"First of all, this tank will be used as a heavy hammer for attacking fortifications, so its front must be able to withstand most of the anti-tank fire, and on the side it must also be able to withstand the attack of 75mmL40 level guns, and secondly, its firepower must be able to destroy almost all target-level guns can no longer complete this task, so this breakthrough tank must be equipped with at least 88mm long-barreled guns. Its powertrain must reach at least 500 horsepower or more. The weight of the car body is controlled at about 50 tons. The chassis of this tank had to be a promising improvement, and the gun circle had to be large enough to be ready for a later change to a larger caliber gun. Tanks must be as simple as possible and have good maintenance performance. Improves the stability of the tank. Soon the major factories received the tender letter from the German War Department, and the technical indicators on it shocked many manufacturers. In their opinion, this span is really a bit large.

They then refined the test data and the War Department's request for proposals and came to the conclusion that the level of frontal protection must be at least 80mm and tilted more than 45 degrees to block most of the anti-armor guns. Because the technology of the other party is also improving. The Germans came to this conclusion by referring to the design performance of the 88mmL56 cannon they were developing. And if you want to block the general 75mmL40 level guns on the side, you also have to reach a vertical thickness of about 60 to 80mm, of course, if you want to tilt a little, you can reduce it a little. In addition, the protection of the frontal running shield of the turret must be above the above. That's right. Another point is that the bottom of the hull should have about 20mm of armor ..........

"This, if you want to achieve such a level of defense, you also need an engine of more than 500 horsepower and a long-barreled 88mm gun. Actually only give the standard of 50 tons. It's really hard to fulfill. German designers have expressed their unacceptability. However, there is a clever guy who has discovered some problems, and that is that this tank does not have strict regulations on the space inside the hull and the amount of ammunition reserve. In other words, if necessary, the weight can be reduced by reducing the amount of ammunition and the comfort of the personnel.

Henschel decisively reduced the planned reserve of the new tank from about 90 rounds to 50 to 60 rounds. The space for people has also been reduced accordingly. But that's not enough. After minor improvements, the Germans began to think about changes in the general design, first of all, the first point was to begin to seriously consider the problems of the rear of the gearbox, the front of the turret. Without the drive shaft across the entire body, the height of the whole vehicle can naturally be reduced. This also saves some weight. The running gear still uses the same single torsion bar suspension as the historical Tiger Tank, but the load wheels use double staggered load wheels instead of the historical triple staggered load wheels. And because of this plane, Germany has more abundant oil. Therefore, because of the use of diesel engines, the improvement of its power, fuel consumption and other performance has also led to the reduction of the weight of the tank. So one is also called a tiger. But tanks, much more powerful than the historical tigers, have finally appeared ..........

Eventually, the Tiger tank, which was named No. 5, began to be designed after the end of the Italian Civil War. This is in contrast to the historical situation where the Tiger family had no other combat vehicle variants other than the Tiger tank and the Assault Tiger. The tigers of this plane can be described as thriving. When designing the Tiger tank, the Germans also considered designing other models on this chassis. One of the most important of the various variant vehicles is the heavy tank destroyer known as the Tiger.

The most important task of the Tiger Hunter is to destroy the opponent's heavy tanks that the Tiger cannot defeat. At the same time, because there is no turret, its guns can be larger, and the armor protection will be better. The Germans considered two types of artillery when developing this tank, one was an 88mm gun with a longer barrel, similar to the historical 88mml71. Another option is to replace it with an L52 gun. The former can have a larger reserve of ammo. and higher reload speeds, which were initially designed to be reloaded. The rate of fire and the amount of ammunition are definitely compared to the coffee table. The only advantage is that grenades are very effective against cover targets. After all, it's not just the opposing tank that the tank needs to face. There are also a large number of field fortifications. So the power of the grenade must also be considered. …………。

The proponents of the use claim that a cannon could be developed specifically for the use of a fully loaded cannon. Opponents argue that the reload is too big and too heavy. It is not suitable for filling in confined spaces at all. And then the other side ridiculed each other, believing that the shells of the 88mm ultra-long barreled gun were very long. It is also not suitable for loading inside the car. (Historically, the shells of King Tiger's 88mml71 guns were about 1.2 meters long if you count the cartridges.) Because of the dispute between the two sides, it caused a difficult birth of the Tiger Hunter tank destroyer. And in the end, what is unexpected is that. This controversy eventually led to the creation of another heavy vehicle, the powerful tiger self-propelled mortar, which was later known as the bunker killer and the flesh grinder!

It is different from the famous Assault Tiger self-propelled gun in history, which can be described as extreme, using a 15-inch mortar gun. The German Tiger self-propelled artillery weapon was a specially developed mortar. The firing range of this mortar is about 12km. Its role is to be outside the range of direct fire. Provide high-power warp support firepower for forward troops. The defense of this self-propelled mortar is not outstanding, and it can only withstand 75mml40 level guns. And when firing, it was also necessary to switch from a state of march to a state of shelling. However, its high rate of fire and powerful 150kg heavy mortar shells make it easy to tear through almost any defense, making it a good tool against infantry or support points. Plus it can be on call. So much so that within the German Army it was called the "land dive bomber"! …。

But what made this self-propelled gun finally famous was not in the field environment, but in urban warfare. In the South Asian and European theaters of World War II, this weapon was not too many, but it was a powerful weapon that became the decisive word in several siege battles. There has been a record of a strong tiger cannon directly knocking a company of defenders to pieces along with the bunkers they were holding on to in battle. And in defensive operations. The self-propelled guns of the Tiger, protected by reinforced concrete bunkers, cost the attackers extremely dearly. Of course, this is a later story, so I won't mention it for the time being.

However, although the strong tiger has a strong reputation, it is obviously not the best support artillery in the tiger family. After the start of World War II, the German Army had a self-propelled long-range artillery with the best mobility and best protection in the world, which was called the German heavy self-propelled artillery by the Americans, which was called the Long-legged Tiger by the Americans, and to put it bluntly, it was to put a K18 long-range gun on the tiger-style turf, and then make an armored shell that could be shrapnel-proof. However, with its protection against the close bombardment of heavy grenades and the maximum range of nearly 30km of the K18 gun, this artillery really made the Allied artillery suffer a lot at the beginning of World War II. The biggest feature of this gun is that it can fight and run. Better protection allows this kind of artillery to have a certain chance to withdraw from the battlefield even if it is covered by the opponent's firepower, so it gives people a feeling in the battle that they can't be killed no matter how they fight, and even in the radio monitoring of the Allied forces, they have heard many times that the German high-level has issued a battle order to a long-legged tiger artillery company that has been covered by their own artillery 3 times! A few minutes later, the long-legged tigers that would have been destroyed will shoot deadly cannonballs from a corner ..........

Afterwards, someone once asked why the designers of the Long-legged Tiger finally chose a heavy gun for the Long-legged Tiger. Later one of the designers explained it this way: "For long-range artillery, range is life. Without taking into account the use of certain particularly strong targets, the longer the range of the artillery, the safer it is. Originally, there were two types of artillery in the Legged Tiger's alternative weapons, one was the K18 cannon. The other is the MRS18 heavy howitzer, the latter has a mass of 121 kg, while the former has only 68 kg. However, the effective firing range of the MRS18 howitzer is only less than 17 kilometers, which is too close for the opponent's 6-inch cannon to be easily suppressed, and considering the reloading speed, the cannon does not have a lower projection per unit time than the latter. ”…。

In fact, there is another reason why the Germans did not explain, that is, it is a bit difficult to install a non-heavy tank chassis for the cannon. The largest German half-track in World War II was 18 tons. This chassis could hardly accommodate the cannon, both in size and weight.

In addition to the Tiger Tank, Tiger Hunter Tank Destroyer, Strong Tiger Self-Propelled Mortar, and Long-legged Tiger Cannon. The Germans also built non-combat vehicles such as repair vehicles and ammunition supply vehicles from the Tiger chassis. The role is to provide all kinds of support in these ferocious tigers. Besides. Realizing that the Air Force could be unreliable at some point, the German Army also intended to design self-propelled anti-aircraft guns on the Tiger chassis. But take into account the chassis of medium tanks for 40mm or 75mm anti-aircraft guns. Even a half-track with some protection can be accommodated, and there is no need to use a valuable heavy tank chassis. So in the end, I gave up ..........

Both in terms of actual combat and design, the Tiger tank and its derivative combat vehicles were very successful, and made outstanding contributions to the establishment of the German Army in the early days of World War II. But with the level of effort in the Tiger plan, the Germans soon discovered a serious problem, and that was that production could not keep up!

Thank you for the eternal natural reward ~~~~~ of book friends, as well as the monthly pass support ~~~~~ of book friends Fantasy, _ai, Orphein, and Dog Playing with Frogs. (To be continued).