It is absolutely correct to say that the concept of operations and the purpose of operations determine the research and development of weapons, and weapons are not just based on data, but on whether such weapons can meet the needs of the army...... When the instructions of the German Army to create units with two different tasks were conveyed to the technical departments of the Army, German engineers had to rack their brains for the future development of the German Army's armored forces.

The armored forces were the most relied upon assault and support force of the German Army. Naturally, its development has attracted much attention. The designers of the German Army also traveled to the Middle East to study the local natural environment and infrastructure. Even some spies traveled to Iran and South Asia to do reconnaissance work for future battles. After a long investigation, the Germans found that the weapons they designed were limited not only by technology, but also by the local geography and infrastructure.

First of all, the first problem is the maneuver of the tank, and the maneuver here is not just about how the tank moves on its own...... It also includes the question of how to transport the tank over. In Europe, the German armored forces transported tanks to the front mainly by rail, and then got off and ran over on their own. This is the case in Western Europe, and although the railway specifications of Maozi in Eastern Europe are different from those in Germany, through the efforts of the railway soldiers, Germany finally used them. So what to do in the Middle East in the future? …。

Although Germany and Turkey will build a large number of railways in the future, no matter how much you build, the railways can only be built in Turkey, not Persia and India, right? The size and coverage of the railways in Persia and India are completely incomparable to those in Europe. That is, German tanks must have a large journey and the ability to act on their own, and cannot rely on trains for everything.

The second issue is maintenance. relative to the plains of Western Europe. The Russian mud was once the biggest nightmare for the German armored forces. And when the Germans came to Persia, they found out. Persia's mountains, deserts, and backward infrastructure are even more terrible nightmares than Russia's. The original engine filters barely guaranteed to keep out the flour-fine sand, and the more difficult terrain made it more difficult for the armoured forces to operate. These conditions lead to a significant reduction in the effectiveness of armored forces. The failure rate will also go up. And in order to ensure combat effectiveness, you must be able to maintain these equipment, and the local technical conditions are real. Turkey does not have the ability to overhaul tank engines, and for the replacement engines, they either throw them away on the spot. Or ship it back home!

And so. The German technical department came to the conclusion that the German tanks deployed in the Middle East had to have a large range of travel in order to run back and forth on their own if necessary, and at the same time had to be able to have a sufficiently high attendance rate in the highland and desert terrain. At the same time, it should also be within the scope of what the various local bridges can afford. In a word, yes. The tank should not be too heavy, the structure should be as simple as possible, and the stability should be as high as possible. Now that all of this has been said, don't expect too much from the performance of the tank.........

Some people may say that the British are going to deploy tanks in South Asia, then they will be subject to all kinds of restrictions as well, and then the Germans will let the guys who say that look at the map and the history. First of all, Iran is between Turkey and South Asia, and the British will not occupy Iran to fight Turkey. In other words, they will only stay in their own place, so they do not have to go through the test of the terrain and altitude of the Iranian plateau. Secondly, India does not have the ability to maintain and produce a large number of tank engines, but China has! During the first war, Huaxia could sell weapons to both sides, so if there was another fight, Huaxia could continue to sell. At that time, as long as the Entente countries give money, Huaxia will be able to provide enough engines and related parts. The possibility that Germany will get weapons from China is already very low, and now the weapons projects jointly developed by the two sides have almost come to a standstill. …。

Therefore, in this case, the German designers put forward extremely demanding requirements for the performance of the tank, the weight of the tank should not exceed tons, the structure should be as simple as possible, and the stroke must be long enough. Firepower is secondary, it must be able to deal with most of the targets, and defense is the worst, because according to the experience of the 1st World War, it seems that no tank can block the attack of the 7MM gun, and with such a limited tonnage, the Germans do not count on the possibility of stronger artillery in the future. The German tank emphasized assault and fire support, the former requiring speed and travel, the latter requiring firepower, as for protection. I can only make do with it. As a result, after some research, the German designers believed that even with the design of the gearbox and the rear of the engine, the thickness of the frontal armor would definitely not exceed the 4MM tilt of 3 degrees, and the side armor would be reduced to the level of anti-shrapnel, and it was estimated that even the 37MM gun with better performance could not necessarily be prevented. Because this tank also needs to be equipped with a gun of at least 7MM4 and above! …。

When the report was sent to the German War Office...... The German army brass couldn't tolerate such a crispy tank, and after hitting it back countless times, the technicians replied that either you would allow me to increase the weight, or I would have to design a tank without a turret, such as an assault gun and a tank destroyer, and none of the turrets would save a lot of weight. Moreover, the height can be reduced a lot, which can fully meet the dual requirements of the military for frontal and firepower. The German Army, which was forced to do nothing, believed after research that if there was no major breakthrough in technology, adding tank destroyers or assault guns would be an important way to make up for the lack of tank performance. Of course, the situation of attacking the weak and defending the strong cannot be changed.

At the same time, in order to increase the mobility and firepower of the armored forces, the German Army asked the technical department to come up with a self-propelled anti-tank gun scheme with wheeled armored vehicles or half-tracks as the territory after research. Because it is positioned to provide enough firepower for the attacking troops to annihilate the occasional hops and fortified bunkers. THEIR POSITION IS RELATIVELY REAR, SO THE REQUIREMENTS FOR PROTECTION ARE NOT HIGH, AS LONG AS THEY CAN DEFEND AGAINST MACHINE GUNS AND SHRAPNEL, BUT THE FIREPOWER MUST BE STRONG, AND THE GERMAN WAR DEPARTMENT PREFERS TO USE 88MM ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS OR LONGER 7MM GUNS. And because the Germans did not lack fuel in this plane, they would use diesel engines instead of gasoline engines in terms .........of tank engines.

In addition to dealing with future wars in the Middle East, Germany also needs to deal with possible major wars in Europe, and the Germans are not stupid, if the German offensive in the Middle East cannot quickly defeat Britain, or even get into trouble, then France is very likely to take advantage of the fire. And now honest Russia may fall into the trap and face the French hoplites, who are known for their powerful firepower and heavy armor. The Germans also had to deal with it seriously.

"In fact, the French armored forces in the First World War were not so much offensive spears as defensive shields, they were mobile forks, but they had heavy armor and strong artillery. When on the defensive, it poses a great threat to attacking armored forces. Western Europe was already narrow, and the French were extremely dedicated in building defensive lines. Therefore, when our country attacked, it was almost a hard-fought battle. After the war, a German armored commander described tank warfare in Western Europe as follows.

The detours and rapid advances that the Germans relied on were invincible on the Eastern Front, and there was room for them to be used in the vast expanses of South Asia in the future, but there was no better way to do it on the Western Front. In this case, then Germany's heavy armored forces in Europe can only be tough, but fortunately, the technical conditions and road environment in Europe are quite good, so that German designers can free their hands and feet to increase the weight as much as possible and improve the performance of the tank. However, there was a dispute between the ordnance department and the army over the specific number of tons of new tanks. …………。

IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO HOLD THE FRENCH DOWN, THE GERMAN ARMY BELIEVED THAT THE NEW TANK MUST BE EQUIPPED WITH AN 88MM 4 CLASS GUN, AND THE ARMOR MUST REACH 7MM AND TILT 4 DEGREES. And the side armor should have more than MM. And the German designers decided that in this case, the tank would weigh at least 4 tons. This led to the crushing of some components, and the German designers did not like the rear of the gearbox and power equipment, because in this case the turret had to be front, which could have troublesome weight balancing for the tank. The turret front, on the other hand, can cause some problems when climbing slopes or climbing over trenches when equipped with a long-barreled gun. So in front of the gearbox...... With the power rear and the turret in the middle, if you want to meet a series of requirements put forward by the army, then the weight of the tank will increase to the point that the existing technology cannot meet it.

"IN FACT, THE CURRENT GUNS ABOVE 7MM4 ARE ENOUGH, AND THE ARMOR MUST ALSO BE APPROPRIATELY REDUCED, BECAUSE IF THE INCLINATION ANGLE IS TOO LARGE, IT WILL HAVE A GREAT IMPACT ON THE FRONT-GEARBOX EQUIPMENT. The weight of the tank should be better limited to around 3 tons. Of course, if we have to emphasize firepower, in the absence of a turret, we can design a tank destroyer that can be equipped with an 88MM4 gun and limit its weight to about 3 tons. This tank is more than enough to cope with any armored unit that will appear in the next fifteen years. And we are in Europe mainly for defense, not offense. "The German Army R&D department came up with a compromise ..........

Unexpectedly, the German Army finally accepted this plan, which made the German technical department puzzled, according to past experience, the two sides no longer fought for 300 rounds on technical indicators, in order to squeeze the technical limit as much as possible. Later, a German army general who had participated in the tender for a new tank in the German Army revealed the mystery. On the one hand, the German army top brass demanded that the armored forces could quickly maneuver in Eastern Europe and could launch an attack on Russia if necessary, and although the conditions in Eastern Europe were good, the tanks of more than 4 tons obviously exceeded the bottom line of mobility and maintenance. And the level of technology in Russia is not very high. A tank that is too sophisticated and has low stability is obviously inferior to a tank that is cheap enough and has high stability. And a more important reason is that the German Army's military spending on the construction of armored and ground forces in the future will be relatively limited, because, at this time, the German Ministry of Defense began to plan the Air Force, and this will inevitably take a piece of the pie from the Army!

Thanks to book friends zhouyu1976 and athlon97 for their tips~~~, as well as book friends I kill my monthly pass support ~~~~. (To be continued.) (。 ))。