readx; The reason why the armored forces with tanks as the main force were able to become the main force of each [***] team during World War II and played an impact on the outcome of the war is that the tank combines firepower, protection, and mobility, and the development of the tank also makes the cavalry completely withdraw from the stage of war. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

During the First World War, all countries still maintained a large number of cavalry troops, and even in the Eastern Front of the European War and the Asian War, the cavalry was still the force that could decide the outcome of the war, and this situation was still the case in the initial stage of the emergence of tanks, and in the twenties during several wars, including the Russian Civil War, the Sino-Chinese War, the Polish and Soviet Russian Wars and other local wars, although the role of cavalry can no longer be said to be comparable with before, but cavalry still played an irreplaceable role, but this situation was after the thirties. Especially after the Second Sino-Chinese War, the cavalry can be said to have completely withdrawn from the stage of war.

After this war, as the armies of various countries still have a large number of cavalry forces, the local army and the Chinese army have successively reduced their cavalry units, taking China as an example, each infantry division had a cavalry battalion of about 600 cavalry, and then after the thirties, this cavalry battalion was replaced by a reconnaissance battalion composed of armored vehicles such as half-track armored vehicles and jeeps. Only a few units in specific areas remained in divisional cavalry formations.

The four major cavalry divisions owned by the Chinese Army have also been successively reorganized into motorized cavalry divisions, and after entering 1941, the army directly converted the first cavalry division into a mechanized division, so although these cavalry divisions have the name of cavalry, they have long been motorized troops.

The cavalry reform also reduced the hundreds of thousands of cavalry owned by the Chinese army to only a few tens of thousands.

By now, except for a few specific areas, it is basically impossible to see a large scale of Chinese cavalry charging the enemy, and the disappearance of cavalry represents the rise of armored forces.

To a certain extent, the tank is the substitute for the war horse, and the armored forces formed by the tanks also replace the strategic positioning of the cavalry units.

If it was amazing to see thousands of cavalry charging in the past, it is even more bloody when hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles charge at the enemy.

Countless shells fell in the tank group, if it was replaced by cavalry, then a shell would overturn several cavalry, but unless these shells hit the tank directly, otherwise they could not pose any threat to these charging tanks, the Russian heavy machine guns in the distance were strafing outward on the improvised position, and the dense bullets were almost an insurmountable barrier for the cavalry in the past, but for the tank, these bullets did not play any role in the armor of the tank, At most, listen to a few crisp tinkling sounds.

Li Yuting stood on the jeep, standing directly on the canopy, he used a telescope to observe the charge ahead, a tank battalion under the jurisdiction of the Third Division was up to more than 60 tanks, plus the Third Division's full-tracked infantry fighting vehicles, half-track combat vehicles, and even some wheeled armored vehicles, hundreds of various combat vehicles formed a torrent and rushed towards the Russian army in the distance.

The Russian army in front of him was obviously attacked when it was on the march, and the queue of several kilometers in front and behind was almost stopped.

A tank battalion with the cooperation of a machine infantry battalion launched a charge, but not just anything wrong can be resisted, especially in the flat terrain charge, the momentum can be greater than thousands of cavalry, the tank with the rear infantry fighting vehicles is almost a crushing state rushed through the Russian position, the main guns and machine guns on the tank, the heavy machine guns on the armored vehicles are constantly spewing out tongues of fire, not to mention the Russian counterattack, not even raising the head.

A tank battalion plus a mechanized infantry battalion, although their total strength is only so thousand, but the combat effectiveness of the armored mechanized troops is actually not directly related to the number of personnel, a traditional Chinese infantry division is as high as 18,000 people, but they can absolutely not beat a mechanized infantry division with only 15,000 people, now considering the combat effectiveness of a mechanized army, the simplest thing is to look at their heavy equipment, the number of personnel actually has no effect on determining the surname.

At present, one tank battalion and one infantry battalion of the Third Division can actually be said to have occupied most of the strength of the Third Infantry Division, and you must know that the Third Division has only one tank battalion, and the armored division with more tanks than the infantry division is only three tank battalions.

But don't look at the number of tank battalions is very small, but China's mechanized troops, whether it is an armored division or a mechanized infantry division, have actually gotten rid of the previous divisions, regiments, battalions and other traditional combat modes, in the process of combat will not be said to be a regiment and a regiment as the basic tactical unit, at present, China's mechanized troops in action, are basically based on the battalion as the core, supplemented by other troops, especially the tank force, in the specific battle, it is very rare to be able to dispatch a tank battalion to carry out intensive charge, More often than not, several, a dozen tanks fought in coordination with the infantry.

After all, China's tank battalion establishment is very large, and the Soviet Army's model of thirty or forty tanks and one tank battalion is different, the Chinese Army was limited by the lack of numbers in the early days, which led to a very large establishment at all levels, compared with the armies of all countries in the world, the establishment at all levels is generally large, the division-level troops are like this, the regiment is also about the same, and the specific battalion is the same.

In the late thirties, after China expanded its army and relaxed the restrictions on divisional numbers, although many division-level numbers were added, the infantry divisions suddenly increased from 66 to more than 90, and the armored divisions also increased from six in the past to 13 today.

However, after the increase in division-level numbers, although the army bigwigs are also starting to reduce the establishment of infantry divisions, the tradition of many years is not so easy to change, many of the existing tactics of the Chinese army are based on large formations, and the change in the establishment means that many tactics in the past need to be changed, and in a short period of time will also affect the combat effectiveness of the troops, so the army is still quite cautious about the change of the establishment, at least for the time being, there is no large-scale change of the establishment.

In addition to the influence of many existing tactics, there is another influence of the Army's operational philosophy that continues to keep the Army strong, and that is the composite battalion model.

From past combat experience, the Chinese Army has found that in the operation of mechanized troops, the scale of specific battles is getting smaller and smaller, not to mention that an entire division is invested at one time, and it does not even need the input of regimental-level troops, and the launch of a campaign is often only about the strength of a battalion. Instead, it was narrowed down to battalion-level units as the core, serving other auxiliary units as campaign missions.

In addition to the necessary reserves, a mechanized infantry division can actually form only three or four battalion-level battle groups on one front.

Taking an armored division as an example, it does not have only one division-level headquarters as before, nor does it use such an organization as an armored regiment or a machine infantry regiment to directly command, but two or three temporary battle groups are set up under the division, which are generally commanded by officers at the rank of colonel, and these battle groups are not fixed. Rather, it is assigned to a number of battalion-sized units depending on the situation.

The most standard armored division battle group consists of a tank battalion, a machine infantry battalion, a self-propelled artillery battalion, a baggage battalion, and engineering and communications units.

This battle group is similar in size to previous regiments, but it is not a single-arm regiment, but a multi-arm composite unit.

This concept of composite forces forced the Chinese Army to strengthen the combat effectiveness of battalion-level troops, and finally formed a large battalion establishment, which directly led to a gradual increase in the number of tanks under the jurisdiction of tank battalions in the Chinese Army, from more than 40 tanks at the beginning to more than 50 tanks, and then to 70 vehicles today.

In the twenties, a Chinese armored division had only about 150 tanks, but today, a fully equipped medium armored division has 168 medium tanks and 68 light tanks, for a total of 236 tanks. In addition to tanks, there are eighty-seven full-tracked or half-tracked infantry fighting vehicles; Sixty self-propelled howitzers of one hundred and five mm and eighteen self-propelled howitzers of one hundred and fifty-five mm.

The equipment of the infantry division is of the same type as that of the armored division, but there are differences in the specific number, and the tanks under the jurisdiction of a machine infantry division established in 1941 are 53 medium tanks, 17 light tanks, and more than 130 full-tracked or half-tracked infantry fighting vehicles, and self-propelled howitzers are the same as those of armored divisions.

It is worth mentioning here that the establishment of armored divisions and mechanized infantry divisions in the Chinese army is not the same, but the specific attachment is also different according to the different theaters of operation, for example, there will be more mechanized troops deployed in the southern region, and the caliber of self-propelled howitzers under the jurisdiction of tank battalions and infantry battalions is not 105 mm, but 75 mm self-propelled howitzers. At the same time, some units were equipped with some 105-mm self-propelled anti-tank guns.

However, the total amount is not much, while China's tanks and self-propelled howitzers are developing surgingly, the development of self-propelled anti-tank guns is somewhat lagging behind, the very important reason here is that the Chinese Army has no urgent demand for self-propelled anti-tank guns, during the thirties the Chinese Army was faced with the Soviet Russian armored forces, in order to deal with the heavy tanks of Soviet Russia only developed the T13 self-propelled anti-tank gun, but later as the main force of the army used T15 tanks are equipped with 105 mm tank guns, The T13 self-propelled anti-tank gun naturally lost its intended effectiveness, in fact, not only the role of the self-propelled anti-tank gun was degraded in the Chinese Army, but even the role of heavy tanks began to degrade from the Chinese Army, before the most important T11 heavy tank in the Chinese Army, relying on a 105 mm tank gun to form a firepower advantage, but when the T15 medium tank was put into large-scale service, the firepower of the T11 heavy tank was sorry for its tonnage and cost, And if the Chinese Army wants to continue to develop heavy tanks, then it will have to use tank guns of a larger caliber.

However, in fact, whether it is now or even more than ten years later, the anti-armor effectiveness of the 105 mm caliber is very sufficient, especially when the Chinese Army began to use tungsten alloy armor-piercing shells on a large scale, a 105 mm tungsten alloy armor-piercing bullet hit the past, basically no tank can stop it, including China's own T15 tank,

That is, the technological progress of 105-mm tank guns and anti-tank armor-piercing shells made it impossible for the armor of tanks to keep up with the development of firepower, resulting in a surplus of firepower.