Battle of the Third Reich Chapter 104: Firepower (2)

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Faced with the current situation, there are only two strategies that Germany can adopt. One is to copy Hitler’s tactics and launch a preemptive offensive. Before the Soviets complete their war preparations, they will be caught off guard and try to eliminate the Soviet Union as much as possible. The heavy troops deployed on the front line of the border destroy its technical equipment and annihilate its active forces.

The second type is to deploy active defenses. A solid line of defense consisting of minefields, fortification areas, and various tactical support points is established in central and eastern Europe. On the line of defense, sufficient deterrent to the Soviet defense must be deployed. The army also needs to prepare a certain number of armored units as a mobile force. At the same time, it must be able to quickly assemble a huge reserve team in the rear. Once the war breaks out suddenly, the German army will rely on the defense line to weaken the Soviet offensive force layer by layer and start with the other side. The tug-of-war, exhausting its active power and technical equipment, until the Soviet army's attack strength began to decay, and then the reserve team launched a large-scale counterattack, and finally pushed back the front of the Soviet Union.

At present, it is impossible to replicate the former strategy. The Soviet Union has been prepared for Germany. Even if the German army launches a sudden attack, it is impossible to create the historical record and achieve a defeat in Germany. Before the various reserves the Soviet Union needed, Xu Jun would not repeat the mistakes of the former prime minister.

So now the strategy that the Germans can choose is to fight a defensive battle. In fact, no matter which strategy the high-level chooses, the threats that German soldiers have to face are the same, whether it is offensive or defensive, they Will definitely encounter the mortal enemy of the infantry, the powerful Soviet armored unit.

In history, shortly after the German infantry set foot on Soviet soil, they were counterattacked by Soviet armored forces. During the battle, a shortcoming of the German infantry was exposed. Only a few of them received individual anti-tank training.

In the German Army’s tactics, all anti-tank tasks are assigned to professional units, such as the anti-tank companies in each infantry regiment and the anti-tank squads in each infantry company.

The anti-tank company is mainly equipped with 37mm anti-tank guns, which has become a stepping stone in the French campaign. It is difficult to deal with some French medium tanks, not to mention the group of steel that the Soviet Union is currently changing. Monsters.

According to the original history, the German army would first replace this inadequate anti-tank weapon with a 50mm anti-tank gun. As a result, the German army only discovered after the battle on the Eastern Front that it was difficult to compete with the 50mm anti-tank gun. The strong Soviet main tanks confronted, and the Germans eventually raised the caliber of the infantry anti-tank gun to 75mm, which finally contained the Soviet armor.

Of course, Xu Jun will not waste that time. Rhein Steel has already started mass production of 7.5mmPak40, and Krupp has also begun production of 7.5mmPak41.

The latter is a cone-bore gun. The caliber of the barrel is gradually reduced from back to front. The shells are gradually backlogged during the movement in the barrel. This allows the warhead to obtain a very high initial velocity. When using conventional doses, The warhead's muzzle velocity is as high as 1,260 meters per second.

When it fired its special tungsten core armor-piercing projectile, it showed amazing power. For a homogeneous steel target with an oblique angle of 30 degrees away from a kilometer, the gun actually reached 140 mm. The penetration depth.

If the shooting range is shortened to 500 meters, this is the most common combat distance for infantry company platoon-class anti-tank guns. The penetration depth of this gun has reached a frenzied 172 mm, which indicates No Soviet tank can withstand the attack of this artillery.

The production process of this kind of anti-tank artillery is more complicated, and the alloy material is used, so the price and use cost are relatively high. Because the cone mode is used, the life of the barrel is very short, about 500 rounds. The barrel must be replaced.

However, this is not a problem in Xu Jun’s view. If an anti-tank gun can fire 600 rounds and has not been killed by the enemy, then it is fully qualified to change another barrel, because it is half The shooting rate of this gun group has killed at least three hundred armored targets.

Pak41 75mm cone gun because of its superior armor-piercing performance, it almost replaced the Pak40 75mm anti-tank gun. Unfortunately, because of the historical lack of tungsten ore in Germany, it was only suitable for firing tungsten cores. Armour-piercing ammunition, so when Hitler ordered the reduction of the production of this ammunition, the German army finally retained only one hundred and fifty such anti-tank guns. The remaining Pak41 was quietly removed from the German sequence after the ammunition and barrel were exhausted. Disappeared.

But now the German army has no such worries. In addition to the Austrian tungsten ore under development, Germany has also imported a large number of tungsten ore from Portugal and Bolivia. At the same time, the package contract with China has also restored the pre-war tungsten. Sand trade.

It's just that the number of tungsten mines controlled by the Chongqing government is not large, and most of the products need to be repaid to the United States to deduct the loan from the Export-Import Bank of the United States. This transaction is called the "tungsten sand loan contract." The Export-Import Bank of the United States provided Chongqing with a loan of 15 million US dollars to purchase food and raw materials produced in the United States. Chongqing needs to provide a US value of 30 million within five years. Tungsten sand in US dollars is used as repayment.

Let’s not talk about how unfair this transaction is. At this time, it’s pretty good that someone is willing to lend to Chongqing. After all, the Japanese army continued to advance in 1940. The situation facing the Chongqing government is really not optimistic. The failure of Zhongzheng's loan is tantamount to a waste of water. Of course, the Americans are not here to engage in charity and do not have 100% profits. How could they be willing to take this risk?

In 1949, under the leadership of Roosevelt, the United States passed the "Reserve Important Military Supplies Act," and Congress was prepared to allocate 100 million U.S. dollars within four years to purchase 17 types of strategic supplies necessary for the United States.

As a result, they spent less than half a year on their budget of 25 million U.S. dollars, all used to purchase five strategic materials, tungsten, tin, manganese, chromium and rubber. They imported more than 1.485 thousand pounds of tungsten sand alone, which is almost 670 tons, 60% of which are imported from China. In order to contain Germany before the war, the United Kingdom snapped up a large number of tungsten sands from Spain and Portugal on the market. As a result, the stockpiling of the United Kingdom and the United States raised the price of tungsten sand and other strategic resources in the international market.

However, because of the end of the European War and the downfall of the Roosevelt cabinet, the US government has stopped hoarding strategic materials, and the prices of various raw materials in the international market have gradually fallen back to their original levels.

As for the tungsten sand stockpiled in the UK, it adds up to almost half of Portugal's production. As a result, except for the domestic production, almost all of the rest was eaten by Germany.

Germany is not short of tungsten at all, so Xu Jun can mass-produce the Pak41 cone-bore gun with peace of mind. This weapon will enable German company platoon-level infantry units to have firepower that can fight against heavy tanks at long range.

As for the other conventional Pak40 anti-tank gun, although its armor-piercing ability is not as good as that of the cone-bore gun~IndoMTL.com~, it is enough to deal with most Soviet armored vehicles. This anti-tank gun has its own advantages. That is, it can launch a variety of ammunition, such as conventional ammunition and high-explosive ammunition. In addition to anti-tank missions, it can also support conventional infantry operations. In contrast, the function of the Pak41 cone-bore gun is a bit single.

In Xu Jun’s plan, Pak41 will be assigned to armored and armored grenadier units and some fortification defense units, and Pak40 will be assigned to conventional infantry units, especially fortification defense units. They will definitely encounter after the battle begins. As for the surprise attack and siege of the enemy's heavy armored units, it is more necessary to be equipped with powerful anti-tank firepower.

Because they are assigned to grassroots infantry units, the movement of these two guns is still the conventional towed type. Counting the wheeled gun mounts, the total weight of the two guns is about 1.4 tons. Among them, the cone-bore gun is lighter by more than a hundred kilograms. It can be towed by any military vehicle. It can also be towed by animal power and manpower when necessary. It will be more difficult when marching off-road. This problem existed in the original history. At present, only after the light field tractor begins to fully equip the German troops, can it be alleviated.

In addition to these wheeled tractors, Xu Jun also plans to mount them on various motor vehicles, such as wheeled armored vehicles and semi-track personnel carriers, and can even be temporarily installed on heavy trucks to become mobile anti-tanks. Firepower platform.

If there is no accidental change, Xu Jun believes that with the power of these two anti-tank guns, it will be enough for the German infantry to drag them to fight a complete war.

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