Lin Han's zoo

The development and design of the tank must be forward-looking. The development cycle of a tank is long, and its design must be carried out taking into account the progress of the development of the opponent's tank. For the traverser, the biggest advantage is to know the progress of the opponent's technology development in advance and formulate their own corresponding development standards.

For World War II, the pace of development of tanks and the improvement of aircraft performance were very similar, and they were all the same every year. The classics of two years ago, after you chased after each other, became obsolete two years later, and the situation in the Soviet Union and Germany was the most prominent.

Although Lin Han and Hannah formulated a strategic policy of uniting the Soviet Union and reddening Europe, they could not predict how long the fragile "peace" between the Soviet Union and Germany could last, so when formulating the tank upgrade plan, everything was estimated in the worst-case scenario. On the other side of the Soviet Union, Stalin, out of fear of the "traverser" and "prophet", also took the whip to force the Soviet designers to keep developing and upgrading new tanks in order to gain more "security", so although the two countries have been peaceful, the speed of replacement of armored forces is extremely fast.

For the German armored forces, their biggest problem was that due to the restrictions of the Versailles Treaty, the military industrial development of the entire country was suppressed for a long time and could not develop normally, and they were forced to "herd sheep" for more than ten years.

The development and design of tanks must also be honestly carried out step by step, and technology accumulation must be carried out little by little. When the German tank was developed, Hannah did not want to directly develop a 30-ton tank in one step, but this was simply impossible. The development of technology is the most important thing to accumulate, and if you directly mess with a tank of thirty or forty tons or even fifty tons regardless of reality, it will be an egg. (P.S. Seeing a bunch of novels about World War II, some ignorant authors gave Germany forty or fifty tons of Haw Par in 1939, not to mention whether Germany had this technology in this era, it is not feasible in terms of tactical use alone, and the poor road passability of Haw Par is a disaster on the Western Front. ）

Lin Han's family understands this very well. So from the very beginning, they developed a "small step and fast run" technology development plan.

In the process of scientific and technological development, the biggest difficulty is that it is difficult to determine the direction of "research and development".

When a new technology develops to a certain extent, it enters a fork, and in the face of multiple branches that suddenly appear in front of them, each of which seems to lead to the end, technologists are often at a loss when they are at the intersection. In the end, you can either choose one of them in a gambling style, or rely on your wealth. We are not afraid to burn money, we try every way, and use practice to test the absolutely correct "means" of the truth, and "burn" a way by burning money.

However, for Germany, which was still in the abyss of economic crisis in 1932, it was impossible for them to burn a way out by burning money like the wealthy Americans.

And Germany, which was in the original historical plane, wanted to try everything precisely because it didn't know the direction. It costs a lot of money and wastes a lot of time. As a result, the development progress of the tank was seriously lagging behind, and in the end, it directly distorted the technology tree and chose the worst path: overlapping load wheels, which was the most wrong direction.

However, Germany in this plane, thanks to the help of the traverser, Lin Han and Hannah from the back tense are very clear about the next ten years. And even the direction of development of tanks in fifty years.

From the very beginning, the development of German tanks was set: three major development directions: larger-diameter load wheels, inclined armor, and torsion bar spring suspension.

The long-term plan for tank development is to take a 30-ton tank, an 88 mm ~ 105 mm tank gun, a diesel engine, and a universal chassis as the ultimate goal.

The history of the development of the No. 1 tank in the ship's male plane

As early as 1932, before Hitler was elected Chancellor six months ahead of history, the German Army Ordnance Bureau secretly ordered the development of a low-cost one in 1931. A transitional tank that can be produced immediately. Several companies have publicly bid for the design, and the results have been very similar. The military finally chose the LKA1 chassis designed by the Krupp company, which, for the sake of secrecy, called an agricultural tractor.

If the original history were to continue, it would have taken about a year and a half, that is, until April 1934, for the Krupp company to officially finalize this type of tank, which later became known as the 5. Tank I in the 5-ton class.

The No. 1 tank developed and designed by Krupp is an out-and-out training tank, with a two-person crew, and the weapon can only be installed with two 7.92 mm machine guns, with thin armor, many openings, cracks and welds, and the strength of the hull is poor.

However, after Hitler came to power half a year ahead of schedule in 1932, with the intervention of the traverser, the LKA1 chassis of the Krupp company, which had already developed the rough embryo, was thrown aside. Knowing that he was in a race against time, Hitler had no time to wait for the Krupp Company to perfect his design, so he directly asked the Krupp Company to directly copy the design of the famous British Vickers light tank, and set a hard target: more than 500 tanks must be produced by August 1933 and delivered to the army tank instructors.

Prior to this, the Germans had secretly obtained a Vickers tank through the Soviet Union, as well as the blueprints of the tank provided by the Soviet side for resale. (Note: The Soviet Union initially purchased the Vickers MK.E for the purpose of evaluating this tank, and the test results found that the MK.E was better than the tank they developed themselves, so they purchased the Vickers production authorization to produce it in the Soviet Union, and the Soviet-made MK.E was the T-26 light tank.) At first, the T-26 produced in the Soviet Union was in the A configuration (replaced with a Soviet-made DP machine gun), and then the turret was converted into a mixed configuration with a turret mounted with a 37 mm gun, and the other turret was still equipped with a machine gun. The final production T-26 was made by welding and a cast turret with a bullet-resistant configuration. ）

Based on the drawings of the Vickers tank provided by the Soviets, the Krupp company directly began to produce the German version of the Vickers tank, which the German Army named the No. 1 tank. During this period, the Germans also received a Soviet modification of the Vickers tank - the famous T26 light tank. (Note: During the Soviet-German honeymoon period in history, the military exchanges between the Soviet Union and Germany were very extensive.) The early version of the No. 3 tank was even tested in the Soviet Union. ）

After absorbing the features of the two tank designs, the tank designers of the Krupp company, at the request of Hannah, made the following improvements to the Vickers tank.

1. Strengthen the strength design of load-bearing suspension components and make improvements similar to those of T25, so that it can meet the design standards of the ten-ton tank proposed by Hannah.

2. Refer to the layout structure of T26 and change the two-person car group to a three-person car group.

3. Enlarge the turret seat. Based on the sketches provided by Hannah, the turret was redesigned to increase the recoil distance to accommodate a 40 mm/60x diameter anti-tank gun.

Although the anxious Hitler issued a rigid target of delivery before August 1933, in fact, the Krupp company, which was completely unprepared, did not start mass production of tanks until November of that year, and only completed the production plan of 300 Type I A tanks in January of the following year, while the remaining 240 Type 1A tanks were replaced by Mercedes-Benz and "Iris. Tifa completed the order during this period.

The main reason was the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles. With the factors of Germany's terrible military-industrial production system. After knowing that the production of the German military industrial system was so delayed, Hitler had to make strategic adjustments to the German domestic military industrial system from the beginning of his coming to power, which also affected the production of this type of tank.

However, at this time, the No. 1A type can only be said to be a semi-finished product - the 40/60 times the diameter anti-tank gun supporting it, and there is not even a shadow at this time. The 540 Type 1A tanks received by Guderian's three tank instructors could only be temporarily equipped with a 7.92 mm machine gun.

Not only that, but in order to speed up production and save costs. Although this batch of No. 1 tanks can fully withstand the weight of ten tons, the A-type armor has been thinned to 8~12 mm. Capable of withstanding only rifle and ordinary machine gun bullets, it can easily penetrate its frontal armor with a specialized anti-tank gun.

Of the No. 1 tank in this batch, only 20 of the 10-ton B were built for chassis testing in order to provide experience for future improvements.

Although the tank is extremely poor in terms of combat performance, it also has an advanced shining point compared to its prototype Vickers tank. The front of the hull was flattened into a 60-degree sloping armor plate, which was similar in appearance to the future 1936 Vickers tank, except that the turret was replaced with a larger turret to facilitate the installation of larger caliber guns in the future.

In addition, another advanced point is that in order to facilitate production, the entire tank chassis is designed to be "straight without curved", and the corner folding step structure is reduced as much as possible. "Use the whole armor plate" as much as possible, and its appearance looks like a streamlined "smooth beauty" -- the early tank design, or even before 1942, the tank designs of various countries are very strange in appearance, whether it is the Soviet T26, BT5, BT7, or the British cruiser tank or infantry tank, or the French tank, as well as the American M2 and M3 series, as well as the German No. 1 to No. 4 and even the Tiger tank in history, Its body looks like a terraced field, uneven, with right angles and corners. This design is useless, not only increases the manufacturing man-hours, but also seriously affects the strength of the defense, and in terms of aesthetics, it can be described as "ugly".

It was not until after the war in 1941 that countries in history realized that the original design was stupid, and they developed tanks with a "streamlined and smooth" appearance.

The No. 1A tank was equipped with the German Army instructor, and because of its beautiful streamlined appearance, it quickly became popular with the tankmen, who gave it the nickname "Wedding Car" - meaning that they could drive this tank to marry a wife.

In addition, another advanced feature is that although this type of tank is equipped with troops as a training vehicle, it is equipped with the most advanced transistor radio and on-board communication system at an early stage, which is of great significance for coordinated operations. However, when this type of tank participated in the Spanish Civil War, Germany deliberately removed the electronic equipment on the tank in order not to expose the importance of the radio station too early.

Equipped with the German Army's armored instructor, Tank No. 1 was on the verge of appearing in official propaganda and became a shining star in the media for a time. At that time, the British side deliberately compared the photos of the No. 1 tank with the photos of the Vickers 6-ton tank. Pointing at his hanging, he ridiculed the Germans for shamelessly copying the suspension design of the Vickers tank, and pretended to be disdainful: "Don't think that if you move your head (referring to the turret) and put on a new dress (referring to the difference in the shape of the car), we will not recognize that you have copied our design".

After the No. 1A type was equipped with troops, there were many problems, the first of which was the problem of insufficient engine horsepower. It was originally powered by a 100 hp air-cooled gasoline engine. Its use in the lightened version of the seven-ton No. 1 A tank can only be said to be so-so, barely enough.

When used for the ten-ton B type, the power problem is very obvious, because the engine horsepower is less than three days and two ends of the problem, you have to choose a new engine, that is, the later developed C type,

The Type C was replaced with a 120-horsepower, water-cooled gasoline engine. However, at this time, due to the military's production focus had shifted to the No. 2 tank, only 200 C-tanks were ordered, all of which were owned by Iris. Production was completed in 1934.

At this time, although the German military had developed a PAK3640 mm/45 mm tank gun, Lin Han and Hannah knew that on the future Western European front, the 40 times/45 mm tank gun could not gnaw at the tanks of the British and French forces. Therefore, he was not enthusiastic about the production of this tank gun, and at Hannah's suggestion, Hitler demanded that the barrel length be increased to 60 times the diameter.

Due to the barrel of this length, the tasks of its barrel production overlapped with that of the Bofors anti-aircraft gun. Coupled with the outbreak of war in China at that time, the official demand to give priority to the production of 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns made way, and the result was a serious shortage of production capacity for 40mm tank guns. The 40 mm tank guns that were produced were also snatched up by the more advanced No. 2 tank. So up to the C, Tank 1 was always forced to use machine guns as its main weapon.

Type 1D was developed in June 1934. A 7.92 machine gun was replaced with a 20 mm cannon, and the tank was finally equipped with a gun. By this time, the focus of German tank production had completely shifted to tank No. 2. The production of specially produced D-type tanks is very small, the total production is less than twenty units, and most of the D-type equipped in the army is upgraded from the existing A~C type.

The E is a version of the 30mm MK108 gun, which is similar to the D model, and is an improvement on the previous model. There is not a single one that has been specially established for production. This type of tank was mainly exported to Spain to participate in the Spanish Civil War, because the Germans deliberately removed the radio station in the tank during the export, and the firepower was weak, its performance on the Spanish battlefield was average. However, when the Spanish Republican Army received Tank No. 1, it usually attached the 45mm tank gun from the broken and scrapped T26 tank to the No. 1 tank. Since the turret of Tank No. 1 was designed for the 40 mm / 60 tank gun. The installation of the T26's 45mm/46x gun was not a problem at all, and many successes were achieved, but the shortcomings of too thin armor have always been a problem for the Spaniards.

Type F appeared before the Polish campaign, at this time the No. 1 tank finally ended the embarrassment of only 8~12 mm armor, and upgraded the armor protection according to the needs of the war, increasing the total weight to ten tons.

The Model G appeared after the end of the French War in 1941 and was equipped with a 47mm/35w tank gun dismantled from captured French B2 and S35 tanks. After the end of the French campaign, the German Army captured a large number of tank guns of this type from the French, and used them to upgrade the fire power of the domestic No. 1 tank for waste reasons.

However, at this time in Germany, the medium tank was already the No. 3 tank, the light tank was dominated by the No. 2 tank, and the No. 1 tank was used as a training vehicle.

Until the eventual cessation of development, the tank did not use the 40 mm/60 times more tank gun he wanted.

Tank No. 1, after the war, as a "war surplus" material, was exported abroad at a very low price, Finland bought 10 units, Yugoslavia, Romania, Hungary and other countries all bought dozens of units. In addition, the German side also donated 20 and 10 No. 1 G models to Norway and Denmark in the form of "military aid". The main reason why these countries purchased the No. 1 tank was because of its simple structure, low cost of use and maintenance, and its suitability as a tank training vehicle for armored troops.

The country that received the most tank No. 1 after the war was German Poland.

After 1943. Under the bayonets of the Germans, Poland was partitioned because of the needs of the Soviet Union and Germany, and after being cut off a large amount of land, it was once again "restored". Out of political necessity, the Germans "gifted" a hundred early No. 1 tanks as a one-time gift to the "German Republic of Poland" that they had propped up.

To disgust the Poles, the Germans were still on the territory of the former Poland. They carved out a 20,000-square-kilometer piece of land and established a Gypsy kingdom, and then, in cooperation with the Soviet Union, the two countries collected Gypsies from all over Europe, and then forcibly transported them here by train to help them establish a Gypsy Republic.

In old Europe, the Gypsies were a more repulsive presence than the Jews. Both Stalin and Hannah hated this one who only liked to wander and steal. Fortune tellers are a people who refuse to be quiet and work hard. The two countries' act of forcing the Gypsies to establish a state was praised by all over Europe, and they helped everyone solve the problem of gypsy thieves once and for all. After the establishment of the Gypsy Republic, the Germans also gave thirty tanks No. 1 as gifts.

In Asia, China and Lanfang have received a total of three early No. 1 tanks, which they have requested to fill the inventory of their respective tank museums. Two of China's vehicles, one is placed in the Beijing Military Museum. It was the early A type, and the other was the G type. It is placed in the Chariot Garden of the Military Museum in Shanghai. And the car that Lan Fang got was placed in the museum in New Kunlun, the capital of Lan Fang, and it was one of the few E models exported to Spain.

In the German Panzer Corps, Tank No. 1 was nicknamed "Little Mouse". This nickname was given by Lin Han, who, out of a sense of bad taste, gave each of the tanks developed by the Germans the nickname of an animal.

As a tank, the total number of tanks specially produced by the German Army was less than eight hundred. However, as an artillery tractor and ammunition delivery vehicle. More than 300 units of the six-ton deformation armored tractor, which were improved from its body, were produced. The No. 1 tank itself was largely absent from the French campaign on the Western Front, but its deformed vehicles, armored tractors, appeared in large numbers on the French battlefield, and their main task was to fill artillery tractors and ammunition carriers.

It's different from history. During the French campaign, the German armored corps had a sufficient number of tanks, so the weakly protected tank No. 1 was not sent to the battlefield. However, there are various deformation vehicles of this type of tank, and the most famous deformation car is a self-propelled rocket artillery vehicle equipped with 2X4 eight-mounted rocket launchers. In the French battlefield, the screech of its firing made a deep impression on the Anglo-French forces, and it received the nickname of Hitler's accordion.

The history of the development of the No. 2 tank

The No. 2 tank began mass production in the second half of 1935 and produced a total of 1,600 units until the production line was completely closed in 1941, and it was an important main force of the German armored forces in the one-year war.

In 1932, Hitler came to power half a year ahead of schedule, one of the key development projects. First of all, the people of the German Machinery Institute, according to the three indicators proposed by Hannah, changed the development plan of the German tank as the first priority development project, and even stopped the development of the original No. 1 tank to directly copy the Vickers tank, and concentrated all the manpower on this 13-ton tank development project.

Tank 2 was built as a light tank, with a four-man crew and a 40mm/60x diameter gun. The design weight was 13 tons, the improved reinforced protection was increased to fifteen tons, and in the German army it was called the Wildcat tank.

Except for the initial use of a 13mm rangefinder machine gun instead of an artillery for tank training due to insufficient artillery production, the tank has always used the 40/60 times the diameter of the tank gun.

This PAK3640/60 tank gun, because it uses the same kind of barrel as the famous Bofors anti-aircraft gun, in the early days, due to the lack of barrel production capacity, to give way to the Bofors anti-aircraft gun in the armament plan, the production was limited for a time, and had to spend foreign exchange to import 400 barrels of the same type from Sweden to replenish it.

The first prototype was built in April 1934 with a total of five cars, and then subjected to rigorous repeated tests. In May of the following year, the production drawings were finalized, the production line was ready to start mass production in September, and the first batch of 54 No. 2 tanks left the production line in October.

Due to the fact that there were traversers who determined the "correct" direction of development from the very beginning, from Type A to Type D, in addition to the gradual thickening of the armor, as well as minor adjustments in the design of the mechanical structure, the addition of anti-aircraft machine guns. There are basically no major improvements to this type of tank.

The E model is an experimental model, with only three units produced, and the weight is increased to between 20 tons ~ 25 tons, the main purpose is to test the degree of damage to the suspension system due to the greater weight, so as to provide experience for the development of the next generation of the No. 3 tank. Unsurprisingly, the internal structure of the hulls of all three tanks was severely damaged after overload tests. Can only be scrapped. However, all three prototypes were mothballed and placed in the German Tank Museum many years later.

Developed after the end of the one-year war, the F type was different from many previous models, this type of suspension system was heavily designed, and at the same time replaced with a more powerful engine, nominally called the F type, in fact, in addition to the body or the body of the No. 2 tank, the internal structure of the car is very different from the other models of the No. 2 tank, this type of tank is named Bobcat.

According to the original development idea. This tank was positioned as a reconnaissance tank.

However, the production of the F-type was very small, and the production of only 25 units was stopped. The main reason is that at this time Germany has begun a new program of the common chassis of the E tank, and at the same time, the idea of using the tank has also changed, and the task of reconnaissance tanks has been replaced by the planned infantry fighting vehicles.

Although the production of the F-type was small, it was fortunate to participate in the war - Israel was the only overseas user of the F-type. When Israel was founded, Germany "generously" aided them with a batch of "superfluous" equipment. Twenty Type II F Lynx tanks were sent to Israel to take part in the First Middle East War and the Second Middle East War.

On the No. 2 tank, we can see the prototype of the "universal chassis" idea of the German side. At the beginning of the design and production of this type of tank, the development of many deformation vehicles was taken into account.

In the operational ideas of the German armored forces. The No. 2 tank is used as an auxiliary supplement to the No. 3 tank, and its relatively cheap chassis is widely used to install various types of guns, and there are many kinds of deformation vehicles.

For example, the No. 2 assault gun with a 75 mm / 24 times howitzer installed, the Cricket self-propelled howitzer with a 105 mm howitzer, and the Mozu self-propelled anti-aircraft gun with a 40 Beaufort anti-aircraft gun. As well as the Spitfire tank, with the turret removed, the flamethrower installed.

During the One Year War, about 1,300 Chassis II vehicles were involved in the war on the Western Front, of which more than 400 were his various deformation vehicles. On the battlefield of Western Europe, the second tank and its deformed car. It was as an assistant to the No. 3 tank.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1937, the first tank production line imported from Germany was the No. 2 tank. However, although China began to try to learn to produce the No. 2 tank very early, due to the shortage of skilled workers, insufficient armor steel production capacity, and the production of engines was hindered, the early production was very low, and by the end of the 1940 war, only more than 200 units were produced.

After the end of the war, the Chinese side received more advanced production drawings for tanks 3 and 4 from Germany, and the production plan for tank 2 was halted. In addition, it was already a peaceful era at that time, and the development of Northeast China urgently needed a large number of tractors, and part of the production capacity of the Dongfanghong Tank Factory, which introduced the No. 2 tank production line, was turned to tractors, while its main technical strength was transferred to overcome the production difficulties of the No. 4 tank and its improved E36, and the production of the No. 2 tank in China also ended.

Although its production in China is not high, its production process has helped New China to train a large number of industrial workers.

The most successful deformation of the No. 2 tank was the 16-ton light tank destroyer developed in 1941 based on the body of the F-type, which was very similar in shape to the famous historical Stalker tank destroyer, and was equipped with a 75/42 times tank gun that had been replaced and eliminated from the No. 3 tank.

This type of tank destroyer was designed to deal with the possible "T34" sea in the future. However, there was peace between the Soviet Union and Germany, and the German Army did not need much of its equipment, so it stopped ordering only twenty vehicles for testing, and then mothballed them as technical reserves. Although no further equipment was obtained, the research department continued to receive development funding to improve it, the ultimate modification of which was the E10 Stalker II tank destroyer.

This situation continued until after 1948, when the development of a more anti-tank light tank destroyer with a "swinging" turret was successfully developed, and the military ordered the cessation of potential development of this series.

Although this type of tank destroyer is not officially equipped in Germany, it has achieved unexpectedly good results in overseas sales.

Finland and Sweden in Northern Europe, Switzerland in Central Europe, and Hungary in Southern Europe. Yugoslavia and Greece in the Balkans, as well as Slovakia and Poland, which were later "unraveled" by Germany, were very fond of this light destroyer with its simple structure and easy maintenance. And in South America, the Argentines are also users of this lightweight tank destroyer

The Stalker and its improved E10 tank destroyer, due to the continuous receipt of overseas production orders. Its production line was maintained until 1952, when it was finally closed. Its production life is even longer than that of tank No. 4.

The Skoda Arsenal in the Czech Republic, which was also authorized by the German side, was authorized to produce the production of the E10 tank destroyer in Germany, and after Germany closed the production line of the E10 tank destroyer, they themselves continued to produce nearly 300 E10s for their own country and foreign countries before stopping production.

The user of the stalker in Asia is none other than Ma Banxia, who was dismembered by Lin Han. Malaysia, which was forcibly dismembered by Japan, Lan Fang and Thailand within 100 days of independence and statehood, smashed the pot and sold iron after the war to desperately improve its domestic armed forces. They can't afford expensive tanks, and the stalkers are so cheap that they take a fancy to them. An order of up to one hundred and fifty cars was placed in one bite.

Due to its simple structure and the convenience of mass production, the German side deliberately exported its production technology in large quantities to the "allies". In 1946, after the car was discontinued after all overseas orders were completed, Italy bought a complete production line for its own production. In addition to Italy, North France also received a license for the production of tank destroyers of this type.

Tank 3 (Panther)

Tank No. 3 came from the 20-ton tank development program, and initially Guderian proposed that it could not withstand more than 25 tons in order to accommodate European bridges.

But a request was later made by Hannah. Hannah raised its cap to 27 tons and pointed it out directly to the tank designers. In the future, the tank will definitely increase its armor and gun weight to 27 tons, so it must be designed with sufficient margin.

From the very beginning, Tank III was expected to be the main force of Hannah's planned future French campaign on the Western Front. (Note: Historically, Germany developed the No. 3 15-ton tank and the 20-ton No. 4 tank almost at the same time, but here Hannah canceled the development plan for the 15-ton tank, so the number of the 20-ton tank was moved forward by one place and became the No. 3)

According to Hannah's "perfect plan": this type of tank was planned to be equipped with a 75mm/55x diameter main gun. Five pairs of large-diameter load-bearing wheels, 60-degree frontal oblique armor, five-person crew.

But the plan is beautiful, but the reality is cruel, and the worst enemy of the poor and chaotic organization of production in Germany and the improvement of military industry in Germany. Actually. Hannah was told by the people in the armaments department that due to the complexity of the structure and the high number of production hours, it was impossible for the military factories to supply enough 75 mm/55 times tank guns before 1940.

So in the end, we had to settle for the next best thing and install a 75 mm/42 x diameter tank gun instead.

Although it is called the 20-ton project, Hannah actually required it to set aside a maximum weight limit of more than 30 percent at the time of development. The tank was planned to be fitted with a 75 mm/42 x diameter gun, 60-degree frontal oblique armor, and a five-man crew. Considering the swampy environment of the Western European theater, this type of tank uses a wide track of 40 mm. According to Hannah's plan, after the end of the future French campaign, the production of tank No. 3 will gradually cease, and Germany will switch to the production of thirty-ton tanks.

In order to speed up the development of the No. 3 tank, its design and development was completely based on the No. 2 tank and was amplified, so the appearance of the two tanks is very similar.

The No. 3 tank, from Type A to Type C, was an experimental type, and the production volume was not high, adding up to only 300 units, and in May 1938, the final version of the D model began to be produced, and the total combat weight had risen to 25 tons.

At this time, after many years of adjustment, the German military industry finally completed the integration and put an end to the chaotic and inefficient production situation.

The production of the No. 3 D, which began in March, was only 20 in the first month, and increased to 90 in the second month, and in September, with the start of the new Nibelungen tank factory in the Ruhr area, the output suddenly expanded to 200 vehicles, and by October 1939, when the Soviet Union and Germany jointly declared war on Poland and partitioned Poland, the German armored forces had received nearly 2,000 No. 3 tanks.

After the end of the Polish campaign, during the long winter break, most of the No. 4 tanks were equipped with newly designed 13 mm anti-aircraft machine guns, while many No. 3 tanks were adapted to the French operating environment. The side armor was thickened to 30 mm, the total weight was increased from 25 to 26 tons, and the model was upgraded to the E type.

There was also an improved version of the D3, a flamethrower tank with a machine gun replaced with a flamethrower, which was custom-made for the front and rear tanks of the French campaign, and a total of 90 tanks of this type were sent to the front line. In addition, the tank repair workshop also renovated a batch of its own, the specific total number is unknown, in the battle to force the crossing of the Maas River and the attack on the Sedang fortress, this type of tank participated in the battle.

When the Battle of France broke out in May 1940, more than 1,800 No. 3 tanks were wreaking havoc in Western Europe and caused the famous No. 3 crisis. Although the No. 3 tank could not be equipped with a more powerful 75 mm/55 times tank gun due to production capacity, it could only be replaced by a relatively simple 42 times diameter version of the tank gun. However, the firepower of British and French tanks at that time was very weak. Even the reduced version of the 42 times 75 gun is still a terrifying existence for them, and this type of tank is an important contributor to Germany's victory on the Western Front.

Because of the opening of the traverser, Germany's military production capacity was almost double that of the same period in history, but because of the need to prevent the Soviet Union from "joking" with Germany on the Eastern Front, nearly a thousand No. 3 tanks were still placed on the Eastern Front during the French campaign. The biggest problem of Germany on the Western Front during this period was not the lack of tanks. Rather, the pace of the attack was too fast, and logistical supplies often could not keep up. The front-line troops are always shouting backwards that they are undersupplied, not that there are not enough tanks, so it makes little sense to concentrate too many tanks.

After the end of the French campaign, the Germans, who were "idle", finally had the energy to "slowly" upgrade the tank gun to the predetermined 55 times the diameter, which was the final version of the F model.

However, by this time, Hannah's eyes were fixed on the fourth tank, which used an 88mm tank gun. Plus Britain quickly succumbed to the blows of the Sino-Soviet-German Triple Alliance. With the end of the war, the production of the No. 3 tank ceased to be used by the Army in 1941. The task of the idle tank factory was mainly to improve the old model No. 3 tank according to the standard of the F type.

At the end of the year-long war, the No. 3 tank was exported to the Middle East in large quantities, and the main user was Israel, which participated in all the Middle East wars. And there against the T34 tank, the KV tank, and even the T44 tank (that is, the later T54/55), and achieved good results.

Although Tank No. 3 even beat the T44 on the battlefield, this is not the reason why he is more advanced than the T44. It's the Arabs' way of using tanks and poor armor technology, and whatever tanks fall into their hands will only be exhausted.

In addition to the Middle East, the Republic of Odissa, founded in 1952 on the Indian peninsula, was also an overseas customer of the No. 3 tank. The Republic of Orissa was founded in 1952 by the famous Ratani guerrillas and the British after peace talks.

It's just that this red game under the banner of socialism, after ten years of singing double reed plays in India to help the British do dirty work, whether it is the socialist Soviet Union or New China, they are very suspicious of Ratani's origin, and the United States advertises that this person is a spy of the British Fifth Division, so the two families have become very cautious about military support for this country. And the British government, ostensibly having been at war with Ratani for so many years, is not convenient to pull it down to directly support the newly established country. This task was then entrusted to Germany, which had little to do with Indian affairs.

After secretly colluding with Artoria, in 1955, the Germans sold nearly 200 F-Type III tanks to the Republic of Orissa at a very low price. After receiving the tanks, in 1958 the Republic of Orissa secretly imported hundreds of diesel-engined tanks from Britain to upgrade the No. 3 tanks - a modification that also happened to Israel. Thanks to the replacement of a more powerful diesel engine, the mobility of this type of tank has increased considerably.

After India's formal independence in 1960, the remnants of India were divided by the British into the Republic of South India, led by the Brittanians, and the Republic of India, founded by Jawaharlal Nehru. The former controls the territory of nearly nine states in India.

In 1962, the Republic of South India declared war on India and seized two Indian states, during which the Republic of Odisha also fell into the trap and seized the entire state of West Bengal. At that time, the No. 3 tank was dispatched on the battlefield and had a fierce battle with the Indian comet tank. Although the performance of these two tanks is comparable, due to the low quality of the Indian soldiers, the No. 3 tank still has the upper hand on the battlefield.

In 1941, the Chinese side obtained a complete set of production lines and production drawings for the No. 3 tank transferred by the Germans, and about 600 No. 3 tanks were produced before and after. However, the No. 3 tank produced by the Chinese side was based on rotten paddy fields suitable for southern China, and most of these tanks were deployed in the newly recovered provinces of Annam and Dali.

In order to adapt to the poor terrain of the two places of rotten paddy fields. At the time of mass production, the track and transmission structure were improved accordingly, and the track width was increased to 45 mm.

In addition to being used as a tank, after the end of the one-year war, the German Army dismantled a large number of early No. 3 tank turrets that had been damaged during the war and returned to the factory for repair, and used the chassis to add artillery and convert them into self-propelled howitzers. And the turret was dismantled. It was placed on the ground mud cannon of the fortified fortress on the Eastern Front to defend against the Soviet armored clusters, which served as a rotating turret. These ground-rotating turrets were topped with additional armor plates thirty mm thick to defend against turrets falling at large angles.

Leopard tank No. 4

The 30-ton Tank 4 is a key project developed by Hannah after completing the development of the 3rd tank, and its goal is to cope with the future T34 crisis.

However, due to the emergence of the E tank program, coupled with the improvement of the strategic environment around Germany, as well as the advancement of technology, this tank finally became a transitional product, but in the history of German tank development. It is an important symbol of the future.

In January 1941, a prototype of the No. 4 tank, with a truncated barrel, 88 mm/52 times tank gun with a total combat weight of 34 tons, began testing at the tank test site in Bavaria.

From the very beginning, the design idea of this tank was fully copied from the later Soviet T54 tank, which can be regarded as a reduced version of the T54.

Although the three indicators of mobility, firepower, and defense all look very good. Due to the serious plagiarism of the Soviet tank design concept, it was fouled by the armored soldiers after equipping the troops.

The main reason is that the body is too short. Poor ergonomics was a torture for tall German tank crews.

The second is that there are only 42 shells, which can only be said to be just enough. (Note: Historically, the Tiger tank shelled 87 rounds, and the Panther also had about 80 rounds)

Tank IV began to be produced in small quantities in the second half of 1942, during which time it was continuously improved. The model numbers changed quickly, and the first three models were only minor repairs to improve the tank's mechanical structure and power pack.

After the production of tank No. 4 to 500 units of the C model, a major modification of the D series soon appeared.

The D-type was followed by a major improvement, and compared to the C-type, the D-type no longer over-compressed the car height. The height of the vehicle has been increased by ten centimeters to 2.53 meters (Note that the height of the T54 vehicle is 2.4 meters) The layout of the interior space has been readjusted, the man-machine environment has been improved, the artillery height stabilizer has been installed, the turret rotation uses advanced electric rotation/manual mixing, the number of spare ammunition has been increased to 48 rounds, the length of the main gun barrel has also been increased to 56 times, and the load-bearing system has also been adjusted to accommodate the increased vehicle weight, at which time its vehicle weight has been increased to 38 tons.

The biggest improvement is the change in the number of crew members.

During World War II, the general configuration of tanks was 5 people, namely the commander, driver, communicator, gunner, and loader, which was also the most efficient preparation in combat. The standard equipment of the first generation of main battle tanks after World War II was a commander (part-time communicator), gunner, driver, loader, and four-person crew. For example, the Type 59 tank, the first generation of the post-war main battle tank, its Soviet prototype T54/55, the American-made M48, and the British centenarian captain, were all four-man crews.

An important reason for this situation is the advancement of on-board radio station technology. In this plane, due to the influence of the traverser, transistor stations appeared nearly a decade earlier than in history. Compared with the old-fashioned tube radio, the transistor radio is small in size, light in weight, simple and convenient to operate, and no longer needs to be equipped with a special correspondent like the old-fashioned tube radio, and the commander can work part-time in this task.

In addition, there is another reason that the newly designed electrically rotated turret increases the turret speed, so that the artillery coaxial machine gun can replace the role of the hull machine gun. The protection was greatly improved - of course, the disadvantage was that the hull machine gun was not properly loaded, and the ability to do so against infantry was somewhat reduced.

Before 1944, this design was a bit too radical. But Hannah considered that in the coming years, there was little chance of a war between the Soviet Union and Germany. And now it's the technological progress and the armored corps (to be continued) (to be continued) (to be continued. )