Episode 185 Must be Added

When the "hail bomb" was first designed, several designers asked whether it was possible to add steel balls to the bomb, because in their opinion, this kind of dense small bomb was not only a good weapon for dealing with aircraft on the runway, but also a good weapon for killing and injuring enemy infantry in a large area. But most designers were against it. The reason is that after the bomber formation appears, the infantry on the ground will lie down and hide. And the power of this small bomb is really limited, even if it is very close, as long as it lies down in time, the killing effect will be greatly reduced. What's more, adding steel balls to the bomb will correspondingly reduce the amount of charge and weaken the explosive force. And the steel ball is much heavier than **, which will also increase the weight of the bomb.

In the end, the conclusion is that without adding steel balls, it completely relies on the shock wave of **. After all, the target of such a bomb is a thing, not a person.

After testing, a hail bomb can completely destroy not only an aircraft, but also a military vehicle, slightly damage a tank, and almost no damage to such a target as artillery.

The so-called lightly injured tank, that is, if it hits the top of the tank directly, it will not be able to penetrate the top armor, but it will definitely shock the gunner inside, and it may make him temporarily deaf or even unconscious. However, the top armor of the Qing army's Barutu and Kubu tanks was 28 mm thick, and the power of 60 mm mortar shells could only injure, but not penetrate, the 28 mm thick armor.

That is, a direct hit can temporarily render a tank incapacitated, but it cannot destroy it. Unless by luck it happened to fall in the engine position at the rear of the turret. Then the fireball will engulf the tank in one fell swoop. But that chance is too small.

It is said that there is almost no damage to artillery, mainly because the target of artillery is too small to hit directly. In fact, if it hits directly, the artillery is more vulnerable than the tank. But compared to a direct hit on a tank or an airplane, to directly hit an artillery piece is to throw a pea on the tip of a needle from a distance of several meters. But the power of the hail bomb is too small, as long as it does not hit directly, even if it is only one meter, there is still no drama. Even the artillery is very difficult to hurt - as long as the artillery is lying on the spot, the casualties will not exceed 20%.

……

The results of the previous tests were reported to the People's Guard's Armament and Training Department and Li Guoliang, commander of the Army Aviation, and they reported to Xiang Xiaoqiang.

Xiang Xiaoqiang was not very reconciled to this result. He felt that in this case, he had worked hard to come up with such a "hail bomb" and spent so much manpower, material resources, financial resources, and time training and experiments, and in the end it was equivalent to saying that he could only use it once when he attacked the Qing army's airfield on Day D. Moreover, the Qing army had learned the lesson of the last time, and this sneak attack might not have much success. In his opinion, this makes this kind of bomb too chicken.

Wang Hexiang, commander of the equipment training department, also has this view. Although he was opposed to adding steel balls to hail bombs, he wanted to make hail bombs more powerful. When he participated in the design, he advocated the direct use of 80mm mortar shells instead of 60mm. But most designers are in favor of using the 60mm one. In their opinion, the main use of hail bombs is to bomb airfields, and the power of 60mm to destroy aircraft is more than enough. If it is changed to 80mm, the weight of a single bomb will be doubled, that is to say, the bomber will be doubled, the area covered by the bomb will also be doubled, and the ground Qing army aircraft destroyed theoretically will also be doubled. And this is completely contrary to the original intention.

However, this kind of hail bomb was not led by the People's Guard, but by the General Administration of Military Industry of the Ming Dynasty. The People's Guard Corps Training Department is only involved.

……

"No," Xiang Xiaoqiang said to Wang Hexiang as he walked around the office of the People's Guard's Armament and Training Department, "we must make a hail bomb with increased power, and if it is more than 5 kilograms, it must completely destroy a tank and blow up an artillery piece at close range...... Especially artillery. The Qing army paid the most attention to artillery, even more than tanks. Their dense artillery group is the greatest threat to us. ”

Wang Hexiang looked at his figure walking around, and said with certainty:

"Not bad."

Xiang Xiaoqiang stood up violently, turned to Wang Hexiang, and said:

"Especially the artillery group across several cities along the river! For example, the Pukou artillery group opposite Nanjing! Yangzhou artillery group opposite Zhenjiang! The Jingjiang artillery group opposite Jiangyin! The Hexian artillery group opposite Ma'anshan! The Huaining artillery group opposite Anqing! …… It is conceivable that on D-Day, within a few hours of our offensive and before we have captured the depth of the opposite side, these artillery groups will be raining shells on our side of the city! It will be like the beginning of the Ming and Qing wars at the beginning of the year! ”

Wang Hexiang looked at Xiang Xiaoqiang for a moment, then spread his hands and said helplessly:

"Your Excellency, you also know what the Command means. There are only a few cities along the river, and the urban area is a certain distance from the river. The Qing army was afraid of the artillery on our Yangtze River defense line, and did not dare to put the artillery group close to the river, so they all retreated a certain distance...... In this way, the distance between each Qing artillery group and the urban areas of our cities along the Yangtze River is more than 15,000 meters. Originally, the target of the Qing artillery group was not our urban area, but our Yangtze River defense line. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang began to pace irritably again, waving his hand:

"Well, I know that...... At present, the mainstream attitude in the high command is to use artillery bombardment on the Yangtze River defense line to suppress and destroy those artillery groups with dive bombers...... I admit that dive bombers are the best weapon against artillery positions, but the problem is that h hours are in the early hours of the morning, between 3 and 5 o'clock, and it is still very dark, and the dive bombers are also furnished. As for the artillery on the Yangtze River defense line, with the density of artillery mounts on the defense line, it is okay to block the river, and it is necessary to effectively suppress the enemy's superior artillery group more than ten kilometers away...... That's just YY. The artillery group on the opposite bank of the Qing army, even in peacetime, the artillery density was several times that of our defensive line. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang sat on the chair, stared at Wang Hexiang and said:

"Under such circumstances, the most effective means of destroying the Qing army's artillery group is to fly the horizontal bombing formation aircraft over the target and carpet bomb it with increased power 'hail bombs'. If you want to use a dive bomber, you have to aim with the naked eye, and in the darkness before dawn, it is absolutely inaccurate. …… What's more, this is not only for the lives of the people in the cities along the route. If the Qing army's artillery group is not destroyed, our losses in the river-crossing operation will also be very large. ”

王鹤翔 says:

"My lord, our big bombers are not as many as dive bombers, and in addition to the defense of the western section of the middle section and the defense of other strategic directions, the number of people who can participate in the D-Day offensive is even more limited. Marshal Zhang Zhaoxian obviously wanted to throw all the big bombers into bombing the Qing army airfield. He wanted to basically eliminate the Northern Qing Air Force at the beginning. He may be reluctant to take up too many large bombers against targets such as artillery groups. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang understood that Zhang Zhaoxian didn't know whether he was too influenced by himself, or too much by the Pukou Battle and the fortress exercises, and it seemed that he was also a little superstitious about dive bombers. The idea of using dive bombers against the Qing artillery group is a reflection of this.

Xiang Xiaoqiang stood up and sat down again, fidgety. He knew that it was not that Zhang Zhaoxian's level was not good, nor that Zhang Zhaoxian's old man was too stubborn, but that it was the general limitations of military generals in this era.

When a new weapon and a new method of warfare were first proposed, these mainstream generals of our era always denied, doubted, and dismissed. And after this new weapon and new method of warfare shines in the first battle and wins the world's amazement, the mainstream generals of this era will praise and superstitious it one-sidedly, elevate it to a height that is divorced from reality, and even think that it is omnipotent.

Xiang Xiaoqiang knows that this will not be until the new weapon and new tactics have won both praise and exposed their shortcomings after many actual battles, and people can learn to look at it objectively. Xiang Xiaoqiang, as a person who crossed over decades later, has already jumped out of Lushan, and he naturally sees these "new weapons and new tactics" clearly. And a Ming general like Zhang Zhaoxian is still in Lushan at the moment, and he is in the stage of peeping at the leopard in the tube.

He asked Wang Hexiang:

"Hegong, if you start to modify the 80mm caliber 'hail bomb' now, how long will it take to make 10,000 of them?"

王鹤翔 says:

"10,000 is definitely not enough. If it is popularized, at least 15,000-20,000 pieces are needed in the first month of the Northern Expedition. It's a bit of a tight time. However, the processing speed of 80mm should be no different from that of 60mm. After all, mortar shells are ready-made, all that is needed is to modify them. Now this batch of 60mm processing and modification took about a month, if you make another batch of 80mm, if you do it now, you should be able to make it before the war. …… However, a little nervous. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang nodded, grabbed his hat and walked out, while saying:

"Hegong and I will go together, and we will go to the headquarters. I don't believe I can't handle those old stubborns. ”

……

In the central hall of the Purple Mountain Fortress, it was still a busy scene before the battle. At a conference table in one corner, a regular meeting was underway, and Zhang Zhaoxian was listening to the battle plan reports of several generals.

General Feng Lingcai, commander of the army group on the right, was using his command stick to scratch the sand table on the table, and said:

“…… In the main assault directions, there is a division every 2-3 km on the front, in addition, for divisions carrying out auxiliary attacks, the prescribed offensive front is 8-10 km. …… Therefore, even if the main attack front is only 25 kilometers, it will take 8 divisions to complete the task. In order to carry out auxiliary attack operations in 20-25 km of the front, 2-3 divisions are also needed, that is, 10-11 divisions need to be thrown into battle on this section...... The remaining 4-5 divisions should be given instructions on where to move and what kind of deployment.

"The assault armies are to keep their third and fourth divisions. Corps carrying out auxiliary assault missions were to send their third division to the main assault area...... In the main assault direction, each first-echelon division must be assigned a supplementary artillery regiment, while the divisions operating in the auxiliary direction only need to bring their own artillery into battle......"

As he spoke, his voice slowly stopped, and he looked up at the other side.

Everyone else followed him and looked across from him.

Xiang Xiaoqiang is striding over this way.