Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 306 Artillery Shells and Landmines
Even though they were more than a hundred meters away from the explosion site, Smith and his staff were still reeling from the blast.

Before Smith could say anything, he saw a large object smash into his jeep, immediately setting it on fire.

Only then did Smith realize that what had crashed onto his jeep was actually a tank turret.

Smith then looked at the site of the explosion, where a crater five meters in diameter and two meters deep had appeared.

The lower half of a Pershing tank, still ablaze, lay in the crater, while the upper turret was currently lying on Smith's jeep!
Smith then asked the staff officer:
"What's going on? Did the reinforcements to Chaozhou use all the landmines at once?"

"I don't know! Let's send someone up to check!"

While Smith was completely bewildered, Wang Gensheng and the others observing from the distant mountaintop were delighted. Duan Peng smiled and said to Wang Gensheng:

"These 155mm shells made into mines are really powerful! One shot is enough to take down a tank. They're much more effective than anti-tank mines. It's just a pity we didn't bring enough!"

In response, Wang Gensheng said:
"Too few! Can you carry more? Each one weighs forty kilograms (80 pounds), which is equivalent to five anti-tank mines! But to be honest, we really didn't bring enough!"

Looking at the explosive effects of the artillery shells and landmines, Wang Gensheng regretted bringing anti-tank mines! It would have been so much better to replace them with 155mm artillery shells.

Indeed, Wang Gensheng's method of making artillery shell mines was also very simple: he would directly insert a 155mm artillery shell with a fuse vertically into the ground, then tie a grenade next to the shell's fuse, and the grenade's safety ring would be pulled by a rope, which would then be taut and placed horizontally in the middle of the road.

In this way, as long as the tank drives over and runs over the rope, it will detonate the grenade, and the explosion of the grenade will then detonate the shell.

Ultimately, the 10-kilogram shell explodes at the bottom, where the tank's armor is weakest, which is equivalent to stuffing an explosive charge into the bottom of the tank.

The explosive power of this type of shell is even greater than that of a simple explosive charge, because the shell has a thick and hard iron shell, which creates a higher pressure when it explodes.

At such close range, shrapnel from the shell can easily penetrate 2.5 centimeters of the tank's bottom armor and eventually detonate the ammunition inside the tank.

The reason that tank turret flew off was because the shells inside the tank exploded.

This explosion did more than just destroy a U.S. military tank.

This explosion shattered the confidence of the tank crews.

The tank crews originally thought that even if there were anti-tank mines, it wouldn't be a problem. They could just blow off the tracks and repair them. At most, they would just be shaken and dizzy while sitting inside the tank.

Just looking at the tank with its turret blown off, it's obvious that the tank crew inside are definitely done for.

So just as Smith was about to order another tank to clear the mines, the veteran tank commander said to Smith:

"Chief, I think we should send mine-clearing troops to clear the mines! If this continues, our tanks will be blown up before we even reach the Water Gate Bridge!"

Smith responded to this by saying:

"If we send mine-clearing soldiers to clear the mines, when will that ever happen!"

After thinking for a moment, Smith said:

"So you have the tanks that go to clear the mines empty all the shells inside, and then just leave one driver. I just checked, and it was shrapnel that penetrated the bottom armor of the tank, causing the ammunition inside to explode! And you can also have the crew inside the tank take turns driving it!"

Even so, they didn't start immediately. After all, the large crater that had just been blown up still needed to be covered, and the wreckage of the tanks that had been destroyed and stuck in the crater needed to be pulled out. So, in this way, it took Smith's team an entire day to advance only 500 meters, at the cost of five tanks being completely destroyed and twenty-five tanks having their tracks blown off.

Of course, the tank crew members have the worst time. With every step they take, they are gambling on whether they will run into any shells or mines.

They even prayed in their hearts that they would encounter an anti-tank mine, since anti-tank mines could only sever the tracks and not kill them, the tank crewmen.

Moreover, with the tracks blown off, the tank crew can repair the tank tracks without worrying about having to drive the tank through minefields again.

Of course, even with tanks clearing mines ahead, it doesn't mean the road the tanks traveled is safe.

After all, the width of a tank track is only half a meter, and the width of two tracks is only one meter.

After the tank tracks rolled over it, the snow on the ground was compacted into a flat, solid mass.

This prevents the safety shrapnel of the pineapple grenade from being ejected. In other words, even if someone steps on the pull cord and pulls the safety pin of the pineapple grenade, the snow layer will be compacted by the tank.

Therefore, the safety shrapnel that could bounce in soft snow cannot bounce in solid snow.

Since the safety shrapnel cannot be ejected, the firing pin inside the pineapple grenade cannot release the impact primer, thus rendering the pineapple grenade-based mine ineffective.

Of course, these grenades might explode on their own when the snow melts next year.

However, this only applies to snow layers that have been compacted by tank tracks; snow layers that haven't been compacted can also be detonated.

The unlucky American soldier didn't walk in the tank tracks, but stepped on the snow beside him.

Then there was a loud explosion, and the soldier fell to the ground screaming in pain.

Faced with this situation, Smith could only helplessly demand that, apart from the first tank leading the way, the tanks following behind should not follow the tracks of the previous tank.

In this way, the alternating passage of several tanks compacted all the snow on the road.

This rendered the tens of thousands of hand grenades modified into landmines that Wang Gensheng had painstakingly deployed ineffective.

Wang Gensheng could only admire such a maneuver of overcoming all odds with sheer force, and of course, he did not regret setting up so many hand grenades and landmines.

After all, without the interference of so many hand grenades and landmines, the mine-clearing engineers could easily remove these mines with just two hundred anti-tank mines and forty artillery shell mines.

Therefore, the hand grenades and landmines that Wang Gensheng deployed were not entirely useless.

After seeing that it was getting dark, Wang Gensheng said to Duan Peng:

"Get the Marines ready for battle. We'll take the Watergate Bridge tonight. Let's have two backup plans!"

That's right. Although Smith and his troops only walked 500 meters today, at this pace, it would take Smith eight days to get out of the minefield set up by Wang Gensheng.

However, Wang Gensheng understood that this was far from the maximum speed. If Smith disregarded casualties and increased the speed, he might be able to traverse the remaining 3.5 kilometers of minefield in just one day.

(End of this chapter)