Chapter 376 Temporary Line of Defense

The research and development and design of tanks do not necessarily require being strong in everything. Another meaning of being strong in everything is that everything is half a bucket of water.

The design of the tank must be targeted, and the German "Upper Silesia" tank has this feature.

Its goal is very clear, its opponent is the French army's "Charre A1".

There was such a discussion at a meeting organized by Major General Luca of the German Seventh Traffic Department:

"This tank needs very thick armor? No, that will only slow it down. It will be easily defeated by the 'Shire A1' like the A7V on the battlefield!"

"To avoid this, its speed must reach at least 12 kilometers per hour, and in extreme cases it can be higher!"

"The thickness of the armor is only required to block ordinary bullets. After all, the French do not have anti-tank rifles."

"The artillery must be able to penetrate the frontal armor of the 'Shire A1', and it must have a high rate of fire. The most important thing is that it must have a rotating turret like the 'Shire A1'!"

…

After repeated discussions and multiple verifications, the "Upper Silesia" tank was finally formed:

The armor thickness is 14MM, which can only block ordinary rifle bullets.

The speed is 12 kilometers per hour, and in extreme cases can reach 16 kilometers per hour. This makes it impossible for the A7V tank to be circled and used as a target when faced with the "Shire A1" with a speed of 15 kilometers per hour. At critical moments, it is possible to reach a speed of 16 kilometers per hour. Take the initiative.

The artillery is a 57MM rapid-fire gun, which is enough to penetrate the 25MM frontal armor of the "Shire A1" at a distance of 300 meters.

The two heavy machine guns in tandem are used to protect the tank's own safety and attack the trenches.

(Note: The front machine gun in Upper Silesia is very reasonable. It is equivalent to the heading machine gun of a modern tank. It is obviously inappropriate to use a gun when a tank is dealing with enemy infantry trying to get close to itself. This is when the machine gun comes into play. The rear machine gun is not very Reasonable, rear security can be completely solved by infantry coordination, but the concept of infantry-tank coordination during World War I was not yet mature, so it is not surprising that such a design would appear)

If the "Shire A1" tank had nothing changed and collided with the German 1st Tank Division when it came up, it might be Shire's first failure, and it would be a disastrous defeat.

This is not because the "Upper Silesian" artillery caliber is larger, but because of the tactics adopted by Major General Niklas based on the situation of enemy and friendly tanks.

When Major General Nicholas received the tank, he compared the data of the "Shire A1" in detail and finally came to the conclusion:

"Although the gun caliber of the 'Upper Silesian' tank is larger than that of the 'Shire A1', its armor thickness is far less than that of the 'Shire A1'."

"Therefore, the penetration distances of each other should be about the same, and we won't have the slightest advantage."

"The advantage of our tanks is the machine gun, which is equipped with K bullets."

"Once the 'Upper Silesia' passes by an enemy tank or even goes behind them, the machine gun can attack their weak side and rear armor!"

…

The battlefield of Cambrai immediately verified Major General Nicholas's idea. At this time, tanks from both sides were passing by.

The two machine guns of the "Upper Silesia" had turned to the flanks in advance. They rang out suddenly as they approached. Amidst the "clang" sound, the side armor of the "Saint Chamoun" was hit by rows of "K" bullets at close range.

In order to reduce weight, the "Saint Chamoun" has weakened the side armor to 15MM, which is exactly the thickness that the German K bullet can penetrate or not.

then.

Some "Saint Chamoun" slowly stopped, and the people in the cabin may have been beaten to a bloody pulp.

Some "Saint Chamoun" continued to fire as if nothing happened.

And this is the most terrifying thing. The tank crews were fighting under the smoke and noise. They had no idea what was happening and were unaware of the danger. They still fired the shells forward one after another. The gas generated by the shells had already Filling the entire tank compartment, they couldn't even see the target ahead.

Christine, who was advancing with the infantry from the rear, was shocked to find that the main weapon of the German tank was actually a machine gun!

They can penetrate the side armor of the "Saint-Chamont", and of course they can also penetrate the 13MM thick side armor of the "Saint-Chamont M21", not to mention the 8MM rear armor.

If you can't move on, you are courting death!

Kristen did not hesitate and ordered loudly: "Stop advancing and organize defense!"

He eventually disobeyed the order to attack and switched to defense.

It would have been difficult to do this, especially turning a tank from offense into defense.

Fortunately, the "Saint Chamoun M21" is slow and the soldiers can easily catch up with them and convey Christine's orders.

Soon, the "Saint Chamoun M21", which was advancing at full speed like a snail, slowly stopped. They lined up in a line of defense in front of the infantry, with their machine guns and 37-mm cannon aimed at the German tanks that were fighting the heavy "Saint Chamoon" .

Then, the infantry rushed forward to fill the gaps between the tanks, set up mortars and took out grenades in preparation to withstand the German tank charge.

"Boom boom"

"Boom boom boom"

…

The 37 gun of the "Saint-Chamont M21" opened fire.

To everyone's surprise, it actually penetrated the German tank.

Several German tanks came to a slow stop amid the artillery fire. Two of them must have been hit by ammunition depots and exploded instantly. Their turrets were overturned. They flew into the air and rolled several times in the fire and smoke before landing. Back on the ground, parts and pieces of the tank were scattered around.

This boosted Major General Christian's confidence, and he waved his command knife and shouted: "Fire and kill them!"

Bullets and shells rained down on the enemy tanks, which frightened the German tanks. They gave up the charge on the defense line and used their mobility to shoot around the heavy "Saint-Samond".

This was a very clever way of playing. It would make the French troops in the rear afraid to act rashly, because the shells could easily hit the auxiliary tanks and hit the "Saint-Samond" in the melee with the enemy.

However, the heavy "Saint-Samond" did not seem to be a match for the German tanks.

They were slow in action, had weak external perception, and had no turrets and could not attack the enemy in time.

Just like the situation when the "Charles A1" circled the AV7 tanks, one after another was destroyed by German tanks.

They "left peacefully" because it was not artillery but machine guns that destroyed them. There was no explosion or fire in the process. At most, some inconspicuous smoke came out of the craters.

Sometimes you can see survivors wearing gas masks escaping from them. As soon as the hatch was opened, thick smoke billowed, but that was mostly smoke produced by the firing of the 75 gun.

The heavy "Saint-Chamond" was almost not spared. One after another, it was destroyed by German tanks during the charge. There were more than 100 tanks in total, and only 7 were finally able to drive back.

This was thanks to the defense line organized by Major General Christian in the rear, otherwise these 7 tanks would not have been able to return.

In fact, this was also because the Germans had no experience in actual combat for the first time. They did not understand the "Saint-Chamond M21" in front of them, and were frightened by the temporary defense line organized by the French tanks and infantry.

If the Germans drove the "Upper Silesia" recklessly and continued to rush forward under the rain of bullets, the "Saint-Chamond M21" without a turret would not be its opponent at all. Once it broke through the defense line and passed by, the two heavy machine guns of the "Upper Silesia" could launch a one-sided massacre against the French army.

Major General Christian knew this very well, so when he saw the German tanks leaving after the victory, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Only he knew that the order he gave in a hurry just now pulled everyone back from the gates of hell!

But this is just the beginning, what should we do next?