Iron Cross

The British and American intelligence on the production and formation of Tiger tanks was very accurate. The production of Tiger tanks has been slowly increasing. The output in January was 167. Speer expected that it would reach 200 by March and 250 by June. This was also the basis for the Allied estimate that Germany could equip three heavy armored battalions (54 tanks per battalion) per month.

However, due to combat losses and the incorporation of independent Tiger companies into armored divisions, the formation rate of Tiger heavy armored battalions remained at two per month. Battalions 501 and 502 belonged to Guderian, and Battalions 503, 504, and 505 belonged to Manstein. Battalion 506 was on its way to Africa and would be assigned to Rommel. After January 20, Battalion 507 could be fully staffed and incorporated into the Southern Army Group.

It's not that the German General Staff doesn't want to get more Tigers, but the Panther tanks have basically passed the acceptance in early January, and will undergo final modifications so that trial production can begin on March 1, and mass production will begin in June. To ensure productivity, the monthly production of the Tiger will remain unchanged after reaching 250, and the Type 4 tank is expected to reach a peak of 1,500 in March and then begin to decline - some production lines will be converted to prepare, and the Type 3 tank production line was closed in December and is currently being transferred to Italy to prepare to restart production in a different place. Although the Italians' technical level is a little behind, the production capacity of companies such as Fiat is not bad. The transferred production line is guided by German engineers, and they don't produce tanks, but only focus on producing Type 3 assault guns. Speer believes that the Italians' level is enough to cope with it. His initial plan for several Italian tank factories is 500 vehicles per month.

As a result, the development and production of Italy's own tanks, including the M15\\P40 and other models, had to be stopped. According to the principle of integration of key equipment between Germany and Italy, all equipment of the Italian Army was required to be compatible with Germany. Therefore, all Italian designers changed their jobs and participated in the development and implementation of relevant German projects. Although this made the Italian leaders unhappy, they still needed help in Sudan and Ethiopia, and the Italian Army also picked more than 50 Crusaders and Cromwells from the spoils of war in North Africa, and received more than 60 Type 3 tanks from Germany. What they paid was just a little M13 with worse performance. How to calculate this account, the Italian leaders knew it well.

As the design and development of the Leopard tank came to an end, the improved Tiger tank began to enter the focus of the Army Equipment Bureau. According to the preliminary research and preparation and Hoffman's instructions, the general technical indicators of the second-generation Tiger (internal code name King Tiger) began to be finalized: the combat weight is about 58 tons, and it is planned to use a 105mmL65 tank gun (improved from the dual-purpose gun on the Scharnhorst). The body will add one more set of staggered overlapping road wheels on the basis of the Tiger's 8 sets of 8 sets of staggered and overlapping road wheels. The length is correspondingly increased to 6.9 meters, the width is increased to about 3.5 meters, and the height is changed to 3 meters. The front armor of the body is initially conceived to be 135mm and tilted at 50 degrees, the front armor of the turret is 150mm, and the turret shield is a 185mm pig-head type. The engine is planned to be HL234 with 800 horsepower, the gearbox is still Maybach L600C, the tracks and road wheels are still the same as those of Tiger and Panther, due to the increase in ground pressure, the maximum road speed is reduced to 35km/hour, and the maximum off-road speed is reduced to 19km/hour. Due to the increase in ammunition caliber, the ammunition reserve is reduced to 52 rounds again.

In Hoffman's view, the biggest obstacle to the plan is that the HL234 engine has not yet been successfully developed. Fortunately, there is still some time. According to the schedule of the Weapons Bureau, the prototype is required to be successfully developed in March 1944 and can enter formal production in July.

In addition to tanks, truck production also underwent major changes. Speer identified the Opel Lightning 36S truck, which had been tested and unanimously recognized by all parties, as the "standard truck" (load capacity of 3 tons), and required all other companies' trucks to stop production. The truck production lines of many companies, including Steyr, Mercedes, MAN, Henschel, Krupp, etc., were required to complete the conversion to standard trucks as soon as possible. The ambitious Speer set a monthly standard of 10,000 trucks for this batch of trucks. The only one that was not converted was Ford's V3000S crawler truck (this was a subsidiary of Ford in Germany. Although Henry Ford was an admirer of the Führer, this did not prevent the company from becoming enemy property and being confiscated after the declaration of war between Germany and the United States). The production target of this batch of trucks was set at 3,000 per month (all to be used on the Eastern Front), and the German-specific staggered overlapping road wheel trucks were written off.

In addition to standardizing the trucks, Speer also determined three other standard models, one is Volkswagen's barrel truck, and the other is Mercedes' 1500A command vehicle. The former is used for reconnaissance, fast, military police and low-level officers, the latter can accommodate 7 people for the headquarters and middle and senior officers, and the last one is Mercedes-Benz 170VK, which is used by officers above the general level and senior government officials. The production expectation of barrel trucks is 2,000 units per month, while the production expectations of command vehicles and 170VK are 400 and 200 units per month respectively. Since the production requirements of the latter two are not large, Mercedes and Benz, who are afraid that others will grab the orders, hurriedly announced that they have taken over.

In addition to the standard models, a large number of American ten-wheeled trucks were seized in the North African and Middle Eastern campaigns. The front-line was very satisfied with the use. Speer was still a little hesitant, and Hoffman made a direct decision: "Imitate!"

The quick-witted Steyr and Taitola immediately snatched the task. I thought that was enough, but not long ago Hoffman mysteriously asked Speer to secretly launch a 15-ton long-wheelbase off-road flatbed truck research and development tender (in extreme cases, it is required to be overloaded to 20 tons). The latter has never figured out what this model is used for. He asked several truck designers but was puzzled. Just when he was about to take it back to communicate with Hoffman, he happened to meet Braun who came to report the progress of missile development and apply for follow-up funds. He only took half a minute to understand what this thing is used for.

"With this thing, V2 missiles can be installed on it for mobile launch in the future. The Führer is wise. I thought he would only consider installing it on a train." Speer, who suddenly realized it, immediately arranged it through secret channels.

Like tanks, the wave of truck standardization also forced Italy to move forward. With the help of ready-made drawings and German engineers, Alfa Romeo, the leader of the Italian truck industry, produced a lightning truck with the company's logo in less than half a month.

If Mussolini still had some face-saving factors, the major capitalists were only happy. Whether it was accepting German production lines, sending designers to participate in new German projects, or producing according to German standardized drawings, these were good opportunities that could not be fought for or snatched in peacetime. It was like the Germans were taking the Italians out for free - their level and ability in heavy equipment would improve quickly, and after the war was over, these industrial capabilities could be used for civilian products. It took some thought to convert tanks into large tractors, but it would only take a blink of an eye for trucks and cars to be converted into civilian products. I dare not say that the technological level will catch up with Germany in the future, but there is still great hope to surpass France. German capitalists talked about the huge orders placed by Minister Speer and the opportunity to enter the Italian capital system. At first, everyone was skeptical about whether there was enough fuel to drive so many vehicles. After Marshal Rommel took over the major oil fields in the Middle East, the companies no longer had even the last bit of doubt and devoted all their energy to the vigorous production.

Similar to tank armaments, aircraft armaments are also gradually unified. Italy's MC-200, MC-202, G50, and RE2001 fighter production lines have all been shut down and switched to the production of the relatively better Bf-109. Messerschmitt simply moved the entire production line to Italy, produced the Bf-219 and put the Me-262 into production. Italy's famous aircraft manufacturers such as Fiat, Breda, and Piaggio have all benefited. Relatively speaking, Italian aircraft designers are more skilled than tank designers, and they will undertake joint development tasks like Japanese designers. Speer ambitiously stated that he wanted to develop high-performance aircraft that are integrated with the axis and can be used on land and sea. In order to take care of Mussolini's face, the Italian SM-79 (Sparrowhawk) bomber was selected by Germany as standard equipment, ready for sea attacks and patrols. At the same time, Germany also opened its doors to Italian companies in the selection of 4-engine heavy bombers.

As German factories continued to release production capacity in Italy, and 100,000 to 150,000 workers were sent to Germany every month, the Italians were surprised to find that the unemployment problem that had plagued them for many years was gradually being solved. After the general mobilization, Germany slowly entered the peak of production. On the basis of increasing the employment of 2 million women, the unemployment rate reached an extremely shocking -1.7% (the negative number was caused by the working class who were over retirement age but still continued to work, and foreign workers such as Italians were not included in the statistics). Italy's own unemployment rate dropped to less than 5%. At the moment of labor shortage, a large number of Italian prisoners of war returned from North Africa. The leaders were too lazy to organize them again. Except for a small number of backbones and officers, the rest of the ordinary soldiers were directly demobilized, and the overall economy was thriving.

According to Hoffman's requirements, by September 1943, Germany's production level in the field of major equipment, including tanks, armored vehicles, trucks, aircraft, artillery, etc., should reach 60% of the US level during the same period. Together with the production of Italy and other allies, it should reach 75% of the US level. After all Western European countries have been organized, the overall production should strive to be on par with the United States. In the shipbuilding sector, where the gap is the largest, we will strive to gather all the strength of Europe to reach half the level of the United States.

Faced with such an almost impossible requirement, Speer felt that he still had a long way to go.