Steel Soviet Union

Although the final result of the three Type 40 tungsten core armor-piercing bullets being all bounced away by the ricochet seemed natural to the Malashenko crew, it was not the case for the German army that had just taken over the Type III J1 medium tank. .

The logistics quartermaster who escorted the new tank to them had sworn that the new Panzer III tank equipped with a 60 times caliber 50mm main gun could definitely effectively deal with Soviet tanks, whether it was T34 or KV1 , in theory, can be directly penetrated the frontal armor by the Type 40 tungsten-core armor-piercing projectile fired from this main gun.

However, the theoretical paper data does not represent the final actual combat effect. When calculating the damage effect of the new 60 times caliber 50 mm tank gun firing Type 40 tungsten core armor-piercing projectiles on Soviet tanks, we were in the rear and did not have Soviet samples in our hands. The German engineers who provided reference for the vehicle only used the penetration data of the vertical homogeneous steel armor target plate, and did not introduce the variation of the 50 mm caliber main gun to the tilted equivalent armor based on the calculation of the TD value formula. Penetration data.

In other words, in the era of full-caliber charge armor-piercing projectiles with the emergence of fin-stabilized discarding sabots, it is very inaccurate to directly apply the vertical penetration data to the equivalent armor data to calculate the penetration.

A series of factors such as the tilt angle of the armor being attacked and the angle of incidence of the incoming armor-piercing projectile, as well as the physical thickness of the armor itself, will ultimately affect whether the armor will be penetrated. This set of extremely complex penetration calculation formulas changes randomly based on the offensive and defensive values ​​​​of both sides on the battlefield. The concept of TD value is still a relatively advanced and untouched field in 1941.

In this still vague field, a mistake that was considered very childish by later generations was made. The vertical penetration depth was directly brought into the equivalent armor to calculate whether the penetration effect could be produced. In the end, the German tank engineer team's sworn credibility was eliminated. The guarantee of penetrating Soviet tanks turned into an extremely bad and ruthless curse in the mouths of German armored soldiers.

"Asshole! That idiot who sent us the new tank actually dared to promise us that he would be able to penetrate Ivan's tank armor. I should have beaten that bastard!"

"What's the use of talking about this now!? Reloading! You also saw the results during the target shooting test. There is no reason why the new tank gun can't penetrate Ivan's tank armor. This time it's a capped armor-piercing bullet! That damn tungsten core armor-piercing bullet The best result is to hit it without being bounced off, it’s not reliable at all!”

The Type 40 tungsten-core armor-piercing bullet, which uses a conical sharp warhead shape to wrap the tungsten armor-piercing body of the bullet core, is not only easily deflected by the tilted armor of Soviet tanks because it has no positive effect by the cap, but also has no conical rectifying hood. The flight speed storage effect brought by the warhead shape is also not satisfactory.

Therefore, although the Type 40 tungsten core armor-piercing projectile used by the German army has a very high paper penetration value for vertically homogeneous steel armor, this value will increase as the distance between the German tanks and the Soviet tanks increases. And it is extremely attenuated. In layman's terms, the flight speed storage effect of the Type 40 tungsten-core armor-piercing bullet is extremely poor when dealing with long-distance targets. Once the combat distance is extended far enough, the armor-piercing performance of the Type 40 tungsten-core armor-piercing bullet is even worse than traditional ones. Full caliber armor-piercing projectile.

Knowing that the type 40 tungsten core armor-piercing projectiles used by our own side have serious shortcomings of extremely poor long-range storage speed, the long combat distance of 800 meters between the offensive and defensive sides caused the German commander to mistakenly attribute all the blame for the failure to penetrate. The problem is that I didn’t choose the right type of ammunition.

Hoping that the traditional capped armor-piercing projectile could break the deadlock and bring about a gratifying final result, the German commander immediately gave the order without thinking, and then ordered the loader to take off a 50mm full-caliber capped armor-piercing projectile and stuff it into the gun. latch.

The other two Panzer III tanks, which received the order from the German armored platoon leader through the radio headset, also followed the same example and took out the second Type 40 tungsten core armor-piercing projectile that had been half stuffed into the breech and replaced it with a full-caliber one. Being limited by armor-piercing bullets, the almost incompetent German armored soldiers had no choice but to hope that these traditional armor-piercing bullets could perform miracles.

"Same target! The Russian KV in the lead, focus your fire and kill him first! Fire!"

Boom boom boom——

The three muzzle flashes that fired almost simultaneously tore apart the flying snow next to the dark muzzle and suddenly made a sudden sound. The muzzle velocity of the three rounds reached 830 meters per second. The 50mm full-caliber capped armor-piercing projectiles were wrapped in flames straight from the barrel. Rushing out, in just the blink of an eye, it hit the armor of Malashenko's car at different locations and made a sudden sound.

Gun mantlet, oblique sides of the vehicle body, and front armor under the vehicle body.

Three different armor parts were accurately hit by the incoming German armor-piercing projectiles almost at the same time. Iushkin, who was desperately shaking the turret steering gear in his hand, was suddenly shocked again. The German troops that followed were tickling him. The useless attack had completely angered this skilled Soviet tank gunner. Iushkin, who had never been so focused on by the enemy before, was so angry that his lungs were almost exploding.

"Ah!!! Damn Germans, you don't know what giving up is, right!? I'm going to kill you, leave no one behind! Kill you, kill you!!!"

Compared to Iushkin's ferocious expression as he once again desperately shook the turret steering gear in his hand, Malashenko, who had maintained a calm expression from just now until now, remained calm, like the impatient and irritable Iushkin. Shkin getting angry and losing his mind like that is the worst outcome that Malashenko should avoid.

"Relax! Stop shouting, Iushkin! Relax and aim at the weak points of those German tanks. Their Panzer III can't penetrate our frontal armor, even if they change the cannon, it will be useless!"

"Seryozha kept the vehicle facing the enemy. Our comrades have already caught up and asked them to deal with the Germans' frontal defense positions. The vehicle crew directly under the regiment headquarters immediately stopped and killed those German tanks!"

Following Malashenko's order into the microphone in his hand, several other prototype tanks directly under the regiment headquarters, all equipped with wireless communication radios for inter-vehicle communication, also stopped at the same time in compliance with Malashenko's order. Step forward.

Including the prototype commanded by Deputy Commander Lavrinenko, eight heavy tanks with different turret shapes but also using the KV chassis began to turn their turrets under the control of their respective crew gunners to prepare for attacks.

The car body and chassis that had not yet fully faced the German tank also began to turn simultaneously under the precise operation of the driver, in order to use the tank's strongest frontal armor defense to keep it facing the enemy.