Iron Sonata of World War II

The name RSO is actually an abbreviation of RaupenSchlepper Ost, which means "Eastern Tracked Tractor".The background of the development of this crawler tractor is exactly the collapse of Germany in Moscow in 1941.When Moscow was already in sight, the old friend of the Soviets, "General Winter", came to the battlefield with strong wind and heavy snow. At this time, the half-track vehicles of the German army could no longer perform the task of towing artillery, and a large number of German army's luggage was paralyzed like this. In the snowstorm, facing the fierce counterattack of the Soviets, the exhausted German army had to retreat in embarrassment.

Having learned the lesson of this failure, the Germans decided to urgently develop a traction/supply vehicle, and the RSO crawler tractor came into being.Unlike other German tanks, which always like to make simple things extremely complicated, the RSO's walking structure can be described as extremely simple, with four large-sized single-rim road wheels, combined with durable leaf spring suspension and wider single-pin Tracks make RSO excellent in terms of reliability and maintainability.Due to the reduction of ground pressure brought about by the wide track, the RSO is also very capable of overcoming harsh road surfaces. It can tow artillery on the muddiest roads, or transport ammunition and supplies to the front line.

Of course, as an emergency work, the RSO crawler tractor is not perfect, nor can it be perfect.

The main problem of RSO is that the engine power is too small, only about 70 horsepower, and it is not bad for towing 2-3 tons of artillery. For heavier artillery, such as 88mm anti-aircraft guns, RSO seems to be unable to do what it wants. The second problem with the RSO was that it was too slow to keep up with the marching pace of motorized troops. The maximum speed of the RSO is only about 17 kilometers, which is slower than the mouse super-heavy tank, and not much faster than the speed of infantry on foot.

The above two problems directly lead to the poor scalability of this tracked vehicle. In the history of the previous plane, Mustache once had a big brain hole and asked for a pak40 type 75mm on the basis of the RSO car body. Anti-tank gun, transforming a tank destroyer.Although no one was optimistic about this thing, Mustache still insisted on producing five battalions first for the Southern Army.

However, this kind of thing that requires maneuvering but not maneuvering, protection without protection, concealment without concealment, and the ability to drive a cannon car and shake it on the battlefield, the ending is also predictable. After suffering heavy losses, Mustache finally Abandoned the mass production of this kind of tank destroyer with RSO tractor as the chassis, and changed to the 38T tank chassis.But this time, the micro-operation of Mustache is still reliable, and the result of harming the 38T tank chassis is the famous "Stalker" tank destroyer.

When Helena planned the tracked auxiliary vehicle, she largely borrowed some ideas from RSO, and of course corrected many defects of RSO, so there was this tracked transport/tractor named RS-1 .

Chapter 72 The three-cylinder magic car

RS-1, the full name of RaupenSchlepper-1, means "tracked tractor No. 1", developed by Borgward.

The RS-1 crawler tractor/transporter adopts a non-load-bearing body structure in the car body structure, that is to say, its upper body does not bear force, and its real load-bearing structure is the side beam frame at the lower part of the body. The entire vehicle's engine, transmission and suspension systems are mounted on this side beam frame.

The side beam frame structure of RS-1 is basically similar to the frame structure of our common civilian trucks. There is a longitudinal beam on each side as a load-bearing structural member. The bending moment is the largest, so the trough-shaped longitudinal beam is designed as a unequal-height structure with the largest height in the middle and gradually decreasing toward both ends. The two longitudinal beams are connected by several beams that ensure the torsional rigidity of the frame and share the longitudinal load. .Two longitudinal beams and multiple beams form a very strong frame structure. Because the shape of this frame is a bit like a ladder, it is also called a ladder frame.

The power of RS-1 adopts an integrated power pack that can be hoisted as a whole. The power pack is installed on the frame at the front of the car body and consists of an engine and a transmission mechanism.

The engine is a three-cylinder water-cooled diesel engine jointly developed by Friedrichshafen and Daimler-Benz, with a maximum power of 150 horsepower.Helena has long planned the engine series development path for future tracked vehicles in Germany, and this three-cylinder diesel engine is also the first model in the family of water-cooled diesel engines for high-power vehicles planned by Helena.

The transmission mechanism consists of the main gearbox and the steering gearbox on both sides.The main gearbox is a fixed-shaft type with five forward gears and one reverse gear.The steering gearbox is planetary, divided into high and low gears, the high gear is the direct drive gear, and the low gear is the deceleration gear.The driver can adjust the gears of the main gearbox and the steering gearbox through the joystick with hydraulic booster, so as to control the car's forward and backward, driving speed and direction.

So how does this power plant work?

First, the engine provides output power, and then this power flow will first enter the main gearbox, and the driver can adjust the forward and backward and driving speed of the vehicle through manual shifting.Among the five forward gears, the lower the gear, the larger the transmission ratio, the slower the vehicle speed, and the higher the torque; on the contrary, the higher the gear, the lower the transmission ratio, the faster the vehicle speed, and the lower the torque.This is not much different from our common manual transmission cars.

After the power flow is changed by the main gearbox, it enters the two-stage planetary steering mechanism on both sides. Unlike the main gearbox, which has more gears, the steering gearbox only has two gears, the high-grade direct drive gear and the low-gear deceleration gear. The steering of the vehicle.

Different from the steering method of a car that relies on the deflection of the front wheels, if a tracked vehicle wants to turn, it must make the tracks on both sides form a speed difference.So how does this speed difference form?When the planetary gearboxes on both sides are engaged in the direct drive gear, the speed of the tracks on both sides is the same, and the vehicle moves forward in a straight line.But at this time, what if the driver keeps the right gearbox in the direct drive gear and the left side is in the deceleration gear?Obviously, the speed of the right track will be higher than that of the left track at this time, and the tank will turn to the left with a specified radius, and vice versa.If the tank wants to turn around on a narrow road and needs a smaller turning radius, the driver can also directly brake the inner track, so that the tank can use the middle point of the inner track as the center of the circle to perform "steering in situ" (here Please pay attention to the center of the circle. The kind of steering in which the tracks on both sides rotate in reverse to make the vehicle center on the center of the car body is called "in-situ steering" or "central steering", which is the same as the "in-situ steering" that brakes one side of the track. completely different concept).

In addition to being responsible for the main function of vehicle steering, the two-stage planetary gearboxes on both sides also have a more interesting way of playing, that is, to hang all the planetary gearboxes on both sides on the deceleration gear. This method is called "afterburner driving". So what is the use of this "afterburner driving"?

For example, a heavy tank got stuck in the mud, and the RS-1 tractor received an order to pull the unlucky guy out of the mud pit, but during the towing process, the driver of the RS-1 found that his tractor The power is only 150 horsepower. Even if the main gearbox is in the highest gear with the highest torque, what should I do if the traction is still not enough?At this time, the driver can put all the planetary gearboxes on both sides in the deceleration gear for "afterburning", which is equivalent to adding an additional transmission ratio to the tractor, so the torque of the vehicle increases, and the traction force increases. The tank is out of trouble, and can fight vigorously again.

It is worth mentioning that in the last plane, this steering system is called "Daimler-Benz steering gear", this steering mechanism developed from "Wilson steering gear" is widely used in the German army The No. 34 tank, No. 54 tank and various deformation vehicles derived from them. This steering device has a compact structure, low cost and high reliability. .In the late World War II of the last plane, the Soviets also gave up the crap clutch steering on the T-55, and they were "really fragrant" with this double-sided planetary steering device. The "Stalin" series, T-62/59, and T-[-] also use this steering device, but the Soviets still cut off the hydraulic booster (this is why Colonel Fang Bing complained about the Type [-] in military programs. The reason why the tank shifts and turns is like a door to hell).

After talking about the power pack, let’s talk about the RS-1’s running gear.

The walking device of RS-1 can be described as extremely simple. There is only one front driving wheel and five large-diameter double-rim road wheels with inner rubber steel rims suspended by independent leaf springs and single-pin crawlers. There is also no special induction wheel (the induction wheel is served by the last road wheel).

Although the leaf spring suspension seems very old-fashioned, it also has disadvantages such as too hard support and too small movable stroke.But in Helena's view, this suspension form, which is still widely used on trucks in the 21st century, still has many advantages:

First, the load-bearing potential of leaf spring suspension is very huge. When the vehicle needs to carry more weight, it only needs to add a few more leaf springs.For example, the 38t tank with leaf spring suspension in the previous plane was originally just a 9-ton tank with a total combat weight. As a "stalker" tank destroyer with a total combat weight of nearly 16 tons.Moreover, the "Stalker" is far from the upper limit of the 38t suspension. There are many examples of later generations turning a 30-ton nuclear-loaded truck into a "hundred-ton king" by using springs (good drivers must not learn) .

Second, leaf spring suspension does not require a special shock absorber to achieve shock absorption by the friction between the reeds.This greatly reduces body shaking during short stops and after firing.Other suspension forms require specialized shock absorbers to achieve the same effect.

Third, all the elastic elements of the leaf spring suspension are outside the car body, which can be repaired and replaced without special tools, which is very beneficial to logistic support, and the leaf spring suspension is simple to manufacture, cheap and consumes less rare metals. few.

In the tracked vehicle sequence of the German army on the last plane, the No. 38 tank, No. [-] tank, No. [-] tank, [-]T tank and their derivative models all used parameter-reliable leaf spring suspension, and the RSO crawler tractor was also leaf spring suspension. .On these models, the leaf spring suspension has certainly stood the test of time.Helena believes that the cheap, reliable, easy-to-produce, easy-to-maintain, and huge load-carrying potential leaf spring suspension is undoubtedly the best choice for logistics and support vehicles.

The upper body structure of RS-1 is also relatively simple: the driver and co-pilot sit in two independent cabs on the left and right respectively, the middle of the left and right cabs is separated by the power cabin, and the rear of the vehicle is a large cargo compartment .

After the RS-1 was delivered to the troops for trial use, its high reliability and low price have been highly evaluated. However, due to the use of a high-horsepower three-cylinder diesel engine, the initial model of the RS-1 has obvious chatter, but it is improving After removing the suspension of the power pack and adding a balance shaft to the engine, the situation has improved significantly.

RS-1 is 5.1 meters long, 2.5 meters wide, 2.4 meters high, with a self-weight of 8.4 tons, a maximum power of 150 horsepower, a maximum road speed of 40 kilometers, a maximum road travel of 500 kilometers, and a rated towing weight of 6 Ton.

Chapter 73 Standard Chassis

The success of the RS-1 tracked tractor/transporter has fully verified the high reliability of its transmission system and walking system, which makes Helena very satisfied, because Helena has already made an overall plan for the future development of tracked vehicles in the German army. Planning, and RS-1 is the first ring in this master plan.

In order to make Germany's future development of tank chassis go more smoothly, there is no doubt that a scientific and reasonable overall plan is very necessary.So what kind of overall planning is scientific and reasonable?In Helena's view, as far as the development of the crawler chassis is concerned, a scientific and reasonable overall plan should at least meet the following requirements:

First, there must be a reasonable step distribution in terms of technical difficulty.Because this development roadmap will continue for at least ten years on the time axis, and during this decade, technology will inevitably continue to improve.This requires that when Helena makes the overall plan, there must be a distinction in terms of time and difficulty in terms of technology.After all, the step-by-step development route is the most in line with the law of technological development, and the step-by-step development route will fail in most cases.

Second, each chassis should have a long life cycle.Although with the continuous advent of the new generation of tracked chassis, it is inevitable that the old-fashioned chassis will lag behind in technology, but if the old-fashioned chassis quickly loses its usefulness, it is unacceptable to Helena, so in the planning must be Plan a place for each type of chassis to use the waste heat.

Third, if Germany wants to form a complete tracked vehicle equipment system, it needs a huge family of tracked chassis to achieve full coverage from 10 tons to 50 tons. The embarrassment of not having a suitable chassis.However, the more members of the chassis family, the wider the tonnage coverage, and the greater the difficulty of generalization.The balance between the two must be precisely grasped.

In order to achieve the above goals, Helena decided to start with the three core components of the crawler chassis, namely the engine, transmission system and walking system, to carry out the overall planning of the future German crawler chassis pedigree.Helena's plan for the future German tracked chassis lineage can be summed up as follows: one series of engines, three types of transmission/suspension, six types of propulsion systems, and eight types of standard chassis.

所谓“一系发动机”就是所有的履带式底盘将统一采用弗里德希哈芬和戴姆勒-奔驰联合研制的系列水冷柴油发动机，这一系列的柴油发动机中包含了六个子型号，分别是：150马力的直列三缸发动机、200马力的直列四缸发动机、360马力的V形六缸发动机、480马力的V形八缸发动机、600马力的V形十缸发动机、720马力的V形12缸发动机。

The so-called "three types of transmission/suspension, six types of propulsion systems" means that the transmission/suspension devices of all tracked vehicles in Germany will be unified into three types in the future.The transmission/suspension system of each model will correspond to a certain power range and match with several corresponding engine models.In this way, after the six engine sub-models are matched with the transmission/suspension system, six propulsion systems with different powers are formed.

The so-called "eight types of standard chassis" refers to the development of six types of tank chassis based on propulsion systems of various powers, plus two types of crawler tractor chassis, making a total of eight types of chassis.In the future, all tracked combat vehicles in Germany will be developed from these eight chassis.

RS-1履带式牵引/运输车的底盘正是这八种标准底盘中的第一种。RS-1所采用的传动系统拥有较大的功率适用范围，能和直列三缸150马力的发动机、直列四缸200马力的发动机以及V型6缸360马力的发动机组成动力包。使用这三种动力包的标准底盘将会有以下四种：

RS-150 light crawler tractor chassis with in-line three-cylinder 1 horsepower power pack;

RS-360 heavy-duty crawler tractor chassis with V-shaped six-cylinder 2-horsepower power pack;

A 200-ton light tank chassis with an inline four-cylinder 12-horsepower power pack;

A 360-ton light tank chassis with a V-shaped six-cylinder 20-horsepower power pack;

The above four chassis all adopt the same type of independent leaf spring suspension as the RS-1 crawler tractor.Simple and reliable, cheap and durable, strong bearing capacity.The main disadvantage of the leaf spring suspension is that due to the short travel of the road wheels, it will have an adverse effect on the high-speed off-road performance of the vehicle. Therefore, in the history of the previous plane, as the driving speed of the tank became higher and higher, Leaf springs, which flourished for a while before the war, will gradually fade out of the war arena.However, the maximum highway speed of the above-mentioned vehicles is expected to be in the early 40 kilometers per hour, and high-speed off-road does not exist, so there is no need to worry too much about the short travel of the leaf spring road wheels.

Chapter 74 Panzer I

"Good morning, Uncle Lutz!" Helena, who happened to pass by the gate of the Inspectorate of the Motorized Forces of the National Defense Forces, politely greeted Colonel Oswald Lutz, the Inspector General of the Motorized Forces.

"Good morning, Miss Sektor!" Colonel Lutz greeted Helena with a smile. Behind him was a middle-aged officer with a round face. He was not tall, but he was very burly. Lieutenant Colonel Guderian of the Chief of Staff. "Let me introduce, this is Lieutenant Colonel Guderian." Colonel Lutz did not forget Guderian who was behind him, and enthusiastically introduced to Helena.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, I've admired your name for a long time." Helena reached out to Guderian.Guderian hurriedly took a step forward, and shook Helena's outstretched hand: "I've heard of you for a long time, Miss Sektor."

Helena said that she "has admired her name for a long time" is not purely polite. After all, in the history of the previous plane, as the "father of armored soldiers" in Germany, Guderian's name was indeed much higher than that of her old superior, Lutz. .However, this is not because of Lutz's poor level. In fact, Lutz has always been Guderian's mentor and good superior. In the early construction of the German armored forces, Lutz's contribution was no lower than Guderian's.

In 1934 on the last plane, the German "Armored Forces Command" was established to prepare for the formation of armored divisions. General Lutz was the commander, and Colonel Guderian continued to serve as Lutz's chief of staff.However, General Lutz is more sad. In 1938, in order to better control the Wehrmacht, Mustache dismissed a large number of senior Wehrmacht officers, including the then German Defense Minister Blomberg, and General Lutz happened to be among them.General Lutz was dismissed on the eve of the war, which caused him to be basically idle throughout World War II. Naturally, his reputation cannot be compared with that of the illustrious Guderian.

After Helena greeted Lutz and Guderian for a while, the topic naturally turned to the equipment construction of the motorized troops. "How is Borgward's improved RS-1 unit used? Is the jitter still bad?" Helena asked.It is very important for Helena to constantly learn about the problems in the use of new equipment from the troops. This is also the practical basis for Helena to continuously improve existing weapons and perfect the development and planning of future weapons.

"The car is indeed a good car. No matter how rough and muddy the road is, the RS-1 can easily overcome it, and there are almost few mechanical failures. The problem of engine vibration is also much less than before. Many details that existed in the early stage are on the mass-produced model. It has also been improved, and now our soldiers like it very much." Colonel Lutz answered Helena's question very patiently.

"It's great to be able to do this. In addition to the RS-1, Borgward will also launch a heavy-duty crawler tractor chassis of the same series but with greater power. In the future, you will use these crawler tractors more and more. Delicious." Helena laughed.In fact, in Helena's opinion, the most commendable thing about RS-1 is its reliability and terrain adaptability: whether it's the scorching heat of 50 degrees above zero or the extreme cold of 40 degrees below zero, whether it's dust all over the sky, or Whether it is thick snow or turbulent mud, RS-1 can insist on delivering supplies to the troops.In fact, as long as a crawler tractor can do this, the others are nothing.

Before bidding farewell to Colonel Lutz and Lieutenant Colonel Guderian, Helena seemed to remember something, and said mysteriously: "By the way, let me tell you some good news, the guy you two have always dreamed of—Tank If the two of you are not busy, you can come to the Henschel company's testing ground to take a look." Helena said goodbye to the two of them and left.

……

What Colonel Lutz and Lieutenant Colonel Guderian have always dreamed of is naturally a tank, to be precise, a real "tank"! .Although in the history of the last plane, Germany also developed several experimental vehicles after 1933, these experimental vehicles are essentially a bunch of armored tractors, which are far from real tanks.

Time entered September 1932. The prototype of the first real tank developed after the war in Germany rolled off the production line in Henschel. As in history, Helena called this tank "Tank No. 9".

The author has something to say, the unit has something to do in the past two days, and the update is a little bit less, so I can only say sorry to everyone.

Chapter 75 Vertical and Horizontal

在上个位面的二战中，德国在法国战役中遭遇了可怕的“厚皮怪物”：法国的“夏尔B1”重型坦克和英国的“玛蒂尔达2”型步兵坦克。其中“夏尔B1”重型坦克拥有厚达60mm并倾斜45度的车首正面装甲，“玛蒂尔达2”型步兵坦克虽然采用传统的阶梯状车首装甲，但其垂直部分的的最大厚度却达到了非常可观的78mm。

这样的装甲厚度无疑是当时德国坦克上装备的37mm坦克炮根本无法对付的，事实上，即使是三号坦克上的42倍径50mm坦克炮对于这样的“厚皮怪物”也倍感无力！况且即使是50mm炮在德国坦克上也没有普及，法国战役中装备50mm坦克炮的三号坦克总数也只有区区40辆。

Although the final result was that the British and French heavy armored tanks were successively lost due to scattered deployment, frequent mechanical failures, lack of infantry and artillery cover, and lack of air supremacy, etc., these "thick-skinned monsters" still gave the Germans a great deal. shock!When the members of the German tank crew listened to the jingling sound of their shells hitting the opponent, and then heard the commander gnashing his teeth again and again shouting "We failed to penetrate the enemy's armor!" It is estimated that the hearts of the hands are almost broken.

然而德国人的麻烦还没到头，此后德国人在北非又遇到了更加“皮糙肉厚”的英国铁乌龟：正面装甲厚达102mm的“丘吉尔”系列重型步兵坦克！接着在苏联又遇到了拥有倾斜60度的45mm装甲的T-34系列中型坦克和拥有倾斜30度的75mm装甲的KV系列重型坦克。这些防护力良好的对手虽然没能在第一时间抵挡德国人空地协同的攻势，但也足以使得德国坦克手一直都在怀疑人生，直到43/48倍径75mm坦克炮服役这种焦虑才有所缓解。

The collapse may not only be in the heart of the German tankers, but also the mentality of the German tank designers. Since the French campaign, the development of the VK3601 (H) heavy tank has been greatly accelerated. This is the famous "" The predecessor of the "Tiger" heavy tank.

However, at this time, the thinking of German designers in designing tanks has changed. They no longer design artillery for tanks, but first pull out a powerful artillery that can penetrate all opponents, and then design a cannon that can hold this tank. The tank body with a powerful artillery, and finally find a power device for this body that can make it start.What?Don't have a suitable engine?If the displacement is not enough, the gears can be made up. For example, the gearboxes of the "Tiger" and "Tiger King" heavy tanks have eight forward gears and four reverse gears.

This design idea centered on loading powerful artillery quickly had a negative impact on the development of German tanks.

The first adverse effect is that it will cause more water on the car body design, and more water on the surface.Whenever the existing car body design cannot carry new guns, the Germans usually simply enlarge the original design and then insert the new guns, and this method of adapting the car body to the artillery seriously lowered the tonnage of German tanks utilization rate.In fact, the reason why the weight of tanks developed in Germany was out of control was that the vertical armor and the transmission shaft running through the bottom of the tank were certainly one of the reasons, but the design of the tank body to adapt to the design of the artillery is also an important factor!

In fact, although the chassis of the tanks designed by Germany before the war (such as the No. 25 and No. 43 tanks) also had stepped vertical front armor and a design in which the transmission shaft runs through the car body, but in terms of tonnage utilization efficiency In other words, it is far less wasteful than the "Tiger", "Leopard" and "Tiger King" that were hastily developed after the French campaign.Taking the long-barreled No. 48 tank with a total combat weight of 75 tons as an example, its comprehensive combat effectiveness is actually quite excellent compared with tanks of the same heavyweight at that time.After the No. 30 tank was replaced with a 34/85 double-diameter 4mm tank gun and strengthened the front armor, even when facing those younger generations with a total combat weight of more than 3 tons (such as T-76-[-] and M[-]A[-] ([-])) It is also possible to fight, although it will be a bit difficult.

A second side effect is that the tank's powertrain and hull often don't fit well.We all know that the development cycle of the tank power system is relatively long, often much longer than the development cycle of the car body.If a larger and heavier car body is frequently developed to accommodate new guns, then the dilemma that the development progress of the new engine cannot keep up with the development progress of the car body will definitely arise.

For example, the "Tiger King" heavy tank in the last plane weighed nearly 70 tons, but because the development progress of the new power could not keep up, we had to use the power of the 50-60 ton "Tiger" tank system. The 700-horsepower HL230 is enough for the 50-ton "Tiger" tank, but it can only be described as poor and weak for the 70-ton "Tiger King". The "small horse-drawn cart" not only caused a serious drop in the maneuverability of the "King Tiger" tank, but also made the power system of the "King Tiger" very fragile and vulnerable. The driver of the "King Tiger" must be careful to prevent the engine from overheating, and oversteering to damage the steering shaft of the tank (different from the military games "Blood Bar World" and "Magic Thunder" in the previous plane, in reality, "Tiger King" who is seriously overweight is generally not allowed If you want to play the cool center steering on the road, otherwise the fragile steering shaft of "Tiger King" can't stand such a toss, if you accidentally break the steering shaft, the fun will be great...).

Naturally, Helena will not allow Germany to make the same mistakes as the previous plane. Her tank development ideas have been centered on power from the very beginning.First use a serialized engine with a transmission to form a power pack, then design a generalized car body based on the power pack, and then adapt the car body with appropriate firepower.

The new light tank adopts a rear-mounted rear-drive integrated power pack design, and its engine is a 200-horsepower four-cylinder water-cooled diesel engine jointly developed by Friedrichshafen and Daimler-Benz.The transmission device is the same model as the transmission device of the RS-1 crawler tractor. It consists of a fixed-axis main gearbox with five advances and one retreat, and two two-stage planetary steering gearboxes on both sides.The four-cylinder diesel engine is the same as the RS-1, and the power package is composed of a vertical form and a transmission.It can be said that except for the difference in the number of engine cylinders, there is basically no difference between the power pack of the new light tank and the power pack of the RS-1.

Many traversers regard horizontal engine placement as a "panacea" to improve tank tonnage utilization, but Helena does the opposite. In Helena's plan, all engines of German tracked vehicles will be installed vertically. The way and the transmission system make up the power package.Helena believes that most of these traversers who regard the horizontal engine as the standard have overestimated the benefits of the horizontal engine and underestimated the advantages of the longitudinal engine, so Helena has held the engine vertically high from the beginning banner.Don't be busy scolding our protagonist for being conservative and stubborn. Helena has her own good reasons for choosing this way.

We all know that the transmission devices of tanks and armored vehicles are basically placed horizontally at the rear end or front end of the vehicle body and connected to the driving wheels, so the only thing that can really play tricks on the layout is the engine.When the engine is placed vertically, the engine transmission shaft and the transmission device are perpendicular to each other. At this time, the engine transmission shaft is directly connected to the clutch in the middle of the transmission device; when the engine is placed horizontally, since the engine transmission shaft and the transmission device are parallel, it is necessary to A connecting body protrudes from one end of the transmission device and is connected with the drive shaft of the engine to lead the power flow of the engine.

说到发动机横置的好处，很多人都会在第一时间想到减少动力舱长度。一个经常被大家拿来作为证据的例子是战后的T-54坦克和二战中的T-34-85坦克，T-54坦克动力舱长度2311mm而T-34-85的动力舱长2727mm，T-54的动力舱比T-34-85短了416mm，节约了大约16%的动力舱长度。

Don't get excited, the improvement in space utilization of the T-54 compared to the T-34-85 is not all due to the length of 416mm. You must know that although the T-34-85 engine is vertically mounted, the two sides of the engine The space was not wasted, but was given to the fuel tanks of the tanks.So since the engine of the T-34-85 does not waste much space, how can the space utilization rate of the T-54 be improved?The biggest contribution is actually the following three:

First, the useless heading machine gunner was canceled, and the engine fuel tank was moved to the original heading gunner's position.

Second, cancel the built-in Christie suspension that squeezes the space inside the car (there are five metal grooves on each side of the T-34's car body to accommodate the coil springs of the Christie suspension, which greatly affects the available width in the car) Spatial torsion bar suspension.

Third, reduce the height of the car body. The main method is to change the position of the original B2 engine water pump and oil pump, so that the engine height is reduced by 132mm. Vertically arranged inside the car body, if you want enough compression stroke, the height should not be too low).

At this time, there may be nine people who will ask Helena: According to what you said, why is the T-54 bothering to put the engine horizontally?Feeling useless?

In fact, the meat of the bun is not on the pleats. The real advantage of the T-54 transverse engine is that it can increase the length of the hull (the hull length of the T-54 is only about 34mm longer than that of the T-85-300). Moving the trailing edge of the turret ring to the rear allows the turret ring to be larger in diameter and closer to the center of the hull.With a larger turret ring, the T-54 can carry a more powerful 100mm tank gun, and the rearward movement of the turret ring is also conducive to the balance of the weight of the car body.

At this time, someone must ask Helena again: Hearing what you said, I feel that the horizontal engine has a great advantage. The same hull length can be equipped with a larger turret ring; the same turret ring diameter can be shortened. Body length, isn't it fragrant?

In this regard, Helena said: In terms of placing the turret ring, the transverse engine is indeed very fragrant, but there are advantages and disadvantages!If the horizontal engine can fully take advantage of the benefits, then China will not abandon the horizontal engine layout that has been used for many years when designing the Type 99 tank, 99A tank, and 96B tank, and switch to the vertical engine layout.

So why did Helena choose the seemingly conservative longitudinal engine solution? What are the advantages of longitudinal engine placement, and what are the disadvantages of horizontal engine placement?

Chapter 76 New Tank's Legs

Since the horizontal engine layout has advantages, it will naturally have its disadvantages. If the horizontal layout takes up all the benefits, then the horizontal engine layout has already dominated the tanks. However, we know this is not true.The layout of the tank's longitudinal engine still has strong vitality until the 21st century.

The main disadvantage of the longitudinal engine is clear: the longitudinally arranged engine and the turret ring conflict in the longitudinal space of the vehicle.When the length of the vehicle body is fixed, the turret seat ring must be reduced or moved forward if the engine is placed vertically compared to the horizontal layout. The former will affect the vehicle’s ability to equip stronger artillery, while the latter will affect the balance of the vehicle body and the stability of the platform when firing. .If you can't accept the above two results, you can only lengthen the car body.

However, there are many advantages of longitudinal engines:

The first advantage of the longitudinal engine is simple structure, good reliability and high transmission efficiency.The transmission shaft of the longitudinal engine is directly connected to the clutch of the gearbox. Since the transmission shaft of the transverse engine is parallel to the transmission device, a connecting body must be used to make the engine power flow turn a corner in the car body before it can be connected to the transmission device.This additional connecting body will not only increase the complexity of the transmission device and affect the reliability of the entire power system, but also the transmission efficiency will be lower than that of the longitudinal engine due to the increase of intermediate links.

The second advantage of placing the engine vertically is that it is more convenient to form an integrated power pack with the transmission system.The connection stiffness between the engine and the transmission system is better when the engine is placed vertically than when it is placed horizontally, and there is no need for too many additional reinforcement measures when designing an integrated power pack.Note that this is not to say that the integrated power pack cannot be used if the engine is placed horizontally, but it is more troublesome in terms of structural strength design.

The third advantage of the longitudinal arrangement of the engine is that it is more convenient to upgrade the turbocharger in the future.If you want to add a turbocharger to a transversely mounted engine, you can only place the turbocharger at one end of the engine. In the already tight power compartment, it is not easy to make room for the turbocharger, which often leads to Move your whole body with one shot.For example, in order to add a turbocharger to the Type 96 tank, the direction of the engine exhaust port was changed.In contrast, it is much easier to add a turbocharger to a longitudinal engine. Just dig out a small space for the turbocharger directly from the fuel tanks on both sides of the engine. Basically, other parts of the power pack are not used. move.

The fourth advantage of the longitudinal engine is that it can avoid the safety hazards caused by the mixing of fuel bombs to a certain extent.When the engine is placed horizontally, the tank turret seat can be moved backwards, but the fuel tank is pushed to the front (for example, the fuel tank of the T-54 tank is on the right hand side of the driver), and the fuel in the fuel tank is connected through a fuel pipeline To the power compartment at the back, and this fuel line must go through the battle room full of ammunition.This means that once the fuel tank and oil circuit catch fire, it will immediately threaten the crew and ammunition rack!After the engine is placed vertically, the fuel tank of the tank can be directly arranged on both sides of the engine. At this time, it is only necessary to install an armored partition between the power compartment and the combat room of the tank. Even if the fuel fires, this partition can temporarily suppress the fire. Isolation within the power compartment prevents fuel fires from quickly threatening crew members and ammunition racks.

Specific to the planning of Germany's future tanks, the reason why Helena decided to uniformly adopt the longitudinal engine layout, in addition to the four advantages mentioned above, there is another important factor is that the German automotive diesel engine series, in addition to the in-line three-cylinder and in-line Except for the four cylinders, all cylinders are arranged in a V shape with an included angle of 90 degrees.

Compared with the 60-degree cylinder angle commonly used by the Soviets, the Germans traditionally prefer a 90-degree cylinder angle for tank engines.The larger cylinder angle makes the height of the engine lower under the same conditions, but correspondingly, the width of the engine becomes larger.Therefore, for the same V12-cylinder diesel engine, the German engine's overhead projection will appear more square than the Soviet engine, and the aspect ratio is not so large.In this way, for German engines, the benefits brought by horizontal placement are not as great as Soviet engines.

If the horizontal engine can save more than 54mm in body length like the T-34 and T-400, Helena may really consider the horizontal engine layout. However, according to the calculations of Helena and German engineers, even if Germany The horizontal layout of the V12-cylinder diesel engine can only shorten the length of the engine compartment by about 300mm.And even if the 300mm length is placed on a heavy tank, it can only reduce the weight of the vehicle by less than one ton. This gain is not enough to offset the trouble caused by the transverse engine.

And this is also the case with the longest V12 engine.For V10 cylinder and V8 cylinder engines with smaller aspect ratio, the potential benefits brought by transverse placement will be smaller.As for V6 cylinders, in-line three-cylinders and in-line four-cylinders, they are not very long, and horizontal placement is even more of a thankless business.

In short, Helena uniformly adopted the longitudinal engine layout when planning the power packs of future German tanks, not based on personal preference, but completely based on Germany's national conditions and existing technical conditions, after repeatedly weighing the pros and cons of the two layouts Judgment made, this judgment may not be true if the scene is changed (for example, in the Soviet Union).

The integrated power pack of the new light tank is located at the rear of the tank. This power pack integrates the engine, transmission, air filter and radiator.The vertical engine and the horizontal transmission form a T-shape, the air filter is attached to the side of the engine, the radiator fan is located in the center above the transmission, and there are two prefabricated holes in the middle of the fan.When the power pack needs to be hoisted, you only need to open the power hatch above the rear of the tank body, and then use a spreader to hook the two prefabricated holes in the middle of the fan and the hanging point at the other end of the engine, and the whole set of power devices can be assembled. Hanging out, the whole process only takes 15 minutes.When there is no need to replace the power pack as a whole, the radiator fan can also be lifted up independently to facilitate inspection of the transmission below.

The walking system of the new light tank basically maintains the commonality with the RS-1 tracked transport vehicle.For example, the suspension system of the new light tank is exactly the same as that of the RS-1, both are independent leaf spring suspensions with double-rim road wheels with a diameter of 720mm, but because the total combat weight of the new light tank is only 12.5 tons, it is lighter than the RS-1 when fully loaded Therefore, the number of road wheels per side is reduced from five to four on the RS-1.The track of the light tank is also the same as the RS-1, which is a single-pin track with a width of 360mm.

Compared with RS-1, the walking system of the new light tank also has some differences. Except that the driving wheel is moved to the back and one pair of road wheels is missing. The most obvious difference is that the new light tank adds a front induction wheel and three support belts. Wheels improve the tank's ability to overcome obstacles and the smoothness of track operation.

Relying on this walking system and a 200-horsepower power plant, the new light tank with a higher thrust-to-weight ratio has a faster top speed than the RS-1, reaching 45 kilometers.However, this speed is already relatively close to the upper limit of the speed of the leaf spring suspension tank. If the speed is increased, the leaf spring suspension with strong support and small travel will be difficult to adapt to the ups and downs of the road surface during off-road.But from Helena's point of view, the current speed of 45 kilometers per hour is basically enough.As for the future, who will use the 40-ton light tank as the main force after the 12.5s?At that time, the light tank chassis must have changed jobs long ago.

Chapter 77 Inside the Car

The crew of the new light tank has four members, namely the commander, gunner, loader and driver.Among them, the driver is located in the left front of the car body, and the commander, gunner, and loader are located in the turret with a basket.The specific positions are: the commander is located behind the left side of the main gun, the gunner is located in the front and lower direction of the commander, and the loader is located on the right side of the main gun.

According to countless practical tests in the previous plane, in the absence of an automatic loader, the three-person turret can basically be said to be the best choice for the arrangement of tank turret members.If the number of turret members is too small, it will inevitably cause the turret members to have to multitask, which will affect the combat efficiency.For example, the French Char B1 uses a single-man turret, and the hard-working commander must command the battle, load the shells, and be responsible for firing the cannons at the same time.Another example is the T-34-76 with a two-person turret. There is a dedicated loader in the turret. The commander does not need to load the shells himself, but the commander of the T-34-76 needs to command and fire at the same time. Easy work.