Chapter 935: Decisive Battle (5)

Although the German armored forces' vanguards were all Panther tanks, their number was indeed not as large as that of the 104th Guards Tank Division. Therefore, the Soviets believed that even if the German tanks were powerful, they could still destroy the vanguard after paying a certain price.

Just when the nearly 300 tanks and self-propelled artillery of the 104th Guards Tank Division were out in full force, ready to eat up the German vanguard in one breath, they first encountered a group of attack aircraft in the sky. Moreover, these Il-10 attack aircraft were all equipped with 40mm machine gun pods. The unfortunate 104th Guards Tank Division was about to experience what a terrible "tank can opener" was.

In the original time and space, Germany had a famous "tank can opener" attack aircraft in World War II: the Hs-129 attack aircraft. This attack aircraft originated from the Spanish Civil War. At that time, the German Air Force had the idea of ​​developing a dedicated ground attack aircraft. The Hs-129 attack aircraft was the product of the German Air Force's winning bid. However, the Air Force was not satisfied with the test flight results and did not accept it. The factory subsequently improved it and launched the Hs-129A-1 in the autumn of 1940, but it still did not win the favor of the Air Force. The Hs-129 was thus abandoned and no one cared about it until the Soviet-German War (so when the Hs-129 was put into the battlefield, the Soviets unceremoniously ridiculed the Hs-129 as a poor imitation of the Il-2 and criticized its performance).

Although it encountered many problems at the beginning, such as the engine was too delicate and could not adapt to the dusty field airports in Russia and the climate where water freezes, etc., it gradually adapted to the battlefield environment after continuous improvements.

The Hs-129 attack aircraft is equipped with a 30mm aircraft cannon on the belly. In addition to conventional ammunition, this 30mm aircraft cannon can also use special armor-piercing shells, which can destroy the armor of most Soviet tanks from the air at that time, causing considerable losses to the Soviet armored forces at that time.

The classic battle of the Hs-129 was in the Battle of Kursk on July 8, 1943. On that day, an Hs-129 discovered during reconnaissance that a Soviet armored brigade had crossed the defense line and attacked the German flank, while the attacking German armored forces did not even have any cover forces. The pilot immediately notified the base, and the German Air Force immediately dispatched 16 Hs-129s to participate in the battle, using a group of 4 aircraft to attack the Soviet tanks in turn. When the first Hs-129 fired its shells and left the target area, the second one immediately followed up and attacked, and the Soviet tanks caught fire one after another. The Fw-190 brigade in coordinated operations blew up the Soviet infantry. After the German aircraft ran out of ammunition, they returned to the airport to replenish and then took off again. On that day, the attack brigades that participated in the battle were chasing the Soviet tanks fleeing north from morning to night. This unit with 80 tanks was almost wiped out, and the surviving Soviet army fled into the woods in a panic, hiding for half a month before coming out.

As a victory that the Air Force single-handedly achieved, this battle example was unanimously recognized by the military community as a successful example of air anti-tank battle.

With the emergence of Soviet heavy tanks, the firepower of the Hs-129 was not enough to penetrate the frontal armor of the new tanks, so it was replaced with larger caliber machine guns (50mm and 75mm cannons). However, after replacing this large-caliber machine gun, the aircraft became very bulky, and coupled with its slow speed, it was too easy to be hit when on a mission, and its survivability was sharply reduced, resulting in more losses than gains.

The comments on it from the West and the Soviet Union are completely two extremes, but judging from its nickname "tank can opener", the Germans should be relatively satisfied with it.

Although the German army does not produce Hs-129 today, the Il-10 can fully serve as a "tank can opener", and even do better than the Hs-129.

These Il-10 attack aircraft are equipped with machine guns modified from Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft guns, equipped with 50 special armor-piercing incendiary bombs; there are 12 57mm rockets on both sides of the wings, plus two 20mm machine guns, the firepower configuration can be described as crazy.

Soon, the Soviet army on the ground also discovered these uninvited guests.

"Damn it!" The commander of the 104th Guards Tank Division, Normanov, who led the team personally, couldn't help cursing. Even though they were ready to fight the German tanks to the death at any time, they didn't expect that the first encounter would be the fighter planes in the sky. Although the Soviet tanks in the late World War II in the original time and space began to install anti-aircraft machine guns, the Soviet tanks at this time did not have these things, and could only stare at the attack aircraft in the sky.

"..." Division Commander Normanov was immediately in a dilemma.

Forward or retreat? !

Unfortunately, they were on a bare plain. Whether they were advancing or retreating, there were only mountains a few kilometers away. Only in the mountains could they hide in the woods.

After hesitating for two seconds, the German attack aircraft group was already close at hand. Division Commander Nomanov did not care about much and gave a loud order. "Go at full speed and rush to the woods ahead to hide." The woods were seven or eight kilometers away from them. With the poor off-road speed of the KV-1 (12 kilometers per hour), it would take more than 30 to 40 minutes to reach them, and the IS-2 heavy tank was not much better, and it would take more than 20 minutes to run.

But what else could they do? They couldn't just stay where they were and get beaten, right?

In this way, nearly 300 tanks of the entire 104th Guards Tank Division "rushed" towards the woods ahead. The scene was spectacular.

"Tsk, if I had known that we would encounter a large Soviet tank force, I would have brought some PTABs. This number is at least a tank division." The commander of the attack aircraft formation looked at the densely packed tanks below and couldn't help but be amazed. If hundreds or thousands of PTAB anti-tank bombs were dropped, the tank unit below would be severely damaged in an instant.

"These guys seem to be heading for our vanguard."

"Haha, they are unlucky to meet us. It seems that they want to hide in the woods in front and kill as many as possible before that."

One after another, the Il-10 attack aircraft began to dive down, and the formation commander aimed at one of the IS-2 heavy tanks. Who made these heavy tanks bigger? It's hard not to notice it.

At a distance of 500 meters, he gently pressed the 40mm machine gun trigger.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The first shell hit the front armor of the IS-2 tank, and it was unknown where it bounced. The second shell hit the top of the turret. Although the top armor was not weak (30 mm), it could not withstand the 40 mm armor-piercing shell and was penetrated at once. The armor fragments ran wildly inside the tank, and the commander and loader were killed immediately. The gunner was also hit by the fragments and screamed heartbreakingly.

The third shell hit the top of the power compartment (armor thickness 30 mm), igniting a raging fire, and the flames quickly spread to every corner of the tank compartment.

"Nikonov! We have to leave quickly! Nikonov!" After shouting twice, the gunner who was screaming just now did not respond. The driver did not care about anything else and hurriedly opened the safety door under the car and escaped quickly.