Chapter 254: The End of France (24)
A small number of troops are in close combat with the majority of the enemy's troops, fighting with bayonets, especially since the enemy has an overwhelming numerical advantage. Even if one is against ten, it will be a matter of time before they are wiped out.
The German army had just destroyed nearly 20 French tanks in the first round of shooting, but the number of remaining French tanks still exceeded theirs several times. If they collide with French tanks and get into a melee at this time, they will only be beaten.
And once the distance is too close, the tank's thick frontal armor has a high chance of being penetrated.
Therefore, they must take advantage of their own tank's range and accuracy to distance themselves from the opponent as much as possible, and the best strategy is to destroy the opponent at a long distance. But you can't turn the body around and point the tank's butt at the enemy. After all, like most tanks, the frontal armor of the Jackal tank is the thickest, followed by the sides, and the tail armor is the weakest. Once the car's butt is pointed at the enemy, the enemy can blow them up with one cannonball.
Therefore, Hans ordered everyone to reverse their vehicles and keep the thickest main armor pointed at the enemy. Although the reversing speed is much slower than the forward speed, the contact time between the two parties has indeed been extended.
After two rounds of shooting, all the B1 heavy tanks that posed the greatest threat to our own side had been turned into blazing fires. The remaining ones are the Soma 35 medium tank and the Renault 35 light tank, which pose little threat.
On the surface, it seemed that the French army was chasing the retreating German army, but in fact, it was the French tanks that were blown up one by one.
Finally, after nearly one-third of the tanks were destroyed, the French army seemed to react and stopped their pursuit. They exchanged this one-third loss for four German tanks. And those four vehicles had their tracks damaged and the Germans gave up on their own initiative. This kind of business is so uneconomical that no one can continue doing it!
The B1 heavy tank the battalion commander was riding in had been destroyed long ago, and now only two company commanders were left to discuss what to do.
According to the current situation, continuing to pursue the enemy would result in the complete annihilation of the entire army. But don't chase him, he can't swallow this breath. After all, so many tanks were lost, and this revenge had to be avenged.
Before their discussions came to a conclusion, the German troops reversing on the opposite side also stopped.
"It seems these bastards are afraid!" Looking at the stopped French tanks through the periscope, Hans sneered and ordered loudly. "Everyone, stay in formation and attack!"
Seeing the German tanks rushing towards them, the two company commanders who were still discussing countermeasures suddenly panicked and issued completely opposite orders at the same time.
"attack!"
"retreat!"
And their men faithfully carried out the orders of their respective commanders. Half of the tanks turned around and ran back, while the other half rushed forward bravely; but before they had rushed a few meters, they suddenly saw a black group of aircraft flying from the sky behind the German army.
"retreat!"
"retreat!"
The company commander who had just ordered the attack shouted hysterically to retreat. You must know that the French Air Force has basically been crippled and it is impossible to dispatch aircraft of such a scale. The ones coming must be German aviation.
The German armored forces have already beaten them to the ground and rubbed them, and now the aviation forces are coming, how can we fight this battle!
Hans, who was about to fire on the opposite side, saw the French tanks rushing over and suddenly turned around and ran back.
"??"what's the situation? Is it some kind of trick to lure the enemy?
Just as he was hesitating whether to pursue or not, he heard a huge roar in the sky outside. Such movement could be heard in the tank compartment with noisy engines. There must be more than one or two aircraft coming.
Hans pushed open the hatch cover and stuck his head out to look at the sky. He saw a large group of aircraft swarming in the dark sky.
"Il-2 attack aircraft." Hans smacked his lips a little depressed. These guys came at the right time.
As the fleet flew over their heads, he noticed that the fuselage of the leading attack aircraft was painted shiny black, which was particularly conspicuous.
"Is this the legendary 'tank killer'?" He had long heard that there was a great figure named Rudel in the Army Aviation Attack Aircraft Force. He had destroyed nearly thirty enemy tanks since the Battle of Poland, and Hundreds of other vehicles.
The attack plane dived and flew to a low altitude about 200 meters away from the French tanks. The rocket launcher under the wing fired four rockets, hitting the fleeing French tanks. Three of them hit three tanks accurately, and the last rocket hit the back of a tank and exploded violently. The tank walked forward for a certain distance and then slowly stopped, motionless. .
"Wow!!" This master easily destroyed four tanks with four rockets. Hansden was stunned when he saw it. Do these rockets have eyes?
As a dedicated ground attack aircraft, the IL-2 carries very powerful weapons. In addition to being equipped with two 23mm cannons and two 62mm machine guns, it is also equipped with a rocket launcher rail.
The original Soviet Il-2 is equipped with an RO-82 rocket launch rail, which can carry 8 RS-82 rockets. Later, the number of rockets carried by the single-seat IL-2 was improved, and it could carry 14 RS-132 rockets or a combination of 8 RS-82 and 8 RS-132 rockets. The price paid was the removal of the bomb pylon. In some troops, people even increased the number of rockets they can carry to an incredible 24!
However, given that even Soviet pilots did not think highly of the RS-82, Yanik asked the R&D department to develop an 85mm rocket, which greatly increased its power.
The current German version of the single-seat IL-2 can carry 24 85mm rockets.
But rockets also have flaws, that is, their accuracy is far inferior to that of barreled artillery.
The structure of air-to-ground rockets during World War II was relatively simple, or simply crude, and generally used simple 2 to 4 tail fins to maintain direction. However, this effort is often offset by natural conditions due to insufficient initial velocity and lack of rotation.
For example, in the flight of RP rockets, for every 15 km/h increase in lateral wind force, its dispersion radius will increase by 5 meters. Rockets that rely solely on tail fins for stability have poor stability. Therefore, in essence, RP rockets and Soviet Katyushas are the same thing. Especially when RP rockets are launched at a distance of 900 to 1,800 meters, their dispersion rate is really no different from that of Katyushas.
So if you want to hit a moving tank with a rocket, you have to be at a very close distance, and it requires quite advanced technology to accomplish it.
Just as Hans sighed from the bottom of his heart, the rest of the attack aircraft also dived down, and the sky full of rockets attacked the fleeing French tanks. Although the others' skills were far from being as advanced as Rudel's, their numbers made up for their lack of accuracy, and in the blink of an eye, the remaining dozens of French tanks were completely wiped out.
After destroying this tank unit, the attack aircraft group did not return, but flew forward in a mighty manner.