled in the snow, gradually losing their last bit of strength. Near them lay charred corpses.