Chapter 1473: Land Cruiser
China is preparing for war, Germany is also trying its best to turn its advantage into victory, and in the last effort, on the other side of the strait, Britain, which has suffered the most severe losses since the founding of the country, has not given up, they are looking for the possibility of victory, and have invested great energy. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
Germany occupied the northern islands, and began airship raids on Britain day and night, the entire northern cities of England were in the range of attack, and many laboratories originally located in the north were located in the south, among which Derbyshire, located in the center, became a natural place to undertake these laboratories.
The Derbyshire Naval Laboratory, a new research project that has been going on for a long time, this project under the Navy Department, known as the Land Cruiser, was originally proposed as an army weapon, a kind of armored sports machine, which can be used in war, more effective protection weapons.
Such a weapon was brought to the army, but because it was too complicated, the investment was huge, and it was rejected by the army, and the military, army and navy of any country are unbalanced, but relatively speaking, this world is the age of the ocean, and the army is less than the navy to a certain extent, in terms of funds and investment, so after weighing the pros and cons, it was abandoned by the army, and the army needs to invest too many projects, and they must invest limited funds in more important places.
If it is really just like this, such a weapon was buried, the designer who proposed this weapon, without attracting the attention of the army, found the navy, but because of the considerable novelty and was retained, compared to the army's slightly thin investment, the navy, casually draw a part of the funds, you can implement this project, in steel, power, and artillery, the navy has considerable reserves, the funds spent to start this project, far smaller than the army, At most, this project is carried out as a standing project of the Navy, and even among the many projects of the Navy, it is only a very small project, and it does not even have to go up to the level of the Admiralty, and a deputy director of the technical department can decide on this project, and the annual investment is only 150,000 pounds, which occupies only a small aspect of the Navy's annual funding of 50 million pounds.
With an annual investment of 150,000 pounds, this naval project, which was eventually named the Land Cruiser project, finally survived the project and finally struggled to move forward.
But now, the First World War has undergone obvious changes, in the original history, from the beginning to the end has been suppressed by the German High Seas Fleet, so that the entire war, the High Seas Fleet has not had any performance of the Allied Grand Fleet, suppressed by the High Seas Fleet, plus the losses on the army, far greater than imagined, in the case of the conventional method can not be changed, Britain has to choose a new method, in the case of examining the current way of thinking, this Land Cruiser project, Naturally, it entered the field of vision of the British military leadership.
The First World War was the world's first, world-wide scale war, which involved almost all the industrially developed countries in the world, and even added China and Japan in this era, which was more tragic than in history, the original Europe as the main battlefield, to a certain extent, the world war called the European War, became a real world war, Europe, America, Oceania, Asia, the Pacific, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the world's major continents, except for Africa, almost all involved in the war, The level of tragedy is extraordinary.
The combination of trench warfare and barbed wire has become the most perfect combination in the history of warfare, trench warfare ensures protection, barbed wire blocks advances, and any attacking troops must face the harvest of machine guns in front of them, and the seemingly weak defense line is full of traps.
At this time, the whole world is thinking about how to crack the trench war, if it is not cracked, it will not be able to change the status quo of the war at all, and the stalemate war will continue, even if the Entente has a great advantage over the Allies in terms of manpower, it is impossible to persist in this way, this is as cruel and terrible as the war of attrition that was shot by the platoon guns, that is, to fight people.
In fact, for trench warfare, it is characterized by strong defense and weak attack, the same grade, under the same arrangement, if you want to break through the tightly defended position, you must have more than 3 times the personnel, and you have to pay greater casualties than the defenders to break through, in the past, people who may die in a battle, now, may be a battle, a day or two, will die, trenches, the combination of heavy artillery and machine guns, has become the scythe of death, in the crazy harvest of human lives, consume each other, until the other party can not hold on.
If it is said that at the beginning of the confrontation between the two sides, perhaps, Britain still had the perseverance to break through the opponent's defense and break through the opponent's defense, but now, with the entrenchment layer by layer, Bordeaux's perimeter, the defense line alone has more than 9 layers, this is not a temporary civil fortification, but a layer by layer, in a period of months, even years, to build a defensive line, all the weak points, have been compensated by the bloody losses.
If the opponent's defenders have 1 million, the Entente must use 3 million people, and pay at least 1.5 million to 1.8 million casualties, before it can be broken, but after the break, how can it occupy a defensive line, Germany can easily have another defensive line in the rear, in this case, it is back to the original point.
This time, Germany sent the High Seas Fleet, almost with all its might, to bombard Bordeaux, plus the cooperation of the army, it was just a breakthrough of a layer of defense line, so that the Entente troops retreated about 7 kilometers, but behind the Entente, there were at least more than 7 lines of defense, Germany with the help of naval guns, broke through a layer of defense line, and the consumption was relatively small, but such a thing is a small probability thing, after Britain once again laid out mines, before clearing mines, The possibility of another attack by the High Seas Fleet was zero, which was the fundamental reason why the Germans, after occupying the defensive line, stuck to the defensive line and did not advance.
If the method of war does not change, the two sides can only hold on to each other here, watching the number of losses continue to increase, and there is no way, the reason is very simple, whoever wants to die can't stand it, and if they retreat, the previous harvest will be all lost, which no one can compare.
At this time, the Land Cruiser project naturally entered the field of vision of the British high-level, such a project that can travel on land, has a certain attack ability, and can be immune to most light firepower and automatic fire after being armoured, it is simply the strongest weapon for breaking trench warfare.
When the Land Cruiser project was first proposed, it was not very large, but when it was added to the field of naval research, the designer had a big brain, and proposed a light cruiser of at least 4,000 tons to move on land, and with the armor volume of 4,000 tons of light cruiser, it was almost impossible to have any firepower on land that could have an effect on it.
However, the design of this thing, not to say that the brain can be opened, a little brain, do not think it is possible, although such a 4000 tons of land mobile force is very perfect, but there is no way to move, even if it is a 4000 ton train, it also needs a long train, so there is no way to balance the armor, in the design of a light cruiser modeled on the Land Cruiser, basically, is a fixed steel fortress, this Land Cruiser can not be started at all, no matter how big the power is impossible, With a capacity of about 4,000 tons, even if all the tonnage and volume are used to stack the power system, don't think about starting.
On the sea and on land, the situation in all aspects is completely different, huge weight, at sea, there is no bearing problem, the resistance is also very small, as long as the buoyancy is considered, it will not make the battleship become a lead duck, and it will sink when it enters the water, as for the power can push the battleship to break through the water and sail quickly, this is what the power system has to do.
But on land, an artificial creature can't sink into the dirt, and if it does, God knows how much power it takes to break through the barrier of the dirt, and how many tires are needed to support such a large thing. But the tires are easy to break, if there is no wheel, there is no power, can push this forward, this is a dead knot, if it cannot be untied, this Land Cruiser really becomes a fantasy.
I have to say that the naval researcher in charge of this research is very good, and when he found that the research found that it was not good, he turned to another direction, this era happened to be the era of the popularity of automobiles, and there were examples of automobiles, and the Land Cruiser project gradually shrunk, from 4000 tons, to 1000 tons, 500 tons, and even 50, and finally, it fell to the level of 18 to 20 tons, and this level, and did not choose wheeled, but used a method similar to a tractor track, With a certain amount of protection, the Land Cruiser can move forward at a certain speed, but at a slower speed, even slower than walking.
But such a powerful thing, as long as he can move, it becomes achievable, since then, the Land Cruiser has made substantial progress, one can be realized, can operate the project, in order to be able to get more appropriations, faster development, a brain-opening fantasy, will only carry out basic theoretical research, after the research is completed, it will be stored as a technical reserve, waiting for the time when it is needed, and then unsealed. (To be continued.) )