Chapter 692: German-Soviet War (36)

The firing rate of a tank mainly depends on the arrangement of the ammunition racks in the cabin.

The ammunition racks of a tank can be divided into two parts. One part is the standing ammunition rack, which is very close to the loader, so he can take the shells with his hands; the other part is the reserve ammunition rack, which is placed wherever there is space; for example, there is a reserve ammunition rack under the gunner's seat of the 75mm tank gun of the M3 Grant/Lee tank, and the gunner sits on a pile of shells to fire. The reserve ammunition rack of the M26 Pershing is arranged at the bottom. After the standing ammunition in the turret is used up, the loader has to bend down to take the shells every time. Most of the shells of German tanks are on the side of the vehicle body (the tail compartment of the King Tiger is also equipped with shells, but the loader has to turn around to take the shells, which is obviously not as convenient as the Pershing), and it is obviously more troublesome for the loader to take the shells.

Therefore, when the standing ammunition is used up, the firing rate of the tank will gradually decrease, and the loader's physical exhaustion and other reasons will make the firing rate slower as time goes by.

In less than a minute, the German tanks destroyed the fastest Soviet BT-7 and BT-5 with extremely high firing rate and good accuracy; after destroying several T-26 tanks, the distance between the two sides was close to 800 meters.

Under the order of the company commander Hermann, the German tanks began to shoot while retreating. Although the T-2mm caliber tank gun may not be able to penetrate the main armor of the Panther tank even at a distance of 100 meters, it would be a big loss if it accidentally broke the track.

The ability to reverse is one of the key performances of modern main battle tanks. If you suddenly encounter an enemy with an advantage on the battlefield, you can use fast reverse to keep the front turret and body with the strongest protection facing the enemy, while quickly retreating and keeping a distance from the enemy, and you can also fire calmly. If the tank has poor reverse ability, it will have to turn around and expose its butt to the enemy, which will be very dangerous.

The reverse speed of tanks during World War II was not very high, just like a turtle. For example, the famous German Panther tank has a reverse speed of only 3 to 4 kilometers per hour; only the Tiger tank, with its relatively advanced gearbox and two reverse gears, can achieve a reverse speed of nearly 10 kilometers per hour; in actual combat, facing the swarming T-34 tanks, the Tiger tank often uses its good reverse speed to fire while reversing, trying not to let the T-34 get close, and destroy the attacking T-34 one by one while retreating.

Fortunately, today's Panther tanks are equipped with advanced gearboxes, and the reverse speed can reach 15 kilometers per hour.

"Loading completed!" The loader reported loudly.

"Stop! Fire!" Following Hermann's order, the tank stopped retreating, and a few seconds later the shells flew out of the barrel and flew towards a T-26 on the opposite side.

At this time, the German tank commanders saw that the Soviet KV-2 tanks that were still 2,000 meters away slowly stopped, and then a puff of black smoke spewed out of the muzzle.

"Are those guys stupid?" Of course they knew what the black smoke meant, it was the KV-2 tank firing. But they knew the performance of the KV-2 very well. Not to mention 2,000 meters away, with their not-so-advanced sights, they might not be able to hit the target even at 500 meters.

"Boom!" The shells landed on the ground a hundred meters away from the German tanks, raising a few meters of dust, causing the German tank soldiers to sigh on the radio. "Tsk tsk, the power of the 152mm cannon is really extraordinary. If the accuracy is higher, we will be in trouble." Unfortunately, without accuracy, this is just a waste of shells!

"How did these bastards think of installing 152mm cannons on their tanks?" Other tanks are 50mm, 70mm, 80mm... These Soviets are so good that they directly brought out 152mm, which is almost twice the caliber of their 88mm tank guns! If a shell hits the target, it doesn't even need to penetrate, the shock can kill the crew in the tank.

Just after the German tank fired five more rounds of shells, the KV-2 tank moved forward for a distance and stopped, and fired shells at them again.

A shell happened to fall not far from Hermann's tank, and the shock wave hit the tank, making the tankers inside dizzy.

"Hey, these damn guys, are they trying to luck with us?" Hermann shook his dizzy head. The Soviets were not fools, and they must have known that the shells would not be accurate at this distance, and it was just a matter of luck if they exploded.

After another round of firing by the German tanks, the remaining T-26s had been destroyed, and now only the KV-1 and KV-2 tanks were slowly moving forward in the distance.

Hermann ordered. "Forward, close the distance to 1,500 meters!"

The 25 intact German tanks moved forward for a distance, and the distance between the two sides was shortened to 1,500 meters.

"KV-2 in front! Fire!" Although the KV-1 tanks were closer to them, Hermann decided to eliminate the more threatening KV-2 tanks first.

"Boom!"

The shells were fired at the KV-2 tanks in front, but unfortunately, because the angle was too tilted, they were hit by the thick armor on the KV-2 turret.

"Reload! Fire another shot!" Hermann ordered somewhat depressedly. It was the first time he saw his shells fail to penetrate the armor of the opponent's tanks. And in this round of firing, they only destroyed seven or eight KV-2 tanks.

Before Hermann's tank had time to load new shells, the remaining KV-2 tanks on the opposite side fired a round of shells.

"Boom!" The explosion at close range made Hermann's heart sink. This was not the sound of the shells falling to the ground and exploding. He hurriedly asked on the radio. "Who was hit?!"

There was a cry of surprise on the radio. "Tank No. 3 was hit!! Oh my God! This damn shell is really powerful. It directly blew up Tank No. 3!"

Another voice said a little depressed. "The track of Tank No. 8 was blown off."

"Damn it!" Hermann cursed in his heart. It seems that the god of luck still favored the Soviets once. But this kind of luck only happened once. "Keep firing!"

This shell successfully penetrated the front armor of the KV-2 tank, directly turning the tank into a pile of scrap metal. The extremely slow reloading speed of the KV-2 became a fatal weakness. Before it could reload, the German army had fired four rounds of shells. Even the low hit rate at a long distance was enough to wipe out all these KV-2s.

After destroying the KV-2, which posed the greatest threat, only the KV-1 tanks were left, and they had just moved 1,000 meters away.

"You are really not afraid of death!" Hermann sneered. The weaker BT-7, BT-5, T-26 and the stronger KV-2 were all destroyed, but these guys were still brave enough to face death. They were really brave.

Unfortunately, their 5-caliber 76mm guns would only pose a threat to us if they were at least 500 meters away, and we could fire ten rounds of shells during this period.

"Free fire, destroy them all!"