afterglow

Chapter 668 I don't eat armor; I suggest using yellow explosives to measure the power

This daring landing operation clearly exceeded the expectations of the Allied intelligence agencies. The code name used by the French army for the operation was: Rhone Estuary Exercise.

Almost as Zhou Changfeng guessed, the French army did decide to use unique high-firepower armored vehicles as armored support forces to enhance the infantry units' offensive capabilities.

It is difficult to deliver tanks across the sea, and they cannot be transported by air, so the only option is armored vehicles - and it just so happens that the French army is equipped with distinctive heavy armored vehicles.

The 5th Light Cavalry Division is equipped with the latest Panhard 208 armored vehicle, which is an improved version based on the Panhard 201 and can be roughly regarded as a low-end version of the EBR.

【Picture】

It can be said that the French have brought the spirit of carrying a big cannon on a small vehicle to the extreme. Engineer Jacques Lafargue redesigned a cannon suitable for light armored vehicles based on the famous "Mademoiselle 75" field gun, which was finalized as the SA42 tank gun.

SA42坦克炮口径75㎜、38倍径，发射穿甲弹时初速560m/s，弹药尺寸为75×350㎜，因而通用库存的大量75小姐高爆弹。

The French do not like the traditional idea of ​​countering armor-piercing shells. They have conducted in-depth research on chemical energy ammunition and developed excellent anti-spin armor-piercing shells.

The rotation speed of the shell must be reduced to 20 to 25 revolutions per second in order not to affect the armor penetration depth. However, the shell needs to rotate at least 300 times per second to remain stable after leaving the barrel. The two are completely contradictory.

The German-French engineer Gessner designed the ball-bearing-stabilized armor-piercing projectile. This complex shell is like a Russian nesting doll, with a large bottle inside a small bottle, supported by a ball bearing in the middle. In this way, after the shell is fired, the outer layer rotates at high speed, while the inner layer only rotates at a low speed.

This anti-spin armor-piercing projectile can reach a penetration depth of 150mm. In comparison, the Gr38 armor-piercing projectile of the same caliber equipped by the German army is only 85mm, which is dwarfed by comparison.

The exclusive secret anti-spin armor-piercing shells greatly enhanced the combat effectiveness of the French Panhard armored vehicles - this meant that even sturdy heavy tanks could be destroyed head-on.

No matter whether you are a Stuart, Sherman or even a Pershing, I will kill you all. The thickness of your armor doesn't matter to me!

Another interesting thing worth mentioning is that because the M3 75㎜ tank gun used by the US Sherman was also developed based on the 75mm field gun, and the shell size is also 75×350㎜, the French armored vehicles can directly use American tank gun high-explosive shells.

By the evening of December 12, the Spanish 3th Infantry Regiment and militia battalion stationed in Melilla were defeated.

Because the battle happened so suddenly, many units did not have time to enter the preset positions, and failure was inevitable.

Throughout the day, the French 4th and 5th Marine Infantry Regiments were the first to land and launch an attack, and a regiment of the 1st Light Cavalry Division also went ashore to join the battle.

Afterwards, the main French force took advantage of the cover of darkness to quickly go ashore, and most of the 10th and 17th Infantry Divisions also landed by daybreak.

The Allied forces came to their senses and rushed to obstruct the attack. A large number of planes were dispatched from Casablanca, Chefchaouen and Algiers to bomb the city. The nearest Italian patrol fleet also rushed over.

There was little ground fighting that day, with only sporadic gunfire, but the air battles were particularly fierce.

French planes took off from southern Spain to provide support. Dozens of aircraft from both sides were shot down over Melilla throughout the day, and the Italian Royal Navy's Zara heavy cruiser was damaged.

Some French landing ships and cargo ships stranded in Melilla were subjected to repeated bombing by Allied air forces. The few technical equipment and supplies that were not transported in time were engulfed in fire or sank with the ship.

Upon learning that the operation was a complete success, the French Defense Committee could finally put their minds at ease.

The dust has settled, the most difficult and most likely to fail first phase has ended in victory, and the bridgehead into North Africa is under control.

The next strategic goal is to defend the west and advance the east - be cautious in dealing with the direction of Morocco, mainly in a defensive posture; but actively attack Algeria in the east, and drive straight in with lightning speed.

From that day on, transport planes of the French Air Force took off from Toulouse and Marseille and flew to Melilla, thousands of miles away, to unload large quantities of supplies and several divisions as reinforcements.

The state-owned Breguet Aircraft Company designed and manufactured a powerful four-engine large transport aircraft Br721, equipped with four Land God 18R eighteen-cylinder radial engines with a displacement of 49.7L and a nominal power of 1900 horsepower. The abundant power allows this transport aircraft to carry up to 14 tons of cargo, which is four times the famous American C-47 transport aircraft.

Moreover, the fuselage and tail door of this type of transport aircraft are wide, just enough to accommodate a Panhard eight-wheeled armored vehicle, which is very consistent with the needs of the French army.

The satisfied French Air Force ordered 360 aircraft, but because they were too complicated and took a lot of man-hours to manufacture, only 76 have been delivered to date.

These dozens of Breguet transport planes took on the arduous task, sending out an average of 80 sorties per day in the following days, airlifting approximately 2000 people and 500 tons of supplies to Melilla.

At the same time, the French 5th Light Cavalry Division had been advancing eastward without stopping since it landed and completed its preparations on December 12, driving hundreds of kilometers along the coastline.

With German and French aircraft providing cover throughout the process, the 5th Light Cavalry Division easily captured Colmar on December 12 and captured thousands of troops of the Third Republic's exiled government.

The division then continued to attack eastward without stopping, heading straight for Algiers, the capital of the Algerian colony.

Algiers, this ancient city adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea is one of the largest cities in northwestern Africa and the political and economic center of colonial Algeria. It is where the Third Republic's government-in-exile is based.

The Allied forces here are relatively sufficient, and they have also urgently dispatched additional troops in the past few days, greatly strengthening local defenses.

The Allied forces assembled in Algiers included the 87th North African Infantry Division of the French Army of the Third Republic, the 4th Armored Division of the Canadian Army, the 228th Infantry Brigade (Regiment) of the British Army, and the 15th Infantry Division of the British Army, and should not be underestimated.

The French vanguard launched a tentative attack, then only carried out fire reconnaissance missions, and then waited for the arrival of follow-up large forces.

The offensive and defensive battles between the two sides over Algiers were extremely fierce. As the distance increased, the combat efficiency of the air forces of both sides increased and decreased. German and French aircraft could no longer unilaterally control the sky, and the French ground forces began to face the threat of air strikes.

The Italian Royal Navy also came to help, and the fleet including the Veneto and Littorio carried out artillery support on the other side of the shore with great momentum.

Under such circumstances, the French army suffered huge losses in its repeated attacks on the outer positions.

Although they broke through two lines of defense and forced the Allied forces back to the city and southern suburbs, they also lost their offensive capabilities.

The French High Command believed that the enemy defending Algiers had been severely damaged and would collapse like a broken house with holes all over it if kicked a few more times, so it ordered the reinforcements that had just arrived to take over the attack.

This is obviously too hasty and the decision is not wise - when your reinforcements arrive, others' reinforcements will definitely arrive as well.

After another unsuccessful attack, the French army at the gates of the city had to temporarily suspend its offensive, and tens of thousands of French troops turned to defending their positions.

The Germans could certainly guess the French's eagerness to join the war, but they saw through it without saying anything.

Therefore, the German social leaders did not intend to interfere with the French social advance into North Africa. It would be better for each side to fight their own battles and not interfere with each other.

The German High Command recently reached a consensus on the situation in the Iberian War and made up its mind to capture the Gibraltar fortress - the capture of Gibraltar meant that the route to the Mediterranean Sea through Europe would be cut off, which was equivalent to strangling one of the lifelines of the Allied forces.

毫不夸张的时说，直布罗陀要塞是世界上最难攻克的地方，能让德国人纠结一年才下定决心足见其棘手程度。在四〇年时英军疏散了全部平民，对直布罗陀彻底要塞化，部署了8门234㎜岸防炮、7门152㎜岸防炮、20门94㎜高射炮、8门40㎜高射炮、16门133㎜高射炮。

The British engineering corps also dug a large number of underground fortifications and built complex facilities including tunnel networks, hospitals, ammunition depots, power stations, fresh water treatment stations, headquarters, and barracks, which were sufficient to protect 1.6 people, and the various supplies stored in them could supply the defenders for 16 months.

In the narrow isthmus area, the British army also built a large number of defense lines consisting of bunkers, anti-tank gun shelters, semi-permanent fortifications, barbed wire, and minefields along the way.

Judging from the firepower configuration, Gibraltar doesn’t seem to be a big deal?
That's true, but Gibraltar's proud weapon is its terrain - most of the area is occupied by extremely steep rocks. The only way to attack it by land is through a narrow isthmus that is only one kilometer wide, which only allows one infantry battalion to attack at most. The attacker cannot take advantage of its troop strength, but the defender can concentrate its firepower.

In comparison, the famous Sevastopol fortress was much easier to capture, as the attacking side was in a semi-encircled position and the entire front line was tens of kilometers long, so the defenders' strength would be diluted and dispersed.

【Picture】

To this end, the German army took great pains to prepare elite assault troops.

The ground force is called the Gibraltar Battle Group, which is composed of three mountain infantry regiments, supplemented by four combat engineer battalions and as many as 3 artillery regiments, with a total strength of 4 people.

Various heavy weapons and technical equipment include more than 150 740mm howitzers and cannons, two mm railway guns Einhausen and Hesper, and more than Erica remote-controlled blasting vehicles.

The Air Force was also ordered to provide strong support, deploying one fighter wing and two bomber wings. Their first priority was to suppress the Allied fleet, otherwise the terrible artillery bombardment from the other side would cause a devastating blow to the ground forces.

At the same time, the German army also prepared hundreds of Fritz X remote-controlled bombs and Hs293 glide bombs for precision strikes on British artillery positions and fortresses.

The Germans planned to concentrate several divisions to launch an offensive to eliminate the Allied forces in southwestern Spain, and then attack the Gibraltar fortress.

But just as they were making intensive preparations, they found that the French had hit a wall at the gates of Algiers and were unable to penetrate the solid ice with their spent force.

The Germans were worried about this - Algiers was a key location, if they could take it, the situation would be opened up, but if they could not take it for a long time...

After the Allied forces hastily evacuated from the eastern Black Sea, they had 60,000 to 70,000 mobile troops left. At the same time, the number of vassal troops in South America was also increasing, which meant that the Americans were very likely to send troops to Morocco next, thereby threatening the North African battlefield that the French had risked opening up.

Although the French vowed that they could handle the North African battlefield alone, the skeptical Germans still made preparations for both scenarios - forming a reserve force to be deployed to North Africa when necessary.

Soon, it was the last day of 1942.

A few days ago, winter fell overnight in the south of the Yangtze River, and the howling north wind became the norm.

The continuously operating graphite reactor is undergoing microscopic changes every minute and every second - U-238 captures neutrons and undergoes secondary β decay to become the final product Pu-239, which is the key raw material.

Now that the nuclear program has reached a critical stage, the three chief scientists set off on three trains one after another, leaving the place called Hongshabao that cannot be found on the map and going to Beijing to report on their work.

Generally speaking, this kind of thing would not trouble the head of a country, but Zhu Lingjing herself was particularly concerned about this matter, so she attended in person.

The meeting was held in a small courtyard in Xiyuan. Zhou Changfeng saw that the Mochou Lake was rippling due to the north wind, and the willow branches by the lake were bare, with each soft and long branch clearly visible.

"Hey, I've met you all. You've been stuck in the wild mountains of the northwest for so long. It must have been hard for you all."

Zhou Changfeng exchanged a few words with the three big shots and talked and laughed non-stop. The servants brought them warm tea and cakes.

This was a confidential discussion of important matters, so Zhu Lingjing didn't make a big fuss and just walked over lightly.

As of the end of the month, all eight graphite reactors and five chemical separation plants built in the first and second phases of the Jinwu Project were put into operation except for one reactor which was delayed.

These facilities have produced a total of more than ten kilograms of raw materials, or 10.87 kg of plutonium to be exact, while the atomic bomb designed according to the theoretical model only requires 6.6 kg.

Zhu Lingjing asked directly: "What is the result of the calculation of 'that'?"

"Considering the worst-case scenario, there is a small possibility." Qian Yuankai replied with a serious expression.

After saying this, he looked at the mathematician Yuan Xiantong next to him - he was responsible for the key calculation verification.

Zhu Lingjing looked through the calculation ideas and initial data carefully with an expressionless face. She said calmly, "It can't be such a coincidence that everything is the worst? The probability of this is close to zero."

The probability approaches zero, but is not zero.

The Jinwu Project team is worried that nuclear fission will trigger uncontrollable nuclear fusion in the atmosphere and destroy the world, specifically by causing fusion reactions in the nitrogen in the air.

People's current understanding of nuclear fusion is still quite superficial. They only know that light atomic nuclei can combine into heavy atomic nuclei under extremely harsh conditions.

In 1929, British physicists demonstrated the possibility of hydrogen nuclei combining into helium nuclei at temperatures of tens of millions of degrees; last year, the Jinwu Project team discovered that hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium can also undergo fusion reactions.

As we all know, heavier nuclei can also undergo fusion reactions, helium fusion into carbon, carbon fusion into oxygen...

That's why people are worried that nuclear fission will induce fusion reactions of nitrogen in the air, but they don't know what the specific data is.

In fact, this is completely unnecessary, because this requires an exaggerated extreme temperature of 1000 billion Kelvin, while the temperature at the center of the sun is only 1570 million Kelvin.

Of course, the scientists didn't know this; they assumed the worst-case scenario and calculated whether it could continue uncontrollably on its own.

Calculations show that this requires heating the air in a spherical space with a diameter of about 60 meters to extremely high temperatures to cause an uncontrollable chain reaction and destroy the world. If this is not achieved, the reaction will be unable to meet the demand and will stop spontaneously.

Obviously, heating such a large volume of air to extremely high temperatures would require a huge amount of energy and is also impossible.

Qian Yuankai nodded and said, "That's right, Your Majesty. The energy required is one hundred thousand times more than the energy released by a nuclear bomb."

Hearing this, Zhou Changfeng was surprised and asked, "Do you know the specific power?"

"It's not clear yet. We calculated based on the conversion of all six kilograms of mass into energy. In reality... I'm afraid it's only 40 million megajoules. It's not absolute. Some people think it could be 80 million."

"Uh..." Zhou Changfeng tried to convert in his mind, and then coughed dryly, "It doesn't sound intuitive. Using energy units to express power is rather abstract. Let's use one ton of TNT as the measurement standard from now on."

(End of this chapter)