On July 1o, in the hinterland of the Soviet Union, in the production workshop in Chelyabinsk, a tank was slowly driving out of the factory, this is not a T-34 tank, but a larger and more powerful tank than the T-34.

"Ivan, this is our latest design and production class T-34 tank, it has a loud name, Stalin. The engineer triumphantly pointed to the tank and said, "This is a test model, and when it comes to mass production, it will be the most powerful tank in the world." ”

"We put a lot of effort into dealing with the German 75 mm caliber and 88 mm caliber high-power armor-piercing shells. The engineer pointed to the barrel of the tank's artillery and said: "Because of the metallurgical process, we cannot use a high-diameter design to achieve the purpose of increasing the armor-piercing power, so we can only increase the caliber of the gun to achieve the goal of the power of the Vietnamese and German artillery." ”

This gun was adapted from the 122 mm caliber cannon of the 6th Army, and the successful anti-tank guns of this era seem to be temporary amateur artillery, the Germans made cameos with anti-aircraft guns, and the Soviets did not use their own 1oo mm anti-aircraft guns. Thinking of the power of the Germans to use 88mm anti-aircraft cannons to counter-tank, you can know how terrible this kind of Soviet artillery is, in fact, if you only discuss the destructive power of artillery, the power of this kind of artillery has surpassed that of the German Tiger tanks in service.

The main reason that forced the Soviet designers to use such a huge caliber gun was that the Soviets had not been able to get a complete German Tiger tank so far. Therefore, the Soviets did not know what kind of power the German 88 mm caliber cannon had, so they had to increase the power of the gun as much as possible to ensure that the next generation of tanks could outperform the German Tiger tank.

Therefore, the 85 mm caliber artillery was not in the range of choice, because according to the level of metallurgical technology of the Soviet Union, it was completely unrealistic to rely on the 85 mm caliber gun to overtake the German 88 mm cannon, so the Soviets had to use a more powerful caliber artillery.

Among the many options, three types of artillery were put in front of the Soviet designers: 1oo mm caliber guns, 122 mm caliber guns, and 152 mm caliber guns.

The 152 mm caliber was the first to be ruled out, this kind of artillery was used on the KV-2 tank, the battlefield table and reputation were extremely poor, the fire was too slow and would affect the turret size of the tank, and the gains outweighed the losses. [To see the latest chapter of this book, please go to 800 ()]

The 1oo mm caliber gun was then excluded, although this cannon was expected to be powerful, and it could be loaded in one piece, which was more secure, and the tank turret volume could be further compressed, but unfortunately the reference version of this artillery, the BS3 anti-aircraft gun, was too large and the recoil was also a headache.

Therefore, the final weapon selection of Stalin's tank determined that a 122 mm caliber gun was the weapon of choice for this tank, and after a series of practical and modified vehicles, such a class tank with a tonnage of more than 45 tons was produced.

However, the Soviet tank technology is not particularly mature, so although this IS-2 tank looks very pleasant, there are still many problems. Because the weight of the tank is really strict, the time of this tank is really not high, and the driving time on good highway roads is not more than 4o kilometers, and the cross-country degree is even below 2o kilometers per hour.

And because the main gun was a 122-mm cannon modification, part of the design of this cannon was also used, in which the shells still used split ammunition, and because of the small internal space, the layout of these split ammunition inside the tank was simply terrible.

The warheads were basically placed inside the turret, while the projectile charges were all placed under the floor, which was a disaster for the loader. The loader must first push the cannonball into the chamber, then bend down to open the floor, take out the charge, straighten up and reload again, and then close the bolt to complete the reload. As a result, the IS-2 tank fires only two per minute on the battlefield, and if it is not very skilled, it may even shoot even less.

But the Soviets solved the problem of the German tank superiority in the most primitive way: they made trade-offs between three important characteristics of the tank, and reordered them with their own understanding and the needs of the battlefield: they believed that the firepower of the tank was more important than the armor protection, and the armor protection was more important than the ability to maneuver.

"When will this tank be mass-produced?" a general frowned at the rough-looking tank, banged on the tank's somewhat crooked fenders, and asked, "I'm talking about reaching the level of 1oo units produced every month." ”

"Comrade General. The Soviet designer named Ivan said in frustration: "The lathes and workers in Kiev were intercepted by the Germans, which affected the reconstruction of our tank factory here. ”

"When will we reach the production of 1oo vehicles per month?" the general frowned and snorted coldly, obviously not satisfied with the engineer's excuse named Ivan: "This is a tank named after our great leader! If it can't become a battlefield-changing weapon, do you know what the consequences will be?"

"Comrade General! We will work overtime to produce more than a dozen tanks per month, and if we want to equip the troops on a large scale, we will have to wait at least five months for the Americans' machine tools and equipment and corresponding raw materials to be in place before we can continue to increase production. Ivan hurriedly spoke.

The general nodded, acquiescing. He paused for a moment before he spoke again: "I don't care what method you use, before the winter comes, prepare 3oo of this kind of tank, our counterattack plan has been approved, this batch of tanks must be in place on time to participate in the winter counterattack." ”

"We promise to complete the plan!" the engineer named Ivan assured, holding the general's hand and patting his chest. And Valshilevsky, who was standing on the side, smiled and led the general away, continuing to introduce the rest of the entire tank production workshop. It also produces KV-2 tanks and T-34 tanks, employing tens of thousands of workers.

......

On July 19, nine days later, "My Yuan, are you so sure that the Soviets are preparing for mass production of a new tank? And the gun has a caliber of 122 mm? This is a big difference from the caliber of the world's mainstream tank guns today." The head of the Porsche company frowned and looked at it from German intelligence

At the Wehrmacht's military-industrial exhibition conference, the information just obtained from the spy network "Hive", and the film submitted by the leader Beehive himself, even had photos of such tanks, as well as various parameter numbers.

Guderian, the director of equipment of the German armored forces and the representative of the experts of the front-line armored forces, was frightened by the number of such tanks, and once this tank entered service, then the T-34 would be able to compete with the German Tiger tank and the Panther tank. At that time, the losses of German armored forces will skyrocket, and the number of losses will be too much for Germany to bear.

"My Yuan, if this information is true, we must deal with it. Guderian frowned and looked at the photos of Soviet tanks, and finally said: "The advantage of our army's armored forces lies in the high level of soldiers and mature cooperation. This advantage is based on the fact that the tank is strong enough to preserve the crew, and as soon as the losses begin to increase, then the combat level of our armored forces will decrease, and it will fall into an even greater loss vortex. ”

He paused, glanced at Accardo, and continued: "If we and the Soviet Union get caught up in an inefficient contest of numerical attrition, then it is likely that the war will be brought to a stalemate. ”

Accardo also did not expect that because of his improvement of the German armored forces, both the United States and the Soviet Union launched their own new generation of tanks faster than the original, and because there was no technical difficulty, and targeted trade-offs were made in the design, so that the Soviet tanks could catch up with the German tanks in such a short time.

But the good news is that Accardo's technology show has not stopped, even faster than the original German technology show, and now he has at least two ways to improve the power of tank artillery, one is to replace the Tiger tank with a longer barrel 88 mm caliber gun with a larger diameter, and the other is to equip all tanks on the front line with new tungsten alloy armor-piercing shells.

Moreover, this IS-2 tank has not yet been mass-produced in the Soviet Union, but only a prototype has been produced, and the progress is similar to that of the King Tiger tank being tested by Germany. As soon as the German King Tiger tank, weighing more than 45 tons, entered service, then the advantage immediately returned to the side of the Germans.

However, everyone knows that the era of relying on technological superiority to fight a war with almost zero casualties has passed, and now the weapons and equipment of the two sides are gradually approaching a state as a whole, and unless Germany can come up with epoch-making weapons and equipment to change the mode of war again, it can only endure the current situation.

"There's no good way to do it, so let's get the technical department into action, first equip all the heavy tank battalions with new guns, and then try to replace the 88mm 71 caliber long-barreled guns before the winter comes. Accardo thought for a moment, and then said to the heads of Krupp and some other technical departments: "On the other hand, new artillery shells should also be rationed to the front-line troops, at least so that the soldiers can have an understanding of their new weapons." ”

After he finished speaking, he looked at Krupp: "The opening of the 1o5 mm caliber tank gun must be accelerated! We will make the King Tiger tank enter the state of mass production in the next few months! In this era, if you don't make progress, you are going backwards!"

"Understood!" Krupp nodded solemnly