Steel Soviet Union

The 122 mm caliber tank gun is huge and powerful. Most of the tanks currently in service in the German army cannot stop this extremely righteous thing from firing head-on. Even if it is replaced by a thick-skinned monster like Tiger King or Black Panther 2, if the ammunition type is changed, high-explosive bombs are loaded, and it is "bombed" with several shots indiscriminately, no matter how hard the thing is, it will be destroyed. It was blown to pieces on the spot.

So is the 122 gun good enough?

Of course, this thing is an absolute weapon for large-scale cluster tank battles. The more tanks there are in cluster battles, the better the shortcomings of slow loading can be made up for. Malashenko is deeply aware of this.

Especially for a unit of the size of Stalin's 1st Guards Tank Division, it is rare for a unit to be loaded slowly and delay the fighter's flight when it is deployed on a frontal battlefield.

Therefore, in a sense, in the eyes of Comrade Lao Ma, the 122 gun basically has only advantages and no major flaws.

However, this is only when the 122 guns are mounted on heavy tanks.

If you load it onto a medium-sized tank, even if you don't talk about other problems, the ammunition load alone will definitely give you a headache.

As huge as Malashenko's current car IS4, the total ammunition capacity of the main gun including the first ammunition rack of the turret is only 30 rounds.

Is 30 rounds too many or too few?

nonsense! Of course it’s almost ridiculously low! You must know that this is a huge 60-ton steel behemoth, and its size is extremely visually impactful and oppressive just by standing there. Such a big vehicle can only hold 30 rounds of artillery shells at full capacity. Based on this alone, you can figure out how much space the 122 shells take up.

The King Tiger, which is only slightly larger than the IS4 and weighs less than ten tons, has a standard ammunition load of up to 70 rounds for the entire vehicle, and this number is only under "standard" conditions.

If they don't mind dying too badly when the ammunition explodes and want to enhance their endurance on the battlefield, the German crew can also choose to stuff a few dozen rounds of artillery shells into the King Tiger, which has a huge space in the vehicle body. Get in the way.

The Tiger, which is only 4 tons lighter than the IS4 in combat weight, is even more extreme. The standard ammunition load of this thing is as high as 92 rounds. It can easily lay down more than 100 rounds of artillery shells when overloaded with multiple decorations.

The ammunition load of 30 rounds is indeed too small, and Malashenko is also deeply aware of this.

Take the Cherkasy battle that just ended. What impressed Malashenko the most is that his troops almost only need to fight a slightly more intense battle, so the first thing after the battle must be to replenish the troops. Cannonballs.

Ammunition trucks transporting artillery supplies must be on call and arrive quickly, and their priority is even higher than that of oil supply trucks.

Sometimes after three rounds without refueling once, the shells have been refilled three times in a row.

Why, you ask? Of course, this is because the IS6 is similar in size to the IS4, but the armor is not as thick as the IS4, and the total combat weight is only a few tons. The total ammunition capacity of the entire vehicle is only 30 rounds. It is so real.

Think 30 rounds is too few? The previous generation IS2 had even less ammunition, only a measly 28 rounds. Where did you go when you were driving the IS2?

The ammunition reserve of a huge heavy tank is so small. Malashenko cannot imagine how many rounds can be loaded on such a mini T43.

There is a saying that it is estimated that the total amount of ammunition in the entire vehicle combined can not sustain even a high-intensity battle. If it is not kept intact, it will cause the embarrassment of running out of ammunition in the middle of the battle and withdrawing to replenish ammunition.

If this joke really happened, not to mention our own side, the German guys on the opposite side would laugh out loud!

Upgrading firepower is very important, but you can't bring things to this level just because of upgrading firepower. It's really too much.

Faced with the issue of bomb load raised by Malashenko, Morozov, who knew in advance that this was a big problem, also seemed a little embarrassed. After being stunned for several seconds, he spoke with embarrassment.

"This is indeed a problem. The preliminary calculated ammunition supply is only 18 rounds for the time being. But we plan to carry out some optimization and upgrades, and we can even try to change the divided ammunition into a fixed-load ammunition to centrally place and accommodate more. When the time comes, we will carry out some optimization and upgrades. The ammunition capacity will definitely be increased, and it is expected to be increased to more than 22 rounds.”

22 rounds? Are you satisfied with 22 shots?

My dear Morozov, have you really never been on the battlefield and don’t have the concept of ammunition load in your mind? Or is it something else?

A heavy tank with a 30-round ammunition load has reached the point where it needs to replenish its ammunition every battle. Now you have a medium tank with only 22 rounds of ammunition. Please think carefully. Can such a tank design pass the review? Who would allow a tank with only 22 rounds of ammunition to be commissioned into the army? It is strange that this should be regarded as a traitor to the motherland!

Malashenko, who was almost speechless, could only shake his head and smile helplessly. After thinking for a moment, he continued to speak and explained to Morozov.

"Customized loading of 122 shells? Comrade Morozov, this is crazy! I don't know what the situation is in other divisions, but if it is our division, I can guarantee you. If the loader of our division knows, you have to Make 122mm custom-loaded artillery shells that are much heavier than loaded shells, and load them in medium tanks with smaller internal space than heavy tanks.”

"It's no exaggeration to say that you will get beaten for this, Comrade Morozov. You will be swarmed up and beaten until your nose is black and your face is swollen. Don't expect those loaders whose arms are thicker than the little girl's thighs to hear this terrible news. I can still reason with you calmly in the future, but you are pushing them to the edge of the cliff. If you don’t keep it together, there will be one or two angry people who will risk their lives with you. I am serious.”

""

Malashenko was indeed not joking with Morozov, but anyone who has worked as a loader in a Stalin heavy tank knows how "terrifying" it is to continuously load 122mm sub-loaded ammunition in high-intensity battles. "work.

Now, Morozov doesn't even plan to carry out separate loading of ammunition. In order to improve the utilization of the ammunition rack space and carry more shells, he plans to directly carry out 122mm fixed loading ammunition with an astonishing weight.

Do you want to kill someone or something? Install this thing in the cramped interior space of T43?

Come on, come on, show me how to reload it. Is it true that you won’t have back pain if you don’t go to the battlefield?

Morozov was left speechless by Malashenko's simple and straightforward truth. Morozov, who was speechless for a while, finally came to his senses after a while and realized that he seemed to be too persistent. Yu immediately increased his firepower and ignored some equally important things, and spoke slowly to Malashenko again rather embarrassedly.

"I thought too simply, Comrade General. I took the problem too seriously."

At this point, Morozov paused for a moment, looked up at Malashenko again, and continued to speak.

"You are right, Comrade General. We should really consider 100 guns. This is the most realistic firepower upgrade plan."