The decisive battle against the Third Reich

The German army collided head-on with the 9th Armored Regiment of the British 4th Armored Brigade.

The 9th Armored Regiment is the unit responsible for attacking the rear side of the Halfa Pass defense line.

You must know that both the enemy and our armies are marching in the desert at night. The desert is very wide, and it is also a desert when the wind blows. The sky is full of dust and visibility is very low. The probability of colliding with each other is very small. Sometimes I even want to find out. It's difficult to know where a troop will go.

But it was such a coincidence that the 21st Armored Division, which was rushing to the right flank for reinforcements, accidentally ran into the British army that was crossing the Halfa Gate defense line like a treasure.

An armored division collided with an armored regiment, and the German armored division also had 150 new "Plank III" tanks, while the British armored regiment only had 50 "Stuart" tanks...

Although the "Stuart" tank is an American product, it is only a light tank with a total combat weight of only 12.5 tons, which is 7.5 tons lighter than the German-made "Type III" tank (Note: "Type III" is equipped with a 50MM caliber tank artillery The weight is slightly heavier than the original, reaching about 20 tons)

Although the two are similar in defense, the former is 44MM and the latter is 47MM.

The problem is that the artillery equipped on the "Stuart" tank is a small 37MM caliber gun... This batch of American equipment was originally used to equip the Chinese Expeditionary Force to deal with the Japanese army. The armor of Japanese tanks is notoriously thin, so "Sri The Tuat tank can fully meet the combat needs of the Asian battlefield, but now it is another matter to be transferred to Africa by Churchill Fire Line to face the German army.

The artillery caliber of the "Stuart" is the same as that of the "Panzer III" tank before the replacement, so if the "Penzer III" has not been replaced, it may have a slight advantage but not much.

However, the "Plank III" tank at this time has been equipped with a 50MM anti-tank gun, which can penetrate the 78MM armor of the "Matilda" tank within a distance of 400 meters and deal with the 44MM "Stuart" tank. Armor is even more out of the question.

As a result, the troops of the British 9th Armored Regiment were defeated under a burst of impact. The victory and defeat were determined as soon as the two sides came into contact. The tanks of the British 9th Armored Regiment were either destroyed or surrendered... Some British armored soldiers did not even have time to surrender. , because the shells penetrated the armor of the tank before they could run out of the tank and stretched out the white flag.

From this, we can also see General Auchinleck's mistake: when our own tanks do not have an advantage in performance but in numbers, we must not divide our troops and be defeated by the enemy one by one.

Regarding this point, some historians speculate that it is because General Auchinleck did not know that the German "Pop 3" tank gun had been replaced by a 37MM tank gun.

Because I don’t know, I think that the performance of the "Stuart" tank is equivalent to that of the "Page 3". The "Stuart" is even better than the "Page 3" in some aspects, such as mobility and the ability to defeat infantry. fire suppression, etc.

This idea is correct, because the "Stuart" has a top speed of 58 kilometers per hour, which is much faster than the "Plank III" tank.

The "Stuart" tank has so many auxiliary weapons that it makes people feel abnormal: a parallel machine gun, a heading machine gun, two body side machine guns, and one mounted above the turret...that is, a total of five A machine gun.

Each tank has five machine guns. If these five machine guns fire at the same time, it is almost a mobile firepower fortress. It is conceivable that any infantry under the firepower of the "Stuart" machine gun will collapse like a torrent.

Therefore, if the "Stuart" is used properly, its performance is indeed not inferior to the "No. 3", because the "Stuart" can use its high mobility and powerful machine gun firepower to force the German infantry and tanks to separate, and the infantry and tanks to separate. After that... due to the tank's poor external perception ability, the "No. 3" tank could only end up being surrounded and annihilated by the enemy.

But this part of the historian's speculation is untenable, because General Auchinleck had too many ways to obtain German intelligence, such as "super secrets", spies deployed in Tobruk, and underground Organizations, etc. Even people with no military knowledge at all can see the difference between 37MM artillery and 50MM artillery, let alone spies and underground organizations with military qualities.

Therefore, there is only one explanation for General Auchinleck's behavior. He made a tactical mistake of dividing his troops and advancing rashly.

There was actually another thing that played a big role in this battle, and that was the telephone invented by Qin Chuan and mounted on the back of the tank.

It can be said that the tanks at this time basically have no night fighting capabilities. This is true for British tanks, German tanks, and American tanks.

Because in the dark night, all the gunner sees is a blurry shadow in front of him, and he cannot judge its distance at all. It is even pitch black and he can't see anything.

With the phone, this problem has been solved very well. The combat mode of the German "Plank 3" tank is usually like this:

The infantryman shouted over the phone: "Three o'clock, 50 meters, enemy tank!"

After receiving the message, the commander shouted: "Armor-piercing bomb, three o'clock position, 50 meters!"

So the loader loaded the armor-piercing rounds, and the artilleryman adjusted the tank gun to aim at the target...

If the gunner still can't see the target, he yells, "I can't see it!"

The commander shouted to the infantryman through the phone: "Give me some light!"

"Give me some light!"

…

It is actually very simple for infantry to provide light, such as using tracer bullets or flares. In an emergency, you can also use car lights.

Of course, car headlights are more dangerous because turning on the lights also exposes oneself and makes oneself a target of the enemy, so this is not commonly used.

Facts have proved that the difference between whether there is timely coordination of infantry is very big, especially in this situation of poor visibility, because it almost means whether the tank crew can detect the target tank in time and effectively destroy it.

As a result, the 9th Armored Regiment of the British Army suffered an almost devastating blow. 23 of the 50 "Stuart" tanks were destroyed on the spot, 18 became prisoners, and only 9 of the tanks that were originally at the rear of the army saw that the situation was not good. Quickly turn around and escape... The advantage of the "Stuart" tank is that it is light and fast, which is very suitable for escape. The German "Plank III" tank cannot catch up at all.

Then the battle ended quickly, so fast that Qin Chuan and others didn't even have time to join the battle. When they caught up, they saw destroyed "Stuart" tanks and everyone with their hands raised in fear. of British troops.

Werner pointed his submachine gun at a burning "Stuart" and said: "Is this an American tank? It looks worse than the 'Matilda' that has been beaten!"

"That's because the British can't use them!" Qin Chuan said: "And... the Americans will have more powerful tanks!"