Historically, whether it was the German panzergrenadiers or the American mechanized infantry, the important role of the half-track armored transport vehicles they were equipped with was to transport infantry. There is no commendable firepower per se. The faster vehicles equipped with 30mm cannons that appeared on the battlefield in Italy are more useful in using ultra-high rates of fire and moderately powerful shells to support tank engagements, after all, for lightly protected anti-aircraft guns, whether it is a 75mm armor-piercing shell or a 30mm machine gun shell, it can easily shred up the fragile shield-running machine gun, and the effect of the machine gun against infantry is better than that of a medium-caliber tank gun. Therefore, the Chinese army tends to create a special combat vehicle equipped with a machine gun and armored protection, which is more similar to the SDK234 wheeled combat vehicle. And not the kind of combat vehicle that has both weapons and at the same time can carry infantry.

The protection requirements of such a combat vehicle are not high, as long as it can block a 30mm cannon. And the firepower of its own configuration is not high, plus you can use the chassis of a wheeled combat vehicle or a half-track chassis, instead of a specialized tank chassis, so the weight can be pressed to a very low level, and about 10 tons can meet the standard of using ordinary armor-piercing shells for frontal defense against 30mm cannons at a distance of 800 meters.

And if you want to carry 8 or 9 heavily armed infantry, then this weight price is a bit high. This results in an increase in weight, an oversized volume, a greater vulnerability to bullets, and a significant decrease in maneuverability. After all, an armored reconnaissance vehicle has only 4 people, but if the crew reaches 10+ people, it may not be able to double the weight. It is for this reason that the Chinese Army believes that it is not cost-effective to equip such a combat vehicle that can carry personnel and a 30mm cannon at the same time.

"When faced with a well-defended position with a large number of anti-aircraft guns, wheeled tanks equipped with machine guns will attack with the tank troops, rather than hiding behind the tanks. Especially when the opponent's anti-aircraft artillery can destroy the tank, the wheeled combat vehicle needs to share the opponent's firepower with the tank, after all, a shell will be destroyed by both the tank and the wheeled combat vehicle in the past. And if one of the opponent's artillery destroys a wheeled vehicle instead of the tank next to it. Then we earned, after all, the tank is more expensive, and the internal members are all 4 people. And if a wheeled combat vehicle carries a large number of infantry, then this cheap cannon fodder becomes not cheap! Which is cheaper, a 30-ton tank or a 20-ton infantry fighting vehicle plus a squad of infantry? It's a nerve-wracking question. "After Zhou Xuan, who had participated in the Italian campaign, returned to China. He once quite blatantly stated his mind about the usefulness of wheeled chariots when attacking the opponent's defense. "As for how the infantry kept up with the armored forces? It is enough to use the current ordinary armored transport vehicle, which is simple and durable, and it is relatively safe to be behind the battle line. ”

In the end, this time Xu Jie was defeated. Although there are still memories of various infantry fighting vehicles in history, the current situation is really not conducive to the premature production of infantry fighting vehicles. Historically, large armored vehicles such as the SDK234 were mass-produced as an important auxiliary force of armored forces.

In divisional artillery regiments, the original towed howitzers were abolished, also in infantry regiments. Various towed anti-tank guns were also abolished. Swap out self-propelled anti-tank guns of various chassis. Considering that the armored divisions were already equipped with a considerable number of tanks, the Chinese army was skeptical about the necessity of mechanized infantry with powerful anti-tank equipment. According to Huaxia's tactical theory, mechanized infantry is to provide coordination and support for armored troops, rather than facing the opponent's armored forces alone, if the four armored battalions are unable to block the opponent's attack, then what can be the role of a small number of anti-armor weapons attached to the armored forces?

In response to this question, Zhou Xuan replied like this: "What mechanized infantry needs is cheap, high-power anti-armor weapons, even if they will be destroyed in the end, even if their exchange ratio can't even reach 1 to 1, it doesn't matter." He can at least buy time. The frontal offensive spearhead of an armored division is not wide, that is, about 2km. But once it breaks through, its longitudinal length is very long. Mechanized infantry can keep up with tanks, but it is difficult to say about the ordinary units behind, the opponent is very likely to cut off the follow-up troops from the flank and then encircle and annihilate the armored forces that have formed a breakthrough, so the mechanized infantry accompanying the tank attack must have a certain anti-armor capability, excluding other temporarily reinforced units, a mechanized infantry regiment should have at least 24 to 36 anti-tank guns to form an effective deterrent. ”…

Zhou Xuan's answer was very straightforward, mechanized infantry can do without tank destroyers or assault guns, but at least it doesn't matter if it's a half-track or a truck. You get the artillery to the car for me. In other words, to equip a powerful gun with the cheapest chassis. This line of thinking is very similar to the historical Rhino tank destroyer. With a weight of only 24 tons, it is equipped with a King Tiger cannon. In the face of artillery, protection is almost zero. But there's no denying it. This vehicle is enough to give any tank a headache in real combat.

And in this plane, Huaxia modified an open-top self-propelled anti-tank gun on the chassis of a Type 26 heavy tank (Huaxia refers to better protected anti-armor units as tank destroyers. And the lightly protected ones are called self-propelled anti-tank guns. ）。 At the beginning of the war, the vehicle will be equipped with a 75mml60 gun, and when the 90mml50 gun is installed in large numbers, it will gradually be replaced with a 90mml50 gun. Its frontal fire protection standard is at least 30mm cannon attack.

In the end, the Chinese Army adopted Zhou Xuan's suggestion, and in addition to four armored battalions, an armored division was organized into two armored regiments, and there were also two mechanized infantry regiments, each of which was subordinate to three battalions. Each battalion has four companies. One of the battalions was armed with 45 wheeled armoured combat vehicles armed with machine guns and a number of personnel carriers. The remaining two battalions were equipped only with personnel carriers. Each infantry regiment will be armed with a separate reinforced self-propelled anti-tank gun battery with 18 self-propelled anti-tank guns. In addition, it will be strengthened according to the situation on the battlefield. In this case, 2 regiments have at least 36 SPGs, and if you add the divisional SPG battalion (2 to 3 companies with 12 SPGs each), then this number can rise to 60 to 72 SPGs, not including the possible existence of SPG units at the battalion level. ）

In addition to the additional 45 wheeled combat vehicles and 18 self-propelled anti-tank guns in each regiment, the remaining infantry was transported in half-track armored vehicles, with a battalion of 3 companies of 3 platoons each and a heavy weapons platoon of 3 squads each. Plus various fire support units to which the battalion headquarters belongs. A battalion probably needs more than 60 half-track armored carriers. And a regiment needs about 180 armored vehicles of various half-tracks. And if a division does not count the armored transport vehicles of the divisional units, then the number of armored vehicles in a simple half-track will reach about 360. That's a lot of work. Of course, these half-tracks are not just transporting people, many of them also serve as platforms for self-propelled mortars, infantry guns, anti-aircraft guns and even anti-tank guns.

And in addition to armored vehicles, the personnel of each regiment are more than 2200 people. The regimental support fire was 4 howitzers. There may also be some mortars. In the future Chinese armored divisions, infantry guns, which have a shorter range, will be replaced by mortar guns. The anti-aircraft fire consisted of 4 to 6 anti-aircraft vehicles armed with twin 40mm or 4 20mm guns. In addition to these vehicles, the entire armored division probably needs nearly a thousand trucks of various types to transport supplies and men to the troops. To sum up, the size of the entire division will reach about 17,000 people. This is already larger than the size of the German Panzer Division in late 1943.

The basic framework of the entire armored division has been decided, and the last problem that makes Xu Jie feel worried is the air defense of the troops. Because Xu Jie is keenly aware that in the future battlefield in Central and Southeast Asia, the situation of the air force is different from the east and west fronts in the two wars in history (the western front mentioned here is the western front at the beginning of the war). The size of the Middle East-South Asia battlefield is between that of Western Europe and the Eastern Front, and because of its small territory, Western Europe has almost no depth to speak of, and medium-range bombers can cover almost the entire battlefield, and after concentrating sufficient air forces, it is completely possible to inflict heavy damage on the opponent's air force in one wave. On the Iranian-Indian battlefield, however, it is impossible to defeat the opposing air force once and for all with a wave of attacks. Therefore, repeated fights and battles are inevitable. …

But at the same time, the frontal width of the Indian Ocean theater is not as wide as that of the Eastern Front. The same number of aircraft can be used here to achieve a much greater strike density than on the Eastern Front. In addition, in history, Germany's first-line aircraft on the Eastern Front have been hovering between 2,000 and 3,000 for a long time, although it controls air superiority, but because the battle line is too wide, the number of aircraft itself is not large, and the short range is like sprinkling sesame salt, so that the role of the air force has been greatly reduced. But it's not the same in this plane. Although the depth is wide, the front is relatively narrow. The number of Allied aircraft has increased, and the width of the front has decreased, so the influence of the air force on ground operations will increase. The pressure on the air defense of the troops will also increase.

The anti-aircraft efficiency of the pure use of anti-aircraft artillery is too low, how many anti-aircraft guns are there in a division? And many of them were flattened to fight tanks. If you want to rely on the Air Force, it may be troublesome in terms of timeliness and arrangement. Therefore, Xu Jie's suggestion was to assign a squadron or so of fighters to each division to be responsible for air defense. The command of these aircraft is in the hands of the commander of the armored division, and the principle is that it is only an air defense cover force, and generally does not undertake ground attack missions. But as the war progressed, Huaxia found that a squadron of about 18 aircraft was really not enough!

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976, hukaikaka for the tip~~~. (To be continued)