Seeing that the atmosphere at the scene had become a little strange, Field Marshal Keitel, who was not in the know, turned his head to ask Speer, and realized that the report the professor was talking about was a special report formed by the two after thoroughly studying the prototype of the Porsche and Henschel Tiger tanks. The Bureau of Weapons believes that compared with Henschel's design, the power system designed by Porsche is more prone to failure and is completely unsuitable for actual combat. In addition, the turret is too forward, because the gun has been determined after the prototype comes out, using the 88MM KwK36L/56 gun (improved from the 88MM36L/56 anti-aircraft gun) rear barrel length of up to 4.9 meters, resulting in the barrel protruding too much from the front of the car, not only destroying the balance of the hull itself, but also in the woodland or town when the muzzle brake and turret rotation mechanism are easy to damage, more importantly, once the tank is besieged in the encounter, this layout structure can directly take the life of the member group. In terms of suspension design, Porsche's proposed longitudinal torsion bar suspension was also not mature enough, and the structure of its semi-bevel gears and short hydraulic rods was too complex, which was easy to break even under the most ordinary conditions of use, affecting the tank's battlefield survivability - although the tone of the report was relatively peaceful on the whole, and the shortcomings of Henschel's design were also clearly commented. But Hoffmann understands that problems caused by Porsche's design can have a very bad impact on the battlefield. On the surface, the report is noncommittal about both prototypes, but in fact the tendentious opinion is clear: the Sixth Division of the Arms Bureau prefers the conservatively designed Henschel prototype. Not only were they more familiar with Henschel's old design style, but they also had a personal twist – the technical officers preferred the honest and experienced Henschel engineers to the Nibelungen technicians who were "above me" and "someone above me".

Of course, Colonel Tomaler did not dare to say anything about the Führer's practice of "saying one thing and doing another", and perhaps the Führer's eyes would shrink back in fright as soon as he glared at him, but Professor Aboan, who was born as an intellectual, did not have so many worries and dared to argue with the Führer on such a public occasion and complain for the Weapons Bureau.

Keitel was secretly amused: on the one hand, the Führer commented that this was a "very valuable report" and agreed with the conclusions of the report, and on the other hand, he agreed to Dr. Porsche's request to instruct Speer to order tanks from Porsche. Although he was the Führer, he was not the one who had a close friendship with Porsche, nor was he the one who made the purchase decision, and he was purely responsible for Hitler. From the other side's standpoint, he could understand Professor Aiboan's emotions, which is the pride and persistence that a scholar should have, and to put it bluntly, Hoffman himself was one of them. For a moment, he couldn't find the right words to express it.

Speer looked at Hoffman's embarrassed expression, and then at Dr. Porsche's ugly face, and "understood" everything in his heart, and played a round game smartly: "Professor, you misunderstood, Porsche does want the Ministry of Armaments to order vehicles, and also ordered turrets from Krupp, but that was before the implementation of the general mobilization system, and after the tank armament reorganization case, all purchase intentions and orders need to be re-examined." In other words, the Ministry of Armaments will not procure from any company until the type is clearly defined and the production tasks are determined, and I did not make this decision, and the Führer did not have a corresponding instruction. ”

Professor Eboan smiled and nodded, as if accepting Speer's explanation, and at this time, Colonel Tomall, who was sweating profusely, finally reacted, for fear that he would say something embarrassing again, and he did not care about being rude, and dragged the professor to the main podium, and hurriedly announced the opening of the meeting without waiting for everyone to sit down.

Hoffmann found the most suitable position for himself and sat down, Speer sat on the left-hand side, because Bowman did not come with him today, and Marshal Keitel sat on the Führer's right hand side as a matter of course.

"Führer, it seems that I have come to the right place today." Speer playfully said to Hoffmann.

Marshal Keitel, who was usually serious, also had the heart to make fun of Hoffmann: "My Führer, this is probably the strictest professor you have ever met since you studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, right?" ”

Hoffman nodded: "Anyway, this professor is still quite cute, the Supreme Command lacks such talents, I think he can be transferred to serve as an armored vehicle development consultant." ”

Now it was Keitel's turn to turn bitter, and he turned his head with difficulty, pretending not to hear the second half of the sentence, and only focused on the main podium.

As soon as they entered the professional field, Colonel Tomaler and Professor Eboan returned to their serious faces, and they spoke for nearly an hour, explaining the development of the new tank in the last six months, the results of its development, and the main problems that currently exist.

Although these reports are typical of bureaucracy, there is one main idea that Hoffman agrees with: in order to reduce the pressure on production and reduce the trouble of conflicting products in various military factories, it is necessary to achieve universal tank spare parts. The production of armored vehicles before the No. 4 ignored this problem, and now the Bureau of Weapons has been working on the universalization of parts for the No. 5 and No. 6 tanks, although this effort has not had much success before the big companies such as Henschel, Porsche, Auxburg-Nuremberg Maschinenbau (commonly referred to as MAN), and Mercedes-Benz, but in Hoffmann's eyes it represents the right way of thinking. Of course, he can also understand the arrogance of these four companies, because Hitler's fanatical and paranoid love for the performance and combat effectiveness of new tanks led these companies to desperately pile up performance in vehicle design, and completely ignore the aspects of productivity and ease of maintenance, and he will not let this mistake repeat.

Hoffman has a positive attitude towards the overall design idea of the Tiger: due to the burden of supporting the combat mission of the medium tank (this role has been booked for the Leopard), the firepower and protection capability of the Tiger should be strengthened, not only should the strongest tank artillery and fire control equipment be used, but also the protective ability should also adopt a strong thickness of protective armor, as for the low mobility caused by strong firepower and strong protection is acceptable, after all, the tank cannot achieve all the top three elements between firepower, protection and mobility, and needs to be fully balanced. However, the existing design chose the worst idea, in order to increase the interior space and ensure a large amount of ammunition, the designers simply adopted the method of increasing the length, width and height of the hull, and at the same time, in order to improve the maneuverability, also adopted a complex driving system (combat tracks and transport tracks) and suspension system (8 pairs of triple staggered overlapping load wheels), which greatly increased the weight of the tanks, making them seriously overweight. The design targets issued by the Bureau of Weapons to the companies were first raised from the 30-ton class of the VK3001 to 36 tons at the time of the VK3601, and then to 45 tons in the VK4501, and finally the total weight of the Tiger prototype produced exceeded 56 tons. Overweight not only worsened the Tiger tank's mobility and battlefield passability, but also increased the burden on the travel system, suspension system, engine and transmission, leading to serious mechanical failures and poor combat attendance.

The same tank, when transported, is a kind of track, on the battlefield is another specification of tracks, and even have to remove the outermost layer of load wheels to achieve battlefield transfer (the Tiger has a total of 8 pairs of triple load wheels, all wheels add up to 48) Such a strange thing is that the Third Reich can be tinkered with, as a traverser, Hoffman hates this. Of course, he knew what was going on, and the designers were certainly responsible, but most of the responsibility was on Hitler, but at the moment he was not going to continue to bear the blame.

Seeing that the Führer stood up and prepared to speak, all other voices of discussion suddenly stopped, and everyone pricked up their ears to listen.