Chapter 358: Soviet-Finnish War (17)

After leaving the field kitchen, the squad made a long detour and came to an ambush beside a remote road.

After waiting for more than half an hour, a convoy came from a distance. Ten trucks were driving on a narrow road, and at the front of the convoy, a BT-5 fast tank was leading the way.

Due to the recent elusive Finnish guerrillas, the Soviet logistics troops were often attacked, and they had to strengthen the armed escort of the logistics convoy.

The biggest feature of the BT tank is that it uses the "Christie" type action device. There are 4 large-diameter road wheels on each side, plus vertical or horizontal spiral springs, which are very distinctive: Another feature of this action device is the integration of wheels and tracks. It can be driven by tracks or tires. When driving on tracks, the power of the engine passes through the gearbox, reducer, and driving wheel to drive the track ring forward. The maximum speed at this time is 52 kilometers per hour. When driving on tires, the tracks must be removed and neatly stacked on the fenders. The power of the engine finally drives the last pair of road wheels to push the tank forward. The maximum speed at this time is 70 kilometers per hour.

According to the standards of the 1930s, whether it is tracked or wheeled, tanks can run very fast, fully demonstrating the specialty of "fast tanks". However, Soviet tankers rarely use tires (road wheels) to drive. It takes 30 minutes for two crew members to convert from tracked to wheeled, and 40 minutes for two crew members to convert from wheeled to tracked.

The team members ambushed in front of the road set up an anti-tank rifle.

Although various countries produced various types of anti-tank rifles during World War II, the most useful and effective anti-tank rifle was the old Russian PTRD-41. This is a simple structure (each unit's PTRD rifle requires very few maintenance and other parts, only an integral cleaning rod, a nipple brush, a screwdriver and a key), a powerful single-shot bolt-action anti-tank rifle (the penetration depth of vertical armor at 100 meters and 300 meters is 40 mm and 35 mm respectively, and the penetration depth of armor plates at 30 degrees at 100 meters and 300 meters is also 30 mm and 27 mm, which is better than some 20 mm anti-tank rifles, such as Japan's Type 97 20 mm automatic cannon).

The Russians also have a PTRS-41 five-shot semi-automatic anti-tank rifle, but the semi-automatic is heavier and often jams, so it is not very popular.

In fact, Finland also has a very good anti-tank rifle. 20mm caliber, maximum range of 5 kilometers, can penetrate 12 mm steel plate at 1000 meters. But the whole gun weighs up to 7kg (PTRD-41 anti-tank rifle weighs only 25kg), and it is known as the "elephant among guns" in the military; it is not suitable for a highly mobile squad like this to carry.

Therefore, Yannick made a batch of PTRD-41 anti-tank rifles to aid Finland, and there are two anti-tank rifles in this squad.

A standard anti-tank rifle group must have at least two soldiers, one shooter and loader, and the other responsible for observing and indicating the target. Looking at the convoy coming, the observer holding a telescope spoke. "One hundred meters away, BT-5, fire at any time." The front armor thickness of the BT-5 fast tank is 13 mm, and bullets can easily penetrate its armor at this distance.

"Bang!"

The shooter's right index finger, which had already been on the trigger, pulled the trigger without hesitation.

The recoil of the PTRD-41 anti-tank rifle is proportional to its power. The sturdy soldier was trembling and numb from the huge recoil of the shoulder attack. The 5mm tungsten core armor-piercing bullet that went through the slender barrel acceleration process from the spiral rifling instantly came out of the barrel with flames and deafening gunshots.

The tungsten core armor-piercing bullet that easily penetrated the 13mm armor instantly smashed the unfortunate Soviet driver's head into a rotten watermelon on the ground, and then turned into a terrible stray bullet, jumping several times in the narrow interior, and directly hit the gunner's chest from the back who didn't react at all, and then broke out of the chest from the front like an alien larva, leaving a huge wound the size of a bowl. The huge impact kinetic energy of the 5mm tungsten core armor-piercing bullet was completely consumed.

The BT-5 fast tank, which had two people lying on the ground after being shot, slowly stopped like a wild boar that had been hit by a club. The tank, which seemed intact on the outside, was already full of blood. The only remaining commander hurriedly opened the hatch to abandon the car and escape, but as soon as he leaned out, a ball of blood mist burst out from his chest and slid softly into the tank.

"Stop! Enemy attack!" The convoy following closely behind braked urgently and stopped one after another. The truck at the back was about to reverse, and with a loud bang, the hood was blown away by a huge force, and the engine was instantly scrapped, emitting black smoke.

Now the front and back were blocked, and the entire convoy could not move. The Soviet soldiers in the car could only jump down and hide on both sides of the car, pointing their Mosin-Nagant rifles randomly around.

"Humph, have fun with them!" The captain of the squad sneered and installed a silencer on his SVD sniper rifle. He aimed at a Soviet soldier in the distance and pulled the trigger.

Puff! The silenced gun did not make much noise, and the Soviet soldier in the distance was seen holding his thigh and screaming.

The leader of the squad ordered. "Just injure them, no need to kill them."

On the battlefield, in order to win, for the enemy, should we kill him or injure him?

More and more research in later generations shows that on the battlefield, it is better to kill the enemy than to injure the enemy.

To explore the reasons, the first thing is assistance on the battlefield. Usually on the battlefield, when a soldier is injured, his companions will not give up on him. In order to help him leave the battlefield, it is often necessary to mobilize several nearby soldiers to assist him. This is equivalent to reducing the opponent's strength by several people at once.

The second is follow-up treatment. Injured soldiers need to consume a large amount of logistics resources (medical treatment, medicine, stretchers, etc., which consume a lot of logistics transportation capacity) during the rear medical treatment or evacuation process, thus consuming normal logistics operation resources. If a large number of injured people appear in a short period of time, the capacity of front-line medical treatment may be exceeded.

The last thing is morale. When you see your companions being killed by the enemy on the battlefield, you will feel fear. But just imagine, when you see your comrades who have been with you day and night die in an instant, and when you face the enemy again, do you run for your life or pick up a sword and chop at the enemy? Most people on the battlefield will often choose the latter. This is what is called red-eyed killing.

But if you are just injured, on the one hand, you must take care of your injured comrades, resulting in a loss of combat power. On the other hand, if the injured person vigorously plays up the enemy during the treatment of the injury, it will not only waste resources, but may also affect the morale of the army.

Of course, "injuring the enemy" can only be achieved when you have a complete advantage like now. If you still want to only injure the opponent when the enemy is evenly matched or in a fierce battle, then you may be the unlucky one.