Chapter 174: Polish Campaign (37)
In the same building that was bombed beyond recognition, several sacks were piled up on the windowsill of one of the houses, and a machine gun was set up. Several Polish soldiers stood behind the machine gun, staring nervously at the crossroads in the distance. The sound of gunfire in the distance was dense, and it seemed far away at first, but gradually it was approaching.
"Who has water?" The gunman holding the machine gun licked his dry lips and asked. The water plants and water supply stations in Warsaw have been completely destroyed by German bombers, and the water supply in the city has been paralyzed for a long time. Although there is the Vistula River running through the city, it is also very risky to go there to get water. There are German planes circling in the sky during the day, and the Germans occasionally fire artillery at the river bank at night. If you are not careful, you will lose your life.
In addition to water, food is also in short supply. Supplies have long been cut off, and only the stockpiled ammunition can be guaranteed.
The others shook their heads helplessly. At this moment, two Stukas flew overhead and dropped bombs not far away. There were fewer and fewer places in Warsaw worth air raids, so even German planes were not common in recent days.
"Germans!" The Polish soldier who had been staring out the window exclaimed, and everyone instantly picked up their weapons and took their positions. The machine gunner didn't even bother to find water to drink, and tightened his machine gun.
I saw an armored vehicle with a strange appearance slowly appearing at the intersection. "Damn, it's the German anti-aircraft gun!" They have heard about the power of this guy, the terrible firing rate, and once it is targeted, almost no one can survive. Following behind the self-propelled anti-aircraft gun was a team of German soldiers.
In normal times, they might have evacuated helplessly, but today they have an extra magic weapon, an M35 anti-tank rifle. The bullet of this anti-tank rifle is a tungsten core wrapped with soft lead, and then covered with white copper armor on the outside, and there is also a protruding belt in the center of the bullet. When the bullet moves forward in the barrel, the barrel rifling squeezes the belt, forming a high chamber pressure, making the initial velocity of the bullet close to 1542m/s, which is quite powerful. It can destroy all light armored vehicles at a distance of 400 meters, penetrate 15mm thick armor at a distance of 300 meters, and the armor thickness at a distance of 100 meters is as high as 33mm.
However, the M35, which was supposed to be a German tank killer, actually failed to play its due role. The reason is that the Polish command kept it too secret. From its number, it can be known that the M35 was successfully developed as early as 35 years. It is estimated that by the beginning of the war, the Polish army had distributed about 6,500 such rifles.
But it was just "distributed".
The Polish General Staff classified this gun as a top secret at the time, and all of them were sealed and stored in wooden boxes. To conceal the truth, the words "monitoring equipment, strictly prohibited from opening" were printed on the outside of the box. Even the sniper shooters in the Polish army did not know the existence of the M35.
As the war loomed, the Polish General Staff was forced to unseal the boxes and equip the troops with the M35. But even at this time, not all soldiers had the opportunity to see its true appearance: the headquarters stipulated that no other soldiers except the shooters were allowed to approach the M35; without the order of the superior officers, the shooters were not allowed to touch the M35. Shooter training must be carried out in secret venues, and their weapons must be strictly kept secret.
Obviously, until the war broke out, Polish snipers were unable to fully master the performance of the M35, and some troops had not even opened the packaging boxes. The Germans got a big bargain. They moved boxes of brand new M35s from the occupied warehouses, changed their names directly - Pz B35 (P), and issued them to German soldiers for use. It is said that because there were too many captured, the German army could not digest them all, and also sold 800 to Italy, which used them until the end of World War II.
The Polish command destroyed the design drawings and data at the beginning of the war. The Allies could only sigh in despair when facing this advanced infantry anti-tank weapon, and the M35 became a "non-reproducible weapon".
At this time, the anti-tank shooter had already set up his M35 and aimed at the self-propelled anti-aircraft gun that was gradually approaching. Although he didn't know how thick the armor of the self-propelled anti-aircraft gun was, for the sake of safety, he was going to put it about 100 meters away.
250 meters, 200 meters, 150 meters...
The German soldiers were firing tentatively at the windows of the suspicious buildings around them. Although the windows of this room were nailed with several wooden boards and no clues could be seen from the outside, everyone was waiting in silence. As long as the anti-tank rifle opened fire, they would hit the firepower and eliminate the German troops following behind.
But they didn't know that they had been targeted by the god of death.
On a church bell tower more than 600 meters away from them, a black muzzle tied with camouflage cloth was aimed at the window of the room where the Polish soldiers were ambushing.
He aimed the 6x scope on his 98k at the target, carefully adjusted the focus, and put the black sight in the scope on the head of the Polish soldier holding the M35 anti-tank rifle. If it weren't for the barrel sticking out of the window, he wouldn't have noticed that there was an enemy hiding in the room.
"God, I sincerely trust you, please don't let me be humiliated, don't let my enemies triumph over me." He muttered softly and pulled the trigger suddenly.
Bang! A familiar sound rang in his ears, and he felt the butt of the gun against his shoulder pressed back heavily.
Seeing the anti-tank rifleman fall straight back, everyone in the room was startled and immediately thought of another terrifying existence of the German army, the sniper!
"Retreat!" Seeing the self-propelled anti-aircraft gun not far away quickly turn the muzzle, the machine gunner yelled, ran out of the house and ran downstairs. Everyone followed and crawled downstairs, only to hear crackling and breaking sounds above their heads. I guess the room they just stayed in has been shot into a hornet's nest.
Everyone didn't care about much, and went straight to the basement, opened a heavy sewer cover, and jumped in.
Walking in the wet sewer, thinking that they didn't even kill a German soldier and fled in a panic, and lost a precious anti-tank rifleman and an anti-tank rifle, everyone felt a little depressed.
Not long after walking for a while, with a bang, something fell in front of them, which scared them. "What is it?"
Boom! !
The flashlight in the Polish soldier's hand just shone on the cylindrical object that rolled to their feet, and the object suddenly burst into a sun-like light that instantly illuminated the entire sewer.
"Ahhhh!!"
"Eyes! My eyes!!"
The material of the flash bomb is Mg, that is, metal magnesium, and those who have studied junior high school chemistry know that metal magnesium will emit strong light when burning, causing temporary visual impairment.
It is easy to say that it is easy, and it is difficult to say that it is difficult to prevent flash bombs. The easy thing is that as long as you close your eyes and turn your head away before the explosion, there will be absolutely no problem. Moreover, the human body has a stress response and will automatically close its eyes when encountering strong light, so the damage to the eyes caused by flash bombs is very low, and generally it will not cause permanent blindness. At most, it will only cause temporary blindness for about five minutes. The difficult thing is that you don't know when the enemy will throw it.
And on the battlefield, these five minutes are enough to kill people dozens of times.
The Polish soldiers who covered their eyes and screamed did not notice the footsteps approaching them, and then their hands were twisted behind their backs and tied up.
The Polish soldiers who were wounded by sniper Michel yesterday were captured for interrogation, and the Germans learned that they had infiltrated through the underground sewers. Of course, the Germans would not let go of this underground battlefield, and immediately sent people to sneak into the sewers to prevent the enemy from infiltrating and also to counter-infiltrate.