Another problem caused by the increase in the weight of the 66_66280 Tiger was that the stability of the Tiger was not good at the beginning. As a result, almost all the Tiger tanks were pulled back and re-improved. Even some modifications have been made to the drawings. Fortunately, however, the Tiger tank finally stabilized a year before the outbreak of World War 2. This was followed by mass production. As a result of the large number of Tiger in service, the German armored forces had an advantage in the battles in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and South Asia in the early stage, and its technical performance exceeded that of the active tanks of all countries in the same period!

The Tiger tank was left almost entirely with all the beards and tails. But his cousin, Brother Hunting Tiger, was forced to change drastically. For no other reason, the inferiority of the armored forces in the two wars forced the Germans to fight a little more in advance. The main gun of the 88mml71 class, which had been almost finalized, was finally overthrown. The Germans finally decided to install an L62 class gun on the Tiger Hunter tank destroyer! This gun is far superior to the original two pre-selected main guns. The original fighting compartment had to be completely remodified, and the hull had to be drastically changed. to accommodate huge artillery and the ammunition that comes with it. And after some strengthening, this Tiger Hunter tank destroyer weighed more than 60 tons! And the equipment time was delayed again and again, and it was not until the middle of the war that it was equipped in large quantities! The stability is also relatively low, but I have to admit that relying on strong firepower and armor, this combat effectiveness in defensive operations is quite strong, and even the combat vehicles in the late stage of World War 2 dare not guarantee that they can block the full force of the L62 gun!

However, due to the complex process and manufacturing difficulties of the Tiger tank and the Tiger Hunter tank destroyer, it is difficult to completely replace the position of the No. 4 tank in the German army. Ideas for the development of medium tanks in the future. There was also a dispute within the Army. The opinions put forward by the parties were varied, but in general they were divided into two types, one was to abandon the No. 4 tank. Redesign of another tank. Another opinion is to tap the potential on the basis of tank No. 4.

The first point of view was mostly supported by front-line commanders, and the stimulus given to the German front-line commanders by this war was simply too great. According to their words, the hedge of the armored forces of both sides was almost like smashing the steel plate with cheese and directly smashing it to pieces! And claimed that if this continues, I'm afraid no one will come to be a tank crew. They strongly recommend the production of a medium tank of the 40-ton class, which can be reduced in maneuverability, but the frontal protection and firepower should not be inferior to the Type 29 tank destroyers encountered so far. As for the side defense, you can put it first. After all, there is a tiger style for a head-on breakthrough.

Those who support the second view are called academics by the former, and are mainly represented by officers in logistics, armaments, and links with enterprises. They were the first to admit the gap between Tank 4 and the opposing tank destroyer in a head-to-head encounter. But at the same time, they believe that the tank and the tank destroyer are drawn head-to-head, and the tank must be at a loss. And with many experimental results: If Tank 4 attacks Tank 4, it will also be pumped all over the ground. This is dictated by the structure of the weapons of both sides. With the same specifications and weight, the hardware performance without a turret is definitely higher than that with a turret.

So let's not talk about tank No. 4, at least the tank destroyer No. 4, which has been equipped with troops, should continue to be retained. And it should be immediately replenished to the Middle East garrison. (At first, the German Army's plans were mainly offensive, so the number of tank destroyers was not large.) Although the actual R&D progress has not kept up with this war. At present, the 88mmL56 gun for the No. 4 tank destroyer has not been developed (the length of the shell charge of the No. 4 tank destroyer is the same as in history, although it is the same barrel length, but the power is still worse than that of the Tiger. However, the 75mml60 gun that was originally supplied to the No. 3 tank destroyer has already been made, so the No. 4 tank destroyer currently uses the 75mml60 gun, which pierces the 75mm gun of the No. 4 tank and the Type 29 tank. They decided that the gun of this tank destroyer should be enough.

Secondly, they elaborated on the importance of the No. 4 tank in the future German military-industrial system from an industrial point of view. In the development plan of the armored forces, the Germans have already positioned the No. 4 tank as the backbone of the future medium tank. The industrial system, establishment, and training are all carried out in this way, and throwing away the No. 4 tank is tantamount to taking a salary from the bottom of the kettle. The development plan of the German armored forces had to be reversed. The price is too high.

"If we abandon tank No. 4, it will be tantamount to postponing the time of the big war by at least 5 years or so! And the billions of marks we had invested in infrastructure funding, personnel training, and supporting systems had to be reversed. Who can take on this responsibility? If the development of a new tank is delayed, then the armored forces of the German Army will face a situation where there are no vehicles available! One supporter said.

"As long as our No. 4 tank can be replaced with 75mmL60 guns. Then our No. 4 can completely suppress all the currently known models of American, British and French tanks, and even in the face of the Huaxia Type 29 tank, it can penetrate the frontal armor of the other side. Medium tanks are inherently an easy-to-produce consumable, and it would have been unrealistic for them to overwhelm other tanks of the same tonnage in every way. It will only lead to a vicious rise in weight. Keitel, who was in favor of keeping Tank No. 4 in the end, summed it up this way. And there is some truth to what he said. After all, preparations for war have entered the countdown, and a change of generals at this time will definitely lead to some problems.

"But what if tank No. 4 does not suppress the opponent? The United States and Britain are not fools, they can see the superiority of the performance of the Chinese tank, even if they will not copy it because of national pride, but at least they can learn and learn from it. Or buy it and change your name. Our medium tanks are still inferior to the chassis of the Type 29 tank. Your Excellency is quite right in what you just said, medium tanks are the backbone of the future armored forces. But the number was inferior to that of the Entente and Huaxia. How can the No. 4 tank, which is also inferior in quality to the Huaxia 29 tank, be up to the task? "Moder disagrees with Keitel.

If your weapons of the same level are inferior to your opponents, then at least you must have a numerical advantage. If there is no superiority in quantity and quality, it will be almost impossible to fight without taking into account the tactical level and the quality of officers and men. This is still very clear to the top level of the German side. At the army level. At the beginning of the war, German divisional units were equipped with far more machine guns than their opponents, and the artillery was more suitable for fighting in northeastern France than similar to the French M1897 Type 75 gun. The number of heavy artillery is even more superior, so although the total amount is less than that of the opponent, the firepower is higher than that of the opponent. And even then, Germany could only crush the Russians on the Eastern Front, as for the Western Front? Although there has always been an advantage in terms of exchange ratio and loss. But in the end, they can only shake hands and make peace.

Maintaining quality superiority is the fundamental reason why the German Army and even the German Army have survived until now! Germany's land sweep of the Russian coercion and Anglo-American-French relied on quality. On the high seas, the High Seas Fleet has been able to fight with the Royal Navy for several years, relying on the quality advantage! In the future, the total industrial volume of the Central Powers was inferior to that of the Entente plus China. If you want to win your opponent far from your homeland, you also have to rely on quality, and quality is the general outline! It's a red thread that can't be touched! If there is no guarantee of superiority in quality, then it is difficult to carry out any strategy. Industrial capacity, structure, and everything else is empty talk.

"What if we look at a medium tank with superior frontal defense and firepower? At least in a head-to-head engagement, there will be no outfall. At the same time, it also adds too much weight because it does not have to pursue the balanced defense of the Tiger tank. In fact, if the 40-ton tank is well designed and only emphasizes the frontal enemy, then the frontal performance will not be much worse than that of a heavy tank. At this time, a major general in charge of equipment research and development put forward his opinion.

"We can fit this tank with at least 80mm of nose armor with an inclination of 55 degrees, and install an 88mmL56 gun with normal propellants. That's the case. It can be used with anti-aircraft artillery and other artillery ammunition. Or use a 75mm gun with a longer barrel length, such as the 75mml70 gun. This level of artillery is more than enough to deal with non-heavy tank targets. Frontal armor is also immune to 75mm level guns. Seeing that neither side had an opposition to his opinion, Major General Heinz refined his point. To put it bluntly, this plan is to make up for the direct gap between the No. 4 and Tiger tanks. Create a weapon that is directly inferior in performance and cost to the No. 4 tank and the Tiger tank. After all, the direct gap from more than 30 tons to nearly 60 tons of Tiger is a bit too big.

"I think this plan will work, double insurance, on the one hand, it will not make the existing production system not suffer too much impact, and on the other hand, there will be another tank to replace the No. 4 tank when it is in decline." Hindenburg was quite satisfied with this suggestion. This approach takes into account the requirements of both parties and is technically easier to implement.

"The weight of this tank was set at 45 to 48 tons. This weight ensures normal armament, in addition to ensuring the strength of the hull armor, and at the same time can raise the front armor of the turret to above. And the sides of the front of the body can also be improved. A 50-degree tilt of 20 degrees should still be fine. That's the case. Counting the angle of the opponent's side attack, then the defense of the front half of the hull will also be very good. Heinz further refined this scheme, and the prototype of the famous Leopard tank was basically formed.

The appearance of this tank is almost a historical inevitability. Because on this plane, the German armored forces encountered similar encounters as in history. Tank No. 4 was the underdog in the battle against the T34 (only on paper. Even the long-barreled No. 4 tank relied on the powerful 75mmL48 tank gun and had the ability to destroy each other. After getting to T34-85, it is still inferior. The Tiger tank is powerful, but the production capacity is seriously insufficient, (well, judging from the later production, it always feels that this is because the Germans themselves do not work hard, otherwise the production capacity will go up a lot.) So the final weight is between Tiger and No. 4. The Leopard tank, which was both combative and maneuverable, was born and eventually became the mainstream of German armored forces. Although the fourth tank in this plane is much more powerful than it was in history. But the other party has also strengthened, and the relative quality is still not good, so the appearance of the leopard has become a historical necessity, and if it does not appear this time, then the leopard will still appear after large-scale confrontations in the future!

However, like No. 4 and Tiger, the leopard in this plane is also much more powerful than in history. From the current point of view, the frontal protection of the car body is almost flat. The turret and side fronts are more protected. To a certain extent, the problem of the vulnerability of the 45mm vertical armor on the side of the leopard was solved. As for the firepower, although it is intended to use the original 75mml70 gun, in fact, the Leopard tank has great potential and can be equipped with a larger 88mml56 strong charge version of the gun. The late Leopard and the early Tiger firepower are almost the same level. As for the later Tiger tank's L53 level artillery, it will surpass the Leopard again, and that will be a later story. And because the engine and gearbox are rear-mounted at the same time, a lot of space is saved, so although the gun and ammunition have become larger, the bomb load has not decreased much. More importantly, the frame of this tank was originally designed according to the 40-ton tank, leaving a considerable margin in all aspects, so the stability of this tank has also been greatly improved, and the final weight of this tank weighing 47 tons is also included in the German Army's plan. Of course, due to the late research time and the fact that some of the subsystems were not well adapted to the dry and windy sand environment of the Middle East, this tank did not have a large number of equipment at the beginning of World War II. However, in the ensuing battle, it gradually replaced part of the No. 4 and became the backbone of the German armored forces!

Probably, because the Germans were too inferior in tank performance, they tried everything to improve the anti-tank capabilities of their troops. The lack of tanks and the low survivability of anti-aircraft guns against tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and curved fire are mentioned in numerous engagements. In addition, the performance of many anti-tank guns is not good. For example, the German 50mm anti-tank gun. It is difficult for these things to threaten the current armored force of Huaxia, and the power of the Type 29 tank destroyer gun is not very sufficient. And the number of heavy cannons is insufficient, whether it is 88mm anti-aircraft guns or anti-aircraft guns, the vast majority of them are Air Force. Guderian was lucky, he got a lot of good things from the Air Force, and if there is a large-scale engagement, the Air Force will not have enough anti-aircraft artillery, so how can it be given to the Army?

Thank you for the tip of the book friend hukaikaka~~~. I don't recommend it next week~~~, and I can only rely on the support of my book friends to ~~~~~. (To be continued).