In the armored force system, the task of the tank is to attack, tear a gap in the opponent's defense system with its own speed, firepower and protection, and expand the results with the cooperation of the follow-up infantry to complete the encirclement of the enemy. But in a war, there can be no offense without defense, and it is impossible for tanks to play a one-man show without other arms. In the absence of an air force, Xu Jie's definition of an armored rapid force is that the tank is responsible for the breakthrough of the dead. Assault guns support infantry and defense, various truck guns provide long-range fire support, and accompanying infantry follow in trucks or original armored vehicles. By the way, there are also various armored repair vehicles and support vehicles responsible for supply. Only in this way will this armored unit be able to form real combat effectiveness.

Speaking of assault guns. This unit was designed to cover infantry operations and provide infantry with direct firepower. FOR EXAMPLE, THE NO. 3 ASSAULT GUN, WHICH WAS FAMOUS IN GERMANY DURING THE 2ND WORLD WAR, CAN BE DESCRIBED AS DAZZLING IN VARIOUS MODIFICATIONS, SOME ARE EQUIPPED WITH 75MM SHORT GUNS TO FIGHT BUNKER ANTI-INFANTRY, AND SOME ARE EQUIPPED WITH 75MM LONG-BARRELED GUNS AND PART-TIME ANTI-TANKS. LATER THE GERMANS EVEN LOADED THE 105MM HOWITZER. The tasks performed also ranged from the beginning of the anti-infantry to the most part-time anti-tank, in fact, the assault gun was similar to the later tank destroyer, (the assault gun protection was poor. And in the Soviet army, the distinction between these things was even less clear. You replace the assault gun with an anti-tank gun that is powerful enough, and that's the tank destroyer. It can be said that behind the German tanks, various assault guns accompanied them as loyal companions and played a huge role in the war. Equally. The Soviets, as sworn enemies, were also armed with various self-propelled guns of the ISU and IS families. And relying on better productivity finally killed the opponent, and now, Xu Jie needs to develop his own assault gun.

Before any weapon can be developed, it is important to understand the purpose for which it is made and the performance it should have. Relative to tanks. The biggest advantage of assault guns is that they can use their relatively small weight to achieve higher combat effectiveness and a lower hull. FOR EXAMPLE, HISTORICALLY, GERMAN TANK III COULD ONLY BE ARMED WITH A 50MM LONG-BARRELED GUN, BUT THE NO. 3 ASSAULT GUN, WITH ITS IMPROVED CHASSIS, COULD BE EQUIPPED WITH A 75MM LONG-BARRELED GUN OR A 105MM HOWITZER. Similarly, the Panther tank can only use the 75MM70L gun, but the Cheetah tank destroyer with its chassis modification can be equipped with an 88MM71L gun, which has the same firepower as the King Tiger tank and has better protection!

At the same time, because there is no turret, although the shooting range has been affected, because of the low shape, it is more suitable for concealment and defense, and the cost is also very low. Among them, the German Stalker tank in the late World War II is one of the best. It is very convenient for mass production. There were even German officers who believed that an assault gun company was more powerful than a tank battalion during the defensive phase. From this, it can be seen that assault guns are definitely good and cheap.

NOW, XU JIE'S TANKS ARE EQUIPPED WITH 37MM GUNS OR SIMILAR SMALL-CALIBER GUNS. It was very easy to deal with soft targets such as infantry and cavalry, and the ultra-high rate of fire of the machine guns combined with the machine guns on the vehicle could completely break the exposed Russian infantry to pieces. However, in the face of some improvised bunkers or covered flat-firing artillery positions, it is far from enough, and only a dozen grams of explosives are simply not enough to deal with bunkers made of rammed earth and logs. IN THE FACE OF THE 75MM FAST GUN IN THE BUNKER, XU JIE'S TANK COULD NEITHER DESTROY THE OPPONENT'S DEFENSE ARTILLERY NOR DEFEND AGAINST THE OPPONENT'S STRIKE. The result can only be described as miserable! In the face of these fortifications. Xu Jie needs more powerful direct firepower!

HOWEVER, THE LIMITATIONS OF TECHNICAL CONDITIONS MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR XU JIE TO INSTALL A 75MM CLASS GUN ON A TANK IN HIS EARLY 10 TONS, SO HE COULD ONLY CANCEL THE TURRET AND DESIGN AN ASSAULT GUN EQUIPPED WITH 75MM24L BASED ON THE TANK SITE. Because there is no turret, it saves a lot of weight, and like the tank, the engine and transmission equipment are rear-mounted, and there is a 45mm inclined armor in the front, the exact angle is to be determined. It is armed with a 75MM24L main gun and two machine guns. One light machine gun was on the left side of the gun, while the other was set on the roof of the car. Crew 3 people. The weight limit is 14 tons. Mobility and travel requirements are the same as for tanks. Among them, the versatility of tank and assault gun parts is very high, so as to reduce the pressure on logistics and supply as much as possible.

In order to increase the power of the assault gun as much as possible, under the condition of a certain artillery, Xu Jie specially equipped the assault gun with three kinds of shells: armor-piercing shells, high-explosive shells and grenade shotguns, of which the armor-piercing shells are not designed to deal with the tanks that the Russians may have. That is, there are no armored targets to attack! But in order to deal with the cannon nest that the Russians may have made of rammed earth and logs, Xu Jie still decided to equip the assault gun with armor-piercing shells with mild steel quilt caps, the reason why the quilt caps do not need to be hardened is because the production process is complicated, and carbon hardening cannot handle such a small thickness quilt cap at all, and can only be hardened by cold forging. On the other hand, the power is enough.

Although Xu Jie was not prepared to deal with Russian tanks, it turned out that the understanding of the traverser was not very comprehensive, 1 It is true that the Russians did not have such a thing as tanks during the war, but they had armored vehicles! The cap-piercing shells that the traversers were originally used to deal with the bunkers shone in the later "anti-tank" operations, which can be described as unintentionally inserting willows. Of course, this is a later story, so I won't mention it for the time being. As for high-explosive shells, they are used against general targets. As a kind of expensive artillery shell, the grenade is used to deal with the charge of the opposing group. After all, relying on small cannons and machine guns alone is still a bit bottomless.

If the armored assault force is basically complete after having tanks and assault guns, but Xu Jie also needs a long-range strike force to provide fire support for tanks and assault guns, in the absence of aircraft, long-range support force and artillery are synonymous, considering the sad urging of armored vehicles or car chassis at that time, if you want to engage in more than 100MM long tube self-propelled running, you don't have to think about it. AT MOST, IT IS TO GET THE IMITATION 75MM SCHNEIDER FAST GUN TO THE CAR, AND THE OTHER IS TO ENGAGE IN HEAVY MORTARS.

SINCE XU JIE CAME UP WITH ALL KINDS OF MORTARS, THIS KIND OF LIGHTWEIGHT, FAST RATE OF FIRE, AND STRONG FIREPOWER HAS BEEN CONSISTENTLY SUPPORTED BY THE TOP AND BOTTOM OF THE BEIYANG, AND EVEN SOME TROOPS WOULD RATHER HAVE 82MM MEDIUM-CALIBER MORTARS THAN 75MM RAPID-FIRE GUNS. The reason is very simple, in the eyes of the front-line troops, the extra range of the long-barreled artillery does not have much significance, what the front-line troops need is to carry out a storm-resistant blow to the enemy and follow-up troops attacking at 3 to 4KM in front of the position in a short period of time, and immediately after the battle, manually transfer the position to avoid the opponent's artillery suppression, and in terms of the rate of fire and the amount of projection, it is naturally more practical to use the 82MM mortar. And the shell reload coefficient is greater and more powerful. In terms of mobility, several people can be transferred as soon as they are disassembled, which is much more convenient than the 75 fast guns that weigh more than a ton and must be mobile with horses.

THEREFORE, XU JIE'S SUPPORT FIREPOWER FOR THE ARMORED FORCES IS STILL DOMINATED BY MORTARS, FROM 82MM MORTARS TO 120MM MORTARS, AND EVEN PREPARATIONS FOR 150MM MATARS. (THIS CALIBER IS NORMAL, THE GERMANS WERE ALREADY ARMED WITH 170MM MORTARS BEFORE THE 170 WAR.) THE PROJECTILE IS EXPECTED TO WEIGH UP TO ABOUT 45KG, WHICH IS COMPARABLE TO THE WEIGHT OF A 150MM HOWITZER SHELL. However, the rate of fire is much higher, and the length of the body tube can be increased to increase the range, Xu Jie is not very demanding, and it can reach 6 kilometers. THE 82MM ATTACHED TO THE ARMORED UNIT CAN BE FIRED DIRECTLY FROM THE VEHICLE. WHILE THE 120MM AND 150MM MORTARS WERE TO BE PARKED AND MOUNTED. An armored vehicle is just a transport platform. BECAUSE OF THE REAR POSITION, THE THICKNESS OF THE ARMOR WAS TENTATIVELY SET AT 8MM, WHICH COULD PROTECT AGAINST MACHINE GUN BULLETS AND SHRAPNEL. THE 150MM SELF-PROPELLED MORTAR CREW GENERALLY CONSISTS OF TWO VEHICLES, ONE IS A SPORTS CAR WITH ARTILLERY AND RUNNING CREW PERSONNEL ON IT, AND THE SECOND VEHICLE IS AN AMMUNITION DELIVERY VEHICLE.

WHEN XU JIE PLANNED TO BUILD A LONG-BARRELED SELF-PROPELLED GUN, HE ENCOUNTERED SOME SETBACKS, AND THE GENERAL ARMAMENT DEPARTMENT MADE IT CLEAR THAT UNDER THE CURRENT CIRCUMSTANCES, IT WAS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO INSTALL A SCHNEIDER FAST GUN WEIGHING MORE THAN A TON AND WEIGHING MORE THAN A TON WITH A LENGTH TO DIAMETER RATIO OF 75MM36. More than 1 ton of artillery and artillery carriages and other equipment, but also to carry ammunition, as well as the use of tracked turf and moderate protection, this is an unfinished task! Because the crawler site itself is very heavy!

After Xu Jie's idea was despised by the people of the General Armament Department, Xu Jie, who had been trained in this plane and had a thicker skin than the city wall, continued to plagiarize the works of later generations, this time it was definitely a design idea that crossed the era. Visual inspection beyond decades! This design is the truck gun design, using a truck as a turf, carrying a large-caliber artillery, and putting down the cannons and carrying a certain amount of shells. Compared with the crawler site, the weight of the truck site will be much lighter, although the off-road ability has decreased a lot, but the speed and travel have increased a lot, anyway, it is also supported in the back, and it can be slowly pulled out if it falls into a pit.

However, considering that the weight of the truck at that time was also very tragic, it was impossible to get a larger caliber artillery, so the imitation Schneider fast gun became the only choice, in order to increase the range as much as possible, Xu Jie increased the elevation angle of the gun. And even armor protection is saved. The biggest advantage of truck guns over tracked self-propelled guns is that they are cheaper. Generally only a fraction of the self-propelled guns, it is definitely the best choice for poor countries. THE GERMANS HAD 75MM ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS ON HALF-TRACKS DURING THE 2 WARS OF THAT YEAR. Use a lower-cost half-track to load anti-aircraft guns for maneuvering.

The biggest advantage of truck guns over towed guns towed by horses or vehicles is that they can quickly enter the firing state and withdraw quickly. The truck was a very stable platform for the hoe itself, and the gun truck carried a certain amount of ammunition while loading the artillery. If it is a hasty design rather than a long period of fire preparation, it is completely possible to rely on backup.

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