Iron Sonata of World War II

The first thing Hitler did after the German army returned to the Rhineland area was to ask Fritz Todt and Albert Speer to design and build a solid line of defense in the area, with a total length of 630 meters. The [-]-meter line of defense is planned to extend from Kleve on the border between Germany and the Netherlands to Basel on the border between Germany and Switzerland.The line of defense will be named "Siegfried's Position". Siegfried is the dragon-slaying hero in the German medieval folk epic "Nibelungen Song". Invulnerable, the purpose of giving the line of defense this name is self-evident, it is hoped that this line of defense can block any attack of the opponent like an invulnerable hero in the future.

Chapter 297 New Line of Defense

In fact, in the history of the last plane, Hitler also ordered the construction of this Siegfried line of defense named after the dragon-slaying hero, which was in direct opposition to the Maginot line of defense built by France on the opposite side of the border.Although the historical reputation of the Siegfried Line may not be comparable to that of the Maginot Line, the Siegfried Line actually far exceeds the Maginot Line in terms of project scale and total cost.The construction of the Siegfried Line consumed a total of 931 million tons of concrete and 35 tons of steel, 2.4 times and 2.3 times that of the Maginot Line, respectively, and the total budget of the project was as high as 35 billion Reichsmarks. Roughly equivalent to the cost of 20 Bismarck-class battleships, this is still under the circumstances that the number of large German warships is scarce and the price of a single ship remains high.In contrast, the Maginot Line, which took France more than ten years to build, only cost 50 billion francs, equivalent to about 25 billion Reichsmarks.

However, such a large-scale military project failed to fully accept the test of war, because when Germany concentrated its forces on the Eastern Front to blitz Poland, there was a very strange peaceful scene near the French-German border.Although Britain and France had already declared war on Germany at this time, in the seven months before the German army turned their spears to launch the French campaign, the British and French allied forces obediently stayed behind the Maginot Line of Defense, and also squatted behind the Siegfried Line of Defense. The German troops in the back stared wide-eyed.Then, due to the rapid defeat of France under the German blitzkrieg, the Siegfried line of defense was over before the baptism of war.It was not until the end of 1944, with only a few months left before the fall of the Third Reich, that this line of defense, which was built at a huge cost, really ushered in the Allied attack for the first time, but at this time the collapse of the German army was beyond what a line of defense could save. .

The lackluster actual combat record of the Siegfried line of defense made many netizens on the previous plane sneer at it. Some of them even suggested that since this line of defense has not played much practical value in history, it is better to cancel the construction of the Siegfried line of defense , The freed up resources and funds can also be used for other purposes.But Helena did not agree with this point of view. In her opinion, the construction of the Siegfried Line of Defense was actually very necessary, because the strategic value this line of defense brought to the German army could not be measured by actual combat performance.Not to mention anything else, during the Polish campaign, Germany deployed only 23 divisions on the Western Front, and 12 of them were under-trained reserve divisions.At this time, if there is no solid Siegfried line of defense as a defensive backing, the British and French allied forces with as many as 110 divisions on the opposite side will no longer have the desire to fight, and it is impossible to choose to sit behind the Maginot line of defense like in the previous plane.

Although many historians regard the "sit-in war" of the Anglo-French coalition forces at this stage as a manifestation of the appeasement policy, the British and French coalition forces chose to give up the initiative to attack, so why not be psychologically shadowed by the huge casualties of the trench warfare.After all, the cruelty of trench attack and defense in the two battles of Verdun and the Somme is still a lingering nightmare in the hearts of the British and French generals.Although the number of German troops guarding the Siegfried Line at that time was only a fraction of that of the Allies, who could guarantee that they would penetrate tens of kilometers of defense depth before the Germans on the Eastern Front returned to their divisions?If you still can't make a breakthrough on the Siegfried defense line after paying heavy casualties in the active attack, it's better to squat behind the defense line from the beginning and wait for the Germans to come to your door, and then smash your head on the Maginot defense line. Woolen cloth!

Therefore, although the Siegfried line of defense did not have outstanding performance in actual combat against France, the failure to show itself in actual combat is actually the value of the Siegfried line of defense, because the existence of such a solid line of defense itself is a kind of strategy. Deterrence can make opponents think twice before launching an active attack, and the value brought by strategic deterrence does not need to be beaten to be reflected.The existence of the Siegfried Line of Defense has greatly liberated the deployment of German troops in the early stages of the war. Germany can use a small number of troops with poor training to contain a large number of British and French allied forces. It is embarrassing to fight on two fronts, even if it is only for this point to build the Siegfried line of defense, it cannot be said to be a loss-making business.

Therefore, Helena's suggestion to her is: the Siegfried line of defense must still be repaired, but in line with the purpose of spending less money to obtain higher returns, the Siegfried line of defense on this plane does not actually need to follow the historical pattern. Style to fix.For this reason, after private discussions with Todd, Speer and others, Helena quickly submitted a new design sketch of the Siegfried line of defense to Hitler.Although this design scheme somewhat subverted the traditional perception of the defense line in this era, the novel design concept of the scheme was greatly appreciated by Hitler and some high-level military officials, and it was finally approved and will be implemented soon.

The new line of defense design still has barriers made up of barbed wire, minefields, and anti-tank obstacles, but the 11860 artillery and machine gun fortifications on the Siegfried line of defense in the previous plane have been greatly damaged. Instead, there are as many as 142 large anti-aircraft towers. The distance between these anti-aircraft towers is about 10 kilometers, forming two staggered front and rear belts of anti-aircraft towers on the defense line with a total length of 630 kilometers.The firepower configuration on each battle tower is still the classic combination of four dual-mounted 130mm high-level dual-purpose guns, plus twelve dual-mounted 60mm high-level dual-purpose guns, and the newly developed guns will be installed on the command tower. The "Greater Würzburg" guidance radar.

In this way, whether it is ground troops or air targets who want to cross this line of defense, they will be fired by three to four anti-aircraft towers. It is impossible for light infantry or armored troops to pass through these dozens of kilometers under such firepower. The depth of defense, even without considering artificial obstacles and other small and medium-sized forts in the defense zone.And the 3.5-meter-thick high-strength concrete outer wall of the air defense tower can even resist the attack of the French Schneider M1915 370mm heavy train gun. Say, but shouldn't it be the Air Force's job to strike such a conspicuous target?

In addition to building these anti-aircraft towers, the new line of defense will also take advantage of the dense railway network in the Rhineland area to build a large number of train gun firing positions, which are actually a ring of rails or a railway turntable laid on a reinforced foundation. It is now easy to adjust the pointing of the muzzle on the circular railway or the railway turntable.

Like the previous plane, at this time, Krupp is developing a 5mm train gun code-named K-283. Although this caliber is not outstanding among train guns, but with the 76 times the diameter of the super The long barrel can still launch a 255kg bottom-row projectile to a distance of 87 kilometers. If it is combined with rocket range extension technology in the future, the range can easily exceed 100 kilometers.The most commendable thing is that the entire K-5 train gun can be installed on the 12-axis body, and only one locomotive can pull it to all places with rails.

Compared with the traditional defense line, this new type of defense line has many advantages. First, it greatly reduces the construction cost. Although the construction price of a single air defense tower is as high as 600 million marks, the 130mm high-level dual-purpose gun on each air defense tower is not only The shooting range is long and the shooting area is very wide, so the range that each anti-aircraft tower can control is far beyond that of ordinary artillery fortresses, and it can also be used as a personnel shelter, ammunition storage point, and command post.The total budget for all 142 anti-aircraft towers is only 8.5 million marks. In addition to the budget for the obstacle zone, train artillery positions and auxiliary fortifications, the total project cost is expected to not exceed 15 billion marks.

The second is that the cost of purchasing anti-aircraft towers and train guns in the future will not shrink due to the end of the war against France. After all, train guns can be deployed flexibly.The anti-aircraft towers can not only continue to protect the air security of the region, but can also be connected with the anti-aircraft towers planned to be built along the North Sea coast in the future, thus forming a complete forward air defense belt with both air early warning and interception. Allied aircraft want to bomb Germany Targets in the hinterland must first pay enough "tolls" at this air defense belt.Perhaps it only increases the risk of being shot down by the Allied air strikes by a few percentage points each time, but since this risk will accumulate as the number of air strikes executed increases, even if the loss rate of each air strike increases by two or three percentage points, then Over time it would also become unbearable for the Allies.

All in all, the new line of defense design allows the Siegfried line of defense on this plane to spend less budget to obtain a defense effect no less than that of the previous plane. The budget for purchasing towers and train guns will not become sunk costs that cannot be realized, but can continue to function in other fields and fronts.

Chapter 298 Modern Agriculture

Helena didn't spend too much energy on the Siegfried line of defense. She was only responsible for providing a framework for the design of the line of defense. Of course, the specific details were left to the professional engineering team to solve.Now Helena is in the office of the Fuhrer's residence, discussing with Hitler the issue of Germany's next reform with great interest. The waiter who has long been accustomed to Helena's arrival quietly exits the office after bringing Helena her favorite tea and helps the inside The two of them closed the door gently.Since Helena was definitely a frequent visitor to the Führer's residence, the waiters had long been familiar with Helena's habit of talking with Hitler.

Since Helena's policy suggestions to Hitler over the years were mostly completed in such private occasions, so few people outside know that Helena actually played an important role in the formulation of German national policies, but this is also true. Helena and Hitler are very happy to see the situation.After all, for Helena, Hitler can help her shield her from political disturbances, so that she can spend more time on climbing the technology tree; and for Hitler, Helena's suggestions are always almost perfect He was reassured by Helena's reluctance to directly engage in political activism, as he could deal with the problems he faced in an effective manner.

This time Helena and Hitler discussed how to modernize German agriculture.On this plane, Hitler established a state-controlled agricultural land management company three years ago at the suggestion of Helena, and through the system design of the same share with different rights, the control of most of the agricultural land in Germany was brought into the hands of the state. Then the agricultural land management company provides centralized land leasing services to domestic agricultural producers.The effect of this policy can be said to be very obvious: without causing too much resistance from the Junker landlord class, it quickly disintegrated the feudal manor economy that had lasted for hundreds of years in Germany. Germany's next agricultural reform laid the foundation.

"The situation we need to face in Germany's agricultural reform is very special, so that it is difficult for us to directly refer to the successful experience of other large agricultural countries, Your Excellency the Fuhrer." Helena said to Hitler straight to the point.According to the experience accumulated in hundreds of conversations between Hitler and Helena: If Helena said that the situation faced by this problem is relatively special, then this problem must not be so easy to solve, but since Helena said so, it also shows that she At least he already had a rough solution in mind, so Hitler nodded and signaled Helena to continue.

"We can compare our agricultural problems with the United States and China. The potential arable land in the United States has a huge surplus relative to its population, so there is almost only one thing to consider in the development of agriculture in the United States, and that is how to To produce the largest amount of agricultural products with the least amount of labor input, that is, it is only necessary to consider improving the labor productivity of agricultural practitioners, and there are no such strict requirements for the output per unit area of ​​land, so the direction of agricultural development in the United States is very clear. It is clear: it is to develop large-scale mechanized farms, because this is the most labor-saving method, but in terms of output per unit area, this kind of American-style farms actually has no advantages." Helena continued.

"The situation in China's agriculture is different from that of the United States, or just the opposite. The United States does not lack arable land, but a sufficient agricultural labor force; and now China's agricultural labor supply has almost reached saturation, but the area of ​​arable land Compared with its huge population, there are obvious shortcomings. This means that China must now focus on how to increase the output per unit of arable land in the development of agriculture. As for improving the labor productivity of the agricultural population, it is far from this stage. China needs to consider, so we can see that China has almost developed the traditional agricultural technology of intensive farming to the extreme, which is also the inevitable result of the continuous sharpening of the contradiction between man and land.”

Helena saw that Hitler listened with gusto, and went on to say back to Germany: "The problems we face in developing agriculture in Germany are complicated because of the duality of contradictions: on the one hand, as the second largest industrial country in the world, Germany's industrial and service sectors It needs to absorb a large amount of labor, so we cannot accept the low productivity of agricultural labor. Because if the labor productivity of the agricultural sector is much lower than that of the industrial sector, it means that our human resources are wasted to a considerable extent, because these agricultural labor Could have gone into industry to create more wealth."

"On the other hand, the contradiction between man and land in Germany also exists. Although the production of agricultural products in our country has reached the best level in history in recent years, there are still 11% of grain, 10% of dairy products and 21% of poultry eggs. It needs to rely on imports. Although on the surface, this dependence is not very high, please remember, Your Excellency, that this is in peacetime. If the agricultural population is transferred during the outbreak of war, and the supply of raw materials for pesticides and fertilizers may There will be problems, and it is actually impossible to achieve this level of self-sufficiency. Although Germany still has some uncultivated arable land, our agricultural product supply is still in a tight balance on the whole, while the agricultural products of the United States can meet their own needs. large-scale export."

"Simply put: America's agriculture lacks both labor and land, China's agriculture lacks both land and labor, while our German agriculture lacks not only labor but also land, so our agriculture is facing a fundamental problem The contradiction is dual. We need to increase the output per unit area and increase agricultural labor productivity. However, there is actually a contradiction between these two requirements. Increasing the output per unit area requires more refined management, while improving labor productivity The need for fewer people to tend more land is the fundamental dilemma of our agriculture," Helena said.

Chapter 299 Production Efficiency

"The dual contradiction of limited arable land area and labor shortage is the internal constraints of my country's agricultural development, but this is not the only difficult factor we need to face, because German agricultural production needs to face external constraints in addition to internal constraints. Different from Traditional agriculture that relies on the sun to complete recycling, modern agriculture relies heavily on fuels, fertilizers, and pesticides are all based on fossil energy. However, Germany is precisely a country that is relatively scarce in oil and natural gas resources, and only coal The resources can still basically meet the needs, so the chemical products needed for my country's agricultural production mainly rely on coal chemical production."

"Although our coal chemical industry has been able to synthesize most of the chemical products needed for agriculture in recent years, the price of doing so is that some products must be synthesized using more complicated process routes, which directly leads to the cost of our agricultural production materials. It is difficult to compete with those countries with rich resources. For example, although the quality of diesel synthesized by indirect coal liquefaction is good, the production cost cannot be reduced to the level of diesel obtained through direct fractionation of crude oil. If the country does not adopt preferential tax policies, It is difficult for companies pursuing commercial profits to be interested in large-scale investment in coal liquefaction projects. Another example is the technical route of using coal to synthesize ammonia, which is generally adopted in China, resulting in higher energy consumption in the production of nitrogen fertilizers in China than in countries that rely on oil and gas to synthesize ammonia. .”

What Helena said was nothing more than to tell Hitler that the development of agriculture in Germany not only faced the dual constraints of limited arable land and labor shortage internally, but also faced the high production costs of fuel, chemical fertilizers and pesticides due to the scarcity of oil and gas resources externally. troubled.Although the combination of these three dilemmas is enough to cause headaches for any policy maker, Hitler just nodded and motioned Helena to continue talking without changing his expression. He didn't see these difficulties in German agriculture before, but because he believed that Helena would definitely be able to come up with the best solution, just like he had encountered difficulties countless times before.

In the late period of the First World War, the food supply in Germany was seriously short due to the blockade of the Allied Powers, so that many German people had to rely on the turnips used to feed livestock to survive the severe winter, which made the winter of 1916 in Germany. Known as the "Turtle Winter", the shortage of food supplies later became an important trigger for the outbreak of the German Revolution and hastened the collapse of the Second German Reich.After learning the lessons of the last world war, **Germany in the last plane did not pay attention to agricultural production, and historical **Germany did achieve some results in agricultural June, such as making Germany The food self-sufficiency rate in China has gradually increased from 1932% in 75 to 1939% in 89, but Helena still disagrees with the agricultural policy of the German Germany in history. The main reason is that Germany has not fundamentally increase agricultural productivity in Germany.

Historically, in order to improve the supply capacity of agricultural products, Germany adopted the method of binding farmers to the land as much as possible to prevent the outflow of agricultural population. **Germany not only promulgated the "Heritage Farm Law" aimed at maintaining hereditary farms, but also used the method of replacing currency wages with wages in kind to prevent farmers with no or little land from leaving the countryside to work in cities, and believed that this was restricting the flow of agricultural population The best method for non-agricultural fields.Although in the short term, this method increased the agricultural labor force from 1933 million in 438.5 to 1939 million in 492, thus temporarily stabilizing the supply of agricultural products.But this not only inhibits the increase of agricultural labor productivity, but also violates the economic laws of labor flow from low-productivity sectors to high-productivity sectors.

The increase in the food self-sufficiency rate brought about by this violation of economic laws obviously cannot stand the test of war. After the outbreak of the war, the ever-increasing demand for soldiers and the ever-expanding military machinery occupied a large number of agricultural population. The 1939 million people in 492 plummeted to 1943 million in 325, a decline of nearly 35%.This directly caused Germany's domestic grain production to decrease by 160 million tons compared to before the outbreak of the war, while domestic grain demand during the same period continued unabated.Although the 531 million tons of grain looted by Germany from the occupied areas in the same year prevented large-scale food shortages in Germany, the various policies of extortion and plunder greatly intensified the conflict between the German occupying forces and the local people.

Therefore, in Helena's view, historically, Germany's pre-war food self-sufficiency rate has been greatly improved. To realize the real modernization of German agriculture, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the improvement of labor productivity and the improvement of unit land production capacity. At the same time, high-efficiency utilization of energy, chemical fertilizers and pesticides can be achieved.To truly solve this problem, the only way out is to profoundly adjust the organizational structure of German agricultural production.

Chapter 300 Operating area

Many people in later generations are very envious of the agricultural model of the New World countries represented by the United States, and always regard this large American farm as the future development direction of their own agriculture, but Helena believes that there are many paths to realize agricultural modernization , and the agricultural model of the New World represented by the United States is by no means the only standard answer to agricultural modernization. This is true for Helena’s motherland in her previous life, and it is also true for Helena’s current motherland. Of course, the American agricultural model has something to learn from, but if It is definitely the worst idea to copy without regard to the national conditions of the country.

Because many New World countries, including the United States, Canada and Australia, were established by European immigrants, when these colonists landed on the vast North American and Australian continents, they faced almost endless uncultivated arable land. Therefore, these countries generally have not experienced the sharp human-land conflicts that plagued the countries of the Old World for a long time. The only thing that can restrict the scale of farms in these New World countries is the maximum farming capacity of each farmer. Therefore, for farmers in these New World countries, the main need is The consideration is how to cultivate as large an area of ​​land as possible with limited labor force, which is the historical root of the formation of American large farms.

We always marvel at the scale of thousands of hectares of American-style farms, and regard this super-large scale of operation as a product of agricultural mechanization, but Helena believes that this view is not completely in line with the facts, because the scale of the New World National Farm The improvement of agriculture started long before the era of mechanization of agriculture, and the mechanization of agriculture only increased the upper limit of a single farmer's arable area, which further intensified the trend of large-scale farms in the New World.

Although such a large-scale farm is indeed very conducive to the promotion of agricultural machinery, it is worth thinking about whether the old continent countries need to increase the size of their farms to such a level in the process of realizing agricultural modernization.Helena’s point of view is that it is necessary to moderately increase the operating scale of a single farm, but for a specific country, the larger the farm scale, the better, because the operating scale of the farm will not only be affected by technology and mechanization The influence of the country's natural endowment and historical factors also need to be considered.

In this plane of Germany, after Helena's reform measures to nationalize land control rights, while basically eliminating the feudal manor-style production methods, the average size of German farms has also increased.On the one hand, this is because the establishment of a unified national land lease market has reduced the resistance to land transfers; As in the past, I personally engaged in agricultural activities, but went to non-agricultural employment while receiving land rent dividends from the land management company.

However, even if the average size of farms has improved, there is still an order of magnitude gap between the average size of German farms and those in New World countries. The average operating area of ​​German farms is only about 30 hectares, while the average operating area of ​​farms in those New World countries is only [-] hectares. Often up to hundreds of hectares.However, Helena does not think that the small average size of German farms is a big disadvantage. If a suitable method can be found to break the situation, this disadvantage may even be turned into an advantage.

After all, until Helena crossed over, the average area of ​​farms in European countries was still far smaller than that of New World countries, but what is surprising is that the labor productivity of European countries’ agriculture is not at all inferior to that of New World countries such as the United States and Canada. windy.Moreover, the agriculture of European countries also shows strong market competitiveness in the international market. For example, France is a major grain exporter next to the United States. The agricultural exporting countries of China have a net grain export scale of up to millions of tons every year.This also fully demonstrates that the average operating area of ​​farms is not the only way to increase agricultural labor productivity. American-style large farms can realize agricultural mechanization and modernization, and European-style small and medium-sized farms can also realize agricultural mechanization and modernization.

Chapter 3 Professional division of labor

After helping Hitler analyze the problems faced by German agriculture, Helena went on to say: "The operating area of ​​a typical American farm has an order of magnitude advantage compared with that of our country, so large American farms can undertake modernization only on their own. The role of agricultural production organizers. Although there are many agricultural cooperative organizations in the United States, these agricultural organizations are firstly to gather political energy, and secondly to achieve a monopoly on the market price of agricultural products, and usually do not directly participate in the organization of specific agricultural production activities. However, who stipulates that agricultural production can only be organized by farms, not cooperative organizations that go beyond individual farms?"

"If the main unit responsible for organizing our country's agricultural production is still the individual farm, then too small a farm's operating area will indeed limit the increase in labor productivity, but now our government has acquired most of the country's agricultural land by establishing a state-owned land management company. control, so now we are fully qualified to build a higher-level agricultural production organization structure on the basis of scattered individual farms through the government's matchmaking, and then use this high-level organizational structure to obtain economies of scale. Your Excellency the head of state can Such organizations are called agricultural cooperatives."

Helena began to elaborate on her agricultural reform plan: "By establishing agricultural cooperatives in various places, we can integrate a large number of scattered farms, and then realize the specialization of agricultural production from three levels."

"The first is the specialization of agricultural production units. The typical old-style farm business model in our country is to produce almost all the agricultural products they need, and then trade the excess agricultural products on the market. For example, in the traditional Junker manor, The food, vegetables and fruits eaten by manor owners and farmers are usually grown in their own manors, and the livestock and poultry are basically raised in their own manors. This kind of farm management model with everything is actually a semi-self-sufficient production model, which is a feudal It is an inevitable product of the transition period from the natural economy to the commodity economy, but this business model has become increasingly difficult to adapt to the needs of industrialization."

"So the first step in my country's agricultural modernization is to realize the specialization of production units, that is, each farm only needs to be responsible for producing the most suitable agricultural products. Although specialized farms The Junker Manor, which has been heard in the voice, lacks idyllic feelings, but it is indeed a key step in the transformation from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture in my country. It is gratifying that this trend has been very obvious in the past few years, mainly because A large number of small and medium-sized Junkers have withdrawn from the field of agricultural production, which has accelerated the disintegration of the feudal manor-style agricultural model, and we should adopt an encouraging attitude towards this trend.”

"Continuing to deepen on the basis of the specialization of production units is the specialization of production areas. Our agricultural geographical environment ranges from the coastal plains in the north to the mountains of Bavaria in the south. The terrain and climate of each agricultural area have distinctive characteristics. It is very beneficial to realize the specialization of production areas. We can completely concentrate the production of agricultural products regionally according to the natural conditions of different regions. For example, although the wasteland in the Lüneburg area is relatively barren, the climatic conditions are very suitable for the growth of potatoes. Farms in the region should be encouraged to specialize in potato farming."

"Because the average operating area of ​​farms in our country is relatively limited, it is difficult to complete the task of regional specialization by relying solely on the strength of the farm itself. It must rely on the local agricultural production cooperatives for organization and coordination. These agricultural cooperatives should be accepted by the government. The self-government organization of agricultural producers guided by the self-governing organization, farmers only need to pay the corresponding management fees to join the cooperative, and the joining and exit of this kind of cooperative fully respect the voluntary of the farmers. However, after joining the cooperative, they need to accept the unified production guidance of the organization, and at the same time be able to derive corresponding benefits from the organization.”

"For example, cooperatives provide unified professional technical guidance to farmers, and cooperatives can also take the lead in joint procurement of production materials such as seeds, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers. Even small loans required for agricultural production can also be obtained directly from cooperatives. The bank distributes the wholesale to each farmer according to the scale of operation. This can not only help farmers reduce the purchase cost of production materials, but also solve the problem of banks’ reluctance to lend to small and medium-sized farms out of risk concerns, because agricultural cooperatives as a whole The experience risk of agricultural cooperatives is definitely much lower than that of a single farmer. Moreover, the huge operating scale of agricultural cooperatives will also make banks more inclined to offer more favorable loan interest rates. After all, such large customers can provide relatively stable cash flow for a long time of."

"As we continue to advance along the route of regional specialization, there will naturally be requirements for specialization in the production process. Because when hundreds of thousands of farmers in a certain area produce under the guidance of agricultural cooperatives, those common farmers Demand will naturally form a scale effect. For production links such as sowing, harvesting, and irrigation that are suitable for large-scale mechanization, it is entirely possible to gather demand through organizations such as agricultural cooperatives, and then uniformly deliver them to professional agricultural technology companies. to complete it. And those delicate and trivial daily management work should still be done by each farm itself.”

"In this way, even though the scale of our country's farms is still much smaller than that of New World countries, as long as we can carry out specialized division of labor at the three levels of production units, production regions and production links through the organizational structure of agricultural cooperatives, we can still obtain With sufficient economies of scale, in the popularization of agricultural mechanization and promotion of agricultural technology, it may not necessarily lag behind the New World countries that adopt the large-scale farm model.”

Helena revealed her reform framework to her mustache like a bamboo tube pouring beans, and then she added: "And this agricultural model may also bring us competitiveness that New World countries do not have: because American-style agriculture The organization of production basically depends on the large farms themselves. This organizational structure is very thin and lacks hierarchy. Therefore, although the agricultural sector in the United States has a strong scale effect, it is not very suitable for refined management. However, we have rich levels and division of labor. Clear organizational structure, so while we use the large platform of cooperatives to complete agricultural specialization and scale, we can also achieve more refined daily management through farmers, which is very important for improving the quality of our agricultural products and the production capacity per unit area of ​​cultivated land. beneficial."

Chapter 3 Agricultural Group

The basic idea of ​​Helena's agricultural reform proposal is actually to establish an organizational structure in line with Germany's national conditions, to overcome the three major problems faced by German agriculture, namely, the relative shortage of arable land, the shortage of labor force, and the high cost of production materials, and then promote Germany's agricultural production model is accelerating towards refinement, intensification and specialization.These suggestions were drawn up by Helena on the basis of summarizing the successful experience of agricultural modernization in many countries in later generations. Compared with the operation mode of super-large farms adopted by those countries in the New World, Helena's plan is actually more suitable for Germany, which is located in the Old World. emerging industrial countries.

Due to the intertwined influence of various historical and realistic factors, the development of the German agricultural sector has lagged behind its industrial and commercial sector for a long time.When the industrial and commercial sector in Germany was already evolving the rather advanced organizational form of "concern", German agriculture had not yet completely shaken off the shackles of the feudal manor economy.Although Helena knows that even if the government lets it go, German agriculture will eventually be gradually modernized under the leadership of the industrial and commercial sector. Short boards are too serious a drag on Germany's war potential, so the German government must take measures to accelerate the process of agricultural modernization. At this time, the previously established agricultural land management company is required to step in.

"Agricultural land management companies now have the right to control most of the agricultural land in the country, which can provide a very solid force for the government to leverage the reform of the agricultural organizational structure, because the government can completely guide agricultural production through the adjustment of land rent levels. After all There is no policy tool in this world that is more direct and powerful than the baton of economic interests." After introducing her agricultural reform plan to Hitler, Helena turned the topic to how to realize the reform plan.In fact, this is the most critical link in all reforms: because it is not enough to know how to reform, you must cooperate with corresponding guiding measures to make your reform plan operable.

"For example, if the government wants to specialize agricultural production areas, it can first formulate corresponding plans after scientific research, and then ask agricultural land management companies to provide land rent for farms that are willing to produce specific agricultural products in specific areas according to the plan. Corresponding preferential policies. And if many farms are willing to jointly rent a large area of ​​land through cooperatives for a long time, the preferential rent can be further expanded.” Helena gave Hitler an example.Hitler is obviously still very satisfied with Helena's plan on agricultural reform this time. In fact, Helena's suggestions have never disappointed him in these years.

"When Ms. Helena proposed the establishment of an agricultural land management company two years ago, she must have thought that this company would have these uses in the future?" Although Hitler used interrogative sentences here, his tone was very affirmative.After these years of observation, Hitler had already discovered that all the economic reform plans proposed by Helena paid great attention to integrity and coherence. In addition to the immediate effect of the reform measures in the previous stage, they often became the foreshadowing of the reform in the next stage.Just like Helena’s previous proposal to issue labor vouchers not only played the role of labor relief at the time, but also quietly carve up part of the central bank’s monetary functions. It could be that smooth.

Helena nodded a little embarrassedly, and then she went on to say to Hitler: "If the agricultural reform goes well, then our country's agricultural sector will gradually form a monopoly organization led by the state like the industrial and commercial sectors. Countless farms and agricultural The cooperative society forms a close production cooperation network, together with those enterprises that provide products and services for agricultural production: from service companies that concentrate on sowing, irrigation, harvesting, and storage, to industrial enterprises that specialize in the production of agricultural machinery, fertilizers and pesticides, and then To the financial institutions that provide credit guarantees for these farms, cooperatives and enterprises, they will inevitably form a relatively stable relationship in the collaboration, and eventually evolve into a large-scale agricultural concern.”

"Such a super-agricultural concern organization is the product of the deep integration of agricultural capital, industrial capital, and financial capital under the leadership of the state. Horizontally, it will form intensive planting under the organization of agricultural cooperatives; vertically, it will form from The complete chain from the field to the residents’ table; on the micro level, there will be fine management of countless small and medium-sized farms; Loss of competitiveness” Helena finally concluded that the rosy prospects she painted almost fascinated Hitler, and the disadvantages faced by German agriculture seemed to no longer be a fatal problem that plagued the development of German agriculture.

In fact, the agricultural reform plan provided by Helena to Hitler has a deeper intention, that is, the organizational form of this agricultural concern is naturally extremely scalable, that is to say, if a war breaks out in the future, such an agricultural concern organization can Rapid integration of local agricultural resources, this integration is not restricted by national borders.As long as the local agricultural producers are willing, they can enjoy the standardized services from production materials to financial credit provided by the whole organization, and the agricultural products they produce can also directly connect with the sales network provided by the Concern organization, which is a great benefit to the organization. There are good things for all participants.

Chapter 3 Promoted to Marshal

Unsurprisingly, Helena's agricultural reform plan was once again favored by Hitler. Over the years, all economic proposals put forward by Helena have reaped remarkable results after being implemented, making Germany's economic recovery achievement exclaimed as a miracle by countless international observers. Hitler knew very well that if he hadn't accepted Helena's suggestions, he would never have been able to hand over such a dazzling economic report card in such a short period of time. This made Hitler always prioritize Helena when making decisions. Na's suggestion.After all, although the suggestion was made by Helena, the political achievements obtained by adopting Helena's suggestion are actually Hitler's own. Such a powerful temptation is impossible for any ambitious politician to refuse.However, the result of this is that Hitler almost became Helena's messenger. If Hitler's status in the last world war is considered, this can be regarded as the mustache returning to his old business.

Although Hitler himself has not had such awareness at all until now, this is because every time Helena makes policy suggestions to Hitler, she will not dictate what must be done, and Helena will always give him in a slow manner. Analyze the pros and cons of doing so, but it is these rigorous and thoughtful pros and cons analyzes that are the most irresistible.Although Hitler felt that the final decision-making power still rests with him, since there is no other option comparable to Helena's suggestion, Hitler is actually faced with multiple-choice questions every time, and Helena is the one She is very considerate to the teacher who gave the question, and she will attach the standard answer and disintegration analysis next to the question.The result is that Hitler thinks he has a policy choice, but because he gets no points if he doesn't choose Helena's answer, in fact Hitler doesn't have a choice at all.

At the same time that Hitler and Helena were finalizing the German agricultural reform policy framework, Helena's father, General Seckett, was about to celebrate his 70th birthday.Hitler was probably the person who, after Frau Seckett and Helena, took this matter the most seriously, and he actively proposed to grant General Seckett the post of Field Marshal as a birthday present.What surprised Helena was that this time, General Sektor accepted without much hesitation. She thought that she would need to spend a lot of words on this matter to convince her cheap father in this life.After all, in the previous plane, Hitler repeatedly invited Seckert, who had already resigned, to come back without success. Later, Mustache tried to close the relationship with the Junkers by awarding General Seckert the rank of Marshal, but he was also rejected. Hitler, who had a cold butt on his face, was very shameless, which also made Hitler realize that it was difficult for him to control the Junkers.

Some people in later generations said that General Seekert was indifferent to Hitler's overtures because he couldn't understand Hitler's war policy. Helena said that based on her observation of her father for many years, the above view was completely untrue.Because General Seekert, as the most die-hard Poland-hating faction in Germany, absolutely agrees with looking for opportunities to destroy Poland.General Sekt even publicly stated: "The existence of the Polish state is intolerable, and the needs of Poland and Germany cannot be reconciled. Poland must be destroyed, and it will definitely be destroyed." It is believed that the Soviet Union is an ideal ally of Germany in the matter of destroying Poland, and the two countries can cooperate to destroy Poland in the future. Is this the legendary Soviet-German friendship that depends on Poland?Therefore, General Sekter's argument against Hitler's war policy is not true at all. In history, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union attacked Poland, which is precisely the practice of General Sekter's long-standing proposition.

In Helena's view, the reason why General Seckett didn't want to see Hitler in history was actually not complicated at all. In fact, it was the era when the monarch and the Junker nobles jointly ruled Germany.However, it is very unfortunate that during the two world wars in history, it also happened to be the transition period in which the political structure of Europe changed from aristocratic politics to civilian politics. The bleeding of the roots greatly accelerated the decline of the power of the European aristocracy.

Helena, who is well aware of the direction of history, seems heartless about the decline of the Junker nobles, and even stepped on the accelerator a few times secretly to accelerate, but it may be very difficult to expect General Sektor to be so open-minded. .After all, General Seeckert has always wanted to welcome back the Kaiser and restore the monarchy of the Second German Empire, but the reality is that he can only watch a grassroots politician like Hitler calling the shots on the throne of the head of state. It's strange to see a mustache.

Although Helena in this plane still failed to change Daddy Cheap's conservative and stubborn political stance, after all, the relationship between Mustache and the Junkers was more harmonious than in the previous plane. General Seckert has Helena as a cheap daughter, and General Seckert also knows that Helena is displaying her talents through cooperation with Hitler. .Therefore, although the relationship between General Sektor and Hitler in this plane is not very warm, at least they did not directly do anything that would embarrass Hitler like in the previous plane. This made Helena, who had been nervous all the time, relax quietly tone.

Chapter 3 and Four

Under the influence of Helena, the construction of the German armored forces proceeded in an orderly manner. After the time entered 1936, Germany began to set up the fourth armored division, which also meant the production of the "No. Work is gradually drawing to a close, and all tanks ordered by the military are expected to be delivered to troops by the end of this year.Of course, because the chassis of this type of tank has a high modification potential, the production of its chassis will not end with the suspension of production of the tank, and weapons such as infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers, and self-propelled artillery based on the deformation of this chassis equipment, and will continue to be produced for a considerable period of time.

While the German tank manufacturers continue to produce the "No. [-] Tank" Type B, they are also making some minor but valuable improvements based on the troops' feedback.For example, in order to solve the problem that a large amount of residual smoke was poured into the vehicle after the continuous firing of the tank, causing the crew members to be smoked to tears and nose, and even coma due to smoke poisoning, the "No. Pressure gas cylinders for blowing off fumes are installed, and the models produced in the previous period have also been upgraded in batches.This is actually the most commonly used smoke extraction method on German tanks during World War II on the last plane, and the effect is similar to the smoke extractors on the barrels of tank artillery in later generations.It’s just that the gun barrel smoker needs to open holes in the barrel, which has a great impact on the strength of the barrel. Therefore, when the barrel volume is limited, it is also a wise choice to use a pressure cylinder to blow off the smoke.

Another example is to solve the problem that the side armor of the tank is too weak, the designer has developed a detachable side skirt kit, which uses a 5 mm thick skirt to cover the side of the tank's body and the side and rear of the turret and integrates with the main armor. Form a gap.Although the thickness of the side armor of the "No. 20 Tank" Type B is only 5 mm, even with a 47 mm thick skirt, it is unable to resist even small-caliber anti-tank guns, but it can still greatly weaken the threat of anti-tank rifles.Many military fans in later generations believe that the original intention of installing skirts on German No. 14.5 and No. [-] tanks in history was to deal with armor-piercing shells, but in fact, the original intention of Germany to install skirts on tanks was to guard against Soviet anti-tank guns. I know that the Soviet Union has manufactured more than [-] [-]mm anti-tank rifles in history. This thing is still somewhat threatening to tanks with thin side armor at close range. As for the skirt plate, it was later discovered that the armor-piercing warhead was detonated in advance. The effect can be regarded as a crooked hit.

In addition, the "No. 10 Tank" Type B can also add 13.6 mm thick additional armor on the front of the car body to improve frontal protection, but these modification measures to strengthen protection will also increase the weight of this tank again. The total combat weight will soar directly from 14.8 tons of the blank board to [-] tons, resulting in a small decrease in the mobility of the tank.However, the effect of such modification and upgrade is generally satisfactory. The protection and maneuverability of the "No. [-] Tank" with increased side skirts and additional thick armor and the late model of the German No. [-] tank on the previous plane, such as No. [-] The M-type tanks are very similar, and their firepower is slightly better than that of the No. [-] tank M-type. This level is considered very capable at the beginning of the war on the previous plane, but Helena will never be satisfied with this.

Just as the recovering German military enterprises used thousands of "No. 1936 Tank" Type B to support the first four armored divisions of the German army, the more powerful "No. [-] Tank" was tested for several years, and by the beginning of [-], it also started Have the conditions for trial equipment.In fact, if it was during the war, it would not have taken such a long time to test, but as a pre-war work that does not need to be too rushed, Helena still hopes that the German tank test can be done more carefully, and as much as possible. More problems are exposed and solved on the proving ground, so the performance tests of the No. [-] and No. [-] tanks in this plane are much more sufficient than in history.Although the German army at this time has no plan to organize a fifth armored division, this does not prevent the experimental equipment of the "No. [-] Tank" in the army.In fact, starting from the second half of this year at the latest, the first batch of production-type "No. [-] tanks" will take the lead in passing on to the troops in the form of tank companies, and the scale of trial equipment next year will gradually increase to the battalion level.

The "No. 60 tank" on this plane has the protective power of 60mm homogeneous armor arranged at an inclination of 48 degrees, coupled with the 75-times-diameter [-]mm main gun that has not been castrated like the previous plane, this kind of attack and defense ability It is enough to deal with the main medium-sized tanks of the countries in the previous plane, but the weak side and rear armor and mediocre mobility ultimately make the "Tank No. [-]" of this plane have many shortcomings.However, after the development of the No. [-] and No. [-] tanks, the design level of German tanks was greatly improved by Helena. A large number of designers have made great progress, and in recent years the German army has also made great progress in the use of armored forces. , now Helena finally has the confidence to move towards her ideal target medium tank.

Chapter 3 New Transmission

Based on the development experience of Soviet tanks during the Cold War, Helena established a development path for the development of German tanks with alternating upgrades of platforms and weapon systems. Previously, from No. 48 tank to No. 75 tank was a small upgrade of the platform and a major upgrade of weapons. the process of.These two tanks have the same transmission system and suspension unit, but compared to the No. [-] tank with an inline four-cylinder engine, the No. [-] tank has been replaced with a more powerful V-shaped six-cylinder diesel engine, and the number of road wheels is also increased by one. Yes, so the No. [-] tank has thicker armor and a powerful [-]-caliber [-]mm main gun while maintaining similar mobility to the No. [-] tank.

However, the tank platform developed based on this set of suspension and transmission system is impossible to use forever, so when Helena and the designers discussed the development plan of the new tank called "Tank No. 48", the main tone they set was : Create a brand new tank platform with a new suspension system and transmission system. As for the weapon system, it only needs to be slightly improved on the basis of the 75-caliber [-]mm gun of the No. [-] tank, but it is also necessary to design the tank. Pay attention to leaving enough room for improvement for future weapon upgrades, so the No. [-] tank on this plane started the development work under this guidance idea.

Since the No. 480 tank mainly focuses on the upgrade of the platform, the engine, transmission system and walking system as the core of the tank platform are naturally the top priority of the development work.Among them, the selection of the engine can be said to be without suspense. It is still a series of development models developed by Mercedes-Benz and Friedrichshafen in this plane-a V-type 8-cylinder diesel engine with a maximum power of [-] horsepower, which is the same as the previous German engine. The engines used in the two generations of tanks developed maintain a high level of versatility.However, the transmission system and walking system of the No. [-] tank need to be newly developed. After all, the fixed-axis main gearbox and leaf spring suspension used in the No. [-] and No. [-] tanks previously developed can hardly meet the performance requirements of the new generation of tanks. .

The structure of the transmission device used by Helena on the No. [-] and No. [-] tanks in this plane before is basically similar to that used by Germany on the No. [-] and No. [-] tanks in history. Combination of main gearbox plus left and right planetary steering gearbox.Among them, the fixed-axis main gearbox can provide five forward gears and one reverse gear. The power flow generated by the engine is advanced by the main gearbox in the middle and then enters the planetary steering gearbox on both sides. Both boxes can provide high and low gears.In this way, when the steering gearboxes on both sides are in high gear, the tank can drive straight; when the outer gearbox is in high gear and the inner gearbox is in low gear, the tank will turn according to the radius specified by the high and low gear reduction ratio; if If you want to continue to reduce the turning radius, you can also fully brake the inner track, so that the tank turns around the center of the inner track.

Although this combination of the main gearbox and the steering gearbox on both sides also belongs to the category of single-flow transmission, its steering performance is comparable to the clutch steering gear used by the Soviet T-34 tank or the American "Sherman" tank in history. The differential steering machine used still has great advantages, because both the T-34 tank and the Sherman tank need to be realized by braking one side of the track when turning, and this double-sided planetary steering machine can provide A pre-specified turning radius reduces the frequency of use of the brakes, reduces waste of engine power, and improves the life and reliability of the transmission system.And if the steering gearboxes on both sides are hung on the low gear, the transmission ratio can be further enlarged and the traction can be improved. This is the so-called "afterburner driving".

The performance of this transmission system is actually quite good in this era, so the Soviet Union in the last plane also began to use this transmission system on their tanks since the T-44 tank, and continued this structure to the more famous T-54/55 tanks and T-62 tanks.The "five pairs of wheels" family, which fans of the Republic Army in later generations like to play tricks on, actually uses this kind of transmission system with the structure of the main gearbox and the steering gearbox on both sides.Although the Type 59 tank was once complained by Colonel Fang Bing on TV programs that it was laborious to operate, this was mainly because the control system of the early Type 59 tank did not have hydraulic power. The 59 tank saves a lot of effort. You must know that when the Type 34 tank turns, it is the middle piece of the planetary gear in the steering gearbox that brakes, and the drivers of the T-59 tank back then had to brake the inner track without assistance. The driving wheel, so it is not false to say that the Soviet tank drivers of World War II rumored in the world are all unicorn arms.

Although the tank drivers of the armored division responded well to the handling performance of the transmission, Helena still decided to use a new transmission system on the Panzer III, which is the famous double-sided planetary transmission in later generations. And steering device.This is actually a natural extension of the idea of ​​the main gearbox and the steering gearbox on both sides mentioned above: since the steering gearbox on both sides can provide the tank with an intermediate turning radius and an additional reduction ratio, if we continue to increase the Can the number of gears of the steering gearbox replace the function of the main gearbox?So let's not use the main gearbox in the middle at all, and add a few more planetary rows to the steering gearboxes on both sides to provide more reduction ratios, so that the planetary gearboxes on both sides that are mainly responsible for steering can also undertake the speed change at the same time and turn both functions.In this way, as long as the planetary gearboxes on both sides are in the same gear, the tank can drive straight, and when turning, you only need to lower the gear of the inner gearbox.

Chapter 3 Summary Questions

When military fans of later generations talk about the tank transmission system of double-sided planetary transmission and steering device, the first thing that comes to mind should be the three-generation tank family developed by China during the Cold War, but the inventor of this transmission system is actually the British guy who invented the tank. As early as World War I, they tried to use a double-sided planetary gearbox to be responsible for both speed change and steering on the MK.5 tank, but the early planetary gearbox could not provide enough gears and torque range, so This transmission scheme also failed to become mainstream at the time.However, with the continuous advancement of transmission technology in the past few decades, the factors restricting the development of this transmission method have basically been resolved, which is why Helena chose to use a double-sided planetary transmission and steering device on the new tank.

Speaking of this, many readers may think that Helena is copying the transmission system used by the T-72 tank of later generations. After all, this double-sided planetary transmission and steering device is very representative among similar transmission systems.But Helena is different from those previous time travelers who only reproduce the classics. Although she is even very willing to learn from the successful experience in the history of weapon design, she always takes an unusual path when designing weapons for Germany on her own plane.This is not because Helena is deliberately unconventional, but because all classic weapons are the product of a game between specific combat requirements and specific technical conditions, and what Helena is looking for is precisely to develop a Produce weapons and equipment that best meet Germany's future combat needs.

The double-sided planetary transmission and steering device used by the first developed T-72 tank in history undoubtedly has many flaws in Helena's eyes:

First of all, as a single-flow transmission system, the mechanical structure of the T-72 tank transmission system in history is still too complicated (of course it is relatively simple compared with the more complicated dual-flow transmission system). The speed change and steering device on each side of this tank Both are equipped with up to four rows of planetary gear sets, thus providing seven forward gears and reverse gears for the T-72 tank.

The second is that it is difficult to match the specified turning radius and vehicle speed. We know that the T-72 tank turns by downshifting on the inner track.When the inner track downshifts, because the reduction ratio of the inner gearbox is higher than that of the outer, the speed of the inner track will be lower than that of the outer, so that the tank can turn. At this time, the turning radius of the tank is decelerated by the inner and outer gearboxes. determined by the ratio.

Students who have driven a car should know that the steering wheel should not be slammed when driving at high speed. The faster the speed of the car, the larger the safe turning radius, otherwise the car will be in danger of overturning.The same is true for driving a tank. The minimum safe turning radius of the tank must increase with the increase of speed.However, the turning radius setting of the T-72 tank in different gears is extremely unreasonable.When this tank is in seventh and sixth gears, all the turning radius provided by the gearbox is smaller than the safe turning radius.This embarrassing situation is of course not because the senior designer drank too much vodka while drawing the drawings, but because the designer was setting the forward gear.A compromise must be made between direct driving performance and steering performance. If only the steering radius and speed matching requirements are considered, the gear position cannot cover the torque range required for high-speed direct driving.

That is to say, when the T-72 tank is driving in a high gear, it cannot turn by downshifting the inner track.If the driver wants to turn, he has to lower the gearboxes on both sides to below the fifth gear, and then continue to downshift the inner gearbox to complete the steering.If the driver forcibly steers in high gear, the result is drift or even rollover.Don't think that tanks are very cool when they play drifting on certain occasions. In fact, this kind of drifting phenomenon is exactly what needs to be avoided in tank design, because tanks are uncontrollable when drifting, and it is easy to cause the tracks to fall off in off-road environments. If Larger ground resistance may cause the tank to overturn.This is not Helena's making up. The T-72 series tanks frequently overturned in the "Tank Biathlon" competition held in Russia in later generations. Caused by a downshift on the inside track.

The last problem is that the reversing performance of the T-72 tank is also quite sad. Although the T-72 tank has as many as seven forward gears, there is only one reverse gear, and the reduction ratio of the only reverse gear is also set. Pretty big, even bigger than the reduction ratio for a forward first gear.As a result, the maximum reversing speed of the T-72 is only 4.8 kilometers per hour, which is even slower than the walking speed of normal people. Too slow reversing speed is very unfavorable for tanks to cope with complex battlefield environments.

The slow reversing speed combined with the difficulty in turning at high speeds, coupled with the generally small artillery depression angle of Japanese tanks, constitutes the legend that Japanese fighters never turn around, never retreat, and never bow their heads.Of course, these defects in transmission cannot conceal that the T-72 tank was a very good weapon at the beginning of its birth. At the time of the third-generation tank matrix, the third-generation tanks that Western countries can compete with are still groping forward in the perplexed years after the discontinuation of the MBT-64 tank project.

However, since Helena decided to use the double-sided planetary transmission and steering device on the No. 72 tank, and also summed up the various defects of the double-sided planetary transmission and steering device used by the largest T-[-] tank in history, it is naturally Because she has already thought of a perfect solution to these flaws, so what kind of tricks can our Helena think of this time?

Chapter 3 and Seven