The Rise of the Empire

"This is the tank killer we prepared for the Japanese? Except for the artillery, this thing is definitely not powerful." In the Renault factory, Xiafei pointed to a newly assembled tank in the distance. Said somewhat jokingly.

"We are now businessmen, and businessmen only need to produce products that meet the standards according to customer requirements. The Japanese requirements for this anti-tank tank are very simple. First, it can penetrate any U.S. military active duty at a normal combat distance. The armor of the tank. Second, the tank should be as cheap as possible and as low as possible. According to the requirements of the Japanese, the Renault FT30 we are now producing is definitely the best choice." Louis Renault said.

If the Japanese Navy and Air Force, with the help of the British, can ensure that the level of equipment is equal to that of the U.S. Navy, or even exceed that in some areas. Then the level of equipment between the Japanese Army and the Americans is at least one and a half levels behind. Even the so-called elite divisions of Japan that participated in the war still have a lot of gaps compared with the U.S. Army. Perhaps on paper, after acquiring a large number of machine guns and artillery from Britain and France, the elite divisions of the Japanese Army The face vitality may be similar, but in the field of tanks and armored forces and trucks for logistics transportation, the Japanese are not a bit worse than the Americans!

It can be said that because of the strong industrial strength and size of the US military, the number of armored units and logistic vehicles of the US front-line troops is definitely the world's first! The Americans can even equip each infantry division with an independent regiment-level armored unit, and the total number of various vehicles in each division even reached more than 2,000. This was impossible even in the most elite Bavarian army during the war. imagination.

If it was said that the Japanese could barely deal with the U.S. Army by relying on the rugged terrain and a large number of preset positions in the Great Battle of New Ireland, then they came to New Guinea. Although the terrain is still not comparable to the Great Plains of Europe, it is always much stronger than the island of New Ireland, so the U.S. Army’s armor and firepower advantages can be used. How to deal with American tanks and armored vehicles has become the Japanese Army’s First class question.

As a traditional army power in Europe, the French naturally had their own tank research and development plan after the war. Two types of tanks appeared in the French army equipment plan formulated by Xiafei for the next ten years. The first type of tank was Renault. The FT20 tank produced by the company can be regarded as a wolf tank with French components. The second type of tank is a tank destroyer similar to Hu Feng. It is designed by Schneider and is called the A19 plan. It weighs more than 23 tons and is equipped with a 90MML40 artillery. The chassis is an enhanced version after adopting the FT20 chassis and adding a pair of road wheels.

From the perspective of sharing R&D and manufacturing costs, the French originally planned to sell these two vehicles to Japan. After the evaluation and trial by the Japanese delegation, the Japanese were quite satisfied with the French products. After all, the French had the industrial base there, and they also had rich experience in designing and testing tanks. The products produced are worse than those of the Germans, but they are far beyond the imagination of the Japanese.

Then the tanks of both sides successfully entered the final link-the price issue! On this issue, the two sides had the biggest disagreement. Even though the French thought they had given a very good price and said that mineral resources could be used to offset part of the purchase price, the Japanese still said that the price was too high to afford... .

The French were very upset that their finished products were not sold. However, after the Japanese stated that as long as the price is reasonable and the future purchase quantity is at least 500 or more, Renault still bites the bullet to design new tanks in accordance with the Japanese requirements. , So, a destroyer tank called FT30 finally walked off the production line from the drawing!

Why would similar tank destroyers without turrets be produced by Renault instead of Schneider, which already has A19 products? The reason is very simple. Just like the increased and heavier chassis in the A19 plan, the weight and cost of this tank will not be cheap. And for Schneider to prepare two production lines and produce two tank destroyers at the same time, this is not economically appropriate. Therefore, Schneider decided to be responsible for the artillery and armor of the FT30 project. The chassis was left to Renault, and Renault’s approach is also very simple. They directly modified a tank destroyer based on the FT20, called FT30...

Considering that the Japanese required an artillery that can penetrate all U.S. tanks in service, the firepower should not be weak. After all, there are many wolf tanks in the U.S. Army. Therefore, the 90MML40 artillery in the A19 plan was retained. However, everyone knows that it is obviously difficult to install such a large artillery on the basis of a wolf tank. And considering the harsh use environment of New Guinea, the weapon system must have a certain degree of redundancy. Therefore, this is not a simple problem without a turret, and even the entire tank is designed with an open top.

However, even with such constant weight reduction, the internal space of this tank is still a bit tight after the installation of too large artillery. In order to achieve the required ammunition capacity of the Japanese Army, the French racked their brains and finally thought of a way. They installed the artillery on the right side of the tank. In this way, it saves more space. Although there may be some problems with the horizontal shooting range~www.readwn.com~, at least the hard targets are satisfied.

what? How about armor protection? How can I say that the front and front armor of the car body can block the American 37MM artillery and shrapnel attacks. It is unrealistic to expect to block 75MM. However, in the eyes of the French, in addition to the powerful firepower, general mobility, and defense that can only be called a tragedy, the Japanese were actually attracted by the tank! Then after field testing, the Japanese placed an order for 150 vehicles!

What was even more unexpected to the French was that the Japanese said that they could also make the steel plate behind the battle room detachable, leaving a gun shield and limited defensive space on the side. After opening the back, it is convenient to add shells and reduce weight. , And this operation really convinced the French!

In addition to a 90MML40 artillery, this four-person tank also has the firepower of two machine guns. One of the machine guns hit the left side of the fighting room. From the outside, it was a hemispherical machine gun tower. There are 1,800 bullets. The other machine gun is placed on the top of the front armor. This is a movable gun stand that can be disassembled at any time. Self-defense firepower is also quite satisfactory.

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