Rise from the sword

Chapter 643

"The fifth tank platoon of the second battalion and third company was attacked after it deviated from the route, and all four tanks lost contact."

At the same time, on a certain German position on the Eastern Front, the head of an armored regiment received a report from his subordinates.

"Three consecutive..."

The captain frowned.

At present, the army is well equipped, and a steady stream of No. [-] tanks is transported from the rear. The problem of equipment shortage that has been bothering him has been completely solved. From then on, he no longer needs to be troubled by the problem of insufficient supplies and equipment.

But it also brought new problems.

There are not enough people.

Because of sufficient equipment and supplies, his regiment is fully equipped.

Three battalion system.

Each battalion has fifty tanks and ten anti-aircraft armored vehicles.

The mobility, passability, firepower and armor of the new tanks are very balanced, and the overall combat effectiveness is very strong. Therefore, the establishment of the previous medium-armored companies below the battalion and the light-armored companies have been cancelled.

The new anti-aircraft vehicle is also converted from the No. [-] tank.

In total, 180 Panzer IV tanks.

There are more armored divisions than before.

With so many tanks, he couldn't gather so many vehicles for a while, and even the logistics personnel were seriously insufficient. Before June, his whole regiment had only five tanks, and the total strength was only 1000 people.

As a last resort, he recruited new tankers from the infantry to start training.

But still not enough.

There are really not many infantrymen who can drive tanks, let alone half-track armored vehicles and transport vehicles.

This problem is common to division headquarters, and all other armored units, not just his regiment, and cannot mobilize assistance from other units.

For this reason, the training of armored personnel was urgently increased in the country. A large number of workers and students with knowledge and ability were recruited into the army, and even servants were recruited into the army. After a period of training in the country, they were stuffed into the armored force.

Although it filled the vacancy, it brought a serious problem.

More than two-thirds of the technical arms are recruits, causing a serious decline in the overall quality of armored troops.

It usually takes more than three months for recruits to be recruited, and most of them are novices. It is almost impossible to train qualified armored soldiers in such a short period of time.

Even if there are sufficient training materials in the rear and novices can directly contact the tanks, the time is still too short.

Three months of training time, bullying infantry can be done, and infantry and tank coordination can also be done, but tank battles are too far behind, let alone battles with the enemy's battle-tested elite tank teams.

For example, now, when the whole regiment is acting together, an armored platoon gets lost and falls behind, and is ambushed and annihilated by the enemy. This was almost impossible to happen before.

"Enemy position?"

The head of the regiment looked at the staff officer who reported.

"The exact location is not clear, but based on the direction they got lost, it is speculated to be here."

The staff officer marked out an area on the map.

"Command the troops."

Looking at the approximate location on the map, the regiment leader found that it was exactly where he planned to march, so he issued an attack order.

·····
In the evening, the night gradually fell.

"Squad leader, the enemy has retreated."

A lone tank was parked in a col.

The hatch of the tank was opened, and the commander with a bandage on his head was making emergency repairs with the rest of the crew. Part of their car track was destroyed and needed to be replaced and repaired to continue fighting.

Hearing the news, the driver immediately let out a long sigh of relief, and his whole body collapsed on the snowy ground, panting heavily.

In the afternoon, their regiment suddenly encountered an armored group of the enemy. The opponent's strength was several times that of theirs. There were more than 100 tanks. At that time, it was too late to retreat, and they fought the enemy decisively.

Fortunately, the surrounding reinforcements arrived in time, as well as air support. Finally, under the desperate charge of the infantry, they repelled the enemy's attack and severely damaged the enemy.

With the advantages of terrain, the number of tanks, and the air support of the can opener, they left the enemy at least nearly a hundred tank wrecks, most of which were wiped out before they could escape.

Of course, there was a heavy price to pay.

More than 100 tanks were destroyed, a large number of vehicle crews suffered heavy casualties, and many attack aircraft were also shot down, especially the infantry, which suffered huge casualties.

He himself was injured again, with more bandages on his head.

After taking a few breaths, the captain got up and continued to repair the tank. Soon, with the cooperation of the crew members, the track was repaired, and the engine was started together. The driver stepped on the accelerator, and the tank moved forward a few meters, and the turret rotated and pitched. There is no problem.

Finally, the captain stood up and looked around.

With his location as the center, there are a large number of tank wreckages all around, including No. 34, T[-], some turrets are broken and skewed, some body armor is broken, tracks are broken, and some are burning.

Among the wrecked tanks, some aircraft wreckage can still be seen.

"It's just us."

This situation made the driver's eyes darken.

After a battle, his entire regiment had dozens of tanks, and he was the only tank left that could still fight.

Not many people survived.

In the entire small battlefield where he was located, there were more than 25 tanks of his own side, but no more than [-] survived, and only a dozen or so tanks were able to move.

lost heavily.

As for the accompanying infantry, there were only a few more casualties.

"We need the iron fist of the Germans, preferably an anti-tank weapon with a longer range. The danger of grenades is too great."

The leader summed it up in his heart.

Because the number of tanks is insufficient, or in other words, the number of enemy tanks is only a lot, and the quality has obvious advantages, resulting in part of the anti-tank pressure on the infantry.

And their infantry only had anti-tank grenades. As for the anti-tank guns, even the rear ones could not penetrate the armor of the Panzer IV.

And Iron Fist's 30-meter range is too close.

At this time, the sound of explosions was still one after another, and it became more and more intense. Under the gradually falling night, the trajectory of shells across the sky could be seen. Obviously, in other places, larger and more tragic battles were also happening simultaneously.

"Collect more German fuel and oil."

"Collect more ammo."

Taking a deep breath, the commander gave the order.

"We move on."

With the enemy's high-quality fuel and lubricating oil, there is no need to carry gasoline to dry the engine and gearbox, which can save a lot of time and energy.

Ten minutes later, the remaining dozen or so tanks assembled into a team, and rushed towards the direction of the most intense artillery fire under the night and in the starlight.

·····
"Fifty crew lost."

During the retreat, the head of the German armored regiment was thinking about today's gains and losses.

After learning that the lost army was ambushed, he judged based on the map and recent front-line intelligence that the lost army should have encountered an enemy regiment-level force.

The enemy's regiment-level armored force has about dozens of tanks, no more than [-], which is half of his, which is very suitable for these recruits to familiarize themselves with tank operations.

And his position is the edge of the battlefield, the edge of the flanks. At this time, neither the main force nor the armored force above the regiment is impossible.

Therefore, he let the troops continue to advance and prepare for battle.

At the beginning, the situation was indeed as he expected, and he had an absolute advantage in numbers.

But this advantage only lasted for more than ten minutes, and the enemy reinforcements arrived, not only tanks, but also attack aircraft. The condescending attack of the 23mm cannon could completely break through the weak top armor of the No. [-] tank.

And his reinforcements were pinned down and unable to arrive, which eventually caused the battle situation to get out of control.

Even if he retreated in time, due to the low execution ability of the troops due to the large number of recruits, the retreat failed, and he was forced to continue fighting with the enemy until he finally broke away from the engagement before retreating.

According to subsequent statistics, 93 tanks were destroyed and could not be driven back. Among them, [-] crews suffered personnel losses. The tanks fought, and the loss rate of the crews was very high.

Although the new No. 85 tank has excellent overall performance, it is impossible to withstand [-]mm artillery at close range.

"Lost tanks can be replenished quickly."

"After this battle, the troops have been trained. Although there is a large loss of personnel, the overall combat effectiveness will be stronger than before, and the enemy will suffer greater losses."

A battalion commander on the side analyzed.

Now there are enough tanks in the army, and the higher-ups say that they will replenish as many tanks as they lose.

The Captain didn't, but a satisfied smile belied his opinion.

What the battalion commander said was true.

Although fifty vehicles were lost, there are still more than 120 vehicles in total, and the combat effectiveness is still very strong, and this time all the rookies and stupid people are eliminated.

After this battle, the troops can even be said to have been reborn, and they will definitely be able to exert stronger combat effectiveness in the next battle.

The overall strength is indeed getting stronger.

The enemy lost much more than they did.

"And the enemy tanks seem to be less effective, especially in terms of protection."

The words of another battalion commander caught the attention of the regimental commander.

"Why do you say that?"

asked the captain curiously.

"The penetration distance is several hundred meters longer than before."

The battalion commander replied.

"Tell me carefully."

The head came interested.

·····
three days later.

front.

An Armored Army Command.

"General, the enemy's armor plate has no hardening process, and its defense ability has been reduced by at least [-]%. The quality of other parts has also generally declined, especially the artillery. The life of the barrel has been reduced by half."

A staff officer walked in and handed the general a research survey data sheet.

The front line generally reported that the defense of the enemy's new tanks had declined, and the headquarters organized manpower to investigate the matter. After testing some captured tanks, such data was finally obtained.

The staff officer's tone was excited.

The quality of the enemy's weapons has declined, which is a great thing, and it can greatly increase the chances of one's own victory.

Hearing the news, the marshal in the command room did not change his expression, and still frowned deeply.

A few months ago, the Air Force carried out large-scale bombing of the production and industrial bases behind the enemy, dropping tens of thousands of tons of bombs each time, which greatly damaged the enemy's weapon production capacity.

It stands to reason that the weapons and equipment obtained by the enemy's front line have dropped greatly, but judging from the combat situation, this is not the case.

There are still a lot of enemy tanks, far more than expected before the war.

Before the report came out, he guessed it.

It is nothing more than reducing the quality of weapons to ensure the supply of quantity. Of course, these alone are not enough. There must be other reasons, such as support from other countries.

If it's a skirmish, it's deadly.

However, in the current large-scale battle involving more than a dozen group armies, more than [-] tanks, and thousands of aircraft, and the battlefield covers hundreds of kilometers, the weakness of tank performance has been greatly weakened.

Within the combat distance, if both sides can penetrate the opposite frontal armor, the priority of quantity is higher than that of quality.

What really determines the victory of the battle is the collection of battlefield intelligence, the formulation and implementation of strategies and tactics, and the logistics supply.

The Marshal believes that if the war continues, Germany must win.

Learning from the previous lessons, Germany is fully prepared this time, whether it is weapons, equipment or logistical materials, it is very sufficient.

With sufficient preparations, their tanks can adapt to winter, even better than the enemy. In this battle, the number of tanks on both sides is actually similar, and even their own side has a clear advantage in quality.

However, the enemy has absolute superiority in military strength, as well as air superiority.

The main force of the German Air Force was pinned down by the Western Front and could not move, especially the heavy bombing of England and the defense against the enemy's heavy bombing, which forced the homeland to mobilize the air force on the Eastern Front.

This led to the air supremacy on the Eastern Front being completely in the hands of the enemy.

As a result, the attacking force suffered greater losses.

Just like the results of the fortress plan.

During the period of the fortress plan, our side was forced to give up the attack due to continuous offensive loss and could not be replenished in time. We could not keep the results of the battle and began to retreat. Now, the rear tanks and supplies are sufficient. After they break through the position, they can quickly complete the repair and continue to attack.

At this time, the position has advanced more than 200 kilometers from the beginning of the war.

But it also brought some problems.

The weapons lost in the battle can be replenished in a relatively timely manner, and the materials consumed can also be replenished in a relatively timely manner, but the lost people cannot. Today's German human resources are seriously insufficient.

and also.

As the front line advances, the supply line is stretched, and a large number of technical arms are added to the tank force, resulting in a shortage of logistics troops. In addition, the road is difficult in winter, and supplies cannot be replenished as quickly and in a timely manner as before. Troops up.

This gave the enemy time to organize a retreat and take away the damaged weaponry.

This is actually quite normal.

But the problem was that he remembered Air Marshal Albert, who was in charge of the logistics warehouse, said that the warehouse could advance with the troops, and he also made a battle plan based on this.

So, is there something wrong?
·····
The day.

Hamburg.

The old fox walked into Albert's headquarters:

"what happened?"

"Is there a problem with the warehouse?"

The old fox's tone was anxious.

Although he and Albert Kesselring have been working to reduce Germany's dependence on warehouses.

For example, the Opel truck production line, the No. [-] and No. [-] tank production lines are secured, and the development of new tanks, new jet aircraft, and new artillery is guaranteed, and a certain amount of production is guaranteed.

and increase agricultural production.

But at this time, Germany's old disease is too deep, and it has been completely tied to the warehouse in just a few months.

Losing the warehouse, Germany will collapse on its own within three months, and this is the case when the two are fully stockpiling supplies.

"There is no problem with the warehouse materials, and they can still be supplied in sufficient quantities. There are even more tanks."

Kesselring sighed:

"But I only know now that the total number of warehouses is only ten, and the warehouses that have been placed cannot be moved, but can only be destroyed."

"There are only ten in total?"

The old fox's complexion changed.

There are restrictions on the warehouse, which is normal. There are restrictions on such terrible things, but there are dozens of them in total, and they cannot be moved. They only know about such important information now, so there is obviously a problem.

If they had known that there were only ten of them and they couldn't move, they definitely wouldn't want to use them so wastefully now.

·····
at the same time.

Zhao Jiayu.

"what is this?"

Zhao Gang watched Li Yunlong playing with a new weapon.

Seems like an Iron Fist, but with distinct differences, and a scope mounted on top.

"Rocket-propelled grenade, abbreviated..."

Leader Li paused, and suddenly choked out some English:

"RPG."

"The firing range is 150 meters. Within this distance, it can penetrate [-] mm thick armor."

(End of this chapter)