If a country doesn't have a navy, then you will lose the world, and if a country doesn't have an army, then the country doesn't have to exist. Any big country in the world, even if it is a sea power country, does not necessarily invest more in the navy than in the army, for example, in Japan in Xu Jie's plane, the military expenditure of the navy is not as high as that of the army. (The author of the British Empire is not clear, so I won't say much, but it is said that in the pre-dreadnought era, the navy's artillery was purchased by the army.......) There are many naval powers in the world, but many naval powers are also army powers! The status of the army is even higher than that of the navy!

In Europe, in addition to the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Russia are all great powers on land and sea. (Well, the British Army in World War 1 didn't do well either.) Austria-Hungary was more inclined to the navy, and the Hungarian parliament dared to say that it would not be allowed to create dreadnoughts if it did not benefit it, but did he dare to say that he did not want an army? Therefore, soon after the appearance of the tank, a sharp weapon of land warfare, it attracted the attention of the world's first-rate powers. They analyze the impact of such weapons on the situation on land based on the information they have received.

The Germans, who trained their armies to be as sophisticated as a machine, did not value absolute strength, but preferred to use sophisticated tactics and vigorous action to gain superiority. They don't like to fight for a long time, on Xu Jie's plane. From the end of the Franco-Prussian War to the Second World War, Germany pursued a quick victory, and if it could not be resolved quickly, then what awaited Germany was death! A long period of attrition was bound to bring down the small German Empire. This is how Germany in World War 1 and World War 2 died.

The Germans were agonizing over the speed of their army's attack, before there were no tanks. The Germans needed to deploy a large number of troops to the front line in a step-by-step manner, and then set up a starting position. Put the general's large-caliber artillery on the gun emplacement, and blast the opponent's defenses to shreds with tons of ammunition. Then the soldiers attacked. After breaking through a line of defense, this process needs to be repeated again, this is still a smooth thing, and their troops have not been returned fire by the opponent's heavy artillery troops, in fact, this situation in the first World War in addition to fighting Russia, in the Western Front is a competition for ammunition and defense, and the breakthrough of both sides to the later stage is calculated by kilometers or even meters. Fight back and forth until one of the beaters can't afford it! And this method of warfare made the Germans very uncomfortable. After all, Britain and France have the resources of the entire world world to buy. Germany only has its own resources!

"Our soldiers are more elite than the other side. My artillery is better than the other side. Our generals are better than each other. But as long as the other side keeps converting materials and personnel into weapons and sending soldiers to the battlefield and then consuming them with us, we will fail. The British have India and Canada. The French have a third of Africa, and we only have Germany. Moltke Jr. once said this in Parliament.

What is the most terrible thing about trench warfare? A bunker that cannot be penetrated by ordinary firepower. Machine guns that can quickly harvest infantry, as well as a variety of rapid-fire guns. These things can make an entire regiment of infantry annihilate in minutes. However, if there is a weapon that can ignore machine gun fire, it can destroy part of the bunkers, and it can block the attack of some rapid-fire guns. They even run faster than people. There are so many advantages. Isn't it enough to break the trench system and heavy artillery?

That's right. It is true that the 75mm rapid-fire cannon and heavy artillery can easily destroy these still immature things, but on the vast front, these valuable resources are scattered, and even the most fierce country cannot manage the entire defense line impregnable. For the attacker, all he needs is to find a breakthrough, that's all! After breaking through the first line of defense, the armored forces can continue to advance, providing the possibility of breaking through several layers of defense in a short time. This has to be said to be a revolutionary change!

For this reason, the German Army attaches great importance to armored forces. Coupled with their relationship with the Huaxia Republic, they have access to more detailed information. For the main battle equipment of the Chinese Army. The Germans still have some opinions of their own. First of all, they did not like the No. 1 tank, and the proud Germans' mechanical superiority made them look down on this kind of Dongdong, which was less than 10 tons. FOR THE ABOVE 37MM GUN, HE ALSO EXPRESSED COMPLETE CONTEMPT. To do this, they put forward a series of requirements for their new tank.

"OUR TANKS HAD TO BE ARMED WITH 50MM GUNS, AND THE BARRELS HAD TO BE MORE THAN 40 TIMES LONGER. Only then will our tanks have sufficient armor-piercing capabilities. THE THICKNESS OF THE FRONTAL ARMOR MUST BE MORE THAN 40MM IN ORDER TO WITHSTAND THE ATTACK OF ARTILLERY BELOW 75MM CALIBER. At the same time, the frontal armor and inclination must be 45 degrees. In terms of speed, the road speed of the new tank should not be less than 20 km, and the cross-country speed should not be less than 10 km. The tank travel should be about 150 km. The total weight of the combat vehicle should not be less than 15 tons. Hindenburg wrote in his report to the War Office.

The Germans wanted not only a new tank, but a well-developed armored combat system, for which they also developed a series of assault guns and artillery support units. The No. 1 assault gun was a great success on the Sino-Russian battlefield, but this weapon was not very popular in the eyes of the Germans, what the Germans needed was an offensive, a continuous offensive, and once the battle shifted from the offensive to the stalemate stage, it meant that Germany was not far from defeat.

So the Germans did not like this kind of thing that was more defensive than offensive. Although as an indispensable link in the armored forces. But the Germans still did not show much interest in it. But at this time, a German officer named Ludendorff analyzed and compared the information obtained from the battlefield in China. They found that a high-powered assault gun would be very useful in future battles.

"Because of the mission constraints, the tank that participated in the first wave of the attack and was always at the forefront had to have a turret capable of firing in a ring, and the weight and limitations of the turret made it impossible to compare the power of the tank with an assault gun without a turret. ON THE SAME TURF, IF A TANK CAN BE EQUIPPED WITH A 50MM GUN, THEN AN ASSAULT GUN CAN BE EQUIPPED WITH A GUN OF MORE THAN 75MM. In terms of protection, it will not be weaker than the tank, and the advantage of this hardware performance cannot be ignored. If an open-top fighting compartment is used, the power of the assault gun's guns can be further increased. Ludendorff said this at the Army hearing.

In Ludendorff's view, assault guns are irreplaceable in the offensive, they are closer to forward positions than vehicle-mounted howitzers, which can provide more timely fire support. And because it is not at the forefront, even if there is no artillery that can fire in the ring, it is not a big problem, after all, those large and vulnerable bunkers have been destroyed by tanks, and the remaining bunkers and fortifications that cannot be destroyed by tanks are left to the assault guns in the rear position. At the same time, the caliber of the artillery of the assault gun is huge, and the grenades fired are more powerful. It is also very good to use to support infantry attacks, and the cost is relatively low, which can make up for the lack of tanks.

FOR THIS REASON, IN THE RESEARCH PLAN OF GERMAN'S NEW COMBAT VEHICLE, THE GERMANS ALSO MADE A SPECIAL ASSAULT GUN PLAN, AND THEY PLANNED TO INSTALL 88MM SHORT GUNS ON THE 15-TON TANK SITE AS A SUPPLEMENT TO THE ARMORED TROOPS. Frontal protection is not inferior to that of a tank, and the speed can be slightly lower than that of a tank. At the same time, the number of ammunition in reserve for the artillery was emphasized, because there was no turret, so a lot of weight could be saved, and in the eyes of the Germans, in order to make every well-crafted tank work as much as possible, they had to have a strong ability to sustain operations.

IN TERMS OF SUPPORTING FIREPOWER, THE GERMANS CHOSE TO BE MORE FAR-SIGHTED THAN THE CHINESE ARMY, AND THE INSTALLATION OF LARGER-CALIBER MORTARS AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE COULD NO LONGER SATISFY THE GERMANS' APPETITE, AND THEY ACTUALLY PLANNED TO INSTALL LARGE-CALIBER INFANTRY GUNS WITH A CALIBER OF MORE THAN 100MM IN THE TRACKED SEMI-OPEN FIGHTING COMPARTMENT. Although the mortar is good, the accuracy is still not comparable to that of rifled artillery, and the range is somewhat short, and more importantly, it cannot be fired horizontally. And the effective firing range is also very problematic. (FOR EXAMPLE, THE GERMAN TYPE 120 MORTAR OF THE 42MM CALIBER IN WAR II HAD AN ELEVATION ANGLE BETWEEN 45 AND 85 DEGREES, AND IT WAS DIFFICULT TO HIT A TARGET THAT WAS TOO CLOSE.) THE FIRING RANGE IS ONLY 6KM. ）

THE INFANTRY GUN IS DIFFERENT, FOR EXAMPLE, THE IG18 75MM INFANTRY GUN IN THE SAME 2 WARS, ITS WEIGHT IS ONLY 400KG (COUNTING THE WEIGHT OF THE GUN TRUCK), THE EFFECTIVE FIRING RANGE IS ABOUT 3800 METERS, AND THE HIGH AND LOW FIRING RANGE IS -10 DEGREES TO 73 DEGREES, WHICH CAN BE SAID TO BE ALMOST COMPATIBLE WITH THE SHOOTING ELEVATION ANGLE FROM HOWITZER TO MORTAR. AS FOR THE FAMOUS SIG33 150MM HEAVY INFANTRY GUN IN WORLD WAR II, THE GUN WEIGHT IS ONLY 1750KG. The weight of the shell is 38KG (while the weight of the reinforced concrete blasting shell is up to 90KG!). The firing range is 4650 meters, and the range of high and low firing is 4 to 75 degrees. That is, at 4KM, such a heavy infantry gun can destroy almost everything in sight! What's even more terrifying is that this high-powered gun can also be mounted on a chassis like the 38T, and even the chassis of the No. 1B tank can barely accommodate it.

After carefully comparing the performance and ballistic advantages of infantry guns, howitzers and mortars, the Germans believed that high-powered infantry guns were a must-have product for both the reinforced concrete forests of the French on the Western Front and the Russian crowds on the Eastern Front. THE GERMANS DID NOT LIKE THE 75MM CLASS, AND THEY MADE IT CLEAR THAT THE FIGURE OF LONG-RANGE FIRE SUPPRESSION WAS HANDED OVER TO A REGULAR HOWITZER OF THE 105MM CLASS OR ABOVE. THE GERMAN ARMY CAN HAVE 105MM HOWITZERS AT THE DIVISION LEVEL, INDIVIDUAL 150MM HOWITZERS, AND 210MM HEAVY HOWITZERS AT THE ARMY LEVEL. Relatively speaking, they need large-caliber infantry guns and mortars that can easily take out the opponent's heavy bunkers at close range.

Today, Friday, I don't know if there is a recommendation for Lu Dao next week, please subscribe to a monthly pass~~. (To be continued......)