Chapter 1,418 Spiraling Costs
Chapter 1418 Spiraling Costs
Although Ruprecht studied the navy and air force before traveling through time, he still had some knowledge of the army. In particular, I have some views on the development and needs of anti-tank guns.
Although during World War I, the appearance of tanks by Britain and France made the Germans feel very troubled and even panicked. However, it is absolutely nonsense to say that the Germans have no weapons that can penetrate tanks! Not to mention artillery of various calibers, early tanks fired special bullets called K-type hardened bullets from rifles, which were likely to penetrate. Not to mention the 77MM rapid-fire guns that the Germans equipped in large quantities. Until the end of the war, no British tank could withstand the attack of the 77MM rapid-fire guns.
Well, the 77MM rapid-fire gun is equipped with a large number of weapons and is powerful enough, so can this gun be used as standard anti-tank firepower? Obviously not! Because fighting a war is not just about performance on the battlefield, but also about economy, cost-effectiveness, mobility, and many other aspects!
Therefore, after the end of World War I, the German Army, which had been badly beaten by tanks, considered anti-tank weapons when it was rebuilt. Their requirements were simple, they must be powerful enough, light in weight, and economical. Because the demand for anti-tank guns is actually too great.
Taking the German divisions of World War II as an example, a German motorized infantry division should be assigned an anti-tank artillery battalion, and a battalion should have 36 anti-tank guns. In addition, each regiment should also have an anti-tank artillery company. A division has three infantry regiments. If a division is equipped with all anti-tank guns, 72 will be needed! What is this concept? You must know that a standard division of the German Army in World War I was 14 artillery batteries! But more than 70 artillery pieces! Not counting other artillery pieces in the German division, there would be 72 anti-tank guns alone! Whether from the perspective of production or logistical supply, with the addition of anti-tank guns, the German division's logistical and organizational pressure has greatly increased!
And artillery alone is not enough, you also need transportation and deployment! Regarding the multiple artillery that can be propelled by manpower, all countries have experience in this. Why do the French have a soft spot for the 75 rapid-fire cannon? In addition to the rate of fire, this is almost the heaviest artillery that can be moved by manpower. (The so-called movement cannot be long-distance transportation, but only movement on the battlefield.)
Why did the Germans choose the PAK35 37MM artillery as the anti-tank gun at the beginning of the war? You can say that the Germans are not far-sighted enough, or you can say that when this artillery was developed, most of the tanks they faced were Adzuki tanks, which were easier to deal with, but the factors of portability, use and cost cannot be ignored. After all, this The total combat weight of this artillery is only 330KG, and the marching weight is only 450KG. Four people can drag it around the ground. There are about 7 people in an artillery squad.
A German anti-tank artillery battalion consists of a battalion headquarters and 4 companies, with a total of more than 700 officers and soldiers, equipped with 45 cars, 81 trucks, and 78 motorcycles. This was also the only fully motorcycled infantry division during World War II. unit. It can be seen from this that even if Germany limits the weight and size of artillery to the greatest extent,
Adding a 36-gun artillery battalion requires so much additional investment! This is a national war. Not just one or two artillery battalions are enough, but dozens or even hundreds!
The investment in tanks not only brings about changes in the fighting situation on the battlefield, but also poses a great challenge to the production capabilities of both countries! Because of the large number of German tanks, the French had to invest a lot of resources in the production and manufacturing of anti-tank weapons, so that now on the Western Front, the number of French heavy artillery has never really increased, and is even lower than that of the same period in history. The Air Force is also unable to upgrade. One of the very important reasons is that the 75MM rapid-fire gun occupies a large amount of production resources.
It's not that the French don't want to build some small-caliber artillery for anti-tank use, but since they have to face the powerful Hu Feng tank destroyer, if the French artillery is smaller than 75MM, it will be very difficult. In this case, Germany Relying on industrial and technological advantages has greatly restricted the French's equipment production and upgrading speed. However, what the prince has to do now is to increase the investment! The French's 75MM rapid-fire cannons have also greatly depreciated in value, so that they don't have enough!
So what situation will this lead to? The French had to mass-produce larger and heavier artillery to offset the superiority of the German armor! However, no matter whether the French choose to increase the barrel or expand the caliber, the manufacturing difficulty, cost and mobility cost will be greatly increased. The first two are understandable, but as for the latter, if the weight of the artillery continues to increase, relying solely on manpower to move will become So difficult that you either have to equip it with a transport, or your battlefield mobility is almost completely useless….
Then, the artillery is changed, which leads to a geometric increase in logistics and production pressure... According to the prince's estimation, in this way, the French military production will reach its peak! Facing the current size of the German army, the French military industry has no way to produce weapons that are useful enough. The reason is very simple. The 75MM artillery has depreciated...
The only problem with this strategy is that the production of Wolf tanks is also not easy... The quantity needs to be accumulated slowly... This thing is equally valuable to Germany in World War 1. After all, any land warfare weapon is only effective when it reaches scale. Moreover, the German army needs to gradually master this new equipment and accumulate quantity. Of course, it doesn't matter even if Britain and France find out. This is a conspiracy. You must keep up with the opponent's technological progress, otherwise you will be slowly crushed to death. And even if you can keep up with the opponent's technology, you may still make mistakes in design and production, which is also a waste of national power.
For example, in World War II in history, the emergence of Tiger tanks, Panther tanks, and later Ferdinand tank destroyers and King Tiger tanks was actually a sense of fear that made the Germans directly choose to jump from 20-ton tanks to 50-ton tanks. tons of tanks, if the cost-effectiveness of the Tiger and Leopard is still open to question, then the Tiger King and his like will definitely not be sorry for its cost! A brand new production line, unreliable performance, coupled with scarce quantities and high cost.
If the French choose to use the 105MM cannon as an anti-tank weapon, then great. This thing is definitely powerful enough, but the prince is sure that the French production capacity is definitely not enough! If you want to build an 80 to 90 mm artillery piece, that's fine. You have to redesign it, arrange the production line, and then gradually increase production. However, the prince feels that he will not give the French such a long time!
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