Chapter 891 Military Parade (2)
After the tank phalanx, various self-propelled artillery phalanxes followed.
As early as 1914, the Russian Empire produced the world's first 76mm self-propelled anti-aircraft gun mounted on a truck chassis. The first self-propelled howitzer was developed by France in 1917. Shortly after the birth of tanks in World War I, in order to make the bulky towed guns more maneuverable and able to quickly think about changing positions under various terrain conditions, the French installed a field gun on a tracked tank chassis to make it mobile and off-road. However, the self-propelled artillery at this time had no armor protection and was only suitable for fire support for infantry.
The world's first armored turret self-propelled artillery was made by the Germans. The towed anti-tank guns that emerged in World War I were poor in mobility and protection. Germany believed that only by making these artillery run as fast as enemy tanks could they effectively confront tanks. In addition, since the guns of early tanks had a small caliber and weak firepower, there was also a need for a gun that could accompany the tanks, provide fire support for the tanks, and have certain protective performance.
In September 1939, Germany occupied Czechoslovakia and obtained a large number of Czech-made 47mm anti-tank guns with relatively superior performance at the time. In 1940, during the Battle of France, the Alkett Company in Berlin, Germany installed this gun on the chassis of the Type I tank and designed and manufactured a box-shaped armored turret with an open back. The turret could not rotate, but the gun could turn 15 degrees to the left and right. This is the world's first self-propelled artillery with armor protection, and it is also the world's first self-propelled anti-tank gun. It has a good effect in actual combat use. As the main anti-tank weapon of the German army, it has been used until 1943.
The various self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, assault guns, howitzers, mortars, rocket launchers, and mortars with calibers ranging from 20mm to 40mm, 50mm, 75mm, 88mm, and all the way to 380mm made the audience in the audience dazzled. Especially when the last five 380mm Sturmtigers passed in front of the viewing platform, everyone's mind was filled with the famous saying of the German Iron Chancellor Bismarck: "Truth is only within the range of cannons!" With such a terrible caliber, what the Germans say is what it is. Can those who resist it withstand a shot from this guy? !
The self-propelled artillery phalanxes all passed by in fear, and then came the giant wheeled special vehicles. These vehicles carried cylindrical objects, some of which had "flying wings" and some only had a few tail fins at the tail. The lengths of these cylinders were also different, some were only a few meters long, and some were more than ten meters or even twenty or thirty meters long.
"What kind of weapon is this?" Everyone couldn't help but whisper.
"I don't know, it must be a secret weapon." They saw that there were no follow-up squares in the distance, which meant that these cylindrical objects were the finale.
The commentator continued to explain. "Everyone, I believe you have all heard of the 'flying bombs' that our army used to attack London, England, and not long ago, these 'flying bombs' also bombed Washington and Moscow. Now, I solemnly introduce this epoch-making weapon to you, the 'cruise missile' and the 'ballistic missile'!"
"Oh my God!" When the people on the viewing platform heard that the maximum range of these missiles could reach 10,000 kilometers and the terminal speed could reach more than ten times the speed of sound, they were immediately shocked. What is the concept of a range of 10,000 kilometers? The Germans can strike the entire United States and the Soviet Union on their own land, and it is impossible to intercept at a speed of more than ten times the speed of sound. In this way, the United States and the Soviet Union can only be beaten!
Before everyone recovered from the shock, the roar of the engine came from a distance, resounding through the sky.
"..." Everyone stared at the helicopter formation hovering in the air in amazement. Only a few of them had seen this kind of aircraft with their own eyes, and most of the others had either only heard of it or had never heard of it; at this moment, everyone looked at these helicopters without wings and with propellers above the aircraft in surprise.
During this period, German helicopters have also developed rapidly. Previously, machine guns, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, etc. were loaded on Mi-4 helicopters to serve as armed helicopters. Now they are equipped with real armed helicopters. However, this matter made Yannick suffer from choice difficulties again, because there were two armed helicopters for him to choose from. One was the Soviet Mi-24 "Hind" and the other was the American AH-1 "Cobra".
After thinking for several days, Yannick still chose the Mi-24 as the Army Aviation armed helicopter. Anyway, the development of Army Aviation helicopters has seriously leaned towards the Soviet style, and he doesn't mind having one more Mi-24.
The Mi-24 has many advantages, such as easy maintenance: Americans once commented that this helicopter is similar to a tractor and can be maintained in the open air; it has strong ammunition compatibility: cluster bombs, fuel air bombs, high explosive bombs, 57mm~240mm rockets, 23mm cannons, machine gun pods, 30mm automatic grenade pods, 30mm artillery pods, AA-8 "Aphid", anti-tank missiles, basically everything you can think of can be installed, and even a F4 was shot down with a rocket (Iraq-Iraq On October 27, 1982, during the war, an Iranian AH-1 encountered a Mi-24, and the AH-1 called in an F4 fighter. Facing the F4, which had much more firepower and size than itself, the Mi-24, which should have surrendered, gave it a go: the two sides made direct contact at low altitude, and when the F-4 was preparing to climb, the Mi-24 suddenly dumped all the ammunition from the four rocket launchers that were supposed to be used for ground attacks, and the unfortunate F-4 was directly hit and exploded in mid-air! The Mi-24 was a very powerful helicopter that could carry 12 fully armed commandos, or 18 lightly armed personnel, and it was also the first helicopter to shoot down a fighter jet in actual combat.