Chapter 761 of the New History of the First Sino-Japanese War: New Light Weapons
"Russia will face the highest quality and level of infantry in the world in this war, and we have no doubt that the German infantry is the best in the world today, with first-class weapons, excellent tactics, and the best qualities. Don't be fooled by the steel behemoths of the Germans, whose real source of combat power is their infantry and artillery! ――――Xu Jie
On Xu Jie's plane, many people believe that the reason why Germany was able to achieve great success in the early stage of World War II was because of its technological superiority in equipment. But in reality, when one takes stock of the formation of the German armored forces and the performance of the tanks in the early days, this is not the case. The French B1 tank was superior to the German Short-Barreled No. 4. The B1 tank was armed with a 47mmL27.6 tank gun and a 75mmL17 gun, plus two machine guns. The maximum armor thickness is 60mm. The total combat weight is 28 tons. At that time, it was definitely a dinosaur-level ground equipment. And another French tank, the S35 cavalry tank, was armed with a 47mml27.6 tank gun and a machine gun, with armor thickness up to 56mm and a weight of 29 tons...... The speed is 37 km/h and the maximum range is 260 km. Compared with the German short-barreled No. 4 tank of the same period and the No. 3 tank with a 37mm gun, it definitely did not suffer a loss.
Let's take a look at Germany's early armored forces, but only 6 armored divisions, 4 mechanized light armored divisions and 4 semi-mechanized "motorized divisions" are too small compared to the huge size of the German Army. And even in the middle and late stages of the war, when a large number of various Hawpanthers were in service, the number of German tanks and combat vehicles was not particularly large, and after the Kursk, the German Army could only use armored units as firefighting teams. Therefore, in the end, the original force that supported the German Army for six years was still the German infantry ..........
The Germans have always attached great importance to infantry tactics and equipment, for example, the German Army introduced the concept of assault groups in 1916, and later the Storm Commando. In this elite force, the Germans began to equip the assault troops with a large number of trench mortars and various infantry guns, as well as MP18 and various machine guns. Its firepower projection is much higher than that of ordinary troops. In order to break the trench dilemma at that time, an idea suitable for the Germans was found. In World War II, the Germans developed a series of mortars and various infantry guns to enhance infantry firepower. In the battles on the Eastern Front. The intensity of firepower possessed by the German grassroots was much higher than that of the Soviet army.
And now. Xu Jie still has a good understanding of German infantry tactics, in addition to being a traverser, but also because the current German Army tactics are very similar to the Chinese Army, emphasizing the configuration of grassroots firepower, emphasizing the ability of a battalion or even a reinforced company to perform a tactical task, and the infantry squad tactics are almost all based on machine guns as the core. Submachine guns are responsible for close combat. Rifles cover and occasionally supplemented with grenadiers. to deal with enemy machine-gun fire within 400 meters. The company platoon tactic adds a 60mm mortar to provide a lethality of about 600m. At the battalion level, there will be 80mm mortars, which are used to provide a lethality of about 2000m. At the same time, there may be some 47mm guns that provide direct fire ..........
Other words. In the entire tactical system, the effective killing distance of company-level firepower will not exceed 700. When you reach the camp, it will suddenly increase to about 2,000 meters. And the entire tactical system is extremely dependent on mortars and machine guns. This is a question that everyone can see. But there is no way to solve it. The reason is simple, the weapons of that time did not give people more options. Combat defense artillery is generally not available in battalion-level units, or there are very few. All that remains is to see who has more machine guns and mortars, and the Russians have a preference for centralized use, or rather put them in the back. The result was repeated defeats in infantry engagements. At the beginning, there were still some experienced veterans in the Russian army, but with the consumption of veterans in batches, the final result was that the war could not be fought.
Then, in combination with the situation of the future battlefield on the Eastern Front, it is almost impossible to build an impregnable defensive line like the Western Front, and the front is too vast. And the changes can be frequent. Belch. How to say this, on the Western Front, it can be said that it is difficult for Germany to break through the positions of the other side against Britain and France, and it is possible that individual areas will fight in place for more than a year. But what about the Eastern Front, if you think about it, you know, the Russians must have retreated again and again. In terms of time. The Germans did not have enough time to build a fixed line of defense. …………。
And what about manpower? During World War II, if the front was evenly distributed, a German front-line division would probably be responsible for a 30km-long front (a bar friend said, this can't be determined to be true-!). This is still the situation when there was no fighting on the Western Front in World War II. If it were to fight now, Germany and Austria would have to put the main force on the Western Front to defend against the British and French attacks. Then its practical forces on the Eastern Front will not be particularly large, and the length of the frontal front will be longer! So the manpower will definitely not be enough. That is, to some extent, most of the bunkers and fortifications are not cleaned at all with weapons of medium caliber and above.
The result was that in a battalion and company-level engagement, as long as a small number of German 80-level mortars could be suppressed, the German army's firepower could not exceed 700 meters, and it only had simple civil fortifications to defend. This question is simple, Xu Jie needs to equip the Russians, and of course, the Chinese Army with a weapon designed to be more than 700 meters away and can effectively destroy civil fortifications and personnel! And it must be relatively easy to carry, preferably with some sustained firepower.
Some people may say that mortars are a way, but the weight of 80mm level mortars reaches more than 60 kilograms, maybe this weight is not heavy, but if combined with the weight of ammunition, it is probably not something that ordinary offensive troops can carry. One shell is more than 3 kg. Without counting any packaging...... 20 shells are 60kg, and if you count the packaging, I'm afraid 100kg is more. If you also consider the accuracy of smoothbore mortars, destroying a fixed point of fire requires more ammunition than rifled weapons. So if you want to make all the fire strike missions done by 80 mortars, then this total ammunition requirement must be a very high number! Of course, in the case of rifled mortars, the demand may drop. But the cost will go up ................
So is there a solution to this problem? The answer is yes, of course! That's a large-caliber machine gun! For example, his plane American 1921 machine gun finalized in 1921! Maybe the name is a little rusty, but if you talk about his follow-up model, I'm afraid most people know it, it is the M2 50mm machine gun, a classic weapon that has been used for more than 80 years!
This weapon is an all-rounder, the infantry is used for fire support, and it is also the most used weapon in the US Imperial Air Force. And if this large-caliber machine gun appeared in the 1st World War, many problems would be solved. First of all, this machine gun in conjunction with an optical standard mirror. It is quite possible to attack surface targets and civil fortifications at a range of 800 to 1000 meters. Moreover, the muzzle velocity is high, and the trajectory is straight. The power is even more incomparable to that of ordinary machine guns. It's easy to get a machine gun that can be protected from the battlefield, but it's even more difficult to build a civil bunker that can protect against machine guns. This thing can penetrate most armored vehicles at medium and close range in World War 2! And the effective firing range of more than 800 meters can avoid the blows of almost all company-level weapons!
And this thing is very accurate, according to the eyes of the Americans, the M2 type 50 machine gun walks very well at 1000 meters, and in 2 world air battles, the M2 can be considered the weapon with the longest effective range. As a result, American fighters have used 50 machine guns for 10,000 years, and if the accuracy is higher, it can relatively save ammunition, although there are still some doubts about whether Huaxia can make the 1921 version of the 50 machine gun, but at least the large-caliber machine gun is much stronger than the current machine gun, that is certain, and it is also a sure ......... to be able to shoot outside most of the company-level weapons.
In a company-battalion level engagement, as long as the opponent's scarce 80mm mortars can be suppressed, then the Russian army will have an overwhelming advantage in direct firepower. All the company-level suppression weapons of the Germans were out of reach. The Russian army, which uses large-caliber machine guns, can easily destroy one civil bunker after another. Of course. This thing can also be used against the air, in the 1st World War, against a biplane with a speed of only more than 200 kilometers per hour or even lower, a 50-caliber machine gun is definitely a big killer! Of course, the most important thing is that these weapons are relatively lightweight! This is very important for the Russian army, which can only maneuver with mules and horses.
After suppressing the opponent's heavy firepower, it does not mean everything, and the infantry also needs to gradually clear the opponent's skirmishers. At this time, at a distance of 200 to 300 meters, except for heavy firearms, only rifles can reach, and submachine guns are almost within 150 meters. And the firepower of the rifle is slightly insufficient, in this case. Xu Jie believes that it is necessary to equip automatic rifles and also strengthen the firepower at this distance. And depending on Russia's production capacity and supply, there may be a shortage of machine guns, especially if they are equipped with 50mm heavy machine guns.
Xu Jie believes that it is necessary for the Russian army to maintain a certain level of firepower without machine guns. In fact, there are two ways to solve this problem in Xu Jie's plane, one way is to make up for it with a certain amount of semi-automatic rifles, and these weapons that use full-power bullets are definitely faster than the fastest rifles. And the other way is to produce the STG44 assault rifle, which uses intermediate power, as the Germans did.........