How did the Nazis lose the World War? Many people in later generations tried to find the reason for the Germans, and a large number of time-travelers like Li Xiaofeng went to the Nazi era to try to return to heaven for the Führer.

There are many, many reasons that can be summed up, such as the fact that the Soviet Union should not be rushed, such as the Führer's blind command on the Eastern Front, such as the cold winter in Russia, and the idealistic statement that good will triumph over evil. To tell you the truth, this is really nonsense, especially from a historical point of view, the victory of good over evil is equivalent to self-deception, which is as ridiculous as the Boxers drinking water and reciting mantras.

Is the British Empire evil? Lack of morality and do less bad things? The sons and grandchildren of other people are still the five hooligans, and they are still living nourishingly. Let's put it this way, there has never been justice in history, and there is no perfect person in the natural world. All people are problematic, flawed and even have an evil side, the difference is that some "evil people" have gained the recognition and support of more people while realizing their ideals and ambitions.

Going back to the previous question, how did the Nazis lose that world war? Are they too evil? In Germany itself, the Nazis were not only not evil, but very popular and high. The Nazis did not come to power through nationalism, racism, and deception of the German people, as emphasized in history textbooks.

Don't treat us ordinary people as fools, just because of a moment of fanaticism can flicker, especially for a developed country like Germany, where the people's political cognition and intellectual level are completely above the level, just by shouting slogans, you can control a nation and a country for more than ten years, it is really a dream.

In the 25-point program before the Nazis came to power. It's very clear. Capitalism, trusts, big industrialists and big landowners were violently attacked. The target audience was the common people and the petty bourgeoisie (the so-called middle class, which suffered the most from the Great Depression). It advocated "the abolition of unearned income, the abolition and confiscation of all illicit gains from war, the sharing of the profits of big industry, the nationalization of big department stores and the leasing of them to small merchants." After coming to power, the Nazis continued to woo small and medium-sized enterprises, craftsmen, small and medium-sized peasants, and the lower classes of society with policies such as state ordering, employment and land speculation.

According to Hitler's theory at the time, National Socialism was the preservation of private property. The sacrifice of the individual for the sake of society, this is statism; Society serves the individual. This is socialism. The combination of these two points is National Socialism.

Even in 1942, when the German authorities ordered restrictions on the production of "non-urgently needed consumer goods", the capitalists did not intend to miss the opportunity to make a fortune, and still insisted on producing a large number of consumer goods such as furniture, broken glass products and porcelain. The Führer also turned a blind eye to this, and the reason was to maintain a relatively high standard of living for the German people.

As far as the issue of mechanization of the German Army is concerned, which will be discussed in this chapter, the Germans are not as awesome as many German fans think. The blitzkrieg was successful, but it was a lame leg that cooperated with the blitzkrieg. Before the invasion of Poland in September 1939, Germany had all 103 divisions of combat units. Only 16 divisions were fully mechanized. The remaining 87 infantry divisions, each of which theoretically had 942 vehicles of various types, relied on 1,200 wagons for the vast majority of supplies.

On the eve of the Barbarossa plan that invaded the Soviet Union a year later, the situation was still dire, with only 23 of the 142 German divisions of the three Army Groups being armoured, semi-armoured, or motorized, and their operations had to be maintained by large quantities of captured and forcibly requisitioned civilian equipment.

Let's put it this way, Hitler really said one thing and did another on military matters, and it is difficult to say whether the Führer was single-mindedly fighting land for the German plough with the German sword.

Let's put it this way, the Germans lost the war because of the production line. The mobilization was too late, and the resources of the encroached territory were not effectively integrated. And its opponents are cheap through the production line. He deserved to be drowned.

Taking the tank industry as an example, when the German armored forces were becoming fewer and less in the later period, and there was a shortage of tanks and other armored vehicles, under the blind command of Hitler, the Germans were still engaged in meticulous crafting to produce those heavyweight steel giants that consumed huge resources. Isn't this death? Of course, it is not without Germans who are aware of this, Speer, for example, is sober.

He has always been a staunch opponent of the Tiger tank, the Panther tank and the Tiger King, and if he can decide everything, then none of these three tanks should go to the production line of the Third Reich, replaced by cheap and affordable E-10/25 series armored vehicles.

Why is the term "armored vehicle" used instead of a tank when talking about the E-series? Because the E series is originally a highly versatile armor series, including a series of deformed vehicles such as tanks and self-propelled guns, it is a replacement plan for the German Army's new generation of combat vehicles with a focus on standardization and generalization.

Versatility and ease of production are the most important focus in the E-Series. In the case of the E-10, it was necessary to achieve tactical performance comparable to that of the No. 3 Tank at half the production cost of the No. 3 assault gun. On the one hand, the body of the E-10 is an enlarged version of the E-5, and it is necessary to interchange as many components as possible such as load wheels, and the production process must be greatly simplified. On the other hand, the Germans also demanded that the E-10 make use of "shelf products" as much as possible, using already mature components. For example PAK39L48 the main gun of the No. 3 assault gun and its sighting device were inherited.

On the E-10/E-25, the Germans finally got the hang of it, discarding the tradition of separate power transmissions and starting to use the rear-mounted power transmission scheme. The benefits of this are obvious.

For turretless tank destroyers that require large-angle armor and large-caliber guns in the front fighting compartment, the front drive hinders both. On the one hand, it affects the angle of inclination of the upper armor. A clear example of this is the Panther, the first German tank to use inclined armor, with a nose tilt angle of about 55 degrees. But because the transmission is front-mounted. It needs to occupy a considerable amount of space at the front of the car. This resulted in the Panther's head-tilt being restricted. If you zoom it in to about 60 degrees, its bulletproof effect is more ideal, but because the transmission is blocked, it is simply not possible.

On the other hand, the presence of transmission units in the fighting compartment also brought a lot of inconvenience to the installation of long-barreled large-caliber guns (the first is that it occupies space), which makes it difficult for members to effectively operate the guns and affect combat performance.

It must also be seen, even with a turretless design. The carrying capacity of the 10-20-ton chassis is still limited, and it is impossible to use too thick armor. And in order to ensure the survival rate on the battlefield, it is necessary to reduce the probability of detection. The rear of the power transmission avoids the long drive shaft, which can naturally reduce the height of the car body.

In order to reduce the height of the car as much as possible, the Germans once again went crazy and even adopted a hybrid suspension system of liquid-gas torsion bars. From the beginning of the No. 3 tank, the German tank used torsion bar suspension, of which the No. 3 assault gun was the most successful, in the case of the total travel of the load wheel of nearly 250 mm, the dynamic travel of 200 mm, the use of a torsion bar with a diameter of 50 mm to ensure the flexibility of the suspension system, which made the No. 3 tank have good drivability. Moreover, the production process is simple and easy to maintain.

However, the E-10/E-25 did not follow this system, because the torsion bar suspension was easy to use. However, it needs to occupy a certain amount of body space, and the E-10 follows the design principle of maximizing compactness and making the profile low within the full combat weight (which is more like the number of roads of the old Maozi).

In addition, although the torsion bar system of the No. 3 tank is more flexible, it also brings a big problem, that is, for a stable shooting platform, flexibility is really unnecessary. This will cause the hull to shake for a while after each shot. In that case that there is no automatic correction of the high and low servos, the rate of fire and accuracy will be affected.

So by the time of the E-10/E-25, the Germans abandoned this system in favor of a separate hydraulic spring mounted on the outside of the vehicle as a suspension device. The so-called liquid gas spring is composed of three parts: energy reservoir, power cylinder and shock absorber valve. The reservoir contains an elastic closed air chamber with high pressure inert gas, the rest of the volume is filled with liquid, and the shock absorber valve and power cylinder are connected by pipes. Liquids move in and out of the reservoir, changing the volume occupied by the gas chamber, and the gas pressure changes accordingly, thus storing and releasing energy, and the liquid is the sealing and force transfer medium of the gas (which is important). The power cylinder is a hydraulic actuator, which can not only turn the work done by external force into the pressure energy of the gas in the energy reservoir, but also use the pressure of the gas in the energy reservoir to do work externally.

Due to the use of the compressibility of the gas and the incompressibility of the liquid, and at the same time play the role of spring and damper, the suspension of this liquid-gas spring is nonlinear, that is, the more pressed to the end, the greater the energy absorbed, which increases nonlinearly, and its dynamic stroke is larger than the torsion bar suspension, which greatly improves the smoothness and average speed of the tank off-road.

More importantly, due to the characteristics of its own structure, the liquid-gas spring can freely adjust the position relationship between the axis of the load wheel and the chassis, which makes the height and pitch angle of the car body can be adjusted according to the actual situation of the battlefield, with extremely high battlefield adaptability.

If you think about the E-10/25 series, the height was originally lowered by the rear of the power transmission, and then the height was further reduced with the liquid and gas suspension, and it was simply ideal to ambush and shoot black guns. However, there are also unavoidable technical problems in liquid and gas suspension, that is, the sealing and processing accuracy requirements of the original are quite high. In fact, until the eighties and nineties of later generations, liquid gas suspension was not the mainstream, only a few people ate this crab, and the vast majority of tank armored vehicles still used torsion bar suspension.

The Germans were aware of this problem at the time, so the E-10/25 was designed with only two pairs of load wheels suspended by liquid and gas, and the middle sets of load wheels were still suspended by torsion bars.

Overall, the E-10's design is simple and sleek, and it doesn't drag on in the slightest. It doesn't have the overly carved craftsmanship of German designers. Due to the use of the power transmission rear turret fixed fighting compartment structure, the entire hull is only divided into two parts: the fighting compartment and the power room. And it has a good bulletproof shape, and its 60 mm thick upper armor plate has an inclination angle of 67 degrees, which is equivalent to a 102 mm vertical armor plate!

In addition, the E-10/25 can be freely adjusted within a certain range due to the use of liquid-pneumatic suspension. This not only increases combat flexibility (the gun and hull are rigidly connected. In a wide range, the adjustment of the artillery firing range can be achieved by relying on the rotation of the hull and the liquid-air suspension system). Also gained an additional buff to battlefield survivability.

Not only is its performance ideal, but more importantly, both the E-10 and the E-25 have good potential for modification. Take the E-10 as an example, the German army is preparing to use it to develop a series of artillery reconnaissance vehicles and armored combat reconnaissance vehicles, such as the Panther armored reconnaissance vehicle (VK1062). At that time, the Leopard was divided into two versions, light and heavy, with the light version weighing 18 tons and the heavy version weighing 26 tons. Not only the reconnaissance vehicle, but also the E-10 has the idea of changing to a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun.

Of course, historically the E-10 did not end well. Because of the progress, he lost to the Pz.Kpfw38(t) series. But in this time and space, because the armored forces of the Red Army were more powerful, the German army focused on the next generation of armored vehicles earlier, which brought the fate of the E-10/25 back to life. From November 1943, the E-10 began small-scale production with a number of trial cars, and with the fiasco of Operation Spring Awakening in 1944, the E-10's design with good performance and emergency use was raised to a high production priority.

Unexpectedly, Hitler became interested in the 12-ton car, and he asked Speer to hurry up and mass produce this cheap tank killer. Because the front was already overwhelmed by the torrent of armor of the Red Army.

Speer was naturally willing to produce the E-10 as well, but the production of the E-10 faced a huge problem. That is, at this time, the war resources are already extremely tight, even if the E-10 is cheap and easy to produce, but it is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice, right? To produce the E-10 it was necessary to stop another part of the armored vehicles, which project to stop?

According to Speer's idea, he quickly stopped the Tiger King, this freak is too resource-intensive, and there is no advantage at all in the face of the T-54/55. In that case, why spend a lot of money on this waste?

The problem is that Hitler did not agree, and perhaps in Operation Spring Awakening, the Tiger King did not show his dominance in the face of the T-54, but in the face of the T-34 and T-35, especially the early T-34 and T-35, the lethality is very powerful. So the Führer was not in favor of discontinuing the Tiger King.

Hitler, on the contrary, believed that the performance of the No. 4 tank was getting worse and more out of place, and that the production of this waste should be discontinued first. Good guys, this almost didn't drive Speer and Guderian crazy, there were not enough tanks on the front line, what to use after the production of tank No. 4 was discontinued? If it was a medium tank developed in the E-25 series, they would have no opinion. However, the E-25 tank scheme was rejected by the Führer on the grounds that "it lacks dominance and is as lackluster as the No. 4 tank." The Führer really had little interest in the E-25 tank, and the Führer preferred the E-2/50/75 scheme to replace the Black Panther.

This created an almost irreconcilable contradiction between the Führer and Speer, who did not like the E-50 or more, and felt that the E-10/25 would be sufficient. Isn't it a death to stop the No. 4 tank if you don't do the tank-based E-25 now?

The problem is that the Führer doesn't care so much, he only comes to his liking, and after some quarrels, it is still Speer who relents, and he agrees to stop the production of the No. 3 and No. 4 assault guns in favor of mass production of the E-10/25, and as for the medium tanks, the E-50/75 is still the mainstay, in exchange for the Führer's agreement to let him produce two reconnaissance tanks based on the E-10/25.

Among them, the E-10 reconnaissance tank really has nothing to say, it is a real reconnaissance tank, with a total weight of 19 tons, equipped with a KWK39/150 mm cannon, and it is really engaged in reconnaissance work. And the E-25 reconnaissance tank scheme is very interesting, it can be said that it is a German version of the T-35. In fact, it is a medium tank with a total combat weight of no more than 40 tons, which Speer secretly developed under the guise of a reconnaissance tank.

Compared with the Soviet version of the T-35, Speer's favorite E-25 scheme is very distinctive, the original E-25 chassis basic design is retained, the power transmission is rear-mounted, the liquid and gas suspension is retained, and the KWK40L48 used successfully on the No. 4 tank is retained.

The turret armor of this new medium tank is 80 mm (35 degrees inclination), which translates to about 100 mm horizontal when converted into vertical armor. In terms of absolute thickness, or in comparison with Black Panther and King Tiger, this thickness is really not too big. But for the Germans, this was the first time they had used such a large angle of the turret shield. As for the upper armor, the thickness is also considerable, reaching the level of 70 mm (60 degrees of inclination), equivalent to about 140 mm of vertical armor, and even the turret and hull side armor have a level of 60 mm, which is quite a bit stronger than the latest version of the T-35, to tell the truth.

And note that the E-25 medium tank scheme is highly interchangeable with the E-10 scheme, and the load wheels are fully interchangeable. This greatly improves battlefield maintenance capabilities. And the most satisfying thing for Speer was that this "heavy reconnaissance tank" developed extremely smoothly, and after reasonable trade-offs and the use of mature components, it was quickly put on the production line, and by June 1944, the first batch of 50 pre-production models were delivered to the troops.

Guderian was naturally overjoyed by this, and soon "understood" that he did not really send these tanks to the reconnaissance troops, but decisively equipped them with front-line armored units. Of course, the Führer did not know all this, and at this time he was looking at the wooden model of the E-50 with joy and smiling from ear to ear...... (To be continued.) )

PS: Bow and thank you to the parasite Schistosomiasis, Dashaqu, the 1st Guards Tank Brigade and Comrade Juventus!