A dilapidated looking 10,000-ton bulk carrier flying the flag of neutral Sweden has arrived at the docks in Yokohama, and it's a good time for the crisp autumn weather. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoThe clouds and water are clear, and the sea breeze is refreshing. The pier was heavily guarded with heavily armed Japanese army gendarmes.

A small car with military license plates approached and came to a steady stop on the ramp lowered by the Swedish freighter. First, a lieutenant got out of the front passenger seat and respectfully opened the back door. Then I saw an army general with a ribbon and a medal on his body, and a large knife in his hand, coming out of the carriage. This general is the core figure of the Japanese Army today, General Sugiyama Moto, the chief of staff nicknamed "Fool Yuan". Behind the general's buttocks, there was another big Zuo in his 40s with a somewhat gloomy face, and like the fool Yuan, he was also carrying a big knife. This Osa, whose name is Hattori Takushiro, is now a powerful figure in the Japanese Army General Staff Headquarters, holding the important position of chief of the operations section. In addition, Takushiro Hattori is also a confidant of Hideki Tojo, who is now the prime minister and minister of the army.

Previously, the Japanese Army's battle plan to sweep away Southeast Asian countries was carried out by this Hattori Takushiro and another adjutant staff officer of the General Staff Headquarters, Qian Zhengxin.

And after the combat mission in Southeast Asia was basically over, Hattori Takushiro and Masanobu Kan began to look for new offensive targets.

There are two goals: one is to advance westward and completely solve the Manchurian problem; The second is to attack Australia in the south.

Originally, there were many people in the Japanese Army who advocated westward expansion, after all, these guys have been thinking about this for decades. But the world revolution that began in June scared them, the Soviet Red Army was so awesome, tens of thousands of tanks! Even Warsaw, which was controlled by the Germans, was taken by them.

Moreover, Japanese military observers in Germany carefully studied the captured T-31 and KV-1 tanks in Germany. In the end, it was concluded: all Japanese tanks, even at a distance of 1000 meters, could not resist their single shot! And all the Japanese anti-tank guns could not penetrate their frontal armor even at a distance of 500 meters.

How can this be fought? The Soviet Far Eastern Front alone numbered millions of people and thousands of tanks! What will the Japanese Army take to fight? I can't beat it.

Therefore, the argument that "Japan is a country of faith, and it should abide by the neutrality treaty" gradually prevailed.

Westward expansion is not considered, at least until Japan completes the introduction and mass production of Tiger tanks.

But the Japanese Army can't just sit idle. It's not okay to go west, and to go south, go south to Australia!

This Australia seems to be quite large, and it is said that it is quite rich in resources, and if it can be occupied, it can be the foundation of the Japanese Empire for eternity. Most importantly, there was no terrible Soviet Red Army in Australia, only the American and British armies that were not very effective - in the Philippines, in Malaya, in Burma, in Hawaii, the British and American armies were all defeated by the Japanese army. Looks like it's easy to bully!

However, to bully Britain and the United States to seize Australia, a large-scale land war still has to be fought. Because there is definite information that the Americans have been transporting troops and weapons to Australia after the fall of Hawaii. Moreover, according to the information provided by Germany, among the weapons that the United States exported to Australia were many M4 "Sherman" heavy tanks (more than 30 tons of Xie Mantou were heavy tanks for Japan).

To defeat such a "heavy tank", according to the experience of the Soviet-German battlefield, it is definitely not possible to rely on a bayonet half a meter long. The use of towed anti-tank guns was also not very effective, because the American imperialists also sent a lot of artillery and self-propelled guns to Australia. In the Soviet-German war, medium-caliber anti-tank guns without armor protection and not very mobile were easily destroyed by self-propelled guns. The most effective way to defeat a "heavy tank" is to use a more powerful tank or tank destroyer.

And such a vehicle, Japan certainly does not have, now the main model of the Japanese Army battlefield unit is the Type 97 series of medium combat vehicles, 15 tons of vehicles carrying a 57mm short-barreled gun or 47mm cannon, 500 meters distance can not penetrate the front of the T-34, it is estimated that it can not deal with the M4 tank. And the 76.2mm gun of the M4 tank will definitely be able to beat the Type 97 down at a distance of 1,000 meters.

Therefore, the Japanese tank expert who led the team to visit the tank battle on the Soviet-German battlefield, Major General Yuio Hosomi, the principal of the Army Mecha Maintenance School, proposed to imitate German tanks or assault guns. At first, he wanted the Tiger tank (the Japanese wanted the best of everything), and after getting Hirschmann's approval, the Japanese devil saw the "Rhino" on the battlefield in Belarus and it seemed that it was not bad, so he offered to buy 2 "Rhinoceros" for reference.

For the sake of the overall situation of Japan-Germany friendship, Hersmann not only agreed to provide two "Rhinos", but also sold two additional "Weasel" 2 tank destroyers, two "Wasp" self-propelled guns, and even two newly finalized eight-wheeled heavy armored vehicles of the SD.KFZ.234 type (the basic version of the Puma or Puma).

By the way, the "Puma" wheeled armored vehicle (in fact, the basic version, although Hirschmann still gave it the code name "Puma") appeared much earlier than in history, and the main reason was, of course, the huge demand - it was also developed in 40 years of history, but because of the small demand, it was delayed until 43 years before it was put into production.

But now Germany controls the Middle East, and Italy and France control North Africa. Moreover, the war in Africa and India were also on the agenda, and Germany also intervened in Guyana in South America. In these areas, the Germans faced an enemy with no large-scale armoured forces (with the exception of the British 7th Panzer Division in India, which had a small number of useless cruiser tanks), so the Germans did not need to equip the troops sent there with a large number of large tanks weighing several tens of tons. The "Puma" eight-wheeled heavy armored vehicle, which is light in weight, good in maneuverability and relatively easy to maintain, is obviously more useful. Therefore, "Puma" has become a fairly important research and development project, which has received relatively sufficient resources and has made much faster progress.

And this "Cougar" wheeled armored vehicle is really very suitable for the current Japanese Army. The current "Cougar" is only a basic version equipped with a 20mm cannon, which has historically been equipped with 50 mm L/60 guns and 75 mm L/48 guns. It's almost a wheeled tank!

So Hersman asked the Department of Defense Ordnance Trade Bureau to give Japan the design of equipping 50mm L/60 guns and 75mm L/48 guns. And they are strongly advised to import and copy such vehicles.

At the same time, Hersman also strongly recommended the "Weasel" 2 tank destroyer to the Japanese. It was also suggested that the Japanese Army use the existing Type 97 medium tank turf to install a 75mm caliber assault cannon (German-made or Japanese imitation) to form Japan's own "weasel".

This is actually a very conscientious solution, because mechanized equipment is actually a "consumable". As long as it is started, there will be wear and tear, and after a long period of use, various failures will be inevitable. If you want to fight, there will be more demand for repairs and parts.

If Germany provided the Japanese with some equipment that they could not "eat", such as Tiger tanks, Rhino tank destroyers, or T-34 tanks and KV series tanks captured on the battlefield, the Japanese would not be able to use them in large quantities (this kind of thing can be used by Japan as a reference, but it is absolutely impossible for them to use them in large quantities). Otherwise, the pressure of maintenance and logistics alone would be enough to rush the commander of the Japanese mecha unit to death.

Therefore, instead of being equipped with a bunch of high-end tanks that are difficult to use, the Japanese Army should be equipped with some practical mechanized equipment that is compatible with Japan's industrial strength.

……

"Your Excellency, Hattori-kun, this trip to Europe has benefited me a lot, not only to get the prototypes and drawings of Germany's most powerful Tiger tank, but also to have a way to improve the actual combat effectiveness of Japanese tanks in a short period of time."

In addition to the "Tiger", "Rhino", "Weasel", "Puma" and "Wasp", he also brought back samples and drawings of the KWK40 75mm tank gun, as well as samples and drawings of various ammunition used in the KWK40 75mm tank gun.

So when he met General Sugiyama Mototo and Lieutenant General Hattori Takushiro, he was quite proud.

"Oh?" Sugiyama Mototo, "Is it equipped with the Tiger Tank?" ”

"Not the Tiger, but the Type 97 medium tank, which can be converted into a style similar to the German 'Weasel' tank destroyer. It was to remove the turret and mount a KWK40 75mm tank gun on the Type 97 turf. In this way, combat effectiveness can be formed in the shortest possible time, which is enough to support the implementation of Australian land operations in Showa 18. ”

The Type 97 medium tank was a Japanese-standard medium tank that was finalized in 1937 and began to be produced in small quantities in 1938. Beginning in 1940, due to the imminent war, Japan began to step up the production of Type 97 medium tanks. 40 years produced 361 units; 41 units were produced in 512 years; Since 42, 97 new units have been produced, and a total of 402 units have been produced as of September. With the production of 38 and 39 years, there are almost 1,400 Type 97 and 97 modifications, and more than 1,000 Type 97 and 97 modifications can still be used now. Among them, the performance of the 97 modification is okay, and there is a 47mm gun with good data on paper. The Type 97 was modified in the shape of the "Weasel" tank destroyer. Because the "Weasel" is a light tracked combat vehicle of about 10 tons, and the Type 97 is a combat vehicle of about 15 tons, it is not difficult to imitate the "Weasel" for modification.

In addition, because the "Puma" wheeled armored car is a car, it is much less difficult to produce and manufacture than a tank (compared to Japan, Japan did not have the need to develop a tractor industry before the war, and wheeled vehicles can still be produced by itself), and it should not be difficult to imitate. So Major General Yuio Hosomi also had the idea of producing a "wheeled assault gun", based on the "Puma", to produce Japan's own "Toyo Lion". (To be continued.) )