afterglow

Chapter 586 Chapter Light Tank Program; Honolulu Civilian Evacuation Agreement
As the saying goes, heroes are made by the times. The T-34 was actually a transitional tank that still retained a lot of outdated designs, but it had to take on the heavy responsibility of fighting against the invading enemy in times of crisis, and reluctantly achieved the reputation of a classic tank.

It has many defects, such as the backward design of plate-tooth meshing of the driving wheel and track, poor sights, a two-man turret without a commander's tower, and the old-fashioned small interior space.

Historically, the Russians had ordered several Type IIIE tanks from the Germans before the war. After testing, they found that their man-machine efficiency far exceeded that of the T-34, so they immediately began to develop an improved T-34M.

The T-34M uses a torsion bar suspension to replace the Christie suspension with obvious disadvantages, increasing the internal space; the side armor is changed from inclined to vertical, further increasing the space; the front high-angle armor is increased to 60㎜, and the equivalent thickness is very terrifying.

But the enemy would not leave enough time, so the T-34M was only produced as a wooden prototype and then lost in the long river of history.

"At present, the most advanced view in Western countries is that light tanks are outdated, with weak armor and insufficient firepower, and cannot take on major tasks. In the future, they will definitely focus on developing medium and heavy tanks."

"That's true. It's really hard to handle a weight of more than ten tons."

"But they are them, and we are us. Our country has its own national conditions. The royal army has fought all over the world, and some places cannot be reached by heavy chariots, such as that damn place of U-Tsang."

"Yes, and there are the South Sea and the Ocean. Those wild jungles are simply fatal. Twenty-ton things will easily sink into them."

In the morning, in the conference room of the Ordnance Bureau building, some officials and army generals were meeting to discuss the development requirements of light tanks.

This time, Zhou Changfeng was also present.

"My opinion is that we should continue with it." He said, "U-Tsang is quite extreme, so let's not talk about it for now. This kind of light tank has value in India and the Pacific Islands. It is easy to load and unload by sea, and it has strong mobility."

The wider the adaptability, the more convenient it will be - most Ming merchant ships only have 15-ton cranes, which cannot lift medium tanks, but can lift light tanks.

"That's absolutely right. What matters most is that the goods can be easily loaded and unloaded and transported to the destination quickly and conveniently. This is also considered speed is of the essence in war." Someone agreed.

"Our army needs a light tank weighing more than ten tons with good off-road capabilities." Zhou Changfeng stretched out his index finger, middle finger, and ring finger, "On this basis, we will pursue the ultimate in firepower and protection, and we don't care about quantity. It can be more expensive and use the best technology."

"What Mr. Zhou said is similar to what I had in mind. This type of tank does not take on the main responsibility and does not require too much, so we can keep improving it." A civilian major in charge of tank research and development said happily.

Historically, light tanks fell into decline after the World War, and many countries gave up this route.

However, later generations still developed the Type 59 light tank when the Type 62 medium tank was already available, specifically to equip the southern troops.

Because the average ground pressure of Type 59 is about 0.8MPa, and that of Type 62 is only more than 0.6MPa, the passability is significantly improved.

At the same time, even in the new century, more cutting-edge light tanks were born.

This is enough to prove the necessity and value of light tanks.

Soon, the Ordnance Bureau approved the research and development plan and issued technical indicator requirements.

1. The total combat weight does not exceed 13 tons.

2. It must also have excellent passability on complex terrain, and the highway speed must not be less than 55 kilometers per hour.

3. The width of the vehicle body shall not exceed 2.6 meters.

4. It can penetrate the front of enemy light tanks at a distance of at least 500 meters.

5. It can resist US-made .50-inch, or 12.7mm, large-caliber machine gun bullets (the front requires zero distance and the side requires a distance of 200 meters).

It can be seen that this is a light tank that emphasizes mobility and flexibility, and does not make excessive requirements on firepower and protection.

The Ming army hoped to use it as a heavy reconnaissance vehicle to unexpectedly spy on the enemy's position deployment status, so that they could retreat calmly even if they were discovered.

Anyway, we don't expect this thing to fight the enemy head-on with real weapons. That would be foolish.

Unless...it is impossible to encounter enemy anti-tank guns and tanks.

Anti-tank guns are limited in number and cannot cover all areas. They are often only deployed in places where "enemy tanks are considered likely to appear."

If we have tanks at this time, even if they are just weak light tanks, we can still kill all enemies - this is the asymmetric combat idea that is highly sought after by people.

Swift Company and First Machine Company are the only two companies in Ming Dynasty with complete tank design capabilities, and both are very interested.

Under seemingly extremely limited objective conditions, spare no expense to create the strongest tank?
Such a challenging task makes engineers very excited.

While a group of designers were discussing with great interest...

Across the country, progress has been made in all areas of work.

On January 1, the emperor finally chose the reign title that had been delayed for many days. He was torn between "Jinghe" and "Zhiyuan Ningguo", and finally chose the former, and was determined to change the reign title after victory in the war.

On January 1, the 5-meter giant dock in Huludao has entered the final stage of construction and is expected to be put into operation in the summer. This is a rare large dry dock in the world that can build 380-ton giant ships.

On January 1, another 9-ton die-forging hydraulic press was successfully put into production in Guangzhou. It is under the name of An Teng Aircraft Company and is used to forge aircraft structural materials.

On January 1, the jet technology demonstrator Cy-10 was tested in Suzhou. It went smoothly at first, but the engine stalled during a dive test and the test pilot was not spared.

On January 1, the German agency handed over some intelligence to the Ming Dynasty, informing it that there was solid evidence that the United States had equipped itself with new weapons, including fighter jets, tanks, small rocket launchers, and carbines.

Intelligence provided by the German news agency DA indicated that the U.S. Army Air Force had been equipped with a fighter jet with a unique design that might have extraordinary performance. However, since the Bell Company that designed and manufactured the aircraft was a small emerging company, there was a lack of information.

In addition, the rough parameters of the new M3 medium tank have been revealed. It is very tall, with two guns, one large and one small, suspected to be 75mm and 37mm respectively. It may weigh 30 tons, and its armor is thicker than its predecessor.

The German army had already encountered the new treasure of the American army on the Iberian Peninsula, and was initially shocked by such tall and powerful tanks.

These tanks not only have fierce firepower, but also seem to have good protection capabilities. The Pak36 has no effect on them, and the Pak38 50mm anti-tank gun can only effectively penetrate them within hundreds of meters.

The German army's own tanks were in a period of transition, so the armored forces were struggling. The powerful anti-aircraft guns were difficult to deploy quickly in the undulating mountains, so they could only rely on anti-tank guns and tank destroyers to deal with them.

In Zhou Changfeng's impression, in history, the US military was briefly equipped with a more conservative and backward tank before the famous Sherman tank, but it performed poorly on the North African battlefield, so it must be this thing.

War has catalyzed the rapid iteration of scientific and technological products, and we will definitely face a series of new weapons next. Zhou Changfeng thought so.

The Ministry of War's response was indeed a bit slow. The officials sitting in the offices did not have much sense of urgency. The ones who were vigilant and anxious were often the generals who learned the intelligence when they returned from the front lines to report on their work.

Therefore, various reports and letters came in one after another, hoping to attract Zhou's attention, after all, he had more say. These days, Zhou Changfeng has been observing the development of jet aircraft at Shanghai Changyang Company. After learning about the situation, he immediately took action.

He then issued an order requiring improvements to the existing Type 37 anti-tank rocket launcher and the development of new armor-piercing shells for various barreled artillery.

As an early work of Zhou, the Type 37 rocket launcher had average performance, with a direct-fire range of only more than 50 meters and an actual combat armor-piercing depth of only a few dozen millimeters.

However, it was born too early and was extremely light, so it performed outstandingly and was praised by soldiers as a "weapon for infantry combat."

The improvement work is also very simple. The launcher itself remains unchanged. The only change is to expand the warhead from 64mm in diameter to 80mm and increase the amount of propellant. At the same time, the charge liner is improved. In order to save costs, it still uses soft iron material, but changes from a hemispherical shape to a conical shape.

The best effect is actually the trumpet shape, but it is difficult to process, so the moderate cone shape is the most appropriate.

The new warhead thus obtained achieved a static armor penetration depth of 160mm, and it is estimated to be around 100mm in actual combat.

As for the armor-piercing shells for barreled artillery, they are of little use because the shells will spin at high speed, which seriously weakens the power of the metal jet and can only penetrate armor to a depth of tens of millimeters.

Therefore, Zhou asked the Ministry of War to allocate special funds to select the most suitable manufacturer to specialize in the development of anti-spin tail-stabilized armor-piercing projectiles.

【Picture】

As for other weapons, there is no need to rush for the time being, as they are enough to meet actual combat needs.

In terms of individual equipment, the Ming army was undoubtedly first-rate - medium-power automatic rifles were paired with bulletproof vests with inserts. To exaggerate a bit, even if they were left in tatters from now on, they would still be OK after forty years, which shows how far ahead they were.

This is also something Zhou Changfeng is very proud of. Although it has not been popularized now, it has caused the US military a lot of trouble.

Some captured American soldiers were still confused. They could not understand why someone who had been hit by a volley of submachine gun bullets could continue to move.

In mid-January, Ming and the United States reached a consensus on the resettlement of civilians in Honolulu.

The Americans' peacetime living standards were so high that the people of occupied Honolulu often complained about the shortage of supplies and the life that was not like that of a human being.

They sent representatives to make demands, asking for at least 1 pound (454g) of meat and 0.3 pounds (136g) of sugar per person per week - this was about one-third of the peacetime amount, which they considered to be a very low demand.

This directly confused the Ming Dynasty officials stationed in Honolulu.

Even white-collar workers in Yingtian Prefecture and Shanghai Prefecture may not be able to eat like this!

They replied angrily: Our country is not that rich and cannot satisfy you, so you just have to live a hard life for now!

In the memorials submitted to the court, officials stated that if all the people here were local citizens, then the consumption of food and supplies could be reduced by half of what it is now. For long-term considerations, some people should be relocated here.

Administrative officials were troubled, and the Ming army was also wary of the enemy civilians right under their noses.

Everyone wanted to drive them away, but unfortunately there was no place to drive them away in the vast ocean. What's more important was that the troops needed prosperous cities with people to provide a better rest environment.

Fortunately, the Red Cross acted as a middleman and assisted the top leaders of the two countries in communicating on this matter.

The president was very concerned about this matter. He believed that evacuating his own people from enemy-occupied areas would help boost the morale of the military and civilians.

As a politician, how can you miss such a good publicity opportunity?
This incident was deliberately revealed to the outside world and soon made the front pages of major newspapers, causing a strong response. Many people excitedly expressed that their compatriots should not be allowed to suffer in dire straits.

A shipping company took the opportunity to declare that it was willing to send all available merchant ships to Honolulu. The company's stock price subsequently rose by more than ten percentage points.

The opposition voices within the federal government were quickly suppressed. Everyone was sensible and no one wanted to be criticized or shot for it.

In fact, this was not difficult for the United States. Every week, a fleet would travel from the west coast to Hawaii to transport military supplies. When they returned, the ships would be empty, so they could easily stop by Honolulu to pick up local civilians.

If you think using cargo ships to transport people is inhumane, there are many local shipping companies that can take on the task.

The Ming court fully agreed with this move. They were determined to turn Oahu into an overseas stronghold that would never fall. How could they allow hundreds of thousands of civilians from the enemy country to remain?
There were some doubting voices in the military. The Grand Marshal's Office was worried that the lack of local population would have an adverse effect, but the Ministry of War vowed that it would not be difficult to relocate 80,000 to 100,000 people within two years.

Finally, the pressure came to the Ministry of Revenue.

Can you gather tens of thousands of immigrants who are willing to leave their homes and go to dangerous and distant overseas countries?

Officials from the Ministry of Revenue scoffed, thinking that this underestimated the severity of the huge population base.

With more than 700 million people, can't we find tens of thousands of people willing to go out to sea? Why is there so much overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia?

Representatives of the two countries exchanged memoranda in Honolulu and signed a wartime agreement that stipulated the time and route for the evacuation of civilians by ship. The ships should be painted pure white for high recognition and fly the Red Cross flag to indicate their identity.

On February 2, the first trial evacuation went on as scheduled.

The originally selected passenger ship, the Austin Belle, sailed from the west coast carrying two thousand army soldiers and was sunk by a Ming submarine in waters 134 km east of the Big Island of Hawaii.

Therefore, they had to temporarily use the cargo ship Lumina São Paulo to carry out the evacuation mission. This merchant ship was painted white overnight and was boarded and inspected under the watchful eyes of many Ming army planes and warships to confirm that there were no suspicious people or objects hidden inside.

The Shining St. Paul approached Oahu in the evening and anchored at the Honolulu Pier.

More than a thousand civilians, with their families, boarded ships overnight, apparently eager to escape from the enemy-occupied area.

After dawn, the cargo ship full of civilians weighed anchor and set sail. The officials sent by the imperial court to Honolulu could not help but applaud.

These spoiled guys who have lived in paradise since childhood, get out of here now!

Now there are more than a thousand fewer people at once, and the officials feel particularly happy.

"Your Majesty, the main thing is that these people are really troublesome. I can't trust them, and they have to be my own people."

"Well, Oahu is far away from the mainland, so we can't expect to be self-sufficient. It would be great if we can solve some of the problems there."

Zhou Changfeng nodded and said to Zhu Lingjing, "Giant cruise ships like the Shengping and Suzaku can carry thousands of people at a time and can quickly replenish the population. The flat terrain in the middle of Oahu is also very suitable for farming. It's perfect."

(End of this chapter)