Chapter 711: German-Soviet War (51)

Boom!

On the Soviet position, an M1937 anti-tank gun aimed at a German tank in the distance and fired an armor-piercing bullet.

The origin of the M1937 anti-tank gun is also related to Germany. In the early 1930s, the Soviet Union realized that it was necessary to develop a special small-caliber artillery for anti-tank operations. Given that the Soviet Union had no relevant design experience at the time, in order to save time and reduce the difficulty of research and development, the Soviet Union directly introduced a batch of PaK36 37mm anti-tank guns (nicknamed "stepping stones") from Germany, which was in its honeymoon period, called the M1930 type.

It has to be said that this kind of lightweight artillery was fully able to meet the needs of the battlefield when it appeared. Except for the heavy tanks being built by a few countries, most armored weapons can be penetrated. However, the Soviet Union itself was also working on developing tanks with thicker armor, so it believed that the future tank defense capabilities would generally improve, and the armor-piercing capability of the 37mm caliber gun would soon become obsolete, so Soviet engineers designed a 45mm caliber gun barrel, still using the original gun mount and gun shield, named M1932.

As soon as the M1932 was delivered to the troops, many problems were exposed. For example, the wooden artillery wheels used to save costs had poor road passability, and the axle had no suspension device, so the speed was low when towing; the position of the firing device moved after the aiming device was changed was unreasonable, which was not convenient for the gunner to fire the gun. The locking mechanism failed to achieve semi-automatic, and the firing rate was low... There were many problems, so the No. 8 Arsenal was ordered to make improvements in 1936.

The redesigned artillery was put into mass production in 1937. There was no change in firepower. The main changes were small changes such as the bolt, and the wooden wheels were replaced with the tires of the GAZ car to achieve rapid maneuverability by car towing. This model was called the M1937 model. Later, some of them continued to make small changes and were called the M1938 model in production, but the M1937 number was still used in the army.

The grille armor on the German tanks naturally could not stop the armor-piercing projectiles. This armor-piercing projectile easily penetrated the grille armor and hit the tank turret hard, making a crisp sound and flying to the other side.

"Eleven o'clock, an anti-tank gun! Load the grenade!"

"Loading completed!"

The Leopard tank suddenly stopped. The good shock absorption system allowed the tank to stabilize the body with just a slight shake. After less than a second, the barrel of the Leopard tank fired a grenade at the anti-tank gun.

Boom!

The grenade hit less than half a meter away from the anti-tank gun. If it was an armor-piercing shell, the anti-tank gun might have survived, but it was a grenade. The shock wave of the explosion directly overturned the anti-tank gun, and the flying shrapnel and gravel turned several Soviet soldiers into sieves.

Soon, the German tanks approached 30 meters away. A Soviet soldier in the trench picked up a Molotov cocktail and just raised it above his head to throw it out. Bang! A bullet hit the Molotov cocktail by chance, and the liquid inside spilled on his body. The whole person instantly became a blazing fireman, making a heart-wrenching scream and struggling desperately.

Before his comrades could help him put out the fire, the tracks of a Panther tank in the front had already rolled over the Soviet trench. The gravel rolled up by the tracks fell into the trench, hitting the Soviet helmets, making a clanging sound.

A Soviet soldier holding a cluster grenade jumped up suddenly, pulled the grenade fuse rope, and stuffed the cluster grenade into the tank tracks that were constantly rolling. But the next second he was shot into a sieve by the tank machine gun behind him and fell powerlessly in the trench.

"Boom!"

The cluster grenade stuck in the track exploded and broke the track. The Panther tank still relied on inertia to drive forward a short distance before collapsing.

More tanks crossed the trench, and the infantry behind the tanks also rushed to the trench and began to shoot at the Soviet troops in the trench from a high position.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

In close combat, especially in trench warfare, the German army with a large number of automatic weapons had a clear advantage.

"Bayonet!" In the trenches in the distance, the Soviet political commissar waving a pistol shouted loudly, and a group of Soviet soldiers holding shining bayonets launched an almost crazy counterattack against the German army.

However, what awaited them was not the German bayonets, but the G43 semi-automatic rifles, MP40 submachine guns, MP44 assault rifles, and various types of pistols. Dense bullets were fired at the Soviet army rushing over, knocking all the Soviet army rushing over to the ground.

The German army that jumped into the trenches advanced along the trenches, and near a node, they encountered a bunker that was still resisting stubbornly. They fired at the German army in front while firing at the German army in the trenches.

The German soldiers took out several grenades and threw them over. The grenades exploded one after another amid the screams of the Soviet soldiers, and there was no sound in the bunker.

After a day of fighting, the German army cleared a quarter of the Soviet troops outside Smolensk, and it would take only a few days to surround Smolensk.

"Smolensk..." Yannick in the Berlin Palace received the battle report from the front line, and felt a little emotional.

In the original World War II, the recognized turning points of the Soviet-German War were the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Kursk, but Yannick personally preferred the Battle of Smolensk in the early stage of the war.

In the Battle of Smolensk, the German army took advantage of the Soviet army's unstable foothold and incomplete defense system. It relied on powerful armored forces and close coordination with infantry and tanks to continuously implement far-reaching pincer assaults, segmentation and encirclement, and individual defeats to annihilate It mobilized a large number of Soviet troops, occupied strategic locations such as Smolensk, and advanced more than 200 kilometers east of the Dnieper River, thus opening the door to Moscow and taking the lead in reaching the "Barbarossa" Operation Order. The determined first-stage combat objectives.

At the same time, the Soviet army continued to invest new troops, killing and wounding 250,000 German troops with its tenacious defense and continuous counterattacks. It delayed the German offensive for one month and bought valuable time to strengthen Moscow's defense. Under the powerful attack of the Soviet army, the combat capabilities of the German army, especially the assault power of the armored corps, dropped significantly, which had a serious impact on its subsequent operations.

In this battle, the German army captured more than 400,000 Soviet Red Army soldiers and seized a large amount of equipment, opening the way for the attack on Moscow. Since the battle in Smolensk took place on a front of nearly 650 kilometers and a depth of nearly 250 kilometers, the German army's combat troops were extremely exhausted and were forced to stop their advance towards Moscow. This was the case for the German army in World War II. For the first time, they were forced to stop attacking in the main direction and switch to defense. It can be said that the Germans' all-out momentum was exhausted in Smolensk. The direct reason why it finally stopped in front of Moscow was due to inertia, not because the engine stalled at that time.

This battle allowed the Soviet army to learn how to avoid the German encirclement and how to counteract the German armor advantage. It can be said that the Soviet army used one battle to contain the two battles of Kiev and Moscow, and gradually adapted to the blitz warfare style.

Due to the unilateral and solitary advance of the German armor, the problems of the separation of infantry and tanks and the low degree of mechanization of the infantry were exposed objectively, making it possible for the Soviet army to launch cluster attacks and divided counterattacks. If the Soviet army was fully prepared in the early stage and had sufficient reserves, once the Ironwood Xinge successfully blocked the southward movement of Gudri's armored forces. The Battle of Smolensk may not only reverse the battlefield situation, but also defeat the Kiev offensive launched by the German army.