While the front-line soldiers were fighting bloody battles and the western regions were busy retreating, the streets of Moscow were as peaceful as usual. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info People work and live as usual, and they don't seem to know that the war is happening.

Manturov, who has just returned from the front line in Ukraine, seems to enjoy this peaceful atmosphere, in the peaceful sunshine, holding his wife, listening to leisurely music, everything is so peaceful and happy!

"Bell bell bell! Bell bell bell! Suddenly, in Manturov's apartment, a rapid telephone rang, breaking the leisure of the house.

Manturov, who was sitting on the sofa in the living room, immediately picked up the phone next to him. Just before he picked up the phone, he had already guessed the identity of the other party. "Are you Comrade Stalin?"

"It's me." Stalin, who was on the other side of the phone, took a puff of his cigarette and said: "You come to the Kremlin now, I have something very important to tell you." ”

"Okay, I'll be right here."

After Manturov put down the phone, he kissed Katya on the cheek, then put on the car key and papers, and immediately rushed to the Kremlin.

"Comrade Stalin, may I ask you to return to Moscow to give me an explanation?" Fifteen minutes later, as soon as Manturov walked into Stalin's office, he began to introduce the topic.

Stalin put down his pipe, took out a stack of papers, and said: "Comrade Manturov, according to reliable intelligence, the Germans have replaced their tank No. 4 with a powerful main gun.

This main gun is capable of penetrating the armor of T-34 tanks and KV tanks, and we may need a tank with thicker armor and more firepower to regain the armor advantage on the battlefield. ”

Just a month and a half ago, Manturov commanded the Southwestern Front, which successfully eliminated the main armored forces of the German Army Group South in the area of western Ukraine, relying on the superiority of Soviet tanks in firepower and protection.

At that time, the Soviet T-34 tank could easily penetrate the frontal armor of the German No. 4 tank at a distance of 1,500 meters, but the No. 4 tank, which was equipped with the kwk37 main gun at that time, could barely penetrate the frontal armor of the T-34 at a distance of 100 meters, and the Soviet army had a clear advantage in armored strength.

But now, with the fourth tank with the Kwk40 tank gun, the firepower has been greatly improved.

In addition, Germany's Henschel and Porsche AG have also stepped up the pace of development of heavy tanks, making breakthroughs in the development of new tanks, and they have both developed their own plans and built their own prototypes, which will be tested in the near future.

Historically, the German military will adopt Henschel's VK3601 (H) scheme and name it the "Tiger Tank".

After the appearance of the Tiger tank, the tanks of the Soviet army will have no advantage on the battlefield, whether it is the T-34 or the KV-1 tank, they are no match for the Tiger tank.

Manturov looked at the documents on the desktop, then at Stalin's rough face, and asked: "Comrade Stalin, you transferred me back from the front to preside over the development and manufacture of new tanks?" ”

"That's right," Stalin picked up his pipe on the table, took a puff, and said: "The Politburo has decided to appoint you Deputy People's Commissar of Defense (Deputy Minister of Defense) in charge of the Ministry of Ordnance, the Ministry of Defense Engineering and Construction, and the Command of the Engineer Corps, replacing Marshal Kulik and Marshal Shaposhnikov.

At the same time, in view of your outstanding performance on the battlefield in Western Ukraine, and your superhuman command and organizational skills, we have decided to arrange for you to enter the Supreme Command, participate in strategic decisions at the highest level, and award you the rank of general. ”

Such an appointment was too sudden for Manturov. Before the war, he was only the deputy prime minister in charge of industry and construction, and he should have continued to follow the civilian line.

However, after the start of the Great Patriotic War, he was suddenly transferred to Ukraine as the political commissar of the Southwestern Front, which gave him an opportunity to show his skills and embark on the path of a military general.

On the battlefield in Western Ukraine, Manturov commanded his troops and inflicted heavy losses on the main German armored forces. He performed well on the battlefield and soon won the appreciation of Stalin, Timoshenko, Zhukov and others, which gave Stalin the idea of bringing him into the Supreme Command.

Moreover, after the German army upgraded the No. 4 tank, Stalin needed someone with relevant experience to lead the development and production of the new tank. Manturov, who had participated in the development of the T-34 and proposed the direction of the T-34/85 design to Koshkin, was undoubtedly the best candidate.

It's just that Manturov, as deputy prime minister in charge of construction and heavy industry affairs, has almost been overturned by the National Defense Committee in terms of the defense industry and heavy industry.

In addition, as the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense, Kulik, who was in charge of the ordnance department of the Soviet army, behaved inappropriately and repeatedly obstructed the production of tanks and anti-tank guns, which greatly hindered Manturov's work and hindered the progress of the modernization of the Soviet army.

In order to give Manturov enough power to carry out the development of new tanks, Stalin decided to appoint him Deputy People's Commissar of Defense in charge of the Ordnance Department of the Soviet Red Army, replacing Marshal Kulik.

Coincidentally, shortly after the appointment was decided, Marshal Shaposhnikov, who was in charge of military engineering and fortifications, was in poor health and could not cope with so much work, and Stalin had no other choice but to hand over Shaposhnikov's work to the architects of the "Manturov Line", so that Manturov took the place of the two marshals.

"Vladimir Fedorovich," Stalin respectfully called Manturov by his first and patronymic names, "what kind of tank do you think we should develop to deal with the German threat?" ”

"I think we can replace the KV tank with a more powerful main gun. In order to reduce the development time, we can consider converting some existing guns into tank guns, such as the 100 mm S-34 naval gun designed by Comrade Fyodor Petrov, which is suitable for conversion into tank guns.

In addition, we also need to increase the armor thickness of the existing tanks, and at the same time develop a heavy tank with a larger armor angle to cope with the threat of the new German tank guns and improve the survivability of the Red Army tanks on the battlefield. ”

"Excellent! I can't imagine that you have even thought about the tank gun of the future, and it should not take much time to convert it into a tank gun with the existing S-34 naval gun. Stalin was greatly satisfied and instructed: "I hope that you will be able to perform better in your new post in the future, develop a powerful tank as soon as possible, and put it into mass production as soon as possible."

Hopefully, with the new tanks, the future war will go more smoothly, and then we will not only recover the territory from the German fascists, but also take Berlin and liberate the German proletariat! ”