The decisive battle against the Third Reich

The soldiers were chased by bullets and artillery shells all the way to the second line of defense. They thought they were going to stop to help defend, but Bazel ordered: "Continue to retreat until the tanks can't hit you!"

Except for Qin Chuan, all the German soldiers were puzzled by this order... If they ran beyond the reach of tanks, wouldn't they have to be at least one kilometer away? How is that different from running away? !

But thinking about it, the German soldiers continued to retreat as ordered. After all, who would be willing to stay longer if they could leave this damn battlefield?

The third line of defense was the same as the second line of defense. It was full of German soldiers who were ready for defense. Running further back, they saw engineers laying mines despite stray bullets and artillery fire. This made the soldiers stop in their tracks because they Not sure if mines have been laid underfoot.

A nearby engineer lieutenant seemed to see through the soldiers' thoughts and shouted to them: "Keep moving forward, we won't waste mines on you idiots!"

Werner made an obscene gesture to the engineer lieutenant and continued along the trench.

The traffic trench soon reached the end. At the end was the tank position. The only 15 "No. 3" tanks of the 5th Armored Regiment were well hidden in the trench. However, Qin Chuan noticed that several tanks had been buried in the trench. into the sandy soil, which is obviously a good thing caused by the enemy's artillery bombardment... The sandy soil here is very soft, and the pits needed to hide the tanks are very deep (note: the "No. 3" tank is 2.44 meters high), so just a few shells or Even if a bomb explodes nearby, it will collapse.

This is not a trivial matter for the tank, because once the tank starts, the sand will cover the tank exhaust pipe and be sucked into the engine... If this happens, the tank will never be able to start. .

Colonel Olbridge seemed to be prepared in this regard. After all, the armored regiment often faced this situation. He ordered all tanks to be turned off and the exhaust pipes were covered with caps.

Now all they have to do is dig out the tank's exhaust pipe from the sand, and then the tank can be started and driven out.

Group after group of German soldiers retreated from the defense line, and the tanks slowly drove out of the sand pit, then adjusted the turret to point the barrel in the direction of the British army.

"What are they doing?" The baker couldn't help but asked in confusion when he saw this scene: "They don't want to use tanks to stop the enemy!"

The German soldiers knew what the baker meant. In previous battles, the "Plank 3" tank had proved unable to penetrate the "Matilda", so doing so was almost looking for death.

But soon the German soldiers discovered that the truth was not what they imagined, because the "Plank 3" tanks were also escaping... They seemed to be covering the retreat of the infantry, firing one or two cannons in the direction of the British army while retreating .

This reaction of the German army made Colonel Gerner, the commander of the British Second Armored Regiment, very excited.

"Look, the Germans have been defeated by us!" Colonel Gerner put away his binoculars and said, "They are running away!"

"Yes, Colonel!" the staff officer said, "But they won't be able to escape in this way!"

Colonel Gerner nodded: "Their tanks must cover the infantry, and the infantry cannot be transported by cars...because our artillery will blast their cars into the sky. In other words, they can only retreat at the speed of infantry like this . Unless their tanks will leave the infantry and retreat alone!"

"I guess the Germans won't do that!" the staff officer said.

"Then they have no choice but to surrender or die!" Colonel Gerner said: "Order the armored forces to advance at full speed and don't give the Germans any chance!"

"yes!"

Lieutenant Colonel Burton, commander of the British armored battalion, soon received the order to "advance at full speed".

Lieutenant Colonel Bolton frowned.

The situation of the British army is not as optimistic as Colonel Gurner thought. Lieutenant Colonel Burton, who has rich combat experience, knows that the British armored forces are actually in a dilemma.

If the British tanks did not speed up to catch up, the Germans would have fled all the way and laid mines behind them... Although the British army could use mortars and grenades to clear mines, and the British army had sufficient supplies, the problem was the difficulty of clearing mines and laying mines. The amount of supplies required is completely disproportionate: for every mine laid by the Germans, the British army may need dozens of artillery shells to clear it, and it may not be able to clear it completely.

As time goes by, the British army's supplies and ammunition will soon be exhausted, and in the end the German army may even turn defeat into victory.

This problem may be solved if we follow Colonel Gerner's order to pursue at full speed, but the problem is that it is an afternoon with extremely high temperatures. In this case, the "Matilda" tank is chasing at full speed. It is afraid that it will not catch up with the enemy. Half paralyzed.

After thinking about it, Bolton issued a compromise order: "Order the tanks to advance at a speed of 12 miles per hour!"

12 miles is a speed of almost 20 kilometers per hour. This speed is faster than before, but it does not reach the upper limit of the "Matilda" tank that is prone to failure.

But even so, it didn't take long for Bolton to receive two fault reports.

"These damn tanks!" Bolton cursed.

Sometimes he even thought about pushing behind the tank to make it go faster, because just a little bit away, he could bring the enemy infantry into range and start killing...

Of course, Lieutenant Colonel Burton didn't know that this was actually the German army's intention to keep a distant distance from the British army and keep them trapped.

In fact, it is not difficult for infantry to escape the pursuit of the "Matilda" tanks. They only need to split into several teams and take cars to escape in batches. However, the German army chose to play this "cat and mouse" game with the British army in the desert.

The German army will suffer if they continue like this. They are fully armed and running wildly under the scorching sun, and they have to brave the artillery bombardment of the British army all the way. From time to time, several people are lifted high into the sky and then fall down with incomplete limbs.

Every time at this time, Qin Chuan felt a little sorry in his heart, because this idea was his own. If it didn't succeed in the end, Qin Chuan didn't know how to face his comrades.

In fact, not only Qin Chuan was anxious, but Olbrich was also anxious...

He looked at the British team with a telescope. Logically, they should be stuck in the sand now, but the British tanks are still running rampant.

Was it a mistake made by the scouts?

Impossible. In order to confirm that the Matilda tank would be trapped in this area, Colonel Olbrich even conducted an experiment using a Panzer III tank to increase the load.