Imperial Overlord

When Li Le decided to bring the guy Witzleben to the marshal camp, he had already decided to keep the Army in his hands.

The French campaign made many "young" generals stand out, and many people, including the commander of the 7th Panzer Division, Rommel, have already shown their talents.

There are too many talented generals in Germany, Guderian and Rommel, including Manstein who provided the sickle-wielding action plan.

Li Le didn't worry about the ineffective generals under his own account. What he was worried about was the conflict between the army and a group of worms in the rear, forming the situation that the head of state encountered back then.

So he had to win over some people and suppress some people, trying his best to keep the army on the front line faithfully implementing his intentions.

At the same time, there are too many things he wants to improve. All kinds of things without technical content, including assault rifles, must be developed as soon as possible and used on the front line to gain more advantages.

During World War II, German scientists came up with a lot of advanced technologies, but because of the time and immaturity of technology, most of these technologies can only be called "black technology" or "doomsday technology".

And what Li Le wants to do is not something like doomsday black technology. He must hurry up to tap the industrial potential and turn it into something that can really be called technology.

For example, the slow-developing German tanks were backward in design. Li Le does not like the industrial disaster of the Tiger tank, but if he wants to deny the development of this kind of tank, Li Le must provide a more advanced tank.

Of course there are more advanced tanks, Li Le. He can even give German designers the shape and general structure of the American M1A1... The key is, how to produce it?

Of course, there may be some suspicions of raising the bar, but Li Le feels that he has some confidence in coming up with some more reliable new equipment.

In the 42 years that Germany has been in decline, the devastated logistics department and the industrial system that has collapsed in production capacity, in order to produce more tanks, an E plan has been proposed.

This E-series Hu plan was formally proposed by Heinrich Knickamp, ​​chief engineer of the German 6th Arsenal in May 1942.

He hopes to find a joint point between existing tanks and armored vehicles and future tanks and armored vehicles, and develop a future tank development plan for tank parts with high general performance.

In real history, Germany started this plan in April 1943 and was named Plan E.

In the late World War II, in order to cope with the powerful tank offensive of the Allied and Soviet forces, Germany proposed the E-series tank plan, that is, the universal tank plan.

The technology of these cars is quite advanced, and their generalized design ideas are quite forward-looking. Unfortunately, Zhao Wenxi died, and everything was too late.

The content of this plan is that the tank and armored vehicle parts of the army's heavy equipment are common, and the production capacity can be complementary.

But what Li Le values ​​is not this versatility.

What he needed was to use the E plan to restrain the development of increasingly heavy German tanks. Li Le prefers medium tanks, tanks with better bulletproof shape and more firepower.

As for those classic Tiger tanks and Leopard tanks, to be honest, Li Le doesn't really like it.

Because like other German weapons, these tanks were a serious waste of tonnage and could not achieve the quantitative advantage that Germany needed more.

"General Brauchitch" Li Le looked at Brauchitch, who had already agreed with him to kick Witzleben out of the marshal promotion sequence, and offered his price: "I want to change some of the army's weapons and equipment."

He looked at the other party, and without waiting for Brausch to explain anything, he reached out to stop the other party: "I need the army to equip more tanks, more!"

Hearing that the Führer planned to increase the production of tanks, Brauchitch really changed his expression. As the commander-in-chief of the army, of course, like Goering, he hopes to have more resources.

And because the Fuhrer has always been wary of the army, he has always been cautious in applying to the Fuhrer.

But today, the Führer personally proposed the development plan of the army tank, which made him ecstatic.

In fact, the Army has already put forward its own ideas: they need more No. 3 tanks, and more No. 4 tanks.

Compared with tanks No. 1 and No. 2, which are small in size but obviously lacking in combat capability, the commanders of the Army Armored Forces are more willing to equip the more advanced No. 3 and No. 4 tanks.

Li Le is not willing to directly produce the No. 3 and No. 4 tanks that are about to become obsolete. He prefers to make do with the No. 4 first, and then quickly develop a "new Tiger" that better suits his needs.

"In principle, I approved the production of more No. 4 tanks, but the No. 3 tanks must be stopped." Li Le looked at Brauchitch and said.

"The site of the No. 3 tank has been converted into assault guns, and more powerful guns will be used."

Li Le's statement made Brauchitch a little puzzled. He looked at the Führer and said suspiciously: "My Führer, in fact, there are thousands of No. 2 tanks and 38Ts of the Army Armored Forces waiting to be replaced. It would be unwise to stop the production of the Panzer 3."

"I never wanted to stop the production of No. 3, I just said to stop the production of No. 3 tank and convert it into No. 3 assault gun." Li Le defended.

He also knew that it was a bit too reluctant to stop production of the still advanced No. 3 tank at this time, but what he lacked was time, and it was time that really made people feel urgent.

"Your Excellency, our enemy is mass-producing more advanced and terrifying tanks. If we don't hurry to produce more powerful tanks, our soldiers will suffer heavy losses on the battlefield!" Li Le gave his reasons and tried to Convince Brauchitch.

However, Brauchitch was obviously reluctant to such a thing, and just shook his head and said: "My Führer, I don't know what new tanks from that company have lobbied you. But what I want to tell you is, We still need tanks 3 and 4."

The No. 3 tank is equipped for the German armored forces, and the No. 3 assault gun is equipped for the German infantry troops. Brauchitch's reluctance to disperse the armored forces was his idea.

After all, the armored forces have achieved a lot of dazzling results in a few months from 39 to 40 years. Now the armored forces are the sons of the German Army, and they are taken care of much better than the infantry.

As for the No. 3 assault gun to cover the infantry's attack, this weapon is good enough. There is no need to equip it too much and waste limited resources.

Don't imagine how terrible the German army was in 40 years, because they were still equipped with 37mm anti-tank guns at this time, and they lived by dragging 105mm field guns on mules and horses.

Compared with Japan in the same period, the weapons in the hands of the German army are not much advanced, and most of them are still on the same level.

At this time, the German army was stronger in the cooperation of arms, and in the use of armored units and emerging units, such as paratroopers and bombers.

On the contrary, after the German tanks and other equipment began to surpass the Japanese army and embarked on the road of no return, they hardly won on the battlefield.

It is ridiculous to think about it. Later generations were called classic Tiger tanks and Leopard tanks. After they appeared on the battlefield, they became firefighters, running around to fill holes for the collapsed German army...

And those tiger tank myths that are talked about, those superhuman records, were all achieved in the case of defensive counterattacks - because at that time the German army was no longer able to attack.

"The production of the No. 4 tank must be increased. You don't object to this general, do you?" Knowing that he couldn't convince the other side, Li Le took the next step.

Brauchitch also knew that the Führer would not give in easily. Seeing the Führer compromise, he quickly nodded and said, "Yes, my Führer. Our army needs more No. 4 tanks."

"In the next six months~www.readwn.com~ I will find a way to produce 2,000 No. 4 tanks for you." Seeing that Brauchitch agreed to this plan, Li Le gave his idea.

"Temporarily producing No. 4 as a supplement, but I will try to strengthen the armor and firepower of No. 4 tank as much as possible." Next, he insisted on improving No. 4 tank.

In 1940, the optimistic German Army thought it was invincible, had more flexible tactics, and had more good soldiers.

When facing the enemy's sturdy heavy tanks, the Army is more willing to use flexible cooperation to destroy the opponent.

They'll call in the Air Force to take on tough targets with dive bombers, or overwhelm these sturdy enemy tanks with 88mm anti-aircraft guns.

So when Li Le insisted on developing a tank with stronger firepower and thicker armor, Brauchitch felt that Li Le was a layman.

The Army did not trust the Führer, and did not pay much for the Führer's whimsical ideas.

However, the victory in Poland and France also made Brauchitch uncertain about the Fuhrer's foresight. He couldn't tell whether the Fuhrer was really a prophet of science and technology, or whether a blind cat met a dead mouse.

"My Führer, if you can guarantee the number of 2,000 tanks, I have no objection to you modifying them to make them stronger." After grasping the point of the matter, Brauchitch offered his own conditions .

As the commander-in-chief of the army, the first thing he must ensure is that the army's armored divisions can get more tanks. If the head of state can find a way to get the army to equip 2,000 new tanks, then he has no reason to refuse stronger ones.

"Very good! As you wish, I will try my best to ensure that the army's 2,000 tanks will be in place within half a year." Li Le was no slower than Brauchitch in writing a bad check, and he was much more determined than the other party.