Iron Sonata of World War II

Chapter 194

"Do you know? Miss Helena, when I got this proposal, I almost suspected that the Navy had written an extra zero after the budget for this project! But from what Miss Helena said, the cost of a battleship is used to It doesn’t seem so unacceptable to build two very long wave radio stations.” After hearing Helena’s explanation, Hitler’s expression suddenly became relaxed, and he seemed to be able to fully understand the huge cost of very long wave radio stations. meaning.

"Trust me, Your Excellency the Führer. You will never lose money if you spend money on this project." Seeing that Hitler had already agreed with this project from the bottom of his heart, Helena nodded, with a childish expression on her face, and immediately struck while the iron was hot. He said: "Besides, the construction cost of 1.8 million marks also includes twelve large anti-aircraft towers. The price of these air defense towers alone has reached 7200 million marks. The body of the two VLW radio stations only costs 1 Just a little more than a billion marks."

"Wait a moment, Miss Helena." Hitler keenly noticed the new term that popped out of Helena's mouth. He raised his hand to signal Helena to pause, and then asked: "What is the anti-aircraft tower you just mentioned? Is it a A building facility for anti-aircraft? An average anti-aircraft tower costs 600 million marks, which is not a small project."

"Your Excellency the Head of State is right. The air defense tower is not only a permanent large-scale air defense fortress, but also the most important auxiliary defense facility of our very long wave radio station project." Helena replied; "We are going to prepare for each very long wave radio station Allocate six anti-aircraft towers, two of which will be conning towers and the other four will be fighting towers."

"The shape of the above two anti-aircraft towers is close to a cuboid. The height of the battle tower is about 40 meters, and the length and width are about 75 meters. A double-mounted 130mm anti-aircraft gun is arranged at each corner of the top of the tower. A series of small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns will be arranged on the ear platform one level lower than the top of the tower, thus forming a complete three-layer defense system of far, middle and near."

"The command tower is much smaller than the battle tower in terms of floor space. Its length is about 50 meters and its width is about 25 meters, but its height will be slightly higher than the battle tower, and it is estimated to reach about 45 meters. Command There will be no heavy-duty anti-aircraft guns on the top of the tower, only a few small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns will be placed on the ear towers on the lower floor, and the top of the tower will be used to install various sighting, calculation and command devices."

"The main mission of the command tower is to provide early warning and design data for the battle tower. Each control tower can form a complete combat unit with one or more battle towers. Of course, since the battle towers will also have relatively simple observation and aiming There will also be small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns on the command tower, so they each have a certain degree of independent combat capability. However, through combined use to let them perform their duties, it will achieve a combat effect where one plus one is greater than two."

"The defense of these anti-aircraft towers is also quite strong. The maximum thickness of the outer wall is 3.5 meters, and the thickness of the top is 5 meters. In order to better resist the heavy penetrating bombs that the enemy may develop in the future, these anti-aircraft towers are 5 meters thick. Inside the reinforced concrete roof, two layers of 160 mm thick nickel-chromium steel armor are laid. This means that even if the opponent drops a 10-ton super-heavy bomb from a high altitude and hits the top of the anti-aircraft tower, it will not be able to seriously damage the interior of the anti-aircraft tower. destroy."

"In addition, there is a concrete foundation retaining wall that is deeply embedded in the ground around the foundation of each anti-aircraft tower, which is used to block the shock wave of the heavy bombs thrown near the anti-aircraft tower. The high-power and fast ammunition destroys the foundation of the air defense tower, and the results of the scale model test show that even if 10 tons of high explosives explode on the foundation of the air defense tower, it will not cause structural damage to the air defense tower.”

In the design and planning of the anti-aircraft tower, Helena basically borrowed the design and use experience of the anti-aircraft tower built by Germany during World War II in the previous plane, and optimized some details.This makes its firepower configuration more reasonable and its protection performance more outstanding, at the cost of a 10% increase in construction costs compared to the previous plane.However, considering the importance of the very long wave radio station, there is nothing to worry about spending hundreds of thousands of marks for each tower. After all, the construction cost of the very long wave radio station itself is already hundreds of millions.

Many military fans in later generations have a tendency to look down on ground or ship-borne anti-aircraft artillery. They believe that ground or ship-borne anti-aircraft firepower is always a passive defense. In terms of interception efficiency, it is far inferior to more proactive fighters in the air.However, Helena never thought so. In her eyes, the mid-range and short-range interception firepower of ground and ship-borne antiaircraft guns has always been equally important as the air interception of fighter planes, so Helena will not favor one over the other in air defense construction.

When it comes to the advantages of anti-aircraft artillery, Helena believes that first, the dependence on the system is relatively low, second, it is almost impossible to avoid and defend, and third, it has an irreplaceable role in reducing the opponent's attack efficiency.

The war experience of the last plane shows that although a small number of bombers have little chance of winning against fighters intercepting them, if a large number of bombers are formed into a dense box-shaped flight formation and a sufficient number of long-range fighters are arranged to escort them, it is very important to defend against enemy fighters. Interception is quite effective.In the face of the self-defense artillery fire from the vigilant escort fighter planes and bombers, if the number of interceptor fighter jets coming from the opponent is too small, it is simply not enough to smash such a flying box.

In order to implement effective air interception against such a large fleet, the number and quality of interceptors on the defensive side, the size and level of pilots, the mastery and analysis of aircrew information, the organization and dispatch of interception forces... these factors are all indispensable .Compared with the high dependence of air interception by fighter jets on the system, anti-aircraft artillery is much less dependent on these factors. Even a relatively fragmented anti-aircraft artillery unit can also pose a serious threat to a huge bomber formation.

In the last plane, almost half of the nearly 7 fighter planes and more than [-] aviation personnel sacrificed by the United States in the European battlefield were given by the German anti-aircraft guns, and the proportion even exceeded the loss in air battles. quantity.This phenomenon is largely due to the fact that Germany's air interception capabilities declined sharply due to the depletion of resources and manpower at the end of the war. However, as long as there are ammunition available at this time, the anti-aircraft artillery can still function normally.

More importantly, since the anti-aircraft artillery groups are mostly concentrated in strategic places, that is, around the targets that the bomber groups need to attack, the bombers have almost no other available tactics except forcible entry. After all, guided weapons have just appeared in World War II, and they want to pass through the defense zone It is almost impossible to destroy the enemy's anti-aircraft artillery position in advance by external attack.And the defenders are not fools either, the anti-aircraft artillery positions around strategic locations are either extremely strong or extremely concealed.

Anti-aircraft artillery also has an irreplaceable role for fighters, and it is also a role that is most often ignored by military fans, that is, it can greatly reduce the opponent's attack efficiency.

In the absence of guided weapons, no matter whether the aircraft dive bombs or horizontally bombs, or conducts torpedo attacks on ships, they all have a common feature, that is, in the final attack process, the aircraft must keep the ground for a certain period of time as much as possible. Flying stably, but also maintaining rhythm coordination with friendly aircraft as much as possible, otherwise the accuracy and density of attacks will be greatly reduced.

However, the final attack process of the attack aircraft group needs to be carried out within the range of firepower of the anti-aircraft guns, which gives the anti-aircraft guns another channel to play a role besides directly shooting down the enemy planes, that is, to interfere with the opponent's stable flight as much as possible and destroy the opponent's aircraft. The coordination of attacks between friendly aircraft will greatly reduce the enemy's attack efficiency.

Therefore, the intensive anti-aircraft artillery firepower does not necessarily lie in directly shooting down the enemy plane.It can force the opponent's horizontal bomber group to disperse in advance, it can force the dive bombers to maneuver and evade during the dive, it can force some torpedo planes to abandon good throwing positions, or force the torpedo planes to drop torpedoes at a farther place, etc. ( Although the anti-aircraft firepower on the Bismarck in the last plane did not seem to play these roles).

All in all, Helena never thought that anti-aircraft guns were an inefficient means of air defense, not to mention the results of various land-based and ship-based anti-aircraft guns in World War II on the last plane were actually very brilliant, even if it was just to reduce the enemy's attack In terms of efficiency, the anti-aircraft guns in World War II are definitely worth the money, even more than the money.So if someone thinks that anti-aircraft guns are ineffective, then either they have not understood the essence of the role of anti-aircraft guns, or the anti-aircraft guns in your hands are really useless.

Chapter 195 Proximity Fuze

In the last plane, the performance of the anti-aircraft guns on the German anti-aircraft towers is of course good.In particular, the Flak40 dual-mounted 128mm anti-aircraft gun as the main firepower output can be regarded as one of the large-caliber anti-aircraft guns with the best comprehensive performance in the world at that time.Although the number of German magnetic proximity fuzes is insufficient and often fails to explode on time, the Flak40 anti-aircraft gun only has ordinary timing fuzes available most of the time, which limits the full performance of this anti-aircraft gun to a certain extent.

However, under the guidance of radar and optical instruments, even if only ordinary timed fuze ammunition is used, the lethality of the Flak40 anti-aircraft gun is still quite terrible for those heavy bombers with rough skin and thick flesh.In the last plane, the eight Flak40 anti-aircraft guns on the Hamburg air defense tower had a brilliant record of firing more than 400 rounds of 128mm shells within a few minutes and shooting down 17 U.S. B-28 four-shot heavy bombers. The ability to fight in the air can be seen.

鉴于上个位面Flak40型61倍径128毫米高射炮的成功，本位面的德国的60倍径130毫米高射炮虽然在倍径和口径上有些细小的区别，但在整体构架上还是延续了上个位面的Flak40型高射炮的许多特点。最大的不同之处在于上个位面的Flak40采用的是整装式弹药，而本位面海伦娜在130高炮的陆基型上采用的是分装式弹药，而整装式弹药则只在舰载型上应用。

The reason why Helena did this is because the land-based 130mm anti-aircraft gun uses an open-air mount with a relatively simple structure and does not have an automatic swing arm like the ship-based type. In terms of bombing steps, a full load of ammunition weighing up to about 130 kilograms will be a great burden for soldiers. The loader will be exhausted after loading a few rounds, which will be detrimental to the rate of fire of the anti-aircraft gun. Influence.

For example, the ammunition weight of the Flak40 anti-aircraft gun in the last plane was as high as 47.7 kg, which made the German loaders miserable, and this was the result of the designers reluctantly deducting the amount of propellant.On the land-based model of the 130mm anti-aircraft gun in this plane, Helena drew on the design experience of the American MK12 naval gun in the previous plane, and loaded the 27 kg warhead and the 24 kg propellant cartridge separately.

Due to the significant reduction in the burden on the loader, this plane adopts a land-based 130mm anti-aircraft gun with separate ammunition, and the rate of fire is actually higher than the Flak40 naval gun on the previous plane. The single-barrel fire rate has increased from 12 rounds per minute to every 15 rounds per minute, basically equivalent to the deck mount version of the American MK12 naval gun on the previous plane.Although this rate of fire is still far behind the ship-based type with a follow-up floor and an automatic pendulum machine (up to 25 rounds per minute), it is more than enough to deal with important air defense tasks.

Moreover, due to the use of sub-loaded ammunition, the rigid constraint on the weight of the whole bomb is gone, and the original plane does not have to strictly limit the weight of propellant and warhead.Compared with the Flak40 anti-aircraft gun that fired insufficient ammunition in the previous plane, the full weight of the 130mm anti-aircraft gun in this plane has increased to 51 kg, so when the weight of the warhead is increased from 26 kg to 27 kg, the initial velocity of the projectile is still from 880 meters /s increased to 900 m/s.

As for the proximity fuze that military fans of later generations will talk about, Helena has already started preliminary research work.In World War II on the previous plane, the proximity fuzes used in actual combat generally included radio proximity fuzes, magnetic proximity fuzes, and electrostatic proximity fuzes.Among them, Britain and the United States mainly use radio proximity fuzes, while Germany mainly uses magnetic proximity fuzes and electrostatic proximity fuzes.As far as the specific technical performance is concerned, these three kinds of fuzes have their own advantages and disadvantages.

The main advantage of the radio proximity fuze is that the effective distance is relatively long, and the detonation accuracy is relatively high when the fuze works normally.The disadvantages of the radio proximity fuze are: first, the storage life is relatively short; second, the failure rate is high (in the Mariana naval battle in June 1944, half of the radio fuzes on many ships in the United States could not work normally); Unable to overcome sea and ground clutter interference, resulting in serious premature shell explosion when shooting sea-skimming targets.

The main advantage of the magnetic proximity fuze is that it has a wide range of applications. In addition to being used for anti-aircraft ammunition, it can also be used for torpedoes, mines and even anti-tank ammunition. In addition, the failure rate is somewhat lower than that of the radio proximity fuze.As for the disadvantages of the magnetic proximity fuze, one is that the structure is complex and expensive, and the other is that the anti-noise ability is weak. Since the earth itself has a magnetic field, underground mines and even underwater shipwrecks may also generate a magnetic field. If this problem cannot be compensated, the fuze will be fired. It may be too early or too late.

It is worth mentioning that in the last plane, the German magnetic proximity fuze failed not only the anti-aircraft artillery unit, but also the submarine unit.In the early days of World War II, the torpedoes fired by German submarines repeatedly missed fighter planes because they could not be detonated on time, which had a lot to do with the weak anti-noise ability of the magnetic proximity fuze.Although these problems improved in the end, it was too late.

Finally, there is the electrostatic proximity fuze, which has obvious advantages and disadvantages.The advantage is that the structure is simple (just a spark arrestor or capacitor), the price is cheap, it is not easy to fail, and it is small in size (compared to the radio proximity and magnetic proximity fuzes), so it can adapt to smaller caliber shells.The disadvantage is that the working distance is too short, in most cases it cannot exceed five meters, only about one-third of the radio fuze.

This is because the electrostatic fuze works by sensing the charge carried on the aircraft to activate the spark arrestor, but the charge itself in the atmosphere is not completely evenly distributed (otherwise there will be no lightning between the clouds), if the static electricity is close to the explosion If the sensor of the fuze is set too sensitive, the fuze may explode early due to the unevenness of the charge in the atmosphere.

On the issue of proximity fuzes, Helena is not going to go all the way to the dark, she is going to advance these three technical routes in parallel.Although under the technical conditions of World War II, each type of proximity bomb has insurmountable shortcomings, but Helena believes that it is still possible to learn from each other's strengths by using each type of proximity fuze for specific occasions.

For example, the magnetic fuze has weak anti-noise ability. Helena believes that it can be used in fixed fortresses such as air defense towers in the future, because the earth's magnetic field in a fixed area is relatively stable, and the defect can be overcome by adding compensation devices.As for the proximity fuze used on torpedoes, Helena thinks that in the future, it can only be compensated by changing the traditional double-pulse signal into a triple-pulse signal and increasing the pulse counter. Anyway, torpedoes are already expensive enough, and they don't care if they are so expensive. little bit.

For example, the radio fuze cannot filter ground and sea clutter, and Helena plans to use it only when the ship's large-caliber antiaircraft guns hit high-altitude targets in the future.If the large-caliber shipboard anti-aircraft gun needs to shoot a sea-skimming target, it can be switched to a combined timing/electrostatic proximity fuze, so that it will not be disturbed by sea clutter.

Another example is that the electrostatic proximity fuze has a short range of action, so it is simply used on 90mm or 75mm anti-aircraft guns. Anyway, their explosion damage range is not large.The electrostatic proximity fuze also has the advantages of small size and low price. It can be regarded as a perfect complement to the anti-aircraft gun of this caliber level.

Of course, as far as the present is concerned, all of the above assumptions are in the future, and no proximity fuze has yet entered the practical stage, but Helena has every reason to believe that Germany will not lag behind in this regard. The columnar grid tube developed in advance has already brought huge inherent advantages to Germany in this regard.After all, the columnar grid tube is naturally small in size and excellent in overload resistance. In order to solve the huge acceleration suffered by the cannon when it is ejected from the chamber, the American scientists on the previous plane did not know how many hairs they scratched.

The author has something to say: Everyone is very concerned about the issue of proximity fuzes, so let’s dig a small hole here first, and fill in the later chapters slowly.The structure of the electrostatic proximity fuze is relatively simple. It is a spark arrester, and the surrounding static electricity will discharge when it reaches the threshold. You can see the structure diagram above by yourself.As for the radio proximity fuze and the moving magnetic proximity fuze (the static magnetism is simpler), both of them were black-tech-level technologies in World War II. I can’t finish it here in a few words, and I will arrange a special chapter to talk about it in the future.

Chapter 196 Medium Antiaircraft Cannon

If talking about the large-caliber anti-aircraft guns on the anti-aircraft towers, Helena still optimizes various details based on the Flak40 128mm anti-aircraft guns from the previous plane, then in terms of the choice of medium and small-caliber anti-aircraft guns that match the large-caliber anti-aircraft guns , Helena can be said to have directly subverted the idea of ​​​​the configuration of Germany's air defense towers on the previous plane.

The small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns used on the German anti-aircraft towers of the last plane are mainly the Flak36/43 series of 37mm anti-aircraft guns produced by Rheinmetall.In all fairness, compared with similar products at that time, the performance of this anti-aircraft gun is actually quite good, and its comprehensive combat capability may be second only to the famous Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun. The new 37mm gun does not know how many orders of magnitude higher.

Of course, since the Krupp company in this plane did not withdraw capital from Bofors due to differences in air defense concepts, the current Bofors company is still an overseas subsidiary of Krupp.So when Krupp came up with a 1933mm anti-aircraft gun with better performance in 40, Rheinmetall seemed to have to fail in the project of small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns.

However, although the performance of Bofors's 60-fold diameter 40mm anti-aircraft gun is already very good, and was even praised by some military researchers on the previous plane as the best comprehensive performance of small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns during World War II, Helena is still not ready to use this This type of anti-aircraft gun will be the standard configuration of small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns on future German air defense towers.

在海伦娜眼中，如果将博福斯的60倍径40毫米高射炮用到防空塔上，作战效能或许确实会比上个位面莱茵金属的Flak36型37毫米高射炮要强上些许，但是并没有从根本上解决Flak36型37毫米炮的问题。所以即使是上个位面广受赞誉的博福斯60倍径40毫米高射炮，在海伦娜眼里依然不是防空塔上合格的中小口径高炮选择。

So what's the problem with Rheinmetall's 37mm anti-aircraft guns and Bofors' 40mm anti-aircraft guns?Helena believes that the biggest problem is that the 40mm anti-aircraft gun has a limited maximum shooting height and insufficient single-shot lethality when facing a solid high-altitude target such as a heavy bomber.

Let me talk about the maximum shooting height first.In the last plane, after the British bomber force suffered heavy losses in the early bombing of Germany, Brigadier General Baker of the Royal Air Force strongly opposed the Bomber Command’s proposal to set the combat altitude at around 3000 meters, and strongly advocated the bomber flying altitude Raise it to more than 4880 meters, that is, let the bomber fly at a height that the maximum shooting height of the German 37mm anti-aircraft guns cannot reach.

In this way, the bomber formation will still face the interception of fighter jets and the threat of large-caliber anti-aircraft artillery, and will lose some bombing accuracy and ammunition load, but this measure has indeed reduced the loss of the British bomber fleet a lot.After all, the interception firepower network that needs to be faced is directly reduced by one layer.

Let's talk about the problem of insufficient lethality of projectiles. Before World War II, the reason why countries generally selected the caliber of small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns at about 40 mm was because small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns at that time generally used trigger fuzes, that is, only when the projectile directly hits When the enemy aircraft is attacked, the fuze will be fired, and then the fragments of the projectile explosion will be used to kill the enemy aircraft.At that time, designers generally believed that as long as a 40mm projectile hit an enemy aircraft and was detonated, it would be powerful enough to destroy the aircraft.

If only fighter jets are used as the target, the judgment of the designers is generally correct.Although in the Pacific War in the late World War II, there were many cases in which Japanese kamikazes were hit by 40mm artillery shells and could still hit Allied ships, but in most cases, a 600mm-class bomb with a weight of 900g-40g The power of the projectile is enough to cause the fighter jet that is directly hit to crash or at least lose the ability to continue fighting.

However, wanting to shoot down a four-engine heavy bomber is not as simple as shooting down a single-engine light fighter, not to mention that the key parts of a four-engine heavy bomber are generally protected by armor, and the redundancy of its power and structure alone is enough Give the 40mm class projectiles designed to destroy fighter jets a headache.Therefore, in the previous plane, there were not a few cases in which the four-engine heavy bombers of the Allied forces were hit by one or more shots of the German 37mm anti-aircraft guns and returned smoothly.

To sum up, in order to give full play to the combat effectiveness of the anti-aircraft tower, it is not enough to have a epee such as a 130mm large-caliber anti-aircraft gun, and a certain number of medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns are needed to make up for the gap in firepower density; It is not enough to directly use the common 40mm caliber of small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns, because you need to deal with the enemy's four-shot heavy bombers, so you must develop a model that can hit higher and have more powerful projectiles.Therefore, in Helena's view, it is imperative to develop a rapid-fire gun with a caliber larger than Bofors's 60-times-diameter 40mm anti-aircraft gun as a small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft gun for the queen's anti-aircraft tower.

Hearing that he hadn't been completely eliminated from the small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns, Rheinmetall immediately got excited. After continuous hard work by the designers, it didn't take long for Rheinmetall to come up with a 72-fold diameter 60mm double The design scheme of the joint anti-aircraft gun.Holding the new plan carefully submitted by Rheinmetall, Helena only felt that the more she looked at it, the more she felt a sense of familiarity for no reason. She scratched her hair and racked her brains to recall for a long time, and finally understood where this sense of familiarity came from. .

Rheinmetall's dual-mounted 60mm anti-aircraft gun, except for the difference in caliber and some details, is simply a replica of the Type 037 66mm naval gun on the 57 submarine hunter of the later Republic.For Helena, this is like meeting an old friend in a foreign country, isn't there!But after Helena was excited for a few minutes, she quickly figured out why she saw this product here.

这是因为上个位面共和国的66式双联装57毫米舰炮，是在陆基的59式单联装57毫米高射炮的基础上发展出来的；而59式57毫米高射炮，又是苏联C-60式57毫米高射炮的仿制品；而苏联的C-60型57毫米高射炮，又是苏联著名设计师格拉宾战后在缴获德国人的Flak/77 Gerat 58型77倍径55毫米高射炮的基础上发展而来的！

Although the plane has changed now, although Rheinmetall has increased the caliber of the anti-aircraft gun from 55 mm to 60 mm, and at the same time shortened the multiple diameter from 77 times to 72 times, but as far as the basic structure of the anti-aircraft gun is concerned, it is still familiar. The recipe still has the familiar taste, no wonder Helena felt very kind after taking a look at it.However, in the previous plane, when Germany took out the Flak/77 Gerat 58 anti-aircraft gun, World War II was almost over. In this plane, in order to regain the lost market share in small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns, Rheinmetall even came out a few years in advance. The design of the bottom of the suitcase surprised Helena.

"Miss Helena, our Rheinmetall company won't fail again this time, right?" Seeing Helena gently put down the proposal she handed in just now, with a complicated look on her face, the designer of Rheinmetall Unavoidably asked a little apprehensively.After all, in order to compete for this project, Bofors, a subsidiary of Krupp, also came up with a 70mm antiaircraft gun with a diameter of 40 times. It claims that the air defense effectiveness is twice that of the original version with a diameter of 60 times. Very confident, but the designers of Rheinmetall can't guarantee that their works will be favored by Miss Helena.

Chapter 197

"It is indeed a very good design to be able to spray a powerful projectile with a high muzzle velocity at a single-barreled rate of fire of 120 rounds per minute." Just when the designer of Rheinmetall was about to despair, Helena Tianlai suddenly came from the opposite side. A voice like: "You haven't finished testing this anti-aircraft gun yet, how long will it take for Rheinmetall to complete the finalization work?"

"Uh... what?" As if the pause button had been pressed, the designer of Rheinmetall, who was still somewhat dejected just now, widened his eyes, and after being stunned for a few seconds, he asked in a low voice in disbelief: "Excuse me, Miss Seekert, what did you mean just now? Our Rheinmetall...isn't out yet?"

"I didn't seem to say that your plan was out just now, did I?" Helena said with a smile: "If in the next military test, your product can indeed meet all the technical indicators in this proposal, then I can assure you in advance that all new German anti-aircraft towers in the future will have a place for this twin-mounted 60mm anti-aircraft gun of your company. So what you need to do now is to go back and continue to improve its design "

Helena's words made the expression on the Rheinmetall designer's face change from frustration to surprise in an instant. The smug look in his eyes was like when a child's handmade work just completed was praised by his mother.Being stared at by the designer of Rheinmetall with such eager eyes, Helena felt a little embarrassed, so she could only look away in embarrassment, while pretending to raise her right hand, and pressed her swollen eyebrows .

In the last plane, based on the research results of the Germans, the Soviet Union developed the famous C-60 57mm anti-aircraft gun.Since then, 35 countries including the Republic have introduced or even imitated this weapon, and a huge family of 57mm anti-aircraft guns has been derived in different countries, making this old gun a very representative weapon of the Eastern camp. one.In fact, until the 21st century before Helena crossed, this type of anti-aircraft gun and its improved models were still in service in the armies of many countries.

However, the reason why Helena favored the design of Rheinmetall's dual-mounted 72-fold diameter 60mm anti-aircraft gun is not just because of the feelings of the previous life, but because it is not so sensitive to weight and cost. , this anti-aircraft gun, which is closely related to the Type 59 57mm anti-aircraft gun of the Republic of the previous plane, is indeed very close to Helena's expectations for the performance of a small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft gun that can cooperate with a 130mm heavy anti-aircraft gun.

这款72倍径60毫米高炮的药室长度，与已经装备在一号坦克上的那门48倍径60毫米加农炮完全相同，所以可以通用60×445毫米标准规格的弹药。但是依靠72倍径的修长身管，在发射重3.2千克的高爆弹丸时，这款60毫米高射炮可以达到1050米的高初速，这一初速使该炮的最大射程可以达到13000米以上，最大射高可以超过9000米。

In addition, using the energy of the barrel's own recoil and recoil, the gun also achieves highly automated shooting.That is to say, with the recoil and re-entry of the barrel, all actions such as loading, locking, firing, bolt opening, and barrel extraction can be completed automatically. What the loader needs to do is to take the four rounds sent by the bomb lifter clips, and then put them on the feeding pallet one by one.

According to Rheinmetall, if the loader does not lose the chain, the rate of fire of the gun can reach a high level of 120 rounds per minute, which is basically equal to the rate of fire of the 60mm Bofors gun with a diameter of 40 times. Its projectile weight is close to four times that of the Bofors 60-diameter 40mm anti-aircraft gun, and the projectile volume per unit time is extremely impressive.

It is particularly worth mentioning that, in order to prevent the front magazine from being emptied and the rear magazine not being reloaded due to the accidental mistakes of the loader, as a result, the soldiers need to reload the first shell in the fierce battle. Rheinmetall also very intimately set up an automatic stop device for the gun's bomb press.When there is only the last shell left in the bomb press, the artillery will automatically stop firing, and after the subsequent magazines are loaded, the artillery will automatically resume the firing cycle.

Helena also knows that this anti-aircraft gun has the disadvantages of heavy weight and high price, but it is precisely that it does not need to pay too much attention to these shortcomings when it is equipped on an anti-aircraft tower.Although the weight of the double-mounted 60mm anti-aircraft gun is not light, and the weight of the whole gun is as high as about 8 tons, but for the anti-aircraft tower with its own super load-bearing capacity, this weight is not a problem at all; although the double-mounted 60mm high The price of the gun is not cheap, but the number of small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns on the anti-aircraft tower is not too much, so it is not sensitive to the increase in the cost of a single gun.

Correspondingly, the advantages of this anti-aircraft gun can be fully utilized in special occasions such as air defense in key areas.

首先，60毫米高炮3.2千克的高爆弹丸的重量已经超过了上个位面的C-60式57毫米高炮的2.8千克，是Flak36型37毫米高炮的五倍、是博福斯40毫米高炮的近四倍。像这种级别的弹丸，即使在面对最坚固的的四发轰炸机时，依然威力十足。

For example, if four heavy bombers are hit by 40mm shells, if luck is not too bad, there is still a high chance that they can insist on flying back; but if they are directly hit by such a 60mm projectile, then the hit The entire structure around the part will be torn off and torn. Even the B-29 four-shot heavy bomber, which is famous for its solid structure in the previous plane, has a considerable chance of being destroyed by a single shell. If it is near the spar bombs, the bomber may even disintegrate directly in the air.

The extremely high single-shot damage rate coupled with the extremely high firepower density will make the opponent's bombers face heavy losses as long as they enter the killing range of the 60mm anti-aircraft guns!Moreover, the 60mm-level projectile has the potential to be equipped with a proximity fuze. Although it is basically impossible to install a radio proximity fuze under the technical conditions of World War II, the small electrostatic proximity fuze developed by Germany in the previous plane is. It is possible to stuff projectiles of this level. As for the disadvantage that the electrostatic fuze has a range of only 3-5 meters, it does not exist at all for 60mm projectiles, because the fragment killing range of 60mm projectiles is not very large.

其次，60毫米高炮超过9000米的最大射高和大约6000米的有效射高，与防空塔上的130毫米重型高射炮超过16000米的最大射高和大约12000米的有效射高能够形成非常良好的衔接。虽然二战中的轰炸机有能力爬升到6000米以上乃至9000米以上的高度，以避开60毫米高射炮的杀伤区，但这样做的话会导致载弹量和命中精度大幅下降。

All in all, compared with the Flak36 37mm anti-aircraft gun equipped by Germany on the previous plane's anti-aircraft tower, the double-mounted 60mm anti-aircraft gun on this plane has a slightly inferior rate of fire (150 rounds per minute vs. 120 rounds per minute), In exchange for a much larger kill zone and damage effectiveness against bombers.In the face of such small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft artillery fire nets, the opponent can only choose one of risky lowering the bombing height or being forced to raise the bombing height.The former will make the loss rate of the bombers unacceptably high, and the latter will make the efficiency of each attack of the bombers unacceptably low.

But this is also the ultimate goal that Helena pursues.That is to let the opponents no matter what choice they make, they are tossing in the sky and earth net that they have woven. If they have more resources, more manpower, and a larger industrial scale, they will not be able to exert their due effectiveness.Of course, the opponent can choose to drop ten times with one force, and Helena's snare also has an upper limit.But is there any country group in this world whose industrial capacity can reach the threshold of breaking through the snare woven by Helena?

Chapter 198 Field Air Defense

After Helena's nod for the dual-mounted 60mm anti-aircraft gun scheme he designed for the anti-aircraft tower, the designers of Rheinmetall were overjoyed, so they immediately recommended to Helena their 60mm anti-aircraft gun series. Other members of the AA; including the single-mounted towed version for Army field air defense, and the twin-mounted turret version for ship-based air defense.

"I think you Rheinmetall don't want to compete with Krupp for the project of the towed gun for the army's field air defense." Helena only glanced at the proposal, and directly dismissed Rheinmetall. A thought that just popped up: "I see that the gun mount of your product is the same cross-shaped frame as Krupp's 90mm high-level dual-purpose gun. The marching weight of this gun must exceed five tons. Right?" Helena put down the materials in her hand and asked.

"That's not the case, Miss Seekert." The designer of Rheinmetall was stunned for a moment, and then muttered in a low voice: "Actually, the marching weight of our gun is only 4980 kilograms, which is not as high as the 5000 kilograms you mentioned."

"Okay, then let me guess wrong." Helena interrupted him: "But this weight doesn't seem to be much different from five tons, it's just a difference in the weight of a few shells. Does the weight mean anything?" Helena clapped a finger on the table as she spoke, making a crisp tapping sound.

"It means that it is difficult for this gun to maneuver long distances under the pull of mules and horses, and it means that it is difficult for this gun to rely on the manpower of six to seven gunners for short-distance transfer. In contrast, although similar products from Krupp The performance may not be superior to yours, but at least it is much more approachable than yours in terms of mobility, their new 70-caliber 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun has a marching weight of only a little over two tons." Helena spread her hands and said bluntly To the designers at Rheinmetall.

海伦娜刚才提高的70倍径40毫米高射炮，其实是克虏伯旗下的博福斯公司在颇为成功的60倍径40毫米高射炮基础上推出的新产品。主要的改进之处包括：将弹丸的药室长度从311毫米延长到364毫米、将身管长度从60倍径延长到70倍径、改进抛壳结构以提高循环射速等。

These improvements have increased the muzzle velocity of the gun from 881 meters per second to 1012 meters per second, and the maximum rate of fire has also increased from 120 rounds per minute to about 150 rounds per minute.While these improvements made the 70 caliber 40mm Bofors more expensive than the 60 caliber version, Helena still thought it was well worth it.Although the Bofors 60-diameter 40mm anti-aircraft gun has always been one of the best small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns in World War II on the last plane, but with the continuous improvement of the flight performance of fighter jets, the muzzle velocity of this type is only 881 meters per second. The performance of anti-aircraft guns actually began to fail in the middle and late stages of the war.

上个位面博福斯公司的对策，同样是在60倍径40毫米高炮的基础上研制70倍径的版本。更高的初速和射速带来了更高的单发毁伤力，更高的精度和更大的杀伤范围，使得单管70倍径40毫米高炮就能此前双管60倍径40毫米高炮的射击效果。

Since the Bofors company on this plane has released the 70mm anti-aircraft gun with a diameter of 40 times ahead of schedule, there is no reason for Helena not to use it.Although the lengthening of the barrel will lead to an increase in the cost of a single gun, considering the doubling of the lethality, many times a single gun can be used to complete the combat role of a double-mounted 60mm anti-aircraft gun with a diameter of 40 times.Therefore, in terms of the comprehensive benefit-to-cost ratio, Helena believes that Bofors's improvement is still very cost-effective economically.

In fact, just looking at the performance of the Bofors 70-fold 40mm anti-aircraft gun itself is not enough to beat Rheinmetall's 72-fold 60mm anti-aircraft gun in the army's field air defense system bidding.What really plays a decisive role is that in Helena's plan, the small and medium-caliber field air defense system of the German Army in the future cannot rely on motorized power traction.

Although Helena has done her best to improve Germany's fuel supply, it is still impossible to realize the full motorization of infantry divisions like the United States on the previous plane.Therefore, for most of the German infantry divisions that maneuver in a half-motorized, half-mule manner, how to use the relatively limited motorized power more efficiently has extraordinary significance for the improvement of combat effectiveness, because it may directly affect the The firepower carrying capability of an infantry division.

Considering it from this perspective, the advantages of Bofors' 70x 40mm antiaircraft gun over Rheinmetall's 72x 60mm antiaircraft gun are greatly highlighted.The marching weight of the former is only a little over two tons, and it can be easily pulled by two horses or mules. If the road conditions permit, even a single horse can pull it.The latter's marching weight is close to 5 tons, which is already equivalent to the 60 times the diameter of the 90mm high-level dual-purpose gun on the original plane. Even if it is pulled by two horses on a relatively smooth road, it will feel strenuous.

Therefore, although the 72-fold diameter 60mm anti-aircraft gun is quite powerful, if it is used as the army's standard field anti-aircraft gun, it will take up valuable motorized power in the army.Under the circumstances that it is difficult to greatly increase the total power of motorization, every additional 60mm anti-aircraft gun carried by the infantry division means that one less 90mm high-level dual-purpose gun should be carried. This situation is intolerable to Helena.

Moreover, the army's field air defense often needs to rely on manual rather than electric power to control the rotation and elevation of the artillery. The rotation and elevation speed of the heavier 60mm anti-aircraft gun is not as good as that of the 40mm anti-aircraft gun, which further weakens the 60mm anti-aircraft gun. The advantage of the powerful millimeter anti-aircraft gun.Coupled with the fact that field anti-aircraft guns sometimes need to rely on manpower for short-distance position transfers, the advantages of 40mm anti-aircraft guns in this regard are even more prominent.

To sum up, in the field of small and medium-caliber field air defense of the army in the future, Rheinmetall's 60mm anti-aircraft guns are basically unable to compete with Bofors' 40mm anti-aircraft guns.

In Helena's view, the only potential market breakthrough for the single-barreled towing model of the 60mm anti-aircraft gun is to sell to the Air Force's key air defense forces. It may be possible to receive miraculous results by setting up an ambush on the only road that must be passed.After all, the firepower layout of this ground air defense also needs to pay attention to the coexistence of movement and stillness, and the cooperation of light and dark, in order to achieve the most ideal killing effect.

Compared with directly cutting off Rheinmetall's thoughts on the army's field air defense, Helena did not immediately kill the twin turret-type 60mm anti-aircraft guns sent by Rheinmetall, which are mainly used for shipboard air defense.The shape and structure of this model are somewhat similar to the AK60 developed by the Soviet Union on the previous plane based on the C-57 725mm anti-aircraft gun. It would be great if Rheinmetall could make it, but... …

"You use belt feed for such a large-caliber automatic gun. Has the strength of the belt been resolved?" Helena asked Rheinmetall's designers.Helena knew that the AK725 naval gun of the Soviet Union in the last plane may be the largest caliber belt-fed artillery in the world. Such a large-caliber naval gun needs to be belt-fed. The pull force on the bullet chain is quite amazing.And if the belt is deformed under such tension, a jam accident is likely to occur, and you might as well reload the magazine manually.

Helena's question hit the nail on the head, and Rheinmetall's designers were dumbfounded on the spot. They really haven't completely solved this problem yet, and the jamming rate of the sample gun has always been high.

"You can go back first." Helena waved her hand and said, "The technical problem has been solved, and there may be a place for you on the large German warships in the future, but don't just want to draw a big cake to fool me before the technical problem is solved." I."

"Miss Seckert, what does it mean to paint a pancake?" the designer of Rheinmetall raised a hand and asked Helena weakly.

"Uh, this is the oriental food culture I learned recently, it doesn't matter if you don't understand it." Helena replied.

Chapter 199 Replacing Guns With Cannons