bookpower Chapter 376
Chapter 376
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: 7.119s Scan: 0.344sGuderian and Manstein soon saw the weapons they had dreamed of!
In the Rheinmetall factory, Guderian saw the first Panzer IV that had just rolled off the production line!
Guderian fell in love with this tank at first sight!
The handsome and mighty appearance, the slender and sturdy gun barrel, the straight armor like a knife, and the low and heavy turret made him love it!
Guderian had imagined their next generation of tanks in his mind, but he had never imagined such a beautiful and powerful tank!
After personally test-driving this tank, Guderian’s evaluation of this tank has improved a lot again!
“This tank feels very easy to operate, and it is very stable. The space inside is also very large, and there is no sense of oppression at all!”
As the commander of the armored forces, Guderian has personally driven many types of tanks, including the tanks of the British and Gauls in World War I, as well as Hans’ own tanks.
As for the Type 1 tank and the tractor tank, that’s even more out of the question!
Because these tanks were designed at an earlier time, they all have performance defects, especially in design, because they first consider combat performance and do not consider the riding experience of the crew inside.
In addition, the driving distance of tanks of this era is relatively short, so the tank crew does not need to stay in the tank for too long, and they did not specifically modify the design to improve the crew’s riding experience!
Hans wanted to improve the internal riding space of the Type 1 tank, but because the tonnage of this tank is too small, The internal space is not large to begin with, and no matter how it is improved, it is limited. The tractor tank is not a specialized tank, and the riding experience is not good.
Therefore, there is naturally a huge gap between these tanks and tanks like the Panzer IV that have been specifically considered for the crew experience!
After all, in Mainz’s conception, the Panzer IV tank is to undertake a large number of long-range assault combat missions. In this case, once a fight breaks out, the tank crew may have to stay in the tank for several days or even more than ten days!
If they still ignore the crew’s riding experience like the previous tanks, then staying in such a claustrophobic and narrow space for so long will drive people crazy!
After Guderian had an in-depth understanding of the various performance data of this tank, he became extremely excited.
“If we were given 100 such tanks and equipped with three armored divisions, I could take down the Maginot Line!”
Hearing Guderian’s heroic words, Manstein couldn’t help but roll his eyes.
“Forget it.
If the general knew about your idea, he would definitely scold you.
Think about it, this 30-ton tank has a maximum speed of 60 kilometers per hour.
Do you think it is for you to attack the enemy?” Manstein felt that he needed to correct Guderian’s blind optimism and arrogance.
In his opinion, although the design of the No.
4 tank improved the firepower and protection performance and solved the problems of the previous No.
1 tank, the mobility of this tank was also improved to the extreme.
Although it was not as fast as the No.
1 tank’s 70 kilometers, the No.
1 tank was less than 7 tons, but the tonnage of the No.
4 tank reached 30 tons, which was more than four times heavier than the former!
60 kilometers for a 30-ton tank, this speed is definitely lightning fast!
With such powerful firepower, such excellent protection performance and such excellent mobility, the design purpose of this tank can be seen at a glance: it is a mass killing machine prepared for the blitzkrieg proposed by General Mainz three years ago. Without this tank
, although they can still use the Type 1 tank to achieve the purpose of blitzkrieg, the weak firepower and protection capabilities of the Type 1 tank reduce their attack and defense capabilities. If they encounter a tougher enemy, they can only surround the enemy, but have no ability to annihilate the enemy!
However, with a tank like the Type 4 tank that has both firepower and protection, and also has excellent protective performance, all these problems are solved!
In the future, if they encounter a tougher enemy again, they don’t need to take a detour, they can directly use the tank cluster in their hands to crush the enemy and eat the enemy alive!
The birth of the Type 4 tank directly brought about a qualitative change to the German armored forces!
Hearing Manstein’s ridicule, Guderian smiled foolishly and didn’t care
“I’m just talking. Think about it, my army is stationed in the Rhine region, right under the noses of the Gauls. If I say something like this, won’t the Gauls be scared to death?”
“The general has said that the Type 4 tank is a top secret of the empire and must not be leaked out!”
Manstein warned solemnly. Seeing that the other party was so serious and did not seem to be joking at all, Guderian immediately explained:”I was just joking. I know how to handle such things. Don’t worry, I will never tell anyone!”
After saying that, he muttered softly, why does it feel like Manstein is becoming more and more like General Mainz?
“What is the current production capacity of the Type 4 tank?”
Manstein ignored Guderian’s muttering and asked a question that he was more concerned about.
The German army currently has seven armies. Even if each army is equipped with only one armored army, it will require at least 21 armored divisions.
According to the organization personally formulated by Mainz, an armored division needs to be equipped with 350-40 tanks. Even at the lowest configuration, equipping 21 armored divisions will require 3,850 tanks!
This number is not small, so he is very concerned about when Rheinmetall can fully produce these tanks!
If the production capacity of the Type 4 tank is not good, I am afraid they will have to wait a long time before they can be equipped with this advanced weapon.
“Currently, there is only one production line for this type of tank, and only two tanks can be produced per month. These tanks have not been tested yet. It will take about two months to complete all the tests. Only after all the tests are passed will they be completely finalized, and then more investment will be made to add more production lines. Only then will the production capacity begin to increase!”
Rheinmetall is under great pressure. The process of the Type 4 tank is more complicated and consumes more working hours, so it takes longer to produce a tank. On average, it takes 2.5 days to produce a tank.
And the cost is also very high. The first batch of Type 4 tanks cost nearly 200,000 marks. Even after increasing production capacity and reducing costs, the cost of this tank will not be less than 150,000 marks!
This is a very expensive number. You must know that in history, until 1942, the cost of the Type 5 tank, also known as the Leopard tank, was only 170,000 marks. At this time The Panzer IV was born 16 years earlier than the Leopard tank. The mark at that time was much more valuable than the mark 16 years later!
The reason why the Panzer IV was so expensive was actually very simple, because this tank used a lot of titanium alloy armor, which was very light and weighed only about 60% of the same volume of steel.
If it weren’t for the large amount of titanium alloy that reduced the weight of the tank itself, the armor configuration of the Panzer IV would definitely be more than 35 tons or even heavier!
The price of titanium alloy is much more expensive than steel, so it is understandable that the cost remains high.
U.
S.
The main reason why Inz used titanium alloys at all costs was because of its excellent heat resistance, strength, plasticity, toughness, formability, weldability, corrosion resistance and biocompatibility.
The future battlefield of the German army is not limited to Europe.
They have to go north to the cold and snowy areas of the Bear.
They also have to fight in the desert areas of North Africa.
In this case, if they continue to use steel with insufficient ductility and high brittleness, it will easily cause problems.
The ductility of steel is relatively poor, and it is very troublesome to encounter the problem of thermal expansion and contraction.
The German army once used it in World War II.
I have encountered such a problem: in the severe cold of more than 30 degrees below zero in Russia, the armor of their tanks became as fragile as ice, and was easily penetrated by the enemy’s anti-tank guns.
In some extreme cases, the armor of the tanks would even fall off by themselves.
With a little force, the steel would shatter all over the ground, and there would be no protection at all!
In this case, the combat effectiveness of the German army was naturally greatly affected.