Since ancient times, people are like getting a kind of offensive and defensive war tools with strong mobility capabilities, heavy cavalry was born under this condition, whether it is Europe or Asia, heavy cavalry has played a huge role on the battlefield, but with the change of history, its cost performance is far inferior to light cavalry, and after the popularization of firearms, in the face of the rain of bullets, heavy cavalry finally withdrew from the stage of history, although there were still a large number of cavalry on both sides during World War I, but at this time, the cavalry has been declining, Especially after the formation of a trench battle mode on the Western Front, the cavalry was even more useless.

Face trenches, barbed wire, machine guns and rapid-fire guns. After the first battle, it became who attacked and who was unlucky. Heavy artillery has no good way to deal with all kinds of "ingenious" bunkers. No matter how brave the soldier is, he faces pit vipers, barbed wire and machine guns. In desperation, the British invented a kind of stuff called "tank". The land fortress, armed with artillery and machine guns, slowly rolled over the opposing positions with a deafening roar. This thing was very powerful at the beginning, but later in the face of German flat-fire guns, immature tanks still did not work, and even in the Spanish Civil War more than ten years later, a German officer said that tanks are not much better than infantry facing machine gun positions in the face of positions with war defense guns. As for the real development of armor power, it was still during the Second World War.

If from this point of view, tanks did not play a big role in World War 1, then why did Xu Jie have to make such a thing? In fact, there are many reasons for the performance of the 1st battle tank on the Western Front, on the one hand, there were great problems with the design ideas of the tank at that time. On the other hand, there are the limitations of the combat environment.

In the 1 war, the tank was designed entirely as a land fortress, traveling too slowly and with too short a range. On the one hand, this was due to the limited level of power equipment at the time, and on the other hand, it was loaded with too many men and weapons, and it was only used as a fire point rather than a fast assault unit.

As a very simple example, the British MK1 tank weighed 28.4 tons. Armed with 2 57MM40L guns and 3 machine guns, and equipped with 324 rounds of 57MM shells and 6200+ rounds of ammunition, there are actually 8 people operating these weapons! You can think that this weight is basically the same as the weight of the fourth tank at the beginning of World War 2. However, the main armament of tank No. 4 is only a 75mm short gun and 2 machine guns, and the crew is only 4 people. And in World War 1, the British MK1 tank had to do a lot in order to put down so many weapons, ammunition and personnel. The length of the car is 9.7 meters, and the width of the car is 4.12 meters. The height of the vehicle is 2.41 meters. It's too big. COUPLED WITH THE TRAGIC 105HP ENGINE, THE TANK HAD A SPEED OF ONLY 4.5 KM PER HOUR. THE RANGE IS ALSO ONLY 37KM. THE ARMOR WAS EVEN MORE FRAGILE, 12MM ON THE FRONT AND 10MM ON THE SIDES. REAR 6MM.

This is not the most capable of stacking two tanks weighing more than 30 tons in the First World War. They are the British MKV-type tank and the German A7V tank. LET'S START WITH THE BRITISH MKV TANK, WHICH IS ARMED WITH 4 57MM23L GUNS (RESERVE 221 ROUNDS) AND FOUR MACHINE GUNS WITH 8400 ROUNDS AND 24 CREW MEMBERS. Equipped with a 150HP engine, it weighs up to 33 tons! FRONTAL ARMOR 14MM, SIDES 12MM, REAR 8MM. THE SPEED IS 4KM PER HOUR. The trip is 60KM. THE GERMAN A7V WAS ARMED WITH ONE 57MM GUN (180 ROUNDS) AND 6 MACHINE GUNS (10,000 TO 15,000 ROUNDS). Two 100-horsepower engines were used with a crew of 18 and a weight of 18 tons. Because the artillery is a little less loaded, the armor protection is good. 30MM ON THE FRONT, 20MM ON THE SIDES, 15MM AT REND. THE SPEED IS 12KM/H, AND THE TRIP IS 35KM.

From the above 3 types of tanks, it can be seen that in 1 wartime, both sides piled weapons and ammunition on the tanks as much as possible, and the number of crew members on them was outrageous! The weight and 2 wartime medium tanks were in no way inferior. These things are just bunkers that can stop bullets. It doesn't matter how maneuverable, and there isn't enough protection. From the point of view of design, it is precisely because of this idea of moving pillboxes that the speed and defense of the tank can never go up, and under the technical conditions of the time, equipped with 4 guns and hundreds of ammunition, they still want high speed and defense, isn't it a fool's dream?

I want to ask, did you find a way out at that time? Don't say it, there really is! FOR EXAMPLE, THE RENAULT FT17 TANK DESIGNED BY THE FRENCH, EQUIPPED WITH A 37MM GUN, WITH 16MM ARMOR ON THE FRONT, 8MM ON THE SIDES, AND 6MM ON THE BACK, WEIGHS ONLY 6.5 TONS, AND USES A 35-HORSEPOWER ENGINE. Simple, cheap and durable, a total of 3,300 units were produced in two different FT17s, far more than WW1 tanks. FRANCE ALSO HAD A TANK WEIGHING 14.5 TONS, ARMED WITH A 75MM 13L SHORT GUN, AND HAD 2 MACHINE GUNS, 24 MM FRONTAL ARMOR, 17 MM ON THE SIDES, AND 5.5 MM IN THE BACK. THE HEAVIEST TANK IN FRANCE, ON THE OTHER HAND, WAS ARMED WITH A 75MM36L CANNON WITH 4 MACHINE GUNS, WEIGHING 24 TONS AND MOVING AT A SPEED OF 8,5 KM PER HOUR. FORMED 60KM AND WEIGHED 24 TONS.

Compared to the British tanks, the French tanks had a lower number of weapons, but increased the caliber of their guns and had decent protection, reducing the density of fire from the mobile pillboxes, but increasing the intensity of fire. Especially the kind of 14.5-ton tank. Very good balance of performance in all aspects. The Renault FT17 was the cheapest and most produced tank of World War 1. In other words, the industrial level of 1 war time can actually build a tank of a certain level, provided that your design concept can keep up. It is impossible to make the tank run at a speed of more than 30+ KM in World War 2, but it is still no problem to reach a speed of about 10KM.

As a traverser, Xu Jie, who is familiar with the ideas and direction of the development of tanks in later generations, will definitely design a tank that is quite usable according to the industrial level at that time, although the current level of science and technology on this plane is higher than that of Xu Jie back then, but it is not 10 years ahead, so in Xu Jie's tank planning, large-caliber guns should not be considered. Xu Jie emphasizes protection and speed, as for the firepower, it is enough, of course, there is another point, even if it is durable, it is not good to fail in the old way!

Compared with the 1 battle of more than ten tons and twenty tons of tanks, Xu Jie doesn't even want it, on the one hand, even if the current skills are made, the stability and cost are not acceptable to him, on the other hand, it is to fight in the field, and there is no need for such a heavy tank, anyway, it is enough to deal with the Russian cavalry. Therefore, the moderate amplification of Raynaud's disease became the basis for Xu Jie's tank design.

IN TERMS OF FIREPOWER, XU JIE IS NOT VERY DEMANDING, JUST CONTINUE TO USE THE ORIGINAL 37MM ARTILLERY, THIS THING IS SIMPLY AN ARTIFACT TO FIGHT INFANTRY AND CAVALRY WITHOUT COVER, AND THERE IS NO NEED FOR LOADERS. The gunner cooperates with the ammunition supply drum and one person can do it. One or two machine guns are needed to deal with the Russians' manmass tactics.

It is important to focus on protection, and anti-aircraft artillery and tanks are a natural enemy. The two sides restrain each other and promote each other. The tank is not only to block machine gun bullets, but also to block a certain power of shells, otherwise the opponent will directly put a few anti-aircraft guns on the position to directly beat the expensive tank into parts, the tank will lose its meaning, the reason why the fast tank that was once all the rage will decline, the fundamental reason is that even the 37MM tank gun can easily tear the armor of the fast tank, the tank emphasizes both offense and defense, lose a little, then the role of the tank will be greatly reduced!

THEREFORE, XU JIE HAS HIGH REQUIREMENTS FOR PROTECTION, AT LEAST HE MUST BE ABLE TO BLOCK 57MM CANNON SHELLS, TO ACHIEVE THIS, IT IS NOT DIFFICULT FOR TRAVERSERS, IF THE FRONTAL ARMOR REACHES 35MM AND HAS AN INCLINATION ANGLE OF ABOUT 45 DEGREES, THEN THERE WILL BE NO WAY TO 500 METERS AWAY WITHOUT A 57MM GUN EQUIPPED WITH A SPECIAL ARMOR-PIERCING PROJECTILE! As for higher-level artillery, such as the Schneider 75 fast gun of the French, this does not need to be thought about. THE ARMOR OF THE WILLOW JOINT FACE THE 75MM CANNON WITH A LONG DIAMETER, AND EVEN IF IT WAS OCCASIONALLY CARRIED DUE TO THE ANGLE AND DISTANCE, THE HUGE SHOCK WOULD CAUSE THE WILLOW NAIL TO FALL OFF AND EVEN FLY IN THE CABIN. If you do, think you're unlucky! Fortunately, the 75MM rapid-fire gun weighs more than 1 ton, and it is inconvenient to rely solely on horses to maneuver, and it is expensive, so the Russians should not have much.

The last problem is the problem of speed and travel, considering the sad engine at that time, this tank is equipped with an engine of about 90HP at most, the weight is not more than 12 tons, the number of passengers is limited to 3 people, and there is still a chance to travel at a speed of 14KM per hour on the road. If you go off-road, you can go up to 10KM per hour. As for the itinerary, Xu Jie's requirement is that it must be about 100KM, which seems difficult to achieve, but considering that the mobile pillboxes in the 1st World War can have a 70+ KM trip, and they also have the manganese steel track, the small tank of the weight reduction version and the gun reduction version still has a chance to reach 100KM of the trip. Although the speed is not as fast as that of cavalry, it is much faster than infantry.

The technical standards of the tank have been sorted out, but it does not mean that the planning of this armored force has taken shape, in fact, the tank is only an important part of the armored force and not the whole thing. As a traverser, since you have decided to get an armored unit first, you can't just tanks. Units such as assault guns, self-propelled guns, and armored repair vehicles must be brought out, otherwise this lame armored unit will not be able to be used!

Thank you for the reward ~~~~~ of the constellations soaring in the universe. (To be continued......)