Red Moscow

  Chapter 696 Tank Prototype (Part 2)

  The tank parked in the middle of the square fired at the buildings on the east side of the square. Some already fragile buildings were hit by tank shells and collapsed into ruins. The soldiers who stayed inside reacted quickly and moved to a new position when the enemy's tanks first started shelling; while more soldiers were directly buried in the ruins.

Seeing the tanks firing unscrupulously in the square, Sokov couldn't help but get angry. He picked up the phone and asked into the microphone: "Lieutenant Colonel Papchenko, why haven't your subordinates launched an attack from the enemy's rear? Let them If the enemy tanks bombard you like this, all the buildings that your regiment is defending will be destroyed."

   "Comrade Commander," Papchenko reported with a sad face, "The sewer is like a maze. Our soldiers got lost soon after entering it. They wandered around for a long time, and finally returned to the starting point."

Papchenko's words made Sokov a little dumbfounded. He only reminded the other party to use the sewers to mobilize troops and transport supplies, but he forgot that his soldiers had just arrived. It is estimated that the terrain on the ground was not clear, let alone the criss-crossing sewers. It's no wonder that you don't get lost if you enter rashly.

"Lieutenant Colonel Papchenko," Sokov couldn't blame Papchenko, so he could only say euphemistically: "You try to contact the remaining defenders on the west side of the square, and let them attack from the enemy's rear, so that the enemy will be attacked from behind. There is no way to concentrate on us."

   "Understood!" Papchenko waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and immediately agreed: "I will immediately order the soldiers on the west side of the square to attack from behind the enemy to contain their vital strength."

  Samoilov waited for Sokov to hang up the phone, and carefully reminded him: "Comrade commander, this place is too dangerous. Let's move to another place."

"Is it safer to move to another place than here?" Sokov glanced at Samoilov and said with a wry smile: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, as long as this place is not hit by the enemy's artillery fire, I believe that you and your subordinates will be able to move forward." My safety must be ensured."

Samoilov thought about what Sokov said carefully, and felt that it was quite reasonable. Although there were only thirty people left under him, they were well-equipped and everyone had rich combat experience. Even with the same number of German troops, they will not be defeated.

  Thinking of this, he nodded and said, "Don't worry, Comrade Master. As long as one of us is alive, we can definitely guarantee your safety."

   After shelling for a while, the German tanks on the square saw that the buildings on the east side had been shrouded in gunpowder smoke, so they stopped the shelling, restarted the engine, and prepared to cover the infantry and continue to attack eastward. Unexpectedly, at this moment, dense gunshots sounded from behind them, and fire points suddenly appeared in some buildings on the west side of the square, shooting condescendingly, knocking down the soldiers gathered in the middle of the square.

  The tank that was moving forward found that there was an enemy behind it, so it stopped quickly and turned its muzzle to find a new attack target. "Boom" two artillery pieces, one machine gun that was firing at the German army, was destroyed by tank fire.

  Seeing this scene through the telescope, Sokov couldn't help feeling secretly in his heart: Weapons are not as good as people, and they will suffer a lot. If you have one or two 75mm anti-tank guns in your hand, it is estimated that the enemy's tanks will be completely destroyed by the anti-tank guns in the process of advancing towards the square. Even if there is no 75mm anti-tank gun, there is a 37mm anti-tank gun placed on the top of the building, condescending and shooting at the enemy tanks. The armor-piercing high-explosive shells it fires are enough to penetrate the weak armor on the top of the German tanks. .

   Just as Sokov was sighing in his heart, he suddenly saw a German tank explode and the turret was blown off. Seeing this situation, he couldn't help being stunned, and thought to himself: What's going on here? How could the German tank explode? Could it be that the German tank soldiers were smoking inside and accidentally detonated the shells? But it didn't look like it. This tank was shelling the buildings on the west side of the square. How could the tank soldiers have time to smoke?

   "Comrade Commander," just as Sokov was puzzled, he suddenly heard Samoilov's surprised voice: "Tank, our tank!"

"Where is it?" Sokov heard Samoilov's shout, and immediately remembered that Peter said that he would send a prototype tank to support him. Maybe Samoilov saw that prototype. , he asked anxiously: "Where is that tank?"

"There!" Following the direction of Samoilov's finger, Sokov saw a T-34 tank through the cracks of the dilapidated building, rolling over the bricks and rubble piled up on the street, slowly Drive towards the direction of the square. Judging from the muzzle that was still emitting green smoke, the explosion of the German tank just now was its masterpiece.

  After seeing the tank, Sokov immediately calculated silently in his heart. Excluding the tank that was just destroyed, the German army now has five tanks left, while his side only has one tank. Five to one, this ratio is too disparate.

  The commander of the leading German tank found the Soviet tank that had just appeared on the scene, and quickly ordered the other tanks to stop shooting at the building through the radio. Instead, they all turned around and prepared to kill the Soviet tank that came to die.

  When the Soviet tank was 150 meters away from him, he decisively gave the order to fire. For the tank commander, it is a surefire thing for his gunner to fire at such a short distance. As long as the gun sounds, his tank can gain another victory.

   After the gun was ejected from the chamber, it accurately hit the moving Soviet tank. But what the commander never dreamed of was that the armor-piercing projectile that hit the target turned into a ricochet.

  The commander's eyes widened in surprise. It was the first time he had seen a target hit at such a close range, resulting in a ricochet. After a brief panic, he ordered the gunner to reload, ready to fire again.

  But before they could fire, the approaching Soviet tank had already stopped, turned the muzzle slowly, and fired without hesitation. The shell hit the tank where the commander was. Amidst the huge explosion, the turret was lifted off, and after flying more than ten meters in the air, it slammed heavily into the queue of German soldiers, smashing two unlucky soldiers into meat paste.

  The four German tanks split into two ways and detoured towards the two wings of the T-34, trying to penetrate the weak side armor of the T-34 from the side. However, their attempts did not succeed. They were hit by two T-34s while they were still driving. The body of the tank that was shot shook violently, then stopped in place and burst into flames.

  The remaining two tanks came to the side of the T-34. They just stopped and before they could fire, the Soviet tank fired again, and this time easily destroyed the German tank on the right. The tank on the left, seeing that his companion's tank was destroyed, hurriedly fired a shot at the T-34.

  Although this gun also hit the target, to the dismay of the German tank soldiers, this armor-piercing projectile became a ricochet again. The Soviet tankers would not give the Germans a chance to reload and destroyed it without hesitation.

The Soviet commanders and fighters hiding in the building saw the tanks parked in the middle of the square, and they were all destroyed by the T-34 tanks that had just appeared. Before the superiors gave orders, they rushed out of their hiding places with weapons. Charge towards the chaotic German soldiers in the middle of the square.

  The battle ended after a quarter of an hour. Except for a dozen or so German soldiers who saw the situation was not good, they turned around and fled ahead of time. The rest of the soldiers were either captured or killed. The first German attack on the new workers' village ended in disastrous defeat.

   "Comrade Commander," Samoilov said to Sokov in a low voice when he saw that the battle outside was over, "I think this T-34 tank is different from what we have seen before."

   "Is there a difference?" Sokov glanced at the T-34 parked not far away, and said casually, "Why didn't I see it!"

   "Someone came out of the tank!" Samoilov pointed to the tank and said to Sokov: "Comrade commander, look, they are coming towards us."

   "Damn, what's going on?" Samoilov exclaimed in surprise after seeing the tank soldier walking over: "How could it be him?"

Sokov glanced at the approaching tank soldier, feeling a little friendly, but unfortunately he couldn't remember where he saw him, so he turned to Samoilov and asked, "Comrade Second Lieutenant, who do you think is walking towards us?" what?"

   "It's Lieutenant Agafon!" Samoilov was afraid that Sokov would forget about this order, and he deliberately added: "It's the person you sent me and the political commissar to the army headquarters."

"It turned out to be him!" Although Sokov thought that he would not save Guchakov and others, and he was bitter about him, but this time the others came to rescue him, even if No matter how dissatisfied you are with him in your heart, you should be polite on the surface. He met Agafon, nodded at him, and said politely: "Hello, Lieutenant Agafon, thank you for helping us out."

  Agafon did not expect Sokov to recognize him at a glance, so he blushed and said, "Comrade Colonel, I am here to support you with this prototype car under the order of Factory Manager Peter."

   "Prototype vehicle, what kind of vehicle?" Sokov pointed to the tank not far away, and asked somewhat unexpectedly: "Is this T-34 tank the prototype vehicle you are driving?"

"Yes, Comrade Colonel." Lieutenant Agafon replied respectfully: "This is a new type of tank that has just been developed not long ago. It has not been tested. According to the regulations, it cannot be opened casually. Factory director Peter said that you The situation here is critical, so I decided to make an exception and send us to support you."

"This is a new type of tank?!" Sokov walked to the window and carefully looked at the T-34 tank that had just rescued himself. After looking at it for a while, he shook his head and said, "I think this is a T-34 tank." -34 tank, nothing special."

Seeing that Sokov did not see any difference in the tank, Agafon quickly explained to him: "Comrade Colonel, this new type of tank adopts a new hexagonal turret, and the inclined armor can make the armor-piercing projectiles fired by the enemy become Ricochet. In addition, the turret was changed to a three-man turret, and the position of a gunner was added, which freed the original tank commander from the heavy burden of a human gunner, thus greatly improving the combat capability of the tank .

   Also, the previous T-34 tanks used 76mm guns, but what we are using now is 85mm guns. Whether it is the German Panzer III or Panzer IV, we can easily penetrate their frontal armor at a distance of 500 meters. "

  After listening to Agafon's explanation, Sokov couldn't help being secretly surprised. You must know that the T-34/85 tank came out in 1943, but now due to his own reasons, it actually appeared a year earlier. If it can be mass-produced and installed in parallel, I am afraid that the next third Kharkov battle will have a different ending.

Seeing that Sokov was silent, Agafon took the opportunity to look around, but did not find Guchakov's shadow, so he couldn't help interrupting Sokov's meditation: "Comrade Colonel, I would like to ask You, where did the lieutenant go last time?"

"Lieutenant?!" Sokov was taken aback when he heard him ask this question, and then realized that he was talking about Guchakov, and quickly replied: "I asked him to be the company commander. can see him."

Agafon couldn't help but blushed when he heard Sokov say this, and then murmured: "Comrade Colonel, if you see that lieutenant, please convey my apology to him for me. If it wasn't for me Panicking, leaving so many comrades to escape alone, will not make them prisoners of the Germans."

"Comrade Lieutenant," Sokov raised his hand and patted Agafon's shoulder lightly twice, comforting him, "You have already been punished by Guchakov, so there is no need to mention the past. I hope you can make more achievements in the next battle, and even if you meet Guchakov again, he probably won't hate you anymore."

   Agafon came to see Sokov just to get his forgiveness. Hearing Sokov's words at this moment, his heart was immediately relieved. He straightened his body and said to Sokov: "Comrade Colonel, please rest assured that as long as I am still alive, I will definitely make more achievements."

"Lieutenant Agafon," Sokov pointed to the tank parked not far away, and said to him, "This is the only prototype in the factory, you have to keep it safe, and don't use it in battle. lost."

   "Don't worry, Comrade Colonel." Agafon quickly replied, "I will immediately transfer it to another place to hide it, so as not to be shelled or bombed by the German army."

"Go." Sokov worried that the German army who had just suffered a defeat would not be reconciled and would immediately shell or bomb the workers' new village, so he urged Agafon: "Find a place to hide this prototype tank as soon as possible. You must Love this prototype car like you love your own eyes."

After Agafon left, Sokov picked up the phone again, connected to the factory director's office, and said to Peter who answered the phone, "Thank you, Factory Director. It is only thanks to the tanks you sent that we were able to successfully repel the The enemy attacking the workers' new village."

  (end of this chapter)