Chapter 997: It's Stalin's Turn
It was already March 1944, and the "winter break" on the Eastern Front in Europe was almost over. Pen~Fun~Ge www.biquge.info The ice and snow on Russian soil began to melt, the frozen soil gradually turned into muddy land, and of course the temperature began to rise. In a little more than a month at most, the great plains of Russia will become the most ideal battlefield for mechanized corps operations.
The Soviet-German war, which lasted for nearly two years, would most likely be won between May and November 1944.
It is no exaggeration to say that 1944 will be the decisive year of the Second World War! And the battlefield that can decide the outcome of the war cannot be in the Pacific Ocean, only in Russia.
Today, on March 10, 1944, at the General Staff of Tsosen, the discussion was not about Japan's so-called victory in the Hawaiian Islands—it was just a small episode before the main topic began.
For the current Wehrmacht General Staff, the war that took place in the Pacific Ocean did not matter at all. Whether Japan suffered a crushing defeat or a great victory, it made no difference to Germany - the Japanese were merely tools used to bleed American air forces.
Now the only thing that can really decide the outcome of the war is the Soviet-German battlefield and ...... where tens of millions of troops fought Atomic bomb!
The latter had already been assembled and was waiting to be interviewed in the desert of the French province of Algeria - in fact, Germany had scraped together 100 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium-239 by the end of 1943, enough to assemble 10 atomic bombs based on later technology. However, at present, the state of technology is limited (creating a chain reaction with as little plutonium-239 and uranium-235 charges as possible is a university problem, and it is impossible to get a correct conclusion by calculation alone, and it is necessary to test and error), but 2 atomic bombs can still be assembled.
The main reason why the test was not carried out was that something went wrong with the pre-selected test site. The French government's "Europeanization" and "Christianization" in Algeria led to a "war of the gods" against France and Germany in August 1943.
As a result, France and Germany had to use large armies to suppress the Algerian "Saints", and the bloody war lasted until February 44, when it was basically over. However, the planned nuclear test was postponed as a result.
The postponement of the nuclear test is of course also related to the fact that there is no rush to use the atomic bomb, and the current Soviet-German war has to some extent turned into a Soviet-Russian civil war. If an atomic bomb were to be used to bomb Moscow in the Russian civil war, Empress Olga would be brought to the point of "extremely politically incorrect".
As for the use of atomic bombs against the United States, Cuba must be taken first, otherwise the Me264 long-range bombers loaded with atomic bombs will have to force their way into the United States without escort...... This is definitely sending you to death!
In addition, according to reliable information available to Germany, the United States was making very slow progress in the atomic bomb project.
Not only did they lack enough scientists, but they also didn't have enough uranium metal to study – all the high-quality uranium ore from the Belgian Congo in Africa, which was historically shipped to the United States, fell into German hands. So the Manhattan Project in the United States had to start with prospecting and mining.
Although the Americans soon found a uranium mine in the Great Bear Lake area of Ontario, Canada (this mine existed in the 30s, when it was mainly used to produce radium, but the production was not high), and they also got a few tons of uranium ore. But the number is too small to be of any use at all. We had to wait patiently for the uranium mine to expand and dig up enough ore for the Manhattan Project to really take off. However, due to the lack of enough top scientists, the progress of the Manhattan Project has been slow, and it is now far behind Germany.
So in the race to build the atomic bomb, Germany undoubtedly won. Therefore, this matter is not what needs to be discussed at today's operational meeting of the General Staff, and the main content of today's meeting is only one, that is, to defeat the Soviet Union!
……
"According to the reliable intelligence that we have," the first to speak at the meeting, when the issue of the war against the Soviet Union began, Lieutenant General Geiger, the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff, "over the past few months, the Soviet authorities, headed by Stalin, have been actively preparing for the final decisive battle. Not only was a large number of the Red Army drafted, but also the JS-2 heavy tank, which claimed to be able to defeat our Tiger tanks, was developed and produced.
According to the Red Army officials who defected to the government of the Russian Empress, this JS-2 heavy tank weighed about 45 tons, was equipped with a 122mm main gun, and the thickest frontal armor reached 120mm! And the development of the heavier JS-3 tank is also currently being accelerated, and it is estimated that it will enter service in 1944.
In addition, the Soviet Air Force received significant assistance from the United States. The Yak-9 and Lager-5/Lager-7 fighters were developed. It is expected to pose a certain threat to our Fw-190 series and the Fokker Zero series. ”
Although the Soviet Union has now lost its most important industrial bases, Eastern Ukraine and Leningrad, Stalin and the heavy industry sector of the USSR did not abandon their efforts to find more powerful heavy tanks.
In fact, the Soviet Union, which was currently on the strategic defensive, needed heavy tanks with sufficient armor and firepower more than Germany. Because the Red Army on the defensive did not have high requirements for tank mobility, what they needed was a heavy tank or strong artillery that could fire at the enemy in a stationary state and at the same time withstand the enemy's tank fire.
Therefore, the JS-2 heavy tank, with its 122mm gun and solid armor, became Stalin's hope for turning the tide of the war. Its importance is almost as important as that of the German King Tiger heavy tank of the same period in history.
And the King Tiger did not appear in Germany in the strategic offensive at this time, and this nearly 70-ton tank was too heavy for the roads and bridges in the Soviet Union.
So the weight of about 50 tons is now the upper limit of the total combat weight of the tank that the Wehrmacht can accept - in fact, the total combat weight of the JS-2 heavy tank is only 45-46 tons.
The Tiger tank and the E-50 tank, which have shrunk in weight, are the tanks that meet the current needs of the Wehrmacht.
After several months of research and development, the Tiger H and E-50A tanks are now the mainstay of the German armored forces.
Among them, the Tiger H tank adopts the same design of 6 pairs of load wheels as the E-50 tank, and the total combat weight is further reduced to 45 tons, and it is also more reliable and durable than the previous E, F and G models. The speed has also increased considerably, reaching a maximum speed of 48 km/h and a maximum speed of 24 km/h off-road. Thus, there was the possibility of replacing the No. 4H tank as the main tank of the German armored forces.
At present, all German armored regiments have adopted the method of mixing the Tiger H tank and the No. 4 H tank. Each tank regiment has one medium tank battalion (full 88 vehicles) equipped with H No. 4 and one heavy tank battalion (full 66 vehicles) equipped with Tiger H tanks. As a result, the number of tanks per tank regiment was reduced to 154.
At the same time that the Tiger H began to replace the No. 4 H, the E-50A tank, which had a total combat weight of 55 tons (5 tons heavier than the prototype E-50-0, and its performance was also improved accordingly, and the thickness of the frontal armor was increased to 130mm/50 degrees, and the theoretical defense capability was equivalent to 202mm vertical armor), replaced the role of the original Tiger tank and became the main tank of the heavy armored battalion.
All 26 divisions are currently attached to a heavily armored battalion of 44 E-50A tanks and 22 H 4 tanks.
While a large number of Tiger H tanks and E-50A tanks were equipped, the German military industry developed two tank destroyers based on the territory of the Tiger H tank, which were named "Cheetah" tank destroyers.
The reason why it is "Cheetah" instead of "Hunting Tiger" is because the current Tiger H tank is the product of "Tiger and Leopard Fusion", and the "Black Panther" tank that appeared briefly in 42 years was not eliminated, but was integrated into the Tiger type, so in order to commemorate the "Black Panther" tank, the Armored Directorate of the German Wehrmacht named this latest style of tank destroyer "Cheetah".
In fact, the appearance of this "Cheetah" tank destroyer is very similar to the historical "Cheetah", except that the turf uses 6 pairs of load wheels instead of staggered load wheels. In addition, the selection of the main gun did not use the same 88mmL/71 gun as the E-50A, but the 105mmL/68 gun newly developed by Krupp.
However, the powerful "Cheetahs" were not equipped with a large number of troops, and the Wehrmacht only used them to form a dozen battalions of heavy tank destroyers directly under the army group to deal with the possible Soviet "super tanks".
The Assault Tiger self-propelled gun (weighing up to 60 tons), also based on the territory of the Tiger H tank, was also developed at the end of 1943 and equipped with troops. This self-propelled gun, developed for the impending street fighting in Moscow, has a 380mm mortar capable of firing rockets to destroy any building.
In addition, a bizarre "ramming tiger" type obstacle destroyer tank also appeared at the end of 1943. This "barrier-destroying tank" belongs to the equipment of combat engineers. It is to add a streamlined protruding superstructure to the territory of the obsolete Tiger E tank, and optionally a ploughshare or dozer blade in front. Such "tanks" can be used both to destroy enemy obstacles, to bury enemy bunkers and trenches, and to clear mines.
This "ramming tiger", of course, was also tailor-made for the burial of Comrade Stalin's red country!