Moreover, because the Chinese army was identified as "infantry in tanks", Heinz also divided the tank regiment into three parts as battalions: two tank battalions were to flank the armored forces of the expeditionary force on the left and right, and the other battalion was directly attacking Mahelama. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

In some ways, Heinz Landau's approach made sense, as the battle focused on capturing Maherama's supplies, especially the Germans' short supply of fuel.

Without fuel, all the tanks of the German army could not be used, and at the same time, it was difficult for the German army in North Africa to get supplies from Italy or Germany, so this fuel could be said to be the hope of the North African Corps.

And because only one match is needed to destroy these fuels, it is understandable that Heinz Landau did this, and more importantly, a direct attack on Maherama can cut off the supply line of the Chinese armored regiment, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

The problem lies in the fact that the Chinese army is not the "infantry in the tank" that Heinz Landau imagined, and the "Sherman" tank is better than the German No. 2 and No. 3 tanks in both attack and defense.

Zhang Chi sat in a half-track armored car, holding a telescope through the observation port on the roof of the car to observe the front, and the sound of tank tracks "clucking" and the roar of the motor were everywhere around him.

Maybe Zhang Chi should stand on a "Sherman" tank and command as depicted in movies and television, but this is actually inappropriate......

First of all, the internal space of the tank is very small, which is simply not enough to accommodate the communication and personnel assistants required by the command.

The second is that the speed of the tank is too slow, with a speed of only 38 kilometers per hour, which is not conducive to the rapid maneuver of the command to grasp the overall situation.

The third is that tanks are used for combat, and the number of tanks of the expeditionary force is already at a disadvantage compared to the German army, so it should not occupy scarce combat resources as command vehicles.

With a "woo-......", two German reconnaissance planes swooped down from the sky, perhaps because they saw that the Chinese army had no fighter planes to cover, so they wanted to take the opportunity to harass the expeditionary force and try to disrupt the formation of the expeditionary force's armored troops.

But they soon realized that they had made a mistake......

Before they could start firing, anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns on the ground rang out...... For the needs of air defense and combat, the rear of the "Sherman" tank is equipped with an anti-aircraft machine gun, this anti-aircraft machine gun is more infantry climbing on the tank in the rear to provide fire cover for the tank when fighting with the Japanese army, but it is not often used, because the Japanese army's marksmanship is accurate and long-range, which is very dangerous and unnecessary...... "Sherman" tank is an invincible existence for the Japanese army, and there is not much need for cover, so in the Pacific theater, this machine gun is simply dismantled so as not to be owned by the Japanese army.

Of course, the North African theater would not have done this, so dozens of anti-aircraft machine guns, plus the cannons of the M3 tracked vehicles...... The dense rain of bullets blew up one of the German reconnaissance planes, and the other hurriedly fired a shuttle of bullets downwards before fleeing with a black tail.

Later, Zhang Chi learned that the German reconnaissance planes were not actually here to "pick up bargains," but on the one hand, they did this to intuitively indicate the enemy's position to the German armored units in the distance so that they could outflank them, and on the other hand, they wanted to test the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army.

Heinz Landau quickly got a counterattack from the pilots: "The enemy is very well organized, and the combat effectiveness may be very strong!" ”

Heinz Landau couldn't help frowning when he heard this, he couldn't believe this information...... Perhaps he did not want to believe it, because if this information was true, he should reassess the enemy's combat strength, then he should withdraw all his deployments until more than 30 No. 4 tanks ten miles away caught up...... Among the German tanks, only tank No. 4 was able to fight the "Sherman".

If Heinz did this, then Zhang Chi would be difficult to do, because it would mean that the 80 "Shermans" of the expeditionary force would have to face the 30 No. 4 tanks of the German army plus two or 300 No. 2 and No. 3 tanks, plus the Germans were still veterans of tank group operations, and most of the Chinese troops' use of tanks was to cover the infantry to launch an attack on the enemy's defensive line...... The quantity, quality, and tactics of the Japanese tanks made it impossible for tanks to fight in a cluster in the Pacific theater.

So such a synthesis, the biggest possibility is the destruction of the entire armored force of the expeditionary force, and then the loss of Mahairama.

But after hesitating for a few seconds, Heinz Landau still didn't choose to do so.

The reason is that Heinz Landau thought of the word "fast...... Blitzkrieg, it is to be fast, if it drags on like this, what if the British reinforcements arrive? What if the Air Force arrives ?!

"They may have some experience in air defense!" Heinz Landau gave himself an excuse: "But that doesn't mean they're going to use tanks!" ”

So, a few minutes later, the German armored unit appeared in the aperture of the telescope.

I saw smoke and dust billowing on the horizon, and two groups of German tanks that Zhang Chi was not familiar with appeared on the left and right flanks of the Chinese armored forces...... The dust they kicked up was so large that Zhang Chi could only see the row of tanks in front of him. In the sunlight, the black cross on the side armor of the tank looked very eye-catching, but seeing the guns of those tanks made Zhang Chi feel a little relieved...... Their tank guns are obviously not as thick as those of the Sherman, and they are supposed to be the No. 2 and No. 3 tanks Jon is talking about.

(Note: Tank 2 uses a 20mm gun, Tank 3 uses a 37mm gun, and Sherman uses a 76mm gun)

Then, Abner, who was observing on another half-track armored car, confirmed Zhang Chi's guess: "It's all tanks No. 2 and No. 3, and no tank No. 4 has been found!" ”

"Slow down! Get ready for battle! This was Zhang Chi's first order.

The range and armor-piercing ability of the "Sherman" tank gun was superior to that of the German tanks No. 2 and No. 3, so the "Sherman" tank certainly needed to take advantage of this advantage and not rush into close combat.

As a result, the tank formation quickly slowed down and formed an arc towards the German tank group approaching the flanks under the transfer of the commander, and at the same time, the fighters on the half-track armored vehicles also jumped out of the vehicles, rifles, submachine guns and, of course, Bazooka bazookas followed behind the tanks. The artillerymen set up anti-tank guns in the rear as fast as they could......