readx; On the eve of the war in Europe, that is, before the second half of 1914, although all countries carried out a large-scale arms race, these arms races were more of a quantitative competition of existing technology and equipment, rather than after the outbreak of the war, the arms race of various countries was not only a competition for quantity, but also a competition for innovation and quality. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

At the end of 1917, tanks began to appear on the European battlefield, and the competition between the Allies and the Entente for tanks was particularly fierce, and in January 1918, the countries officially put tanks into the war for only a few months, but the total number of tanks destroyed has exceeded 500, and a large number of actual combat experience has exposed many problems, so that the tank designers of various countries quickly formulated the design of new tanks, and the new tanks were quickly equipped with troops to go to the battlefield. Britain and France and other countries have proposed and designed up to dozens of tank designs, and selected several tanks to produce in large quantities and participate in the war, among which the types of tanks have covered ultra-light tanks, light tanks, medium tanks and heavy tanks, when the first to install tanks in China are still only equipped with two types of T tanks, British and French tanks have formed a comprehensive, series of tank families.

The United States, which began to participate in the war last year, did not carry out the relevant design and research of tanks before, so the place to participate in the war was the purchase of British and French tanks, and then after China's T1 tank was exposed, the United States purchased dozens of Chinese T1 tanks, but limited by China's production capacity can not quickly provide a large number of tanks, so the United States purchased from Britain and France, so the United Kingdom provided parts, design, France provided manufacturing sites, and China provided labor. The Mark 8 heavy tank, which was supplied by the United States itself with gasoline engines, was grandly unveiled.

It was a veritable international tank, with the participation of China, Britain, France, and the United States, with a crew of up to 12 people, weighing 37 tons, armed with two six-pounder guns and seven machine guns, with armor up to 16 mm thick and a power of 300 horsepower, and a top speed of 6.5 miles per hour.

The Americans had already made a lot of war money in the past few years, so the wealthy Americans placed orders for up to 1,500 units in one go, and you must know that the unit price of this tank was as high as about 30,000 US dollars. And how much is the T2 tank produced by China, only 13,000 yuan, that is, 6,000 dollars...... In other words, the money you pay for one Mark 8 tank can buy five T2 tanks.

However, there is a huge difference in price between the two, and the difference in weight is also huge, the T2 tank is only six tons, which is a veritable light tank, while the Mark 8 tank is 37 tons, but it is a serious heavy tank.

In addition to the famous international tank, the British army was equipped with a wide variety of tanks, including the Mark model, in addition to the all-important Type A medium tank, which was first used in the war in January 19181, this fourteen-ton medium tank was equipped with two gasoline engines, capable of providing 85 horsepower to propel the tank at a speed of about 13 kilometers per hour, and was armed with four 0.3-inch machine guns. The design proved so successful that the Germans even copied the tank after capturing it, although the Germans replaced the tank's four machine guns with 57 mm guns.

In fact, although Britain began to introduce the design ideas of Chinese tanks in 1916, which once seriously affected the British tank design, but after 1917, the tank design of Britain and France returned to their own way, all kinds of machine gun tanks with multiple turrets Tanks messy tank styles emerge in endlessly, while their enemy Germany is much more pragmatic, although the Germans have a lot of tank designs, but there are only a few tank models that are really mass-produced and participated in the war, The first is the 1st light tank that imitates the Chinese T1 tank, while the second is the No. 2 heavy tank weighing 20 tons developed and produced by themselves, the third is the No. 3 medium tank that is copied and improved from the British Army's A-type medium tank, and the fourth is the No. 4 light tank that is an expanded design on the basis of the No. 1 tank.

Since the development of tanks in the German army only began after 1917, the early stage was mainly imitation design, and there was not much energy to make a lot of messy models like Britain and France, but focused on a few tanks.

By February 1918, the total number of tanks in the British, French and American armies had reached more than 1,000, while the number of tanks in Germany and Austria had soared to more than 600. If you count the tanks that were destroyed before, then the total number of tanks produced by various countries in just one year has exceeded 3,000.

And these numbers made Chen Jingyun quite depressed!

You must know that China is the first country in the world to formally study tanks and the first country to install tanks, probably when the British tanks are still being tested, China's T1 tank has been secretly equipped with an armored test battalion, when the British army first put the tank into the battlefield, China's T2 tank is already the only armored brigade on a large scale.

In the past few years, China's armored forces have developed rapidly, including the armored brigade and the experimental units under the armored section, the number of tanks in China has exceeded 150, but this number is inferior to those of the great powers.

Shut down

In order to keep up with the pace of the great powers, Chen Jingyun gritted his teeth and allocated 5 million special development funds for the armored forces to the army to support the research and development of new tanks, and bypassed many generals of the army, directly found Major General Fang Dashan, chief of the armored section, and personally explained to him the development plan of the armored forces, requiring the design and production of light tanks of less than 10 tons, medium tanks of 15 tons, and heavy tanks of more than 25 tons.

In order to prevent those designers from following the example of the British designers, Chen Jingyun personally formulated the design indicators, in which the medium tank that would be used as the main force would need to be at least 20 kilometers high, equipped with a long-barreled gun of more than 50 mm, and the thickness of the frontal armor must reach more than 20 mm.

These design indicators were formulated to prevent those designers from coming up with a multi-turret tank with a hot head, or only machine guns and no tank guns like the British Type A medium tanks.

Since China was a member of the Entente at this time, to a certain extent, it had a good foundation for technical cooperation with several other allies except for the Allied Countries. In 1917, China obtained the technical drawings of their M1897 75mm gun from the French, so that China could develop and produce more advanced artillery based on the M1897. China also provided the British and French with the design drawings of the T1 tank. This time, China wanted to start the design of new tanks, and it also spent a certain amount of money to obtain some tank design drawings from the United Kingdom, including the A-type medium tanks in service in the British army.

After referring to the design of many tanks, China's new tank was quickly finalized, T3 light tank, weighing eight tons, in order to achieve high speed of this light tank, the extreme design was adopted, the armament and armor were weakened, and a gasoline engine with greater horsepower was adopted, so that this light tank was only equipped with a 25 mm small-caliber tank gun, and the thickest armor thickness was only ten mm, but the speed was successfully broken through 30 kilometers and reached 33 kilometers per hour. It became a veritable light reconnaissance tank.

The T4 medium tank, based on the British A-type medium tank, was redesigned and optimized, with a total weight of 16 tons, equipped with a 1918-style 57L35 gun, with a frontal armor thickness of 22 mm, and a side armor thickness of 12 mm, with a maximum speed of 20 kilometers per hour, just reaching Chen Jingyun's speed index for medium tanks.

The artillery equipped with this tank is actually a howitzer, and the length of the barrel at 35 times is not very good armor-piercing, but the current tank design is not used to engage the opponent's tank, so most of the howitzers with short barrels are used, and the main purpose is to fight against enemy fortifications and support infantry operations, and the destruction of enemy tanks is generally handed over to the anti-tank fire of their own infantry.

The T5 heavy tank is basically an enlarged version of the T4 tank, increasing firepower and armor, so that the weight has risen by nearly 30 degrees, and the speed has been reduced to only 15 kilometers per hour, and the firepower is a 75L36 gun, which is actually the tank gun version of the French M1897 gun, and the 75mm and 76.2mm caliber guns in service or under development in the Chinese army are either 31 times the short-barreled guns of the army artillery, or 50 times the ultra-long barrels of the navy. In addition, the army is now producing the M1897 gun on a large scale, so after a slight change, this gun was moved to the T5 tank.

China's armored forces have invested heavily in order to catch up with the pace of armor development of the European powers, and the relative island countries say, "The army also sees the prospect of armored forces, but it says" Ben's current energy is still on the navy, and the development of the army has been neglected in recent years, and now the tank is no exception. 47-mm long-barreled anti-tank guns have begun to be installed in Kwantung Prefecture and North Korea, which even Chinese infantry divisions have not been able to do so quickly.

Compared with the development of tanks, in fact, the development of aircraft in World War I was more rapid, in 1914 there were not hundreds of planes in the skies over Europe, but to this day in 1918, those ace pilots who shot down dozens of planes have emerged a lot, and in the end of the war both sides are equipped with a large number of aircraft, taking the development of fighter jets as an example, the fighter jets of various countries have been rapidly updated in recent years, such as the German fighter jet from the beginning of the Fokker E speed of about 120 kilometers to now, the speed of its latest Fokker D4 fighter has exceeded two hundred kilometers.

In fact, this is more advanced than the F1 fighter in the large-scale service of the Chinese Air Force, you must know that the maximum speed of the F1 fighter jet installed in the large-scale deployment of the Chinese Air Force and Navy is only about 170 kilometers.

As the first country in the world to establish an air force and let aircraft be put into war on a large scale, China's aircraft development and tank development have the same embarrassment, that is, domestic peacetime military spending is simply not enough to support the rapid upgrading of equipment.

The reason is not only that the equipment is being upgraded too quickly, but also related to China's military spending restrictions. You must know that the F1 fighters of the Chinese Air Force and Navy only began to be equipped on a large scale in 1916, and in fact, it was not until the second half of 1917 that the comprehensive refitting of the D5A battle was completed.

Although faced with the embarrassing situation that it has lagged behind the world's advanced fighters after just one year of equipping, the Chinese Air Force still has no intention of replacing a new generation of fighters on a large scale in a short period of time, because even if the F1 fighter is backward, it is stronger than the aircraft of the Russian Air Force, and even if the service life of the F1 fighter is short, it can be used for at least five or six years. Therefore, the Air Force and the HNA have reached an agreement, that is, to jointly fund the development and research of the technology of the new generation of aircraft, but only to study and not equip, or to equip a small amount for experiments, and after the development of the aircraft in Europe has stabilized, then the Air Force and the HNA units will once again be fully replaced with new aircraft.

I have to say that this is an embarrassing and helpless status quo!