This is not the first time Tukhachevsky has been interested in heavy tanks, he was a supporter of the multi-turret T-28 before, and he once had a falling out with Li Xiaofeng over this tank, and even one of the reasons for his resignation.

Of course, it was 1938, and Tukhachevsky had crawled out of that pit compared to the superstitious multi-turret tank that had been before, and now he presented it to the Military Commission as a tank with strong armor defenses that could withstand the attacks of anti-tank weapons now and in the next three years, and had powerful offensive firepower to effectively destroy fortresses and fortifications.

Tukhachevsky believes that the total combat weight of such a tank should be at least about 35 tons, the frontal armor of the turret and bow should not be less than 50 mm, and the sides should not be less than 30 mm, and it should be armed with a 76-mm howitzer, and if possible, 85 mm is better.

Anyway, looking at what Tukhachevsky meant, this tank is a bit like a lightweight KV-1, with about the same firepower and slightly worse defense. If a new heavy tank is developed according to his intentions, it will be an out-and-out tragedy.

At least Li Xiaofeng will not agree to launch such a heavy tank with waste wood, in his opinion, this garbage is not as good as NORINCO's No. 54 project, it is better to directly replace No. 54 project with an L11 or ZIS-376.2 mm gun. If there is enough time, simply replace the D-25122 grenade with the later IS-2 and IS-3. Anyway, when the Celestial Empire Demon changed to 59 in later generations, he frantically stuffed a 125mm tank gun, and there was no problem with changing it to D-25.

In Li Xiaofeng's view, Project 54, which is equipped with 122 grenades, can PK all the KV series and IS series in the future, and there is no need to waste energy on heavy tanks at all. And Tukhachevsky's demands at this time are simply out of place.

Other than that. One more word. Project 54 has been developed over several years. It is almost fully mature, and may be inferior to the original T-54/T-55 in terms of armor quality and firepower, but in other aspects of performance, it has perfectly completed the copycat mission.

In particular, it is worth mentioning that after technical research, the transmission system problem that made the Soviet Union the most painful was finally overcome by NORINCO. Speaking of Soviet tanks, perhaps the first impression of many comrades is the sea of tanks, as if Maozi relied on the tactics of the sea of people to win, and its technical equipment level is very bad.

Actually, it's not. For a long time after World War II, Soviet tanks were ahead of their Western counterparts in terms of both quantity and overall technical level, except for one aspect, that is, the power system.

Needless to say, the B2 series diesel engine package that has remained unchanged for thousands of years has won the world. In the 70s of the 20th century, to be honest, the road of B2 has become impossible. Thanks to Maozi's designers, the weight of the tank was depressed with a high level of overall design, so that the B2 could support it.

Compared with the B2 of the grandfather, the worst thing in the USSR was the transmission system, which is the so-called gearbox. This component, which required precision machining, was the worst aspect of the Soviet Union, which lagged behind the West from before and after World War II. It's been spinning around on a single power stream. Can't get out of that pit.

The worst thing about the T-34, for example, was that it was a rather rudimentary mechanical fixed shaft rotation. Low life, poor reliability, each T-34 has to prepare at least two sets of transmissions to be enough, what's more, this set of transmission length is still very large, forcing the T-34 to only longitudinally the engine, the guide zhì chassis becomes longer, affecting the maneuverability.

In fact, not only the T-34, but also all the tanks or assault guns that Mao Zi used the B2 as the power in World War II had the same problem, and this transmission was really painful. It was not until the T-54 that Maozi solved the problem of the volume and reliability of the mechanical fixed-shaft transmission by improving the guò process, otherwise the T-54 would be another freak with a turret "very forward".

Fortunately, there was a certain immortal in this time and space, and the large investment of Tongguò North Industry finally solved this problem 6 years ahead of schedule, and from February 1938, the No. 54 tank could finally be finalized.

Of course, when Project 54 was finalized, there were still certain differences from the historical T-54, such as the quality of the armor steel mentioned earlier, which was slightly worse. The other is the problem of firepower, for example, the D-10 tank gun, which was developed from the naval gun, has not yet been born, so it naturally cannot be installed.

And NORINCO did not choose a copycat D-10, from the very beginning, in Li Xiaofeng's planning, NORINCO did not plan to spend too much energy on rifled tank guns. After the introduction of Bofors' high-pressure artillery technology, the development direction of NORINCO was smoothbore guns. However, at the beginning, it was not the high-power high-pressure smoothbore gun of the future, but chose a gradual development route.

First of all, we will develop a medium-bore tank gun that mainly fires armor-piercing shells, and then go to a higher level when the technology matures in the future, and develop a smoothbore gun with a higher bore pressure that mainly fires kinetic energy bullets.

So why did Li Xiaofeng first build a smoothbore gun with a not so high technical level? The reason is very simple: first, World War II was a war of attrition, and weapons should first be cheap and mass-produced, while medium-bore smoothbore guns are less difficult to produce than tank guns widely used in World War II (without rifling), and do not require a very high level of gun steel (low cost), which meets the needs of mass production; Second, the power is also sufficient, a 100 mm caliber armor-piercing projectile, in that year and month static armor-piercing level is about 300 mm, dynamic armor-piercing level will not be lower than 70~80 mm, after improving the structure and composition of the medicine cover, it can easily reach the level of static armor-piercing 500 mm, dynamic armor-piercing about 120 mm, and can basically deal with a qiē armored target in World War II.

Moreover, the production process of armor-piercing bullets is less demanding and not as complex as the processing of armor-piercing bullets on the core. For example, the early Soviet 45mm, 57mm, and 76.2mm tungsten alloy armor-piercing bullets have always had problems in their craftsmanship, and the scrap rate is frighteningly high. At one point, before the outbreak of war in 1941, most of the armor-piercing shells that had been loaded into the troops were withdrawn, and when the Germans were suddenly attacked, the panzers and anti-tank artillery had to use grenades to deal with the Germans.

Armor-piercing shells are not that troublesome, just make a conical powder cover and add a little high-energy explosives. Solve the problem of the fuze a little more and you're done. Anyway, according to Li Xiaofeng's plan. This is the most cost-effective solution.

There may be comrades who want to say it. Could it be that only you, the Soviet Union, can use armor-piercing shells, why don't Britain, the United States and Germany use such a good method? And later, the famous L7105 mm tank gun in the Cold War had armor-piercing shells.

That's not what I said, it's not that rifled guns can't use armor-piercing shells, but they can't exert the maximum power of armor-piercing shells. Because of the rifling relationship, the projectile rotates at high speed, while the armor-piercing projectile "burns through" the armor by the jet, which naturally has the characteristics of a fluid, and the centrifugal force of high-speed rotation will disperse the jet. Greatly affects the armor-piercing performance. Even if the French invented the technology of sliding the cartridge belt, the armor-piercing projectile of the rifled cannon is only one-third to one-fifth of the static armor-piercing power.

It can be said that rifled guns are inherently unsuitable for firing armor-piercing shells, while smoothbore guns are different, the projectile only rotates slightly after being fired, and basically relies on the tail to maintain stability, and the armor-piercing power is well preserved. Of course, there is one thing to say, the accuracy of smoothbore guns is really worse than rifled guns. However, considering the backwardness of tank sighting equipment in World War II, most tank and anti-tank battles are within a thousand meters, and the accuracy at this distance is acceptable.

In fact, the only restriction on the use of smoothbore guns at that time was actually a matter of concept. The old stubbornly believed that smoothbore guns were not good, and did not believe in how much combat power a tank equipped with smoothbore guns could have. There is not much confidence in armor-piercing shells.

For this reason, Li Xiaofeng broke his leg and sold a lot of favors to get the Central Military Commission to agree to a small-scale purchase of a batch of T-10 tanks equipped with 100 smoothbore guns later named the 1A54 type. It is interesting to note that initially in the Red Army, the T-54 was classified as a heavy tank, and its main mission was to build pillboxes.

In order to cooperate with the new mission of the T-54, NORINCO specially developed armor fragmentation shells, but generally not used to attack armored targets, but as a special ammunition for attacking fortifications. At that time, the T-54 mainly used three types of ammunition, armor-piercing shells, armor-fragmenting shells and grenades. In particular, armor fragmentation shells, as a kind of ammunition that can attack both armored targets and civil fortifications, were very popular with Red Army soldiers.

From February 1938, the T-54 entered service with the 1st Guards Mechanized Infantry Army, and the first batch of purchases was carried out in the number of 100 vehicles. According to the General Staff of the Red Army, if the T-54 is excellent, it will continue to be procured.

At this time, Tukhachevsky suddenly asked for a new heavy tank project, which in Li Xiaofeng's view was to grab business, and he was naturally annoyed. What annoyed him even more was that some of the old stubborns still felt that what the guy said made sense, and even Stalin sided with Tukhachevsky.

So the heavy tank project, later named T-38, was launched, and Kotin was responsible for the development, and he modified the original multi-turret tank project, and soon came up with a KV-1 tank that was exactly like the historical one.

At that time, Kotin was still a little proud, and confidently declared to his father-in-law Voroshilov that the T-38 was the best heavy tank of the Soviet Union, and there was no one. However, what is more slapping in the face is that the General Armament Department did not listen to his nonsense, and after conducting a comprehensive comparative test of the T-38 and the T-54, it reported to the Military Commission a conclusion: "Whether it is mobility, defense or firepower, the T-38 lags behind the T-54 in all aspects, and the development of the T-38 is terminated, and there is no need for this kind of heavy tank to be stored at all." ”

If it weren't for Voroshilov's relationship, the T-38 really wouldn't even have the qualifications to go to the production line, relying on Voroshilov's relationship, the Red Army cavalry unit reluctantly purchased two separate heavy tank brigades, and exported another batch to Spain, Finland, East Poland and East Prussia, with a cumulative production of no more than 500 vehicles.

The T-54 is completely different, from 1938 to 1981, the cumulative production of more than 100,000 units, once became a symbol of the torrent of red steel.

Putting this aside for the time being, let's get back to the Spanish battlefield and fight the first battle of strength and will between the two armies of Aranjuez and Ssoud, and the battle was once extremely fierce, and the Tagus River was once stained red with blood. However, as the Nationalists retreated from the outskirts of Madrid, Franco and Guderian, who had joined forces, finally repelled Tukhachevsky's attack and fled to Ciudad Real in one fell swoop.

How much wolf bèi? Franco's national army lost almost all of its heavy weapons, and even a considerable number of soldiers lost their rifles, and escaped almost empty-handed. The Germans were not much stronger. Most of the No. 1 tanks broke through the international columns. Or be wrecked. Either they were abandoned due to mechanical problems and fuel exhaustion, and the total number of tank No. 1 that arrived safely in Ciudad Real was less than 20, so to speak, and the armor was lost.

After arriving in Ciudad Real, Franco and Guderian had a lengthy meeting and finally came to the conclusion that it was not safe to remain in Ciudad Real, and that the troops had to move south as far south as possible to defend against the Russians at Córdoba on the Guadalquivir River.

This time Franco retreated quickly. Moreover, he fully accepted Guderian's opinion, and in the future, his goal was changed to ensure the security of the southern territory, and after actively consolidating the southern front, he slowly planned it. And he was determined to take the ports on the Mediterranean coast first, and then to Madrid.

It seems that Franco has made amends, but in fact Guderian wrote in his diary: "It is too late to make amends, and it is difficult to say whether the communists can attack the south wholeheartedly after losing Ferrol's containment...... At least I don't believe that Franco has a chance to take power in Spain......"

Not beat around the bush. Guderian doesn't have to be so pessimistic, because it wasn't the Popular Front that caused him to be passive. Rather, it is an international column. Today, Tukhachevsky's relationship with the cabinet of the Second Republic is not incompatible, but also full of contradictions.

Tukhachevsky had had enough of his pig teammates, if it weren't for their refusal to send air support, if it weren't for the fact that they watched Franco's troops swagger out of Madrid. He could intercept the Germans in Aranjuez, and he could fight a war of annihilation and solve the problem of civil war in one fell swoop.

And it was the mistakes of these pig teammates that turned the battle of annihilation into a pursuit war, although a part of the enemy was annihilated, but the main force of the enemy still existed, and after this arduous head-on collision, the losses of the international column were relatively large, and they were no longer able to continue fighting.

Of course, if that's all there is to it, Tukhachevsky's what's even more unbearable is that Madrid's pig teammates even celebrated a grand victory in the defense of Madrid, claiming that it was the Spanish people who defended Madrid, and anyway, in the words of the cabinet of the Second Republic, this victory belongs entirely to the Spanish people.

Obviously, the implication of this is that the victory in the defense of Madrid had nothing to do with the international column and Tukhachevsky. Tell me, can Tukhachevsky hear this?

To add insult to injury, the Cabinet of the Second Republic also questioned Tukhachevsky in a sarcastic and mocking tone: "Why let the enemy go? Why didn't you annihilate the enemy? ”

As soon as these two came out, Tukhachevsky was so angry that he flipped the table, anyway, from that moment on, the relationship between the international column and the republican army was completely broken. The two sides have changed from former comrades and brothers to enemies who have never been in touch with each other.

In other words, Franco and Guderian need not be discouraged at all, and the Popular Front, which has always been good at doing death, may soon return all the fruits of victory, they just need to wait patiently for the moment.

The timing soon came, and with the breakdown of relations between the International Column and the Second Republic, and with the "fundamental" improvement of the war situation in Spain, the Cabinet of the Second Republic decided that the overall situation was foregone and that victory could be achieved without the assistance of the Soviet Union. So they went directly to the Comintern, and they could disband the international columns.

To put it mildly, this is called unloading the mill and killing the donkey, and these grandsons probably think that victory is within reach, and it is time to eat alone. If Kamenev and Zinoviev had been in charge of the Comintern, the demands of the Second Republic would have been met. And now, these two grandsons have fallen, and the heads of the Comintern have been replaced by Luxemburg, Liebknecht, and Dimitrov, who are still sober people, and know that the Spaniards are doing this purely to death, so they directly reject their conclusions.

In a letter from the Comintern to the Popular Front, he said: "Although the Spanish Revolutionary War won a phased victory in the Battle of Madrid, at the same time it must be recognized that the enemy is still relatively strong, and blind optimism is not advisable...... I hope that you will work together with the comrades of the international column to continue the fight and strive for an early and comprehensive victory! ”

Regardless of whether the Popular Front was not satisfied with this conclusion, Tukhachevsky was not happy, for Tu Shuai, he did not want to stay in this ghost place of Spain for a day, and he did not want any Russian boy to pay the price of bloodshed and sacrifice for a group of comics, he was eager to leave quickly, preferably without stopping, he wanted to see who could laugh at the end.

In any case, according to the decision of the Comintern, the international column, although it remained, was quite unhappy. In accordance with Tukhachevsky's orders, as well as the instructions of the Military Commissar, the international column began to move to the Mediterranean coast, transferring all the main forces out of the interior of Spain.

The Popular Front was quite happy about this, and although they did not drive away the Russians who tried to "grab" the credit, it was also a good choice to let the Russians step aside. In this way, they can concentrate all their strength to bring down Franco in a wave and pick the fruits of victory without any suspense.

In May, after more than two months of preparation, the Popular Front commanded the Republican Army to launch the so-called "final campaign" to break through to Corvador and drive the National Army and the Germans into the sea in one fell swoop.

However, what the Popular Front did not expect was that the battle did not go smoothly from the beginning, and without the coordination and command of Soviet advisers, the Republican Army was simply a rabble, and from the moment the battle began, the troops began to fall into chaos. Mistaken attacks, misinterpretation of orders, disobedience to commands and self-righteousness abounded, and before they could advance 5 kilometers, they were driven back by the Nationalist army, which was in full array...... (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you to zz120, spike potato, agz00025 and comrade Juventus!