Munitions Empire-Chapter 762 - I’ve never seen 721 before

Chapter 762: I’ve never seen 721 before. Chapter 762: I’ve never seen 721 before. The Dahua military forces that were attacking had not yet fully deployed their formation, and, according to their experience, there was usually a distance of about 1000 to 500 meters before they would hit the enemy’s defenses.

This distance was the normal combat range. At this distance, the hit rate of tank guns could be significantly improved.

But this time, they were stunned by a sudden artillery shell when they were about 1500 meters away from the village.

The shell forcefully penetrated the front armor of the Dahua Type 1 tank, passed through the entire turret, and afterwards cut an infantryman in two.

Yes, in front of everyone’s eyes, the unfortunate soldier was hit directly by the shell after it changed its course having pierced through the armor. The immense force of the impact split him into two parts; his legs remained in place, while his upper body was flung far away.

For a moment, everyone was shocked, including the Dahua officers who were urging their troops forward, telling their subordinates they were about to enter the enemy’s firing range. They widened their eyes at the sight of the paralyzed tank wreckage and momentarily forgot what they were supposed to say.

You should know that the tanks of this era, including the Tang Army’s extensively equipped Type 4 tanks, used low chamber-pressure, short-barrel tank guns.

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Low chamber pressure has its advantages—the recoil of the gun is small, so the tank doesn’t need to be too heavy, nor does the tank turret need too high structural strength.

However, such guns also have their disadvantages—these guns had smaller shells and typically had average range, and most importantly, they had a curved trajectory.

A curved trajectory is not conducive to long-range firing, and requires more precision from the aiming devices, so even the Tang Army’s Type 4 tanks could only open fire at distances between 500 to 1000 meters in order to ensure accuracy.

However, the Panther Tank’s high chamber pressure, long-barrel 75 mm caliber tank cannon was entirely different: its high chamber pressure meant a straighter trajectory, so its accuracy at long distances was much higher than that of the Type 4 tanks.

This change was enough to support the Great Tang Kingdom’s Armored Corps to comfortably open fire at distances exceeding 1000 meters, attacking those Dahua tanks which had little in the way of armor defense.

Frankly speaking, the tanks of the Dahua Empire were not without improvements—when they first appeared, their armor was basically at the level of the Japanese Type 97 tank during World War II.

Which means, in terms of actual protective capability, it was slightly weaker than the Type 4 tank, and the sides and rear could only withstand attacks from 12.7 mm caliber machine guns.

However, in actual use, Dahua’s Armored Corps still reported problems with insufficient armor protection on these tanks, so subsequent models underwent many improvements.

The biggest improvement was imitating the tanks of the Tang Army by welding some steel plates to the sides and adding thicker armor to the front.

This improved model was known as the Dahua Type 2 tank, but in fact, it was just a Type 1 with exactly the same internal structure—only the armor on the front was increased by 30 mm.

This improvement allowed the Dahua Type 2 tank to barely withstand the firepower of the Type 4 tanks at a distance of 1000 meters.

So, apart from the first widely equipped 3000-plus Dahua Type 1 tanks, this Type 2 tank was also gradually supplied in over 1000 units.

The problem is, although armor thickness is an important indicator of a tank’s defense, the quality of the armor itself is equally crucial.

For example, during the Second World War, the T-34 and IS-2 tanks looked impressive on paper, but the results in actual combat were often disappointing.

In the German Army’s combat records, tank commanders often mentioned that they could destroy these Soviet tanks, which supposedly didn’t have weak armor, from relatively long distances.

The underlying reason was that in pursuit of production quantities, the quality of armor was neglected: the Soviet tanks’ cast turrets were supposed to be better, but they were actually quite poor in defense due to the presence of a large number of bubbles.

Being capable of producing such a large quantity of tanks in a short period of time is one aspect of the Dahua Empire’s industrial capabilities; the generally average quality of the tanks is another reason for the rapid production rate.

Therefore, at a distance of 1500 meters, the Tang Army’s new tanks could easily penetrate the Dahua Type 2 tanks, or in other words, the Dahua Type 1 tanks with reinforced armor.

“Speed up! Speed up!” Since they hadn’t moved close to the usual combat distance, the tank commanders of the Dahua Empire had not yet entered their own tanks. This gave them a good view and they saw the tank being destroyed. Instantly, all the tank commanders were shouting, telling their tanks to pick up speed.

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To continue advancing unhurriedly would only make them sitting ducks for the enemy. Not knowing how the enemy managed to fire from such a long distance caught the Dahua Armored Corps’ commanders off guard, so they had to employ their most skilled traditional technique: “Speeding up.”

This was their only trick in offense because the Dahua Empire’s tank sighting system was extremely backward, so their normal combat range was only around two hundred meters; this severely limited the Dahua tanks in utilizing their firepower advantage.

To put it bluntly, the 90mm caliber cannon they went to great lengths to equip on the tanks had a slight performance edge over the Tang Army’s short-barrel 75mm caliber tank gun, but it was all wasted by the crappy sighting system.

Soon, these Dahua tanks that were not yet ready for combat began to accelerate. As they recklessly charged forward, another shell came flying toward them, piercing through the body of another Dahah tank.

The gasoline burned fiercely, and the Dahua tankers inside didn’t have time to crawl out of their tank before they were swallowed by the flames.

One Dahua tank passed by the wreckage of this tank, and the intense flames made the following Dahua soldiers dodge in all directions.

The sky-filling thick smoke kept rolling, and atop the tanks in the rear, the Dahua Empire tank commanders, who were half out of their turrets, watched their charred comrades with a tense expression, their cheeks reddened by the reflection of the flames.

People tend to converge on certain habits. After tanks became widely used, it became quite common for tank commanders in the Dahua Empire’s Armored Corps to stick their heads out of the hatch.

With poor visibility and virtually no communication, the tank commanders of the Dahua Empire preferred to pop out of their turrets to command the battle. This was not exclusive to Tang Army commanders; it was a common practice among tank commanders all over the world.

The Dahua troops, still not knowing who was attacking them, aimed to quickly cross the open field, but they soon encountered trouble.

Two Stuka Dive Bombers arrived at the battlefield and began strafing the ground. Such an attack was fatal to the Dahua Military, as their formation quickly descended into chaos.

With 500kg aerial bombs detonating on the ground, the Dahua Military’s offense was severely hampered. The remaining tanks began to reverse, and the infantry also seemed to consider retreating.

However, this retreat was soon halted. More Dahua Military tanks pressed forward, the orders from above being clear, “No retreat.”

At least thirty tanks continued to advance towards the village, hidden under the smoke that obstructed their view. The defending Tang Army grenadiers opened fire first, and a sniper blew the cap off a lucky Dahua tank commander’s head with a single shot.

The startled commander quickly ducked back into the turret, and at that moment, another Dahua tank had its turret blown off by an incoming shell.

By then, many tanks of the Dahua Empire had discovered their enemies upfront: the smoke from the gun muzzles had thickened, revealing the hiding place of Liu Guozhu’s Panther Tank.

In fact, he had to move his position anyway—the increasing exhaust from the gun barrel was starting to affect his gunner’s aiming.

Faced with the decision to reverse or advance, Liu Guozhu chose to advance! It was a risky move, but it had its advantages. If he chose to reverse, he would have to back up quite a distance to avoid the smokescreen in front of him.

Add to this, the smoke from the engine’s exhaust pipe at the rear of the tank would also swirl to the front, which needed to be considered.

Advancing was different: he would leave the exhaust and the dense smoke from the barrel behind him, ready to open fire immediately upon stopping.

So, his Panther Tank charged out of the reverse slope, broke through the bushes ahead, and exposed its distinctively shaped body to all Dahua troops.

At the same time, the Panther Tank that had just steadied itself emitted another burst of thick smoke, and a shell sent another Dahua tank approaching from a distance flying.

It really was sent flying! The power of the shell overflowed, piercing through the entire body of the tank and causing it to stop in its tracks instantly.

Immediately afterward, the Dahua tank detonated, and the violent explosion affected the Dahua Empire infantry nearby, forcing the surrounding Dahua tanks to dodge in disarray.

In fact, the shock this shell brought to the Dahua Empire’s tank commanders was far less than when the Panther Tank smashed through the bushes and revealed its true form.

Although due to the camouflage, these Dahua Empire tank commanders couldn’t immediately recognize the tank with the sleek, clean, sloped armor they had never seen before.

But they still realized at once that this was a type of new Tang Army tank they had never seen before! At that moment, their eyes involuntarily widened.

“That’s not a Tang Army Number 4 tank!” a Dahua commander blurted out, and as he shouted, the enemy tank emitted another flame, and the shell came whistling, hitting another Dahua tank precisely.

Since their old gunner was attacking almost stationary targets coming head-on, his hit rate was frighteningly high, after all… he had sacrificed his unique hatch to acquire what was now in front of him, a more accurate 5 times magnifying sight.

And of course, there was also the long-barrelled 75mm caliber tank gun he dearly loved!