The decisive battle against the Third Reich - #955 - Chapter 952 Amphibious Tank

“They’re coming!”

When Qin Chuan and Eberhard were gathering to smoke a cigarette, someone shouted.

Qin Chuan and Eberhard quickly threw away their cigarettes and raised their rifles.

Looking at the opposite side through the sniper scope, Qin Chuan unexpectedly discovered that the US military was still launching a forced crossing under the cover of tanks as last time, and this time they did not even have enough tools to force the crossing because there were many improvised rafts and many The US soldiers improvised some floating tools and planned to swim… To be honest, swimming alone in this situation would be safer than using an assault boat or rubber boat.

However, this is also somewhat obviously incongruous for the US military, which has always been equipped with very high-end equipment.

“Something’s wrong!” Eberhard said: “The Americans shouldn’t fight like this! They acted a little too brave… They knew they couldn’t break through our defenses like this!”

Qinchuan understood what Eberhard meant: the German defense had not weakened, and the U.S. military’s firepower and offensive intensity had decreased instead of increasing. Unless something unexpected happened, it would be difficult for the U.S. military to break through the German defense line.

Qin Chuan immediately contacted Kuhn who was located on the Great Solsi Island in the north.

“Report the situation!” Qin Chuan said: “Have the Americans also launched an attack on you?”

“Yes, Lieutenant Colonel!” Kuhn replied: “They obviously lack swimming tools. I think they should put their main force on Route 69!”

To be more precise, it was because Montgomery was blocking it, so the U.S. 3rd Army’s supplies were not sufficient. Later, the U.S. 3rd Army even had to attack them all the way from Normandy to the German artillery captured from the warehouse. and artillery shells were hauled to the front and put into use.

After hanging up the phone, Qin Chuan hid in the trench in a daze, letting the sound of gunfire and artillery fire outside. From time to time, several artillery shells exploded nearby, causing a cloud of rubble and even blood and corpses to fall from the sky.

If this situation happened to the Soviet Union, Qin Chuan would not be surprised at all.

The characteristic of the Soviet army is that their pressure is not on soldiers or public opinion, but on superiors or Stalin, that is, they are responsible to their superiors rather than to their subordinates. This allowed the Soviet commanders to blindly ask the soldiers to charge bravely, and even shirk the responsibility to the soldiers if they lost the battle.

The U.S. military is different. They are responsible to both superiors and subordinates. Public opinion can even force commanders to make explanations or even be questioned by the military.

For example, Patton has been unable to be promoted not because he did not fight well. In fact, his performance on the battlefield was much better than Montgomery. His problem was that he spoke unscrupulously in front of the media, coupled with the “ear-blocking incident” The media clung to him, causing Patton to have talent but Eisenhower did not dare to use it.

From this point of view, when Patton was commanding operations, he would not dare to let American soldiers rush forward in a swarm to die as he did now.

On the other hand, grassroots officers and soldiers of the US military also have greater autonomy. If they believe that this is a meaningless battle that sacrifices the lives of their own men, then they will choose to disobey.

In other words, the US military must have their purpose in doing this. To be more precise, there is a reason for Patton to convince his two infantry divisions to carry out this meaningless forced crossing.

What is the reason?

The only reason is that the forced crossing carried out by these two divisions was a feint attack.

If it was a feint attack on the Big and Little Sorsey Islands, then their real target of attack should be… Chambord Island!

Thinking of this, Qin Chuan quickly called the baker in charge of Shambil Island.

“Get ready for battle immediately!” Qin Chuan ordered: “The Americans are likely to attack you!”

“But, Lieutenant Colonel…” the baker asked doubtfully: “How can they come here!”

“I don’t know!” Qin Chuan replied: “I only know that they can come here and do as I say!”

“Yes, Lieutenant Colonel!” the baker responded, and then immediately organized the defense of Chambier Island.

But what makes the baker a little helpless is that… there are only more than 3,000 people stationed on Chambord Island, and these 3,000 people are not cadet soldiers, they are more automobile soldiers, cooks, maintenance personnel, etc. Some of them even do target shooting I haven’t even called a few times.

Even so, the baker ordered them into bunkers and trenches to prepare for defense.

After Qin Chuan gave the order, he stretched out his telescope to observe the enemy’s movements across the river.

Then he saw “smoke” on one side.

In fact, it was not “smoke”, but the exhaust of tanks and vehicles… Qinchuan immediately judged that it was an armored force, an armored force with a large number of tanks.

However, tanks cannot cross the river, so what is the use of a large number of tanks? !

Qin Chuan understood in the next second.

“Amphibious tanks!” Qin Chuan shouted: “They have amphibious tanks and maybe amphibious landing craft!”

Eberhard couldn’t help but widen his eyes after hearing this.

“Lieutenant Colonel!” Eberhard said: “You mean, they are equipped with amphibious tanks and amphibious landing craft like us?”

Qinchuan didn’t know how to answer… The idea of ​​amphibious tanks and amphibious landing craft should be said to have originally come from the Americans. They invented these things according to battlefield needs when fighting the Japanese army in the Pacific battlefield and applied them to the European battlefield.

Qinchuan just used them on the German army in advance based on his own advantages.

But there was no time to explain so much at this time. Qin Chuan replied: “Yes, they plan to use amphibious tanks to force a crossing of the Moselle River. Their target is Chambier Island… Tell them to be prepared for anti-tank!”

“Yes, Lieutenant Colonel!” Eberhard immediately conveyed the order to Chambord Island.

“Concentrate all artillery in the middle river!” This was Qinchuan’s second order.

The so-called middle river channel refers to the middle position between Little Sorsey Island and Big Sorsey Island.

This was supposed to be the area with the strongest firepower, because the Big and Little Solsey Islands could form crossfire on it.

The problem is that most of the artillery on the Big and Little Solsey Islands are abandoned… As mentioned before, the artillery on the fort has been replaced by machine guns, and only some of the worn-out artillery are concentrated at the rear according to model and caliber. Used as artillery.

Therefore, Qinchuan did not dare to hope that they could block the offensive of the US armored forces.

So Qin Chuan issued the third order: “Concentrate all ME63 to the central part!”

Before Qin Chuan finished speaking, he saw US armored troops appearing in the sight of the telescope… It was just as Qin Chuan guessed, those amphibious landing tanks, because Qin Chuan saw some of the tents on their bodies through the telescope. It’s even inflated and ready to go into the water.