Chapter 311: A New Way of Fighting

“Rein, this is a plain. We don’t need to charge,” Andre said to Rein beside him, his face pressed against the gunsight. “We can just open fire from here and take out these tanks.”

Only then did Rein realize that the offensive plan he had drawn up was indeed a bit impulsive. First, the mission he had received was to defeat the French army’s tank units, which had made him subconsciously default to the idea of occupying the village. In fact, he did not need to occupy that village, and the German army had indeed no plan to completely occupy it.

On the other hand, Germany had been on the offensive all along, and had always used its technical superiority in tanks and vehicles to fight assault battles. This had meant that most of the operational plans Rein had encountered were mainly focused on fierce attacks. Even in the few defensive battles like the one at the pass, the distance between the two sides was not far due to the terrain.

However, now it was a flat plain. A sneak attack was clearly an impossible mission, and charging over would instead give the French tanks a chance to attack the Panther with their own tank cannons, while senselessly compressing the absolute advantage of his own Panther and Tiger tanks in terms of artillery—wasn’t this just looking for trouble?

“We’ll do as you say!” Rein realized his mistake and immediately changed his original tactics. He retreated into the tank’s turret, held down the intercom, and said to the other crews, “Our artillery has the advantage. There’s no need to risk getting close to fight the French head-on. It’s enough to shoot from a distance here. All crews, halt.”

His Tiger tank was the first to stop, followed by Marcus on the side, and then tanks 114 and 115. The four tanks lined up in a row, stopping in a straight line at a distance of about 700 meters from the French village.

“The heavily armored B1 tanks are mine. You can choose the rest of the targets yourselves,” Rein commanded loudly as he had Andre adjust the angle of the cannon. “If any infantry wants to come over, the hull machine gun is to open fire immediately.”

“Rein, you got a new tank, and now you’ve become so cautious? It would be so much more thrilling to charge in and fight!” Marcus’s voice came through the headset.

“Our cannons are all large-caliber tank guns. From here, they are sufficient to penetrate those French tanks. There is no need to get close and take a risk,” Rein said. He saw that some French soldiers had already spotted their tanks, and many were pointing at them and shouting. “If you get close, your tanks are in danger of being destroyed. From today on, I’ve decided not to make any unprofitable trades if I can help it!”

“Boom!” Just as his voice fell, the thick barrel of the Tiger tank, which was a circle thicker than the Panther’s, let out a roar. An 88mm shell flew directly toward the target. Rein noticed that because of the increased weight of the tank, the shaking of this Tiger when it fired was significantly less than that of the Panther.

If Rein’s previous Panther was an experimental tank that had been meticulously calibrated, then this Tiger was a prototype born to verify its feasibility. To display its best state, all its components had been calibrated to a near-perfect level. So Andre’s aiming was masterful, and the shell did not disappoint his hopes, directly hitting a stationary French B1 tank 750 meters away.

Without any sloppiness, the armor-piercing power of the 88mm cannon was a piece of cake against the B1 tank. At a distance of less than a thousand meters, if a B1 could possibly withstand the bombardment of a Panther by relying on its good ballistic shape, then because of the limitations of its own armor thickness, the B1 was simply unable to stand up to the terrible armor-piercing shells of a Tiger at a thousand meters.

On the side, the French B1 tank only had 60 millimeters of armor, and it was at a vertical angle. And the Tiger’s tank gun had an armor-piercing capability of over 100 millimeters at a distance of 1,000 meters—so this shot was a completely stress-free kill.

The B1 tank’s entire hull shook from the powerful impact of the Tiger’s armor-piercing round, and then its entire engine exploded, sending up a cloud of thick smoke.

Beside Rein’s Tiger, Marcus’s tank 112 and the other two Panther tanks were not idle either. They also opened fire one after another, and in an instant, they had blown up two FT-17 tanks. One shell, due to aiming reasons, had missed its target and had blown the door of a house next to the tank in two.

Because the German tanks had a five-man crew, they had always been known for their clear division of labor, faster rate of fire, and more accurate aiming. While the French were still staring in shock at their exploding tanks, the second round of German tank fire was already flying toward these unlucky Frenchmen.

The French soldiers who were still in a daze paid the price for their rookie behavior. This round of fire directly hit three FT-17 tanks and one S35 tank. The German tanks had used their precise shooting to teach their French counterparts what level of skill was required to be considered a steel ace—they had used two salvos to wreck seven French tanks, and only then had the French just realized where the danger was coming from.

A French B1 tank that had been hiding behind a house charged out, and quickly pointed its front toward the distant German tanks. It seemed the French also understood that at this distance, the opponent could easily penetrate their side armor. And at this moment, the French army also displayed its highest level of skill.

A puff of green smoke spewed from the turret of this B1. Rein knew that the French had opened fire, and although it had not been carefully aimed, this shell had still hit Rein’s brand-new Tiger.

But to the despair of the French tankers, this shell had hit the thick, sloped frontal armor of the Tiger’s turret and had been directly deflected into the sky. Apart from chipping the paint, it had only left a shallow pit the size of a fingernail on the Tiger’s turret armor.

“They hit us?” Bruce, who had just pushed the third shell into the breech, asked, his eyes wide as he looked at Rein with an expression of disbelief.

The feeling of their tank being hit in the last battle was still fresh in their minds, but the huge tremor and loud noise did not seem to have appeared. In its place was a sound like a knock on the door, plus a slight shake. Compared to that heart-stopping experience, this feeling was simply too wonderful.

“Boom!” Andre was not idle. Just as Bruce was trying to figure out if his tank had really been hit, he had fired the third shell of the day. The shell whistled as it slammed into the front of the charging French B1 tank. In the commander’s panoramic periscope, Rein saw the French tank’s track break from the huge vibration, and also saw the 75mm short-barreled infantry gun on the front of the B1 tank tilt to one side due to the deformation of the frontal armor plate.

Before Rein could continue to admire the power of the 88mm armor-piercing shell, the B1 tank had burst into flames. No one from the crew had climbed out to escape. Perhaps the shell just now had killed the crew inside.

“Boom!” With the explosion of the charging French B1, came another salvo from the German Panther tanks. The shells flew toward the French tanks in the village. Another S35 and two FT-17s were turned into smoking wreckage. The ammunition of one of the hit FT-17s cooked off, and its turret was thrown into the sky. The huge explosion made Alice let out a cry of surprise.

“Rein! The French are retreating!” Marcus’s voice came through the headset. “I see their infantry fleeing to the rear of the village.”

Rein observed carefully and found that indeed, behind several smoking French tanks, a large number of French infantry were fleeing. So he pressed the intercom and gave the order to attack. “All units, start your engines, maintain a line formation and cover each other, 30 kilometers per hour, advance!”

With his command, the exhaust pipes at the rear of the tanks spewed black smoke, and the four tanks lined up and charged toward the French-controlled village. For the first time all this way, they had perfectly brought their tanks’ technical advantages to bear, proving the excellence of the German tanks with a completely one-sided, crushing battle.

The battle had never been so simple. They had just fired from a distance and then had forced the French army, whose range was clearly insufficient, to abandon their positions. It was like a shooting practice, without any suspense. Everyone had just kept firing and then had boasted about their results to each other.

By the time Rein’s tank had charged into the village, he found that about 20 of the fleeing French tanks were in the distance, and they had destroyed another seven French tanks on their way into the village. In other words, they had destroyed 18 French tanks in one go. This combat result could be considered exceptionally glorious.

Compared to their slaughter, the French had only managed to hit a German tank with a single shell from beginning to end, and the damage was only the size of a coin. For a Tiger tank with an armor thickness of 100 millimeters, this was simply insignificant.

When Rein’s four tanks returned from the village, the panzergrenadiers who were holding the line on the riverbank gave their heroes the most enthusiastic applause. Most of them had personally witnessed the scene of Rein’s tanks knocking over the French tanks, one after another, and they whistled loudly at the triumphant return of these tanks.

In the afternoon, two trucks transporting fuel suddenly arrived at the battalion. This made everyone excited. The entire unit was almost out of fuel. For the officers and men of the 3rd SS Panzer Division, the timely arrival of supplies at this time was very heartening news.

And along with the fuel, an order from the Führer himself to continue to advance was also delivered to the troops. This order ignored the High Command’s report on the fuel shortage at the front and ordered von Rundstedt to find a way to continue the attack. When the battalion commander read this order to the officers at the meeting, everyone in the room let out a cheer.