After a slight pause in words, Yang Zhen said calmly: "Admiral Wavell, I am very grateful to the British side for their selfless assistance to our ally. Although your equipment is only verbal, none of it is in place yet.
△But at this time, we are already very grateful for your expression of this kind."
"But I would be more grateful if you replaced these Covenant tanks with Crusader cruise tanks or Valentine infantry tanks. Although one of the two tanks has too thin armor and the other has too slow speed.
.But it is much better than a tank that goes to the battlefield and collapses within a few minutes because the engine boils."
"Of course, if the British side can replace the turrets of these Covenant tanks with Crusader tank turrets and effectively solve the problem of engine overheating, we will not be unable to accept it. Until these problems are solved, I'm sorry to Wavell
Admiral, I will not accept this kind offer from the British."
"I know that on the battlefield in the Middle East, you have a large number of Crusader cruise tanks that have been replaced by American tanks, as well as Matilda infantry tanks. If your country really wants to help us, then we still hope to get these two types of tanks.
Tanks with fairly good performance. Of course, we have no objection to the Churchill infantry tanks and Cromwell cruise tanks produced by your country."
Although Yang Zhen's words were relatively obscure, he still clearly stated his thoughts. The meaning of his words clearly told General Wavell, I am not one of those hungry people who will eat whatever they want, regardless of whether it is useful or not, or even whether it can be used.
National government officials who would buy them all back as long as there were kickbacks.
As for the performance of the equipment you are currently using in the UK, I am not a country bumpkin. I am a bit picky about the choice of heavy equipment, but I don’t eat everything. If you want to exchange it for British equipment with lower performance, it is not impossible.
, but don’t fool me with that garbage.
After all, he was born in the military, and although he had already reached the rank of general, his face was a little too thin compared with those politicians who relied on their face to make a living. Admiral Wavell, who wanted to take the opportunity to gain some benefits for Britain, was shocked by Yang Zhen's remarks.
There is a needle hidden in the cotton. If it is neither soft nor hard, it will make your face red and your ears red.
The matter of providing the Anti-Japanese Alliance with Covenant cruise tanks that they themselves did not dare to send to the battlefield was not mentioned again until the British military delegation led by him left Harbin. But he did not mention it, and he did not mention it again.
On behalf of the British, they really would give up.
Yang Zhen, who originally thought the matter would end there, did not expect that six months later, he would suffer a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Gazala on the North African battlefield and lose a large number of tanks. In July, he would face the German Afrika Korps.
British troops who launched the First Battle of El Alamein.
Due to the insufficient performance of their own tanks and the low power of their main two-pound artillery. 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 Panzer III and IV tanks, the British turned to the United States.
These tanks were provided to the Anti-Japanese War.
The British persuaded the Americans to transfer the second and third batches of 350 M3 Grant medium tanks and 200 M3 Stuart light tanks to the Anti-Japanese War in 1942.
It was given to the British side to supplement the huge losses in the Battle of Gazala and to compete with more than 300 Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks of the German Afrika Korps.
Although the British were also very dissatisfied with these two tanks, especially the M3 Grant medium tank. However, as the German army put the Panzer IV equipped with a long barrel and the new 50mm tank gun into the North African battlefield,
.The British army currently has two main tanks, the Crusader and Matilda, on the North African battlefield, and they are increasingly unable to meet their needs.
Even the new Valentine infantry tank is quite difficult to deal with the two main German tanks. The Grant medium tank currently equipped with a 75mm howitzer has a smaller range of fire. But in the British army it is enough to compete with the No. 4
Before the new Churchill and Cromwell tanks were put into large-scale service, they became the first choice of the British.
Moreover, although American-made tanks have shortcomings of one kind or another, their extremely high reliability is also extremely important in the harsh combat environment of North Africa. Therefore, in the second half of 2001, these two kinds of American-made tanks were put into the battlefield to deal with
The British army, which knew the performance of the M3 medium tank very well, focused on the two tanks that the Americans planned to provide to the Anti-Japanese Alliance.
However, in order not to cause a strong backlash from the Anti-Japanese Alliance, and because the British urgently needed to provide a batch of 57mm recoilless rifles and anti-tank rocket launchers to the Anti-Japanese Alliance, they converted the 200 local Covenant cruise tanks to the Crusader tank engine specifications.
The layout was remodeled and the engine of the Crusader tank was replaced. Finally, the engine's problem of easy overheating was finally solved, and it was handed over to the Anti-Japanese Alliance as a replacement for the American tank.
Perhaps fearing that the Anti-Japanese Alliance would be dissatisfied, the British also took up two hundred Matilda II infantry tanks that had been replaced by the M3 medium tanks, and two hundred Crusader cruise tanks that had been replaced by the American M3 light tanks. As well as promises.
By the end of 1942, another 130 Crusader cruise tanks and 200 Valentine infantry tanks were transferred to the Anti-Japanese Alliance.
Although the Japanese army had already reached India and was fighting a fierce battle with the Japanese army in India. Chittagong and most of Bengal had been lost. The British and Indian troops also needed a large amount of tank investment. And after their defeat in the Burmese battlefield, they retreated to India.
The Chinese Expeditionary Force is also in urgent need of equipment replenishment.
However, the British, who were extremely troubled by the sudden turn of events on the North African battlefield and were afraid that the Japanese army would continue to invest troops in India and completely capture the whole of India, and who needed the Anti-Alliance to launch an offensive to contain the Japanese army, were relatively generous. They gave the Anti-Alliance one breath.
It provided 600 self-produced tanks to replace the American-made tanks that had been repackaged by itself.
It's just that the Anti-Japanese Alliance got the Valentine infantry tanks promised by the British after the Second Battle of El Alamein ended in January 1943 and the US military landed on the North African battlefield. At the same time, these 200 Valentine tanks
Ding tanks were also the last batch of British-made tanks obtained by the Anti-Japanese Alliance.
Moreover, these 200 Valentine infantry tanks did not reach the hands of the Anti-Japanese Alliance in the end. Together with the 200 M-3 medium tanks aided by the United States, they should be the sixth batch in nominal order, but in fact they can barely be considered the third batch.
, all were handed over directly to the Soviets within the Soviet Union.
The Soviets who were preparing for the Battle of Kursk, in order to supplement the Soviet tank units that also suffered heavy losses during the Battle of Stalingrad and the subsequent series of offensives, especially after the failure of the Third Battle of Kharkov,
This request was specifically made to the Anti-Japanese Alliance.
In the meat-grinder-like Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviet army did fight a truly large-scale annihilation war. However, its own losses still far exceeded the German army, even though their quality was still far behind that of the German army.
.At the same time, in the subsequent Battle of Saturn and the Third Battle of Kharkov, the losses of the Soviet army were also quite heavy.
Especially in the Third Battle of Kharkov, the Soviet army suffered huge losses when an entire tank army was eaten by the Germans. Most of the consecutive offensives ended in failure, facing the German army which still had an advantage in quality. The Soviet army not only
The tanks manufactured by ourselves suffered extremely heavy losses. Even a large number of tanks assisted by the United States and Britain were wiped out on the battlefield together.
Although the Soviet and German battlefields were facing a rare calm at that time, both the Soviet and German armies were resting and seizing the time to regain their strength. However, the Soviet army had already noticed the large-scale offensive that the German army was preparing. The quality of the Soviet army at this time was still far away.
Not as good as the Germans. Every offensive loss was quite staggering.
Just as Yang Zhen said to Hopkins at this moment, after a battle, the Soviet army could lose a month's output of all Soviet tank factories, which is quite normal. For the Soviet army at this moment, domestically produced
The number of tanks cannot be replenished temporarily to meet demand, and it will take a lot of time for the tanks assisted by the United States and Britain to arrive.
The Soviets have always been accustomed to using tanks as the main means of assault. The more tanks the better on the battlefield. The Soviets set their sights on this batch of Valentine infantry tanks that they themselves were using in large numbers. In this batch of British tanks transported
After arriving in Murmansk, he expressed the hope to Yang Zhen that these Valentine infantry tanks, as well as the M-3 medium tanks provided by the Americans, could be transferred to the Soviet Union.
Although they do not count other aspects, the three front armies around Kursk at the moment are already equipped with 4,000 tanks, and they are still growing slowly. Especially the central front army in the front, the number of tanks equipped,
Almost as many as two of the three strategic clusters of the German army on the opposite side. However, the Soviet generals on the front line still felt that the number of tanks in their hands was insufficient.
In March 1943, they had just received more than 700 German Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks and more than 200 assault guns captured by the Soviet army in the Battle of Stalingrad and the Caucasus Campaign. In addition,
After the Second Battle of El Alamein, the British handed over more than a hundred tanks of the same model to Yang Zhen, and it was difficult to refuse this request from the Soviet Union.
And with a large number of assault guns, Yang Zhen's interest in using M-3 medium tanks to modify self-propelled artillery has also dropped sharply. The performance of these M-3 medium tanks is not as good as the German Panzer IV tanks and the Soviet T-34 tanks. They are tall and burly.
His figure is also an excellent target.
Since the Soviets had this need, after a large number of high-performance Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks were in place. Yang Zhen, who did not want to be too rigid with the Soviets, simply combined the existing 200 M-3 tanks of the same type in the army.
The tanks were handed over to the Soviets together. The Soviets reciprocated the favor and handed over 300 Yak 9DD long-range fighter jets specially developed for the Anti-Japanese Alliance to the Anti-Japanese Alliance at one time before they had equipped their troops.
Regarding this transaction, although many people in the Anti-Japanese League thought it was a loss, it was still very cost-effective in Yang Zhen's opinion. The early production of Yak 9DD long-range fighter jets allowed the Anti-Japanese League to obtain a batch of weapons in advance that could be used to fight against Japan.
Before the U.S. Panzer IV tanks began to arrive in large quantities at the end of 1943, the main tanks used in the Anti-Japanese War throughout 1943 were captured German Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks provided by the Soviet Union and the British, as well as British-made Crusader tanks.
Cruise tank and Matilda infantry tank master. Even the Soviet-made T-34 tanks only have less than 500 in number.
As for the two hundred modified Covenant cruise tanks provided by the British, in addition to the more than one hundred that accompanied the fifty Crusaders, twenty Matilda tanks and transport ships, they sank to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean and the Red Sea together.
In fact, it was not shipped outside the Northeast.
The remaining less than a hundred tanks were left behind by Yang Zhen, and together with the remaining T-26 tanks that had been eliminated, they were used as important bases for security and training. He did not dare to put these tanks into the battlefield. They British soldiers
Life is life, and the blood of anti-Union fighters cannot be bought with salt.