: The gap of seventy-nine tanks
From this, it can be seen that the German armored forces have seriously skewed the technology tree: when the weight of the tanks is the same, the Germans can only make tanks that are one level worse.
The Tiger tank is more than 56 tons, but its main performance is similar to that of Stalin 2. The Panther tank, which weighs about the same as the Stalin No. 2 tank, is not a heavy tank.
This has created a very interesting phenomenon, that is, if you simply compare the tanks of one level on both sides, you will find that the German tanks crushed all competitors at that time.
The problem is that the German tanks have seriously wasted their tonnage, and exchanged these weights for an asymmetric advantage between tanks of the same level.
In other words, tiger tanks and giants like the Tiger King have no comparable tank armored vehicles in the armored sequence of the Allies.
The Soviet heavy tank Stalin 2 is a weapon used to counter the Tiger tank. Similar to the Panther tank, it has strengthened its armor protection and artillery power.
Looking at it this way, it is not difficult to conclude why the German armored forces achieved such an amazing record in World War II and achieved such brilliant results.
Because they have been beating their opponents by one level.
After the Allies had weapons like the Stalin 2 tank, the Germans were playing super tanks like the Tiger King.
It is a pity that although such a tactic can bring huge tactical advantages to the German army, in the worst situation, it can protect the precious armored troops to the greatest extent.
But this one-sided effort to increase the combat capability of a single vehicle is actually a typical uneconomical investment.
Because of the limitation of scientific and technological development, the performance improvement of a single weapon system is not without an upper limit.
For example, in the development of modern military weapons, it is not difficult to make your missiles reach an error of 100 meters radius.
The missile with a radius error of 100 meters is relatively inexpensive because of its mature technology and cheap parts.
And if you want to reduce the error to the level of 10 meters, it is the level of cutting-edge weapons in active service in military powers, and the cost of weapons at this level is quite expensive.
Going a step further, if you want a missile with a radius of 1 meter, can you produce it? It should be possible! It's just the same cost as the Shenzhou spacecraft...
In the same way, it is possible to make a tank have high performance, but whether the price paid for it is worth it, it needs to be considered by the designers.
For example, adding one ton of armor is something that can be easily done, but for this one ton of armor, it has to be equipped with more expensive and complicated engines, which is a bit painful.
This is just the beginning. If the engine has a strong horsepower and does not need a matching transmission system, wouldn't it be a waste?
Replaced with a better engine, a more advanced transmission system, the weight exceeds the standard, and the body and suspension need to be strengthened again.
It sounds like these are not bad. If you continue to think about it, this is equivalent to paying a full 3 tons or even 5 tons of weight for one ton of armor protection. Is it worth it?
On the other hand, the added weight and the new engine will greatly increase the fuel consumption, in order to ensure the tank's travel, it needs to carry more fuel.
More fuel means more volume. Is the original volume of the tank enough?
Do you need more armor to protect these fuels, so that once the tank is penetrated, it will destroy the entire tank?
After such a large circle of adjustments and changes, a tank has 1 ton more armor protection than it was designed for. Under the premise of ensuring balance, it seems to have paid a double price.
Larger volume, more complex power system... It is not clear how much the protective power has really increased, but the price paid is clear at a glance.
Expensive cost, inflated weight, slightly weak firepower that doesn't seem to match the entire tank... Is this tank really as good as everyone hoped it would be before the improvement?
After many people have made such a balance, they have to put a question mark on this evaluation, right?
For example, the Panther tank weighs 45 tons, but only carries a 75mm caliber gun.
The contemporary Soviet Stalin 2 tank weighed 46 tons and used a 122 mm caliber gun.
The T-34-85 with an 85mm caliber gun weighed 32 tons, which was the most classic medium tank at that time.
The British improved Firefly tank of the same era is an improved version of the American M4 Sherman tank. It is equipped with a powerful 17-pound gun and weighs more than 33 tons.
What did the Leopard tank get for its 10-ton weight? In exchange for a slightly higher protection ability!
Some people say it's not worth it? 4 Sherman Fireflies, 80% can't beat 3 Leopard tanks!
There are records in history that can prove that the German 3 Panther tanks will not be defeated by 4 or even 5 Shermans.
But if you consider it from the other side: In key battles, such as the Battle of Kursk, the Germans invested more than 300 improved No. 4 vehicles with low performance. Will it rewrite history?
Although locally, the record of 3 anti-kill 4 tanks abounds in the German army, but this also caused a result that makes people laugh and cry.
The result is that the German Army won almost all their battles, but lost the war!
When the German army complicated and strengthened the weapons, all the pressure was passed on at this time, and it was passed on to the logistics department and the production link.
As a result, the logistics department was overwhelmed and had to endure the complex supply of disasters; and the factories in the rear also had to endure the huge production capacity occupied by those complex weapons.
If the 1,000 Tiger tanks that the German army crafted in three years cannot achieve those successes on the battlefield, it can only prove that the Germans are more stupid than they seem!
In the same way, the German army endured a sad production of only more than 200 vehicles a month at most, and the Leopard tanks obtained were of course much stronger than the Shermans used by the Yankees.
You know, Sherman produced 50,000 vehicles in just 3 years, an average of more than 1,000 vehicles per month...
We cannot use this gap to calculate the actual gap between German tanks and American tanks, but we can see the problem from one side.
The United States and the Soviet Union have the kind of tanks that can produce hundreds or even thousands of tanks a month, while German tanks can only produce 100 or 200 tanks per month.
On the one hand, this is due to the gap in resource production capacity, on the other hand, it is directly related to the complex design of German tanks and the numerous manufacturing links.
It is this link that Li Le wants to improve. He wants Germany to simplify the production link of weapons and equipment such as tanks and aircraft while increasing its own production capacity.
He is not simply to learn the opponent's model of producing a large number of cheap tanks, because that model is not suitable for Germany and does not need to be learned.
Germany's elite tanks need protection, and on the other hand, the size of the German armored forces does need to expand rapidly.
The way Li Le thinks is to increase the production capacity to produce the simplified version of the No. 3 assault gun and the No. 4 improved tank. Come to suffice the number of armored units of the German Army.
On this basis, a slightly advanced No. 5 tank was developed, and elites were selected to establish an elite armored corps that was not afraid of consumption.
In the process, the numerical advantage was maintained by a large number of medium tanks, and the German armored base was raised to a higher level.
Among these ordinary armored soldiers, select and train real elites to form the daunting elite tank force. This is Li Le's plan.
It's not that Li Le doesn't need a heavy chariot like the Tiger Tank, but he hopes that the Tiger Tank can simplify its structure and greatly improve the production process on the basis of ensuring its combat power or slightly weakening it, so that it can be mass-produced. The real main battle tank.
What he needs is the kind of tank that can appear on a large scale and determine the outcome of the battle, not the simple improvement of the bulky and rare field firefighter ~www.wuxiaspot.com~, and continue to expand production. "Li Le said to Brauchitch," he said, "Don't worry about the funds, we have very abundant funds now. "
What Li Le said is not bad at all. Germany has sought loans from neutral countries and domestic consortia to expand its war machine production.
These loans were made available mainly because of the good news that Germany had discovered oil in Libya.
Although the oil fields there are still only a prototype, it does not prevent some venture capital companies from pressing their chips on the Third Reich.
There has been so much good news about the Third Reich winning the war recently, to the point of being too dizzying.
According to internal news, the German bombing in Britain was successful, and the British Air Force, which had already fought, did not dare to fight at all.
Coupled with the success of the Malta operation, it was exposed that the H fleet was severely damaged. At this time, if you don't lend money to Germany to earn some interest, should you wait for the other side to win the war before joining in?
"Thanks to the head of state for his support of the army, we will repay your trust with victory!" Brausch nodded with a smile, with a proud look on his face.
"By the way, how are the preparations for the new tank production plant? Those Jewish engineers are still cooperative, right?" Li Le suddenly asked a question that didn't seem to be related to military operations.
As the secretary of the head of state, Bowman was very clear about this matter, he quickly lowered his head and lowered his voice and said to Li Le: "My head of state, this matter is going well, and I will send the specific report to your office. "
Li Le glanced at him and nodded to indicate that he understood. Then he rose to his feet and ended the battle meeting against Great Britain.