When the second type of weapon came into play, everyone was stunned, because these strange things were far more than they imagined, although the STG43 just displayed looked a little weird, but it could make people see at a glance that it was a new type of firearm, but what were these on the field at the moment - the first was an iron, hollow thin cylinder with a tail rod and a tapered mushroom head in front of it; the second is a slightly thicker hollow steel pipe with what appears to be a shield in front; Finally, the third product on display has a bracket similar to a light machine gun, but what is the pointed head in front of it? Rockets?

Many people felt that these things were more like a batch of musical instruments than weapons, and when they heard that this was designed by the Führer himself, the scene suddenly resounded with whispering exchanges.

Speer whispered in Hoffmann's ear: "Führer, you designed this?" Why don't I think it doesn't match your aesthetic preferences, huh...... It's a bit ......" He originally wanted to say "ugly", but after thinking about it, he replaced it with "ingenious".

"Speer, don't underestimate him, although he looks inconspicuous, the result will surprise you." Hoffman was not moved at all, but said to the designer next to him, "Dr. Langweiler, could you please tell us about the principles and design concepts?" ”

"Ladies and gentlemen, after accepting the plan for the development of infantry anti-tank weapons proposed by the Army Weapons Bureau in May, we invested a lot of energy in research and discovered the principle of the 'hollow charge accumulation effect' -- the armor-piercing projectile is equipped with a conical metal cover (copper alloy) in front of the warhead, forming a pattern with the cone mouth facing forward and the tip of the cone facing backward. Behind the metal cover was loaded with explosives. The front is empty. When the warhead explodes, the metal cover is melted into a high-speed liquid at high temperatures, and the metal jet is focused like a lens to the center of the hollow section. If you shoot at the tank's armor, you can punch a hole in the armor and quickly destroy the equipment and personnel inside. "It's like pointing a high-pressure tap at a pile of sand to quickly punch a hole." Based on this principle, and on the basis of drawings designed by the Führer himself, we received three very valuable anti-tank weapons, which are tentatively named Panzer Killer No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3. ”

"How much penetration does this weapon have? Is it worth the penetration depth of the PAK37mm anti-tank gun? Someone asked, the subtext of this sentence is obvious: if even the 37mm anti-tank gun can't be compared, then this weapon has no development value at all, because the pitiful armor-piercing depth of the 37mm tank gun has been reduced to a "stepping stone" and has been ordered to stop production.

"Of course. According to the results of our tests, the maximum penetration depth of No. 1 is 140mm of homogeneous armor. ”

"What?" The crowd exclaimed, "Didn't we mishear the distance units?" ”

"That's right." Hoffman laughed and said, "Doctor, let's show us what we're doing." ”

Dr. Langweiler, the lead research specialist at HASAG (Hogo-Schneider-AG), led his staff in the development of a weapon with a super-caliber armor-piercing warhead and propellant inside a launch canister based on the principle of a recoilless gun, but more like a grenade in appearance. Just as he was ready to continue his improvements, an urgent telegram came from Berlin saying that the Führer had summoned him, and then, after half an afternoon of exchange, he got three design drawings, on which the weapons depicted were all based on the principle of this "hollow charge". Although Hoffman's drawings are somewhat rough. But it was not difficult for Dr. Langerweiler, who led his men to work overtime. It took three weeks to bring the three designs to life.

Killer No. 1 is the "iron fist" in German history, it is essentially an ultra-light recoilless gun: a steel powder tube provides the discharging power of the anti-tank grenade, and the anti-tank grenade is inserted in front of the powder tube, when firing, the ignition needle outside the powder tube is deactivated, the impact cap is activated to ignite the propellant powder in the tube to make the anti-tank grenade leave the launch canister, the spring tail of the grenade then unfolds and makes it fly steadily towards the target to explode, and the air flow that propels the gunpowder can be rushed out from the back of the powder tube, making it completely recoilless. The explosives in the grenade are a mixture of 50:50 *** and passivated ******, which weighs only 54 grams ******, but is enough to launch the warhead at a speed of 28 m/s at a distance of 30 meters.

No matter how good it is, it can't be worth the actual demonstration, the doctor motioned his subordinates to take the killer No. 1 to a scrapped T-34 tank on the shooting range, only to see the experimenter walk to a place about 25 meters away from the tank, slightly tilted the head, after a little operation, it was found that there was a grenade dragging flames towards the tank, after the explosion, the scene unanimously held their breath to check the results, the result was neither heard the sound of armor cracking, nor did they see obvious depressions or holes, everyone's expressions looked very funny, they wanted to laugh but did not dare to laugh.

Seeing the signal of success sent back by the experimenter who ran over to check the results of the battle at the first time, the doctor confidently reported: "The test has been successful, the tank and the personnel inside have been destroyed, please move and check." ”

Everyone was surprised, but they still carefully studied the tank, and they were shocked at first glance, the frontal armor of the T-34 that could withstand more anti-tank guns had been penetrated by the high-heat metal stream, leaving only a finger-thick aperture, and the dummy inside that simulated the crew was full of burn marks, which was miserable, and it was impossible to imagine that anyone could survive in such a situation.

Now the scene became a sensation, and everyone let out curious sighs of praise, although the distance of this anti-tank is a bit close, but the effect is really good, it can be called the best partner of infantry fighting tanks.

Only Hoffmann stood motionless, as if he had expected this outcome, and Speer, who had seen the scene, had changed his expression from initial ridicule to shock, and stammered: "Führer, this is really a genius and remarkable idea." ”

"What's this, it's still far from what I wanted, the things I designed should be at least 150 meters away, and he needs to further improve and improve." Hoffman thought to himself: joke, the power of the iron fist is also something that the T-34 can block?

Seeing that the scene was already in a state of flux, Dr. Langerweiler immediately struck while the iron was hot to show Killer 2.

Killer 2 was originally named "Tank Killer" in historical time and space, which was a German imitation of the Bazooka rocket launcher of the US Army, as a large weapon for anti-tank groups in infantry detachments, which required specialized shooters and ammunition men, as well as necessary cover personnel. The drawings provided by Hoffman to Dr. Langweiler were directly an improved version with a shield, so that the shooter would no longer need to wear protective clothing, and the effective range of the rocket used was more than 150 meters, the total weight was about 10 kilograms, and the armor-piercing power was about 200mm.

“200mm？” The scene exclaimed again, I haven't heard of any country's tank with more than 200mm frontal armor, and this thickness is that the armor thickness of ordinary cruisers can't catch up.

"Can he really penetrate 200mm?"

"No problem, at least our Tiger tanks can't stop it." At this moment, the expression on Speer's face stiffened, and it took a long time to react, "Führer, this news is a little not good. ”

"The Americans have developed similar weapons, and I am under their influence." Hoffman nodded, "What the enemy has, we should have." ”

The two experimenters crouched down on the ground with their weapons, this time at a distance of 100 meters, and the subject was replaced by a scrapped British Matilda tank, which had a frontal armor thickness of up to 78mm at its thickest point, which caused Rommel's Panzer Division to suffer a lot in the French campaign, and finally managed to settle them with the help of the 88 gun. But now this thickness of armor is completely vulnerable to the power of Hitman 2, and the results are as ordinary as against the T-34 just now.

Many people, especially staff officers and generals with experience in front-line operations, began to ponder after applauding, and the lethal effects of the two weapons were of course shocking, but there were also obvious flaws. If the first weapon is simple enough, but the operation distance is too close, it may bring a large number of casualties in actual combat; The second weapon is still satisfactory in power and distance, but the operation process is slightly cumbersome, and it also requires covering personnel and a two-person artillery crew, which occupies too much staff, which is not conducive to the balance of firepower at the squad and platoon levels, and it is hoped that the Führer's third weapon will have better results.

Hitman No. 3 is a schematic diagram of the Soviet RPG-7 depicted by Hoffman using the advantage of traversal, and he has high expectations for this, and Dr. Langweiler agrees, believing that this design has both the advantages of the previous two and avoids the defects of both, but the problem is that it is very difficult to manufacture, and he has at least two-thirds of his energy on it in three weeks, but the results of the design are still not very satisfactory, and the gap between the Führer's requirements is relatively large, and it is barely a half-finished product.

This was also shown by the results of the experiment, which resulted in a total of 3 shots, and only the last one was successful, and the firing distance was less than 50 meters. Everyone at the scene recognized this, and the new weapon was perfected as soon as it came up, and everyone's admiration for the Führer's creativity and foresight rose to a new height after this display.

Colonel Vincent was overjoyed, he had thought that one of the three devices would be enough to be adopted by the Army Weapons Bureau, but now that all three had achieved something and greatly exceeded the best expectations, he was overjoyed and waited for Hoffman to name it.

"You can call them Panzerfaust, and they are named Iron Fist No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3, symbolizing that all enemies tremble under the German iron fist." Hoffman finally revealed the name.

Another majestic weapon is ready to appear! (To be continued.) )