hh8:圣血天使军团装甲和炮兵部队

On the far right flank of the Blood Angels advance during the battle at Signus Prime is where Sanguinius is thought to have gathered his artillery, those of his cannon and foot-borne heavy weapons that could not keep pace with the main advance. Massing enough firepower to obliterate any force of arms caught in the open, or to crack and splinter the walls of even the grandest fortresses, for though the Blood Angels were most famous for their audacious drop assaults, they were not unfamiliar with the brutal application of overwhelming firepower. As with any of the Legions, the IXth kept an artillery train of substantial size, though it could not match that of the more specialised Legions, such as the Iron Warriors or the Death Guard, and it included examples of every style of self-propelled gun and artillery piece in common use by the armies of the Imperium, as well as several more unique guns.

人们认为在西格纳斯主星战役当中，圣吉列斯在圣血天使军团前进的最右翼集中了军团的炮兵部队，军团的火炮和重武器步兵无法跟上主力部队的前进步伐。无论是聚集足够的火力来消灭任何暴露在外的敌军部队，还是为了轰开和炸碎哪怕最为坚固的要塞的外墙，虽然圣血天使最为著名的是他们大胆的空降突袭作战，但他们也同样熟悉对于压倒性火力的残酷运用。和所有军团一样，第九军团保有一支规模庞大的炮兵部队，虽然这支炮兵部队并不能与那些更为深谙此道的军团——比如钢铁勇士和死亡守卫的炮兵相匹敌，但它拥有帝国军队常用的各种样式的自行火炮和炮兵单位，以及多种更为独一无二的火炮。

Such vehicles could not operate alone, requiring vast quantities of ammunition, fuel and other supplies in order to function at full combat efficiency. Worse, they proved easily vulnerable to close range assault by the enemy and standard Divisio Militaris doctrine demanded a force of screening infantry for such units. As such they went to war in the company of a small army of conveyors and ammunition-barques, and proceeded by a dedicated force of skirmishers and scouts. At the battle for Signus Prime, there were Rhino armoured transports in number to match the heavier artillery vehicles as well as a number of Mastodon and Stegodon super-heavy transports.

但这些炮兵载具无法独自行动，它们需要大量的弹药、燃料和其他补给来充分发挥自己的战斗力。更糟的是，它们被证明极易遭受到敌军近距离突击的进攻，帝国军战术信条也要求为此类单位配备一支由经过筛选的步兵组成的（反步兵）部队。因此，陪同炮兵进入战场的还有一支由运输机和弹药运输车组成的小规模部队，外加一支由散兵和侦察兵组成的专门部队。在西格纳斯主星战役中，圣血天使军团部署的犀牛装甲运输车的数量与重型火炮载具数量相当，他们还部署了大量猛犸象和剑齿象超重型运兵车。

In sector Gamma-oio of the battlefield on Signus Prime, all of these vehicles, both the artillery and its support, were thrown into a crucible for which they had not been designed. The ability of their foe to appear at point-blank ranges left them at a severe disadvantage; indeed many of the largest cannon were overrun and destroyed before they could fire even a single shot. Here the escorts and close support guns stood at the fore, seeding a co-ordinated pattern of close range blasts and synchronised small arms volleys that held the foe at bay for a time. Had it not been for the near-inexhaustible numbers of the enemy that fell upon them, the outcome of the battle might well have been far different.

在西格纳斯主星战场的Gamma-oio战区，所有的这些载具——炮兵单位及其支援载具被丢入了一场严峻残酷的战争中，而且它们并非是为应对这种战场而被设计出的。他们的敌人拥有出现在近战攻击攻击范围的能力（机仆：意思应该就是恶魔可以通过传送之类的手段直接闪现到载具面前，迫使载具和乘员直接和恶魔们开始近战，炮兵单位在有机会开炮之前就被恶魔的近战攻击摧毁了），这让使圣血天使的炮兵部队处于严重的劣势。事实上，许多最大的火炮都被敌军攻占了，他们在被摧毁之前甚至没能开火哪怕一次。在这场战斗中，火炮护卫队和近距离支援炮站坚守在了最前线，他们采取将近距离爆炸和同步轻武器齐射相协调的战术（机仆：放在在40k时代，大概就类似几个ba提着破片炮炸恶魔的同时还有一群tsm领着爆弹枪齐射），这使敌人一度陷入困境。倘若他们没有遭到近乎无穷无尽的敌人的进攻，这场战斗的结果可能会大不相同。