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

The 9th Armored Regiment is the unit responsible for attacking the back of the Harfaya defense line.

You should know that both enemy and us are marching in the desert at night. The desert is very wide, and it is also the desert when the wind blows. The sky is full of dust and the visibility is very low. The probability of collision between them is very small. Sometimes it is difficult to find out where a unit is going.

But things happened so coincidental. The 21st Armored Division, who was rushing to the right wing to reinforce, accidentally bumped into the British army that was interspersing with the defense line of Halfa.

An armored division collided with an armored regiment, and the German armored division had 150 new "No. 3" tanks, while the British armored regiment had only 50 "Stuart" tanks...

Although the "Stuart" tank is American, it is just a light tank with a total combat weight of only 12.5 tons, which is 7.5 tons lighter than the German-made "No. 3" tank (No.: The weight of the artillery in the "No. 3" 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 by the "Stuart" tank is a 37MM caliber cannon... This batch of American equipment was originally used to equip the Chinese Expeditionary Force to deal with the Japanese army. The armor of the Japanese tanks is notoriously thin, so the "Stuart" tanks can fully meet the combat needs of the Asian battlefield, but now it is transferred to Africa on the line of fire by Churchill to face the German army. That is another matter.

The gun caliber of the "Stuart" is the same as the "No. 3" tank before the replacement, so if the "No. 3" is not replaced, it may have a slight advantage but not much advantage.

However, at this time, the "No. 3" tank was equipped with a 50MM anti-tank gun. This thing can penetrate the "Matilda" tank's 78MM armor within a distance of 400 meters, and it is even more difficult to deal with the "Stuart" 44MM armor.

So after a burst of impact, the team of the British 9th Armored Regiment was defeated. The two sides could see the winners and the defeats were immediately decided as soon as they contacted. The tanks of the British 9th Armored Regiment were either destroyed or surrendered... Some British armored soldiers were not even too late to surrender, because before they could run out of the tank, they stretched out the white flag shells and penetrated the armor of their tanks.

From this we can also see General Ochinlek's mistake: when the tanks on the entire side do not have the advantage in performance but the number is superior, do not divide the troops and be defeated by the enemy one by one.

Regarding this, some historians speculate that General Ochinlek did not know that the German "No. 3" had been replaced by 37MM into a 50MM tank gun.

Because I don't know, I think the "Stuart" tank is comparable to the "Number 3", and even the "Stuart" is better than the "Number 3" in some aspects, such as mobility and firepower suppression on infantry.

This idea is correct, because the Stuart's top speed is 58 kilometers per hour, which is a bit faster than the No. 3 tank.

The "Stuart" tank has so many auxiliary weapons that make people feel abnormal: one side-by-side machine gun, one heading machine gun, two side machine guns on the vehicle body, and one mounted above the turret... In other words, there are five machine guns in total.

Each tank has five machine guns. If five machine guns fire at the same time, it will be almost a moving fire fortress. It can be imagined that any infantry will collapse like a destruction under the fire of the "Stuart" machine gun.

So if "Stuart" is used properly, its performance is indeed not inferior to "No. 3", because "Stuart" can use its high maneuverability and powerful machine gun firepower to force the German side to separate the stairs and tanks. After the "Stuart" is separated... Because the tank has poor external perception ability, the "No. 3" tank will have to be surrounded and annihilated by the enemy.

But this part of historians' speculation is untenable, because General Ochinlek has too many ways to obtain German intelligence, such as "super secrets", such as spies arranged in Tobrook and underground organizations, etc. Even people with no military knowledge can see the difference between 37MM artillery and 50MM artillery, let alone spies and underground organizations with military qualities.

So there is only one explanation for General Ochinlek to do this, and he made the mistake of dividing troops and advancing in tactical terms.

In fact, there is one thing that played a big role in this battle, that is, the phone number installed behind a tank that Qin Chuan invented.

The tanks at this time can be said to have basically no night combat capabilities, such as British tanks, German tanks, and American tanks.

Because in the dark night, the gunner only saw a blurry shadow in front of him, and he could not judge the distance at all, and even the darkness could not see anything.

After the phone call, this problem was solved very well. The combat mode of the German "No. 3" tank is usually like this:

The infantry shouted over the phone: "At three o'clock, 50 meters, enemy tanks!"

After receiving the message, the commander shouted: "Armor Piercing Bulletin, at three o'clock, 50 meters!"

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

If the gunner still can't see the target, he will shout: "I can't see it!"

The commander shouted to the infantry on the phone: "Give some light!"

"Give some light!"

...

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

Of course, car headlights are more dangerous, because when turning on the light, it will also expose yourself to become the target of the enemy, so this is not often used.

It turns out that there is a big difference between whether infantry is in time to coordinate, especially in this case of poor visibility, because this almost means whether the tank crew can detect the target tank in time and effectively destroy it.

As a result, the British 9th Armored Regiment was almost destroyed. 23 of 50 "Stuart" tanks were destroyed on the spot, 18 became prisoners, and only 9 tanks, which were originally behind the troops, quickly turned around and ran away when they saw the situation was not good... The advantage of the "Stuart" tank is that its body is light and fast, which is very suitable for escape. The German "No. 3" tank could not catch up at all.

Then the battle ended soon, and Qin Chuan and others didn't even have time to join the war. When they caught up, they saw destroyed "Stuart" tanks and British troops with their hands raised and their faces were frightened.

Werner lit a submachine gun at a "Stuart" that was burning in a fire and said, "Is this an American tank? It doesn't look as good as the "Matilda"!"
Chapter completed!