: Seventy-eight improved tanks
Although the magic modification of the No. 4 tank H is still in the drawing stage, the improvement of the No. 4 tank has already begun.
The most obvious improvement is that the No. 4 tank, like the No. 3 assault gun, will be equipped with plate skirt armor and strengthen the thickness of the frontal armor.
This improvement can be directly applied to all tanks, including the two tanks currently equipped by the Army.
Likewise, the newly produced No. 4 tank also has some cost-cutting improvements, including some details that make the soldiers of the armored force a little depressed.
The original soft seats are now really wooden, and the original solid floors have been replaced by metal mesh floors.
Means of saving steel fill every corner of the new tank, as if Germany's steel is already in short supply.
The original armrests have been cut by 10% in length, and some armrests that are not often used have even been directly replaced with leather armrests...
But it would be a bit too one-sided to say that this kind of tank cuts corners blindly, because many tanks are equipped with racks for installing machine guns on the conning towers, which were not available in the past models.
It is said that this kind of design was installed at the request of the head of state. It is said that the matching machine gun even has shield steel plates.
The biggest improvement is still concentrated in two aspects. On the one hand, it is the short-term goal, which is to increase the firepower of the No. 4 tank.
Because the Führer's intelligence organization detected the news that the Soviet Union was equipped with more advanced tanks, the combat focus of the No. 4 tank had undergone serious changes.
Originally, the tank that the German armored forces were responsible for annihilating the opponent's chariots was the No. 3 tank with better mobility, smaller and more flexible size.
However, the Führer believed that the No. 3 tank could no longer undertake the future German anti-tank mission - in fact, this kind of thing has been confirmed.
In the French campaign, when the German No. 3 tank fought against the French B1 tank and other heavy equipment, it obviously felt the shortcomings of its own lack of firepower.
The shortcomings of armor protection, coupled with the problem of insufficient firepower, made the German army, which relied on the No. 3 tank for anti-tank operations, obviously passive.
In fact, most of the time, the German army relies on skilled cooperation and other means to deal with enemy armored targets.
For example - the famous Stuka dive bomber, and the more famous 88mm anti-aircraft cannon...
It's a bit of a pity that the French battle was won by the German army, and the victory was dazzling. On the one hand, it created the glory of the Third Reich, but on the other hand it covered up the problems of the Third Reich.
As a result, the weapon that was not very useful at first was pushed to the Eastern Front Sod battlefield more than a year later. For example, the No. 3 tank and No. 4 tank, such as the 37mm anti-tank gun, the backward junk...
Tank No. 3, a tank with insufficient firepower, undertakes an important task of anti-tank in the German equipment sequence. What is the purpose of the No. 4 tank with slightly thicker armor?
The answer is: this guy is a "breakthrough vehicle" used to support infantry! This is not funny, but in this era, the Germans' vision of tanks is not much more advanced than the Japanese.
Many people mocked the Japanese for insisting on using their own bean chariots in World War II, but in 1940, the tank equipment used by the German army was actually not much larger than what the Japanese had in their hands.
The No. 2 tank that the German army is heavily equipped with weighs less than 10 tons, the design requirement of the No. 3 tank is 15 tons, and the No. 4 tank is a little more than 20 tons...
The Japanese Type 89 weighs more than 12 tons, the Type 1 tank weighs 17 tons, and the Type 97 weighs 15 tons—you see, it’s almost less?
What really made the distance between the two sides is the gap between the enemies: the Germans could only use the Tiger Panther to face the Soviets, and there were no enemies on the Japanese side who used heavy tanks.
In this comparison, the opponent is indeed the best teacher. The German armored forces belong to that kind of typical example of a master teacher.
Let's say back to the present, Li Le, as a fake head of state who knew the real situation of the future generations, changed the status quo of the German army.
He repositioned the German tank force and developed the No. 4 tank, which was originally used to support infantry, and used it for anti-tank operations.
Obviously, this is a very wise decision, because in the not too distant future, the Germans will do the same when they are forced to.
To deal with the enemy's more powerful tanks, it is necessary to use tanks with thicker armor and stronger firepower.
Obviously, the No. 3 tank does not have this improvement potential, and only the No. 4 tank is being produced.
However, as the main anti-tank combat force of the No. 4 tank, there is an unpleasant gap: its firepower design is questionable.
The No. 4 was originally responsible for supporting infantry operations, so it was designed with a short-barreled low-pressure 75mm caliber artillery.
It is impossible to expect a low-pressure 75mm caliber gun to perform anti-tank missions. The high-power long-barreled artillery that uses high bore pressure and high recoil will need to be redesigned.
The good news is that Germany obviously has technical reserves in this regard. In 1942, the German army began to equip the No. 4 tank with a 75mm caliber long barrel artillery.
And Li Le just made this improvement a little over a year ahead of schedule. It is not a difficult problem to solve for this group of German engineers.
As a result, the No. 4 tank will be equipped with a more powerful 75mm caliber long-barreled artillery within half a year to perform anti-tank missions.
The army with this improved tank will also have a real tank that is enough for a short time in 1941.
The elite German armored forces, after the invasion of the Soviet Union, encountered T-34, the mortal enemy, they no longer had to resort to such reckless methods as collisions to stop the opponent's advance.
"Simple improvements have been applied, although some details have been cut, but the increase in production speed has allowed us to equip more tanks, which is good news." Brauchitch is very satisfied with the current situation.
He has never been replenished with tanks so quickly. Within a month, he got an extra No. 4 tank. I heard that he can get more after that.
Goering is depressed in this regard, because this is a unique trick to increase productivity that he cannot learn.
You are willing to buy a car with a reduced configuration because it can barely drive on the road; but are you willing to buy a plane with a reduced configuration and fly it to an altitude of 8,000 meters?
In the short term, the No. 4 tank is still the same as it was, and it is not different from history. It's just that the armor is thicker and the interior is more streamlined.
However, the future No. 4 tank has been modified to a much anticipated level. It uses a wider track to adapt to complex road conditions.
A more powerful engine is used, and there are even plans to use a better diesel engine and rear gearbox.
The front armor was also improved, and the stylish inclined front armor was used, and its own weight was also increased to about 30 tons.
It will be equipped with a 75mm caliber long-barreled artillery, providing powerful firepower so that it has a certain firepower advantage over enemy tanks.
Thanks to Li Le's efforts, this tank can be said to be the T-34 tank of the Third Reich, but it is slightly different in terms of design ideas and performance emphasis.
Due to the limitations of the design era, even though the No. 4 tank has undergone numerous improvements, it actually still has some shortcomings. But now it seems that these deficiencies are bearable in 40 years, and even in 43 years.
During this time, Li Le has let Porsche, Krupp, the famous MAN company and Rheinmetall develop their own development plans and come up with their own production plan for the No. 5 general-purpose chariot.
This plan is not the famous Tiger tank in history, but a medium-sized general-purpose tank production plan similar to the Panther tank.
The plan uses a practical and powerful 88mm caliber tank gun, but the tank's self-weight is limited to 45 tons, and the tank's defense capability must be guaranteed on the basis of inclined armor.
This plan has just begun, and Porsche is still cutting corners, hoping to make up for it with its Porsche Tiger tank, which has been criticized by future generations.
Krupp didn't do much better either. They tried to gain favor with their Tiger tanks by reducing weight.
However, the conditions put forward by the fake head of state Li Le made the two old tank design companies a little messy.
Because the head of state found inspiration from the MG-42 machine gun project and the improvement plan to simplify the production of the No. 4 tank, Shisui Zhiwei began to pay attention to the production process.
The head of state requested that the new tanks must be able to be purchased and produced in large quantities, and the annual output should not be less than 4,000 vehicles per year when the conditions are ripe.
This value is something that Krupp and Porsche would not dare to gamble with Tiger tanks~www.wuxiaspot.com~ because they know well that they cannot produce so many Tiger tanks.
Not to mention the astronomical figure of 4,000 units a year, Krupp feels that it is only a dream to be able to produce 1,000 Tiger tanks within a year.
In history, only more than 1,300 German Tiger tanks have been produced, which is still the total output of several years. So it seems that at least Krupp still has self-knowledge...
The expected No. 5 tank actually weighs about the same as the historical Panther tank, but Li Le's performance requirements are similar to the Tiger tank.
Such a requirement is not something that cannot be achieved. In fact, the paper data of the Stalin No. 2 tank meets this requirement. Although it is only paper data, at least the main performance is comparable to the Tiger tank.
Even though everyone criticized the Stalin No. 2 tank, it was based on the comparison and competition between it and the Tiger tank.
If the Stalin No. 2 tank is compared with the Panther tank, how to judge the pros and cons is another conclusion.
Some people say that the positioning between the two is different, one is a medium tank and the other is a heavy tank.
But the total amount of steel consumed by the two is the same level: the Leopard weighs 45 tons, and the Stalin No. 2 tank weighs 46 tons. Under the premise that the consumption is almost less, why not better?
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