Chapter 47 M4 Sherman Tank

  "You pin him down, I'll get behind that German corpse! Just one more and he's a dead man!" I shouted as I fired.

  "Good!"

  "Fire! Fire!"

  Jones saw that I was also desperately fighting and no longer cared about his own life or death, suddenly stood up and fired suppressive shots at the German's hiding place. I took advantage of this to roll over and hide behind another German corpse, taking over Jones' firepower to continue suppressing the sniper. For a sniper, you absolutely cannot stop suppressing fire, otherwise, if he gets a chance to take aim, it might be me and Jones who get unlucky.

  "Machine gunner, get up here!" Jones yelled as he changed magazines.

  As the machine gunner set up his machine gun and continuously suppressed the German sniper's hiding place, I knew this battle could be over. Just as I was about to call for someone to come up and surround him, a crisp gunshot came from where the Germans were hiding, nobody knew what happened there, but I saw a puddle of blood on the ground slowly spreading around.

  I slowly got up from the ground and said: "He's dead, he killed himself!"

  Yes, he's dead. He chose to commit suicide. His death wasn't tragic at all. The bullet was shot into his mouth and directly splattered his brain onto the half pillar behind him, without any suffering or pain.

  Jones shook his head and said, "If it were up to me, I'd choose to fight with someone else!"

  "It's useless, we won't even give him a chance to struggle!" I said calmly. "Dying like this is the most dignified way for him."

  Charlie, carrying his gun, suddenly found that at the entrance where he had just climbed up, there was a pile of broken stones covering something black. Because his attention had been focused on the enemy all along, he hadn't noticed it before, but now Charlie discovered it and thought to use his gun to poke at it. "What is this?"

  "Charlie, don't touch it!" I exclaimed in surprise, "Everybody scatter, it's a bomb!"

  It turned out to be a false alarm, as it was just an improvised bundle charge made by two deceased German soldiers. They had tied several grenades together with a string and rigged them up with a fuse. Because they were hastily set up, the strings were blown apart when I threw several grenades earlier, so when I took another look at the dead German soldier who had committed suicide, there was still a piece of broken string wrapped tightly around his fingers. The string being blown apart might have been fate's way of intervening - since I'm still alive, nothing else matters.

  "Oh! My god!" Everyone's head went back from the dead again!

  "Not bad, we're all still alive!" I clapped my hands and said.

  "Captain, you're a lucky dog!" Jones exclaimed.

  "Thanks! But Jones, we've got to get moving - this isn't a time for talk!"

  Jones set up a machine gun here, directly controlling the intersection of two streets. As we approached the city hall square, we took another step forward, but we still didn't dare to be careless.

  My other troops were relatively smooth, and the Germans did not come to a hard collision with us. Soon, the engineering troops behind me began to clear anti-tank obstacles. I was not in a hurry either, after all, Serebryany was already an Allied pocket, and the troops could minimize casualties as much as possible. However, if we truly waited for the engineers to finish before advancing, my superiors would definitely not agree. So, they sent people to drive out the Germans from areas A and B, and I had Linberna try to attack the commercial street in area C. Apparently, the Germans did not consider this a key defensive location, and after slight resistance, they withdrew voluntarily!

  I think the German manpower might be insufficient, after all, a city with a population of hundreds of thousands only has four understrength regiments to defend such a large place, which must be too weak. However, when occupying the commercial street in Zone C, the cavalry of Regiment S1's Company A also arrived there, and the two joined forces, boosting morale.

  "Hey, Lieutenant Conti! Isn't it wonderful? We're driving the Germans like a flock of sheep!"

  "I laughed and said: 'Captain Roberts, you're really lucky! I'm not as lucky as you! Just now, a German bomb nearly took my life!'"

  "Oh, I can hardly believe it! You're still alive after being bombed!" Roberts joked.

  "But, sorry to disappoint you! The fuse of the German bomb was cut off! No explosion, let's get rid of it!" I found a clean stone slab, sat on the ground, and stretched my waist.

  "Oh, this is just great!" Roberts exclaimed.

  "What's our next move, Captain Roberts?" I paused for a moment before asking him, after all, it was his show as the assault team leader.

  Roberts sat down beside me, and said, "Hmph! Those armored troops are a bunch of bastards. If they don't come, how can we take action alone? I think we should establish a defensive line first and send someone to scout out the situation at City Hall!"

  "It's probably useless!"

  "I know, the reconnaissance units in the air told us that the German troops at City Hall have abandoned their posts and all we need to do is go over there and take it easily! What a load of crap!" Captain Roberts said disdainfully about the aerial reconnaissance intelligence.

  "Captain Roberts, you're right! The Germans want to hide and the reconnaissance planes in the air will absolutely not be easy to find." I agreed with Captain Roberts.

  The Allied Command is still quite satisfied with the progress of the front-line troops in attacking Cherbourg, although there have been some losses, but the Allied Command does not take it to heart. The next step will probably be a coordinated attack by infantry and tanks to annihilate the German resistance in Cherbourg.

  As the engineer troops cleared German anti-tank obstacles, a tank company of 6th Armored Division was attached to S1 Regiment for coordinated operations, while A Company had two M4A1 Sherman tanks and one Sherman Crocodile flame-throwing tank ordered to come and cooperate in battle!

  This is my first time seeing the American tank called 'Little Dumpling' up close. I don't have any particular feelings about this tank, but my initial impression is that it's really tall. The M4 Sherman evolved from the M3 Grant, with the upper part of the body cancelled and replaced by a 75mm cannon. The Americans thought that the main opponent for the Sherman would be the German IV medium tank, but the Sherman's 75mm cannon had almost zero armor-piercing ability. Moreover, the Sherman's high profile made it easy to hit, and once hit, it was prone to explosion of the ammunition rack.

  The Sherman tank was excellent in terms of craftsmanship and had very good operability, and could be adapted to various different engines. Since most of the components of the Sherman tank were manufactured by automobile companies, it is said that this was the reason why 50,000 Sherman tanks were produced from 1942 to 1945 for equipping US armored forces.

  "This thing, why wasn't it made a bit shorter? Are our designers all some kind of giant?" I patted this iron lump and said.

  "Yes! The idiot designer who built this thing should be sent to the battlefield to play around!" The tank soldier clearly didn't like this tank, although getting in wasn't particularly uncomfortable.

  "Soldier, be content! You have this iron shell to protect you, we have nothing!" My words made the surrounding soldiers burst into laughter.

  The armored soldier looked at the many envious eyes in front of him, and with a self-satisfied smile, he crawled into the iron shell. As he was about to close the hatch, he didn't forget to say, "Don't worry, I'll protect you all!"

  "Cut! Just take care of yourself!" Some soldiers raised their middle fingers at the tank soldiers!

  "Everyone pay attention to cover each other! Don't let your guard down! After this battle is over, I'll let you all relax properly!" I smiled and shouted to the soldiers under me.

  "Are there any women?" An American soldier's words suddenly made this group of men who needed extreme release, all perked up their ears!

  "You have to find it yourself, I don't want to do it for you!" I said to the soldier. "If each of you asks me one by one, that will exhaust me!"

  "Sir, if you don't want to, I'll do it for you!" A soldier shamelessly chimed in, jokingly.

  "Scram! Just for one day, no more than 180 of them, I've got no problem with your superiors!" I boasted shamelessly.

  "Shh!" Everyone glared at me with disdain.

  "You bunch of damned bastards! After we've finished fighting, I'll show you!"

  "Captain, are you going to have us watch your performance together?" Jones whispered to me at this time.

  "Get out! Get out! You bunch of good-for-nothings are driving me crazy!" I also realized that my words were problematic, but I stubbornly insisted on maintaining my dignity.

  Jones didn't burst out laughing either, and with a haha tone said: "It's nothing, just between you and me, don't worry I won't tell anyone!"

  "You're still talking!" I said exasperatedly.

  In the world, there is only one kind of friendship that makes people unforgettable, and that is to go through gunfire together, to visit brothels together, to walk on the battlefield, and to enjoy the flowers. I am now in this situation with these soldiers, although no one knows what tomorrow will be like, but having such an experience in this life can also be a kind of comfort.

  A column of American soldiers, this road has not encountered too much resistance, whether it is Roberts or his men, they have a kind of underestimation of the Germans. This is in stark contrast to the attitude and feelings of my soldiers.

  "Hey, Lieutenant Konti, I see your men are all pretty tense!" Roberts said with a grin.

  "Captain Roberts, this isn't tension, it's a serious attitude!"

  Roberts shrugged nonchalantly. "Alright, alright, I get it! Teach me the mission to attack City Hall then!"

  "Captain Roberts, you're really not very considerate, all the credit has been taken away from us!" I said intentionally.

  "Ah, Captain Conti, that's not the way to talk. We're all in the same army, we're all called the US Army. How can you say we're competing for credit?" Roberts' face immediately fell.

  "Alright, I'll give in to you generously!" I don't need to risk my life competing with the Germans for credit, if he's willing, I'd be happy to let him go!; Scan the QR code below, participate in the national cold knowledge quiz, win medals and big prizes! Click on the "+" sign at the top right corner of WeChat, select "Add Friend", search for public account "qdread" to join! Various big prizes are easy to get!