What is the criterion for determining the value of a weapon? There has been no conclusion on this question. Some people say it's cost-effective, and some people say it's the level of combat effectiveness. And Xu Jie believes that if a weapon can accomplish a task that other weapons can't, then its preservation is valuable! Said German 2 battle tanks. There are many opinions in Xu Jie's plane that after the appearance of tigers and leopards, the German tank has changed from a sharp weapon for breakthrough to a mobile fortress for defense, and the tank has lost its strategic role. From this, it is inferred that the Tiger and the Leopard failed in design. Xu Jie has reservations about this view.

If we look at the decline of German military power in World War II as a whole, we must not take the victory or defeat of the armored forces as a criterion. If you take the entire production capacity of the German 2 war military industry in the same period as 1 (including weapons and ammunition), take 1940 as an example, the total output value of German tanks accounts for only 1.6% of the total output value. The largest share of all capacities is ammunition capacity, at about 40.9 per cent. Then there are airplanes, which are about 38.5%. Even the output value of trucks is a little larger than that of tanks in the same period, about 4.8%.

By 1941, Germany's tank production capacity had increased greatly, but only about 3.5%. The proportion of aircraft production value is 40.8%. Even in 1944, when the production of tanks was almost at its peak, the monthly output of tanks in millions of marks was 232. And the monthly production capacity of the aircraft is 1146! Since 1942, the output value of German aircraft has accounted for more than 40% of the output value of the entire German military industry (except for a few times). It follows from this that the exhaustion of German military power was accompanied by the loss of air power. It doesn't have much to do with tanks.

Then maybe someone asked, now talking about tanks, what is it okay to say about the Air Force? The reason is simple, the occurrence of any major battle in the 2 World War could not have happened without the Air Force. The fundamental reason why Germany was able to fight smoothly at the beginning of World War 2 was not how strong the tanks were, but because the Air Force did a good job! In just three months, from July 1941 to October 1941, the Luftwaffe destroyed 15,000 Soviet fighter jets. Luftwaffe bomber units could easily bomb each other's supply lines, industrial bases, and front-line troops. Although it is more difficult for the aircraft to completely destroy heavy tanks. But a tank without supplies is a pile of waste. That is, in the initial period of the Soviet-German war, the Air Force was able to help tanks clear quite a few obstacles. Coupled with the military aspects of the Soviet Union, it is not surprising that such a victory could be fought.

But then what? The Luftwaffe had always been fighting on three fronts, and the Barbarossa plan began with 4,000 German aircraft forming an air corps, which soon disappeared. (The above number is only for Germany, and even more if you count Germany's allies.) The Luftwaffe needed to deal with three fronts at once: the Mediterranean, the Western Front, and the Eastern Front. Plus the blood return of the Soviet Air Force and the blood transfusion of the Allies to the Soviet Air Force. The Luftwaffe also had an advantage on the Eastern Front. But it is no longer possible to support ground operations indiscriminately. What's more, with the collapse of the Air Force, the local industry and fuel producing areas have been severely attacked. Although it is undeniable that Germany's production capacity reached its peak in 1944, due to the lack of fuel, although its aircraft in 1944 were more than when the war began, the fuel consumption was actually less than during the war against France. If you include the ground units in air defense operations, then the investment of the entire Third Reich in air combat and air defense is even more astronomical. IN THE MIDDLE AND LATE STAGES OF THE WAR, GERMAN HAD MORE THAN 1,000 COMPANIES OF 88MM ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS IN WESTERN EUROPE ALONE! There are also corresponding investments in searchlights, radars, and civil air defense projects. This is simply an astronomical amount.

In the middle and late stages of the war, the Luftwaffe's ground support capabilities declined, so in order to make up for these firepower losses, the army had to do it themselves. Coupled with the increase in the power of the Soviet Union, it is impossible to rely on a medium tank like the historical No. 4 to fight all over the field. The USSR eventually had to produce the IS series and a wide range of heavy anti-tank destroyers and self-propelled guns. Facing the opponent's defensive line, the attacking side must need heavy tanks and strong firepower to destroy the opponent's heavy armor units and strong offensive. In order to fend off the opponent's armor frenzy, the defenders also need strong armored units. You can say that there are some problems with the design of the Haw Par, but you must not say that the heavy tanks represented by the Haw Par are not good.

And in this plane, one of the things that the German Army is stronger than in history is that it realized the gap between the air force and the opponent as early as possible! In the Italian Civil War, the forces invested by the Luftwaffe cannot be said to be small. But the battle was full of twists and turns. In the end, he overwhelmed his opponent by virtue of numerical superiority. If we wait until the war with China, the United States, Britain, and France again, even the air force itself thinks that the situation is not optimistic, and in terms of technology, Germany's aviation technology is currently lagging behind that of Britain. In terms of production capacity, it cannot be compared with the four countries. The pilot is about the same as the other party. Even if you get off to a good start, it's only a temporary advantage. As early as after the Battle of Naples, the Air Force had already vaguely informed the Army that in future wars, the Army must use its own firepower as the pillar, and the first priority of the Air Force was to ensure the needs of air combat and ensure the security of the homeland. Only then can support the Army be provided as appropriate.

"The previous promise given to us by the Air Force was that if there were 10 anti-aircraft guns on the opposite side, they would help us destroy 6, and then we would only have to deal with the remaining 4. And now the Air Force says that it can destroy only 4 of them at most, let's deal with 6. Looking at his colleague next to him, Hindenburg continued: "And there was no such strong opponent among our original enemies, and this time, with the emergence of the new Chinese tank, the enemy we have to face has improved both in terms of quantity and quality. We will have to learn to fight later without adequate air support. Forge your own hammer. ”

Hindenburg's words already hinted at the bankruptcy of Guderian's idea, and the prerequisite for cutting into the enemy's position with high-mobility tanks was to have other weapons to compensate for the lack of strike. And since the air force is no longer able to make up for the blow to the local forward positions, can not effectively cut off the opponent's follow-up reinforcements, and cannot destroy the opponent's supply lines, the pressure on the armored units that serve as the spearhead has increased sharply. The original medium tanks could not perform this task, so the Germans had to design a tank that could perform such a task, regardless of industrial and cost problems! And from this battle, the Germans realized not only the backwardness of the performance of their tanks, but also the lag of support forces. Germany lacked vehicles that could carry infantry and have high-velocity Gorge small-caliber artillery to accompany the attack. At the same time, there is also a lack of combat vehicles with some armor protection that can fire high-powered grenades. The Germans' open-top self-propelled infantry gun defenses were too fragile! Once you are hit by a direct-aim weapon, you will be killed, which is called a fast! As Hube later put it. "In this battle, our armored assault was too vulnerable except for a spearhead composed of tanks, which was somewhat protected."

"This is indeed a very tragic thing, but I would like to ask you, Your Excellency. How do we transport this equipment from our homeland to distant battlefields? And how can we maintain the combat effectiveness of these precision equipment? We are fighting in India, not in Europe itself. Our Eastern Railway can only reach the two river basins, and Iran has our next goal, we have to cross the entire Iranian plateau before we can enter the Indus Valley. And the Iranian plateau is larger than our mainland. And the traffic situation there is really tragic. Rundstedt asked.

Seeing that Hindenburg did not mean to refute, Rundstedt continued: "Even if our plan is smooth, then it will be five years before we take Iran, and if we are given about three years to build, I am afraid it will not be enough." Considering the protection and maintenance of railways in wartime, the actual transportation efficiency will only be lower. What do we use to support such an elite and complex force in battle? ”

"Transportation is a naval problem, and after this war is over, we can get Italian East Africa, and if we can open a gap with the navy in Karachi or elsewhere, then our transportation and supplies will be solved. Unlike the Air Force, the Navy is still more reliable, and more than half of our routes in the Indian Ocean are in closed waters, and fuel and weapons can reach South Asia by sea and land. In addition, the blade of the army is not only pointed at South Asia, France has always been a place that makes us feel like a man! They are not very strong, but they are tenacious and tenacious! Suddenly, Hindenburg seemed to realize that he had said too much, and then changed the subject: "In short, this battle is an opportunity, an opportunity to rebuild the German Army, and we should be grateful that we are aware of this problem in a non-decisive situation." There were no mistakes in the command of Colonel Hube, we were lost on the hardware. In the end, Hindenburg sealed the coffin of this Italian defeat.

However, this is only the beginning of a change, and although it was decided to develop heavier armored vehicles, how to develop them, and the proportion of various vehicles in the future army system, still need to be discussed. At the very least, the Germans need to figure out whether the heavy tanks of more than 40 tons will completely replace the medium tanks in the future, or will they just use them as the spearhead of the attack, forming heavy armored battalions to fight in conjunction with other medium tanks?

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