afterglow

Chapter 460: The war that is about to spread throughout the world; infantry artifact

The Federal Atlantic Shipping Company used a variety of measures to reduce recognition and increase the probability of misfires. After learning that the Americans had established such a frivolous trading company, the German intelligence agency issued warnings and reminders to the Workers' Navy.

For several months, the submarine force has avoided attacking suspicious merchant ships of unknown nationality, which can be said to be quite cautious.

Fortunately, they had not accidentally attacked any Federal Atlantic Shipping Company merchant ships in the past few dozen days.

However, if you often walk by the river, how can your shoes not get wet?

This time, the submarine U-116 mistook a convoy for a Canadian merchant ship, and succeeded in an ambush at dawn - firing four torpedoes the first time and two torpedoes the second time, sinking two merchant ships.

Berlin was not surprised by this. Everyone knew that this was done deliberately by the Americans, and they just wanted to find a good excuse to join the war.

The smoke of war in Western Europe has subsided, but the battle over the English Channel remains fierce.

The German Air Force also tried air strikes on British industrial towns in the first phase, but the losses were huge.

In addition to the British military factors, another important factor is that the German Air Force will remind people to evacuate through radio broadcasts and airdrops of leaflets before launching air raids on industrial areas such as Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham. This allows the Royal Air Force to evacuate in advance every time. Set up an ambush and wait for the German bomber formation to arrive.

Justice is also a double-edged sword. Taking the moral high ground can certainly bring advantages to one's side, but it can also tie one's hands and feet.

Therefore, the German air force gave up bombing industrial areas and instead focused on attacking military facilities. The British Air War entered the second stage.

In the first stage, a total of 1347 German aircraft were shot down or seriously damaged and scrapped, of which about one-third were fighter planes; while the British army lost 660 aircraft, basically all of which were fighter planes.

In order to reduce losses, the German fleet rarely went deep into the British Isles since the beginning of the second phase, focusing on bombing Portsmouth and Plymouth, two important naval bases on the southern coast.

The Germans went to great lengths to wipe the Royal Navy's bases in these two cities off the face of the earth.

The new He-111H bomber is equipped with a Jumo1300F liquid-cooled engine that can output 211 horsepower and has a larger bomb load.

These He-111s began to carry SC-1800 1800kg heavy-duty aircraft bombs to perform missions. The Germans first used this heavy bomb to carry out devastating air attacks on naval bases, and at the same time dropped thousands of SD-2 cluster bombs. .

The latter are the notorious butterfly bombs. They only weigh 2kg, but they are enough to kill and injure people. They fall on the ground, in shoals, on branches, and among ruins. These dangerous things can be seen everywhere and will explode suddenly if touched accidentally. .

Because they are numerous and extremely sensitive, they are very difficult to eliminate and can significantly delay the repair progress after the bombing.

At the same time, the German army also deployed hundreds of thousands of troops along the English Channel, assuming a posture of being ready to cross the channel and land in the UK at any time. This powerful pressure made it difficult for the men with the Union Flag in London to sleep and eat well.

However, in fact, at least half of these troops are empty. Fifteen of the thirty-three infantry divisions are used to scare people, with only empty numbers. In fact, there are only a few hundred people. The tents and warehouses are empty, and the artillery, Tanks and trucks are all made of wood.

The main force of the German army is actually concentrated in the three Low Countries and the mainland. Berlin is currently intensively preparing for military operations in Iberia.

The British are now not only working side by side with the Italians, but are also trying to persuade the Portuguese and Spanish to jointly deal with the red tide sweeping Western Europe.

Such a siege made the upper echelons of the German society very worried. It was not that they were afraid of these low-class opponents, but that Uncle Sam from across the ocean would get involved.

If the United States deploys expeditionary forces to the Iberian Peninsula and the Apennine Peninsula at the same time and applies pressure together, then the German Society will face a situation where it is unable to support itself.

Arming several million troops in a short period of time is not difficult for the United States, which produces 50 million tons of steel and 4 million cars annually - so the German Society has always been on high alert.

Radicals believe that a quick military operation should be launched against Iberia to eliminate potential threats neatly. In this way, even if the Americans want to intervene, they can only carry out a difficult landing.

This is also something Berlin is currently struggling with, because the terrain in Iberia is not suitable for mechanized army operations.

The Iberian Peninsula has many plateaus and mountains, and there are more than 1,800 large and small rivers. The geographical conditions determine that it is impossible to carry out "quick action".

【Picture】

What's even more annoying is that because the Pyrenees Mountains lie across the border between France and Spain, the railway lines connecting the two places are located in the northern and southern coastal areas.

This means that logistics supply will face great hidden dangers and may be interrupted at any time due to bombing by the Royal Air Force, and it is not suitable for maintaining heavy troop operations at the army group level.

陆军总参谋部认为应该向南北各部署一个集团军，集团军由6~8个步兵师、1~2个山地师、1~2个装甲师组成。

The German air force must do its best to protect the fragile and long railway lines from enemy air attacks. Ideally, it will take two to three months to end the current regimes in Portugal and Spain.

It's a pity that the influence of geographical conditions is too great. Even if the Iberian Peninsula is only half the size of the Western European plains, the mechanized army can sweep across Iberia within three weeks and plant the flag on the Belém Tower in Lisbon.

But just as the Germans were discussing operational strategies and mobilizing operational supplies, an accident occurred in which U-116 sank two American merchant ships.

Berlin quickly formulated a diplomatic strategy to deal with the incident. It first mourned the civilians who were killed, then offered high compensation, and finally accused the American capitalists of not using identification marks in accordance with regulations and putting the hired crew members in danger.

This set of operations seems to be very effective, and it has indeed eased the mood of some people.

However, the federal government has made up its mind to make a fuss out of this "accident." It has been fanning the flames, inciting and intensifying public hostility, openly and covertly, and likened the German Workers' Navy's break-up of war to an indiscriminate and brutal massacre.

In just two days, hundreds of rallies and marches took place across the United States. The Silver Firth Army was ecstatic, and the left's neutral persuasion was like the sound of a mosquito compared to such turbulent waves.

Everything indicates that the war that originally separated the East and the West will be connected.

The war will soon spread from the Pacific to the Atlantic, from Mariana to Romanche, from Gilbert to Canary...

This is a world-class war!

The monarchs and ministers of the Ming Dynasty felt very comfortable. The war between Germany and the United States was a good thing no matter how you looked at it - at least it was good news for the Ming Dynasty.

Westerners should just fight each other like this, preferably from the ground to the sky, from the sky to the sea, and there will be a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood, just like the European War more than 20 years ago.

Only Zhou felt a little regretful. He couldn't help but sigh to himself: "It's a pity that we can't see tens of millions of armored groups fighting..."

Because Tsarist Russia would defeat itself without a fight, the magnificent Eastern Front battlefield in history was destined to never appear.

Moreover, the places where land battles are most likely to break out in the future will not see such large-scale battles involving millions of people and thousands of tanks.

Iberia, the Apennines, Australia...the battlefield capacity is limited, and the terrain is complex. It is a big deal to invest hundreds of tanks at a time on the main axis of attack. If the German Society did not think about Africa, it would be difficult to see armored groups carrying out sharp and deep assaults and dividing and encircling them.

On the first day of late January, the sky was clear and windless, and the sun was warm. It was a good day to bask in the sun.

Good days correspond to good news, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, which can be described as double happiness.

The good news that came in the morning was that the Crane-7 fourteen-cylinder radial engine developed by Uplink Aircraft Company successfully passed the test and performed well in the 300-hour continuous operation limit test. It met the requirements except that the fuel consumption was slightly higher than expected.

There are two types of radial engines most commonly used by the Ming Dynasty Air Force.

One is the one with smaller weight and cross-sectional area, which is used for light fighter aircraft, such as the "Diao" series. The Type 36 destroyer and the Type 37 carrier-based destroyer all use the Diao 4 nine-cylinder engine produced by Shanghai Changyang Aircraft Company.

The second is the one with larger weight and cross-sectional area, which is used for bombers and transport aircraft, such as the "Crane" series. The Type 36 light bomber and Type 36 carrier-based torpedo aircraft all use the Crane 5 fourteen-cylinder manufactured by Yanjing Uplink Aircraft Company. engine.

The Crane 1050 radial engine has a nominal power of horsepower. This engine, which was finalized and mass-produced in the th year of Emperor Chang's reign, is now lagging behind.

Now, its next generation has finally been unveiled.

The Heqi Type 1250 has a nominal power of 1200 horsepower and is equipped with a one-stage and two-speed supercharger. It can stably output horsepower at medium altitudes.

Its cylinder diameter and piston stroke are both 144㎜, its displacement is 32L, and its total weight is 639㎏.

The results are promising. Since testing is no problem, production can begin soon.

The Uplink Aircraft Company reported that the Crane 7 type does not have higher demand for production technology. The existing production line can be converted to production relatively easily. There is no problem of successful testing but difficulty in large-scale mass production.

As far as Zhou Changfeng knows, the next generation of the lighter and smaller "Diao" series radial engine has also entered the final stage of research and development, and it is said that it is going relatively smoothly.

For aero engines used in fighter jets, 1500 horsepower is a small threshold, and 2000 horsepower is a large threshold.

It is acceptable for a bomber engine to be a little bulky, but it is different for a fighter jet. The engine must be both light and compact and have high power output, otherwise it will lag behind its opponents in terms of speed, climbing ability, etc.

四三年的P-51D战斗机使用可以输出1500匹马力的灰背隼发动机，喷火MkV战斗机使用1600匹马力的灰背隼发动机，Bf-109G战斗机使用1475匹马力的DB605发动机。

These were a series of liquid-cooled engines for the European battlefield - naturally with smaller cross-sectional areas and less drag.

What Ming Dynasty is about to face is a series of powerful miracle gadgets on the other side of the ocean.

四二年的F6F战斗机便开始使用莱特R-2600发动机，输出1600匹马力；紧接着又使用普惠R-2800发动机，输出2000匹马力。

It is crucial to mass-produce an engine with sufficient power and moderate size in time, otherwise the Ming Naval Aviation and the Ming Air Force will be overwhelmed by the swarm of F6F Hellcats.

The good news that came out that afternoon was about infantry weapons.

According to previous transactions, Deshe provided a complete set of drawings and some samples of the LG39 recoilless rifle. The Wuhan Army Arsenal had successfully copied it in the late autumn of last year, but it did not intend to mass-produce it.

After a series of localized improvements, it has now begun to undergo rigorous testing by the Ordnance Bureau. If there are no problems, it can be finalized and mass-produced.

The LG39 recoilless rifle has a caliber of 75㎜, with the iconic Laval nozzle at the end of the barrel, and a total combat weight of 145kg.

【Picture】

Zhou Changfeng was very dissatisfied and believed that this battalion-level direct-aiming support artillery should be as light as possible. Otherwise, how can the advantage of "recoilless" be demonstrated?

The Type 56 75mm recoilless rifle of later generations was only 52kg in total, and was still considered bulky. For infantry weapons, weight reduction was the only way to go.

The Wuhan Army Arsenal found that the LG39 gun barrel was short and thick, with a small diameter and poor utilization of gunpowder gas, resulting in a low muzzle velocity of only 345m/s, which was only slightly higher than the speed of sound.

But the Germans seem to be very prudent? The projectile warhead of the LG39 recoilless rifle is the same as that of the GebG36 mountain gun, but the projectile body is different. This can reduce production difficulty and make better use of existing production lines.

After learning of this situation, the Ordnance Bureau immediately required the arsenal to adopt the same method.

After some deletions, deletions and modifications, the trial-produced Type 80 mm recoilless rifle achieved the ultimate weight reduction.

A large amount of aluminum alloy and aluminum-magnesium alloy are used in the gun itself and the tripod; the propellant is reduced and the chamber pressure is reduced, so that the barrel wall thickness can be thinned to reduce weight, but the barrel is appropriately lengthened.

The total combat weight including the artillery itself and the tripod is only 81kg, and the muzzle velocity is only 303m/s. It has a total of 24 right-hand riflings. It mainly uses three types of ammunition: anti-explosive bombs, armor-piercing bombs, and smoke screen bombs. The maximum range of curved fire is 5600m, and the maximum range of flat fire is 350m. The best range is m.

Among them, the anti-explosive bombs use the same warhead as the Type 80 and Type mm mountain gun shells, and their power is considerable.

The armor-piercing projectile uses a hemispherical charge cover made of soft iron. Due to the spin of the shell, the metal jet is turbulent and dispersed. Therefore, although the static armor-piercing depth can reach 140mm, actual tests found that the armor-piercing depth plummeted to 80mm.

This is the difference between the advantages and disadvantages of recoilless rifles and rocket launchers.

The former is a rifled barrel artillery with a long range and high accuracy, but when firing armor-piercing projectiles, the armor-piercing depth will be reduced.

The latter's rocket-propelled grenade has a short range and low accuracy, but it can give full play to the armor-breaking power of the conical charge warhead.

"It's not a big problem. Ninety millimeters is pretty good. It has a range of several hundred meters. Just match it with the rocket launcher."

Zhou Changfeng was quite excited. The recoilless rifle was an artifact for infantry troops.

Especially in complex, rugged and muddy terrain, recoilless rifles that are lightweight and can appear at any time are much more flexible than infantry guns and anti-tank guns.

Zhou Changfeng plans to add a four-gun recoilless gun platoon to the infantry battalion. After that, the Ming army infantry equipped with both rocket launchers and recoilless guns will have the ability to hunt enemy armored vehicles more efficiently.

He originally wanted to call and urge, but in the end he simply went to the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of War and told him very seriously that as long as there were no serious problems in the test results, he must rush to manufacture thirty units within half a month.

(End of this chapter)