The Nazi propaganda machine was not silent for even a moment because of the crushing defeat in Minsk - the battle on the front was lost, and the propaganda war must not be lost!

Goebbels described the defeat of the Germans at Minsk as almost a decisive battle between the three hundred Spartan warriors against the million-strong Persian army, especially the last telegram sent to Berlin by the operator of the Ninth Army at the last moment: "The radio station of the Ninth Army is about to be turned off!" The Russian army has taken it! Long live the defeat of the Bolsheviks, God bless Germany!" Deeply touched by all Germans!

For several months, the Battle of Minsk touched the hearts and minds of not only the Soviet people, but also in Germany - the quagmire of the invincible and invincible German army made the whole German people worry, especially those with families on the Eastern Front!

In a short period of time, millions of outstanding young people were lost in that distant Belarusian Germany, and no matter how heroic Goebbels propagated and portrayed, the pain would always spread in the family. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

But it would be a mistake to think that German families who had lost their families would be depressed - in Landshut on the Isar River in Bavaria, a small city of just over 60,000 Germans, a Bavarian infantry regiment formed at the beginning of the war was incorporated into the Fourth Army, and more than 2,000 young people were completely lost.

The town was covered in grey, and though it was white on the outside—the townspeople knew that the snow was thicker and the weather was colder in distant Soviet Russia, but they did not know what had happened to the lads of Landshut ? It's just that you can imagine what the situation of the survivors will be like after being captured!

But Landshut was not surrounded only by the gray of pain and worry, and almost in a day the town again prepared a regiment of reserve youths for the Wehrmacht, ready to enlist at any time!

When Nazism brought the war into a decisive battle between two peoples, the German people did not hesitate to side with their own nation. They had no choice, no choice, and the pride of the German nation dictated their only choice: the humiliating years after the defeat in the First World War were still fresh in their minds, and the Germans already knew that the war they were facing was more brutal than it was 20 years ago, that there would be no more negotiations, and that the end result would be the complete fall of one of them!

However, it is not enough to win the war by relying on national consciousness alone, you also need to have enough equipment in your hands to destroy your opponent! Hitler and his marshals and generals were well aware of this.

Why didn't the Soviet theater sweep away the opponent in the Soviet theater like in Poland or France, where the "German chariots" withered and decayed? Not because the German army was not brave enough, but with equipment!

On the ground, the German army had no advantage in equipment compared with the Soviet Red Army, and in some places was even at a disadvantage. Although Hitler was sure that the German soldiers were more trained than the Russians, he was annoyed by the inferiority of the equipment!

One of the things that touched Hitler the most was the report from Guderian that his tank units were often crushed by fewer Red Army tanks than he owned! And this often happens both in Ukraine and on the Baltic coast! KV and T34 have already made it difficult for the Germans to deal with, not to mention the overwhelming number of T34s! And what made Guderian sigh even more: the Russians' "Stalin-type" tanks were almost impossible to destroy!

"Germany must have armored forces that can match or even have superiority with Russia on the ground, otherwise we will be overwhelmed by the Russian locust-like tanks!" Guderian's final point is very clear - it is clear that the efficiency of the work of the Soviet military-industrial complex has reached an incredible height!

Fight the Russians for numbers? It doesn't work!

There can be a tie in air power, and in the eyes of the German high command, with the massive equipment of new aircraft, the situation of air supremacy will soon come! The problems facing the armored forces need to be solved at the highest level of priority!

It is necessary to equip new tanks with performance superior to Russian tanks, because in terms of industrial characteristics and resources, Germany cannot do what the Soviet Union does - if it wants to drink the amount of equipment that the Soviet Union has to fight for armored forces, then Germany will lose without fighting.

The Germans are not exaggerated "pathological perfectionists", but still have some understanding of the military-industrial thinking of Soviet Russia: Soviet-made weapons are practical and cost-effective. The Russians have very clear requirements for the performance of weapons, and once the performance indicators are determined, they achieve it with the minimum cost and the simplest process; Problems that can be easily solved by quantity do not deliberately pursue quality - as long as it is enough, it is considered to be dead and hard work!

Germany understands the advantages of the Soviet military industry, and Germany has a technological superiority and is confident in building armored combat vehicles that are more advanced than Soviet tanks -- but the Russians can engage in "large-scale shoddy manufacturing", but Germany cannot do this, and cannot afford it, and a single raw material will be stuck!

This will be in the "armor menu" in front of the German generals, the No. 3 and No. 4 tanks are relatively outdated in the face of Russian tanks, although they are still very advanced from the perspective of the world: the No. 3 tank production line seems to be only retrofitted to produce self-propelled assault guns to continue to exist, and the No. 4 long-barreled tank must also be produced, otherwise the army equipment will be in vain.

Although at a certain disadvantage, the No. 4 tank still has the ability to "fight".

For Hitler, this would not be "poor and white", the German tank manufacturing industry has so far been at the world's first-class level, there are technical reserves, and the major military enterprises have long been ordered to develop heavy tanks equipped with high-power tank guns, dating back to 1937.

Guderian's shells on the west bank of the Bug River in 39 made the Germans see part of the gap with the Soviet Russian tank industry, accelerated the development of new tanks in the German army, and the advanced No. 4 tank became emergency equipment, and there will already be two new tanks that are almost in the practical stage - that is, the No. 5 "Leopard" medium tank and the No. 6 "Tiger" heavy tank!

As for the site design and production line of those No. 3 tanks, they will not be wasted, and self-propelled assault guns with long-barreled 75-mm anti-tank guns have been developed based on the No. 3 tank site.

The German military production enterprises of the Soviet KV heavy tank have seen it, and some have been captured by the front-line troops, and if they want to destroy it, they must have a high-muzzle velocity and high-power tank gun. The T34 is more familiar, and the thickness of the armor is not something that a small-caliber or low-muzzle medium-caliber tank gun can effectively deal with; Not a single "Red Mammoth" reported by the front-line troops was captured, and its artillery was reported to be extremely powerful, and the thickness of the armor was at least similar to that of the KV.

Hitler still had some chips in his hands to effectively deal with the above three Soviet tanks: two high-powered tank guns that had already begun to be put into production - the 75 mm semi-automatic KwK 42 L70 gun produced by Rheinmetall and the 88 mm electrically fired KwK 36 L/56 (L/56 refers to the barrel length of 56 times the caliber) tank gun developed and produced by Krupp!

The tanks currently equipped by the German army, such as the PzKpfwII, III, IV, are tactically more mobile, insufficient firepower and protection, and have been in a passive situation when engaging the Red Army's T-34 medium tanks on the Eastern Front.

Since it became known about the existence of tanks equipped with 76-mm tank guns in the Red Army in 39, in 1940, the German MAN, Henschel and other companies accepted the commission of the military to develop 30t-class tanks and developed them on the basis of the PzKpfwIV tank.

After the outbreak of the war on the Eastern Front, the speed of development was greatly accelerated, and the prototype car was made based on the shape of the T-34 tank, and the model was set as VK3001, of which the prototype of the MAN company (Augsburg-Nuremberg Mechanical Works JSC) was named VK3002 after being modified with a long-barreled 75mm caliber cannon and improved shape at the end of 1941, which was later the PzKpfwV Leopard tank.

The German military considered it a relatively successful tank, and finally the design of the MAN company was adopted by the military in November last year, and the German army immediately gave priority to the production of this tank, and Hitler strictly ordered to come up with a finalized tank in February this year, and it must enter the stage of mass production in April!

The Leopard was undoubtedly built to counter the Soviet T-34 tank, and the first 30 initial experimental Leopard tanks that have been built have borrowed from the Soviet tank design ideas, compared with the design before the first half of last year, its main improvement is the use of inclined armor, which increases the possibility of incoming shells ricocheting, and also increases the horizontal thickness of the armor, making it difficult to shoot through.

In addition, in order to cope with the relatively poor road conditions and mud on the Eastern Front, wider tracks and larger load wheels were used to improve maneuverability on soft ground.

However, there was a price to be paid for the improvements to the captured genuine T34: the weight of the whole vehicle was much higher than that of the original "30-ton tank" - the weight of the Leopard tank was increased from the estimated 35 tons to 43 tons. The Leopard was fitted with a 700 hp Maybach HL230P30 V-12 petrol engine capable of reaching a maximum road speed of 46 km/h.

The tank suspension system consists of drive gears at the front, inducer wheels at the rear and eight rubberized steel wheels, with two torsion bars added to each shock arm, providing good off-road performance but expensive and time-consuming.

After referencing the T34's design, the Leopard used inclined armor plates, and the original design of the Leopard was only 60 mm thick at its thickest point, which would have been thickened to 80 mm.

The main gun of the Leopard tank is a 75-mm semi-automatic KwK42 L70 gun produced by Rheinmetall and carries 79 shells. The main gun can use three different ammunition: APCBC-HE, HE and APCR. The semi-automatic KwK42 L7075 mm caliber gun was not considered a large-caliber gun at that time, but it was one of the most powerful tank guns in Germany today!

The shell has an extremely high muzzle velocity, and the penetration ability at the general combat distance is even higher than that of the 88-mm KwK36 L56 gun! The secondary armament is two MG34 machine guns, mounted on the turret and on the inclined surface of the body, to clear the infantry threat and anti-aircraft defense. There are five crew members: the driver, the communicator, the gunner, the loader and the commander.

The Leopard tank has a total length of 6.87 meters (8.66 meters in front of the gun), a width of 3.42 meters, a height of 2.99 meters, a total combat weight of 44.8 tons, a road speed of 45 km/h, and a road distance of 250 kilometers.

Obviously, the Leopard was very good, but Germany still classified it as a "medium tank" - it was designed for the Soviet T34, which in Hitler's opinion should be a killer against the T34. And for the Soviet heavy tanks, Germany also has tank No. 6 - Tiger!

The development of the Tiger tank began as early as the spring of 1937, and the development process was twisted and turned, without a specific goal, and apparently the designers at that time could not have imagined that the final appearance would be a behemoth a few years later!

Because of the priority development of the No. 5 tank, coupled with the over-optimism about the improved version of the No. 4 tank (after the bombardment of the Bug River in 39, the Germans worked overtime to equip the long-barreled No. 4 tank, which was able to compete with the T34 in terms of firepower and mobility, but the thickness of the armor was at a disadvantage - because of the secrecy of the Soviet Union, in addition to the caliber of the tank gun, for the T34, the Germans could only guess its performance before the outbreak of the war. After the outbreak of the war, the T34-85 and KV were encountered, both of which were not easily dealt with by the No. 4 tank, which to a certain extent led to the crushing defeat of the German armored forces in several tank decisive battles! The development of tank No. 6 was delayed.

After the fall of the Imperial Division, German military experts were deeply shocked: they found that none of the German armored forces at that time could match the T-34!

Tank No. 4 also suffers, not to mention against those KVs!

Originally, at the end of '39, Henschel and three other competitors (Porsche, MAN, and Daimler-Benz) each submitted a design for a tank of about 35 tons and equipped with a 75mm gun. However, after touching the captured Soviet T-34-76 type tanks, the obsolescence of these designs was completely declared.

In the summer, Porsche has built about 80 new tanks (the construction of the site before it is finalized, which shows the urgent needs of the war and the fierce competition!). Ferdinand's story seems to have played out ahead of schedule! As a result, it turned out to be a bunch of chicken ribs - waste was repurposed, and it was converted into an assault gun equipped with an 88-mm KwK 36 L/56 tank gun, which was being transported to the Eastern Front after training the crew, not in time for the Minsk battle.

The original design was no longer suitable, and the customization standards were immediately raised: including an increase in the weight of the vehicle to 45 tons, and a new 88mm tank gun, the prototype of which had to be unveiled before the arrival of the New Year of 1942.

Due to the limited development time, the original lighter chassis design was retained, and the increased weight made some components need to be subjected to greater pressure, so the reliability and stability of the car were relatively reduced.

Unlike the Leopard, the Tiger did not draw on the design experience of the T-34 tank in the slightest: instead of taking into account the advantages of the ramp armor in terms of anti-penetration, it used thick, high-quality frontal armor.

But a new high-tech tank was not finalized in a month or two, and it was not until January 5 of this year that several companies came up with a prototype, and the end result was a compromise: Henschel's basic architecture was adopted, and the Porsche turret was replaced.

Hitler was so pleased with the new tank that he ordered it to go into production immediately - but it would have to wait at least three months for mass production, at least after tank No. 5.

The design concept of the Tiger tank was completely different from most of the tanks produced in Germany in the early years, and the previous design emphasized the balance of mobility, protection and firepower. Although the Germans were often inferior in firepower to their opponents in the early days, these disadvantages were offset by tactical superiority.

The Tiger was designed to focus on firepower and armor at the expense of some mobility, and although it was generally similar in design and appearance to the Tank Four, the Tiger was twice as heavy as the Tank Four, and the increase in weight came from thicker armor, large-caliber guns, and the inevitable large storage space for fuel and ammunition, larger engines, and stronger transmission and suspension systems.

The armor of the Tiger tank is 100 mm thick in front of the hull and 110 mm thick in front of the turret! Compared to the 80 mm in front of the body and 50 mm in front of the turret, the Tiger also has 80 mm thick armor on both sides and back!

Such a thickness of armor is already able to withstand threats flying from most engagement distances, especially from anti-tank shells from the front! And the thickness of the gun shield and turret is almost equal, making it almost impossible to penetrate the turret of the Tiger tank from the front!

However, the armor on the roof of the car is only 25 mm to 40 mm thick, which is also a way to do it, otherwise the tigers will run.

The tank is powered by a Maybach HL230 P45 23-litre 700 hp engine with 16 torsion bars and 725 mm wide tracks for the suspension system.

The Tiger tank uses the latest powerful 88 mm caliber electric fire KwK 36 L/56 tank gun, and the support and firing mechanism of the main gun is developed from the famous German 88 anti-aircraft gun, which has a very high killing efficiency.

Compared to the powerful tank gun, the Tiger is also equipped with an extremely accurate Zeiss TFZ 9b sight, which is amazingly accurate! The gun can be loaded with three types of ammunition: the PzGr.39 ballistic armor-piercing blasting projectile, the PzGr.40 sub-caliber tungsten core armor-piercing projectile, and the HI. The Gr.39 high-explosive (HEAT) projectile ensures that the enemy can be destroyed by fire at a long distance.

Just like Lin Jun, who was thousands of miles away, Hitler and his generals were already thinking about the summer offensive of '42, and the Stolbutch salient was a problem that the Germans had to eliminate!

"By mid-May, at least two armored divisions with the main forces of tanks No. 5 and No. 6 must arrive in Belarus!"

Can Hitler's strict orders be fulfilled by the German army and tank factories? It's hard to say, but what is certain is that a big war is bound to break out again in that war-torn land, and it will be a tank battle that will go down in history! (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )