"Your Majesty, what I want to build is a mobile force that replaces livestock entirely by machines." Goltz said excitedly: "A force that can quickly maneuver and tear apart the opponent's defense. The traditional cavalry was defenseless in the face of machine guns, trenches and barbed wire, but the cavalry could do the detours and intersperses that the cavalry could do now, and it could do better. And the problem of the lack of heavy firepower of the cavalry could also be solved. ”

Purely mechanized troops? Jochen was dumbfounded, Goltz was a little ahead of his time. Even when Schlieffen was in office, the increasing number of cars in the army was only to increase the motorized range of the troops, and in fact, no army has completely abandoned mules and horses so far, so most of them are still semi-motorized.

Goltz's step was obviously a bit big, unlike a motorized unit that used vehicles to maneuver, get off after arriving at a predetermined location, and enter the combat area on foot, a cavalry unit that could fight wherever it went, without livestock, and completely using vehicles, was properly a mechanized unit.

"A cavalryman who completely replaces horses with machinery? Do you want the cavalry to abandon the tall Hanover horses in favor of motorcycles? Jochen joked with a laugh.

"Of course not, Your Majesty." Goltz also saw that Jochen was joking, and laughed the same: "If that's the case, I'll just reorganize a cavalry division." But what I want is an infantry division that can maneuver like cavalry. ”

"Let them abandon their beloved horses and ride motorcycles full of noise? This will make those who regard war horses as a qiē more uncomfortable than dead. Jochen said with a smile.

"And how are you going to build this army?" After joking, Yochen asked, "Trucks alone won't meet your requirements." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty, trucks cannot directly enter the battlefield, even if they are armored vehicles, the terrain is very restrictive to them, so they do not meet the needs of maneuvering wherever they can fight. Therefore, trucks can only meet the needs of logistics, communications, etc., and are used in the same way as other troops now.

The advent of assault guns perfectly solves one of the most important components of my troop structure, a weapon with sufficient firepower, solid armor and good mobility, so I have the idea of building a mobile offensive force around assault guns. Goltz replied.

That's an interesting idea. Jochen lamented that the purpose of developing assault guns was originally to improve the tactics of assault teams, and the support units used to accompany the infantry attack, and the leading role was still the infantry, but he did not expect the appearance of assault guns to give Goltz the idea of focusing on assault guns, so that the support units of assault guns became the main force of the attack, replacing the position of tanks.

Jochen went to see the performance demonstration of the assault gun, and the appearance of this vehicle, which resembles the Italian M40 assault gun suspended with an external coil spring, does give people a sense of invincibility.

The combat vehicle weighing 13 tons was driven by a 100-horsepower gasoline engine with black smoke spewing from the rear. Running over the barbed wire and over the trenches with steel tracks in a casual manner, the 7.62 mm machine gun rounds hit the 50 mm armor on its front like jelly beans, while the more powerful 12.7 mm machine gun rounds also found nothing but shallow dents in the loading.

Considering the anti-armor firepower at his opponent's disposal, Jochen believed that this thing would be an indestructible monster for quite some time. The French were overly superstitious about the 75 lady they had on hand, and this kind of field artillery, which was later mythologized, was actually quite chicken.

Its design concept is indeed very advanced, and its performance is indeed better than that of the German field guns of the same period, but its appearance is very embarrassing on the battlefield of World War I. When used as a howitzer. The cartridge case after the shot of Miss 75 will fall on its own under the action of gravity at high elevation angles, which greatly increases the rate of fire of the artillery. But on the other side, Germany said that my field guns and howitzers are not very good. Then let's play with the cannon, so the range of Yishui is longer, and the more powerful 105 and 150 cannons can't find the north when they hit the 75 miss during the artillery battle.

When used as a flat-fire gun, because the elevation angle is too low, the shell cannot fall automatically, and the artillery still needs to manually withdraw the shell, and the advantage of the rate of fire is gone, so the anti-armor efficiency is extremely low. Moreover, even if the 75mm grenade fired directly hits the front of the assault gun, it may not be able to destroy the 50mm armor plate, break the exposed barrel, and the crew inside will be shocked, and may even collapse a few rivets. I don't think there will be any more damage. Of course, if the gasoline engine catches fire, it can only be considered bad luck.

This is the case with the French, and the situation with the British and Russians is unlikely to be much better, so unless it is hit by large-caliber artillery, the current model alone is enough to be invincible on the battlefield for 1-2 years.

The strong defense allows the assault gun to stop steadily in the rain of enemy bullets, and then use the improved tank gun based on the army's 75 mm 27 times diameter field gun to take away the targets in front of you one by one, unless it is a well-built reinforced concrete fortification, otherwise any simple defense built of sand and stone blocks can not withstand the direct attack of 75 mm shells. Moreover, the MG3 light machine gun mounted on the annular rails above the fixed fighting compartment was also able to provide the infantry with machine gun suppressive fire.

The Army, which had been having a headache about how to strengthen the infantry offensive support firepower, asked for 200 vehicles on the spot, first formed 25 assault gun companies, and gave priority to the six full-strength divisions of the Wehrmacht for trial, and the equipment was named No. 1 assault gun. And in future plans, all front-line units of the Wehrmacht will be equipped with at least 4 assault gun batteries.

The emergence of this kind of offensive and defensive army weapon made it logical for Goltz to have the idea of using armored units as the core of the attack, and there is no concept of tanks anyway. An important reason why the tanks of World War I could not become the core of the attack was because they were too slow and had too short a trip. But now the German assault guns, with their 100 horsepower engines, can reach a maximum road speed of 23 km/h and a maximum range of 110 km/h, barely meeting the needs of Goltz's mobile warfare.

"But it is impossible to have only assault guns in an infantry division, the infantry can't keep up with your advance speed, and you can't gnaw hard bones with only 75mm field guns, and your offensive ability is still limited." Jochen said: "The assault gun is a supplement to the infantry assault tactics, used to make breakthroughs, and what is really used to tear apart the opponent's defense line still depends on a large number of follow-up troops and continuous investment of heavy firepower." ”

"I've taken that into account as well." Goltz nodded and replied: "Initially, I considered using our latest heavy trucks as a basis to build armored vehicles to carry infantry, but its dependence on the road was too great, and it was difficult to keep up with the assault guns in the field, so I thought that using the chassis of the No. 1 assault gun to make the Zuò infantry carrier vehicle only retains the level of protection against machine guns, so as to solve the problem of infantry following assault guns."

As for the lack of firepower of the 75-mm gun, the fixed fighting compartment of the 13-ton assault gun No. 1 took up a considerable part of it, and if we cancel the fixed fighting compartment and install the gun directly on the hull, it should be possible to equip the army with the 1899 Type 105-mm 30-fold diameter cannon. In this way, the problem of insufficient firepower can also be solved. ”

This is really a big deal, Jochen lamented, the assault gun plays the role of a tank here, the infantry carrier can achieve infantry and tank coordination, and the 105mm cannon has enough firepower, such a force can indeed carry out a more perfect interspersed maneuver, and the roundabout and strong attack is not worthwhile, as long as it is not against the fortress, there are really not many people who can slow down their attack. This is indeed the configuration of a mechanized infantry division.

Jochen is very happy that Gortz can have this kind of thought, it doesn't matter if he is immature! It doesn't matter if it's imperfect! The emergence of this idea at least indicates that the German Army has indeed taken an extremely important step out of the confinement of the idea of trench warfare. The emergence of the assault gun, a new piece of equipment, has opened a new door for army tactics, and this idea must certainly be supported.

It is clear that Jochen had forgotten that the German Army was now far ahead of the times in terms of the number of automobiles and equipment, that there was not enough transport capacity, and that mechanized propulsion was just a joke, but now it didn't matter to Jochen, and he was completely excited about the emergence of this new idea.

"Such an investment can not be enough for one or two infantry divisions!" But before Jochen could say anything, Machar on the side spoke first, such a plan obviously startled him, originally thought that at best, it would be just to add more cannons, machine gun trucks or something to the ordinary infantry division, but now Goltz obviously wants to play big, so how much can be left after the increased funds are invested in other places?

"I think we can try." Jochen cut off Machar's words: "Such a force can be used as the spearhead of the attack, although the cost is a lot greater, but the role it can play is not comparable to that of one or two infantry divisions." Besides, it's not just this year that we've increased the Army's funding, and it's not just that he Goltz can build such a unit in a year, and the new vehicles alone can make him wait a lot of time, take your time, we still have time. Adolf, you only have to allocate the funds, and how you spend them is his Colmar's business, and I just want to see the results. (To be continued......)