If the German-designed armored forces advocated offense, using the armored forces as a sharp spear to pierce the opponent's defenses, then the French had to defend first, how to resist the opponent's attack in a defensive state and then achieve victory through defensive counterattacks. The Germans were aggressively developing tanks and heavy artillery, and the French were not going to be idle. And as a powerful industrialized country, it is not difficult for France to create some battlefields suitable for itself under its own strategy.

"The first priority of our armoured forces is to be able to destroy the Germans with sharp flat-fire fire when they attack our lines. Break off their offensive spearhead and then destroy their infantry. This is how General Chauffy described the combat methods of the French armored forces. In his concept, the French armored forces should be able to do two things, the first point is to be able to easily destroy the opponent's tanks and armored vehicles, and the second point is to be able to cover the infantry charge and easily disintegrate the opponent's offensive.

For the first vehicle, the French called it a tank destroyer, and the second as an infantry tank. As the name suggests, the former is specially for tanks, while the latter is for infantry! For the requirements of tank destroyers, the French required that this kind of combat vehicle must be able to withstand the attack of the opponent's tank, and at the same time be equipped with a powerful gun enough to destroy the enemy tank, this kind of artillery is not lacking in the French, one of the most proud guns of the French, the M1897 75MM rapid-fire gun. This kind of artillery can easily destroy all kinds of tanks in the hands of the Russians, so the French still trust this weapon very much.

But in terms of protection, the French are more entangled. FIRST OF ALL, THEY DID NOT KNOW WHAT THE CALIBER OF THE GERMANS' TANK GUNS WOULD BE, AND IT WAS EASY TO BLOCK THE 37MM GUNS, BUT THE FRENCH THOUGHT THAT IT WAS OBVIOUSLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR GERMAN TO ARM THEIR TANKS WITH SUCH SMALL GUNS. So the French could only estimate the defense of the other side. THEN LOCATE THE 45MM GUN IN THE LEVEL OF WEAPONS THAT THE OPPONENT MAY TAKE. In order to achieve this requirement in the conditions of World War 1, the vehicle had to abandon the turret. Select the mode of the assault gun.

From an outsider's point of view, this tank destroyer model of the French is actually no different from the assault gun of the Chinese Army. But the French don't think so. Their tank destroyers also did not have a rotating turret, but they had a fixed fighting compartment that rose above the hull. The No. 1 assault gun of the Chinese Army gives the impression that there is an artillery gun in front of the hull, and the fighting compartment and the hull are integrated. The French tank destroyers, on the other hand, had a fighting compartment with sloping armor in the upper part of the hull, similar in appearance to a tank, except that the fighting compartment was larger and could not be rotated. AND IT IS ALSO ARMED WITH A 75MM FLAT-FIRE GUN.

Because it is necessary to install such a huge artillery and take into account a certain amount of protection, the theoretical weight of this combat vehicle will reach 20 tons. MOREOVER, UNDER SUCH A WEIGHT, THE PROTECTION CAN ONLY "BLOCK THE FLAT FIRE OF THE 45MM" LEVEL TANK GUN. There are also certain problems with the stability of the stroke and machinery. But for the French, who were on the defensive, none of this was a problem.

As for infantry tanks? The French thought that the No. 1 tank in China was actually about the same. Because the French positioned this tank as a tank for infantry fighting. The French did not expect to break through the positions of the opposing side with such tanks, nor did they expect such tanks to withstand the shells of the opposing side. So the requirements for such an infantry tank are very low. AS LONG AS THERE IS A 37MM CANNON TO SWEEP THE INFANTRY. At the same time, it can be used as a bullet for the infantry in the back. The French decided to create a pocket-sized tank weighing no more than 10 tons.

In addition to these two tanks, the French were also interested in truck guns. THIS KIND OF WEAPON, WHICH CAN BE USED FOR HIGH-SPEED MANEUVERING BY ROAD, IS VERY POPULAR WITH THE CHINESE PEOPLE, BUT THEIR PURPOSE IS NOT TO ACCOMPANY THE ATTACK OF ARMORED FORCES, BUT TO EQUIP LONG-BARRELED 105MM HOWITZERS FOR COUNTER-BATTERY OPERATIONS. For the German heavy artillery units, the French were still very jealous. The French attached great importance to this truck gun, and even decided to rebuild a new site of about 5 tons to prepare for the truck gun.

And as a good friend of the French, Britain also has its own understanding of armored forces, which is different from the French Continental Army. The army of the British can only be described as pocket-sized, well. At least until 1910. The British army is very expensive, and the British still miss the small but very strong army that used to be. (Well, there was a certain gap between the performance of the British and the lean in the Boer War.) So they're paying a lot of attention to the protection of the new battlefield. According to the British, British tanks could go slower and be armed with smaller caliber guns, but protection had to be in place.

"WE CAN TOLERATE ONLY ONE 20MM GUN ON A 40-TON TANK, BUT ABSOLUTELY DO NOT TOLERATE OUR OWN TANK BEING DESTROYED BY GUNS OF CALIBER BELOW 75MM." This is how a British officer described the perfect tank in his mind. It is understandable that the British thought so, after all, the French had prepared tank destroyers armed with large-caliber guns against German tanks, and the British naturally did not have to reinvest again.

"OUR TANKS ARE PLANNED TO BE EQUIPPED WITH 40MM OR 57MM GUNS, THE WEIGHT IS LIMITED TO ABOUT 20 TONS, AND THE FRONTAL ARMOR MUST BE MORE THAN 50MM. THE OFF-ROAD SPEED IS AROUND 8KM, AND THE ROAD SPEED IS BETWEEN 15 AND 20 KM. "In just a few words, the tank was sketched in the minds of the British.

In the list of British armoured units, the British also planned to use a tracked infantry transport vehicle as a means of assisting the attack. The British found out after comparing the combat materials of the two sides themselves. A simple tank charge is actually easy to restrain and can be dealt with with anti-aircraft guns at a distance, and infantry can be mobilized to use cluster grenades or explosives packs when you are close. But if there is infantry cooperation, it is absolutely different, the battle defense artillery will be destroyed or suppressed by the accompanying infantry with light mortars, and the soldiers who launch a decisive assault will be cleared by the opposing infantry with machine guns or submachine guns like wheat harvesting.

The Russians quickly discovered the problem, but with a limited number of machine guns and mortars, it was impossible to separate the infantry from the tanks. And the British were keenly aware of this problem. It's a pity that the Russians don't have this ability, it doesn't mean that the Germans can't, no matter in terms of weapon performance or quantity, the number of mortars and machine guns of the Russians is far from being comparable to the Germans, if the British and French attack the Germans, I'm afraid that only tanks can rush up in the end, and then the infantry is blocked behind. And a small number of tanks and armored vehicles will also be named by German artillery. So the British decisively demanded to come up with a weapon that could load infantry to accompany the tank charge!

"It's just a tractor surrounded by an iron box." When the designer sent the design to a British officer, the officer commented on the "people-to-army" East. THIS ARMORED VEHICLE CAN BE SAID TO BE THE LEAST REQUIRED OF THE NEW ARMORED WEAPONS OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES, AND THE ENTIRE VEHICLE IS PROTECTED BY 6 TO 8 MM ARMOR PLATES, WHICH ARE ENOUGH TO WITHSTAND MACHINE GUN BULLETS AND ARTILLERY SHRAPNEL. At the beginning, the entire tank was not even equipped with any weapons that could be called artillery, the only weapons were machine guns on the roof and in the front of the hull, of which the machine guns on the roof were still detachable!

However, the biggest advantage of this thing is that it can load a squad of infantry. And there are also openings in the side of the hull for the gunners inside to shoot from the car. In the minds of the British, this was a weapon that could safely bring infantry within the range of machine guns. And the designers' design, which was sent to the top of the British War Office, was questioned for the simple reason that they could not stand the fact that an expensive weapon worth thousands of pounds could only take on such a simple task!

AS A RESULT, IN DESPERATION, IN ORDER TO MAKE THIS DESIGN AGREE TO THE ARMY BOSSES, THE DESIGNERS AGREED TO MAKE A COVER THAT CAN BE OPENED ON THE UPPER PART OF THE HULL, AND A MORTAR CAN BE PLACED UNDERNEATH, AND THE ARTILLERY CREW CAN USE MORTARS OF 82MM CALIBER UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE ARMORED BOX, IN SHORT, AFTER THIS SIMPLE IMPROVEMENT, THIS MOST PRIMITIVE INFANTRY FIGHTING VEHICLE IS COMPATIBLE WITH THE FUNCTION OF SELF-PROPELLED MORTARS.

In addition to the three great powers of Germany, France and Britain, there are also countries such as Russia, Italy and Austria-Hungary. The Russians also wanted to change things after their armored units were beaten violently. However, because the industrial capacity cannot be compared with other countries. At the same time, because they were not financially well-off, the Russians chose to modify the existing basis. THE T2 SELF-PROPELLED GUN, ARMED WITH A 57MM FLAT-FIRE GUN, WAS RETAINED, AND THE T1 MACHINE-GUN ARMORED VEHICLE WAS USED TO CONTINUE TO PROVIDE FIRE COVER AND SUPPRESS THE RIOT. Other models of vehicles were either considered expensive or discontinued because they were not suitable for the needs of the battlefield. Of course, this change began after the end of the war and had little impact on the Sino-Russian war.

As for Austria-Hungary, the country that had become the younger brother of the German Empire, decided to follow in the footsteps of the boss. This not only saves costs, but also facilitates production. The purposes of Austria-Hungary and Germany were very similar, so it was normal to use one system. And because of its relatively weak industry, Austria-Hungary was also suspicious of such expensive weapons.

As for Italy? Well, the mountains of northern Italy are so that the Italians do not have to worry at all that the tanks of the French can drive through the mountains. According to the Italians, if the French had been able to drive their tanks over, they would have been able to hit Rome with infantry a long time ago, so they didn't care much about armored forces. Rather, continue to develop their navy and artillery. However, in order to catch up with the "trend". The Italians nevertheless decided to develop a defensive self-propelled gun similar to the assault gun No. 1. THIS VEHICLE WILL BE ARMED WITH A 57 MM LONG-BARRELED GUN OR A 75 MM SHORT GUN, AND THE ENTIRE VEHICLE WILL WEIGH LESS THAN 15 TONS. (To be continued......)