Europe on the eastern coast of the Atlantic Ocean was full of flames, and the European battlefield of World War II was still in a stalemate.

The Maginot Line, which France spent a lot of money to build, played a huge role, making the German army on the opposite side unable to break through. However, the Arden Mountains at the west end of the Maginot Line, was reminded by the Chinese Empire, and deployed heavy troops there in advance, causing the German army to bypass the Maginot Line to launch a blitzkrieg. In the north, the German army successfully captured Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and other countries, but was blocked by the British and French coalition forces in Dunkirk.

Lille-Verse-Verdon front line, the British and French coalition forces have successively obtained advanced J-10 fighters, 56 bombers, 28a3 main battle tanks, 30 wheeled infantry fighting vehicles, 29 anti-tank fighting vehicles and other advanced weapons and equipment from the Chinese Empire, greatly improving the equipment level of the British and French coalition forces, allowing the weak British and French coalition forces to block the German iron hooves, and basically maintaining the front line will not undergo major changes.

Two years after the outbreak of World War II, the Italian and Spanish troops had basically no combat effectiveness on the entire Western Front battlefield. The British and French coalition forces only used 200,000 troops to hold down a total of more than 1.13 million troops in Italy and Spain.

On the African battlefield, the German army controlled most of North Africa, and most of Central and West Africa also fell into the hands of the German army. Coupled with the Italian army's actions in Ethiopia, Africa is basically the world of the allies.

Germany's peeping at South Africa has a long history, but the Chinese Empire has greater interests in South Africa. Therefore, when Germany planned to invade South Africa, the Chinese Empire immediately expressed its toughest opposition, forcing Hitler to withdraw its order to invade South Africa. However, South Africa's gold and diamonds are very important to Germany, and Hitler did not give up. On the one hand, Hitler ordered the German General Staff to formulate a series of military combat plans for invading South Africa. On the other hand, Hitler completed the nuclear weapons test as soon as possible. Only in this way can he have an equal dialogue with the Chinese Empire.

However, Germany's uranium enrichment technology still could not reach the weapon level, and before that, Hitler had to endure the "exploitation" of the Chinese Empire.

For the German side, although the Chinese Empire further expanded its exports of advanced weapons to the Allies, this also caused the British and French Allies to rely more and more on Chinese weapons and equipment. Its local self-developed weapons capabilities were suppressed, and the local arms manufacturing industry was hit. In contrast, Germany, under the pressure of the Chinese Empire's arms export restrictions, the research and development and manufacturing processes of local weapons and equipment have been greatly improved.

On the battlefield, the advanced weapons and equipment imported by the British and French coalition from the Chinese Empire could only severely damage the German army in the early stage. Soon the German army summarized the methods to fight against such advanced weapons and equipment, and through the victory of local battles, they continuously obtained advanced Chinese weapons and equipment from the British and French coalition forces. The German side immediately transported the captured Chinese advanced weapons and equipment back to the rear, and organized a large number of scientific researchers and engineers to conduct reverse research. Then they imitated and quickly mastered the key technologies.

It has to be said that war is a catalyst for weapons and equipment. The Chinese Empire exported advanced weapons and equipment to the British and French Allied countries. It basically could only maintain its advantage for about half a year. Half a year later, the German army quickly appeared in the hands of new tactics to fight against the weaknesses of Chinese weapons, and the German army equipped a batch of advanced weapons and equipment that were counter-countered by Chinese weapons to deal with the British and French coalition forces.

In the autumn of 1940, in order to break the German-French deadlock as soon as possible, the German General Staff Headquarters formulated a battle plan for Lille to eliminate the British, French, Dutch and Bilibili coalition forces of Lille's outstripping the Lille four-nation coalition forces and eliminate their threat to the German attack on the Paris left-wing railway trunk line.

In the 120-kilometer-wide breakthrough area of ​​Lance and Alas, the 31st Army of the German 4th Army and the Danish Servant Army (a total of 18 infantry divisions, 3 cavalry divisions, 2,684 artillery pieces, 2,511 No. 3 and No. 4 tanks and about 1,300 combat aircraft were concentrated.

The Lille Outer Army's Entente Encounter, which the German army wanted to attack, was composed of the Second French Army (7 newly formed mechanized infantry divisions, 840 artillery, 430 tanks and 206 aircraft. Since most of the army was composed of new recruits, the fortifications of the defensive positions were very weak, but it was the French army equipped with the most modern weapons such as the Chinese Empire's advanced 28a3 main battle, 30-infantry fighting vehicles, 29 anti-tank fighting vehicles and other modern weapons.

On August 8, the German team did not implement artillery fire preparations in advance, that is, under the cover of aircraft and artillery fire, the armored divisions were guided by tanks to launch an unexpected attack on the French position. By the end of the day, they had advanced 12 kilometers deep into the French defense.

Within half a day, the French army suffered more than 6,000 casualties and lost more than 400 artillery pieces. Before the plane could take off, it was blown up by the German army at the field airport. However, the aircraft lost by the French army were all old-fashioned aircraft, and the J-10 series of fighters purchased from the Chinese Empire were all transferred intact. Moreover, the main force of the armored forces was always placed behind by the French army and was not successfully attacked by the German army in the first wave of attacks.

On August 9, all the German 1st Army Group entered the war. On August 10, part of the 3rd Army Group also entered the war.

However, soon the army's armored forces were hit by the French armored forces. The Chinese-made 28a3 main battle tank equipped by the French armored forces blocked the fierce attacks of the German tanks No. 3 and No. 4 with its strong armor protection. Conversely, the 28a3 series main battle tanks have no power to fight back with their extremely fast off-road combat speed and powerful tank gun fire.

During the Lille tank battle, the German army lost more than 600 tanks in two days, while the French army lost less than 60 tanks. The battle loss ratio between the two sides was as high as 10:1, and the German army suffered a great loss.

Due to the serious losses of the main battle tanks of the German armored troops, the combat progress was slow and gradually turned into local combat. By the end of August 13, the German army continued to advance about 10-18 kilometers on the front less than 55 kilometers, completing the established combat mission to attack the French outcrop, causing the French Lille outcrop army to suffer heavy damage (lossed about 18,000 people, of which 4,300 were captured.

However, the German army also paid a significant price. Almost all the German armored troops in the Lille outskirts were severely damaged, and the front-line main battle tanks lost more than two-thirds. However, the retreating French armored troops still had more than 300 28 main battle tanks, and the French armored troops had an absolute advantage.

However, the French command failed to catch the fighter plane. Because the French commander felt sorry for the loss of more than 100 28 tanks (too expensive. A 28 tank made in China is more expensive than a French-made aircraft), despite the strong opposition of the French soldiers, he ordered the armored troops to retreat to the main position and voluntarily gave up the Lille protrusion.

The French army counterattacked and was ready to give up at one point. But after seeing the French retreat, the German army immediately breathed a sigh of relief. So they urgently drew a large number of No. 3 and No. 4 tanks from other fronts to supplement the tank losses of the Lille outskirts and stabilized the front.

Germany claimed to have won the battle of Lille's outrage, but only the generals of the German armored troops knew that the Chinese-made 28a3 series main battle tanks equipped by the French army on the opposite side were extremely powerful. If Germany could not take out the main battle tanks that competed with the 28a3 in a short time, the German army would face a major threat.

The German Army Department urgently transported several 28a3 main battle tanks with low damage in the Lille tank war back to the rear for dissection and analysis. According to the analysis results, German tank engineers quickly developed the next German main battle tank based on the 28 Leopard main battle tank of the Chinese Empire.

In the autumn and winter of 1940, after accepting the military's commission to develop a 30-ton tank, the German An Henschel and Beijie Company made a prototype based on the PZKPFV tank and borrowed the appearance of the 28a3 tank of the Chinese Empire to create a prototype car. The number ⊥ was vk3001 and vk3001p. Among them, the prototype car of An was modified in early 1941 with a 75mm caliber cannon and improved its appearance, and was named the VK3002 test vehicle, which was the later PZKPFV "Panther" tank. The German side believed that it was a relatively successful tank, and was finally designed by An Company in May 1941 and was called the No. 5 tank.

The crew of the German No. 5 tank was served by five people: the driver, correspondent, gunner, loader and chariot commander. Since the No. 5 tank absorbed a large number of design techniques from the 28 Leopard tanks from China, especially the Germans saw the advantages of inclined armor for the first time, its oblique armor also uses uniform steel plates, which became stronger after welding and locking.

Since the German Krupp steel armor cannot reach the strength and toughness of Chinese special steel (lack of rare earth elements), the No. 5 tank prototype was originally produced with only one 60mm oblique armor, but after testing, the strength did not meet the armor standard of 28 tanks, and soon thickened to 80mm, and the turret armor was strengthened to the upper limit of 120mm to protect the front end of the turret. The 28 tanks were also imitated on both sides of the tank and added a 5mm thick skirt to protect the tank from the damage of the enemy's magnetic mines.

The German No. 5 tank was originally used to fight against the 28 Leopard tanks of the Chinese Empire, but since the imitation ability of Germany's tanks still needs to be improved, it is temporarily unable to meet the modern tank appearance standard of the 28 tank (the low and flat body is conducive to concealing and avoiding enemy shell attacks), so the weight of the German No. 5 tank increased from the expected 35 tons to 43 tons.

In order to drive the No. 5 tank weighing 43 tons, An had to install a Mebach 230p30v-12 gasoline engine that can provide 700 horsepower and is powered by a gearbox and control system. This engine can withstand the load of continuous travel of 2,000 kilometers. In order to minimize engine failures, the developer specially installed a speed governor to reduce the engine's revolution to 2,500 revolutions per minute. In addition, the installation of the speed regulator also reduced the speed of the No. 5 tank from 55 kilometers per hour to 46 kilometers per hour, which was behind the 28 main battle tanks of the Chinese Empire in speed. Fortunately, the gap was not too big, and it was within the bearable differential.

Although the No. 5 tank borrowed the design ideas of the 28 tank of the Chinese Empire, because the Chinese Empire monopolized the tank track technology, the Germans were unable to imitate the tracks on the 28 tank. In order to withstand a weight of 43 tons, wider tracks and larger road wheels had to be used to improve maneuverability on soft ground.

In terms of off-road performance, the No. 5 tank completely imitates the suspension system of the 28 Leopard main battle tank, that is, consisting of the front drive buckle gear, the rear guide wheel and eight rubber-coated steel wheels. It also adds two torque bars to each shock arm as an additional part of its suspension system. Therefore, the cost of the German No. 5 tank has become very expensive, almost comparable to the 28 Leopard tank of the Chinese Empire. However, this also brings irreplaceable off-road performance to the No. 5 tank, greatly improving the combat capability of the No. 5 tank.

In order to completely suppress the 28 Leopard tank of the Chinese Empire, the main gun of the German No. 5 tank uses the 75mm semi-automatic KK42 type 70-caliber artillery produced by Rheinmetall, carrying up to 79 rounds of shells (82 rounds of G type.

Although the 75mm caliber artillery was not a large-caliber artillery at that time, the main gun of the No. 5 tank was one of the most powerful tank guns in World War II. Its specialty barrels and powerful chamber pressure provided it with powerful muzzle kinetic energy, making the power of the No. 5 tank gun suddenly surpassed the 28 tanks.

Overall, the German tank No. 5 was on the same level as the 28th Leopard tank of the Chinese Empire in terms of armor protection. Its maneuverability was relatively backward, but the tank guns were significantly more powerful.

Since the tank war in Lille's outcrop has a huge impact on the German army, the German army has not dared to take the initiative to launch a large-scale tank battle since then, and avoid head-on battles with the armored troops of the Allies, which have a large number of Chinese Leopard main battle tanks. In order to break the Allies' advantage in tanks as soon as possible, the German army immediately put the tank into production first, and the finalized tank was officially put into production in July of the same year.

In order to respond to the urgent demands of the war, after signing a new tank production contract with An Company, the German army began to produce the products of Daimler, N Company and S Company in order to provide large quantities of equipment to German front-line troops as soon as possible. Because at this time, the British and French Agreements had gradually come back to the taste, they discovered that the German No. 3 and No. 4 main battle tanks were not the opponents of the 28 tanks at all, so they launched a series of counterattacks. The German army faced serious threats.

Fortunately, although the 28 Leopard tanks of the Chinese Empire are very powerful in combat, they are high in cost and have a long construction cycle. Although the total number purchased by the British and French Alliance (10,000 vehicles), the supply speed of the Chinese Empire is not fast, as if they deliberately stuck to the Allies to help Germany. Although the 28 tank production line purchased by Britain and France from the Chinese Empire has also begun to be assembled in China, it will take at least half a year before the formal production and large-scale production of your production. All of this has won time for the German army to prepare the No. 5 tank.

An initially expected to be able to produce 250 No. 5 tanks in one month, but at the request of the German Army, the target was raised to 600 units per month in the second month. However, due to the bombing of the British and French Air Forces, production problems and other difficulties, An Company could not achieve this goal. The actual monthly output was only 320 units at its highest.

When the first batch of German No. 5 tanks were sent to the battlefield, they immediately showed strong combat effectiveness... The Mark series, Cromwell series, and Newport series of tanks were not its opponents, and basically 8 Mark tanks could only be replaced with a No. 5 tank.

Even the 28 series main battle tanks exported by the Chinese Empire to the Entente Team were weak. Although there was no obvious weakness, after several tank battles, the combat loss ratio of the No. 5 tank to the 28 tank reached 1:1.2, giving the No. 5 tank a slight advantage.

However, this advantage was quickly reversed by the Allies. After a long battle between the No. 5 tank and the 28 tank highlighted the gap in military industries between China and Germany. The German army's No. 5 tank had a slight advantage in the early stage, but soon exposed its fatal injuries - the engine was prone to overheating and burning. A fatal injury almost caused the No. 5 tank to be cut off by the German side. In the end, the An Company solved this problem, but it affected the German army's strategic deployment on the Western Front, forcing the German army to defeat the British and French coalition forces several times to postpone, and the Western Front battlefield once again entered an indefinite war of attrition.

However, problems in the No. 5 tank also gave the German commander time to re-formulate a strategic plan. Seeing that the situation could not be opened on the Western Front battlefield for a while, Hitler entered the war of attrition, so his eyes began to shift from the Western Front to the Eastern Front.

For Germany, due to the stalemate in the Western Front, the consumption of various military supplies of the German army increased exponentially to strive for the most important steel supply, and Germany could achieve self-sufficiency. However, in the issue of oil consumption, Germany gradually fell into a dilemma.

Because Germany adopts the national economic development of barter, although this has prevented Germany from entering dangerous inflation, due to the delay in resuming production in the Romanian oil zone, 90% of Germany's oil needs to be imported from the Chinese Empire. It has been strangled by the Chinese Empire, which made Hitler very unhappy. And the most important thing is that the Chinese Empire does not need German goods, so it cannot use barter for international settlement. The Chinese Empire only recognizes hard currency such as gold and silver, which has caused a large outflow of gold and silver in Germany, and the loss rate is far beyond Germany's own acquisition speed.

Although Hitler massacred Jews and plundered Jewish gold and silver, Germany could only get less than 200 tons of gold and 14,000 tons of silver each year, and it decreased month by month. The German government's report to Hitler stated that if the Romanian oil zone cannot be returned as soon as possible or a new way to obtain gold was found, then the gold and silver that Germany saved for thousands of years would be exhausted in July 1942, and the new gold after August would not be able to pay for the oil materials purchased from the Chinese Empire that month. Then Germany would have to reduce oil imports, which would obviously have a huge impact on Germany's economy and military.

For Hitler and Nazi Germany as a whole, Hitler was once again forced into a desperate situation due to oil reasons.
Chapter completed!