afterglow

Chapter 546 Multiple theories go hand in hand; please
The United Kingdom and the United States have many opportunities to obtain physical anti-tank rocket launchers. Rocket launchers have been captured in battles in Southeast Asia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Australia.

However, because a series of battles ended with the defeat of the British and American troops, the scattered weapons and equipment captured were often abandoned soon after.

It was not until May this year that two 37-type rocket launchers seized in Australia and more than a dozen rounds of ammunition were completely evacuated. They were briefly surveyed in Australia and flown back to the United States.

Shortly afterwards, the British army also captured several bodies in small-scale battles along the Yarlung Zangbo River, and they were also evacuated smoothly.

After reverse analysis, the Americans immediately figured out the principle of this lightweight and effective infantry weapon and quickly started corresponding imitation work.

Because they were about to go to Europe to participate in the war, the Americans, who were in urgent need of effective anti-tank weapons, were very hungry. They chose to walk on two legs-directly copying the Ming-made rocket launchers, first deciding whether they were available, and then developing their own designs at the same time.

The product that copied the 12-type rocket launcher passed testing one and a half months ago and was designated by the Army as the M7500 rocket-propelled grenade launcher (RPG). General Motors was responsible for mass production. The first order included 12 units and rounds of ammunition.

Accordingly, Captain Leslie Skinner combined the hollow charge warhead with the rocket launcher of his own design, and obtained a new infantry weapon that could be used widely.

Historically, this captain completed the design of the rocket launcher in 1940, but could not find a suitable warhead - because the muzzle velocity of the rocket was too low and the kinetic energy was far from enough to penetrate armor, so it was not until two years ago that the rocket launcher was designed. Later the famous bazooka rocket launcher was born.

Now that he has a ready-made reference object, Captain Leslie Skinner quickly matched this warhead that does not rely on muzzle velocity to his own rocket launcher.

If conditions are lacking, temporarily stacking some sandbags, wooden boards, and track pads can also have a certain effect.

The characteristic of the hollow charge warhead is that it has the best explosive height and the best penetration depth when detonated at a certain distance from the target, but the detonation after zero-distance impact is worse.

Therefore, the armor skirt may have the opposite effect - the incoming rocket detonates after impacting the skirt, and the metal jet successfully penetrates the armor that was originally unable to penetrate.

As a major student, Zhou Changfeng considers himself a very rational tactician. He does not blindly pursue a specific style of play. Soldiers are unpredictable, and water is unpredictable. He adapts to different situations.

This is not a complex technology in itself, it is just applied sooner or later. If the Ming army uses it one year in advance, it will take advantage of one year.

"Indeed, when it comes to dealing with Americans on the island, no one knows better than you." Luo Fu was convinced and said with a smile: "I guess they will come to you for help in two days."

At the same time, as a professional latecomer, he can stand on the historical commanding heights of a time traveler to examine the current situation more objectively.

"That's probably it."

"Training ground? Comprehensive?"

Based on the experience of many previous battles, both the Ministry of War and the Army found that there were many shortcomings in previous training and exercises.

The countermeasures are also very simple. Adding additional grille armor to the tank can effectively block incoming anti-tank rockets, causing them to get stuck between the grilles and unable to detonate normally.

"Oh? Interesting." Luo Fu browsed the files intently, picked up the tea cup and took a few sips, "The Army said they want to pick a place to build a large training ground. What do you think, Ke Xing?"

After all, many omissions are difficult to detect in normal times, and the training environment may be very different from the target because of the different locations of the troops. For example, infantry divisions stationed in the north often find themselves unable to adapt when sent to the Pacific battlefield.

Looking at the description and calculating the time, Zhou Changfeng estimated that the enemy should have almost mastered the hollow charge warhead.

The armor skirt similar to the historical Panzer IV H-type is not suitable.

As of now, his design has attracted the attention of individual US military generals, and the Frankford Arsenal was ordered to send a research team to speed up research and development.

The first type is the force that confronts the British army in the South Asian subcontinent. It is relatively conventional and can be deployed with traditional, general-level ordinary infantry divisions. Large-scale armored forces will be difficult to be effective due to the terrible climate and terrain conditions.

For Americans who are full of pride, if the performance is consistent, they should naturally give priority to products from their own country.

Therefore, many officials and generals believe that it is necessary to open a new large-scale training base, where all troops expected to fight abroad in the future will receive intensive training.

"It seems that there are still a lot of smart people, so this is the way to go." Zhou Changfeng patted the table and said thoughtfully: "I have been idle for a few days after returning from Hawaii. I should find something to do for myself. ”

The war needs of the Ming Dynasty are very unique. Due to the characteristics of the target area, the Ming Army needs to deploy three types of ground forces at the same time.

A small number of armored vehicles are also best dispersed into infantry divisions to undertake accompanying support tasks - a tracked assault gun similar to the Type III assault gun is most suitable.

The second type is to confront the Australian army on the Australian mainland. The natural environment here is more suitable. The combination of infantry and armored forces can maximize combat effectiveness in Australia.

The armored forces can completely operate independently here. The Ming army does not yet have armored divisions. It should speed up the adaptation of the existing tank brigades and turn the draft armored divisions on paper into reality. Here, a decent medium tank is the most appropriate choice.

The third type is to confront the US military on many islands in the Pacific. Because the actual combat needs of seizing and defending islands are very different, they actually need to be subdivided into two types of troops.

First, a flexible amphibious group is needed to seize the beach, land ashore, and open up a landing site. This requires good sea and air coordination, and it is necessary to focus on strengthening communication coordination capabilities, and at the same time, equip amphibious tanks with good performance.

Next, a heavy infantry division with abundant firepower and complete logistical support units is needed to guard the island. Sufficient artillery units and self-propelled anti-tank guns are needed to deal a powerful blow to the enemy's landing troops.

In a sense, the academic pressure of the military is also quite high. It requires learning, researching, and developing several different battle doctrines at the same time.

This poses a great test to a country's organizational capabilities. Those that can do well are second-rate countries, and those that can do well are first-rate countries. If you want to become a super-first-rate hegemon, you must be proficient in both.

Another pressing problem exposed by the Ming army was the difficulty in coordination and poor communication between the infantry division and the field heavy artillery brigade.

The 144-year-old infantry division does not contain heavy artillery. It will only receive support from the field heavy artillery brigade before the battle, usually one 112mm howitzer battalion and one mm cannon battalion.

Although this grouping model facilitates daily training and delivery, temporary assignments often go wrong and even cause a lot of jokes due to accent and dialect issues, which has a negative impact on infantry and artillery coordination. Zhou Changfeng's evaluation is that he seems to be smart and forward-looking, but in fact he is smart but is mistaken. He should return to tradition honestly, adjust the establishment of the infantry division, and add heavy artillery units to the division's artillery by default.

Good news in terms of weapons and equipment followed. In addition to the official production of the Type 40 medium tank, the wooden one-to-one model of the new amphibious tank was also completed.

The Type 35 floating tank currently in service is a product of inter-war technology, and its performance has long been outdated. Therefore, last year, the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of War issued an instruction to accelerate the development of the next generation amphibious tank.

However, Zhou was away on an expedition for several months. When he came back, he found that the indicators were not very satisfactory, so he decisively crossed the line. The indicators initially set by the Ordnance Bureau were drastically changed, so the ongoing design had to be scrapped and restarted.

Based on his own experience, Zhou Changfeng's requirements for the new amphibious tank are that the wind and wave resistance is level 3 wind and a wave height of one meter.

The firepower and protection are equipped with an 80mm short-barreled gun. The front of the car body can withstand a US-made 12.7mm heavy machine gun, and the front of the turret can withstand long-range shots from a 37mm anti-tank gun.

This type of tank was designed by Yanjing Xunjie Company. It is quite unique. It does not adopt the more reasonable rear-mounted driving wheel design used by Ming army tanks. Instead, it places the gearbox and driving wheel in front of the vehicle body like other major powers. department.

As a result, although the frontal armor of the car body can still only withstand 12.7mm machine gun bullets, the 37mm armor-piercing bullets will be blocked by the gearbox after penetrating the armor, reducing the damage to the crew members.

The 80mm short-barreled gun it uses is the same as the Type assault tank. It is a Type tank gun—actually a vehicle-mounted version of the old mountain cannon. It is cheap and easy to use. It is effective in dealing with civil fortifications and can also be fired. Armor-breaking rounds are being developed to attack enemy tanks.

There are two ducted propellers at the rear of the tank body, which can drive the vehicle forward on the water at a speed of 8km/h. However, because Xunjie Company designed a special W-shaped toothed track, the track paddling is greatly improved. Propulsion efficiency, the combination of the two can theoretically enable the vehicle to reach a speed of 10km/h.

In addition, the Ming Army also put forward a number of requirements after experiencing many battles in the South Asian subcontinent and the Australian continent, including various self-propelled artillery, aiming to improve the combat efficiency of the artillery unit.

Zhou Changfeng discussed this situation with Luo Fu for a long time. As an expert on motor vehicles, the latter could roughly judge whether it was feasible based on memory and estimation.

The first is a self-propelled howitzer, which is modified from the chassis of the Type 112 medium tank. It has a fixed open combat chamber and is equipped with a Type 40 mm howitzer. The vehicle has no less than rounds of ammunition.

The second is a light self-propelled anti-tank gun, which is modified from the chassis of the Type 48 light tank, has a fixed open combat chamber, and is equipped with a Type mm anti-tank gun, which is used to attack enemy armored targets.

The third is a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, which is also modified from the chassis of the Type 20.8 light tank, but adopts a rotatable turret design. It is equipped with a twin-mounted 1200mm anti-aircraft gun and has an on-board ammunition capacity of no less than rounds.

As the intensity of war increases, light tanks are destined to become useless. The Type 8.8 light tank, which has a total combat weight of 38.4 tons and uses a mm tank gun, may not be bad at the beginning of the war, but this is also the final opportunity to shine.

The officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty did not know that the M3 Stuart would appear on the battlefield soon, and the infantry of the British and American armies would also have the ability to destroy them, instead of being helpless as before.

Since the finalization of mass production in the 1185th year of Changchang, Yanjing No. 230 Heavy Machinery Company, Yanjing Xunjie Automobile Company, and Hangzhou Huifeng Tractor Manufacturing Factory have produced a total of units, and there are still orders for units that have not yet been completed.

Zhou Changfeng feels that this is a very good chassis that can be used to make a big fuss - in addition to anti-tank guns and anti-aircraft guns, multiple rocket launchers, recoilless rifles, large-caliber mortars, etc. may also be tried.

"Oh, this vehicle is not used in large quantities now. There are still hundreds of vehicles stranded in factories and ports with nowhere to go. The Army plans to cancel the order for the remaining two hundred vehicles." Luo Fu said nonchalantly.

"Hundreds of cars parked? This is too wasteful." Zhou Changfeng said in surprise.

"On average, only a few dozen tanks of various types are destroyed every month, and light tanks probably account for only half. This was during the previous continuous wars, and now it will be even less."

"It doesn't matter if the demand is small, at least you don't have to waste a lot of money."

The advantage of continuous battles and victories is that the technical equipment lost in the battle can be recovered and there is sufficient time for repairs.

Tanks are often abandoned after being damaged. However, except for those that are set on fire and burned, most of the damaged tanks can actually be repaired. Therefore, the victor can capture many enemy tanks - this situation is very common in history. This is particularly common on line battlefields.

Because of this, the Ming Army has not recorded many tanks as "completely destroyed" since last year's war. Instead, it has captured some US tanks.

Take the 14st Marine Brigade, which has traveled thousands of miles and fought almost all the battles, as an example. The brigade's combat convoy has a total of 45 Type 19 medium tanks. In the past year, 19 tanks have been recorded as damaged, but they were recorded as completely destroyed. There were only tanks in the country, and naturally only tanks were gradually shipped from the mainland as supplements. The remaining damaged tanks were restored and put into use again.

This leaves a large number of tanks leaving the factory with nowhere to go, and batches are backlogged in factory warehouses or Tianjin port terminals. Only a few dozen tanks may be shipped and shipped a month, but at the same time, a hundred tanks roll off the production line.

In late August, Zhou Changfeng spent several days running around lobbying congressmen he thought were more reliable.

The impact of the chaotic supervision of the treatment of officers, soldiers and their families is expanding, and it has naturally attracted the attention of many people.

There are still many knowledgeable people in the Consultative Council. In addition to the elected members, the ten special members are relatively easier to lobby. These people are not politicians in the first place, and they do not need to worry about too many power relations in their words and deeds.

In a quaint house in Beicheng District, Zhou and five or six people gathered here.

"These girls are so heartless. It's so chilling and sad to hear." An elderly member of the Industrial and Commercial Promotion Council lamented.

"We should give some restraints, and we should also consider whether someone is taking advantage of the situation." The middle-aged man next to him looked gentle and elegant. He was a member of the Renhe Party.

"This kind of thing must not spread, otherwise the morale and morale of the army will be lost."

"You may be able to let it go before you get engaged, but once the engagement is made, you shouldn't just give it up."

The one who looked the most angry at the scene was Yu Jieqiu, a member of the Chinese Communist Party. He knocked on the table and looked sharply, "I look forward to (husband) making great achievements and enjoying happiness together, but at the same time I don't want to take the risk of war injuries. How is this reasonable?"

Everyone agreed.

Zhou Changfeng smiled and said solemnly: "There must be corresponding regulatory laws, otherwise it will be meaningless. I have no right to interfere in this matter. I just hope that you will fulfill your duties. Please."

(End of this chapter)