Chapter 986 "Olga" Vs. "Stalin"

"Bang..."

The sound of an explosion at very close range is completely different from that at a longer distance. The blazing waves came in an instant, causing Captain Yazov's exposed skin to feel stinging. At this moment, a JS-2 heavy tank about 50 meters to the right of the JS-2 tank that Yazov was riding turned into a ball of fire. This unfortunate tank was not only penetrated by the front armor of some unknown anti-tank gun used by the White Army, but also exploded its ammunition.

Although the JS-2 heavy tank that was destroyed belonged to Yazov's company, this GCist fighter who was used to seeing casualties did not move at all, and did not even take a second look. Instead, he immediately raised his telescope to search for the White Russian position in front - it was a forest that had just been plowed by artillery several times, and there were charred and smoking trees with half of the trees left everywhere. It was impossible for an anti-tank gun without armor protection to exist there.

So what Yazov wanted to search for was the armored vehicles of the White Army. He thought that the armored vehicles that could easily penetrate the JS-2 tank's frontal homogeneous steel plate with a thickness of 100mm and a certain inclination at a distance of more than 700 meters should be Tiger tanks or Rhino tank destroyers, or even the legendary E-50A heavy tanks!

But Yazov didn't see any big guys after searching for a long time. Just when he was feeling strange, he suddenly saw two small guys that looked a bit like SU-57 retreating quickly.

"Is this... SU-57?" Yazov almost screamed, because he clearly saw that this small assault artillery without a turret was equipped with a 57mm gun, most likely the ZIS-2 type!

Yazov's eyebrows were twisted into a ball. The White Army actually modified a tank destroyer like SU-57. This is a bit troublesome. There are too many woods on the Rzhev front, and this kind of small tank destroyer can be hidden everywhere.

But the ZIS-2 anti-tank gun can hardly penetrate the frontal armor of the 100mm angled JS-2 at a distance of 700 meters... Why is it that one shot kills one now? What's going on? Did the Germans help the White Russians improve the ZIS-2 anti-tank gun?

This is really too reactionary!

"Comrade Baron! The Queen's hammer smashed another 'Stalin'!"

At this moment, deep in the woods, Colonel Kaminsky was supervising the battle with several staff officers and guards - the first line of defense of the White Army's 8th Armored Grenadier Division was breached by the Soviet army on the morning of April 5, but Major General Voskoponiko and Colonel Kaminsky did not flee with their troops. Instead, they retreated to the forest area north of Rzhev as planned, relying on the woods and pre-built strongholds to delay the Soviet attack.

The "Olga" tank destroyer showed the style of the black cannon queen in the battles on April 5 and 6.

The small-sized "Olga" tank destroyer is very easy to enter and exit the woods, and it is also easy to hide. The Soviet howitzers and rocket launchers could not hurt the "Olga" tank destroyer with 12-57mm armor (57mm inclined welded armor on the front of the vehicle body).

Even Soviet tanks found it difficult to hit the "Olga" tank destroyer, which was only 2.16 meters high, at a long distance.

But the British-made 6-pound tank gun of this tank destroyer can penetrate the front armor of the JS-2 at a distance of 1,000 meters when using armor-piercing discarding sabot shells (discarding sabot shells are not very accurate at this distance, but they are still very accurate within 750 meters)!

As a result, the "Stalin" heavy tank, which was highly expected by Stalin and the Soviet High Command, was beaten to a pulp by the "Black Cannon Queen Olga" before it even met the legendary powerful E-50A (because the E-50 was a European Community cooperation project, the confidentiality was not very good, and the Soviets had known about it for a long time).

Probably because of the outstanding performance of the "Olga" tank-killer, several White Army armored grenadier divisions on the Rzhev front were repelled for dozens of kilometers, but did not collapse. Instead, they fought and retreated, causing considerable losses to the attacking Soviet army.

Kaminsky saw a Stalin tank that was turned into a fireball more than 1,000 meters ahead, and thought: I don't know when the British invented this armor-piercing shell? If they had given the armor-piercing shell to Stalin before 1943... the Soviet Union would not have ended up like this today, right? This Stalin's luck is really bad.

Thinking of this, he put down the telescope and said to a White Army staff officer who had just called him "Comrade Baron": "Move the position now, the Red Army will soon bombard... In addition, don't call me Comrade Baron, it sounds strange, just call me commander."

"Okay, Comrade Commander!"

...

"Comrade Major..."

The Russian word "comrade" made Otto Braun feel a lot. The person he was talking to was the commander of the tank destroyer company of the White Bandit Army, a Russian youth in his 20s. Judging from the tone of his voice, he must have been a Soviet not long ago, and maybe a GCist fighter, but now he has betrayed the party and the people!

"This is the 'Olga' tank destroyer produced by the Kirov Factory. It is modified from a T-50 tank and uses a 57mm tank gun provided by Britain."

The White Bandit Company Commander had no idea that the man who spoke to him in a stiff Russian was a loyal GCist fighter, so he told Braun the details of the "Olga" tank destroyer he used without hiding anything.

"Have you used it to destroy Stalin's tank?" Braun asked again.

He did not ask the question out of curiosity, but as a mission - the Soviet Red Army encountered many "Olga" tank destroyers on the Rzhev front on April 5 and 6, and hundreds of JS-2 and T-34/85 were destroyed (because the Soviet army was advancing, a considerable proportion of the damaged tanks could be repaired, so the loss was not that great), which surprised the Soviet High Command.

So the Soviet High Command issued an order to the German Red Brigade squad that infiltrated behind enemy lines to find out the situation of the White Army's new tank destroyers.

"Our company destroyed 4 JS-2s and 3 T-34/85s," the White Bandit Captain replied proudly, "Comrade Colonel, don't look at its small caliber artillery, but it uses an armor-piercing shell given by the British, which is very powerful!"

A very powerful armor-piercing shell!

Otto Braun wanted to get a few samples, but after looking at the tank destroyer company composed of 13 "Olga" tank destroyers in front of him, he immediately gave up the idea.

His unit only had one Sdkfz.234/2 Puma armored vehicle, which could not defeat 13 "Olga" tank destroyers at all, and it would not be successful even if it attacked suddenly.

And acting rashly is likely to expose "Operation Red Star" in advance, which is really not worth the loss.

...

"Hurry up, hurry up, rush forward!"

Shura was kicked twice on the back of his head. It was his tank commander and tank company commander Captain Valentin Ivanovich Valennikov who kicked him - this was conveying the order to him to move forward!

Because the problem of in-car communication has not been effectively solved, Soviet tank commanders often use their feet to convey orders to the driver.

Kick once to stop, kick twice to move forward.

Shura knew that he was going to launch a charge now, and he was a little trembling with excitement, and stepped on the accelerator heavily. The 13.9-ton BT-7 tank immediately roared forward at a speed of nearly 50 kilometers per hour.

Ahead was a collective farm guarded by an infantry regiment of the White Army, which was stuck on the throat of Rzhev to Nelidovo. However, this infantry regiment did not have many anti-tank weapons, nor did it have "Olga" tank destroyers, so it was impossible to stop the powerful 7th Guards Tank Army!

Now the 7th Guards Tank Army and the 8th Guards Tank Army of the Red Army have begun to carry out the "big detour" operation. Both tank armies were advancing northwest of Rzhev (at the same time, the 1st and 2nd Guards Tank Armies were also feinting towards Kuvshinovo northeast of Rzhev. The troops beaten to a pulp by the White Army's "Black Cannon Queen" were actually feinting troops). The first target was Nelidovo. After capturing Nelidovo, the 8th Guards Tank Army would advance westward to Western Dvina and Toropets, while the 7th Guards Tank Army would head north to Andreiapol.

As long as one of the two Guards Tank Armies was in place, it would seriously threaten the flanks of the German Northern Army Group and even threaten Velikiye Luki - this place is still an important logistics transit point for the Central Army Group and cannot be lost. Because Velikiye Luki was almost occupied by the Kalinin Front commanded by Zhukov last time, the German Central Front learned a lesson and deployed the 5th SS Panzer Grenadier Division, which was affiliated with the Central Army Group Command, there.

This ace division of the German Waffen-SS has now handed over its defense zone to the 3rd Armored Division, and is advancing towards Toropets, 71 kilometers away, along the forest road opened by the Soviets in the last raid.

According to Marshal Manstein's order, they must control Toropets and Western Dvina before the Soviets to ensure the absolute safety of the Velikiye Luki and Pskov-Smolensk railway lines!

In the long marching convoy of the 5th SS Armored Grenadier Division, there is also a weapon similar to the SU-57 and the "Olga" tank destroyer, the Type 38 tank destroyer, which is the famous "Hunter" tank destroyer! However, this tank destroyer is not used to replace the "Rhino" tank destroyer, but is assigned to each armored grenadier regiment in companies (each company has 14 vehicles), replacing the original anti-tank artillery company.