The War of Resistance: My Expedition, My Country

Chapter 254 Cheetah Tank Destroyer

Kuang Zhengqi was also shocked when he received Pu Zhengsong's report. Could the Germans have incorporated some new weaponry that could have caused such a heavy loss to the 34th Division? According to reports from the surviving soldiers whose tanks were destroyed, the Germans had acquired the latest tank destroyers. Kuang Zhengqi wasn't surprised. By the time his brothers had traveled through time, the Third Reich had become much stronger, and the course of the war had undergone a qualitative shift. It was October 1944. At this time in their alternate time and space, Germany was already on the decline, but here, the German army remained incredibly powerful. Even the North African campaign, which should have ended long ago, hadn't ended yet. Instead, the German army had already invaded the Middle East, and its weaponry had become even more advanced. Among other things, tank destroyers like the King Tiger, Jagdtiger, and Ferdinand* had already been introduced in large numbers, resolving many of their performance issues. The Afrika Korps' battles at Gabek and Tripoli were essentially the result of the deployment of these weapons, dealing a devastating blow to the US and British armored forces.

Kuang Zhengqi knew that the Germans, facing the current terrain in Iraq, would never have been able to deploy heavy equipment like the Tiger II and Ferdinand tank destroyers. Intelligence also indicated that the Germans had undergone a restructuring, with the 1st Tank Corps no longer equipped with heavy tanks, with those concentrated in the 3rd Tank Corps. The German tanks described by the soldiers were roughly similar to the Leopard G, but significantly more maneuverable and equipped with 88mm anti-tank guns. There was only one possibility: these were Jagdpanther tank destroyers, the mainstay of the German anti-tank forces during the Soviet-German War.

When were German Jagdpanther tank destroyers deployed en masse to the African and Middle Eastern battlefields? Did the Germans abandon the Soviet-German front? The answer is obvious. After resolving the Moscow crisis, the Soviet Union needed time to digest the domestic situation, particularly to review the three years of fighting against Germany. During these three years, the Soviet army, in order to resist the Germans, adopted a crude design for almost all its weapons, relying on quantity to win. However, the Germans had also become much stronger, and the Soviets suffered heavy losses. To defend Moscow, the Soviets concentrated almost half of their forces. The Battle of Moscow lasted for nearly three years, and Soviet-German losses on this front reached a staggering 3:3. Over the three years, Soviet losses in the Moscow direction reached over 3 million, including 3 tanks and armored vehicles, over 1 artillery pieces, and over 3 aircraft. This was also why the Soviet Union had to accept the land-for-support model, and over 200 million Chinese Expeditionary Forces appeared on the Soviet battlefield.

The Chinese Third Expeditionary Front's remarkable success in southern Soviet Russia was fueled by a wealth of American-made equipment. The American M6 series tanks and tank destroyers arguably dominated the battlefield. Even the American general-purpose M4 Sherman, enhanced with reactive armor, achieved a higher kill/loss ratio than the T34/76. The Soviets began to review their progress and prepare to optimize tank warfare theory and equipment. Improvements were underway for the T34/85 and KV2 tanks, the SU-100 tank destroyer was already in development, and the SU-152 heavy self-propelled artillery was also introduced; they would prove a formidable weapon against German heavy tanks.

The Führer accepted the High Command's advice and abandoned the strategic goal of capturing Moscow. He had already realized that even if Moscow were captured, the Soviet Union would not surrender or collapse. On the contrary, with the involvement of the Chinese army, the German army in the southern battlefield faced its most serious threat since the beginning of the war. Several major German defeats were due to the influence of the Chinese army. According to the German High Command, the most important thing for the German army at the moment was to control resources. During World War I, due to the lack of food and other supplies, Germany, despite having absolute military power, was forced to sign humiliating treaties due to domestic rebellion. The Führer would certainly not agree to this. Therefore, the key to resolving all these issues was to seize resources, strengthen the development of new weapons, and ultimately defeat the enemy and achieve victory!

Under this strategic logic, the German army, with the cooperation of the Soviet army, transferred a large number of German main forces from the Soviet-German battlefield and secretly expanded them to the Middle East battlefield. This made it seem that the German army only had the 25th Army and the newly formed 1st Army in the Middle East. In fact, each tank division and even the armored division had been exaggeratedly strengthened. Take the 25nd Tank Division of the German 162th Army as an example. The division's strength is still around 1.3, but it is equipped with three tank regiments, with an astonishing 3 tanks, equivalent to the number of tanks in the previous two tank divisions. In order to ensure the combat of these tank divisions, the German army deliberately reorganized the army-level configuration, and a dedicated equipment support brigade was designed.

The German 2st Tank Corps, which the 1nd Army faced, had joined forces with the German 26th Panzer Corps in Palestine. Three tank regiments were transferred from the 26th Panzer Corps to reinforce the divisions of the 1st Tank Corps. This effectively gave each division of the 1st Tank Corps an additional regiment of tanks, enriching them with more experienced tank elites from the Soviet-German battlefield. Thirty-six Jagdpanzer tank destroyers were part of this unit.

Kuang Zhengqi discerned a shift in the opposing German forces from subtle clues. His Second Army hadn't actually brought any M2A6 heavy tanks. Instead, these tanks were stationed at Bandar Alam and transported by British merchant ships directly to Kuwait, where they disembarked and moved north to join the defense of Basra. The Second Army's heavy anti-tank firepower primarily relied on M1B2 and M6B1 tank destroyers, 6mm rocket launchers, and 2mm towed anti-tank guns. The mainstay of the battle remained the M122 Sherman, with the M105A4 and M4A3E4 forming the bulk. A smaller number of M3A2E102 Super Shermans, armed with 4mm guns, were concentrated in tank destroyer formations. These tanks couldn't keep up with the main tank columns and were used as a defensive measure.

In response to the changing enemy situation, the Second Army adjusted its battle plan, shifting from encirclement and annihilation to ambush, leveraging its own geographical advantage in the Mehtay Valley to lure the Germans closer. The commander of the German Second Tank Corps was Lieutenant General Erich Hoepner, a student of Heinz Guderian, known as the "Father of Blitzkrieg," and possessing a profound understanding of tank assault warfare. After gaining a preliminary understanding of the enemy's situation, he reported the encounter with the Chinese to Field Marshal Rommel while formulating a targeted battle plan. Having fought numerous battles against the Chinese, Hoepner considered them far more formidable than the British, particularly the Second Army on the southern front in Egypt, a force of exceptional cunning and formidable strength.