At a distance of 300 meters, almost none of the Japanese tank guns in active service can penetrate these improved tanks. However, these additional armors are top secret even among the Anti-Japanese Alliance, whether in research and development or production. , all caught by Yang Zhen himself.
Additional armor is not uncommon in later generations. As long as there are steel plates and blunt explosives, and some things such as rubber, it can be produced. These additional armors can not only reduce the weight of the tank during development, but also greatly improve the ability to withstand complex terrain. The traffic capacity is improved and the reliance on high-power engines is reduced, but the tank's protective power can be greatly improved.
The most important thing is that compared with those high-tech composite armors, its price is extremely low. It is the first choice equipment for some countries in the future who cannot afford to replace the expensive new tanks and upgrade their own main battle tanks, although there are still certain limitations in use. sex, but the price and versatility offset the shortcomings to a certain extent.
Moreover, these additional armors are not high-tech things. To put it bluntly, they are almost worthless. Generally industrialized countries can mass-produce them as long as necessary. However, because this thing is self-destructive, it is too weak for armor. For a modern light tank, it will undoubtedly cause some damage.
Therefore, when Yang Zhen chose additional armor for the tank unit, he chose explosive reactive armor for the new T-26S light tank, which has thicker armor, but for the older T-26B tank and BT type that were accepted in Hailar The tank adopts egg-shaped additional armor.
Of course, there is no future composite rubber, let alone special alloy steel. The raw materials for making these additional armors are also ordinary boiler steel and nickel-chromium alloy steel imported from the Soviet Union. They are too expensive luxuries for the Anti-Japanese Alliance. As for imports The composite rubber is even more precious.
In addition, the Japanese army only has ordinary high-carbon steel armor-piercing bullets. As for high-tech gadgets such as tungsten-chromium armor-piercing bullets, which have been commonly used on the European battlefield, Japan cannot produce them with its metallurgical capabilities, and there are no capped armor-piercing bullets that are more advanced. A hollow shaped anti-tank weapon.
Although the high-carbon steel armor-piercing projectiles used by the Japanese army have armor-piercing capabilities, their armor-piercing performance is very poor. It is too wasteful to use nickel-chromium alloy steel or other alloy steel to make various reactive armors, so Yang When Zhen chose the type of reactive armor, he only chose ordinary boiler steel.
The filling materials in between were ordinary Somdine explosives imported from the United States and ordinary rubber. However, the angle at which the armor was made and the location where it was installed were carefully calculated. Not to mention that the Japanese army's armor-piercing performance was very poor. The 57mm short-barreled howitzer, the so-called latest 47mm tank gun, cannot penetrate within 200 meters.
Although the improvement of protection is far less than that of various alloy steels or composite steels such as ceramics in later generations, it is enough to deal with Japanese tanks and anti-tank firepower. The improved T-26 tank has better overall protection performance The frontal protection of its turret and car body has basically reached the level of 75mm armor.
In order to test its performance during mass production tests, the Anti-Japanese Alliance used all 75mm field guns currently equipped by the Japanese army for horizontal fire, and also used the 57mm howitzer on the Japanese Type 97 tank, and the Type 95 light The tank's 37mm artillery, various tanks, and all the Japanese anti-tank weapons were put to the shooting test.
At the same time, they also use the 57-mm recoilless rifles and Type-2 rocket launchers currently equipped by the Anti-Japanese Alliance, the 82-mm recoilless rifles and Type-7 rocket launchers currently in reserve, and the 37-mm combat anti-aircraft guns captured in the battle of Hailar. Various direct-aiming fires of the Soviet-made 45mm anti-tank gun.
Even the Soviet-made 85 anti-aircraft guns were pulled out to conduct experimental firing on this armor. Although the performance cannot be compared with that of later generations, the ballistic and anti-ballistic performance of mass-produced models with carefully calculated stamping angles even exceeds Yang Zhen's expected performance was something that even Yang Zhen, the designer, had not thought of.
The T-26 tank equipped with these additional armors can even withstand the horizontal fire of the 90-type field gun with the best anti-tank performance and the most powerful horizontal fire of the Japanese army at present, which is 400 meters away. You must know that although the Japanese do not yet have I discovered the anti-tank performance of this field gun, but also felt that the price of this field gun was too expensive, the quality was too heavy, and the quantity of equipment was not large.
But this kind of field artillery was the most powerful anti-tank weapon that the Japanese army could use later. On the Pacific battlefield a year later, the losses it caused to the US tank troops were far greater than those of the Japanese tank troops. Being able to withstand the 400-meter level fire of this field gun shows its excellent performance.
It can be said that the T-26 was called a canned tank on the Soviet-German battlefield because its armor was too weak. After being equipped with additional armor and explosive reactive armor, its basic protection capability has exceeded that of the tank on the Soviet-German battlefield. The protective capabilities of the Soviet T-34 tanks Type 76 and the German Panzer IV tanks meant that at a small cost, the Anti-Japanese Alliance greatly improved the performance of its thin-skinned tanks.
However, once this kind of armor is equipped with troops on a large scale, it means that it may be captured by the Japanese army at any time on the battlefield. This simple but very effective thing will pose a considerable threat to the Anti-Alliance once it is copied by the Japanese army, so not only Strict confidentiality is maintained during manufacturing and production, and strict usage plans are formulated.
Once a tank is destroyed or must be abandoned on the battlefield, these additional armors must be destroyed or detonated as soon as possible to prevent these additional armors from being constructed simply, but extremely practical, and most importantly, extremely low-cost. New equipment that is easy to mass-produce fell into the hands of the Japanese army.
Moreover, after these additional armors are produced, they are not issued to the troops. They can only be installed before going to the battlefield. Therefore, the Japanese intelligence agencies are not aware of this additional armor. In addition, the performance of the Japanese armor-piercing projectiles is very poor. It's so bad, it's no surprise that the results are zero.
Although the first few rounds of shelling did not achieve any results, Lieutenant Colonel Ikoma Hayashi is one of the best tank commanders in the Japanese army. After discovering that his tank guns could not penetrate the anti-alliance tanks, he Immediately issued an order that all vehicles were not allowed to do any short-stop shooting, and that they should move closer to the anti-union tanks with all their strength, and get as close as possible to a distance of 200 meters before firing.
At the same time, all Type 97 tanks equipped with 57mm cannons, as well as the four Type 97 modified tanks currently equipped with the most powerful 47mm tank gun among the Japanese army, were ordered to find the command tank of the Anti-Japanese Alliance , concentrated artillery fire on the command tanks of the Anti-Japanese Alliance.
From Lieutenant Colonel Ikoma Hayashi's point of view, I can't penetrate you at a distance of 500 meters, but at a distance of 200 meters, no matter how thick your armor is, my artillery will be useless, but there is no big problem, and As long as the Anti-League command tanks are eliminated, no matter how strong the Anti-League tanks' defense capabilities are, they will be defeated one by one like a headless fly.
According to Lieutenant Colonel Ikoma Hayashi's experience during the Battle of Nomonhan, it is not difficult to find a command tank among these two tanks. Due to the backward electronic industry, compared with the German tanks where radios have become popular, the current Soviet tanks The army only has wireless communication equipment on command tanks, and the command tank, which is the mount of the Soviet tank commander, has a huge box-shaped radio antenna installed on any turret, just like the Japanese tank.
As long as he finds tanks equipped with this type of frame antenna among the tanks of the Anti-Japanese Alliance, which are the tanks their commanders ride on, and as long as they destroy them, he still has a certain chance of victory. This was one of the tactics that Commander Ikoma Hayashi had already formulated when he envisioned this battle.
During the Battle of Nomonhan, the Japanese army adopted such tactics, which caused considerable casualties and chaos to the Soviet tank commanders. Only the tank brigade commander and chief of staff were killed one person each. As for the battalion and company Level officers, the number killed was even greater.
This plan of Ikoma Hayashi is naturally a good plan if the opponent replaces the Soviet army with backward radio equipment. However, these tanks have already been modified with new radio systems. The huge frame of the tanks used by commanders at all levels Type radio antennas have long since been canceled and replaced by whip antennas.
Not only are all the tanks equipped with radio communication systems, but even the vehicles are equipped with in-car intercom systems. Not only is the command much more convenient, but as long as the replacement is someone who does not know the inside story, even if he is given a pair of eyes, he will be able to find it. If you don’t tell me, that tank is the command tank.
On the contrary, all the tanks of the Japanese army, except for the Type 97 tank, which was the first batch of the Japanese army to be generally equipped with the Type 94 Type 4C ultra-very shortwave radio station, the rest of the Type 95 light tanks, except for the command vehicle , ordinary vehicles are not equipped with any communication system at all.
The 94 Type 4C ultra-short wave radio on the Japanese tanks was not specially designed for tanks. The tubes used to manufacture the radio simply could not withstand the violent bumps when the tank was moving, so it was always broken in theory. Moreover, in the noisy environment inside the tank, the signals of these radio stations with a communication distance of only about one thousand meters are not strong, making it difficult for people to hear clearly what is being said there.
Therefore, although they are equipped with radio stations, the communication capabilities between Japanese tanks have not been completely improved. Except for the command tanks, which are equipped with ultra-shortwave radio stations, which are relatively strong, most of the other tanks still rely on semaphores for command and dispatch. , this order from Ikoma Lin was still received by the command tank equipped with an ultra-short wave radio.
Although under the leadership of the command tank, the Japanese tanks accelerated towards the Anti-Union tanks and tried to engage in a close battle with the Anti-Union tanks, their efforts to find the command vehicle in the Anti-Union tank group failed. After many efforts, they could not find a vehicle with a frame antenna on the turret.
Not only did Ikoma Hayashi's tactical intention of attacking the command tank first not come true, even his tactical intention of approaching him for close combat was seen through by his opponent. His opponent was obviously not willing to engage in close combat with him, because of this In close-range tank battles, even if your armor has been improved, it is still difficult not to suffer losses.
At a distance of one hundred and eighty meters, no matter how poor the armor-piercing ability of the Japanese tank gun is, it will have no problem penetrating your armor. And at such a short distance, even if it cannot penetrate your front armor, it can bypass you. Fire at your weakest point from behind. In short, it is impossible not to suffer losses in this close combat situation.
Not to mention the current Soviet-made tanks, even the German King Tiger tank, which was the thickest armored tank in the entire World War II a few years later, would not work. However, Ikoma Hayashi's plan was good, but it was obvious that his opponent did not intend to pay such a price. The price is too high, let alone give him this opportunity.