After a slight wording, Yang Zhen said very calmly: "Admiral Wavell, I am very grateful to the British side for their selfless assistance to our ally. Even though your equipment is still only in words, it is not yet in place. But at this time, we are already very grateful for your statement. ”

"But I'd be even more grateful if you swapped these Covenanter tanks for Crusader cruisers or Valentine infantry tanks. This is despite the fact that one of the two tanks is too thinly armoured and the other is too slow. But it's better than a tank that goes on the battlefield and gets on its stomach in a few minutes because the engine is turned on. ”

"Of course, if you British can replace the turrets of these Covenant tanks with those of Crusader tanks, and effectively solve the problem of engine overheating, we are not unacceptable. Until these issues are resolved, I'm sorry Admiral Wavell, but I will not accept this kindness from the British. ”

"I know that in the Middle East, you have a large number of Crusader cruiser tanks that have been replaced by American-made tanks, as well as Matilda infantry tanks. If your country really wants to help us, then we still want to get these two tanks with decent performance. Of course, we have no problem with the Churchill infantry tanks produced by your country, the Cromwell cruiser tanks. ”

Although Yang Zhen's words were relatively vague, he still clearly pointed out his thoughts. The meaning of his words was clear, and he told Admiral Sù Waveville that I am not one of those officials of the Nationalist Government who does not choose to eat when he is hungry, whether it is useful or not, and even whether it can be used or not, as long as there is a kickback.

How about the performance of your equipment in the UK now, I'm not very clear. I'm a little hungry when it comes to the choice of heavy equipment, but I don't eat everything. It's okay if you want to trade it for less powerful imperial gear, but don't fool me with that garbage.

In the end, he was born in the military, although he is already an official and a general. But the skin is a little too thin compared to those politicians who eat on it. Admiral Wavell, who wanted to take the opportunity to reap some benefits for Britain, was red-faced by Yang Zhen's words, if he was not soft or hard.

The matter of providing the Anti-Japanese League with Covenanter cruiser tanks that they themselves did not dare to send to the battlefield did not mention again until the British military delegation led by him left Harbin. But the fact that he didn't mention it doesn't mean that the British will really stop there.

Yang Zhen, who originally thought that this matter would stop there, did not expect that half a year later, with the heavy defeat in the Battle of Gachala on the North African battlefield, a large number of tanks were lost. In July, they faced the British in the First Battle of El Alamein, launched by the German Afrika Army.

In its own tank performance is insufficient, the main two-pounder gun is less powerful. When their own production of new tanks could not meet the needs, and they urgently needed a large number of tanks that could compete with the German No. 3 and No. 4 tanks, the British turned their minds to the tanks provided by the Americans to the Anti-Japanese Union.

The British said that in 42 years, the Americans transferred the second and third batches of 350 M 3 Grant medium tanks and 200 M 3 Stuart light tanks to the British side. to supplement the huge losses in the Battle of Gachala, as well as to compete with more than 300 tanks No. 3 and No. 4 of the German Afrika Army.

Although the British were also dissatisfied with both tanks, especially the M Three Grant medium tank. However, the Germans put the No. 4 tank, equipped with a long barrel, and the No. 3 tank, with a new 50-mm tank gun, into the North African theater. The British army in the North African battlefield has two main tanks, the Crusader and Matilda, which are increasingly inadequate.

Even the new Valentine infantry tank is quite difficult to deal with these two main German tanks. At the moment, the Grant medium tank, which is armed with a 75mm howitzer, has a smaller firing range. But before the British army's new Churchill and Cromwell tanks, which were large enough to compete with the No. 4 tank, entered into service on a large scale, they became the first choice of the British.

Moreover, although American-made tanks have one or another shortcomings, their extremely high reliability is also extremely important in the harsh combat environment of North Africa. Therefore, in the second half of '41, the British army, which had already put these two American-made tanks into the battlefield and was very clear about the performance of the M3 medium tank, set its sights on the two tanks that the Americans were going to provide to the Anti-United Nations.

However, in order not to cause a strong backlash from the Anti-United Nations, and the British who urgently needed the Anti-United Nations to provide a batch of 57-mm recoilless guns and anti-tank rocket launchers. The 200 local Covenanter cruiser tanks were remodified according to the layout of the Crusader tank engines, and replaced with the engines of the Crusader tanks.

Perhaps fearing that the Anti-Japanese Union would not be satisfied, the British also hitched a ride on the Matilda II infantry tank, which was replaced by the M-3 medium tank, and the Crusader cruiser tank, which was replaced by the American-made M-3 light tank, with 200 Crusader cruiser tanks each. and promised to transfer another 130 Crusader cruiser tanks and 200 Valentine infantry tanks to the Anti-Union by the end of '42.

Although the Japanese army had already been beaten to India at that time, and the fierce battle with the Japanese army in India was taking place, Chittagong and most of Bangladesh had been lost, the British and Indian troops also needed a large amount of tanks. Moreover, after the defeat on the battlefield in Burma, the Chinese expeditionary force, which retreated to India, was also in urgent need of equipment replenishment.

However, the British who were unusually embarrassed by the rapid deterioration of the situation on the battlefield in North Africa, and at the same time were afraid that the Japanese army would continue to invest troops in India to completely take the whole of India, and the British who needed the Anti-Union to launch an offensive to contain the Japanese army were still more generous. In one go, the Anti-Union was provided with 600 tanks of its own production to replace the American-made tanks that had been transferred by themselves.

It's just that the Valentine infantry tanks promised by the British were all over in January 43, and the US troops had landed in the North African theater. At the same time, this batch of 200 Valentine tanks is also the last batch of British tanks obtained by the Anti-Japanese Federation.

Moreover, these 200 Valentine infantry tanks did not end up in the hands of the Anti-Japanese Union. Together with the American aid, the two hundred M-3 medium tanks, which were supposed to be in the sixth batch in nominal order, but in fact barely counted the third batch, were all handed over directly to the Soviets on the territory of the Soviet Union.

The Soviets, who were preparing for the Battle of Kursk, in order to replenish the Soviet tank units that had also suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Stalingrad and the subsequent series of offensives, especially after the defeat in the Third Battle of Kharkiv, made this request to the Anti-Japanese Union.

In the meat grinder-like Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviet army did fight a real war of mass annihilation. However, its own losses were still far superior to those of the Germans when they were still far from them. At the same time, in the subsequent Saturn operation and the third Kharkov operation, the losses of the Soviet army were also quite significant.

Especially in the Third Battle of Kharkov, the losses of the Soviet troops, which were eaten by the Germans by an entire tank army, were quite huge. The bulk of the succession was a failed offensive, facing the Germans, who still had the upper hand. The Soviets suffered extremely heavy losses not only in tanks of their own making. It was a large number of tanks aided by the United States and Britain that were wiped out on the battlefield together.

And although the Soviet-German battlefield was facing a rare calm at that time, both Soviet and German armies were resting and recuperating and seizing the time to recover. But the Soviets, already perceiving the large-scale offensive that the Germans were preparing. At this time, the quality of the Soviet army was far inferior to that of the German army. Each offensive loss was quite staggering.

Just as Yang Zhen said to Hopkins at this moment, after a battle, the Soviet army can throw away the output of all tank factories in the Soviet Union for a month, which is quite a normal thing. For the Soviet army at this moment, the domestic tanks cannot be replenished for the time being, and the number cannot meet the needs, and the tanks aided by the United States and Britain will take a lot of time to arrive.

The Soviets, who have always been accustomed to using tanks as the main means of assault, have always been the more tanks on the battlefield, the better. They set their eyes on this batch of Valentine infantry tanks that they themselves were also using in large quantities. After the British tanks arrived in Murmansk, they asked Yang Zhen that they hoped to transfer the Valentine infantry tanks and the M-3 medium tanks provided by the Americans to the Soviet side.

Although they do not count other aspects, only at this moment the three front armies around Kursk are already equipped with 4,000 tanks, and they are still slowly growing. In particular, the Central Front, which was placed on the front, was equipped with almost more tanks than two of the three strategic clusters of the German army opposite. But the Soviet generals at the front still felt that the number of tanks in their hands was insufficient.

In March 43, it had just received more than 700 German-made No. 3 and No. 4 tanks and more than 200 assault guns captured by the Soviet army in the Battle of Stalingrad and the Caucasus Campaign. In addition, Yang Zhen, who handed over more than 100 tanks of the same model after the end of the Second Battle of El Alamein, was not easy to refuse this request from the Soviet side.

Moreover, with a large number of assault guns, Yang Zhen's interest in using the M III medium tank to modify self-propelled guns has also plummeted. These M-3 medium tanks were not as good as the German No. 4 tank and the Soviet T-34 tank. A tall and burly figure, another excellent target.

Since the Soviets had this need, after a large number of excellent multi-three and four-sized tanks were in place. Yang Zhen, who didn't want to be too stiff with the Soviets, simply handed over the 200 M-3 tanks of the same type to the Soviets. The Soviets also reciprocated, and before they had even equipped their troops, they handed over 300 Yak-9DD long-range fighters specially developed for the Anti-Japanese Federation to the Anti-Japanese Federation at one time.

As for this transaction, although it is a loss in the eyes of many people in the Anti-Union, it is still very cost-effective in Yang Zhen's opinion. The early production of the Yak-9DD long-range fighter allowed the Anti-United Nations to obtain a batch of long-range fighters that could escort the bombing operations against Japan in advance.

Before the U.S. No. 4 tank began to be in place in large quantities at the end of the fourth and third years, the main tanks equipped by the anti-United Nations throughout the four or three years were the captured German-made No. 3 and No. 4 tanks provided by the Soviet Union and the British, as well as the British-made Crusader cruiser tanks and Matilda II infantry tanks. Even the Soviet-made T three or four tanks numbered less than five hundred.

As for the 200 Covenanter cruiser tanks provided by the British, except for more than 100 tanks that sank to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean and the Red Sea with 50 Crusaders and 20 Matilda tanks and transport ships, they were not actually transported to the northeast.

The remaining less than 100 were left behind by Yang Zhen, and the remaining T26 tanks that had been eliminated were used as important base guards and training. He didn't dare to put these tanks on the battlefield. The lives of their British soldiers are their lives, and the blood of the anti-union fighters is not bought with salt.