It's better to conquer them than to command the steel torrent

Chapter 268 | The Lively Duo

In Shank's view, the Battle of Washington was fought quite well, although there were many flaws, but it had already shown some improvement.

The reason why Washington, D.C. could not be defended was simply because the debts owed from the neglect of military equipment before the war had not yet been paid off, which is not surprising.

The retreat order has been issued, and there are twelve hours left. The troops will retreat in turn according to the retreat plan.

One part moved westward to re-establish a defensive line along the Appalachian Mountains; the other part moved southward to establish a defensive line with Richmond as a pivot point.

Before that, the exhausted Shang Ke slept all night without thinking twice, and then rushed to perform his duties when it was dawn.

The enemy attempted to attack several suitable positions on the front of the defensive line, but all their efforts were ultimately thwarted.

The off-road vehicle swayed and bumped along, and when the sun was high in the sky, Shang Ke arrived at one of the locations.

On the opposite bank of the river, the flames from the burning tank wreckage had long since died out, and various parts were scattered around, along with the haphazardly laid corpses of Imperial Russian officers and soldiers.

The U.S. military deployed an anti-tank position between the first and second lines of defense.

Five Type 40 65mm tank defense guns, provided by military aid, were deployed here in an obtuse L-shaped position, with two guns on the front and three on the left.

All gun positions were well camouflaged, with wide field of view and mostly overlapping firing arcs, making them commendable and without any flaws.

After inspecting the site, Shang Ke couldn't help but praise it.

There must be a mastermind behind this!

Upon inquiry, it was indeed found that many parts of the Potomac River defense line had been guided by the exiled forces of Varland and Marianne.

"What is your assessment of the anti-tank guns provided by our country and the anti-tank battles?" Shang Ke asked the officers and soldiers around him.

Everyone was talking at once, quite enthusiastically.

A lieutenant pondered, “At least we have something that can confront enemy tanks head-on, which is much better than the original light anti-tank gun. I think the areas that need improvement are the sight and the gun mount.”

The lieutenant pointed out some shortcomings and areas for improvement.

Shang Ke expressed his agreement.

Having been tested in actual combat, the Type 40 65mm anti-tank gun is at least qualified and has achieved its original design goal of countering the T-34.

This 48-caliber anti-tank gun has a combat weight of only 1.3 tons and is currently equipped with the more traditional pointed capped armor-piercing round (APCBC), which can penetrate 109 mm thick vertical armor at a distance of 1000 meters.

The gun's specifications on paper are quite impressive. It achieves power only slightly less than the historical Pak40 anti-tank gun, despite being much lighter, and the Pak40 weighed approximately 1.5 tons.

In addition, American soldiers pointed out that when dealing with the T-34, this 65mm anti-tank gun could only reliably penetrate its frontal armor at a range of 700 to 800 meters.

In his previous life, Mr. Shang was a graduate of an artillery school and was a professional in this field. He immediately believed that armor-piercing shells were unsuitable.

Whether it's a gun or a cannon, it's a system engineering project. You have to look at not only the design of the gun or cannon itself, but also the design of the bullets and shells.

It should be noted that the T-34's frontal armor has a slope angle of up to 60 degrees, making it extremely resistant to bullets, and pointed armor-piercing rounds are not suitable for dealing with it.

In fact, if the goal is simply to counter steeply angled armor, blunt-nosed armor-piercing rounds would be more effective.

However, blunt-nosed armor-piercing projectiles have limitations and are very ineffective against vertical armor.

Coincidentally, the Britons were particularly fond of vertical armor, while the Ivanros were keen on armor with steep inclines.

The alliance between these two countries, setting aside other aspects, has indeed brought trouble to the Great Unified Federation in terms of armor-on-ballistic missile confrontation alone.

Are two types of armor-piercing rounds to be issued simultaneously?
Heaven knows if ordinary soldiers have the leisure to choose the right shells on a rapidly changing battlefield; after all, this isn't a computer game. It's fair to say that the United Kingdom and the Ivanos Empire are a highly, if not nine-tenths, annoying duo—in other words, they complement each other perfectly, causing their respective countries all sorts of trouble, from tactical to strategic.

Therefore, Mr. Shang's opinion is to take a different approach and simply abandon the traditional armor-piercing missile confrontation, otherwise he would be at a great disadvantage.

On a smaller scale, we can take a different approach by increasing the development of armor-piercing discarding sabot projectiles and high-explosive anti-tank projectiles, without being limited to pointed or blunt-nosed armor-piercing projectiles.

Taking a different approach, broadly speaking, we can directly abandon head-on armor-on-air combat and optimize the reaction speed of long-range firepower from air force and artillery, using chocolate to dismantle the enemy's steel torrent while it is still assembling.

These two aspects, one small and one large, are precisely what Mr. Shang has been working hard on all this time.

Soon, a messenger arrived on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, shouting as he went.

"Attention! Order from the regimental combat team command! Retreat codename 'April'! Prepare for retreat within two hours!"

The messenger rushed past.

"Guys! Time to go!" The lieutenant gazed wistfully at the war-torn Washington, D.C. in the distance, and said, "Hopefully we can retake the United States capital."

Just as Shang Ke was about to get into the SUV, he heard this and casually tossed a pack of Lucky Brand cigarettes to the group, laughing, "That day won't be too far away."

The Battle of Washington ended in a relatively dignified manner.

Before the British and Ivanros forces could have the resources to pursue, the American army voluntarily abandoned the Potomac River defense line and withdrew in an orderly manner as planned.

Of course, in terms of public opinion, the public viewed the Battle of Washington as a battle to be proud of.

How can it be called a defeat when the invaders have suffered unprecedented heavy losses and the great United States army has only temporarily shifted its strategy to a favorable position?

Small win! Medium win! Big win!

The next day, Shank boarded a military train and was granted a valuable berth in a high-ranking officer's carriage.

The train sped across the vast, boundless American continent, heading west towards Phoenix.

According to Eisenhower, the president was delighted with Operation Magic Tide, ordered a grand publicity campaign, and said he would reward a certain person as a token of gratitude.

During his boring journey, in his spare time, he wrote an investigation report based on his personal experiences over the past few days.

In addition to pointing out the unique aspects of special operations, he reiterated a principle: the essence of modern warfare is artillery warfare!
When Mr. Shang went to Phoenix City...

New York.

On Staten Island, a continuous autumn rain fell all day, covering up the traces of the night raid a few days earlier.

As evening fell and the rain lessened, a small, thin figure emerged unsteadily from a grove of trees more than ten kilometers west of the coastal artillery position, looking around warily.

This was none other than Warrant Officer Garcia, who had gone missing a few days earlier during a night raid by the commando team.

At the time, she and Corporal Williams and others were trying to ambush the fleeing enemy, but they were suppressed by grenade launchers and light machine guns, and the rest of them were either killed or wounded.

She reacted quickly to seek cover, but was injured by a grenade and rolled into a low-lying area, where she remained unconscious for a long time. When she regained consciousness, the assault team had already withdrawn.

Fortunately, the Imperial Russian occupying forces were too busy looting to react quickly, and because they were not front-line elite troops, there were very few female soldiers. Warrant Officer Gashia was lucky enough to escape detection and hid for several days.

Hungry and desperate, she knew she couldn't hide any longer and had to find a way to seek help.

(End of this chapter)