Battle of the Third Reich Chapter 105: Firepower (3)
As mentioned in the previous article, the German infantry lacks individual anti-tank training. In fact, the German infantry does not have anti-tank weapons that can be used. The only two grenades can only scratch. Patent leather of the tank shell.
In the Western Front War, this problem has actually been exposed. After encountering a target that the company’s platoon attached 37mm knocker could not deal with, the German infantry faced the enemy who rushed towards him. The tank has no power to fight back, and even the elite troops at this moment will inevitably end in a rush.
On the Western Front, the German front collapsed and the German officers and soldiers fled in panic. It didn't happen once or twice. For example, in the Battle of Arras when Xu Jun first approached your country, the German infantry unit was destroyed by British tanks. In history, if the 88mm anti-aircraft artillery unit hadn’t stabilized its position, the 7th Armored Division’s end would be really good. Unpredictable.
Xu Jun does not think that the German infantry will be more aggressive on the Eastern Front. The "t34 panic" in history was first spread from various infantry units. In contrast, the German tank unit can at least compete with the Soviet army. The tank fought for a few rounds, but the infantry only had a 37mm knocker in his hand. When encountering the Soviet T34 and his like, they could only let the opponent kill.
A steel behemoth weighing tens of tons rushes forward at a speed of thirty to forty miles. Anyone who is mentally able will feel panic, especially if you know that you can’t hurt the other party at all. Some people can still maintain a calm mind at this time. Before effective anti-tank measures were obtained, the German infantry's t34 panic even developed into a tank panic. The infantry would retreat panic when they saw a shadow with a turret.
In fact, the senior German army had already understood these problems before the war started in 1949. After the defeat in World War I, the German General Staff began to summarize the lessons of the defeat. One of them was soldiers who had not received professional anti-tank training. Unable to calmly respond to tank attacks, positions and defense lines often collapse in the panic of soldiers.
Under normal circumstances, now that the problem is recognized, the German army should consider strengthening the individual anti-tank training of the infantry to make up for this obvious shortcoming in the army. But no one expected that they chose another solution. The German Staff decided to use artillery to undertake the anti-tank mission. The priority tactic was to destroy the enemy's tanks on the starting position with heavy artillery. Although the German army did have similar successful battles in World War I, it was obviously a bit too taken for granted to regard it as a conventional tactic. However, the high-level German army stubbornly insisted on their own judgment and wrote it in the German tactical manual in detail. inside.
So when the German army declared war on Britain and France, the German army placed all front-line anti-tank missions on the 11 thousand pak35/36 anti-tank guns equipped. If it were not for the extraordinary performance of the German armored forces and air force, The British and French armored forces made serious mistakes in their strategic and tactical choices. The German army may still win in the end, but the loss of infantry units on the western battlefield will be quite ugly.
However, the German army has finally reversed some of its disadvantages after the full replacement of pak40 and pak41. At least in terms of positional defense, infantry units have the confidence to fight armored forces.
The question is how to resist the enemy's assault after the German infantry encounters enemy armored units in the field after leaving the solid position.
Usually, the German infantry company has a professional anti-tank squad, equipped with three anti-tank rifles, which are equally divided among the three platoons below. During the Weimar Republic, the German army was still equipped with the T-type anti-tank gun from the Second Empire period, the famous Mauser 18, which fired a 13mm steel core bullet that could penetrate 25mm of homogeneous steel. Armor, this value was not very outdated in the 1930s, enough to penetrate the mainstream tanks equipped by European countries at that time.
Until Hitler came to power, the German army was still equipped with more than a thousand such heavy firearms. This anti-tank gun is really too heavy, weighing 17 kilograms, and the range and power are gradually insufficient, so the German army developed the expensive pzb38 as its replacement product.
At that time, the anti-tank rifle was still regarded as an effective anti-tank weapon by the military of various countries. European countries have developed and equipped a batch of anti-tank rifles. The more famous one is the wz35 produced in Poland (remember the head of state The gun shot in Poland was shot with this rifle. (￣▽￣")), as well as Finland’s L39, Switzerland’s Suroton SS-18 and British Boys anti-tank Guns. These anti-tank guns have different technical standards, but they can basically penetrate 12mm armor at a distance of 100 meters, which is enough to penetrate most of the tanks popular in Europe at that time.
However, in the late 1930s, when European countries were developing their own new tanks, they all began to pay attention to the defense capabilities of tanks, and the armor thickness was generally increased. France and the United Kingdom have even begun to develop medium and heavy tanks with heavy frontal armor, in order to completely overwhelm the armored vehicles equipped by their imaginary enemy in terms of defense and vehicle firepower.
So that in the early 1940s, the only targets that these anti-tank rifles could deal with were some weakly armored and light tanks and armored vehicles, and it was difficult to threaten the main tanks equipped by various countries.
Germany was still developing a new anti-tank rifle in 1949, because the army felt that the price of the pzb38 was too expensive. In the end, pzb39 replaced pzb38 and became the only anti-tank equipment of the German conventional infantry company. This gun can penetrate 30 mm vertical armor plates within 100 meters, but after extending to 300 meters, this value is only 20. Millimeters.
During the Polish War, this rifle performed well against the imperial Vickers equipped in Poland and the 7tp tank produced by itself. But on the French battlefield, in front of the pile of iron tortoises equipped by the French army, the German soldiers found that this thing could only be used to listen to it, and could not penetrate the opponent's armor at all. It’s ridiculous that after the surrender of France in history, the German senior officials did not seem to notice the fact that the performance of this gun has fallen behind. As a result, the German army still used this kind of useless anti-tank rifle until four or three years. .
Xu Jun has decided to replace this weapon from the army, and at the same time develop an anti-material rifle on this basis. The caliber is returned to the 13mm T-type anti-tank rifle, using tungsten core armor-piercing shells and armor-piercing incendiary bombs. Two kinds of ammunition. These anti-material rifles will be assigned to paratroopers, armored grenadiers, armed reconnaissance, and special forces for long-range sniping of the opponent’s valuable targets, such as oil depots, ammunition depots, aircraft and light armored vehicles on airports, if available Allowed and can also be used to snipe the enemy's individual targets.
As for the original anti-tank squad in each conventional infantry company, it will be reorganized into a heavy machine gun squad, equipped with two mg40 machine guns to strengthen the company’s defense capabilities.
The German army is about to fully launch individual anti-tank training. The soldiers must first understand and become familiar with various armored vehicles. Then they must learn to find the vitals and weaknesses of enemy tanks, learn how to avoid and interfere with the enemy’s attacks, learn Set up ambush traps on the battlefield and use the weapons on hand to destroy these steel behemoths. They also have to undergo tank pressure training and get used to the feeling of tanks roaring past their heads until they can face the tracks of enemy tanks without fear.
This is not a textbook invented by Xu Jun himself~IndoMTL.com~In history, the German army trained a group of combat engineers in the middle of the war. As a professional infantry anti-tank unit, these soldiers were called armored hunters. Listen It seems a bit familiar to them, I always feel that they are holding large-caliber pistols one by one, with a miner's lamp hanging from their waist.
The German army generally organized these soldiers into a series of three-person anti-tank teams, and then let them use various individual anti-tank weapons to ambush and hunt down enemy tanks on the battlefield.
The weapons used by the armored hunters at the beginning were mainly various types of mines and anti-tank grenades, as well as improvised explosive devices assembled in some battlefields. This is also the main reason for choosing engineers. They compare their handling of explosives. Ordinary infantry is good at it.
Actually, at that time, the German senior officials fully understood that the Soviet tank tide could not be stopped by one or two special arms. Every frontline soldier on the Eastern Front was actually under the threat of Soviet tanks. Therefore, anti-tank should not be the job of a professional unit, but a test that every German soldier has to face, so under this situation, the Germans developed an iron fist.
ps: It took some time to check the information, and the update was a bit late. Thank you for your support.
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