Chapter Thirty-Six: Mutual Shooting

  Xila was almost unbelievable, the opponent's T-62 actually stopped for a moment at a distance of 1,500 meters from itself. This pause meant something, and every tank soldier probably knew it in their heart - a brief pause, representing the opponent preparing to open fire.

  T-62, when can it fire at this distance? Are they wasting ammunition? The Iranian armored soldier thought disdainfully inside the Chieftain tank.

  At the same time, all the commanders of the T-62 tanks gave the order to open fire.

  Almost simultaneously with the T-62 firing its shell, the Emir also began to fire.

  The shell emerged from the barrel in 0.1 seconds, shaking off the rear propellant, unfolding four tail fins, and a row of armor-piercing warheads, like a series of fast-moving darts, flying towards the opponent.

  Almost simultaneously, the T-62 tank began a frantic acceleration.

  The most effective way to deal with incoming armor-piercing shells is rapid maneuvering. Shells are not missiles, they are aimed before firing, as long as the tank moves forward a certain distance during this time, it can successfully avoid the opponent's fire and survive in the hail of bullets.

  The 120mm cannon of the tribal leader was quite powerful and if it hit its target, there would be no chance of survival.

  And their 115mm smoothbore cannon could hardly tear through the tribal leader's frontal armor at such a distance, only within one kilometer was their domain.

  However, the T-62 tankers were not fools either, they targeted the back of their own commander.

  The tank's armor was of varying thickness in different places when it was designed, the thickest being the front armor, followed by the sides, and the weakest being the rear armor.

  Due to the linear deployment of the commander, he needs to deal with enemies coming from three sides. Therefore, Shilad divides his tanks to deal with enemies in three directions. In this way, when turning to face the enemy on the left, the rear of the turret will be exposed to the enemy on the right.

  The commander's cupola is welded, unlike the Soviet emphasis on low-profile turrets. European tanks have taller turrets, which are more comfortable for personnel inside and also allow easier storage of partial ammunition at the rear of the turret.

  But this design also undoubtedly increased the area exposed to bullets.

  Although the T-62's aiming accuracy was not high, they had a numerical advantage, with one battalion of tanks facing off against an opponent's company of tanks, three to one. The Chiefs, on the other hand, had the advantage of fire control systems, but their shortcomings were also obvious - they couldn't move and could only stay there and take a beating.

  They had no time to pray to the Lord, after firing a shell, everyone immediately became busy, except for the driver. They reloaded the second shell and prepared to continue shooting.

  The T-62 driver was at the highest concentration of spirit, using his hands and feet to shift gears and accelerate, leaving the danger zone just now.

  The Iranian was too cunning and opened fire at the moment he paused, grasping the opportunity quite accurately.

  The three major indicators of a tank are firepower, mobility and protection. The T-62's engine is not very powerful, but the vehicle is lighter, so its mobility is slightly better.

  However, here in the marshy terrain, the wet mud limited the acceleration of the T-62.

  The most unfortunate thing was that several tanks, when firing shells, were stuck in the mud due to the strong recoil, and the tracks spun idly, unable to get out.

  The shells of both sides almost simultaneously flew into each other's airspace.

  A struggling T-62, every time the driver steps on the gas, the tens of tons of tank body shakes upwards, but it can't get out of the muddy ground.

  Just as the tank commander was about to give the order to fire, an armour-piercing shell penetrated this unlucky T-62, a massive metal jet flowed into the turret, and the three men inside were instantly killed by the jet. Then, the armour-piercing shell entered the turret and detonated the ammunition that was being loaded into the gun barrel.

  "Boom!" After a huge roar, the turret of this tank flew into the sky, and the driver in front was immediately shaken to death with seven orifices bleeding.

  Compared to the T-62, the Chieftain wasn't much better off either, with its large rear turret often being hit by armor-piercing rounds.

  The tribal leader adopted a split-type ammunition, in the rear of the turret, about twenty or more propellants were placed, these propellants immediately became powerful bombs.

  One by one, the tribal leaders ended their mission in the midst of cannon fire and fell asleep on the newly laid concrete ground in the swamp.

  Hilaide heard a huge explosion coming from behind, he couldn't care about that anymore, and then ordered his own battalion to continue firing!

  Benefiting from a more advanced fire control system, the Chiefain tank's first minute rate of fire was at 8-10 rounds per minute. However, this is only theoretical. In practice, it was subject to many limitations, with the greatest limitation being the physical exhaustion of the loader.

  Each tank has four members, one driving in the front, three people inside the turret, the commander is in charge of commanding, the gunner is responsible for aiming, and the most physically demanding task is loading the cannon, which is the loader's job. In a cramped space, withstanding tremendous noise, the loader waits for the shell casing to be automatically ejected from the barrel after firing, then loads the projectile, loads the propellant, closes the breech, and physical exertion is extremely high.

  At this time, a very strange scene appeared. The tanks surrounded in the middle were continuously and frantically firing shells, but they seemed like fools, motionless, allowing their own tanks to be destroyed at the next moment, as if they were just pulling a few more people down with them before they died.

  The T-62s continued to attack, but their shortcomings were also obvious. Although they had fired shells at a distance of 1,500 meters earlier, the hit rate was very low, with an average of six shells needed to hit one tank. So, they all rushed forward desperately, shortening the distance from the opponent.

  Ali's face turned gray with shame, his own tank had just fired six shells in a row without hitting a single enemy tank, it was truly a shame for a tanker. On the other hand, Elrad from his platoon was almost invincible, taking out four Chieftains with just one tank.

  Now, having charged into a distance of less than 800 meters, it's time for me to show off my prowess!

  Ali abandoned the inoperable fire control system and used his own method again: visual aiming!

  Sometimes it's still better to rely on one's own eyes.

  He rotated the periscope of the car, counting the numbers on it.

  "Range 253, distance 682, armor-piercing shell one round!" he shouted.

  The gunner then used the periscope to aim and adjust the firing data, completing the preparations for firing.

  "Fire!" The gunner pressed the firing button heavily.

  "Boom!" A massive shockwave shook them up, a shell flew out of the barrel.

  "Company commander, we can't stay here like this, we have to move! This is a tank, not a bunker!" Shila heard such a voice on the radio.

  Xila suddenly realized that he had made a serious mistake. Where was there such a stupid armored unit commander, letting his own tanks stay still and take a beating? Tanks need to move to be effective!

  It was too late; his armored battalion had only five tanks left and the road to retreat was blocked.

  "Charge ahead and destroy those wicked Iraqi tanks!" Sheera finally gave a seemingly wise command.

  "Rumble, rumble..." The driver had long been impatient, and the chief who could move finally counterattacked.

  "Destroy everything that can move!" Muhammad also went mad, and his tanks were also destroyed in the dozens.

  As soon as the vehicle left the cement road, the driver suddenly felt that the huge vehicle was out of control. There was no steering wheel, but the body of the car was involuntarily tilting to one side. When he stepped on the accelerator, the vehicle did not accelerate accordingly.

  In comparison, the lighter T-62, although also laborious in movement, did not lose control and its advantage of agile mobility was once again revealed.

  The T-62 turned to the side of the tribal leader and effortlessly beat him up.

  A twenty-minute encounter battle ended with the tribal leader almost annihilated, thirty-six tanks, except for two that were stuck in the mud and unable to move, all destroyed.

  Over a hundred T-62s were also lost, nearly twenty of them, but this did not deter the 35th Brigade's advance at all, because they won.

  Muhammad hadn't even had time to utter a few words of encouragement over the radio when he saw a large number of tanks approaching in the distance, it turned out that what they had eliminated earlier was just an advance guard, and judging from the situation, there were at least 150 Chieftains!

  At this time, the previous battle had already disrupted the T-62's attack formation.