"There are some things that you can only know when you see them with your own eyes and experience them to know their greatness and horror. It was a continuous torrent www.biquge.info of steel, and hundreds of corps of various vehicles, artillery, assault guns, tanks, and armored vehicles swept away from the wilderness like a tidal wave, walking on the wilderness as if they were on a road. They were as strong and sharp as the Teutonic knights of old. It's just that the knights' swords have been replaced by artillery, the war horses under their crotches have been replaced by vehicles, and the abundant power brought by the steel engine makes them even more terrifying than their predecessors! Prince Albert wrote in his diary that he saw the 1st Bavarian Division in action.

At the station of the 1st Division, Prince Albert was loyal to see how powerful a fully reinforced Bavarian main division really was, with more than 120 assault guns, tanks and self-propelled guns combined, and almost all of the guns over 75mm were tracked or half-tracked turf. All artillery shells and artillery supplies were transported exclusively by motor vehicles. Most of the infantry could be overmanned and left in trucks. (Stuff it hard.) Because there was no ammunition to carry this time, and the local Prussian government also provided fuel, food, and water, a large number of transport vehicles were vacated, so that the Bavarian division, which could not be motorized, actually became the first large-scale force in history to be fully motorized, although the total distance of motorized was not more than 30 kilometers.

But it was this distance of 30 kilometers that was enough to worry the other armies of the same period. In World War I, there were no four-lane highways, and it was a very cumbersome task for a large army with baggage to assemble at the railway station and then ship it. If nothing else, even on the road, a 150mm cannon weighs almost 10 tons! There are no 16 horses walking on the rope, and then calculate the spacing, calculate the horse's mobility, this will pull out a long line.

"All the cars and towed artillery took the road, the half-track took a shortcut into the wilderness, and all the trailers were gathered to transport ballistae, heavy self-propelled guns, Hufeng assault guns and cricket tanks." When Prince Albert asked Ruprecht how he would transport the heavy equipment to the train station, the latter said so easily.

With the help of the local government and the police, the entire convoy traveled at an average speed of 15 kilometers per hour from the station to the station, and the whole process took only about 3 to 4 hours, including the departure of the troops and the departure of the relevant vehicles to the train.

While waiting, Prince Albert took a closer look at the heavy self-propelled cannon, codenamed Ballista. This self-propelled gun uses the new K08 150mmL40 gun, and although the maximum range is not as powerful as the historical K16 of 22 km, it is still capable of hitting 18 km. In this era, it was still a little difficult to make a self-propelled howitzer similar to that of later generations, which was basically an artillery piece placed on the territory of the Hu Feng assault gun, and the cab was in front of the gun truck. The pitching device of the gun was in the middle and rear position, there was a simple set of mechanical state equipment in the direction of the tail of the gun, there was a fishing rod to the left of the gun, on which a spare shell could be placed. There was no longer a hoe behind the gun carriage. It can be lowered at any time to secure the body.

Although this system is not complicated, it is already an industrial miracle in this era, and the real tracked self-propelled artillery will be made by the French in World War 1, but they will make it a 280mm self-propelled howitzer and a 194mm heavy self-propelled cannon, which is a little taller than the prince. However, the stability of this system is good, and it is said that the engine can ensure a stable ...... of more than 150 kilometers on the road.

As a German military commander, he can fully feel the huge advantages brought by this artillery, although this big guy is heavier and bigger, but his passability is definitely stronger than that of the Marat artillery. Moreover, an artillery gun and an ammunition truck can form a complete fire unit, and the speed at which it enters the position and unfolds will not exceed 15 minutes. From the moment of entering the position, the first shell was fired in 20 minutes, a speed that is impossible in a horse-drawn towed artillery, not to mention how long does it take to find a piece of land, untie the gun from the front and rear gun mounts, and then install the gun body on the gun mount?

That's right, you read that right, in the Prussian regiments the transport of this kind of artillery was separated, during the transportation of the artillery would be arranged a front car, and then the barrel would be withdrawn from the gun carriage and fixed on the front car, and after transportation to the designated position, the first thing to do was to install the gun ...... first. It takes at least half an hour--!

And when it is put away, it is even more troublesome, and considering the poor passability, Prince Albert can naturally see the impact of such a gun on the current tactical level. "If it can be equipped with aviation orthopaedic fire, this kind of artillery that can move quickly can definitely be called an artillery killer, compared to the current heavy artillery semi-fixed deployment method, this artillery is really terrifying. If I could, I would like the Prussian army to be equipped with a certain number of self-propelled cannons for suppression and counter-battery operations against targets in depth against the opposing side. ”

Ludendorff, on the other hand, focused on assault guns and mortars mounted on half-tracks. Paying attention to artillery is a compulsory course for every senior German officer, but at the same time, paying attention to the front-line infantry support firepower and being able to see the way out is the real ability, and Ludendorff belongs to the latter.

Long-range suppression of artillery fire can not solve all problems, the trajectory of the 105mm gun is good, the power is too small, a slightly strengthened bunker can block the attack of a medium-caliber howitzer, and the hit accuracy of curved fire is too low for point targets, it is foreseeable that with the mass popularization of machine guns, machine gun bunkers will become the pillar of the defense line, and it is normal for a division to be equipped with hundreds of machine guns in the future. And if these points of fire are to be cleared with artillery, it will be difficult, and the artillery itself is also the target of the opponent's hunting, and it is not safe to hand everything over to the supporting artillery.

So the appeal of this kind of vehicle, which has good defense and can concentrate a dozen or even dozens of vehicles in a small frontage, can be seen in Ludendorff. Stroking the heavy willow joint armor on the front of the Hu Feng assault gun and the track shoes covering it. "If you add this layer of track shoes, if the 3-inch rapid-fire gun wants to penetrate head-on, I'm afraid it will have to be shortened to about 300 meters." Ludendorff estimated in his heart.

Thinking about the time when more than a dozen rapid-fire guns on the front advanced into the opponent's position, and then suffocated the opponent's defense line with a rate of fire of about 6 rounds per minute, Ludendorff was excited, yes, it was excitement, this kind of thing was too much of a threat to the existing positions, whether it was the French 75mm rapid-fire gun or the German 77mm rapid-fire gun Even if there were armor-piercing shells, the threat to this kind of combat vehicle was not too great, and the 105mm cannon could not be leveled anti-tank, right? There is no doubt that because of the appearance of such weapons, the cost to the defenders will increase significantly.

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