latelenovela Chapter 128: Decisive Battle in North China 4
Chapter 128: Decisive Battle in North China 4
Shi Zhihua's crew had just crushed a Japanese Type 95 tank into a discus. Faced with this tiny tank, they didn't even have the desire to fire.
At this moment, a Japanese Type 43 tank appeared on the side of their Type tank.
Looking at the guy who was circling around the back of his tank at high speed, the commander hurriedly reminded the driver to reverse and start turning the turret!
"Back up quickly! There's a Type 4 tank on the right that's targeting us!"
The commander's words made all the crew members nervous. Compared with the thick armor at the front, the side and rear armor of the Type 43 tank were not that thick.
It could not withstand the attack of the long-barreled 75mm tank gun of the Japanese Type tank.
"Quick! Quick! Back up! Roubao, you better be quick with your hands and feet. I don't want to die here!"
Observer Da Liu cursed at the driver, Roubao, and told him to reverse faster and turn the turret faster.
However, the bulky Type 43 heavy tank cannot be compared with the Leopard tank at all.
With a "boom", the Japanese tank on the right fired.
The entire tank began to shake violently and everyone closed their eyes. They knew that this was the situation that would occur after the tank was hit.
However, a few seconds later, a series of exclamations broke out from inside the tank.
"No penetration! We were not penetrated! Quick! Quick, Lao Hei, aim at it, don't let it fire a second shot!"
Unlike the members of Shi Zhihua's crew who were celebrating, the commander of the Japanese Type 4 tank crew almost cursed.
They originally thought that this armor-piercing shell would definitely penetrate the side armor of this Chinese heavy tank.
In fact, it is true. As long as they hit it, they will penetrate it. However, the commander of this Type 43 tank reminded them of this before the battle.
They hung several crossbars on the left and right sides of the tank, and it was these crossbars that saved the lives of their entire crew.
As luck would have it, the shell hit three stacked beams, causing an explosion that blew the beams into pieces. The remaining explosive force was unable to penetrate the side armor.
"Quick! Reload the shells! Another shot!" the Japanese tank commander shouted wildly. He had already seen the huge tank turret begin to turn towards their Type 4 tank.
The gunner had already started loading shells and inserting propellant bags, then once again aimed the muzzle at the huge tank through the sight.
Just as he saw the tank, he saw a ball of fire exploding from the thick gun barrel.
It was almost a face-to-face artillery battle. When the Japanese Type 43 tanks were already aiming at them, the 122 tank gun of the Type tank roared.
This time they no longer put their fate in the hands of others, but took control of it themselves.
The shell hit the turret of the Type 122 tank almost as it was fired. The mm armor-piercing shell easily cut through the turret armor of the Type tank at such a distance.
Then there was a violent explosion inside the tank, and the broken parts of the Type 43 tank smashed the Type tank.
While the other members of the crew were not paying attention, Shi Zhihua secretly wiped the sweat off his face.
In fact, he was not as calm as he appeared to be. Fortunately, the biggest crisis in their battle so far had passed.
"Quickly reload the shells! Damn, find the next target!" The commander regained his composure and issued combat orders again.
Of course, not all crews were as lucky as them, and of course not many Japanese tanks actually broke through to the back of the Type 43 heavy tank.
虽然有80余辆T34选择了从两边夹击，可跟随在43式重型坦克后面的还有近40辆不到的T34坦克。
They were destroying the Japanese tanks that were trying to get around them with their shells one by one, and now the tanks of both sides were mixed together.
What it is now a test of will, the thickness of the tanks' armor, and the destructive effect of the artillery. In this regard, the 1st Armored Brigade has a great advantage.
So as the battle continues to this day, the three armored regiments of the Japanese army have lost more than 150 of the nearly tanks of various types, and the casualties are still rising.
The 21st Armored Brigade also suffered heavy losses here, with 34 Ts having been destroyed or damaged since the start of the war.
Two Type 43 tanks were destroyed and another two were damaged. They needed to be sent to the tank factory for overhaul before they could enter the battlefield again.
The Japanese commander was not unaware of the tanks of the 1st Armored Brigade that were flanking from both sides. His choice at the time was to concentrate his forces at one point and destroy the front of the 1st Armored Brigade.
As long as the Chinese armored forces in the front are defeated, the tanks flanking from both sides will not be a problem at all.
However, they underestimated the power of the 60st Armored Brigade's 43 Type 4 (IS-) heavy tanks.
They failed to break through the frontal defense, and were in a stalemate with the 1st Armored Brigade, and gradually began to lose strength.
The Japanese army often had to lose several or even more than a dozen tanks to destroy one of those heavy tanks, which appeared suddenly.
This disrupted their original tactical preparations. They originally thought that the armored forces of the 78th Army were mainly composed of T34.
The Type 34 tank equipped by the Japanese army was a medium tank that could compete with the T on the European battlefield, so this time Okamura Yasuji decided to dispatch the main force of the entire rd Tank Division.
Launch the attack in advance, hoping that with only one armored brigade on the Zhangjia K front, they can defeat this armored force in one fell swoop.
Ideal is full, the reality is very skinny!
When these 60rd Tank Divisions ran into the frontal formation of the 43st Armored Brigade consisting of heavy tanks.
The only main force on the battlefield was the Type 95 tank, and the remaining Type 97 and Type 43 tanks could not even penetrate the rear armor of the Type heavy tank.
The short-barreled 75mm gun of the Type tank can only penetrate the enemy by firing armor-piercing shells at its rear after getting close.
But the situation returned to what was introduced at the beginning. The Japanese tanks were only equipped with five armor-piercing shells, and many Japanese crews had already used up their only five armor-piercing shells by now.
The desperate Japanese tank crews could only keep bombarding the huge Type 43 tanks with high-explosive bombs.
It doesn't mean that the 75mm high-explosive bomb cannot blow up the armor at the rear of the Type 43 tank, but it needs to hit the same place twice or more in a row to achieve effective penetration.
How could the 34st Armored Brigade possibly give such an opportunity to the Japanese? As the T85-s that encircled the enemy from both sides entered the tanks, the defeat of the Japanese rd Tank Division was inevitable.
Seeing their tanks being destroyed one after another by those damn Chinese tanks, the Japanese army hated those high-level bureaucrats in their hearts.
If those chaebols and capitalists equipped their tanks with more armor-piercing shells, they might really be able to defeat the Chinese heavy tanks head-on, or at least increase their losses a lot.
How did it come to this? We were surrounded on three sides by China's armored forces, watching the armor-piercing shells fired from the Chinese tanks one after another, constantly harvesting our own vehicles.
Saburo Inada was slumped in his Type 4 tank, and from time to time he could hear fierce explosions in his ears. The remaining tanks of their 3rd Tank Division were surrounded.
After half a day of fierce fighting, only a dozen of the 260 tanks were left surrounding the mound. The rest of the tanks and their crew members had all gone to report to the Yasukuni Shrine.