Chapter 376 Temporary Line of Defense

The research, development and design of tanks do not necessarily require everything to be strong. Another meaning of being strong in everything is that you are only half-baked in everything.

The design of a tank must be targeted, and the German "Upper Silesian" tank has this feature.

Its target is clear, its opponent is the French "Charter A1".

At a meeting organized by Major General Luka of the German Seventh Traffic Department, there was a discussion like this:

"Does this tank need thick armor? No, that will only slow it down, and it will be easily defeated by the 'Charter A1' like the A7V on the battlefield!"

"To avoid this, its speed must reach at least 12 kilometers per hour, and even higher in extreme cases!"

"The armor thickness is only required to block ordinary bullets. After all, the French don't have anti-tank rifles."

"The gun must be able to penetrate the frontal armor of the 'Charter A1', and have a high rate of fire. Most importantly, it must have a rotating turret like the 'Charter A1'!"

…

After repeated discussions and multiple verifications, the "Upper Silesian" tank was finally formed:

The armor thickness is 14MM, which can only block ordinary rifle bullets.

The speed is 12 kilometers per hour, and can reach 16 kilometers per hour in extreme cases. This means that when facing the "Char A1" with a speed of 15 kilometers per hour, it is impossible for the A7V tank to be circled and used as a target. At the critical moment, it is possible to take the initiative at a speed of 16 kilometers per hour.

The artillery is a 57MM rapid-fire gun, which is enough to penetrate the 25MM frontal armor of the "Charter A1" at a distance of 300 meters.

The two heavy machine guns, one in front and one in the back, are used to protect the tank's own safety and attack the trenches.

(Note: The front machine gun of the Upper Silesia is very reasonable. It is equivalent to the heading machine gun of a modern tank. It is obviously inappropriate for a tank to use a cannon to deal with enemy infantry trying to approach it. This is when the machine gun comes into play. The rear machine gun is not very reasonable. The rear safety can be completely solved by the coordination of the infantry. However, the concept of infantry-tank coordination was not mature during World War I, so it is not surprising that such a design would appear.)

If the "Charr A1" tank had not been modified at all and had collided with the German 1st Tank Division right away, it would have been the first failure of the Charr, and a crushing one at that.

This was not because the "Upper Silesian" artillery had a larger caliber, but because of the tactics adopted by Major General Nicholas based on the situation of enemy and friendly tanks.

When Major General Nicholas received the tank, he compared the data of the "Char A1" in detail and finally concluded:

"Although the caliber of the 'Upper Silesian' tank gun is larger than that of the 'Charter A1', its armor thickness is far less than that of the 'Charter A1'."

"Therefore, our penetration distances should be similar, and we won't be able to gain any advantage."

"The advantage of our tanks is their machine guns, which are loaded with K bullets."

"Once Upper Silesia passes by enemy tanks or even goes around them, the machine guns can attack their weak side and rear armor!"

…

The Cambrai battlefield immediately verified Major General Nicolas's idea, as the enemy and our tanks were passing each other.

The two machine guns of "Upper Silesia" had been turned to the flanks in advance, and they suddenly fired when approaching. Amidst the sound of "clang clang", the side armor of "Saint-Chamond" was hit by rows of "K" bullets at close range.

In order to reduce weight, the side armor of "Saint-Chamond" has been weakened to 15MM, which is exactly the thickness that the German K bullet can penetrate or not.

then.

Some of the "Saint-Chamons" slowly stopped, and the people inside the cabin may have been beaten to a bloody pulp.

Some of the "Saint-Chamons" continued to move forward and fire as if nothing had happened.

And this is the most terrifying thing. The tank crews were fighting under the cover of thick smoke and noise. They had no idea what was happening and were not aware of the danger. They still fired shells forward one after another. The gas produced by the shells filled the entire tank cabin, and they could not even see the target in front of them.

Christine, who was advancing with the infantry in the rear, was shocked to find that the main weapon of the German tanks was actually a machine gun!

They can penetrate the side armor of the "Saint-Chamond", and of course they can also penetrate the 13MM thick side armor of the "Saint-Chamond M21", not to mention the 8MM rear armor.

If you can't move forward, you're courting death!

Christine did not hesitate and shouted: "Stop advancing and organize defense!"

He eventually disobeyed the order to attack and switched to defense.

This was difficult to do, especially switching a tank from an offensive position to a defensive position.

Fortunately, the "Saint-Chamond M21" was slow, and the soldiers were able to easily catch up with them and convey Christine's orders.

Soon, the "Saint-Chamond M21" that was advancing at full speed like a snail slowly stopped. They formed a line of defense in front of the infantry, with machine guns and 37 guns aimed at the front and aimed at the German tanks that were fighting with the heavy "Saint-Chamond".

Then, the infantry rushed forward to fill the gaps between the tanks, set up mortars and took out grenades in preparation for resisting the German tank charge.

"Boom boom"

"BOOM BOOM BOOM"

…

The 37mm gun of the Saint-Chamond M21 opened fire.

To everyone's surprise, it actually penetrated the German tank.

Several German tanks slowly stopped under the artillery fire. Two of them must have been hit by the ammunition depot and exploded instantly. Their turrets were overturned, flew into the air in the fire and smoke, rolled a few times and then fell back to the ground. Tank parts and fragments were scattered everywhere nearby.

This boosted the confidence of Major General Christian, who waved his command knife and shouted, "Open fire and destroy them!"

Bullets and shells rained down on the enemy tanks, which frightened the German tanks. They gave up the charge on the defense line and instead used their mobility advantage to shoot around the heavy "Saint-Samond".

This tactic was very clever, as it would make the French troops in the rear cautious, as the shells could easily hit the auxiliary vehicle by mistake and hit the "Saint-Samond" in the melee with the enemy.

However, the heavy "Saint-Samond" seemed no match for the German tanks.

They move slowly, have weak external perception, and without turrets they are unable to attack the enemy at the right time.

Just like when the "Char A1" circled the AV7 tanks, they were destroyed one after another by German tanks.

They "died peacefully" because they were destroyed by machine guns rather than artillery. There was no explosion or flame in the process, at most some faint smoke came out of the craters.

Sometimes you could see survivors wearing gas masks escaping from the hatch, and thick smoke would billow as soon as the hatch was opened, but that was mostly smoke produced by the firing of the 75mm gun.

The heavy "Saint-Chamond" tanks were almost not spared. One after another, they were destroyed by German tanks during the charge. There were more than 100 tanks in total, but only 7 were finally able to drive back.

This is thanks to the defense line organized by Major General Christian in the rear, otherwise the seven tanks would not have been able to return.

In fact, this was also because the Germans had no experience in actual combat for the first time. They did not understand the "Saint-Chamond M21" blocking their way and were frightened by the temporary defense line organized by the French army with tanks and infantry.

If the German army drove the "Upper Silesia" recklessly and continued to charge forward under the rain of bullets, the "Saint-Chamond M21" without a turret would not be its opponent at all. Once it broke through the defense line and passed by, the two heavy machine guns of the "Upper Silesia" would be able to launch a one-sided massacre on the French army.

Major General Christian knew this very well, so when he saw the German tanks sailing away after their victory, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Only he knew that the order he gave in a hurry just now pulled everyone back from the brink of death!

But this is just the beginning, what’s next?

(End of this chapter)