The Rise of the Third Reich

Later generations who played "World of Tanks" had a joke about the T-34 tank: a racer may not be able to control the T-34, but a good T-34 driver can definitely become an excellent racer!

Captain Konstantin Samokin, the company commander of the 1st Company, 112th Battalion, 10th Tank Brigade, affiliated to the 5th Tank Army, would definitely agree if he heard this statement. Because under his boots, there is an excellent T-34 tank driver Shevchenko, who is Ukrainian, just like the Nazis who are now holding on to the No. 13 farm building. But this is a good Ukrainian, a glorious Bolshevik member, and a very good T-34 driver, who can drive this difficult-to-control vehicle as flexibly as the off-road vehicle provided by the United States.

Without him, Captain Samokin would definitely not have the status and achievements he has today - a tank company commander and a Soviet hero, and he would most likely be killed by German tanks on the Polish battlefield.

However, even if you have an excellent driver and an ace tank commander/gunner (Captain Samokin himself, he has 19 confirmed victories, all of which were achieved with T-34/57 tanks), it is still a very difficult task to destroy a German tank or assault gun with a T-34/57 tank.

Because the battle on the Soviet-German battlefield today is not a one-on-one duel between tanks, but a contest between the mechanized combat systems of the Soviet and German armies! Even if it is an ace, it is just a "screw" of relatively good quality in this system, and it is impossible to change the weakness of the entire system.

Although he was very reluctant to admit it, Captain Samokin was still very clear in his mind that even if T-34/57 and KV-85 became the main force of the Red Army's tank forces, and there were also SU-85 and SU-122, such as anti-tank assault guns, the advantage on the battlefield still belonged to the German army.

And the German advantage is still very large! The tanks and assault guns they had were superior in performance and more numerous than the Soviet Union - in fact, the difference in numbers between the two sides was not large, but the quality of German tanks was better than that of Soviet tanks, so the dispatch rate was higher.

In addition, the German infantry and artillery also had stronger and more anti-tank means, including the Panzerfaust series of anti-tank grenade launchers, recoilless guns of various calibers, and 75mm anti-tank guns that basically achieved "self-propelled" and "armored".

However, the biggest threat faced by Soviet tanks on the battlefield came from the sky. The French Breguet attack aircraft and the German Hs129 were simply two tank killers! The Fokker Zero D, Fw-190F series and Ju87 Stuka series dive bombers could cause fatal damage to Soviet tank units.

So now the tactics of the Soviet tank units are also very different from those in 1942. The maneuvers of the troops in the frontline areas are basically at night. The attack is also carried out at night as much as possible, under the cover of night. During the day, the troops generally hide and defend.

In addition, the use of tanks/assault guns for defense and ambush has increasingly become the main means of combat for Soviet tank forces.

The battle of collective farm No. 13, which entered its climax at dusk on May 9, also began with the German attack and the Soviet defense.

Since the forest and the living area of ​​the farm only occupied a small part of the battlefield, it was impossible to deploy an entire tank army. Therefore, most of the Soviet tanks/assault guns could only be placed in the wheat fields where the growth was very lush. Captain Samokin and his tank company (a full complement of 10 T-34s, but now only 5, including 3 T-34/57s and 2 T-34/76s, the rest were either anchored or bombed by German planes) were placed in a wheat field less than 10 kilometers away from collective farm No. 13 (living area).

The 5 tanks were covered with camouflage nets covered with leaves, and they were also supported by a pile of earth dug out by a bucket (a bucket that can be mounted on a tank). There was also a 25mm anti-aircraft gun position nearby, with 6 M1940 anti-aircraft guns. In addition, there was a company of infantry with machine guns and "Red Iron Fists" scattered around the tank.

Samokin opened the hatch on the top of the tank turret, half of his body was exposed outside, holding a telescope in his hand, and observing around.

Suddenly, he heard a strange "whoosh whoosh whoosh" sound, which was the sound of a rocket launcher.

"Rocket launcher! Hide quickly!" Samokin shouted, and quickly retreated into the hot, narrow T-34 tank filled with diesel and engine oil temperature, and then closed the hatch.

Then, he heard a dull roar through the thick armor of the T-34 tank.

Obviously, the Germans were bombarding his "tank defense position" with rocket launchers. Of course, the T-34 was not afraid of rocket launchers, but it was hard to say about the nearby infantry and anti-aircraft gun positions.

Without the cover of infantry and anti-aircraft guns, Comrade Samokin's company would be in a very dangerous situation.

While Comrade Samokin was worried about his comrades, in the wheat field less than 5,000 meters away from him, Sergeant Kurt Kemper, a tank commander with a blue Max medal hanging around his neck (only tank commanders who destroyed more than 50 enemy tanks/assault guns are eligible to receive it) was half sticking out of the turret hatch of his Tiger G tank, also holding a telescope to observe the surrounding terrain.

Sergeant Major Kensper is a German tank ace commander. He is now the platoon leader of the 2nd Platoon of the 1st Company of the 506th Heavy Armored Battalion (usually assigned to the 6th Armored Division) and the commander of the Tiger tank. Born in 1922, Kensper was a conscripted soldier in 1940. After joining the army, he received tank gunner training, participated in the North African War in 1941, and then received commander training. Before the outbreak of the Soviet-German War in 1942, he became the commander of the No. 4H tank, participated in the Battle of Belarus and the First Battle of Leningrad, and destroyed 32 various Soviet tanks/assault guns with the No. 4H tank.

After that, he participated in the training course for Tiger tank commanders and got a brand new Tiger G-2 tank in April 1943. Although the armor protection capability of this "shrunken Tiger" (also called "water-injected Panther") with a combat weight of 48 tons is not as good as that of the Tiger E, the reliability of the equipment has been greatly improved, the endurance has also increased a lot, and the extremely accurate 88mmKwK36L/56 gun has not shrunk at all!

So today, Sergeant Major Kenspel is full of energy and ready to do a big job, using his Tiger tank to kill more damn Soviet tanks.

The rocket artillery bombardment did not last too long-the participants were the rocket artillery battalions directly under the 3 divisions of the 11th Armored Corps and a rocket artillery regiment directly under the army. There are a total of 6 battalions (each battalion has 24 48-track 80mm rocket artillery vehicles), 144 rocket artillery vehicles, and rockets can be fired in one salvo. This rocket is 705mm long, weighs only 6.6 kg, and the warhead charge is only 0.69 kg. It has almost no lethality to enemy fortifications and armored targets. However, because of its high firepower density and wide coverage, it is effective against soft targets and minefields. Moreover, because it is a self-propelled rocket launcher, it can be put into combat quickly from marching.

Therefore, this light and cheap rocket launcher was assigned to the German armored division/armored grenadier division in large quantities, and it would clear the enemy with one or two volleys before the tanks and armored grenadiers launched an attack.

After the rocket launcher volley, the 40 Tiger G tanks, 20 Type 4 F tanks (short-barreled Type 4) and more than 340 Type 4 H tanks, which had been arranged in the offensive formation on the battlefield, began to rumble forward under the cover of tens of thousands of armored grenadiers/dismounted cavalry and 45 "Rhino" tank destroyers.

The Soviet Red Army tank troops on the battlefield of the 13th collective farm were about to experience how terrible the attack of a German armored division (with some cavalry) was!

…

“Comrades, prepare to fight for Ukraine!”

Honorary Sergeant Pavlyuchenko shouted loudly. When the thirty or so Ukrainian German soldiers hiding in the basement of the headquarters building of the No. 13 collective farm heard her shout, they climbed out of the bomb shelter in the basement and walked to their combat positions - those windows exposed to the ground.

Pavlyuchenko also walked to her position. Although she was now commanding a platoon-level combat group (the previous commander, Sergeant Poroshenko, was seriously injured by the Soviet flamethrower tank and is probably dead now), she still had to participate in the battle in person. Because every German soldier who could still move in this building, including the lightly wounded and Major Zints, was fighting.

This was probably the only thing they could do before they died or were rescued.

However, including Pavlyuchenko, no one would have any hope of being rescued. Because the Soviet SU-122 assault guns had been placed on the square a few hundred meters in front of the building, and the starting position of the Soviet infantry was less than 300 meters away from the building.

Fortunately, the Soviet tank army was not equipped with 203mm B-4 howitzers, otherwise Pavlyuchenko and others would have been buried by the collapsed houses. But the Soviets used another powerful weapon for attacking - flamethrower tanks!

"Ura! Ura! Ura..."

Deafening shouts soon rang out. Looking out from a window that was converted into a shooting port, Pavlyuchenko saw the Soviet infantry and T-34 tanks (the flamethrower OT-34) approaching step by step under the moonlight.