"Where are those photos now? And the notes you recorded. Did you bring them with you?"
What Guderian was most concerned about was nothing more than the specific parameters and performance of his opponent's tanks. Understanding this specific information would be of vital help in developing the next generation of tanks and anti-armor weapons that are capable of countermeasures.
Without this crucial information, Guderian felt that he would have to rely on guesswork to guess the performance of the Russian tanks, and this was the worst situation that he least wanted to see.
If there is a photo, even a blurry one is better than nothing at all. Fortunately, Bachman's next answer did not disappoint him.
"I brought all the important stuff, including my notes and photos, and I hope they can be helpful."
Along with the words of his answer, what was handed to Guderian was the photo taken by Buckman's car assembler Wink with an old-fashioned camera that was not very professional.
Some handwritten notes about what I saw and heard.
"Are the notes accurate? How sure are you?"
Guderian did not know what kind of SS armored soldier Bachmann was when he met him for the first time, nor what the abilities of the young man in front of him were.
Notes recorded by hand may not be accurate, and this is directly related to the professional skills and professional level of the recorder.
So although it was a bit impolite to ask this, Guderian still did it. Even if it offended people, it was better than using wrong data to conduct wrong research and development, that's all.
Buckman could vaguely guess the reason why Guderian asked him this, but due to the hierarchy and etiquette between superiors and subordinates, Buckman respected Guderian, the father of German armored forces, from the bottom of his heart.
, and did not take it too seriously, even if it was a kind of doubt about his ability.
"I am 95% sure, General. In order to ensure accuracy, all data recorded in the book have been confirmed by me twice. I think I can be responsible for these data and information."
Obviously, the answer Guderian wanted was Bachmann's words.
The photos in my hand flashed one after another like a slide show. Even if the black and white photos of today are taken closely, the blur effect still cannot be compared with the high-definition cameras of later generations.
Even the most crotchless knockoff phone can produce much clearer results than this.
Afraid of missing any details, Guderian placed the photo closest to his eyes and looked at it again and again. If looking at each photo once is not enough, then look at it two or three times.
Guderian took photos of the tank's appearance and saw the layout of the ammunition racks and the Russian markings on the shells in one breath. Guderian spent nearly ten minutes looking at the twelve photos over and over again, and then picked up the
Buckman compared the notes he took down by himself, took a look at the notes, and then went to the photos with questions to find answers.
He was so focused that even his breathing was suppressed to a minimum. Even Bachman sitting aside did not dare to make any noise to disturb him too much. Bachman was quietly waiting for Guderian to finish reading the photos.
.
About twenty minutes passed, maybe half an hour, but it couldn't be too short, less than this number.
After understanding everything he wanted to know, Guderian finally put down what he was holding, and with a somewhat disbelieving, confused and incredible expression and eyes, he looked back at Buckman, who was waiting quietly beside him.
"I can't believe this is true! The Russians gave up on the research and development of new tank guns and directly put their 122mm field cannon on tanks."
"Look, Buckman. The breech block in the photo has obvious characteristics of the Russian-made 122mm field cannon. It can be seen that the Russians have improved the breech block's retraction structure, but it remains basically unchanged.
There is also this photo, which is a Russian 122mm sub-pack artillery shell. I also visited the captured sample gun a few days ago. There must be no mistake, it is this kind of gun!"
Guderian took out some other photos that had been placed here from his desk drawer for comparison.
For many days, Guderian has been studying the opponent's equipment based on witness reports from the front line, trying to figure out what kind of heavy tanks the Russians are equipped with, what caliber and style of new main gun they use, so that they can defeat the armored forces on the front line.
There was an exaggerated statement that "Tiger and Panther are simply vulnerable to powerful firepower."
Now, with the help of these "evidences" sent by Bachman, Guderian's guesses and research have finally figured out the story and have results.
Even the Tiger tank's 88 gun, strictly speaking, is only in caliber and is consistent with the anti-aircraft gun known as the "anti-all gun".
In order to allow this new main gun to exert its maximum combat effectiveness in the Tiger tank, Germany's top military industry experts carried out a large number of subversive redesigns.
The breech mechanism of the 88mm anti-aircraft gun, which was originally too large, was minimized and optimized to achieve better man-machine efficiency in the narrow turret. It was also tailor-made for this main gun, with a newly designed one that can reduce the
An efficient muzzle brake with a recoil force of more than 60%, and other optimized designs in details are too numerous to list them all.
The "world's number one" German technology went to great lengths to get a main gun. The newly designed 88mm main gun adapted to the Tiger tank has the same caliber as the anti-aircraft gun. Almost every detail of the whole body is designed.
It's a completely new cannon.
And now, the evidence before him is telling Guderian the cruelest reality.
Are you Germans weak? How can you mess around with a tank's main gun? It's just all bells and whistles.
Look at our Soviet Red Army. From the existing artillery, just pick the one with the highest output and the most power, put it on the tank, and easily tie the thing you designed with great effort to the beams and hang it!
My own children have been studying hard for a whole semester, staying up late every day and memorizing homework until late at night. The result is not as good as the old Wang family next door who crammed for it. The kid who did well before the exam was beaten directly when the results came out.
One is "I have a car, and now I want to build a main gun with excellent performance specifically for this car."
Another said, "I now have an awesome cannon, and I want to find a way to put this cannon into any car that can be plugged into it."
This completely different design concept and equipment development ideas made Guderian truly feel the deep feeling of powerlessness, as if "all his efforts were wasted".
In terms of better designing new weapons to meet the needs of large-scale wars, Guderian had to admit in the face of the cruel facts that "Germany's world's number one in technology" once again lost to the stupid, black and rough Russian style.