Chapter 540 MTY Armored Bridgelayer
Although Erwin discovered the crisis, he did not make it public.
He thought there was no point in making it public, as it would only let the soldiers know that Charles' tanks could cross the anti-tank trenches and cause them to panic.
Although panic is inevitable if this continues, we must hold on for as long as we can.
Thus, the battle proceeded in an orderly manner. Under the order of the front command, the soldiers fired at the attacking French army. They hoped to put pressure on the attacking enemy with rain of bullets, but most of them were blocked by the tanks' armor and failed to work.
Amid the dense gunfire, Erwin sat on the step and thought for a while, then stood up and ran to the back.
He found the headquarters of the infantry artillery regiment, whose commander was a young major named Benyamin.
As the war continues to this day, due to severe casualties, senior officers on the front line have gradually become younger and of lower ranks.
Before Erwin could speak, Major Benyamin reported first: "Lieutenant Colonel, our artillery has suffered heavy casualties. I hope for support from our superiors."
"There will be no support, Benyamin." Erwin said firmly and coldly: "We can only fight to the end with the equipment and personnel in our hands. The goal is to hold out for three days until the reinforcements arrive."
"But we only have 12 guns." Benyamin's eyes flashed with fear.
What he was really afraid of was the enemy's artillery.
The amount of ammunition that the artillery fire just now was ready to fire indicated that the French army would need at least 10 artillery regiments.
Even if the enemy tanks could not cross the anti-tank trenches, the German artillery regiment would be wiped out by the enemy's bombing.
Erwin didn't say much. He led Benyamin along the communication trench for a while, then emerged from the trench and pointed to several enemy positions and said, "Do you see those tanks? And this one, and there are some over there too. Order your soldiers to aim at them and take them out first!"
What Erwin pointed out was the tank carrying the steel frame.
"What is that?" Benyamin asked curiously.
"You don't need to worry about that," Erwin replied. "All you have to do is aim at them and fire. Do you understand?"
"Understood, Lieutenant Colonel." Ben Yamin's face turned pale.
As the commander of the artillery regiment, he understood that this was tantamount to a death warrant.
The enemy's artillery was staring at them eagerly. If they opened fire, it would mean exposing their hiding place.
However, the 77MM artillery exists for this very purpose, to blow up enemy tanks!
Thinking of this, Benyamin gritted his teeth and took his men to the artillery position to command.
Erwin remained optimistic about the counterattack of the 77mm artillery. He found that the rocket launcher's bombardment seemed to exist in the form of quantity, with hundreds of rockets attacking the same area each time.
The German 77mm infantry guns were scattered in various corners of the positions and their number was small, so it was not easy for rocket launchers to suppress them.
Even if it is possible, it will waste a lot of enemy ammunition.
However, what happened once again surprised Erwin.
The 77mm gun had only fired a few shots and was only able to destroy two target tanks when a whistling sound like tearing rags was immediately heard in the air.
The rocket artillery shells were actually divided into several groups, each rushing towards its own target to bomb. The scattered German 77 guns were either blown into the sky or hastily retreated to deeper bunkers and never dared to show up again.
What's going on?
Erwin frowned. These rockets were fired from the height of the opposite mountain, which meant that this type of rocket launcher could also be used as infantry gun!
Erwin was right, it was an army rocket launcher.
They were broken up and moved to high ground and forests, where they were fortified and aimed at the German positions.
Army rocket launchers are almost identical to vehicle-mounted rocket launchers except for their mobility, but their tactics and organization are completely different.
As Erwin understood, vehicle-mounted rocket launchers are indeed suitable for large-scale bombing against enemy targets. They fight more in regiment units, and combat at the battalion level and below is rare.
Army rocket launchers often need to deal with scattered infantry artillery and machine gun fire points, and sometimes they also have to bomb small units of infantry raids.
Therefore, they often fought in companies, with groups of 3 to 4 guns dealing with one target.
It also "makes up for lack of accuracy with quantity", but divides the targets into more targeted small ones to improve bombing efficiency.
At that moment, Erwin realized that the battle was lost.
Charles' new equipment has suppressed the German army's most relied-upon artillery, as well as the strange-looking "steel frame tank" that may be used to cross the trenches.
Erwin thought he had made adequate preparations before the war, but he didn't expect that Charles had made even more preparations.
Erwin even felt that this was unfair. They were both making preparations, so why was Charles's preparation so much better than his and could suppress him from beginning to end?
But after thinking about it, Erwin was convinced.
Erwin's preparations were all visible and traditional, such as artillery blocking the road and anti-tank trenches.
They were all old tactics, with the exception of the anti-tank trenches, if there was anything new.
However, Charles's preparations were creative and targeted: new rocket launchers were used to lift the blockade and steel-frame tanks were used to cross anti-tank trenches.
He always thinks ahead of Erwin, so how could he not be better than Erwin?
The battle situation did develop as Erwin had expected.
Under Erwin's helpless gaze, the French "steel frame tanks" began to slow down. They slowly drove to the anti-tank ditch and stretched out their steel frames amid the "clattering" sound of the machinery.
The steel frame stretched longer and longer, and soon it crossed the anti-tank ditch. Then the supporting points were lowered, and an arched steel frame bridge was built over the anti-tank ditch.
The whole process took only a few minutes to build a bridge, and it was a steel bridge that could allow tanks to pass through.
The same thing happened repeatedly in front of the anti-tank ditch, and the French army built more than a dozen steel bridges one after another.
The German soldiers guarding the trenches witnessed this miraculous scene with their own eyes. They immediately realized that they could not stop Charles' troops. Their faces turned pale with fear, and even the sound of gunfire became much less frequent.
Some of the soldiers turned back and shouted to Erwin, "How can we stop them, Lieutenant Colonel?"
Erwin was speechless, how could he stop it?
It seems that the only things we can do are rifles and bayonets!
…
That was the Soviet-style MTY armored bridge-laying vehicle developed by Charles specifically for armored forces.
The reason for choosing this bridge-laying vehicle is that it is simple, reliable, easy to operate, has almost no technological content, and can be mass-produced in a short time.
(Most Soviet equipment has this feature, but the disadvantage is that the performance data will be worse)
(The picture above shows the Soviet MTY armored bridge-laying vehicle)
(The picture above shows the working method of the MTY bridge-laying vehicle. It uses a flat-push butt-jointed bridge-laying method, which is much simpler than the modern scissor-type folding bridge-laying method. The disadvantage is that the bridge body is only 18 meters, but it is enough to deal with the anti-tank trenches during World War I)
The tanks rattled onto the steel frame bridge and successfully passed through the anti-tank ditch. Teams of French soldiers followed the tanks and approached the German defense line.
And Erwin could only watch this scene happen helplessly.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
