Chapter 62: German Tank No. 4

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  (Thanks! Thanks for your advice, I'm most lacking this now! I'll remember this lesson, no matter how others scold me, I must keep myself stable! Also, if you think there's anything inappropriate, please let me know and I'll take it as a reference! Because I also want to write a good book for everyone to enjoy! If someone scolds me because of the first-person narrative, please help me out, haha! Thanks especially to Ah Guo 0909 and Xiao Fei for reminding me first! Thanks again to everyone! Does this look comfortable now?)

  "What's going on? Where did the gunfire come from?" I was in the middle of discussing future battles with Colonel Lindbergh when suddenly the sound of gunfire came from John's defensive zone, leaving me stunned!

  "Captain, John has been attacked by the Germans!" exclaimed Linberna.

  Cold sweat burst out on my forehead! A loud click of the rifle bolt. "What are you waiting for? Go support quickly! Miller, tell that damned commander, I'm under fierce attack by the Germans! Requesting support!"

  The First United States Army's Serburg Front Command, after receiving my distress call, did not dare to slack off and immediately made adjustments to use long-range heavy artillery firepower to conduct large-scale bombardment of the area under my command, with the aim of using artillery fire to suppress the German attack. At the same time, they ordered the troops on my flanks to speed up their assault pace and quickly combine with my defensive line, while deploying the 51st Regiment's Walker Infantry Company, which was responsible for the second echelon attack behind me, to immediately join the battle. Meanwhile, other units were dispatched to take advantage of the situation and launch an attack on the German army, with the aim of breaking through the German defense line in one fell swoop.

  The firepower of the US long-range heavy artillery made Lieutenant Colonel Rops feel like vomiting blood. The hasty bombardment of the mortar, which had been organized with great difficulty to suppress the Americans in front of him, was now unable to lift their heads. Lieutenant Colonel Rops gritted his teeth and shouted: "Quickly, get close to them! Get close to them!"

  John, who had been pinned down by the mortar fire from the Ropps' middle school, finally caught his breath and looked up to see German infantry just a few steps away from the defensive line. John yelled frantically: "Machine gun! Machine gun!"

  He shouted a few sentences but no one paid attention, turned his head to see that the two people on the machine gun had been shot dead again at some point. John raised his hand and took up the machine gun, firing off an entire belt of ammunition.

  "Officer! I'm here to reload!" A soldier rushed over to help John who was manning the machine gun alone.

  "Great! We'll hold out for a bit, Lieutenant Colonel Konti will come to support us right away!"

  “yes，sir！”

  "Haha, did you see that? Those artillery kids are doing a great job! They're forcing the Germans to charge right into our guns!"

  John's words were not groundless. In large-scale battles of regular troops, each unit must feed back its position, status, deployment, and encountered enemy situation to the commanding officer of the command post within a certain period of time. The operations staff at the command post also need to mark the positions of various units on the battle map. Finally, the commander makes adjustments to the support direction of artillery, air force, and infantry support troops based on the information on the battle map and various feedback intelligence. As a result, the defensive advance line of frontline troops and the error on the command post's map will not exceed 50 meters!

  "Sir! The captain has arrived!"

  John turned around and saw that I and Linber had already brought people up and filled in the various positions, and John's heart was finally at ease.

  "Captain, what took you so long? I was going crazy!" John said.

  "Sorry we're late! The German shelling held us up for a bit!" I exclaimed loudly.

  "Captain, there are German tanks ahead of us! But they haven't shown up yet!" Johann shouted to remind me.

  "It's better if they never show up!"

  "Yes, Captain! May it be as you say!"

  "Alright, when I didn't say anything, I swear you will see them! Looking at so many tanks, I think we should counterattack and drive them back!" I said loudly to John.

  A German staff officer on a Panzer IV Ausf. G tank, 1943. The Panzer IV was a German tank of the Second World War, and was the most produced as well as the longest serving tank of both the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS during this period. It was originally designed for infantry support, but soon became the backbone of the panzer divisions.

  The Ausf. A had 15 mm (0.59 in) of armor on the sides, 10 mm (0.39 in) on top and 5 mm (0.20 in) on the bottom. Since the Panzer IV was originally designed specifically as an infantry-support tank, this level of armor was considered sufficient for its intended role. However, as the Germans encountered the heavily armored T-34 during Operation Barbarossa, the Panzer IV's armor was upgraded to 50 mm (1.97 in) on the front and sides by adding additional armor plates.

  The skirt is approximately 5 mm thick and is intended to cause high-explosive anti-tank rounds to detonate prematurely; the removable appliqué armor on the sides of the hull is about 5 mm thick, while the fixed appliqué armor around the turret is 8 mm. The hull is also often coated with a layer of magnetic mine protection made from sawdust and glue to prevent magnetic mines from sticking.

  Later production models of the Panzer IV were equipped with the 75mm KwK40/L48 anti-tank gun, capable of penetrating 110mm thick armor at a distance of 1000m. Its firepower was second only to that of the Tiger's 88mm KwK36/L56 tank gun and surpassed almost all Allied tanks of the time. With the addition of a single 7.92mm machine gun, it became an even more formidable weapon that made Allied infantry dare not approach!

  Feld understood that with the arrival of American reinforcements, they would have to switch from defense to offense, and at that time, the difference in strength between the German army and the enemy would be too great. Feld gritted his teeth and said to the tank commander: "Switch to armor-piercing shells, let's charge out first!"

  "Yes!"

  The No. 4 tank started up and backed out from the corner, only exposing itself for a moment before quickly reversing again. Boom! A tank shell exploded, and Major Feld thought to himself that this was an attempt to deceive the American tanks into firing.

  "Quick!"

  The tank car didn't dare to slow down, and as soon as the left foot stepped on the accelerator, it immediately took off!

  "Fire!"

  Boom!

  "Take out one!"

  "Quick turn! Turn around!"

  "Look out! He's firing at us!" The radio operator shouted loudly!

  "No penetration! That's great, no penetration!"

  "Gunners, target the other one, keep firing!" Cold sweat streamed down Verld's face!

  "Sir, that tank is backing up!"

  "Take him down, gunner!"

  "He's already gone around to the back of the building! We can't hit him!" The gunner shouted anxiously.

  "Don't mind him for now, blow up that machine gun first!" Feldt gritted his teeth and stared at the machine gun that had been suppressing the Germans.

  I gazed at the destroyed, blazing tank and couldn't help but mutter: "What a piece of junk! No wonder the Americans produced so many Shermans during World War II! It turns out they can't even take down a German Panzer IV!" Just as I was thinking this, I suddenly saw the barrel of the German tank pointing at the machine gun post guarded by John.

  "John, watch out for the tank! Move it, move it!"

  John actually knew something was wrong when he lost the Sherman tank, seeing the German tank's cannon aiming at him, grabbing his partner soldier and machine gun without hesitation, turning around and running back.

  "Run quickly!"

  Before John could run a few steps, boom! He felt a wave of air, almost blowing his internal organs out, and the whole person felt like he was lightly blown away and rolled far away. Looking again at the soldiers who were escaping with him, their steel helmets had rolled to over ten meters away, while they themselves looked as if they had been raped, their clothes disheveled beyond recognition, their eyes open but lifeless, their heads tilted, staring at John!

  "Damn it, goddamn it!" John cursed angrily.

  John had just rolled and crawled back behind the cover of the second line of defense when the German infantry, yelling, took over the position they had just left, while the German tanks also pressed up close behind.

  Major Feld's staff officer, after knocking out an American Sherman tank, was absolutely inspiring for the infantrymen who had just been suppressed. The Germans, mainly using MP40 submachine guns, were temporarily not inferior to the Americans in firepower. Under the cover of Major Feld's tank, Lieutenant Colonel Rops and his Ostwind self-propelled gun also arrived to join forces. With the support of the Ostwind self-propelled gun, the American army's bitter days truly began, and Johann truly experienced the horror of German science and technology!

  I am not reconciled to being suppressed by a German tank, directing the remaining three Sherman tanks to cooperate with infantry to encircle from left and right.

  Von der Feld's staff officer poked his head out of the tank turret, directing several anti-tank rocket launcher and machine gunners to occupy various positions, sealing off the American infantry and road junctions to assist the No. 4 Tank in its attack on the American tanks. Colonel Rops even directly ordered the Ostwind self-propelled gun to fire wherever there were more American troops! The powerful Ostwind self-propelled gun made it even harder for me to expose my head!

  It only took a few rounds to make me feel that the Germans in front of me were indeed troublesome! I had two more tanks than the Germans, but I couldn't get close! I wanted to let three Sherman tanks rush out directly, but it was just an idea. Before they could all come out, the German tank's rocket launcher barrage could instantly scrap the three tanks and send them back to zero parts state!

  "Mortar, give me a barrage on the German position!" I yelled at the mortar squad.

  My thunderous artillery fire suppressed, even Lieutenant Colonel Rops had some difficulty, the troops advanced to this point, but could not move forward one step further, because as soon as they passed this street corner, it was an open and empty street, and with only a few tanks and armor, they could not break through the US tanks waiting in ambush! Although the Type G No. 4 tank could withstand the Sherman tank's attack, the American tank's 76mm main gun was not something that couldn't be moved by it!

  As for his own Dongfeng self-propelled gun, Lieutenant Colonel Rops could only smile bitterly. It was absolutely capable of dealing with the enemy's infantry and light armored vehicles, and could even inflict devastating blows on them. However, when facing the Sherman tank's 47° sloping 63.5mm thick frontal armor, especially that damned 89mm thick turret front, the Dongfeng self-propelled gun's 36mm cannon couldn't penetrate it at all! If they met head-on, the Dongfeng self-propelled gun would be simply asking for death!

  "Vorw?rts! We don't want to be separated! Let's destroy one more and then we'll retreat!" Colonel Rops saw that the situation was irreversible, so he decided to withdraw his troops.

  "Colonel Ropp! We absolutely cannot retreat! Either we all die in battle or we defeat the Americans in front of us. Otherwise, if we retreat, we will not be able to hold out again and General Schleicher will have us shot!"

  Rops didn't think of these, he just considered the casualties from another unit's perspective, and how many more casualties would be caused by continuing to attack! Because this was something he never expected - that the Americans had so many tanks to squander on the front lines!