81_81266 Khrushchev breathed a sigh of relief this time, because the Germans did him a great favor. The plane that Stalin sent to dispose of his envoy was spotted by German fighters as it approached the front-line airfield, and the four Luftwaffe FW-190D fighters easily tore through the eight escorting I-16s and shot Stalin's envoy down a kilometer from the airstrip. It is a pity that until the end, the envoy did not wait for the front-line units of the Soviet Air Force to meet him.

Naturally, he could not wait, the situation at the front was much worse than Stalin knew, and a day before the Soviet Air Force had no longer dared to take off fighter jets to meet the arrogant Luftwaffe, and when the Luftwaffe was bombing the village of Persian indiscriminately, the fighter pilots of the Soviet Air Force only dared to watch their compatriots being ravaged to death from a distance.

Relying on the border network, as well as the latest railway radar trains, the Germans easily found and attacked Soviet aircraft that took to the skies for battle, so much so that the losses of the few flying units that the Soviet dared to fight were close to 100%. After the battle began, most of the Soviet fighters were destroyed on the ground due to the unexpected counter-assault of the German army, and the Soviet Air Force lost a full 3,000 aircraft of various types in just a few days.

If Stalin had known that his air force was almost gone, he would not have allowed his envoys to fly to the front to relieve Khrushchev of his military power. Of course, if he had known that Khrushchev had now withdrawn with Voroshilov with a large army, he would have asked the envoy to take a criminal squad to the front.

The captured Soviet KV-2 tank was soon surrounded by a group of experts who came from China, and they began to count the various numbers of the tank, and some news followed.

"Have you heard? The Soviet tank actually used a 152 mm cannon!" The commander of the No. 114 tank, who usually doesn't like to chew his tongue, couldn't hold his breath this time: "Lieutenant, I heard that the tank can theoretically penetrate the front armor of the Tiger tank." Looking at the big one, I felt for the first time that my tank wasn't very strong. ”

Marcus was also clearly not very interested, and he and Wren were assigned to the armored unit of the Leopard tank from the very beginning. Since almost a year ago, they have been accustomed to destroying the enemy's broken copper and iron with tanks they handle. Their tanks have always been the most advanced in the world, both in terms of tank performance and the driver's plain zhì, they have always been the best in the whole world.

Now, there is a tank that surpasses the Tiger in their hands, this tank has a thicker turret frontal thickness than the Tiger and is armed with an unprecedented 152 mm gun as the main gun of the tank. This made the German armored units, whose maximum artillery caliber was only 88 mm, suddenly feel a huge pressure.

So at this time, he felt that the engineers and technicians behind him should be shot, according to normal development, the enemy used 152 caliber cannons, and the German armored forces should also use 203 mm cannons anyway, right?

"Wren, don't you know the Führer, write a letter to him, and say that these idiot experts don't work!" Marcus said with a gloomy face: "The enemy's tanks are obviously more advanced than ours, doesn't this make us go to death?"

"Shut up!" Wren glared at Marcus, then motioned for everyone to be calm as he led Alice and the two to the group of experts who were constantly meeting.

"Hello, I'm Lieutenant Wren Hard, who was the first to discover this tank. He walked up behind an engineer and greeted him politely.

"Ah, Lieutenant Wren, it's a shame that you've come across this, or it might have caused us even more trouble. "The engineer looks skinny, but friendly.

Wren smiled bitterly, then pointed to the huge KV-2 tank not far away, and said: "This thing has caused panic among my subordinates, and to be honest, it is not easy to fight this tank head-on." So I'm going to ask you professionals, is there any way to deal with this monster?"

The engineer cracked his mouth and laughed, then turned around and called an officer in charge of statistics, asking him to explain to Wren the advantages and disadvantages of this tank.

"Obviously, the advantages of this tank needless to say, the armor is very thick, and it is somewhat difficult for the 88mm cannon to deal with armor of this thickness at a distance of 1200 meters, and the most secure distance is at least 1000 meters. The officer looked at the records and explained to Wren.

"But the 152 mm cannon...... At a distance of 1000 meters, it seems dangerous. Wren continued with a frown.

"Don't worry, I don't think it's as dangerous as you think. The officer laughed: "The interior of this tank is very well preserved, so we know the weakness of this tank." ”

He pointed to the KV-2 tank as he spoke: "The gun is indeed powerful, but the aiming device is very backward, and the accuracy cannot be guaranteed at a distance of 700 meters, so the probability of this tank hitting you at a distance of 1000 meters is not high, and then its shells are divided into parts, so if this tank wants to shoot again after firing, it will take at least 20 seconds or more." ”

Wren nodded, he guessed this, compared to the 88 mm caliber cannon on the Tiger tank, the Soviet 152 mm caliber tank gun was too big, and the shells were impossible to load in a small tank without separate loading, so the rate of fire was a weakness of this big guy.

"Another problem arose with the big guy's turret steering mechanism, because the turret was so heavy that the rotation mechanism originally designed for the KV-1 tank became ineffective - the tank was very slow to aim and adjust, to the point of being unbearably slow. I thought, if it's not the people who drive such tanks who are crazy, then the people who designed them must be crazy. The officer pouted.

"I might guess part of the rest of the questions. Wren took one look at the tank's tracks and wheels, and then went on to tell what he had seen: "This tank must be very poorly maneuverable, right? I saw with my own eyes that it was stuck on the roadbed and could not climb over the slopes. It was also so slow that I thought their driver hadn't eaten. ”

The officer nodded and gave Wren a thumbs up: "You guessed it, this tank doesn't go much faster than pushing the Tiger forward, and it's very easy to stall when shifting gears and steering...... Do you have any more questions to ask now?"

"When are we going to get a new tank?" Wren asked without thinking.

"New tanks? Don't even think about it. The officer was stunned for a moment, and then laughed: "There is a plan to add welded steel plates to the Tiger tank to improve the level of protection, as for upgrading...... You're going to have to wait a long time. ”

The original intention of the design of the Tiger tank is to find a delicate balance between the three main performance of the tank of "firepower, protection and mobility".

The engine of the Tiger tank, for example, can be said to be the pinnacle of German mechanical industrial design. This engine not only has a high power output, but also is stable, and most importantly, it is also very reliable and durable. This is also the reason why the German army has maintained a very high tank availability rate, the failure rate of both Leopard and Tiger tanks is very low, and the small and negligible failure repair, in most cases, is due to too many impurities in the fuel.

The Leopard and Tiger tanks, which have been designed in this way, have in fact initially possessed the prototype of modern main battle tanks, and in several important indicators, these German tanks have maintained a terrifying and outrageous balance, and if you want to increase investment in one indicator, then the price to pay is a significant decline in other performance indicators.

So when he learned that the Soviet Union had put KV-2 tanks on the battlefield, Accardo did not have the slightest surprise and fear, he knew that the direction of the Soviet Union's exploration on the road of tank development had deviated, and it would not be long before they would return to the old way - when they began to mass-produce the T-34 and Stalin tanks, they would be considered "graduates".

Thinking about it another way, the main tanks equipped by the German army are now Leopard and Tiger, these tanks have the power to fight even in the face of Soviet heavy tanks, of course, they are not in a hurry to replace new weapons and equipment, equipped with 105 mm caliber guns and night vision devices, the "King Tiger" tank is still in the design and finalization stage, there is no need to disrupt their pace for a KV-2 that is not in the climate.

"Believe the Führer, he values weapons innovation more than you think. The officer glanced at Wren, who was no longer talking, and persuaded: "It would be irresponsible to really hand over to you a tank that can only be stopped for maintenance after driving dozens of kilometers." ”

Wren nodded, then looked back at Alice, "Did you hear that?"

Alice nodded sheepishly.

"Then I'll explain it to Marcus's guys!" Wren laughed triumphantly, and at this moment he looked like a child under 20 years old. Alice realized that she had been used as a microphone, so she began to chase after her commander, and the two of them ran back to her tank one after the other.

The official looked at the two people who ran away, and seemed to be very yearning, and it took him a long time to come back to his senses, then he shook his head, sighed with his hands behind his back and sighed: "It's good to be young." ”。