Chapter 52: Armored Confrontation 3

  The distance of one kilometer is how long, the answer must be different. For cheetahs, it's less than 1 minute. For snails, it might be forever.

  For the advancing British First Armoured Division in the North African desert, a thousand yards was eight burning American-built Sherman tanks.

  Michel Wittmann's tanks carried only 25 high-explosive shells. They stopped at a distance of 3 kilometers and fired one by one at the dense British tank formation. Of the 25 shells, 10 hit their targets directly, with 7 high-explosive shells igniting the gasoline in the Sherman tanks' engines, including the first tank that was destroyed earlier. Wittmann's score rose to 8 tanks. The nearly 3-shell-per-tank destruction rate terrified the British, who thought that if German tanks had such a hit rate, they might as well surrender.

  Michael Wittmann's bravery was also due to the fact that Germany's 'Leopard' tank was really well-made. The 44-ton weight was sufficient to withstand the recoil force generated by the nearly 5-meter-long barrel. Although the tank's tracks and suspension system were often damaged, and the engine was prone to overheating and catching fire, it cannot be denied that at that time, the 'Leopard' tank was the most powerful medium tank in the world.

  The second reason is that the American-made 'Sherman', also known as 'M4' tank, was not designed to fight against the likes of the 'Panther'. The Sherman's strengths lay in its reliability, ease of maintenance and versatility. The M4 Sherman was the most reliable tank of World War II, with a power system so robust that even the Soviet T-34 tank couldn't match it, let alone German tanks. The high precision of German tanks also meant that they required major overhauls after running for thousands of kilometers, whereas the Sherman only needed basic field maintenance.

  Reliable performance and minimal breakdowns gave the American tanks a much higher operational rate than German tanks. The production design of Sherman tanks was also one of the best in World War II. The US manufacturers of tanks, such as General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, adopted the production line principle advocated by Henry Ford, enabling mass production and significantly reducing costs.

  What's most interesting is that the Sherman tank's dimensions were designed with reference to the US "Liberty Ship"'s cargo hold, making it very convenient for long-distance ocean transport. It seems the US military had a very thorough understanding of the importance of logistics.

  But all this cannot hide the shortcomings of the 'M4 Sherman', with its slender and tall outline, reaching as high as 3.4 meters. It sways back and forth on the battlefield like a lady, attracting the attention of German tank gunners. If you can't take down such a lady, then you're an idiot.

  The petrol engine, due to cost considerations, was also only protected by a very thin layer of steel armor. This weakness earned the Sherman tank the nickname 'Ronson lighter', as the advertising slogan for Ronson lighters was 'lights first time, every time'.

  The third reason is the problem of British armored commanders. Britain is an island country, and it has always been the domain of the Royal Navy in Britain. The British only know how to build bigger and more heavily armored battleships, and they do not particularly value tanks for the army.

  Britain was the first country to use tanks, in World War I, in order to break through the German army's trenches, barbed wire and machine gun firepower. Britain used automotive, tractor, gun manufacturing and metallurgical technology to test the prototype of the tank. On September 15, 1916, 60 "Mark" I tanks were first deployed in the Battle of the Somme. At that time, in order to keep it secret, Britain called this new weapon a "water tank" (English "tank") for delivering water to the front line. As a result, this name has been used ever since, and "tank" is the phonetic translation of this word.

  However, after World War I, Britain returned to its old ways and did not conduct in-depth and costly research on this king of land warfare. The tactics of the military academy still used tanks as a supporting tool for infantry. For 20 years, the level of tank use in the UK remained at the level of World War I.

  After the Germans used tanks to occupy Poland, the British finally realized and made new improvements on the tank. And formulated a series of tank tactics, one of which was, 'When tanks attack without infantry cover, they should try to get as close as possible to each other to achieve mutual cover.'

  In the UK, armoured commanders are high-flyers who graduated from the Armoured Centre with top grades. They can recite their manuals backwards and are very strict about following the book in battle. If you don't do things by the book, you'll be treated as an oddball and shunned by others, and your superiors won't like your innovative approach either.

  The result of the book was finally revealed in the desert of North Africa, at the cost of dozens of British armored officers' lives. Even Rommel later knew about this and sighed, saying "Dogmatism kills people." After finishing speaking, he hypocritically shed a few crocodile tears.

  The long 1 kilometer passed in just a few minutes, and the tanks of the two armies were less than 2 kilometers apart. The commanders of the German tanks in the front row all rushed into the turret, at which point the British tank shells could already be fired over, but the accuracy was simply appalling.

  The British army fired high-explosive armor-piercing shells, and the British tanks with a range of only 1500 meters were really unbearable under the attack of Michell and Weitmann just now, and they all opened fire ahead of time.

  However, the distant distance made the fired shells lose their kinetic energy of burning gunpowder, and they only relied on inertia to hit the German army's leading tanks. But these iron blocks still had a great deal of destructive power against human bodies. The German tank commanders did not want their bodies to have any intimate contact with them. So no one was commanding outside, and they all covered up the tank's hatch and raised the periscope on the turret.

  The British shells fell around the German tanks, but the kinetic energy of the armor-piercing projectiles had been exhausted, and even if they hit the German tanks, it was not enough to cause the explosives in the armor-piercing projectiles to explode. So not only were the British puzzled, but the Germans were also baffled as to why they encountered so many "duds".

  However, the German army was still injured. A coaxial machine gun on a "Leopard" tank was hit by this "stinky boy". At that time, the wireless radio operator inside the tank was leaning against the machine gun to receive signals and was hit in the shoulder by the rear of the coaxial machine gun, directly breaking the arm of the unfortunate German soldier. Fortunately, it didn't hit his head, if it had hit his head, he would have been dead for sure.

  Of course, the British-launched 'stink bomb' could not stop those German tanks that had long been prepared. The tank commanders, who were usually instructors at the armored academy, gave an order and all the tanks stopped in their tracks.

  These tank instructors, of course, would not make some rookie mistakes in firing shells while the tank is moving. They all adjusted the periscope of the tank to the maximum precision, and directly gave the gunner extremely accurate coordinate commands, with the angle of the turret and the elevation angle of the barrel accurately reaching the level of 'minutes'.

  The elevation angle of the barrel is between +28 degrees and -5 degrees. One degree is divided into 60 'minutes'. One 'minute' is equal to 60 'seconds'. The instructors had long been accustomed to precise calculations. The coordinates reported directly were all calculated in 'minutes'. These accurate data are the only standard for the distance of the target, and also the basis for the gunner to adjust the tank gun.

  This is what the armored commanders of the field troops can't do, in peacetime when the battle situation is fierce. Those armored commanders of the field army are already very good at estimating the approximate position of the enemy, and the coordinates they report can be measured in degrees, let alone precise locations.

  Fortunately, the German sniper scope's minimum scale is calculated in 'minutes'. It can only hit the approximate position of the tank. If it were calculated in 'seconds', those instructors would have to calculate which part of the tank was better to hit.

  Fortunately, most of the other members of these tanks were former students of these instructors and did not dare to slack off on the instructor's orders. They carefully adjusted the turret and gun barrel to the position required by the instructor and waited for the commander's order to fire.

  These tank commanders, after getting the coordinates right, did not rush to fire, but instead shouted loudly over the radio '2', '1', '5', '8', '9' and other terms. Until 1 to 10 were all reported, the radio stopped again.

  The crew of the tank without a report were all strange, why their commander did not report the number. However, good discipline made everyone shut up. But their commander didn't care about their doubts and looked at the periscope again and then reported the next coordinate. This time the coordinate was still accurate to the unit of "minutes".

  At this time, the commanders of the tanks that had just reported numbers 1-10 all gave firing orders. The ten Leopard tanks almost simultaneously fired shells.

  In less than 2 seconds, the British army's 10 Sherman M4 tanks received these ten gifts marked with "Dangerous goods, forbidden to collide". The armor-piercing shells all hit the front armor of the tank turret without exception. With an initial velocity of up to 1200 meters per second, this alloy steel projectile still had a strong kinetic energy after flying 2000 meters, directly piercing the Sherman's frontal armor equivalent to 88mm steel plate.

  After penetrating the steel plate, the warhead of the shell exploded under the counterforce of the steel plate, igniting the detonator wrapped in the explosive core. The explosion of the explosive produced a shockwave that enveloped the fragments of the alloy warhead that had just collided and melted with the steel plate, turning them into metal jets that ravaged the interior of the tank from the hole where the steel plate was penetrated.

  In a split second, the metal jet that had gone back and forth dozens of times inside the tank killed all members of the British tank crew. Of course, the British soldiers did not feel any pain before they died. This was because the nerve transmission speed had not yet reflected in the brain, and their bodies had already been torn to pieces.

  The German tank crew were stunned, wondering what kind of shooting calculation could hit ten tanks at 2000 meters away, all with a shot to the turret. The ten instructors had calculated the position of the tanks several seconds in advance and waited for the exact moment to fire. Each tank was solved with just one shell, without even two shells hitting the same target by mistake.

  If the tank's body is a huge target, then the tank's turret is undoubtedly the red heart position in the middle of this target. The ten British 'Sherman M4' were like someone had used a large drill to drill a hole in the same part, and even the parts that hit the bullets could only be measured with calipers to distinguish some slight differences.

  Later, some explanations by the instructor made these soldiers feel a bit defeated.

  "...We all strictly follow the requirements of the armor manual, visually measure the target distance, and then input the target coordinates. Report the shooting target sequence to avoid repeated shooting, which has the effect of saving ammunition. Finally, order the launch. That's it..."

  Many students collapsed...

  No one dares to say that the instructor's behavior of saving ammunition is wrong. The key is that no student can do what the instructor does, let alone hit a target with one shot, even if five shots can hit an enemy tank, in the eyes of the tankers, it will become a super high-precision shooter.

  Later, when Montgomery learned of the battle, Comrade Mongol couldn't help but say the same thing as his old enemy Rommel: "Dogmatism is going to be the death of us!"

  But from Mungo's eyes flowed exceptionally bitter tears.

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  Two more servings coming up.