Chapter 282 American Armaments
While the Soviets were busy researching their heavy tanks, the United States across the Atlantic was certainly not idle.
At the beginning of the European war, everyone, including the Americans, thought that this war would also turn into a long, stalemate tug-of-war like the last war, with the sky dark and the earth cracking. But what was unexpected to everyone was that Germany did not play by the rules this time. The blitzkrieg led by the German armored forces swept across Europe. First, Poland, which claimed to be the "first military power in Eastern Europe", was defeated, followed by Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium. In the end, even France, the first power in Europe, and Britain, the old maritime hegemon, suffered a great loss. Not only were hundreds of thousands of allied troops sent to prisoner-of-war camps by the Germans, but even the capital Paris became an undefended city.
It can be said that the current European situation is quite favorable to Germany.
Other countries may only marvel at Germany's military strength, but the Americans who have been eyeing to seize European hegemony are very unhappy.
The brilliant record of the Germans made Americans begin to examine the development of their own army. The German air force, army, and navy all have a lot of experience worth learning from.
Among them, the US Army is the most active. When they saw the combat reports of the German armored forces galloping across the European continent with blitzkrieg, the officers of the army at all levels seemed to be injected with chicken blood. They frantically wrote to various departments, requesting the establishment of corresponding armored corps to cope with the future war mode.
The United States is not without tanks, but the main ones in service are M2 light tanks and M2 medium tanks. However, these two tanks were outdated before they were put into service. They are not good enough compared to European tanks of the same period. Americans also understand that this kind of tank is a chicken rib. In the original time and space, it was not sent to overseas battlefields to embarrass itself, but was only used for tank training in the country.
Now the US military is in great need of developing and manufacturing new tanks to enhance its military strength.
The current US President Franklin Roosevelt is not a fool, nor does he lack ambition. He readily approved the army's request.
The design department adopted the M2A4 light tank with riveted armor plate structure, and took measures such as increasing the thickness of armor, installing guide wheels on the action part, and improving anti-aircraft weapons to improve the design of the M3 light tank.
The original main weapon of the tank was a 37mm gun, and the auxiliary weapon was 5 62mm machine guns: 1 was installed on the right side of the gun, 1 was installed on the right side of the front of the vehicle body, 2 were installed in the machine gun seats on both sides of the vehicle body, and 1 was installed on the top of the turret. There is a small command tower on the top of the turret. Soon after, some improvements were made to the turret, which became a welded structure, and the small command tower on the top of the turret was cancelled. The machine guns on both sides were also cancelled, and the auxiliary weapons became 3 62mm machine guns: 1 parallel machine gun, 1 front machine gun and 1 anti-aircraft machine gun.
But the army was not satisfied. In their view, this tank was only equipped with a 37mm caliber main gun, which was far inferior to the German 50mm caliber main gun, and the armor was more than a little behind, which was obviously outdated.
Perhaps the design department was stimulated, they actually found a 75mm gun and put it on the body of the vehicle to fight back against the army's ridicule that their tanks were not as good as Germany. You see, the caliber of the German tanks is only 50mm, I installed a 75mm on you, this is better than Germany, right?
But this also led to the new tank's three-layer layout similar to a mobile tower. Two fixed machine guns are installed on the left side of the driver's seat. Behind the driver's seat, there is a two-person turret. The commander and a gunner are responsible for using an M5 or M6 tank gun derived from the 37mm M3 anti-tank gun in the turret, and a coaxial machine gun. The commander has a command dome with a machine gun for observation. Due to the large number of weapons in the vehicle, there are 7 crew members (6 for the Grant type), which is more than the tanks of various countries at the same time, and it seems very crowded.
Although this medium tank named M3 has quite powerful firepower and good mobility, its protection is relatively poor, which is reflected in its high vehicle posture, thin armor, and riveted body. Another outstanding feature is that there are 7 crew members in the vehicle, plus two guns, which makes it very crowded. The use of two guns, divided into two levels, is not convenient for the commander to command and quickly develop firepower.
Although the army is still dissatisfied with this "broken thing" whose overall strength is far inferior to that of German tanks, after all, the United States is not under strong tank threats now, so the army is preparing to equip 3,000 of these "broken things".
Since the ground forces have "changed their guns to guns", how can the eagle flying in the sky fall behind?
The Army Aviation Department (the United States did not have an independent air force during World War II, but had Army Aviation and Naval Aviation) was also eager to update its equipment. Although there has been no face-to-face challenge, just comparing the performance data of both sides will show that their P-36 fighters are far from being the opponent of the German BF109.
Fortunately, Lockheed delivered the XP-38 prototype as early as January 1939, and it also made its first successful flight. (There should have been a P-37 model between the P-36 and the P-38. General Motors' Allison Division designed the V1710-11 liquid-cooled engine. At the same time, a General Electric turbocharger was used to make the engine emit more powerful power. In order to prove the effect of the improvement, they used an experimental method to build more than a dozen XP-37s. Although for some reason this batch of test aircraft was not adopted, it is said that the collected data was used in the design of the P-40.) The Army Air Force is now only waiting for the new aircraft to enter mass production.
Just as the Americans were struggling to narrow the gap in weapon performance with Germany, an even more shocking news reached the White House.
The hundreds of thousands of British and French troops trapped in the Dunkirk area raised the white flag under the leadership of Viscount Gort, the supreme commander of the British Expeditionary Force.
The war situation in Europe was beyond the Americans' expectations in just a few days. There was even intelligence that the French were about to surrender and the Germans would take advantage of the victory to land on the British mainland.
"This is not in the interests of us Americans. We have to help the British." Once Germany really landed in Britain and gained a foothold, the United States would lose its springboard for interfering in Europe. The ambitious Roosevelt would not allow the unification of the whole of Europe.
"But Congress will not agree easily." The one who spoke was Army Chief of Staff George Cartwright Marshall.
After the outbreak of the European war, some people in the United States advocated avoiding war with all their strength, while others advocated active preparations for war. However, isolationism is still prevalent in the United States today (simply put, because during World War I, the United States participated in the war and suffered heavy casualties, but when the Paris Peace Conference was held, the United States did not get much of the war dividends, so when World War II just started, Americans were not willing to participate in the war), even those who advocated active preparations did not want the United States to rashly get involved in the war.
General Marshall was one of them. He believed that whether he was willing or not, the United States would inevitably be involved in the war in the near future. As the Army Chief of Staff, he had an obligation to actively prepare for war. What the United States needed now was time, and the only country that could delay the Germans was Britain. Aiding Britain was equivalent to buying time for the United States.
But how could he convince the conservative members of Congress?