The sun never sets

It should be said that the German government was prepared for the Indian People's Army in the north to move south. German officers led the Indians to build many bunkers on the border, erected dozens of miles of barbed wire, and buried hundreds of thousands of mines.

If there were enough funds, the German generals would have built more fortresses and airports and trained 60 reorganized divisions. These plans were all good, but the problem was that there was no money. The German government supported the Madras Republic in order to suck blood from India to feed the German Empire, not to benefit the Indian people.

The plan for the border fortress was eventually reduced to barbed wire and large minefields, and the huge 60th division preparation plan was only a quarter completed. When the war broke out again in India, the Madras Republic had only 15 reorganized divisions, and the troops were still lacking a lot of equipment. For example, a German light infantry division was equipped with 36 105mm howitzers, but there were only 12 in the reorganized division;

The German army has now generally replaced 75mm anti-tank guns, while the reorganized divisions are still using 50mm anti-tank guns and are even equipped with some 37mm stepping stones. The Madras Republic Army as a whole is weak in air force and lacks anti-aircraft weapons.

The German General Staff once deployed four air squadrons in the Republic of Madeira, with a total of more than 4 aircraft. Due to the tense situation in Europe, the advanced fighters and excellent pilots were transferred back to Germany, and the ones left in India were all outdated aircraft.

Those aircraft with inferior performance can also play some role in combat, but only some.

Chapter 932: Easily

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

"boom!"

An entire tank company of the Alliance, 13 tanks, with the cooperation of mechanized infantry, defeated the enemy troops in front of them. The infantry division of the Republic of Madras lacked anti-tank weapons and had no good way to deal with the tanks of the Alliance. They could only raise their hands helplessly and chose to surrender.

"keep going!"

"Don't stop!"

The engine hours of a tank are very precious. The strong horsepower brings excellent mobility, but it also makes the life of a tank engine much shorter than that of a car engine.

But war is essentially a waste of money. In war, not to mention the consumption of engine life, even using tanks to fight urban street battles is a common occurrence.

Tank company commander Timoshenko leaned half of his body out of the command vehicle, observing the surrounding situation while issuing orders on the walkie-talkie, "Don't worry about those infantrymen. We are an armored force, not here to do those things. As long as there is gas, we must keep moving forward!"

Timoshenko was a Cossack. His grandfather fought for the Tsar, and so did his father. In his generation, he was supposed to be a glorious Cossack cavalryman.

But times have changed. The once powerful cavalry has become a supporting role on the battlefield and can only do odd jobs. After seeing the might of a group of tanks marching, Timoshenko wisely gave up the cavalry and applied for the Armored Forces Academy instead.

In his opinion, tanks are no different from war horses. In the past, you had to take good care of war horses, but now you have to take good care of tanks. In the armored forces of the alliance, there are many officers who have similar experiences as him. They have served in the cavalry and have good riding skills, but they have no place to use them.

Timoshenko's tank company was supposed to have 14 tanks, but now there are only 13 left. The other one was not destroyed by the enemy, but was unlucky and broke down halfway.

The members of that crew worked for a long time but failed to restart the tank. They could only ask other crews to push the tank off the road and wait for the engineering repair vehicle to arrive.

A nearly full tank company and a nearly full mechanized infantry company, a total of 217 people, as the vanguard of the entire armored division and the entire central army, rushed all the way to the southwest.

On the first day, they defeated three enemy forces in succession.

positions, and on the march dispersed the hastily arriving enemy infantry regiment, destroyed 11 vehicles, 7 anti-tank guns, and captured... There were no prisoners, it was not their job to capture prisoners.

Timoshenko's tank company was the trump card of the Second Armored Division. The division headquarters ordered them to charge as fast as possible, and friendly troops followed behind them. There was no need to worry about running out of gasoline and diesel, as the air force assigned to the Second Armored Division was ready to airdrop supplies to them at any time.

With such confidence, Timoshenko fully utilized the mobility of the armored forces and rushed forward on the national defense highway built by the Madras Republic. When passing through villages and towns, the local natives and foreigners were stunned.

How come the Allied Forces have already reached Malegan after only three days of fighting? Are all the troops on the front line doomed?

By 1940, telephones had become very popular and were installed in many towns. There were even special places for sending telegrams in more populous counties, but the transmission of information was still very slow and there was often a lot of distortion during the transmission process.

Especially in times of war, news tends to become extremely exaggerated.

Although it was only the vanguard of the alliance, it caused great chaos in the Republic of Madras. After the news spread, people were panicking everywhere. People living in the countryside were busy packing up their belongings and going to the city. Some people in the city packed up their belongings and took their families to the countryside to hide.

Different people have different understandings of war. Some people think that it is safer in the city, while others think that rural and remote areas are safe.

Rumors and gossips spread even faster than the armored forces. Timoshenko's troops had seen many chaotic and panic-stricken scenes along the way, and inevitably became arrogant.

"Maybe this war is over!"

"Except for the battle on the first day, it was as relaxing as an outing!"

"Training and exercises are much harder than fighting in war!"

Many soldiers showed pride and complacency, which Timoshenko felt was not right and he reprimanded them. He believed that the war would not be over until Bombay was captured and the Madras Republic government surrendered.

"Stay alert! Have you forgotten the truth that pride comes before a fall?"

Timoshenko asked the soldiers to stay alert and stay alert. However, they encountered almost no resistance along the way. The Indian army and police along the way often broke up after seeing the tank troops, and some even raised the white flag and surrendered. Only when passing through Davipada did they encounter resistance from the regular army.

The 137th Infantry Regiment was one of the elite troops of the Madras Republic. Its training and weapons and equipment were usually quite good, and its pay and food were rarely withheld, so it had enough morale to resist.

However, the 50mm anti-tank guns equipped by this unit had limited penetration capabilities and could not penetrate the front armor of the Alliance tanks at a distance of 500m. They put up a heroic resistance until the anti-tank guns were blown to pieces and the artillery positions in the town were occupied, and then they gave up the battle.

Part of the 137th Infantry Regiment of the Madras Republic was defeated and fled to the surrounding villages and towns. The rest chose to surrender, and Timoshenko asked them to treat the wounded and stay in the barracks, waiting to surrender to the People's Army behind.

"I don't have time to hold you captive!"

Timoshenko said this, and then fell into doubt. Could the enemy really be so weak? So weak that they could not withstand a single blow?

After receiving the airdropped fuel and other supplies, Timoshenko led his troops to continue advancing without encountering any decent resistance. This rapid march gradually changed the cautious Timoshenko's previous views.

"It seems that the Germans have really given up Madras!"

"I heard that the casualties in Aachen exceeded one million, and the ground was littered with corpses..."

"It is said that Madras has sent a lot of troops to Europe..."

Seeing that the troops were about to reach Nashik, Timoshenko decided to go to the city to find fuel and let the boys rest. Traveling on a cold and rainy day is not a pleasant thing. In the north of India, it snows in winter, while in the south, there is rarely snowfall, but it rains from time to time.

When rain falls on the ground, the mud on the road becomes soft and the tank tracks roll over it, making the road muddy. The mud will fill the tracks and sometimes the tank will get stuck in the mud. When the friction between the ground and the tracks is not enough, you will see the tank tracks "swishing" while the tank cannot move.

Chapter 1: Tiger in the Mud ()

“I hate rain in the winter!”

Timoshenko could not help but complain that the rainfall in India during the winter was too bad. After the heavy rain, the road was full of mud, and three tanks in Timoshenko's tank company broke down due to malfunctions.

Such situations often occur during exercises, but the failure rate is not so high. The remaining ten tanks can continue to move forward, but their speed is inevitably slowed down.

The main roads in the Republic of Madras were only paved with stones and coal slag, which became muddy in rainy days and could not support the rapid passage of 35-ton tanks. Only the highways could withstand the tens of tons of steel monsters.

The crushing.

However, the cost of building highways is too high, so Germany has not built many of them, and the Republic of Madras has none at all.

The rain affected the advance speed of Timoshenko's tank company, which was expected. The Indian People's Army chose to send troops in winter, taking into account the possibility of rain. The rain in India's winter will make the road conditions worse, but compared with the real rainy season, the harm of winter rainy days is much less.

But Timoshenko still felt very dissatisfied. His tank company had lost four tanks, and more than a quarter of the tanks were not defeated by the enemy, but by the poor road conditions in the Madras Republic.

"After so many years, can't the Germans repair the roads?"

"How can the Germans be willing to spend money to build roads in India? When we are liberated..."

"Okay, okay, we'll be in Nashik soon, comrades, go first..."

The conversation on the communicator was suddenly interrupted, and the harsh sound of metal colliding was heard, followed by a violent explosion. A raging fire ignited on the leading tank, which moved forward a few meters and then lay on the ground motionless.

"Enemy attack!"

"Oh my god, Comrade Mi Zhicheng's tank was penetrated!"

"Where is the enemy?"

".......Inside the village on the left! Two tanks......"

"It's the German Tiger heavy tank!"

"boom!"

Another tank was hit and caught fire. The driver opened the hatch and climbed out of the burning tank. At the same time, short bursts of machine gun fire were heard, hitting the armored vehicles in the rear.

After realizing that he had been ambushed, Timoshenko was stunned for a second, and then he felt self-blame and regret in his heart.

I was careless! The rain not only brought inconvenience to the armored forces, but also caused trouble for the air force's reconnaissance, which led to the troops falling into the enemy's carefully woven fire trap. However, if I could be more alert, this situation might not have happened!

Regret and self-blame were gnawing at his soul like poisonous snakes, and feelings of shame and anger filled his body.

However, he was a well-trained soldier after all, and he quickly recovered from his negative emotions and began to issue combat orders. "The first row will fire towards the village, the second row will detour to the west, and the third row will go to..."

Before he could finish his order, the tank company launched an attack on the enemy tanks ambushed in the village. The mechanized infantry relied on the high speed of the armored vehicles to pass their own 38A medium tanks and fired at any suspicious places in the village with the vehicle-mounted machine guns.

The infantrymen on the armored vehicles jumped off the vehicles, carrying assault rifles, machine guns and rocket launchers, and spread out in threes, ready to deal with possible enemy anti-tank forces. If no enemy anti-tank forces were found, these infantrymen would try to use the rocket launchers they carried to attack the flanks and tails of enemy tanks.

The German Tiger tank weighed 56 tons, the front armor thickness exceeded 100mm, and it was also equipped with a huge gun shield. The infantry's rocket launcher could not penetrate the Tiger from the front.

Otto Karvus was the armored ace of the German army. In the Battle of Aachen half a year ago, a Tiger tank he commanded was surrounded, but he used the terrain to make a clever detour, destroyed four tanks of the British and French allies, and then fled. Later, outside Aachen, he commanded the Tiger to destroy 4 Kommando tanks in succession, one of which was at a distance of 10 meters.

The battle in Aachen made Otto Karvus famous again, and he once again set a new record for his personal destruction. However, the Tiger tank he commanded was also hit by the B2 heavy tank of the Workers' Syndicate during the battle. Karvus was seriously injured and was withdrawn to the rear.

After his injuries were mostly healed, Otto Karvus was sent to the Republic of Madras to inspect the Tiger tanks deployed in Madras, assess the crew members, and then withdraw them all back to Germany.

The German army was highly qualified and had strong combat effectiveness, not only because of militarism, but also because of its high degree of professionalism. Elite veterans often worked in one position for more than ten years or even decades, so they certainly had rich combat experience.

An armored ace like Otto Karvus, because there is no "von" in his name, even if his record is unparalleled in the world, he can only command a tank platoon. In the foreseeable future, it will be difficult for him to get a star for himself.

Many German generals were dissatisfied with Erich Ludendorff because he was not born into a Junker noble family. This was still the case after Ludendorff became the Chief of the General Staff.

Otto Karlwuss's situation was even worse, he was not even a Junker. In Germany, if you were not born into a Junker family, it was difficult to be promoted to the rank of colonel, let alone a general.

However, Otto Karvus was extremely talented in the use of tanks and had a wealth of practical experience, more practical experience than the soldiers of the People's Army.

On the European battlefield, the Syndicate and Germany fought the world's largest tank battle, with both sides losing thousands of tanks. The Syndicate and German armored troops gained a lot of experience in the battle. After a series of fierce battles, the surviving crews all had a keen sense of the battlefield and were good at using the environment. Karvus was among the best.

When he was about to return to Germany with his tanks and crews, the Second Indian War broke out. The armored torrent of the North Indian People's Army swept across most of the territory of the Republic of Madras with an unstoppable momentum. In this situation, Otto Karvus was ordered to take two Tiger tanks to stop the People's Army's front, so that Germany could evacuate the gold, silver, jewelry, precious artworks and personnel in the Republic of Madras.

The German Empire was already struggling enough to fight against the trade unions. It was impossible for it to transport tens of millions of elite troops to India, so it had no choice but to withdraw.

India is rich in gold, and many of the statues in the temples are made of gold. Before leaving, the Germans did not pretend and sent out troops to transport away all the valuables.

This would take time, and Kalvus was sent out to buy time.

Chapter 2: Tiger in the Mud ()

Karl Vus did not know the German government's plan. He was a typical low-ranking German officer. His superiors only gave him orders without explaining why. The German army's approach was different from that of the People's Army, but this did not mean that the German army's combat effectiveness would be worse than that of the People's Army.

On the contrary, because it was difficult for the German army to rise from the bottom, low-level officers and non-commissioned officers had extremely rich combat experience, which enabled the German army to often perform very well in company- and platoon-level battles.

Otto Karvus only had two Tiger tanks, so he adopted an ambush. At the beginning, Karvus and another Tiger tank hit the first shot and destroyed two 38A-85 tanks.

In the First Indian War, German anti-tank guns and tank guns had weak armor-piercing capabilities and could not penetrate the Allied Type 34 tanks. After the war, the German army learned from the pain and developed a number of powerful anti-tank weapons, including 75mm anti-tank guns and 88mm anti-aircraft guns on tanks.

The German 88mm cannon was equipped with special armor-piercing and anti-tank shells, and the anti-tank effect was as good as designed. The Tiger tank weighed 56 tons, and the 88mm caliber gun seemed a bit like "big ship against small gun", but the excellent performance of the German 88mm cannon made up for the lack of caliber.

The tank chassis is large in size and has a strong carrying capacity, allowing the artillery to maintain high chamber pressure, which to a certain extent guarantees the artillery's armor-piercing capability. Coupled with the 54 times the barrel caliber, the effective range of the 88mm cannon on the Tiger tank reaches 2000 meters.

The Tiger tank hidden in the village fired at a distance of 700 meters, accurately hitting the target and successfully penetrating the armor of the target tank. Then, Kalvus started the tank and retreated to the rear while firing at the Allied tanks on the road.

In the second round of shooting, only one shell hit, destroying another 38A-85 tank. At this distance, the Alliance's 38A-85 tanks can also cause effective damage to the Tiger tank. Even a heavy tank like the Tiger tank is still vulnerable to the sides and tail.

Kars did not dare to fight, and after achieving three kills, he quickly retreated into the village. At this time, a light rain fell from the sky, which affected the visibility of both sides. Timoshenko's troops soon lost sight of the target.

The People's Army's counterattack was swift and fierce, with shells landing in the village one after another, blowing up many houses and walls. Some shells directly hit the tank where Karvus was sitting, but failed to penetrate the heavy gun shield of the Tiger tank, only making a harsh sound of metal scraping against each other.

"Continue suppressing fire!"

"Clear the houses outside the village first!"

"Karl, send the infantry to clear the brush to the east!"

The Union People's Army is equipped with many walkie-talkies, and basically popularized communication equipment to the company. For elite troops such as armored troops, commanders can directly contact the platoon.

After losing three tanks in just one encounter, Timoshenko was furious, but he did not launch an attack hastily. Instead, he ordered a steady advance on the front and sent tanks to encircle the flank.

The German Tiger tanks were heavy tanks with strong firepower and thick armor, but their mobility was not strong and their ability to pass through complex terrain was not excellent. Timoshenko was not worried about the two Tiger tanks escaping, but worried about other ambushes in the village.

Sure enough, after entering the village, the infantry discovered enemy infantry and self-propelled anti-tank guns ambushed in various places in the village.

"boom!"

An armored vehicle was hit by a shell, the rear half of the vehicle was blown to pieces, and the front half of the vehicle crashed into a dirt wall. Timoshenko saw the tail flame of the rocket after it was launched through the telescope, and the mechanized infantry that had broken into the village were fiercely exchanging fire with the enemy.

He ordered the tanks to drive up the gentle slope and continue to search for traces of the Tiger tanks with binoculars. The enemy's infantry and self-propelled anti-tank guns were not important, the biggest threat was the two Tiger tanks.

Two 38A-85 tanks climbed up the gentle slope, and the whole village and the surrounding situation came into view. He saw that three of the road wheels of a Tiger tank had been blown off, but its mobility was not affected. Another Tiger tank smashed the cowshed, and the muzzle quickly turned to the south, and then the flame when the shell was fired flashed.

The next moment, the 38A-85 tank in the distance was hit and caught fire. The communicator sent a sad message, "Comrade Zheng Jiang's crew is also finished!"

Two Tiger tanks have

They were surrounded, and firing exposed their position, which soon attracted attacks from three directions. In fact, even if they didn't fire, it would be difficult for them to continue hiding.

The muddy ground caused a lot of trouble for the Timoshenko tank company and even more trouble for the Tiger tanks. In the mud, the Tiger tanks' mobility was further reduced.

The road leading to the village from the south was not very wide and was full of mud, with ponds similar to swamps on both sides. The second tank platoon had no way to rush into the village and could only get close and attack the enemies in the village with machine guns and artillery.

In the north, the 1st tank platoon had already charged in and launched a ruthless slaughter of the enemy infantry. The mechanized infantry company followed closely behind. They were very powerful and quickly destroyed the enemy's three anti-tank guns, and then cooperated with their own armored forces to launch an attack on the enemy.