"Smoke bombs!" Bazel shouted.

The advantage of the German army is that the company level has its own mortar support firepower, and this support firepower is not weak...... Each platoon had a mortar crew, and this mortar crew consisted of three people: a team leader who carried binoculars, rifles, poles, and 10 shells. Two crews, each carrying a barrel and a base, and 20 shells.

That is, a platoon is armed with a mortar with 50 shells.

In this way, the whole company has three infantry platoons, that is, three mortars.

IN FACT, IN MANY CASES, THE GERMAN INFANTRY COMPANY WAS EQUIPPED WITH FIVE 50MM CALIBER MORTARS, BECAUSE THE GERMAN ARMY ALSO HAD AN ANTI-TANK GROUP UNDER THE COMPANY'S FORMATION.

This anti-tank group was originally armed with PzB anti-tank rifles...... There is a team leader and six members, and each two of them are equipped with one anti-tank rifle, that is, three anti-tank rifles.

But when it comes to this anti-tank rifle, it is a bitter tear: its armor penetration depth at a distance of 100 meters is only 30 mm, while the British "Matilda" tank even has 50 mm of rear armor, which means that the anti-tank gun cannot penetrate even the rear of the enemy's tank.

This became a laughing stock among the German army, and the anti-tank group was simply powerless against enemy tanks.

But that's not the worst of it.

Even if an anti-tank rifle can't fight a tank, it can always hit an armored vehicle or an enemy car on the battlefield, and an armored vehicle can barely be considered a "combat vehicle".

This is no longer a problem in terms of penetration, and even anti-tank rifles can penetrate targets at a distance of 300 meters (note: the PzB anti-tank rifle has a penetration depth of 25 mm at 300 meters).

The question is...... The anti-tank rifle is a big guy, it looks like a cannon in front of the trench, and it will be detected and targeted by the enemy from afar, which makes it an easy target for enemy snipers, machine gunners and even mortars, and the weight of the anti-tank rifle at 16 kg makes it difficult to move quickly.

SO THIS THING BECAME A COMPLETE CHICKEN RIB, AND THE GERMAN SOLDIERS WERE RELUCTANT TO GO TO THE BATTLEFIELD WITH THIS KIND OF EQUIPMENT THAT COULD NOT EFFECTIVELY FIGHT THE ENEMY, BUT SPECIALIZED IN THEIR OWN USE, AND THEY PREFERRED TO REPLACE THE ANTI-TANK RIFLE WITH A MACHINE GUN OR A 50MM MORTAR.

Bazel's company changed the anti-tank group into two mortar groups, so that the whole company had 5 mortars.

As soon as Bazel gave the order, the five mortars fired a volley of smoke bombs at the forward positions, and in an instant, a cloud of smoke rose between the positions of the enemy and us.

"Get on the bayonet!" Bazel commanded loudly.

Colonel Albridge, who was commanding at the front, noticed the smoke at the first time and couldn't help but be furious.

"What are they doing?" Colonel Albridge scolded: "Actually shooting smoke grenades in front of tanks? Didn't they know that this would affect tank shooting? ”

Colonel Albridge had lost the calm of a commander after being beaten in the stomach by the British, otherwise he should have known that smoke grenades would affect enemy tanks as well as their own tanks.

However, to Colonel Albridge's surprise, it was still to come, as a field of mortar shells passed, a German infantry actually charged the enemy through the tanks through smoke and dust!

"Hell!" Colonel Albridge yelled hysterically: "Which unit is this?" Let them stop this stupid practice right away! ”

"Yes!" The adjutant responded.

"God!" Colonel Albridge continued to roar: "How did these infantry get out of the training camp? How can we hope to win with these fools......"

But before the words fell, Colonel Albridge seemed to see the problem, and the British tanks did not seem to respond much to the infantry charging forward, as did the British infantry behind the tanks.

Of course, the British tanks did not react much, as said before, the main target of the "Crusader" tank was the enemy's tanks, so it did not even have a course machine gun, only a side-by-side machine gun installed side by side with the tank's main gun.

The heading machine gun, also known as the front machine gun, is installed on the right side of the cab driver and is served by the radio operator, and can move up and down, left and right to shoot. This thing is the real infantry killer, as it is separated from the gunner and the firing range is not limited by the main gun...... The initial "Crusader" tanks were not armed with course machine guns.

Side-by-side machine guns, of course, can also strafe infantry.

But here's the problem......

The juxtaposition machine gun rotates with the main gun, and the same person, the gunner, operates the main gun and the juxtaposition machine gun. At this time, the gunner was manipulating the main gun nervously looking for the opposite tank in the smoke, and of course he could not operate the machine gun.

What's more, the visibility inside the tank and the perception of the outside world are very limited, so the gunner and even the other tank crews are not aware that there are infantry charging at them in the smoke.

As for the British soldiers behind the tanks, they may have noticed that the German infantry was charging, after all, the desert was windy, and the smoke was also thick, and the enemy could faintly be seen leaping forward.

The problem was that the shells of the enemy's mortars were pouring down on them in pieces, and they were simply unable to organize an effective defense in a short time, and they wanted to notify the tanks but could not get in touch with the tankmen.

(Note: At this time, the tank did not have an external telephone, and it was not until the Vietnam War that the United States installed a telephone in the rear of the tank, so that the infantry hiding behind it could easily talk to the crew in the tank for coordination)

As a result, the British could only watch as the German soldiers rushed forward with bayonets.

Qin Chuan was one of the soldiers rushing forward in the smoke, and he couldn't tell how he felt at this time...... The suffocating smoke, the shells exploded in front of them, the bullets whistled overhead, and what was even more terrifying was that there were monster-like "Crusader" tanks standing in front of them, their barrels towering, and from time to time they fired an armor-piercing bullet at the opposite side with a "boom".

Although Qin Chuan knew that these tanks would not threaten his safety, this was also the basis for Qin Chuan's proposal to charge...... But these are, after all, enemy tanks, a killing machine, as long as their gunners find something and turn their attention to the ground, or their drivers pick up speed and step on the accelerator......

All of this made Qin Chuan's feet as heavy as lead, but Qin Chuan still tried to make himself leap forward, following his own cannonballs that stretched forward, because he knew that his only way to survive was to move forward.

ALTHOUGH THE MAXIMUM RANGE OF THE 50MM MORTAR IS ONLY 500 METERS, WHICH MAKES IT OFTEN SUPPRESSED BY ENEMY MACHINE GUNS OR SNIPERS, THE 50MM MORTAR CAN ALMOST BE SAID TO BE AN ARTIFACT IF THE BATTLE REQUIRES SOME LEVEL OF CLOSE FIRE SUPPORT OR PENETRATING THE ENEMY'S TRENCHES...... Each mortar has 50 shells, and if you hit the enemy's position as quickly as possible in a flash, there will be a period of time when the enemy will be completely suppressed and unable to return fire, and the Germans often take advantage of this time to launch a charge.