Battle of the Third Reich

Lieutenant Snide finally finished writing his combat log. He inserted the pencil into the pocket of his combat uniform chest.

The lieutenant raised his hand and shook the notebook that was uniformly distributed by the army. He vigorously blew off the rubber scraps on it. Finally, he glanced at it to make sure that there were no errors and stuffed it into the document bag hanging behind his waist.

Snyder took a deep breath. He stretched out a long lazy waist before jumping out of his car with his sore arm rubbing. His team members are doing basic maintenance work for this tank.

The driver Rawick was crouching on the front armor plate of the tank, holding a board and struggling to tighten the bolt on the gearbox detection port. He just added enough oil to the gearbox with the help of an electromechanical engineer and replaced one gear. Due to excessive wear, the last gear on the third gear of the tank caused the tank to fail to cut into gear several times during its travel.

If this kind of problem is not handled carefully, it will easily cause the engine to stall. In addition, if the failure occurs on a downhill road with bad luck, the heavy body will continue to move forward under the effect of inertia. At that time, the body will forcibly pull the engine that is stalled. The result was that the unlucky driver had to be prepared to lose his engine, because then the sophisticated machine would have to go to the repair shop for overhaul, even if it did not explode on the spot.

Fortunately, the clutch response of the No. 4 tank was very agile, coupled with Rawwick's superb technology and rich experience, several times this danger was quickly dealt with by him. Snide reported this problem to his superiors long ago, but because the troops have been fighting nonstop, he has not been able to find enough time to repair it.

Having said that, even if he was given time, he could not solve that problem, because the parts he needed were on the transport vehicle of the mobile repair company, and that car was sent out in a battle two days ago. The flying large-caliber shells were torn into pieces. Surprisingly, no one was injured because of this incident, but most of the replacement parts of the armor company were turned into a pile of scrap iron with the unlucky transport vehicle. . The repair company struggled to rescue a batch of engine parts, but none of the transmission gears were left.

But fortunately, the logistics department delivered the parts in time. And because they had just ended a hard battle, Snyder and his men finally got half a day of precious time to complete their long-deserved work.

Not only this unit, all tanks in the entire armor are doing the same thing. Because everyone in the heart knows that the battle behind them will be more difficult, and any small mistake now will cause a disaster in the future battle. The German tank drivers carefully took care of their seats. After all, no one was willing to lose their lives because of the stupid reason that their tank failed in the battle.

This precision killer machine wrapped in heavy armor can not only bring death to the enemy, it is also a guarantee for the survival of these German soldiers on the battlefield.

Snyder patted the shoulder of the armoured warrior, who was a young recruit, only twenty years old. The boy has beautiful brown hair, blue eyes and a slightly childish handsome face. In general, this child can be regarded as a beautiful man, at least in Snyder's eyes.

The young loader is now wearing a German vest full of oil stains, sitting on an ammunition box and wiping a high-explosive grenade vigorously. His beautiful black armored uniform is now hanging on the wide track guards of tank four, and the armored badge above the pocket gleams in the sun.

Unlike the veterans, for this boy who has just joined the army, there is no more satisfying vanity than a clean military uniform. Although the veterans are also very concerned about their military capabilities, but those beautiful uniforms have been unable to attract them, their eyes are more concerned about the dazzling medals and the honor behind the medals.

Feeling someone patting his shoulder, the bullet-armer turned back in doubt. When he saw that he was his commander, he quickly put down the rag in his hand and held the cannonball to remember his compliments.

"Continue, Carl, continue to work." Snyder smiled and held the boy. He turned to his subordinate and squatted down to pick up the rag and handed it to the young soldier.

"Continue to wipe, soldiers, every excellent tank driver starts from wiping the shells." Snyder said with a smile.

"I understand, sir." The boy took the rag from the lieutenant, and he asked curiously, holding the cannonball: "Are you also starting from the loader? Sir."

"Of course, I was the best loader in my training students." Snyder replied with a smile.

"We have all done this job. You can ask Hank and Stewans. They all came from this step." The lieutenant pointed to his other two men.

Gunner Hank is now lying on the angled turret of Tank 4 and wiping the cover of his sight. After hearing Snyder's words, he turned his head and said to the gunner: "That's true, kid, I worked as a gunner for a whole year before becoming a gunner. As long as you work hard and pay attention, you will learn a lot in the turret."

"I see, thank you sergeant." The small armour cried with joy.

"Don't take it seriously, wipe me clean these shells. Don't let me find a little smudge on it, otherwise you will feel good." Sergeant Hank deliberately raised his face, he didn't want to make this young People are too smug.

"Follow your orders, Sergeant." The small gunner quickly put away his smile and took the rag to wipe the cannonball. Snyder stood up and walked towards the front of the tank.

"How about now, you have replaced the new parts." The lieutenant asked his driver.

"Yes, but it went smoothly, and it didn't matter much." The driver Rawick replied with a grin on his hands.

"There will be no more problems, the combat order has come down, and we are required to arrive in the village of Derwent in front of dinner. We have to leave before two in the afternoon." Snyder patted the armor cover on the gearbox detection port .

"It should be okay. I will try again before setting off. But what else did you say in this combat command?"

"You know, it's the same old thing, we will meet the French's resolute resistance, where there are strong defensive positions and the like. Anyway, no matter what is there, our task is to break through it, occupy it, destroy it. Oh, this Back we can get the support of a squadron of Stuka, they will patrol near us, and then just call." Snyder took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, he drew a stick in his mouth, and then put The cigarette case was handed to his driver.

"Oh, again. The position, the trenches, the cannons, the machine guns, and the French who are not afraid of death." Rawwick pulled out a cigarette, took a pack of matches from his pocket and lit them, and then put the matches and smoke. The box was handed to Stewart, the mechanic on the side.

Rawitt took a deep breath and said, "Hopefully we will be a little smoother this time, and those bombers will not be late again like last time, hahahaha."

"I can't guarantee this." Snyder breathed out a smoky smoke. He took off his soft combat cap and plucked his hair, and then smiled at Rawick: "But from the intelligence point of view, our The goal is not much strength, at least weaker than the resistance we encountered here, I hope we can successfully complete the task."

"Hope it is." The electromechanical jacked to the side. He was holding a cigarette and cleaning his toolbox.

"It's definitely going to happen, I can guarantee that I'll wait for a good night's sleep tonight," Rawick said loudly.

"By the way, Hank, have all of our shells taken over?" Snide asked loudly, raising his head to Hank standing on the turret.

"Ten rounds of armor-piercing shells, twenty rounds of high-explosive armour-piercing shells, and ten rounds of high-explosive grenade are all here, enough for us to do a good job." Hank replied loudly.

"Very well, waiting for you to finish the things on hand to help Rawick tighten the track, I will now go to another captain for a meeting. Discuss our next attack."

"Okay, we'll leave it to us here." The gunner replied loudly. Snyder nodded to the other two men, turned around and walked down the street towards the rear of the convoy.

The village where Snyder’s armor company is stationed has been severely damaged, and traces of that fierce battle can be seen everywhere on the street. The pavement paved with small pieces of granite was covered with shiny shells, and craters of various sizes made the flat street unrecognizable. Those granite blocks were lifted off the road by shells, exposing the loess and sand on the roadbed stone. The ammunition boxes and various weapon debris left by a destroyed barricade-side law enforcement team piled up into a hill, and the unpleasant scorching smell filled the air.

The military trucks now have only a dark skeleton, and various odd-shaped parts are scattered around the ugly wreckage, and some are still smoking a plume of green smoke.

Everywhere on the street can be seen a pool of bright red blood stains, and some of the blood stains are scattered with personal items on the host. Broken guns or fragments of military uniforms tell tragic stories to every soldier seen. In order to maintain the village fortress, the French army paid 373 soldiers' lives. In addition to the wounded, less than sixty soldiers became captives of the German army.

What made Snyder depressed was that he still couldn't catch a French officer this time. Except for those who were killed, the others ran away as usual. Snyder learned from the prisoner's mouth that this time it was a colonel who ran away.

The only thing that comforted him was that he left the colonel's staff and adjutant here. The car they rode was screened with a machine gun by an avid tank gunner. If it were not a prisoner's confession, no one believed that the two piles of minced meat in the car were two French majors.

The tank groups were parked on both sides of the street according to the row they belonged to. The tankers were diligently doing their maintenance work. They climbed in and out of their cars and were very busy. Seeing their company commander passing by, the tankers smiled and greeted him.

Snyder is a commander who likes his subordinates. This lieutenant not only has excellent commanding ability, but he usually shows noble character and has been admired by his subordinates.

In the battle the night before, Snyder lost three Type 4 tanks, and only two groups successfully escaped before the tank burned into a fireball. But up to now, the loss of Snyderen's personnel has not been serious. Only 17 soldiers were killed and more than 40 were injured in various degrees. This is a very good result in the third armored regiment. Other companies have only one company left. If the division is constantly adding new soldiers and new tanks to the third armored regiment, follow it The current casualty rate, this armored regiment has long been adapted into a battalion.

The battle the day before yesterday was the most intense of the battles Snyder had experienced. This attack was a mistake from the beginning. Without adequate preparation, the commander Major Sorenberg decided to launch a night raid. According to the commander's original intention, this was to avoid the loss of the troops during the daytime offense, but unexpectedly, the offense turned into a nightmare that neither party wanted to recall.

Under the illumination of the flares, the tanks launched a batch of impacts on the French position. It is incomprehensible that the French anti-tank firepower has played an extraordinary level in this dim light. The three armours rushed to the front. The reconnaissance vehicle was hit into three groups of hot fireballs in a flash, illuminating the assault team behind.

With the support of large caliber artillery, the German ** team pushed forward with the crazy shooting of the French. Since Snyder Company was the only medium tank company in the Third Armored Regiment, he was placed at the forefront of the charge formation. The armor of the Type 4d tank itself was only 30 mm, but after the modification of those tankers, a 20 mm armor plate was added, which was enough to allow it to withstand the French anti-tank artillery attack.

The French gunner continued firing until the tank rushed in front of them, but what made them desperate was that the 37mm anti-tank gun they used could not stop the ugly armored beast even if it fired directly against the armor of the German tank. .

The next is the brutal **** street battle. Snyder’s tank is completely unsuitable for this kind of work. His three No. 4s were lost at this time. The French burning bottle dropped from the small buildings on both sides of the street made Snein Germany forever lost three tanks and five outstanding men. After suffering such a sudden loss, Snyder hurriedly withdrew from the village. The infantry took over his place, because fighting in such a narrow area is indeed not a job that the tank is capable of, and staying here has no use other than unnecessary increase of losses.

The German team finally ended the battle when the first Caixia appeared in the eastern sky, and the French were completely defeated. But in the hearts of these German soldiers did not feel that there was anything to be happy, they paid a heavy price to win.

The streets were full of bodies of German and French soldiers. After the battle, the Germans only got a pile of ruins and burning debris. This village may never be able to restore its former appearance.

The Germans not only lost hundreds of outstanding soldiers, more than a dozen tanks of various types, but also took their commanders. Sorenberg and his car disappeared at the beginning of the battle. The armored major who liked to imitate the highest commander Guderian has always been proud to command the battle on the front line. A heavy anti-tank mine put him Blasted into the sky with his command car, it is even more incredible that the French buried only ten such mines in front of their positions, and Soremberg was the only one who sounded such mines.

General Goodrian was obviously frustrated by the news, and he could not tolerate such severe losses to his army. The third armored regiment was ordered to stop advancing and retreat to the rear to rest. Snyderlian was left because of the relatively small loss and still maintaining sufficient strength.

This medium tank company is now directly under the command of the military command. The light tanks and tired infantry of the Third Armored Regiment left the village that had become ruins. The Snider Company began to take over the defensive mission to this village. In his eyes, this village has no value, and it has become a ruin. He could not think of any reason for the French to seize this village.

But now that he has a new mission, Guderian ordered him to seize the next village. From the intelligence point of view, the village is much smaller than the current one, and it is impossible to encounter resistance like last night. . Snyder did not expect that at the time, when he summoned the captains to discuss how to attack, a crisis was slowly approaching his small tank company.

The final counterattack of the French team on the Western Front is about to begin, and the first goal of the French team is this ruined village.

;