Chapter 368.2 The Winter War (20)

The Finnish soldiers on the Mannerheim Line watched nervously as the colossal object slowly advanced towards them. Despite its extremely slow speed, it had already approached to within less than 2000 meters of the defensive line.

"How do we deal with this thing?" The Finnish military officers on the Mannerheim Line couldn't hide their deep anxiety and concern. "Colonel Hans, can the Panzerfaust destroy it?"

Among the equipment that came as German support, there were many Panzerfaust anti-tank rocket launchers, including the upgraded version of the 100 model, the Panzerfaust 150 model.

The Panzerfaust 150 model still adopted the design principles of the previous Panzerfaust in terms of launch principle, but it featured a completely new structure in the warhead: a conical cap + cylindrical body. This design had several advantages: 1) simplified production, as the cap and body were produced separately and then assembled, improving production efficiency; 2) optimized aerodynamic shape increased range.

The diameter of the warhead of the Panzerfaust 150 model was only 105 millimeters, much smaller than other main models of 150 millimeters. This not only reduced the weight but also reduced air resistance, helping to increase the range.

Through a more scientific shape of the explosive charge and detonation distance, although the diameter of the explosive charge and the armor-piercing charge of the Panzerfaust 150 model were smaller than those of the 30/60/100 models, the armor-piercing power remained the same level: 220 millimeters. Additionally, to compensate for the reduction in lethality due to the reduced mass of the warhead, the Panzerfaust 150 model was specially designed with a pre-formed fragmentation sleeve for the warhead, which significantly increased the destructive effect on soft targets. It can be said that the Panzerfaust 150 model was a breakthrough in the development of the Panzerfaust family, preliminarily establishing the guiding position of this type of weapon in the design of post-war individual anti-tank weapons!

Although Colonel Hans was not entirely sure whether their Panzerfaust 150 model could destroy this monster, he couldn't afford to be pessimistic at this time. "Of course, even if we can't penetrate its frontal armor, piercing through the side armor will be a piece of cake. As long as that tank gets close to the defensive line, it's doomed." Now they could only hope that its armor thickness was less than 220 millimeters.

What Wilhelm didn't know was that this "Soviet version" of the Maus tank had some differences in firepower from the German version. The original design's 128mm KwK44 L/55 main gun was replaced with a 152mm Howitzer M-10 cannon, the same as the tank gun on the KV-2 heavy tank; and the 75mm secondary gun was replaced with a 76.2mm tank gun, the same as the tank gun on the KV-1.

The gasoline engine, spinning at high speed, continuously generated electricity through cables, delivering it to the rear electric motor. The drive wheel slowly turned, driving the track over a meter wide, moving forward.

Inside this tank, there were a total of six crew members, but interestingly, they were not real soldiers but test drivers. This super tank had not completed its test run before being brought to the battlefield, which made Lavlenkin, who served as the tank commander, feel somewhat uneasy. He kept praying in his heart, hoping that nothing would go wrong and that they could complete their mission smoothly, perhaps even earning some commendation afterwards.

However, as the saying goes, "fear attracts danger." Just as they were nearing the Finnish defensive line, Lavlenkin caught a whiff of a pungent burnt smell. "Damn it!" He couldn't help but curse inwardly and shouted loudly, "Stop the tank, stop the tank! There must be some problem again. Yuri, go check it out!" Fortunately, they had become accustomed to such occurrences. From assembly to now, the vehicle had encountered various minor and major issues. Raff Leonkin skillfully arranged for people to inspect the fault, praying in his heart that it was just a minor problem.

Seeing the steel behemoth stop eight hundred meters away, the Finnish soldiers couldn't help but look at each other, none of them knowing why it had halted there motionless.

"Fire!" At an anti-tank artillery firing position, the artillery squad leader finally couldn't bear it any longer and loudly ordered to fire.

"Boom!"

The gunner pulled the firing rope forcefully, and a flash of fire appeared at the muzzle as an armor-piercing shell shot towards the colossal object on the opposite side at an invisible speed, slamming fiercely into its frontal armor.

Dang!

With a crisp sound, the 50mm shell weakly bounced off, leaving only a small dent on the armor plate.

Inside the tank, Lavlenkin also heard the impact sound, knowing that the Finnish soldiers opposite had opened fire. He sneered contemptuously. "These ignorant fools. Mikhail, let them taste our power."

"Roger!" Gunner Mikhail responded excitedly. "Loading high-explosive shells!"

The turret of the Maus tank was quite large, with ample space inside and two loaders assigned. One loader lifted the high-explosive shell head and inserted it into the breech, while the other picked up the propellant charge, also inserting it before closing the breech. Generally, when the caliber of the shell exceeded 120 millimeters, separate loading charges were used, as manual loading became inadequate at this point. "Loading complete!"

The shell was incoming straight from the front, and Mikhail hardly adjusted the gun barrel before finding the target, immediately stepping on the pedal.

"Boom!" Amidst the tremendous cannon blast, the interior of the entire turret was filled with smoke, and the relatively inefficient smoke extraction system began to vent.

During World War II, tanks had small-caliber guns, lacked overall turret sealing, and had poor airtightness (some tanks didn't even use periscopes, but instead had a small slit in the hull for external viewing), so the necessity of exhaust extraction was not prominent. The technology of drilling inclined holes on the gun barrel was also not up to standard at that time, so tanks during World War II generally did not have exhaust extraction devices.

However, for large-caliber guns like the 152mm, if they didn't have exhaust extraction devices, the crew inside would either be choked to death or have to wear gas masks. So, this tank was considered the first to be equipped with a smoke extraction device. However, this device wasn't very efficient, and everyone still coughed violently from the smoke.

Lavlenkin coughed as he looked through the periscope and saw the shell landing near the anti-tank artillery firing position.

Although it didn't directly hit, the power of a 152mm high-explosive shell was no joke. This thing weighed 52kg. When it exploded on the ground, it could easily create a crater with a diameter of about 5 meters and a depth of nearly 2-3 meters. Its shockwave could destroy light armor within 3 meters, multiple layers of brick walls within 10 meters, and cause serious damage to doors, windows, and glass within about 20 meters. The explosion's shrapnel could cause casualties to unprotected soft targets within a radius of 40-50 meters.

Lavlenkin clearly saw several gunners at the anti-tank artillery position being blasted into the air, with what seemed like a mist of blood in the air. Obviously, they didn't survive. And the anti-tank gun rolled to the side. Although it wasn't clear what condition it was in, Lavlenkin believed that it couldn't be used anymore.

At this moment, Yuri, who was investigating the fault, reported, "Report, the core component of the motor is completely damaged. We can only wait for a new part to be sent from the factory."

"Damn it!" Lavlenkin cursed softly. "Communicator, report to the higher-ups to send the part over. Notify the rear units to continue their attack, and we'll cover them here."