Chapter 700: Encirclement-Trap

Major Schwarzenegger was stunned when he heard the words coming from the headset.

Hundreds or thousands of vehicles! ? This is going to be a tank showdown! Is the Soviet Red Army crazy? They have "Tigers", "Rhinos" and so many Type 4Hs. What can the Soviets use to fight? How many T-34/57s can they have? And even T-34/57s can't beat "Tigers". At most, they can hurt each other with Type 4Hs.

When Major Schwarzenegger was feeling strange, the order of Major General Kruger, the commander of the 1st Armored Division, came from the headset: "Tiger tanks and Rhinos tank destroyers conduct long-range artillery fire, and destroy the Russian T-34/57s 1,500 meters away. The rest of the vehicles stop moving forward..."

It's the turn of the "Rhinos" to go into battle again!

Major Schwarzenegger quickly picked up the intercom and ordered the 37 "Rhinos" under his command to move forward. Then he ordered the driver of the half-track vehicle he was riding to drive the vehicle to the front.

When they got to the front, they found a slightly raised high slope to park the vehicle. Schwarzenegger raised the telescope again and began to search for targets. Countless T-34s and KV-1s appeared in the eyepiece, perhaps there were really hundreds or thousands. The formation of these tanks was relatively loose, and there were many Soviet infantrymen walking between the tanks.

Many of them carried a large-caliber rifle with a long barrel, which should be an anti-tank gun. Some of them carried a weapon that Major Schwarzenegger was very familiar with on their shoulders - the Iron Fist anti-tank grenade launcher!

Obviously, due to the huge threat of German tanks, the Soviets imitated the "Iron Fist" (this is a low-tech weapon that can't be difficult for Soviet military industry at all), and have already distributed them to the troops. These Russians are really good at learning!

After taking his eyes off the Soviet infantry, Major Schwarzenegger began to carefully look for T-34/57 tanks in the rumbling Soviet tank cluster. This tank has a thin and long barrel. From a distance, it looks like a needle stuck in the turret of the T-34, so it is very easy to find. But Schwarzenegger searched for a long time and didn't find a single T-34/57.

There were no T-34/57 tanks, and all the tanks on the battlefield were T-34/76 and KV-1. Are the Soviets crazy? Do they want to use T-34/76 and KV-1 to deal with Tiger tanks?

Boom! Boom! Boom...

While Major Schwarzenegger was wondering, a Tiger tank had already opened fire. A row of shells whizzed across the battlefield and rushed straight to the Soviet tank cluster 1,500 to 1,600 meters away. Immediately, several T-34s were hit, and the huge explosion instantly engulfed the green-painted Soviet tanks.

Seeing the majestic attack of his own tanks, the doubts in Major Schwarzenegger's heart disappeared without a trace. He also quickly ordered the Rhino tank destroyer under his command to join this battle that seemed like a target shooting.

On the battlefield, Tiger tanks and Rhino tank destroyers opened fire one after another. The 88mm cannon also showed great power at a distance of about 1,500 meters, hitting accurately and fiercely. Dozens of burning wreckages appeared on the battlefield immediately. However, the remaining Soviet tanks did not retreat, but began to accelerate forward. At the same time, the Soviet infantry following the tanks also began to charge with a gasp, and shouted loudly: "Ura! Ura!"

The air on the battlefield suddenly became hot!

Although the Red Army was brave and tenacious, the powerful firepower of Tiger tanks and Rhino tank destroyers still dominated the battlefield. No matter how fast the Soviet tanks that charged hard moved, they could not avoid the Germans' extremely accurate shells. Soon, there were more and more tank wreckages on the battlefield!

But the Soviet Red Army still fought to the death, regardless of casualties, and rushed forward like a tide.

The slogans of "Ura! Ura!" were shouted loudly at the front, but Yakov Dzhugashvili, who was guarding a forest in the rear and commanding 16 ZIS-2 anti-tank guns (and 7 85mm anti-aircraft guns controlled by Makarenko, the head of the 9th Motorized Anti-tank Artillery Regiment), knew that the T-34/76, KV-1 and accompanying infantry who were fighting the enemy at the risk of their lives were actually bait thrown by the commander of the front, Vasilevsky!

And the real attack on the German armored cluster was more than 200 ambushed T-34/57 tanks and hundreds of ZIS-2 anti-tank guns and 85mm anti-aircraft guns!

As long as the GCist fighters who were being beaten in front could lead them to the muzzles of T-34/57, ZIS-2 and 85mm anti-aircraft guns before they were destroyed by the Nazi enemy, then the German armored cluster would be seriously injured and difficult to treat even if it did not die.

Thinking that the Germans' mighty Tiger tanks were about to be in trouble, Yakov not only let go of his worries, but also began to be eager to try, hoping that the moment of beating the Tiger tanks would come soon.

"Artillery! Take cover!"

Just as Yakov stretched his neck and hoped that the Tiger tanks would come soon, someone suddenly shouted, and then there was the piercing whistling sound of rockets breaking through the air.

It turned out that the Germans suddenly launched a rocket attack! However, Yakov seemed even more excited, because he had long been accustomed to the smell of gunpowder on the battlefield, how could he not notice that the landing points of the German rockets were very scattered this time! This shows that the German rocket attack was of a harassing nature, with the purpose of disrupting the Soviet tank clusters fighting on the front line... Perhaps the Soviet tank clusters on the front line were about to retreat, and the Germans were preparing to chase them!

"Comrade artillery director, look over there, our people are withdrawing!"

After a while, someone really shouted. Yakov quickly leaned out of the bomb shelter where he was, raised his telescope and looked forward. He only saw many T-34 tanks lined up in a loose horizontal column, driving quickly towards him, and many vehicles were carrying infantry, and he didn't know how many people and vehicles there were.

"Faster, faster, faster!"

On the other side of the battlefield, Major Schwarzenegger was desperately urging his "Rhino" to chase at full speed. The battle just now was really exciting, hundreds of tanks and tank destroyers opened fire at the same time! The Soviet tanks were like targets, being hit and burning one after another.

That was an overwhelming advantage. The Soviet T-34 and KV-1 were no match for the "Tiger", "Rhino" and the No. 4 tank. In less than an hour and a half, the aggressive Soviet tank cluster could not withstand the huge losses and failed to retreat, leaving hundreds of burning tank wreckage on the battle line of more than ten kilometers!

However, the Soviet tanks, especially their T-34 tanks, were really fast when they fled. Not to mention the Tiger tanks, even the No. 4H type could not catch up with them.

Although Major Schwarzenegger kept urging them, the speed of the Rhino tank destroyer was there. Now it was off-road driving, and driving at 20 kilometers per hour was the limit, and it could not catch up with the T-34, which could reach an off-road speed of 40 kilometers per hour. Moreover, when the Soviet tanks retreated, many Red Army infantrymen used "iron fists" and anti-tank guns to desperately block them.

The "Rhino" with poor anti-infantry ability dared not rush too fast, and had no choice but to let the Type 4H and the half-track vehicles carrying armored grenadiers behind go first. As for the Tiger tanks, they could only slowly fall behind and eat dust - the lack of mobility of the Tiger tanks was clearly revealed in today's tank decisive battle.

However, there are also advantages to being slow, at least it is not easy to be ambushed.

"Why is it not a Tiger?" Yakov Zhugashvili muttered when he saw the German tank group chasing the Soviet tank group through the telescope.

All the Type 4H tanks and half-track armored personnel carriers came, a black mass, there were hundreds of them.

I don't know if it was because they found many small pieces of woods ahead (it turned out to be a large forest, cut down like this), which was a place easy to ambush. All the Type 4H slowed down to about five or six kilometers per hour at the same time. The half-track armored vehicles that followed stopped, and the German grenadiers on them jumped down one after another, holding automatic carbines and carrying MG42s, and scattered around the slowly moving No. 4 tank.

Was he discovered?

Yakov's heart sank, and he estimated the distance again, and found that the front row of the German tank group was less than 1,000 meters away from him.

"Comrade artillery director, comrade commander ordered to open fire!"

Just when Yakov was getting nervous, the order to open fire was issued.

"Fire! Aim...fire!"

With Yakov's order, the ZIS-2 anti-tank gun closest to him fired first, and then with this gunshot as a signal, the other dozen ZIS-2 anti-tank guns also fired. And almost at the same time, the anti-tank anti-aircraft guns and T-34/57 tanks lurking in various parts of the battlefield also fired one after another.

The entire battlefield was suddenly filled with smoke. Dozens of Type 4 tanks in the front row were hit and caught fire almost at the same time, followed by another round of artillery fire, and more Type 4 tanks were emitting thick smoke.

Vasilevsky's ambush seemed to have achieved some success, but it was still far from a complete victory.

Because the Type 4 tanks and German grenadiers who were hit did not panic, some grenadiers began to throw smoke bombs in front of the tanks that were not hit, as if they wanted to protect the tanks with smoke. Those tanks stopped on the spot, raised their gun barrels, turned their turrets, aimed at the woods ahead where there might be an ambush, and began to fire high-explosive bombs.