afterglow

Chapter 59 on Armored Forces
"That's right, it's them." Zhou Changfeng took the photo, and found that there was a note on the back with a paper clip, and there were rough parameters written on it.

He glanced at it for a while, put it back on the table, and continued, "I think this... the Type IX cruiser is not bad, but there is a big problem with the enemy's use of it."

"Tell me."

"As a kind of combat vehicle known for its mobility, they have weak armor and should not be used to accompany infantry to attack preset positions. The price of doing so is that they are easily destroyed by the defender's anti-tank firepower."

Light tanks are obviously not suitable for directly hitting the preset positions. This task should be completed by medium or heavy tanks.

"Then if it were you, you only have these thin skins on hand, how would you use them?"

"If it is determined that the opponent has no anti-aircraft artillery, then I will use it as a mobile direct fire point and deploy it at the starting position of the attack, so that the anti-aircraft gun of the opponent cannot penetrate them, but they can shoot at the exposed firepower point of the opponent."

The lieutenant colonel nodded, and then asked: "What if the opponent has anti-aircraft artillery?"

Zhou Changfeng stretched out his hand and drew a circle, and replied: "Take advantage of the maneuverability and go around to the rear of the opponent's front line. The anti-aircraft artillery has an advantage in the preset position, because it is very short and concealed, but the attacker can choose to attack from other directions, or even Divide into multiple attacks, making the opponent overwhelmed."

The former colonel with a Chinese face pondered: "But this is only suitable for open terrain. Even if the attacker can choose to attack in a roundabout way, what if the place is special and there is no way to go around? It will still be embarrassing."

"Are you referring to storming a solid position?" Zhou Changfeng smiled slightly and said, "In that case, you will need to reload your units, using heavy tanks as the spearhead, and with the support of air strikes and artillery strikes, forcefully attack the opponent's solid defense line." A breach is torn. Mixed units of medium tanks and motorized or mechanized infantry then follow to consolidate the breach, or rapidly expand the gains."

"This requires a high degree of coordination and cooperation among the various units, and the preparation time will not be short." The serious-looking brigadier general said.

"You're right, but this is an extremely effective tactic so far. Once it's ready, it's almost impossible to stop it."

At present, the thinking of the armies of most countries is still in the European war, or they have not made much progress, and they lack the mental preparation to deal with this kind of multi-arms coordinated mobile warfare.

This set of tactics is raised to the battle level, and then perfected by the air force to bomb the enemy in depth, it is the famous blitzkrieg.

However, blitzkrieg should not be overly mythologized. In fact, it is just a set of effective campaigns and strategic ideas designed by the Germans according to local conditions.

Gu Bushuai believes that Germany has no advantage in war resources compared with Britain, France, and Russia, and the protracted war represented by trench warfare cannot be sustained by Germany.

Therefore, it is necessary to fight quickly, that is, to use the advantages of mobile warfare to wipe out a large number of the enemy's vital forces, so that the enemy's replenishment speed cannot keep up with the loss speed.

However, cavalry and light infantry capable of mobile warfare cannot carry heavy weapons, so their ability to attack fortifications is very weak. Once they hit the enemy's preset position, it is easy to consume a lot of time or even be blocked directly.

Therefore, Gu Bushuai said that tanks are the key to solving this problem, because tanks can not only implement mobile warfare, but also have good offensive capabilities.

The core of blitz warfare at the campaign level is mobile warfare, and try to avoid deadly knocks and strong attacks.

Gu Bushuai stated in his work that the more risky blitzkrieg was used because Germany was at an overall disadvantage, and it would not be necessary if the army had an overwhelming advantage.

If you can push flatly and kill opponents with resources, why take the risk of interspersed with detours to encircle and annihilate them?
[The American soldier threw away the chocolate he took a bite of, took a sip of Coke, and praised this view. 】

"...However, tanks have large targets, are not easy to deploy concealedly, consume a lot of materials, are troublesome to maintain and support, and are also very complicated to organize and command. Therefore, it is not easy to correctly use armored forces and make use of their strengths to avoid weaknesses. Theoretical construction in this regard may still need Complete."

After a brief exchange, several officers were very satisfied and fully affirmed Zhou Changfeng's expression and conception.

These people were all very interested, and they probably felt that his words were very valuable, so they kept talking.

The lieutenant colonel put down his pen, pushed his glasses, and continued to ask: "In your opinion, how is the construction of our tank troops?"

Zhou Changfeng looked ahead and talked eloquently: "Our country has complex terrain features, with many plains in the north, hills and dense water networks in the south, and poor road conditions, which seriously restrict the mobility of the armored forces. Considering the imaginary enemy, I think the armored forces The direction of construction should be mainly medium-sized, light-weight, and amphibious tanks, and although heavy-duty tanks are indispensable, they only need a small amount."

"Hmm... I noticed that you seem to prefer to use the words 'light' and 'medium' to distinguish the types of tanks. Do you think this is more appropriate?"

"Yes, I think it's too one-size-fits-all to divide tanks by the nature of their missions. Light tanks can 'cruise', medium tanks can 'cruise', heavy tanks can accompany infantry, and so can other tanks. Isn’t it? Chariots should be used flexibly according to local conditions, rather than restricting them from design from the beginning.”

Regarding Zhou Changfeng's words, the brigadier general commented indifferently: "It makes sense, the so-called soldiers are impermanent, and water has an impermanent shape. Flexible use is the kingly way."

These days, many countries divide tanks by the nature of their tasks. The representative is the British Empire. They divide tanks into infantry tanks and cruiser tanks. The former has thick armor and poor maneuverability, and is used to accompany infantry in combat; The latter has thin armor and strong maneuverability, and is used for mobile combat.

The same is true for the Ming Dynasty. The Ministry of War calls these two types of task tanks guerrilla tanks and assault tanks, which is very vivid.

This classification method cannot be said to be wrong, it can only be evaluated as relatively old-fashioned, limited by the background of the times, no one knows right or wrong, and all countries in the world are crossing the river by feeling the stones.

Next, the lieutenant colonel who had been silent all this time also asked questions. He was a civilian in the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of War, and the questions he asked were also related to weapons and equipment.

Rifles, portable machine guns, automatic guns, light machine guns, heavy machine guns, anti-aircraft machine guns, anti-aircraft guns, etc., a total of more than a dozen forms, detailed investigation and feedback from various aspects.

Zhou Changfeng highly praised the excellent performance of the Vz.35 heavy machine gun, saying that it has excellent performance and is very suitable to be determined as the next-generation heavy machine gun.

After the debriefing was over, several officers and typists left one after another, but the colonel with a square face stopped before going out.

He turned his head and smiled, and said, "My boy, this time I let you show off, but I didn't bury my talent. Treat your wounds well, wait a few days... hehe~"

(End of this chapter)