Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

What the Americans are worried about is that the M3 light tank and M3 "Grant/Lee" medium tank they just started producing are no match for German tanks.

In fact, Americans have long known that the performance of the German tanks sweeping Europe far exceeds that of their weak M2 light and medium tanks. Therefore, new tanks were developed in a hurry, but as the saying goes, the food has to be eaten one bite at a time, and the road has to be walked step by step, and it is impossible to build a heavy tank at once, so there was the M3 Grant with a 75mm gun that was stronger than the M2 tank.

During World War II, a considerable number of M3 "Grant/Lee" medium tanks were sent to North Africa for use by the British army. Its 75mm gun and 51mm front armor were very disgusting in the face of the early German Type III and IV tanks. Therefore, the M3 medium tank The tanks gained the reputation of the British Army in North Africa.

But the M3 medium tank is an emergency work after all, and the Americans know this very well. Therefore, when the M3 was being developed, the development of the M4 Sherman also started simultaneously.

The 1942 Sherman was considered one of the best tanks at the time, but subsequent improvements were delayed due to success in North Africa and misjudgment of the Panther's fielding speed. (The U.S. military once thought that the Panther was a heavy tank produced in small quantities like the Tiger. There were even reports that the Panther was not difficult to fight from the front. After the U.S. military landed in France, they just wanted to curse.) The armored battles after Normandy became the basis of the reputation of the steamed bun battlefield. The turning point, especially the report that the 75-gun Sherman failed to penetrate the side of the King Tiger at zero range during the Battle of the Ardennes, made Eisenhower furious and ordered that no 75-gun Sherman be allowed to be sent to Europe in the future. However, this veteran still had the upper hand against the T-34/85 during the Korean War after being equipped with a 76-gun, and Israel's super steamed buns played a role in the Middle East war. It can be regarded as a glorious old age.

"Maybe we need some heavy tanks, big ones that can easily destroy German tanks!"

"Don't we have a heavy tank plan? And we already have a prototype, right?"

Marshall said helplessly. "There is a heavy tank project numbered T1, but this project is not very mature."

The numbered T1 heavy tank project is the future M6/M6A1. The funny thing is that this tank initially adopted a multi-turret tank solution. It has 4 turrets, and each of the 2 main turrets is equipped with a 75mm T6. Tank gun.

It was not until the recent practical experiments of the T1 tank test vehicle that multi-turret tanks were not practical that they returned to the single-turret design. The main gun is an M7 2mm tank gun, and the M6 ​​37mm gun is coaxially mounted with the M7 gun. There is a coaxial machine gun under the 37mm gun. A 62mm machine gun is mounted on the commander's command tower; a twin 7mm machine gun and a 62mm fixed machine gun controlled by the driver are mounted on the front of the vehicle on a movable bracket.

"However, the M4 medium tank that is about to enter service will be equipped with an M7 76mm gun (the actual caliber is 2mm). The armor-piercing projectiles fired can penetrate 116mm armor at a distance of 500 meters and 106mm armor at a distance of 1,000 meters. Armor. It’s enough to compete with the German Jackal tanks.”

"Then we should go all out to produce this kind of medium tank. Those light tanks are just cannon fodder in front of the German army. It is better to let the Soviets be the cannon fodder."

Speaking of M4, there is another interesting thing. During World War II, the United States had a very strange tank destroyer theory.

The ideal tank destroyer that the US military believes in is to accompany the troops as anti-tank support firepower during the offensive period, and to serve as a rapid fire brigade during the defensive period. At this point, the US military will undoubtedly sacrifice the armor protection and even firepower of tank destroyers to pursue another thing that is even greater than these two indicators - speed. From the perspective of the US military, tank destroyers are ultimately used to defend the enemy's tanks and stabilize our own front. To use a very popular word to explain the role of the tank destroyer is the fire brigade. Before our front is broken through by the enemy, Rush to hot spots as quickly as possible while playing a key role as a fire brigade. This is the starting point of the U.S. Army's theory of using tank destroyers. It is also because of this that the U.S. military believes that the most important thing about a tank destroyer is speed. When the enemy attacks, he always chooses weakly defended areas to carry out his assault plan, and can maneuver for defense. And what stops the enemy tank swarm is the faster tank destroyer. Secondly, a tank destroyer must also exceed tanks of the same level in terms of artillery caliber and power. It must have good tactical offensive capabilities and be able to accompany the troops on offense, provide fire support, and deal with enemy heavy armor targets appearing on the battlefield. In short, it has firepower that is not inferior to that of tanks, is faster than tanks, and gives full play to the characteristics of battlefield mobile fire brigade to complete defensive operations. These are the requirements and understanding of tank destroyers by the US military.

So the standard combat process of the U.S. armored forces is as follows: M4 tanks march forward bravely with the infantry. If they encounter enemy tanks, the commander of the M4 tanks will call the nearby M10 tank destroyers responsible for support to come and eliminate the troublemakers. Enemy tanks. What the Americans encountered in actual combat was this - the M4 tanks were beaten all over by German tanks. When the M10 tank destroyers arrived, the Germans had already cleaned the battlefield and had a meal before withdrawing. gone.

However, at this time, the German army's record of sweeping Europe was really disappointing, and the Americans had to seriously study and study the German armor tactics, which could be regarded as understanding the essence of mechanized warfare. There is no longer a strange tactic of using tanks to support infantry and destroyers to destroy the opponent's tanks.

"Our infantry equipment also needs to be updated and improved. The German army only has three or four bolt-action rifles in a squad, and the rest are automatic or semi-automatic firepower. We can't even match half of it, and our soldiers are still using the weapons from the First World War. period weapons."

The famous M1 Garand of later generations, although it was adopted by the army in 1936, was in short supply until 1943. It was not until mid-1944 that the entire army of the Garand was basically completed, becoming the only one among the countries participating in World War II. The army is fully equipped with semi-automatic rifles.

A U.S. Army infantry squad has 12 people and is equipped with 8 M1 Garand semi-automatic rifles, 1 Browning automatic rifle (loaded with 20 rounds), 1 M1903 Springfield sniper rifle, and the squad leader and deputy squad leader are each equipped with a Thompson submachine gun. The sniper and the squad leader and deputy squad leader each also have a self-defense pistol. The firepower of a squad can be said to be quite powerful.

Now that Germany has robbed thousands of tons of U.S. dollars, there is no British wool to harvest. The U.S. national finance is about to be on the brink of crisis. Coupled with the rapid expansion of military personnel, the popularity of the M1 Garand in the military has not even reached one-third. Less than; that is, there are at most two or three M1 Garands in a class.

The remaining vacancies can only be replaced by M1903 Springfield rifles or 1917 Enfield rifles.

The M1903 Springfield rifle entered service on June 19, 1903. The rotating rear-pull bolt action was imitated from the German 98 series Mauser rifles. It was produced under the license of the German Mauser Arsenal (the U.S. government paid patent fees to the Mauser Factory). It can be regarded as A variant gun based on the Mauser rifle and combined with the US military's 30-caliber ammunition.

The 1917 Enfield rifle, this gun can be said to be the American version of the Lee Enfield rifle. It was successfully designed in the United Kingdom and produced in the United States to equip the British army. However, it was favored by the American army for its performance and the production rights were bought out. Finally, it was equipped in large quantities with the US military.

"The Germans use their MG3 machine guns as squad machine guns, and we are still using automatic rifles with 20-round magazines as machine gun firepower. This is ridiculous."

"That is to say, there is nothing we can do now that is comparable to the Germans?" Even with the industrial heritage that the United States is proud of, the industrial strength of the Germans after integrating Europe is not comparable to that of the United States, and the United States has no advantage at all.

"..." Everyone couldn't help but fell into silence.