Chapter 98 German Tanks

"Da da da." The twin 8mm machine guns on the CV33 tank spit out long tongues of flame and rushed towards the opposite position, followed by densely packed Italian soldiers.

The height of this kind of tank is only 32 meters, and the shortest Italian soldier following behind is 1.7 meters, which is much taller than the tank. This weird height difference made the officers of the German Expeditionary Force who were observing from behind couldn't help but laugh. You must know that German tanks are more than two meters high, and soldiers following behind can use the tanks as cover to advance.

"I really don't know what the Italian designers are thinking." While complaining, they would not have thought that without Yannick's guidance, the German No. 1 tank would be no better than this small tank. It can be said that Laugh at fifty steps and laugh at a hundred steps.

The flying bullets swept across the government army's position, seeming to suppress the enemy's ability to lift their heads, and they seemed to have the momentum to break through the position in one breath.

"Boom!" At this moment, a tank moving forward exploded and instantly turned into a pile of scrap metal.

"Rheinmetall's 37mm anti-tank gun." The expeditionary force officer who was observing the battle situation with a scissor periscope in the observation post at the rear happened to see this scene and muttered softly. Seeing the Spanish officer on the side widening his eyes, he shrugged and explained. "You heard it right, it is the 37mm anti-tank gun of our German company Rheinmetall, but it was sold to the Soviets as early as 1930. It was later included in the Soviet equipment sequence and was numbered M30. I heard that they On this basis, a more advanced 45mm gun was developed, but obviously that thing did not come with support, only this outdated 37mm anti-tank gun."

The Spanish officer nodded in realization and asked in a low voice. "I heard that the two warships commissioned by the Soviet Union to be built by your country are almost completed. Will you deliver them?"

The expeditionary force officer gave him a strange look. "Of course, a conflict is a conflict, and business is a business. What's more, this is your civil war. We are not here, and the Soviets certainly haven't been here either."

"..." Maybe he couldn't understand the German's way of thinking. The Spanish officer clicked his tongue and continued to observe the battle situation in the distance. But they saw the Italian army running back. Behind them were seven or eight taels of destroyed CV33 tanks.

"??" Retreating now? The Spanish officer glanced speechlessly at the Italian officer with an ugly face, not knowing what to say.

The defeated Italian army repaired for a while, regrouped and attacked again, but in the end they gave up halfway and retreated to the starting point in despair.

After running back and forth like this four times, when he saw even the Spanish officer showing contempt, the Italian officer trembled all over, whipped out his pistol and shouted. "Adjutant, let the war team prepare! If anyone dares to retreat this time, we will shoot to death!"

The German and Spanish officers on the side looked at each other and shrugged. It seems like they are going to be serious this time? It’s really a bit of a wait and see.

Under the intimidation of the supervising team, the Italian army seemed to have "regained" their courage, and even braved the losses and rushed to a place more than 500 meters away from the position. It seemed that they could rush over with more force.

At this moment, two steel monsters they had never seen drove out from behind the government army position. Compared with the almost flat roof of the CV33, the opponent's body is topped with a large turret. The most important thing is the dark muzzle of the tank gun on the turret! Let the Italian tank soldiers be extremely frightened! That is definitely not something that your own CV33 twin 8mm machine guns and fragile armor can resist!

"T-26 tanks? Type B? Why are there only two of them? Are the Soviets too stingy?" Hearing the German expeditionary force officer look at the two tanks with interest and mockingly, the Spanish officer on the side listened. He couldn't help but roll his eyes. Still think the Soviets are stingy? If they send hundreds or thousands of tanks over, then this battle will be a fart, they might as well surrender. "The caliber of this tank gun seems to be slightly smaller than yours?"

The expeditionary force officer nodded and said relaxedly. "The caliber of this tank gun is 45 mm, which is indeed smaller than our tanks." The 45 mm tank gun was considered an outdated tank gun in the middle and late stages of World War II, but now this 45 mm tank gun Tank guns are absolutely dominant on the battlefield!

As the undisputed original inventor of tanks, until the outbreak of World War II, every tank developed by the United Kingdom was imitated by many countries. The Soviet Union’s T-26 tank (as well as the German Panzer I tank) was also modeled after the British Designed based on the "Vickers" tank, it was officially finalized in 1931 and equipped with the Soviet Red Army in 1932. It was one of the early main equipment of the Soviet Red Army tank force. Moreover, the firepower is much higher than that of No. I, and exceeds that of No. II, reaching or even exceeding the level of 38t and early No. III.

Seeing the dark muzzle pointed at them, the Italian tank crews made the same choice without hesitation, put the gear in reverse and ran away!

Just kidding, even the opponent's small-caliber anti-tank gun can easily penetrate their thin-skinned armor, let alone such a thick and scary tank gun? !

However, they were not stupid. They knew that letting the tank turn around and run back would waste precious time, so they chose reverse gear as soon as possible.

Seeing his soldiers running backwards, the corners of the Italian police officer's mouth twitched uncontrollably.

Just when he was hesitating whether to let the supervision team open fire, the German expeditionary officer finally lost his patience and asked them to stop the farce in a semi-commanding tone. The Italian officer, who was overwhelmed by the poor performance of his soldiers, had long lost his temper and could only let the Italian army stay.

As soon as the order was received, the air force base in the rear became busy. One Stuka dive bomber after another refueled, loaded bombs, and prepared to take off. They carried one SC250 250kg bomb on their belly and four SC50 ? 50kg bombs under their wings.

There were a total of 32 Stukas here. Although the government army no longer had a decent air force, 6 BF109s were still taken off for escort for safety reasons.

When this group of dive bomber formations took off, accompanied by the rumbling sound of the engine, one tank after another drove out of the bunker with its slender gun barrels raised.

Looking at these "big" tanks that are extremely majestic and magnificent compared to the Italian tanks, the Spanish officers almost drooled.

This is what a tank is!

The German tank designers in the original time and space had an inexplicable paranoia: the tank design of the United States and the Soviet Union was from bottom to top, first the chassis engine and then the turret gun. Therefore, many Soviet tank guns were modified from other guns. The German design is just the opposite. They first select an excellent gun, change it into a qualified tank gun, and then design the tank body for this gun, and then develop the chassis and turret according to the performance of the gun.

The result is that German tanks are talked about with great firepower, thicker armor, and stronger combat capabilities, but they are also criticized for their large tonnage and low reliability. On the other hand, Soviet tanks have gradually embarked on a brighter path since the T-34. Its classic works at the end of World War II, T-44, T-54 and is3 and their subsequent series of models almost perfectly brought the three elements of the tank to the extreme.

Under the German top-down development model, if the initial artillery is relatively small, there is little room for improvement later, and it is destined to be a dead end. The later Panzer IV was already at its limit with 75L/48. In order to install 75L/70, the Panzer IV destroyer even had to change the front two road wheels to pure steel structure to enhance the bearing capacity of the suspension, but it still treated the symptoms but not the root cause. Therefore, without major changes to the chassis of the Panzer IV, it can only be equipped with 75L/70 without a turret.

Of course, Yannick could not tolerate this and made some magical changes to the Panzer IV.

Sloped armor, rear transmission, mid-mounted turret, torsion bar suspension, transverse engine, SSG77 transmission, but after the modification, he found that this thing was no longer related to the Panzer IV, but more like the Soviet T-44 tank. Of course, this "resemblance" is only in structure and appearance. The tank named "Jackal" by Yannick weighs only 21 tons, and is far inferior to the T-44 tank in terms of firepower, protection and mobility.

As for the engine, it still uses a gasoline engine. Although many people believe that diesel engines are the best power choice for tank engines because of their fuel-saving, reliable and non-flammable characteristics, even with the current German technology, it is still impossible to build a perfect diesel engine. Now the volume of a diesel engine with the same horsepower is 8 times that of a gasoline engine, the layout is more difficult, and the total horsepower is relatively small. It takes a lot of time to conquer the miniaturization of diesel engines.

Moreover, German tanks using gasoline engines are not easy to fatigue during long-distance marches, unlike their Soviet counterparts using diesel engines. After a long-distance march, their limbs are almost shaken apart. How much combat effectiveness can they maintain? Some people even say that the Russian tankers can't stand it for 2 hours in it, but they can run in German tanks for a day.

What's more, the German army used the 320-horsepower Maybach 12-cylinder HL120?TRM engine, which is the smallest, most fuel-efficient, most powerful, and most productive in the world. It is extremely fuel-efficient, with fuel consumption only 2/3 of similar British and American engines. In addition, its production capacity is extremely impressive (one engine is produced every 25 minutes on a production line), so Yannick was not in a hurry to equip diesel engines for various reasons.

As for the tank gun, Yannick did not choose the 75mm KwK/37 gun or the 75mm KwK/40 gun used by the original time and space No. 4 tank, but chose the kwk39 type 60 times caliber 50mm tank gun used by the No. 3 tank J type.

You must know that there are still a large number of No. 2 tanks as the main force when attacking France. In a short period of time, this 50mm caliber tank gun is more than enough, and he is also worried that if he directly uses a 75mm tank gun, it will greatly stimulate other countries and cause them to desperately develop tanks. It is better to keep a low profile.