Bilham-Benz's plan is really a big surprise, and the unusual running gear makes it cause a lot of discussion. In the midst of everyone's discussion, Henschel, the owner of Henschel's company, who appeared in the fourth place, personally stepped onto the podium.

Henschel has a strong presence in Germany, as a company that created the Tiger tank and has made great achievements in the design and manufacture of railway locomotives and aircraft. Based in Kassel, the company initially produced steam locomotives and was once the largest railway locomotive manufacturer in Europe. Historically, from 1933 to 1945, the company produced a large number of combat vehicles, missiles, and military aircraft, the most famous of which was the Tiger tank. Henschel is still very strong in the design and manufacture of heavy machinery, so their tank design scheme is indeed impressive.

When Henschel unfolded the big picture of Henschel's tank design, all eyes were drawn to it. Because of these two tanks, one is a two-turret tank and the other is a two-gun tank side by side, such a design is really surprising! Henschel did not fully follow the requirements of the German Ministry of Defense's tender for design, but the design of the twin turret did not exceed the requirements of the tender, after all, there was no provision in the tender that there could be no two guns.

Henschel said with a smile: "Your Excellency, judges and experts, after receiving the tender from the Ministry of National Defense, our Henschel company also carefully studied and finally determined our two design schemes. Our light tank design features a two-turret design. At the end of the day, light tanks are designed only as infantry support weapons and tank training vehicles. So we believe that it is necessary to strengthen its firepower, especially the ability to strike against living forces. Look, it has a 37mm gun. There was also a 20 mm cannon as a secondary gun. The 37 mm gun can penetrate 30 mm of steel armor at a distance of 1000 meters, and the 20 mm gun can penetrate 15 mm of armor and has a rate of fire of 300 rounds per minute. Both guns had a load capacity of 90 rounds and 300 rounds respectively, in addition to two 7.92 mm machine guns with a load capacity of 4,000 rounds. The secondary gun is located in the rear of the hull and can also fire into the air. The body size is 6300 mm * 2800 mm * 2450 mm. Its combat total weight is 16500 kg, the crew is 5 people. The traditional arrangement is adopted, the front part of the body is the cab, and the middle fighting compartment. Rear power compartment. The turret is a three-person turret, and the cab is a two-person turret, which can provide convenience for training. The engine is a 12-cylinder gasoline engine with a maximum power of 250 hp. The transmission includes a dry clutch. 5-speed mechanical gearbox, steering clutch, brakes and two-stage planetary side reducer, running gear including balanced suspension with 5 large-diameter load wheels on each side. Both the hull and turret are welded to ensure better ballistic performance. The thickness of the armor on the front of the hull and turret was 40 mm, 25 mm on the sides of the turret and 20 mm in other parts. ”

The most peculiar aspect of Henschel's light tank solution was its twin turrets, with two turrets attached to a light tank, which also had precedents in other countries. Because in the early days of the development of tanks, many people thought that tanks should be like cruisers at sea. With a large number of artillery pieces and thick armor, there were more than one turret "Land Cruiser" - cruiser tanks, and the Soviet T-35 tank had a total combat weight of 50 tons and a crew of up to 11 people. Like the British Independence, it has 5 separate turrets. However, the 5 turrets are arranged in two tiers.

In the 30s of the 20th century, when the T-35 made its debut at the military parade on Red Square in Moscow, the USSR demonstrated to the world its ability to create the most complex and heavy tanks. For a time, the T-35 became the pride of the Soviet military industry. Germany, France, Britain and other military powers highly regarded it as the standard for multi-turret tanks, and they have followed suit. Probably, the designers of the Henschel company also learned from these multi-turret predecessors. However, the installation of a twin turret on a light tank was probably the only one with the Henschel company.

Ignoring everyone's astonishment, Henschel continued: "Our medium tank program. Its combat total weight is 35 tons, and the crew is 4 people. The total length of the car is 6.90 meters, the width of the car is 3.3 meters, and the height of the car is 2.45 meters. We equipped this medium tank with a 57 mm 50 x caliber main gun with an ammunition base of 90 rounds, a 30 mm secondary gun with 120 rounds of ammunition alongside it, and two 7.92 mm machine guns with 4,500 rounds of ammunition for secondary weapons. From front to rear in turn is the wheelhouse, the fighting compartment and the power transmission compartment. The cab is located in front of the left side of the hull, there are 3 people in the fighting compartment, the gun commander is in front, the commander is in the rear, and on the left side is the loader. It installed a 12-cylinder gasoline engine with a maximum power of 450 horsepower. The gearbox is mechanical, with 4 forward gears and one reverse gear. The running gear, like the light tank scheme, uses five pairs of large-diameter load-bearing wheels. Both the hull and the turret were welded, the minimum thickness of the hull armor was 25 mm, the front of the hull was 50 mm thick, the frontal armor of the turret was 80 mm thick, and in other directions it was 30 mm. ”

When Henschel had finished, he bowed to the judges' bench and strode back. All that is left is deep thought. It was a surprise to everyone, especially Henschel's competitors, who were taken aback by Henschel's bold design.

The same is true for Xiao Weiguo, he didn't expect to see this kind of monster with a double turret at this time, as well as the design of a single turret and two cannons. Of course, the design of a single turret and two guns can also be seen in the 21st century, for example, in China's infantry fighting vehicles, its weapon system continues to use a 100 mm low-bore pressure gun and a 30 mm machine gun! This is also a single-turret double-gun design, but later generations of infantry fighting vehicles are single-person turrets, and the whole turret appears to be relatively short, and the ballistic performance is good. However, Henschel's twin gun design, with the addition of a secondary gun, increased the turret size a lot, and the increase in ammunition carried also made its hull larger than other companies' solutions.

The double turret is a relatively backward design idea, which has proved that the double turret or multi-turret tank is large in size and low in protection, and after a turret is destroyed, shrapnel will fly in the tank, resulting in a large number of personnel in the tank and low combat efficiency.

Therefore, Xiao Weiguo thinks that although the design of Henschel is very unique, it should be the worst among all the designs, although Henschel himself seems to be very satisfied with this design and is very confident, but the Ministry of Defense will probably not choose it. (To be continued.) )