Army Ordnance Bureau, in the workshop of the 6th Arsenal.

Chen Dao accompanied Himmler into the spacious and busy workshop when he saw General Thomas, the head of the Army Ordnance Bureau, Kniekamp and others.

The crowd surrounded a tank, larger than any Himmler had ever seen, on which two men in cargo pants were crawling in and out.

After a warm exchange of pleasantries, Chen Dao and Himmler circled the tank a few times, carefully examining every detail of the tank.

Chen Dao stood on the right side of the tank with his hands behind his back, looking at the side of the tank and smiling.

Like, it's really like, except for the arrangement of the load wheels, and some negligible nuances, the shape of the E-40 is almost exactly the same as his favorite E-50M in "Gun World", it is so elegant, so handsome.

In terms of appearance alone, the E-40 tank threw off all the current Soviet tanks ten streets, what T-34KV1KV2, in front of the E-40 tank is the existence of soil slag.

"Which company is this? Tell me about the performance data. Chen Dao asked impatiently.

Himmler was also deeply impressed by the huge body and elegant appearance of the E-40 tank, and he also came over curiously to hear how powerful this tank really was.

"It belongs to the joint assets, and the final assembly company is Daimler-Benz AG." General Thomas said.

Knikamp briefed Chen Dao on the performance of the E-40 with his hands behind his back.

"Needless to say, the shape is designed according to the drawings you gave me, and I think any tanker will see it and see it skyrocketing by fifty percent of its combat effectiveness."

"It's a must." Chen Dao said confidently.

Himmler did not think that Knikamp and Chen Dao were exaggerating. This E-40 is really handsome.

The length of the chassis is six points. The width is four or five meters. The height is 2.78 meters, and the net weight is 40.5 tons. Knikamp said.

"The net weight is forty-five tons, and the total combat weight should reach about forty-five tons, which is more than the forty-five tons I limited. The error is within an acceptable range, you continue. Chen Dao said.

"From the bottom up, we used independent torsion bar suspension, six pairs of large-diameter load wheels and wide tracks, plus a 650 hp HL210TRMP45 engine from Maybach. He can have a maximum speed of more than 50 km/h, but the final speed will have to wait for the car to be finalized, but I can guarantee that there is no problem at all beyond 50 km/h. ”

Himmler was surprised and said: "Dr. Knikamp, are you sure that the E-40 can reach a maximum speed of more than fifty kilometers?" The maximum speed of our No. 4 tank is 40 kilometers, can this big guy run faster than No. 4? ”

Knikamp was pleased to see Himmler's surprised expression, and said to him with a smile: "You heard him right, he is indeed faster than the number four, and can reach a maximum speed of more than fifty kilometers per hour." Don't forget, Mr. Leader, that Tank No. 4 was developed in 194. Nearly seven years have passed now. In the past seven years, the level of our tank design has already developed considerably. ”

Himmler modestly said: "I am a layman. Don't understand the technical problem, please continue, Mr. Doctor. ”

"Internally, we broke with the traditional layout and redesigned the transmission to make it compact, and then combined it with the power unit and rear-mounted. It's risky, but it's very rewarding.

We first saved the weight of a propeller shaft, but also reduced the height of the chassis, effectively controlled the volume of the body, and the protection capacity under the same weight is much higher than the traditional layout.

The upper armor of the E-40 was 100 mm 55 inclined, the side armor was 80 mm without sloping, and the tail armor was 45 mm thick.

The armor on the sides of the turret is 80 mm slightly inclined, the front armor is 180 mm 8 inclined, and the projection area is very small, and the pig's head shield on the tank gun covers almost half of the area of the front of the turret, and the defensive ability is beyond doubt, even our 88 mm anti-aircraft guns cannot penetrate its frontal armor at normal engagement distances, let alone the tank guns of Tank No. 4 and the Russians. ”

Himmler was once again shocked by a series of statistics.

"Evil, really evil. The side armor of the E-40 turned out to be thicker than the frontal armor of the No. 4 tank, which is really evil. ”

"This is the design requirement given to us by General Rosen, and we are just implementing it." Knikamp explained.

Chen Dao stretched out his hands to Himmler and said innocently: "The armor of the tank should be able to block shells from two years later, this is my design concept." And as far as I know, the Russians will most likely bring 100 mm and 122 mm caliber guns to tanks in the future. As it stands, the Russians have loaded their 152mm guns on KV-2 tanks, and it would be irresponsible for the lives of our tankers not to have a tank that could withstand its blow head-on. ”

Knikamp was taken aback, and after making eye contact with General Thomas, he rushed forward and asked anxiously: "General Rosen, how strong is the armor-piercing ability of the 100 mm caliber guns and 122 mm caliber guns you said, and how much of a threat will they pose to our tanks?" ”

Chen Dao waved his hand, signaling Knikamp not to be nervous.

"We are negotiating with the Russians to purchase a batch of these two guns back, and when these two guns are in hand, you can study them yourself. Shouldn't we talk about our KBRs/>

Knikamp took two steps back unwillingly, pointed to the thick barrel on the turret and said: "We use the K-sized improved 88 mm anti-aircraft gun, which can penetrate 99 mm 30 inclined steel plates at a distance of 1000 meters, and if you use tungsten core armor-piercing shells, the power will be stronger." ”

Chen Dao fell into deep thought, and he was basically satisfied with the E-40's performance on paper, but he always felt that there seemed to be something wrong with it.

Chen Dao silently circled around the E-40, looking at every detail of the tank one by one.

In the speed of maneuver protection and firepower, there are no problems with the 88-mm tank gun, there are no problems with the armor, and there is no maneuver without huh? No, there's definitely something wrong with this maneuver.

In "Gun World", the Panther tank, which weighs the same weight as the E-40, has a top speed of 46 kilometers per hour, and the engine used seems to be this model.

And in "The World of Guns", the engine of the German tank is a well-known lighter, which is very terrifying.

Chen Dao thought that he had figured out the reason for the entanglement, and said to Knikamp: "Is this 650 horsepower engine the latest product of Maybach?" ”

Confirmed by Knikamp, Chen Dao patted the rear power compartment of the E-40 and said: "Since it is a new production, this engine will definitely have a big problem, you must pay attention to it when you test it, such as whether it is easy to catch fire, and whether the output power can really reach 650 horsepower?"

I'm not very optimistic about this new engine, and in the spirit of being responsible to the tankers, you must take care of it, especially the two precautions I just mentioned. ”

Knikamp then asked his assistant to write down Chen Dao's advice, and vowed that he would pay attention.

After thinking about it carefully, Chen Dao pulled Knikamp to the front of the E-40 tank, pointed to the position of the driver and the radioman, and said: "Speaking of designing tanks, I have recently come up with some new ideas, and if my new ideas can be realized, we can also design a more powerful tank with the same weight, or design a tank as powerful as the E-40 at a lighter weight." ”

"You say, you say." Knikamp lifted the glasses on his face, his eyes revealing curiosity.

Chen Dao looked around, Knikamp immediately understood, and he said in a low voice: "The people here are all reliable, and the most unreliable are you and Himmler Leader. ”

Chen Dao couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"I didn't expect you to have a humorous side, and you really gave me a little surprise.

You remember, there are such points, first, whether the layout of the engine in the power compartment can be changed from vertical to horizontal, so that the length of the tank can be shortened and the weight can be further reduced;

Second, our fuel crisis has been solved for the time being, is it possible to study diesel tanks?

First, I think it is necessary for us to instruct Siemens to develop a new type of auto-FM radio station to make it easier to operate, so that we can cut the radio hand in the future and reduce the crew to four, which can save a lot of space in the car.

This technique can be used as a technical reserve for future tank design. ”

"I don't have any doubts about the first and the first, it's just the second I," Knekampsli said after a few seconds.

"Believe me, diesel engines are certainly one of the development directions of future tank design, and we must make technical reserves as early as possible so as not to fall behind the times. As for the E-40, there is no need for this technology for the time being, because we are running out of time and we must finalize production as soon as possible. ”

However, Knikamp had already been stimulated by Chen Dao's point suggestion at this time, and he did not hear Chen Dao's prompt at all.

When he came to his senses, he found that Chen Dao and Himmler had been accompanied by Thomas to visit other new weapons.

*

ps：

1 My aunt-in-law was suddenly critically ill and hospitalized last night, and I was notified that the old man had passed away today, and I was going to visit my aunt at night, and this was the last update for today.

The data of the 2E-40 tank is out, and if you have any questions, you can leave a message in the book review area to discuss. (To be continued......)