Chapter 894 Reserve Ship

In this time and space, Germany, strictly speaking, had developed three tanks of about 50 tons before the prototype of the E-50 project was completed. It started with the 45-ton Panther and the 56-ton Tiger, and then based on the technical accumulation of the Panther and Tiger, it came up with the Tiger G-type tank, and the E-50 is the fourth 50-ton tank. Tanked.

With the experience, lessons and technology accumulation of the previous three tanks, as well as sufficient resource supply and technical support from France (the French also developed two 30-ton tanks B1 and SAU-40 before being defeated by Germany, (has considerable technical accumulation), so the E-50 project progressed very smoothly, and the first prototype was built in early June 1943.

This prototype, called the E-50-0 tank, was put forward by MAN (Germany's Mercedes-Benz, MAN, Porsche, Henschel and France's Renault all participated in the bid, so there will be 5 types of E- 50 prototype), which is also different from the E-50 that stayed on the drawing board in history. Because what Hessman asked for was not a small number of "black technology tanks" that could reverse the unfavorable situation, but a sea of ​​E-50 tanks that could crush the Soviet Union!

The key is not how awesome this tank is in combat, but... the sea!

Just use the E-50 to drown the JS series heavy tanks.

Therefore, the current E-50-0 is also a "shrunk product". The total combat weight is only 50 tons. It does not have the legendary external disc spiral suspension device. Instead, it uses a torsion bar that has been used since the No. 3 tank. The suspension system also abandoned the overly complex and heavy staggered road wheels and adopted a design of 6 pairs of road wheels - 6 pairs of road wheels can be used to support a weight of more than 50 tons. This is also because the bottleneck of non-ferrous metals in Germany has disappeared and production can Reason for higher quality road wheels and suspension torsion bars.

The design of the E-50-0's transmission system and gearbox has also made great progress compared with the "Tiger", "Panther" and "Shrunk Tiger". It has changed from front-mounted to rear-mounted, and is on par with Soviet tanks. The design in this area is almost complete. However, the E-50 transmission system and gearbox are based on technological progress and will not cause difficulty in operation, nor will it affect reliability.

The engine of the E-50-0 car uses the Maybach HL230P30 engine, which has only 720 horsepower (which is better than the same engine in history), so the maximum highway speed is only 46 kilometers per hour.

The E-50-0 vehicle saves a lot of weight in the road wheels and transmission layout, so it can achieve satisfactory protection performance with a total combat weight of 50 tons. The armor on the front upper and lower hulls reaches an inclination angle of 120mm/30 degrees, which is equivalent to a vertical armor defense capability of 138mm. If converted into a homogeneous steel plate, it is approximately equivalent to a thickness of 1.

The E-50-0's turret front armor is 125mm thick, the gun shield is 150mm thick, and the side and rear armor also reach 60mm (the thickness of the rear armor on the body side and the rear side of the turret is the same). For a total combat weight of 50 tons, it is considered very strong.

In addition, the firepower of the E-50-0 is also expected. It is equipped with an 8.8cmKwK43L/71 cannon, which is powerful enough to destroy the frontal armor of any known tank!

Moreover, after the UK (mainland) joined the E-50 project, it also came up with a new type of armor-piercing projectile under development-the discarding sabot armor-piercing projectile! It is estimated that the armor-piercing efficiency of this type of armor-piercing projectile will be increased by more than 50% compared to that of hard-core armor-piercing projectiles of the same caliber.

If the E-50 tank can use 88mm-caliber sabot armor-piercing projectiles, then the theoretical armor-piercing capability will be able to sweep all American and Soviet tanks that may have appeared during World War II.

"Although the Army is more important than the Navy," the armament meeting chaired by Hersman continued. After talking about the Army's key projects (not just the E-50), he turned to the Navy, "but the Navy currently has The shipbuilding plan will continue and will be expanded on this basis!”

"Expand?" French Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Jean Sur understands German. As soon as Hersman finished speaking, he asked, "Do we have that much fuel to expand the size of the fleet?"

"No." Hessman replied, "The size of the fleet cannot be expanded on the current basis, but a reserve ship system can be established."

"Reserve? Reserve some of the built warships?"

Hersman replied: "Yes, just like the Army reserves tanks and the Air Force reserves aircraft."

The navy actually has a "ship reserve", but it generally does not reserve new ships, but old ships that it is reluctant to throw away. Because the navy's thinking is different from that of the army and air force, they currently have no concept of fighting a war of attrition and have no idea of ​​treating expensive ships as consumables.

However, most of Hessman and his staff came from the Army and Air Force, and their minds were different from those of the Navy. Therefore, faced with the problem of insufficient oil but sufficient ship production capacity, someone soon proposed the concept of "reserve ships" .

The "reserve ship plan" had been in operation long before Olga returned to Petrograd - a plan that was originally designed to suppress the United States in the Atlantic and could still be used today.

As part of the "Reserve Ship Plan", the German Naval Armament Office also developed several dumpling ships that can be mass-produced.

Among them, the "Kesselring" class aircraft carrier, the "Munich" class anti-aircraft cruiser, the 1936 D-type destroyer and the Type 21 submarine are the most important.

Two staff officers of the German Naval Armament Bureau sent the information of the four types of dumpling ships (boats) prepared to the naval personnel of various countries present.

The design of these four "dumpling ships" has been completed long ago, and they have all begun to be produced in Germany.

"Why is this aircraft carrier so slow?"

"The light cruiser is also slow..."

"And the destroyer, my God, this is probably the slowest destroyer I have ever seen."

"The Type 21 submarine is quite fast."

The naval personnel of various countries present began to discuss. Originally, they thought that the four-level dumpling ships (boats) that the Germans secretly came up with should be some advanced things, but when they got the design data, they saw... Oh, it's not completely disappointing. At least the Type 21 submarine is a good thing, a very good thing!

However, the "Kesselring" class aircraft carrier, the "Munich" class anti-aircraft cruiser and the 1936 D-type destroyer are all outdated products. Apart from the powerful anti-aircraft firepower, there is no black technology.

What is most incredible is that these three kinds of dumpling ships are actually outdated slow ships.

Among them, the "Kesselring" class light aircraft carrier has a standard displacement of 15,000 tons, and the hangar can accommodate 48 Fw-190T and Fokker Zero D... This is still quite satisfactory, but the maximum speed of this aircraft carrier is only 26 knots, and the maximum power that the power system can output is only 66,000 horsepower.

The standard displacement of the "Munich" class anti-aircraft cruiser is only 6,000 tons, but the anti-aircraft firepower is quite sufficient. There are 12 128mm dual-purpose anti-aircraft guns, 16 Bofors anti-aircraft guns (8 twin-mounted), and 16 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns (single-mounted), and there are also very advanced radar and fire control systems. The anti-aircraft firepower is beyond doubt, but the maximum speed is also 26 knots...

The 1936 D-type destroyer is also a monster with strong anti-aircraft firepower and slow speed. There are 12 Bofors anti-aircraft guns and 14 Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns of 128mm dual-purpose anti-aircraft guns. But a small ship with a standard displacement of 2,500 tons can only reach a slow speed of 26 knots... Such a slow destroyer is rare even in World War I, let alone World War II.

"Gentlemen," Hessman interrupted people's discussions with a smile, and then counted on his fingers to talk about the advantages of slow ships, "There are actually many advantages of slow speed, such as saving money, time and fuel, and it is also conducive to the fleet's long-term operations at sea."

Like cars and airplanes, the most expensive part of a ship is the power system. For example, if the 66,000 horsepower boilers and turbines of the "Kesselring" class are replaced with 130,000 or 140,000 horsepower equipment, the cost will be much more expensive.

And more horsepower also means longer construction time, because the hull is easy to build, but the turbine is difficult to build. For the European Community, which has most of Europe's shipbuilding capabilities, it is not difficult to build a large number of 15,000-ton, 6,000-ton and 2,500-ton military ship hulls. Although it cannot be done as fast as the United States, it is not much slower.

However, the manufacture of engines is not that fast. This is a delicate job. If the output power of the ship is doubled, it means that the required engines are also doubled. In this way, the built hull has to wait for the engine, which is very disadvantageous for the pursuit of shipbuilding speed.

Moreover, a slower speed also means that it is easier to achieve the best economic speed - that is, it is more fuel-efficient. In addition, a low power system also means a small size, so there will be more space to store fuel, food, fresh water and ammunition, the ship's sustained combat capability will be greatly increased, and the demand for supply ships will be greatly reduced.

According to the requirements of the German Navy High Command, the fleet consisting of "Kesselring" class aircraft carriers, "Munich" class anti-aircraft cruisers and 1936 D-type destroyers can sail continuously for 10,000 nautical miles at a speed of 18 knots and 16,000 nautical miles at a speed of 12 knots.

In other words, when fighting in the Atlantic, they do not need to carry supply ships at all, which can save a lot of shipbuilding expenses and fuel consumption.