Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

boom!

On the Soviet position, an M1937 anti-tank gun aimed at a German tank in the distance and fired an armor-piercing projectile.

The origin of the M1937 anti-tank gun is also related to Germany. In the early 1930s, the Soviet Union had realized the need to develop a specialized small-caliber artillery for anti-tank operations. In view of the fact that the Soviet Union had no relevant design experience at the time, in order to save time and reduce costs Due to the difficulty of research and development, the Soviet Union directly introduced a batch of PaK36 37mm combat anti-cannons (nicknamed stepping stones) from Germany, which was in its honeymoon period, called the M1930.

It has to be said that this lightweight artillery was fully able to meet battlefield needs when it appeared. Except for the heavy tanks being built by a few countries, most armored weapons can be penetrated. However, the Soviet Union itself is also developing tanks with thicker armor. Therefore, it is believed that the defense capabilities of future tanks will generally improve, and the armor-piercing capability of the 37 mm caliber gun will soon become obsolete. Therefore, Soviet engineers designed a 45 mm caliber gun barrel. Still using the original gun mount and mantlet, it was named M1932.

As soon as the m1932 was delivered to the troops, many problems were exposed. For example, the wooden gun wheel used to save costs has poor road passability, and the wheel axle has no suspension device, so the speed is low when towing; the position of the firing device that was moved after changing the aiming device is unreasonable, making it inconvenient for the gunner to fire the gun and the locking mechanism cannot be implemented Semi-automatic, low rate of fire...there were many problems like this, so Arsenal No. 8 was ordered to make improvements in 1936.

The redesigned artillery was put into mass production in 1937, with little change in firepower, mainly small changes such as the gun bolt, and the replacement of wooden wheels with tires from GAZ cars to achieve rapid maneuvers when the car was towed. This model was called the M1937 model. Later, some of it continued to make minor changes. It was called the M1938 model in production, but the M1937 number was still used in the army.

The grille armor on the German tank naturally could not block the armor-piercing projectile. The armor-piercing projectile easily penetrated the grille armor, hit the tank's turret hard, made a crisp sound, and bounced to the other side.

"Eleven o'clock, one anti-tank gun! Load grenades!"

"Loading complete!"

The Leopard tank suddenly stopped. The good shock absorption system allowed the tank to stabilize its body with only a slight shake. In less than a second, the Leopard tank's gun barrel pointed towards the anti-tank door. The cannon fired a grenade.

boom!

The grenade hit less than half a meter away from the anti-tank gun. If it was an armor-piercing projectile, the anti-tank gun might have survived. Unfortunately, it was a grenade. The shock wave of the explosion directly overturned the anti-tank gun, and splashed Shrapnel and gravel smashed several Soviet soldiers into sieves.

Soon the German tank approached 30 meters away. A Soviet soldier in the trench picked up the Molotov cocktail and just raised it above his head to throw it out. Bang! A bullet accidentally hit the Molotov cocktail, and the liquid inside poured on his body. His whole body instantly became a blazing fire, letting out heart-rending screams and flopping around desperately. With.

Before the comrades next to him had time to help him put out the fire, the tracks of a Panther tank rushing at the front had already rolled over the Soviet trenches. The gravel rolled up by the tracks fell into the trench and hit the Soviet helmets, making a clanging sound.

A Soviet soldier holding a cluster grenade jumped up suddenly, pulled the grenade fuse cord, and stuffed the cluster grenade into the rolling tank tracks. But the next second he was beaten into pieces by the tank machine gun behind him, and he fell helplessly in the trench.

"boom!"

The cluster grenade stuck in the track exploded, breaking the track. The Panther tank still relied on inertia to drive forward for a short distance before it collapsed.

More tanks crossed the trenches, and the infantry following the tanks also rushed to the trenches and started strafing at the Soviet troops in the trenches from above.

sudden! sudden! sudden!

In close combat, especially in trench warfare, the German army, which had a large number of automatic weapons, had a clear advantage.

"Fix bayonets!" In the trench in the distance, the Soviet political commissar brandishing a pistol shouted loudly, and a group of Soviet soldiers with shining bayonets launched an almost crazy counterattack against the German army.

But what awaited them was not the German bayonets, but G43 semi-automatic rifles, MP40 submachine guns, MP44 assault rifles, and various types of pistols. Intense bullets were fired at the rushing Soviet troops, knocking them all to the ground.

The German troops who jumped into the trenches advanced along the trenches, and near a node, they encountered a bunker that was still resisting. While they were shooting at the German troops in front, they were also firing at the German troops in the trenches.

The German soldiers took out a few grenades and threw them. The grenades exploded amidst the screams of the Soviet soldiers, and there was no sound in the bunker.

After a day of fighting, the German army cleared out a quarter of the Soviet troops outside Smolensk, and it would take less than a few days to surround Smolensk.

"Smolensk..." Yannick in the Berlin Palace received the battle report from the front line and felt a little emotional.

In the original World War II, the recognized turning points of the Soviet-German war were the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Kursk, but Yanik personally prefers the Battle of Smolensk in the early stages of the war.

In the Battle of Smolensk, the German army took advantage of the Soviet army's unsteady foothold and incomplete defense system. It relied on powerful armored forces and close coordination of infantry and tanks to continuously implement far-reaching pincer assaults, segmentation and encirclement, and individual defeats to annihilate It mobilized a large number of Soviet troops, occupied strategic locations such as Smolensk, and advanced more than 200 kilometers east of the Dnieper River, thus opening the door to Moscow and taking the lead in reaching the "Barbarossa" Operation Order. The determined first-stage combat objectives.

At the same time, the Soviet army continued to invest new troops, killed and wounded 250,000 German troops with tenacious defense and successive counterattacks, delaying the German offensive for as long as one month, buying valuable time to strengthen Moscow's defenses. Under the powerful attack of the Soviet army, the combat capabilities of the German army, especially the assault power of the armored corps, dropped significantly, which had a serious impact on its subsequent operations.

In this battle, the German army captured more than 400,000 Soviet Red Army soldiers and seized a large amount of equipment, opening the way for the attack on Moscow. Since the battle in Smolensk took place on a front of nearly 650 kilometers and a depth of nearly 250 kilometers, the German army's combat troops were extremely exhausted and were forced to stop their advance towards Moscow. This was the case for the German army in World War II. For the first time, they were forced to stop attacking in the main direction and switch to defense. It can be said that the Germans' all-out momentum was exhausted in Smolensk. The direct reason why it finally stopped in front of Moscow was due to inertia, not because the engine stalled at that time.

This battle allowed the Soviet army to learn how to avoid the German encirclement and how to counteract the German armor advantage. It can be said that the Soviet army used one battle to contain the two battles of Kiev and Moscow, and gradually adapted to the blitz warfare style.

As the German armor advanced unilaterally and alone, it objectively exposed the problems of the disconnection between infantry and tanks and the low degree of infantry mechanization, making it possible for the Soviet army to launch cluster attacks and divided counterattacks. If the Soviet army was well prepared in the early stage and had sufficient reserves, once the Ironwood Xinge successfully blocked Gudri's armored troops from moving south. The Battle of Smolensk may not only reverse the battlefield situation, but also defeat the Kiev offensive launched by the German army.