Chapter 635: Hit
“1100 meters! 1100 meters ahead!” the commander of the rear Panther tank shouted, confirming the enemy’s firing position as he kicked the back of his gunner’s seat. The gunner had clearly hesitated for a split second upon hearing the range; he rarely received an order to fire at 1100 meters and hadn’t adapted for a moment.
After all, the German 75mm long-barreled cannon possessed an almost heaven-defying penetration power. When facing opponents like the French B1 tank or the Soviet T-26 and KV-1 at 1100 meters, the Panther’s main gun had enough penetration to destroy them. However, to ensure accuracy and out of extreme confidence in their own armor, German tank crews rarely opened fire on their targets at extreme range.
They would let the opponent close to a distance where they were relatively easy to destroy, then suddenly open fire and take out a large number of them. If the enemy then attempted to retreat, they would still be unable to immediately escape the Panther’s engagement range and would take several more hits. This was how the German panzer divisions had racked up so many of their kills.
But now, an enemy tank had opened fire from a distance of 1100 meters. This was a clear provocation to the long-held pride and honor of the German armored forces, and it shook the very foundation of their accumulated combat experience regarding engagement ranges.
This was not a T-34 tank. Although that Soviet tank had only recently entered service, it had been proven that its 76mm main gun could not penetrate the frontal armor of a mid- to late-production Panther. It was also not a KV-1 or KV-2, as the power and sound of the gunshot were different. This was clearly a new type of tank that had never appeared on the battlefield before.
“Don’t just stand there! Fire! Fire! Find a way to turn the tank, I need to get the hull facing the direction of the attack! Quick! Quick!” Both commanders were now urging their crews to shake off their daze. They had to escape this long-range bombardment as quickly as possible to ensure they weren’t unceremoniously taken out here.
“Forward! Off the roadbed, point the bow towards the incoming fire! Load the new ‘super’ armor-piercing rounds, let them know what we’re made of!” the ace tank commander shouted, giving the order to attack. No one in the world could suppress the German armored forces. No matter what powerful opponent they faced, the pride buried deep in the bones of the German panzer troops had never been tarnished.
The Panther’s drive wheels churned its tracks, rolling forward and flinging dirt to the sides as it charged aggressively towards its unseen opponent. The 75mm long-barreled cannon, which had once been invincible on the battlefield, swung its dark muzzle with utmost speed towards the direction where the blue smoke had not yet dissipated.
“Fire!” In the distance, inside the cramped interior of a tank, a Soviet Red Army tank commander gave the order to fire again. He had a knife-like scar on his face that ran from the top of his head down to his jawbone. The wound was hideous and had ruined what was once a cold, handsome face.
This commander was not wearing the standard padded helmet but had his headphones casually slung around his neck. His voice was icy cold, like an echo from the depths of hell, sending a chill down the spine. Another thing that set him apart from other Soviet soldiers was his collar; instead of the red tabs of the Red Army, his collar bore a pair of black wolf’s head icons.
BOOM! Without the slightest hesitation, his gunner immediately fired the shell. This time, the fearsome, large-caliber projectile flew over 1000 meters and, at the very end of its trajectory, struck the German Panther tank that was charging down the slope. Through the tank’s observation port, one could see the moment the shell struck the Panther’s frontal armor plate.
The Panther’s frontal armor was sloped. Against a shell coming from the front, this sloped design could increase its defensive effectiveness and cause the enemy’s shell to ricochet. But at this very moment, the Panther was charging down the roadbed, which doubled the angle of incidence for the Soviet shell, almost completely negating the effect of the sloped armor.
At the same time, the Soviet tank that had fired was not the under-gunned T-26, nor was it the equally mediocre T-34 or KV-1. It was the Stalin tank, of which fewer than 25 had been produced, armed with a 122mm main gun!
At the cost of rate of fire, this tank cannon, which used two-piece ammunition, was even more powerful than Germany’s current mainstay, the 88mm tank gun. Although its overall performance was not better than the world-famous 88mm due to difficult loading and other issues, its armor-piercing capability was extraordinary, finally giving Soviet tanks the ability to face German tanks head-on.
To make matters worse, this armor-piercing shell from the new Soviet Stalin tank struck the Panther at the weld point between the hull machine gun port and the frontal armor plate—a coincidental but fatal hit.
And so, under these circumstances, the Panther’s once-thick frontal armor was penetrated. The shell, along with shattered armor and various small parts shaken loose by the massive impact, formed a searing torrent of steel that ricocheted around the interior of the Panther, tearing through everything in its path.
“My God! Number 1 is hit! Number 1 is hit!” The 2nd Panther was still on the roadbed. It had just completed its turn when its commander witnessed the destruction of his friendly tank. That was an ace tank that had destroyed over a dozen enemy vehicles! It was an idol-like existence in everyone’s eyes! And here, on this nameless road, it was destroyed so easily.
Five tank crew members, five living souls, soldiers who had been alive and well just a moment ago, were instantly turned into five piles of corpses riddled with shrapnel. There is no time on the battlefield for the living to mourn the dead. A cloud of dirt and smoke erupted from the side of the 2nd Panther.
“There are two tanks! They have two new-model tanks!” The commander of the 2nd tank knew that his own men in the rear must be monitoring their communication channel. While directing the battle, he reported everything he encountered as much as possible to the battalion, or even regimental and divisional, headquarters in the rear.
“Halt, reverse slowly, watch the distance to the roadbed behind us, pop smoke, load armor-piercing!” Not a single one of the battle-hardened German tank crew members was a pushover. After a brief moment of panic, the entire crew of the 2nd vehicle calmed down. They all knew that panicking would not save their lives on the battlefield; only composure could help them live longer.
“Dark green paint! Their turrets are larger, with no sharp angles!” The commander of the 2nd vehicle kept his binoculars locked on the Soviet tank that had emerged from its camouflage and was slowly approaching, shouting out his observations.
BOOM! The Panther’s cannon fired. An armor-piercing round struck the Soviet tank’s turret squarely. It seemed the new German tungsten-core super armor-piercing round was very powerful. At 1000 meters, it had almost penetrated the thickened armor of the Stalin tank. Unfortunately for the Germans, their luck was not good; the shell had hit the thickest part of the Stalin tank’s armor, its turret.
The shell did not penetrate, leaving a deep pit in the Stalin’s armor as a souvenir. However, the massive impact had damaged the tank’s internal systems. The Soviet tank came to a wobbly halt, a little bit of smoke rising from its rear engine deck.
“No penetration! Super armor-piercing, load!” the commander said, lowering his binoculars and urging his men to prepare for the next shot.
Not far from this German tank, behind a bush, inside the Stalin tank with the black five-pointed star that had not yet moved, the man with the scar on his face squinted his eyes, snorted coldly, and cursed, “Idiot. The moment he sees a chance for glory, he rushes forward… to his death?”
Curse though he might, the loader beside him, as if deaf, silently rammed the projectile into the breech, then bent down to get the propellant charge from the floor, shoved it into the breech, and closed it.
“Fire!” Scarface ordered without the slightest hesitation. This was possibly the longest-range tank duel since the start of the Second World War. Before this, there had only been reports of German tanks firing unilaterally; there had never been an incident where an enemy tank had returned fire from 1100 meters and hit and destroyed a German tank.
However, it was clear that the Soviet tank’s rate of fire was too slow to save its unfortunate comrade. Before the Soviet tank could fire its second shot, the German tank had already fired its second and third shots. One shell hit the Stalin tank’s track, blowing off a dozen track links and destroying three road wheels. The other shell finally did not disappoint the German tank crew’s expectations. It penetrated the Stalin tank’s front hull armor, completely destroying the steel behemoth that had rushed out to pick up an easy kill, only to be knocked out by a single shot.
“Finally a penetration!” Before the German tank crew could even let out a sigh of relief, they felt their own tank shake violently, as if hit by a magnitude-eight earthquake. These soldiers, who had spent a long time fighting in tanks, all knew this meant their tank had been hit by an enemy cannon.
What was different from usual was that the caliber of the gun that had hit the Panther this time was a bit large. It had pierced the frontal armor of this early-production Model A Panther in one shot. Without a doubt, the radio operator and the driver were likely dead or dying. The commander of the 2nd vehicle did not hesitate. He was already halfway out of the hatch. With a push of his hands, he vaulted out of the turret and then, without regard for the height, jumped directly off his tank.
Published: 2025-09-13T02:46:08.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2026-01-31T18:58:22.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c635-hit-138783150
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