The Rise of the Third Reich

"Banglang..."

The sound of an explosion at an extremely close range is completely different from that at a longer distance. The hot waves came in an instant, causing Captain Azov's exposed skin to sting. At this moment, a JS-2 heavy tank located about 50 meters in front of the right side of the JS-2 tank Yazov was riding turned into a ball of fire. This unlucky tank was not only penetrated by the frontal armor of some unknown anti-tank gun used by the White Army, but also exploded its ammunition.

Although the JS-2 heavy tank that was killed belonged to Azov's company, the GC fighter who was used to seeing casualties did not show any emotion. He did not even take a second look. Instead, he immediately raised his binoculars to search for the Belarusian positions ahead. ——It was a forest that had just been plowed several times by artillery. There were half-burned and smoking trees everywhere. Anti-tank guns without armor protection could not possibly exist there.

So Yazov wanted to search for White Army armored vehicles. He felt that he could easily penetrate the armored vehicles of the JS-2 tank, which was 100mm thick on the front and had a certain inclination of homogeneous steel plates at a distance of more than 700 meters. , it should be a Tiger tank or a Rhino tank destroyer, or even the legendary E-50A heavy tank!

But Yazov searched for a long time and didn't see any big guys. Just when he was feeling strange, he suddenly saw two little guys that looked a bit like SU-57s retreating quickly.

"This is...SU-57?" Yazov almost screamed, because he clearly saw that this small assault artillery without a turret was equipped with a 57mm gun, which was probably the ZIS-2 type!

Azov's eyebrows suddenly knitted together. The White Army had actually modified a tank destroyer like the SU-57, which was a bit troublesome. There are too many woods on the Rzhev front line, and this small tank can be concealed everywhere.

However, it is difficult for the ZIS-2 anti-tank gun to penetrate the frontal armor of the 100mm inclined JS-2 at a distance of 700 meters... Why is it one gun at a time now? What is going on? Did the Germans help Belarus improve the ZIS-2 anti-tank gun?

This is so reactionary!

"Comrade Baron! The Queen's little hammer smashed another Stalin!"

At this moment, deep in the woods, Colonel Kaminsky was supervising the battle with several staff officers and guards - the first line of defense of the White Army's 8th Armored Grenadier Division was destroyed by the Soviet Union on the morning of April 5. The army broke through, but Major General Voskoponiko and Colonel Kaminsky did not flee in confusion with their troops. Instead, they retreated to the forest area north of Rzhev as planned, relying on the woods and pre-built strongholds to delay the Soviet attack.

The "Oliga" tank destroyer showed its style as the queen of black artillery in the battles on April 5 and 6.

The compact "Oliga" tank destroyer is very easy to get in and out of the woods, and it is also easy to conceal. The Soviet howitzers and rocket launchers cannot damage the "Oliga" tank destroyer with 12-57mm armor (57mm sloped welded armor on the front of the vehicle body).

Even Soviet tanks would find it difficult to hit the "Oliga" tank destroyer with a vehicle height of only 2.16 meters at a relatively long distance.

But this tank destroyer has a British-made 6-pound tank gun that can go 1,000 meters away when using armor-piercing discarding sabots (armor-piercing discarding sabots are not very accurate at this distance, but it is still very accurate within 750 meters) ) penetrated the frontal armor of the JS-2!

As a result, the "Stalin" heavy tank, which Stalin and the Soviet Army High Command had high hopes for, has not yet encountered the legendary and extremely powerful E-50A (because the E-50 is a European Community cooperation project, so the confidentiality work is not very good. The Soviets have already I knew there was such a thing) The heavy tank was beaten to pieces by "Oliga, the Black Cannon Queen".

Probably because of the outstanding performance of the "Oliga" tank destroyer, several White Army armored grenadier divisions on the Rzhev front line were pushed back dozens of kilometers, but they did not collapse. Instead, they fought and retreated, causing considerable losses to the attacking Soviet army.

Kaminsky saw a Stalin tank that was turned into a fireball more than 1,000 meters ahead, and thought: I wonder when the British invented this kind of armor-piercing shelling projectile? If they had given Stalin the armor-piercing discarding sabots before 1943...the Soviet Union wouldn't have ended up like this, right? This Stalin had terrible luck.

Thinking of this, he put down the telescope and said to a White Army staff officer who had just called him "Comrade Baron": "Move the position now, the Red Army will launch an artillery attack soon... Also, don't call me Comrade Baron, listen. It’s strange, just call me sir.”

"Okay, comrade sir!"

…

"Comrade Major..."

The word "comrade" in Russian made Otto Braun deeply moved. The person he was talking to was the commander of a tank destroyer company of the White Army, a Russian youth in his 20s. Judging from the tone of his voice, he must have been a Soviet man not long ago, perhaps a communist fighter, but now he has betrayed the party and the people!

"This is the 'Oliga' tank destroyer produced by the Kirov factory. It was modified from a T-50 tank and used a 57mm tank gun aided by the British."

The white bandit company commander never expected that the person speaking to him in blunt Russian was a loyal communist fighter, so he told the details of the "Oliga" tank destroyer he used without any concealment. Braun.

"Have you ever used it to destroy Stalin tanks?" Braun asked again.

He didn't ask the question out of curiosity. This was a mission - the Soviet Red Army encountered many "Oliga" tank destroyers on the Rzhev front line on April 5th and 6th, and there were hundreds of JS- 2 and T-34/85 were destroyed (because the Soviet army was advancing, a large proportion of the damaged tanks could be repaired, so the loss was not that big), which surprised the Soviet high command.

Therefore, the Soviet high command issued an order to the German Red Brigade detachment that had penetrated behind enemy lines to find out the situation of the White Army's new tank destroyer.

"Our company has destroyed 4 JS-2s and 3 T-34/85s," the White Captain replied proudly, "Comrade Colonel, even though its artillery caliber is not large, it uses a British The armor-piercing bullets I gave you are very powerful!”

A very powerful armor-piercing projectile!

Otto Braun really wanted to get a few samples, but after sizing up the tank destroyer company in front of him consisting of 13 "Oliga" tank destroyers, he immediately gave up the idea.

His unit only has one Sdkfz.234/2 Cougar armored vehicle, which cannot defeat 13 "Oliga" tank destroyers. Even a sudden attack is impossible to succeed.

Moreover, acting rashly is likely to expose "Operation Red Star" in advance, which is really not worth the gain.

…

"Quick, quick, move forward!"

Shura was kicked twice on the back of the head. It was his tank commander, Captain Valentin Ivanovich Varennikov, who was also the commander of the tank company, who was kicking him - this was a message to him. The order to move forward!

Because the problem of in-car communication has never been effectively solved, Soviet tank commanders often used their feet to convey orders to the driver.

Kick once to stop, kick twice to move forward.

Shula knew that he was about to charge now, his whole body was shaking with excitement, and he stepped on the accelerator hard. The 13.9-ton BT-7 tank immediately roared and galloped forward at a speed of nearly 50 kilometers per hour.

Ahead was a collective farm stationed by an infantry regiment of the White Army, which happened to be stuck on the chokepoint from Rzhev to Nelidovo. However, this infantry regiment does not have many anti-tank weapons, nor does it have an "Oliga" tank destroyer. It is impossible to block the powerful 7th Guards Tank Army!

Now the 7th Guards Tank Army and the 8th Guards Tank Army of the Red Army have begun to execute the "Great Detour" operation. These two tank armies were advancing northwest of Rzhev (at the same time, the 1st and 2nd Guards Tank Armies were still feinting towards Kuvshinovo, northeast of Rzhev, and were attacked by the White Army's "Black Artillery Queen" The troops that were beaten all over the ground were actually feint troops). The first target was Nelidovo. After capturing Nelidovo, the 8th Guards Tank Army would move towards West Dvina and Toropets to the west. advance, while the 7th Guards Tank Army would move north towards Andreapol.

As long as one of the two Guards tank armies is back in position, it will seriously threaten the flank and rear of the German Army Group North, and even threaten Velikiy Lucki - this place is still an important logistics transfer station for Army Group Center, and no loss can be tolerated. . Because Velikiy Luki was almost captured by the Kalinin Front commanded by Zhukov last time, the German Central Front learned its lesson and deployed the 5th SS Panzergrenadier Division affiliated with the Central Army Group Headquarters there.

The ace division of the German Waffen-SS has now handed over the defense area to the 3rd Armored Division, and is advancing towards Toropec, 71 kilometers away, along the forest road opened by the Soviet army in the last raid. .

According to Marshal Manstein's order, they must control Toropets and West Dvina before the Soviet army to ensure the absolute safety of Velikiy Luki and the Pskov-Smolensk railway line!

In the long marching convoy of the 5th SS Panzergrenadier Division, there is also a weapon similar to the SU-57 and "Oliga" tank destroyer, the Type 38 tank destroyer, which is the famous "Stalker" tank destroyer! However, this tank destroyer is not used to replace the "Rhinoceros" tank destroyer. Instead, it is assigned to each Panzer Grenadier regiment in company units (each company has 14 vehicles), replacing the original anti-tank gun company.