afterglow

Chapter 377: Wheeled Assault Gun Planning; Captured and Modified in the Battlefield

"Phew, I finally have someone to take over. I've been so busy in the past few months that I've almost lost all my hair."

Luo Fu breathed a sigh of relief when Zhou returned to Beijing, as if he had seen the savior.

The war has spread to the Eurasian continent, and there are countless war situations and situation changes every day, and this massive amount of information rushes into the office like a surge, turning into documents and papers that fill the desk.

The overwhelmed Ministry of War established the Prime Minister's Office of Military Intelligence, a temporary agency responsible for summarizing military intelligence reports from around the world.

But even after being condensed and refined, these reports often amount to dozens of pages. The Ming army's attack on Java a few days ago coincided with the most complex and volatile situation in Eastern Europe, and the number of military intelligence reports exceeded [-] pages.

The emperor naturally did not have time to review these reports page by page, which required military advisers to select the important ones. For example, this battle is centered around a certain transportation hub, and it is necessary to continue to pay attention; that conflict involves a certain war. Crime can be used politically.

This work is just the daily routine of military aircraft waiting for orders. In addition, they must also make objective analysis of the battle deployment and weapons plans reported by the military headquarters.

For example, last month the Air Force wanted to equip paratroopers with automatic weapons and listed a series of reasons.

Regardless of whether this is correct or not, because the emperor does not understand these things, he cannot just believe what the people below him say, so someone must help judge the suggestions.

"No matter what happens this time, Brother Zhou, you have to let me rest for a few days. The pain in my back is really uncomfortable."

"Aching back? Then you need massage to loosen the muscles and bones." Zhou Changfeng patted his shoulder, waved his hand, and said cheerfully: "I'm treating you, you can choose whatever you want, find a good place."

Luo Fu, who was overjoyed, couldn't help but smile and said: "Is it a good place, or a 'good' place?"

"It's up to you. Anyway, I'm just telling you that none of the charming women in Old Port and Bacheng can succeed."

"Okay, let's be more serious then."

Compared to Zhu Lixuan and Mu Yu, Luo Fu is much more serious in his behavior. If it were the two of them, he would really take Zhou to such a good place.

Although Zhu Lingjing asked Zhou Changfeng to go home and rest for a few days, he still stayed, walked around the Ministry of War and the Governor's Mansion, and helped Luo Fu share some affairs.

"Oh? The Army wants to build an assault gun?"

While reviewing a report submitted by the Ordnance Bureau, Zhou Changfeng saw an interesting weapon.

Hearing an unheard of new term, Luo Fu turned around and looked over, "What assault gun? Isn't this a self-propelled infantry gun?"

The Ming Army discovered that one of the major reasons that restricted the advancement speed of infantry units in actual combat was the lack of fast and effective accompanying direct firepower.

When infantrymen attack enemy positions, it is very troublesome to encounter suddenly exposed fire points - rifle grenades and rocket launchers have a short range and cannot be reached; infantry artillery has to be pushed by manpower and is relatively slow. Sometimes I can't keep up with the infantry.

Moreover, the survivability of infantry artillery is relatively average. Although the gun shield can withstand bullets fired from the front, if a shell falls nearby or a bullet is fired from the side, it can easily cause casualties.

When attacking the Malay Peninsula, the No. 20 Second Division of the Army on the Western Front reported such a battle:

The Australian army, facing the enemy in front of them, dispatched two light machine gun teams to ambush on the flanks of the battle line. When the Ming army's infantry artillery began to bombard, they suddenly attacked and shot the gun crew members at a medium and long distance of 500 meters. After they succeeded, they immediately retreated.

Combining its own experience and lessons in the war and referring to the attempts of European countries, the Army hopes to have an infantry gun that can maneuver on its own - just like a self-propelled artillery.

Because the wheeled vehicle chassis cannot withstand the impact of howitzers and cannons when firing, self-propelled artillery is basically a crawler chassis.

However, the crawler chassis is relatively more expensive and takes longer to manufacture. It is difficult for Ming Dynasty's existing automobile industry capabilities to meet the quantity demand.

However, the infantry gun has a low barrel diameter, small recoil, and the corresponding impact will not be too great. In theory, it can be installed on a wheeled chassis.

Therefore, the Army explained its concept to the Ordnance Bureau - cheaper wheeled self-propelled infantry guns, each infantry regiment must be equipped with six vehicles, replacing the six 112mm infantry guns belonging to the regiment's infantry artillery team.

Historically, Manbulqun proposed the development of assault guns to directly support infantry. He believed that tracked assault guns could significantly improve the advancement efficiency of infantry units.

Based on actual combat experience, the Germans launched the famous "Three Tuzi" after the Battle of Poland - using the chassis of the Panzer III tank, a fixed closed combat compartment, and a 75mm short-barreled gun.

As we all know, such weapons have been continuously iterated, mass-produced, and made great achievements, leaving a strong mark of their own in the history of world wars.

But now, the German Society, which is not bound by treaties, can explore new weapons and new tactics more freely, and the assault gun was born a year earlier than in the original plane.

Drawing on the experience of the Spanish battlefield, the Germans installed an IG30 75mm infantry gun on the chassis of the No. I tank, supplemented by a semi-enclosed combat compartment, making it the No. I assault gun.

The Ming Army believes that the semi-enclosed combat cabin is not safe enough, so it requires that it must be fully enclosed, and it does not want to occupy the limited crawler chassis production capacity.

Taken together, there is a unique requirement - wheeled assault gun.

"Okay, okay, very exciting."

Zhou Changfeng was very interested in this and made a mark in his mind. He planned to pay attention to the research and development project of wheeled assault guns at any time in the future.

"The more difficult thing is traversability. Wheels are not as good as tracks. Unlike the great plains over there in Taixi, we have a lot of rugged land here." Luo Fu shrugged.

"Passability can be improved through design, so it's not a big problem. Wheeled vehicles are wheeled vehicles after all. They are easy to build and the output will definitely not be ugly."

"That's true."

Crawler vehicles have high costs, many man-hours, and difficult maintenance, but they have strong passability; the characteristics of wheeled vehicles are exactly the opposite.

With Zhou's sharing, today's affairs rarely ended early. After finishing some trivial matters, the two went straight to the so-called good place.

It was the evening rush hour, and there were many citizens walking on the street. This army of bicycles was like a tide, starting from their homes in the morning and leaving from various manufacturers in the evening.

The tram clattered along, packed with passengers like sardine cans.

Compared with Shanghai and Shuntian, although the construction project of Yingtian Metro started very early, the construction period has been delayed again and again, and the construction plan has been changed again and again.

The reason is not the appropriation, but the different perceptions between the imperial court and Yingtian Mansion.

The imperial court hoped that the Beijing subway could be 30 to [-] meters deep and be built more solidly, with caves for hiding troops, ammunition depots, and machine gun bunkers reserved to serve as national defense functions.

However, due to its geographical location, the groundwater level in Nanjing is relatively high, and there are many silt formations formed in alluvial plains, making construction difficult.

Naturally, Ying Tianfu was not happy, because the additional funding provided by the imperial court was far from enough to cover the subway project with an average depth of nearly 30 meters, so Ying Tianfu still had to make up the difference.Especially in the past two years, aviation technology has advanced rapidly. God knows whether there will be bombers capable of traveling thousands of miles in the future, so the court is even more reluctant to let go - the subway is simply a natural large-scale air raid shelter, and it is actually more cost-effective to use two things.

In this way, even a single line has not been completed until now.

The two drove up and down and finally arrived at an antique pavilion called Xuanyi Pavilion in Zhongcheng District.

This store focuses on antiques, the decoration is antique, the clothes are standard unimproved antiques, and the title is the same.

After entering the door, the women in the two rows on the left and right said in unison, "The distinguished guests are here", and then they even called them "master" and called themselves "nujia".

Zhou Changfeng: (°△°|||)
Soon, the two of them changed into loose white robes after taking a simple bath, came to a quiet side room, and then lay down on the narrow bed.

Two women in thin skirts strolled over, first blessed themselves, then said hello softly, and then started to get started.

Luo Fu seemed to be unable to withstand the force of the massage, and kept shouting, "Hey, hey, hey--"

"Master, why don't you please be gentle?"

"No, no, that's it."

Compared to the grinning Luo Fu, Zhou who was doing cupping next to him was much calmer.

I heard that he went to Nanyang some time ago, and both women said that the humidity there was too heavy and could easily contaminate the bones. Cupping should indeed be used to activate the meridians and remove dampness and activate blood circulation.

Zhou Changfeng, who was lying on the narrow bed, closed his eyes and said, "By the way, you will also have to go to Nanyang in a while. The large number of vehicles seized in Malaya, Sumudara, and Java are very promising."

He said casually: "Anyway, you are very good at this. Let me see what you can come up with."

Luo Fu's professional ability in mechanical and vehicle engineering was first-rate. Zhou Changfeng had taken a liking to him very early and believed that this person would be very useful both in war zones and at home.

In the war zone, he can be responsible for the centralized transformation of captured enemy vehicles and manage the maintenance and support of mechanized equipment.

At home, he can preside over and supervise the research and development and mass production of mechanized equipment.

During the entire military operation to pacify Nanyang, the Ming army captured more than 400 tanks and armored vehicles, as well as about [-] heavy-duty tractors and engineering vehicles.

"The American-made Marmon III is an industrial waste. It weighs more than five tons and only has two machine guns. Then you can see if the chassis has modification potential."

"I've seen photos. It shouldn't be a problem to install an [-]mm mountain cannon."

"Also, the towed rocket launcher is a bit troublesome to arrange, and the ammunition is not convenient to supply." As he said, Zhou Changfeng suddenly thought of the two types of multiple rocket launchers equipped by the Ming army, "This thing emphasizes mobility, so we have to consider it. Look. Let’s see if it can be installed on a truck or tank chassis to make a self-propelled rocket launcher.”

"Okay, let's do it according to local conditions when the time comes." Luo Fu was very confident, "Anyway, even the material warehouse was captured intact, and there must be enough spare parts."

"Are you not afraid of going to Nanyang now?"

"Ahem, the war has ended..."

The battlefield modification of captured vehicles that Zhou attaches great importance to is common in all warring countries in history. Probably only the United Kingdom and the United States have done less.

The Germans have gone very far on this road. Major Alfred Becker has a doctorate in mechanical engineering. He can be said to be a mechanical genius. During the war, he presided over a large-scale project to transform captured British and French tanks.

As early as the Battle of France, Becker, who was only a captain at the time, transformed the captured vehicles and changed the towed artillery of his unit into a simple self-propelled artillery, which was highly praised by the Army Headquarters.

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After that, he became even more brilliant, using the captured vehicles to create an army of modified vehicles - installing a 37mm howitzer on the Lorraine 150L tractor, a 75mm anti-tank gun on the Soma MCG tractor, Attach rocket launchers or mortars to a variety of half-tracks.

Man Buqun and Long Guan often visited the workshop he was responsible for, watching each enemy vehicle come back to life.

Although the Americans are still tinkering with their M2 medium tank, and even the M3 Grant has not yet been born, Zhou Changfeng is already considering fighting the future M4 Sherman.

In Europe, the short 75 buns put into the battlefield are very humble. They are only in the same position as Laoji Fufeng's IV H. Facing tigers and panthers is simply asking for trouble.

更不要提德国人的一大堆反坦克武器了——Pak40型75㎜反坦克炮、Pak43型88㎜反坦克炮、RPzb43型“坦克杀手”火箭筒。

But the Japanese in the Pacific were in a dilemma, because a 47mm anti-tank gun could only pose a threat to the Sherman at very close range, and they had no other anti-tank weapons.

Therefore, the Japanese could only use anti-tank guns to ambush and shoot the side of the tank at close range, or even use almost suicidal explosions to deal with the Sherman. This was undoubtedly extremely inefficient.

Sherman: In Europe I am submissive, in Asia I am aggressive!
In order to avoid the stagnation of the research and development of high-power anti-tank guns due to lack of actual demand, Zhou Changfeng plans to start promoting research and development from now on.

Strive to design and finalize a towed anti-tank gun with a muzzle kinetic energy of 180 million joules as early as possible, a vertical penetration depth of 1000mm at 100m, and the lightest possible weight.

By then it will be too late to improvise. Research and development, finalization, and mass production will take at least half a year.

After he got home, he sat down on the chair comfortably, picked up the herbal tea next to him and took a few sips.

"Sir, didn't you say you just went to report on your work? Why are you staying here to do things again? We..." Xia Xiaoshi walked over with Jian Jian in her arms.

But as soon as she got closer, she smelled a strange smell coming from him, and her words stopped abruptly.

She blinked and curled her lips speechlessly: "Where have you been?"

Hiss, misunderstanding, this is a misunderstanding!

"Ahem," Zhou Changfeng coughed twice, stood up quickly, and said seriously: "I went to do massage and cupping with my colleague. He said that he had been busy for a month and his back was sore, so I went with him."

Xia Xiaoshi didn't want to delve into this aspect. She was a little worried at first, but since she had a daughter, her life's expectations have suddenly changed a lot.

"By the way, sir, have you read the evening news? The government announced that the Dutch are confiscating our assets in their country."

"Huh? Confiscating assets in the Netherlands?"

(End of this chapter)