If the German War Department's tender to the major German arms dealers began to startle the major manufacturers, then when the German manufacturers sent the production consumption, man-hours and quotations of the Tiger tank to the German War Department, the latter was also taken aback by the former, this thing is simply too expensive, and too complicated, so that the German Army, which is used to 30-ton medium tanks, is very surprised!

"Not to mention replacing all the tanks with the Tiger, even half of them would be enough to bankrupt the German Army! We set up at least one battalion of Tigers in an armored division, but it was clear that this number was really difficult to achieve, and the production of the Tiger would inevitably reduce the production capacity of other tanks and armored vehicles. Considering that the empire still had to face a strong France in Europe, we had to maintain a certain number. A lieutenant general in charge of military production wrote in a letter to Hindenburg.

According to the initial arrangement of the German Army, not only ordinary armored divisions will have tanks, but also elite infantry will also arrange some tanks as support units as appropriate. Of course, the number of these tanks is relatively small. Moreover, the composition of the armored units of the infantry division is generally a mix of howitzer tanks and ordinary tanks. THE FORMER IS TASKED WITH SUPPORTING INFANTRY OPERATIONS, SIMILAR TO THE HISTORICAL SHERMAN TANK WITH 105MM HOWITZERS, WHILE THE LATTER IS TASKED WITH DEFENDING AGAINST OPPOSING ARMORED FORCES. The Germans considered this combination to be well suited to increasing the mission resilience of infantry units.

But the problem now is that as Germany prepares to develop and equip new heavy tanks, military production will have to make some adjustments, which will inevitably reduce the production capacity of the original No. 3 and No. 4 tanks. The resulting shortfall must also be remedied. So much so that the Germans are now considering whether to design a cheap medium tank to replace the current tanks No. 3 and No. 4. However, the prospects for this are not very good. First of all, it is difficult to say whether the new tank designed will meet the standards of cheapness and practicality, and secondly, such changes will have too great an impact on the original productivity. There is a good chance that the gains outweigh the losses.

And then Guderian began to speak again for his beloved tanks No. 3 and No. 4. "Although the performance of heavy tanks was very superior, the lack of production capacity would severely limit the size of the German armored forces. I think while guaranteeing the quality of armored forces. We agreed that we needed to maintain numbers because we were facing too many adversaries, and we were fighting in India, Western Europe, North Africa and powerful enemies, while also guaranteeing deterrence against Russia. Tanks 3 and 4 are inexpensive, technologically mature, and stable. MORE, THERE IS A LOT OF POTENTIAL FOR MODIFICATION, AND THE CHASSIS OF TANK NO. 3 CAN BE REPLACED WITH A 75MM LONG-BARRELED GUN OR A HIGH-POWERED HOWITZER WITH A FIXED FIGHTING COMPARTMENT. And the No. 4 tank can even consider installing the new 88MML56 tank gun. It can be used as the main force. ”

This time, Guderian's opinion was recognized at the top. It is undoubtedly best to be able to use the existing production line to exploit the potential. And, as Guderian mentioned in the text, the chassis potential of tanks No. 3 and No. 4 was really good. Even if it is not changed much, it will not be a problem at all to deal with the armored forces of other countries except for the Huaxia heavy armored forces. The design of heavy tanks needs to be a little more balanced. And medium tanks have to highlight the artillery. THE GERMANS WERE ALREADY PREPARING TO DEVELOP A 75MML60 CLASS ARTILLERY ARMAMENT TANK FOUR. AT THE SAME TIME, A GUN OF THE 75MML48 CLASS WAS PREPARED FOR TANK NO. 3.

But then this design criterion was rejected by Hindenburg, because he believed that in the armored forces of a country, it was too luxurious to prepare two main guns of the same caliber and different barrels for tanks alone! Although it was agreed to continue the production of chassis No. 3 and No. 4. But apparently there was no agreement to continue the production of two medium tanks! "We only need to keep two tanks in our army. One is Tank No. 4 as a medium tank, and the other is Tank No. 5 as a heavy hammer. Tank No. 3, a product with backward performance, is ready to be decommissioned. "Hindenburg's opinion was clear that Tank No. 4 could continue to be stored, but Tank No. 3 was gradually replaced by No. 4, while the chassis was retained for the production of other weapons.

After some discussion, the No. 4 tank remained the main German medium tank. This kind of Dongdong, which is a small leopard in Xu Jie's eyes, will always be the core strength of the German armored forces in the future war. The No. 3 tank was eventually changed to various assault guns and anti-tank destroyers due to chassis limitations. Some of these vehicles were integrated into the armoured corps to compensate for the lack of tanks, but many more were organized into separate assault gun battalions and assigned to certain infantry divisions. Use as a firefighting team or support fire.

The series of derivatives of the No. 3 tank eventually included the following, the first being a tank destroyer armed with a 75MML60 cannon. Because of the elimination of the turret, the height of the tank was depressed, and even if you count the upper conning tower, the height is only 2.4 meters. (A little higher than the historical three-studded) and at the same time strengthened the frontal protection, and the final No. 3 assault gun reached 100mm of frontal armor at its thickest point. Combined with its low profile, this assault gun was even better than Tank 4 in defensive battles.

THE SECOND IS THE SUPPORT TYPE III ASSAULT GUN EQUIPPED WITH A 105MM HOWITZER. THIS ASSAULT GUN USES THE SAME WEAPONS AS THE HISTORICAL HOWITZER VERSION OF THE THREE HOWITZERS, WHICH IS A FH18 105MM HOWITZER. However, because of the larger hull, the ammunition reserve of this assault gun has been greatly improved, and the general ammunition reserve is as high as more than 50 rounds. (Historically, the No. 3 assault gun that used the 105MM howitzer had only 36 rounds of 105mm shells.) This assault gun was always the main force of German infantry support, and it was one of the few weapons that hit the whole field.

The third important modification, which is also the most numerous, was not designed for ground combat, but as a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun adapted from the chassis of the No. 3 tank, which was designed as a mobile air defense force. This tracked self-propelled anti-aircraft gun is not only the most produced, but also the largest number of various sub-models, at first, the Germans installed four 20MM Erley anti-aircraft guns on this site as weapons, known as ball lightning. HOWEVER, IT WAS LATER FOUND THAT THE 20MM ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS WERE NOT POWERFUL ENOUGH IN THE FACE OF INCREASINGLY SOLID ATTACK AIRCRAFT, SO TWO 40MM BOFORS ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS WERE INSTALLED AND NAMED STORM. In the process of accompanying the attack of mechanized troops, these two types of anti-aircraft artillery were used against infantry and bunkers more in the early stage than when they were fighting planes! Even the Entente believed that these two vehicles were specifically designed to sweep infantry and anti-aircraft artillery.

ANOTHER MODIFICATION WAS TO STUFF THE 88MML56 ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUN INTO THE TANK. As a result of this, this eastern, known as the rhinoceros, was later used by German infantry units as the core of defensive armored forces. During anti-tank missions, members will erect the surrounding armor baffles to protect against shrapnel, and during anti-aircraft missions, they will lower the baffles to serve as an open-air anti-aircraft artillery platform. THE GERMAN EVEN PLANNED TO THROW THE 105MM HIGH SPEC ON THE NO. 3 PLATFORM, BUT THE DESIGNERS LATER SAID THAT THIS WOULD GREATLY REDUCE THE PERFORMANCE IN OTHER ASPECTS, SO THEY FINALLY GAVE UP.

The fourth modification is a self-propelled rocket launcher modified from chassis No. 3. At this point, the Germans were a big step forward from history, they positioned rocket artillery as weapons with a range between mortars and howitzers and could throw a large amount of ammunition at once. Therefore, the German rocket artillery in this plane has a range of about 10KM, and relying on more sophisticated shell design and launch boxes, it has better accuracy than the historical Katyusha. Moreover, the Germans equipped 24 launch boxes on site No. 3, the amount of which was equal to two Katyusha in one wave. However, not many rocket launchers of this tracked chassis were produced.

IN ADDITION TO THE ABOVE FOUR TYPES OF DERIVATIVE VEHICLES, THE GERMANS LATER PLANNED TO THROW THE 105MM LONG-RANGE GUN ON THE CHASSIS OF TANK NO. 3. But this plan was eventually abandoned for the simple reason that it would be better to use a half-track as a chassis for such long-range artillery. And unlike anti-aircraft guns such as ball lightning, storm, and rhino, this kind of long-range artillery generally does not need to accompany armored troops to maneuver in the front line, because the longer range can ensure that the opponent's direct fire is not enough. It is enough to be able to prevent shamp. And it's more fuel-efficient, faster, and the chassis is cheaper.

In the end, under various coincidences, the Germans established a more complete armored force system than in history. Tank No. 3 and various derivative vehicles greatly compensated for the lack of German armored forces, allowing the German infantry divisions to have the strength to fight the opposing armored forces. Even because of the large number of assault guns, the number of towed anti-tank guns in German divisions was greatly reduced in the early and middle wars. It was only in the middle and late stages of the war that German industry could not meet the speed of army expansion and the increase in battle losses, and a large number of towed anti-tank guns were re-added.

NOT SATISFIED, THE GERMANS WERE NOT SATISFIED WITH THE RECONFIGURATION OF THEIR ARMORED UNITS, SO THEY SET THEIR SIGHTS ON FAST INFANTRY FIGHTING VEHICLES EQUIPPED WITH 30MM MACHINE GUNS. The chassis used by Huaxia was a wheeled chassis, and its extremely high speed left a deep impact on the Germans, so much so that many German officers and soldiers who participated in the war thought that it was too difficult to hit small targets with a speed of more than 50 kilometers. As a result, when designing this infantry fighting vehicle, there was even a concept within the army that speed is defense. If Comrade Fisher had known, he would have been gratified. The Germans did not directly copy the Chinese approach, but combined their own needs to hesitate between the half-track turf and the wheeled chassis.

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