Yang Zhen's request to strengthen repair and maintenance capabilities, Chen Hanzhang also nodded and said: "No. 1, I understand this. Although these steel war horses are made of steel, they also need to be maintained like war horses. Without the necessary maintenance,
It will lie down like an ordinary war horse."
"It is precisely in consideration of these problems that, in addition to establishing direct maintenance battalions in the two armored divisions, each regiment is also equipped with a maintenance support battalion, and each battalion is also equipped with a repair platoon. They are responsible for overhaul and medium maintenance respectively.
, minor repairs, and routine maintenance.”
"However, our technical strength is still quite limited. No. 1, you know that our armored forces only have two brigades, which are just two maintenance battalions and five maintenance companies. Even if we are training maintenance and support personnel
When the time comes, we will carry out over-training according to the proportion of the One Belt and Five.”
"But now the army has been expanded to two divisions, plus two brigades and several independent battalions. The total strength has reached more than 700 tanks and armored vehicles. It can be said that it has doubled several times at a time. And the engine model is complex.
, there are gasoline engines and diesel engines. Some are modified aircraft engines and require high-octane fuel to start."
"Under this situation, the original technical maintenance personnel are faced with almost doubling the number of armors, and now they are somewhat insufficient. Our current maintenance and support personnel can only do their best to protect the two main fists
Armored division. As for the other two brigades, they can only be organized into a maintenance and support company that is actually a platoon-sized one."
"No. 1, this is already all the maintenance and support personnel we can mobilize on the premise of ensuring the operation of the tank overhaul factory at the rear. We really can't make up any more. At least in a short period of time,
There is no way to guarantee that everything will be fully staffed.”
"The size of the army has expanded too fast, but due to our weak foundation, our technical capabilities have not increased accordingly. Technical personnel are not ordinary infantrymen who can go to the battlefield after a few months of training. They cannot be trained for a long time.
It’s difficult to meet the requirements.”
"Our technical staff generally have a relatively low level of education. If you want to train qualified technical talents, it will take even longer time. You can't expect people who can't use a triangle or don't even know what they are.
, a gasoline engine will be repaired in a short time.”
Thinking of the British-made tanks he was receiving, Chen Hanzhang shook his head and said: "The most important thing now is that with the arrival of new equipment, the technology required for maintenance and repair is becoming more and more complex. All aspects of maintenance and repair of Soviet-made tanks and British-made tanks
Maintenance is completely two systems. This has further improved our requirements."
"Especially the Matilda II infantry tank. Its engine is actually composed of two 95-horsepower engines connected in parallel. Its structure is more complex and the requirements for repair and maintenance are also higher. Once one engine fails, the entire tank will be damaged.
It must be stopped for major repairs.”
"Indeed, two engines are connected in parallel. If one is damaged and the other is damaged, the tank can still barely maintain its minimum maneuverability. But this structure is really a headache for the logistics and maintenance personnel. Two engines
The little advantage of the parallel engine is completely offset by the disadvantage of an overly complex structure that is difficult to repair."
"No. 1, I really don't understand what the British think. They obviously have high-horsepower engines, but they have to use two small-horsepower engines in parallel to power a main tank. The Crusader cruise tank
A 340-horsepower engine is enough to power the engines of four Matilda infantry tanks."
"However, tanks with small horsepower have such heavy armor and huge size. Even on flat ground, the maximum speed is only 20 kilometers per hour, which is not as fast as a horse-drawn carriage. And the Crusader tank is a Soviet-style fast tank.
But there is excess power, and if the service life of the engine is not considered, it can even run faster than a car."
"When this tank arrived, I once test-drove it. I once drove it to the maximum speed of 60 kilometers per hour. This was because I was worried that driving too fast would reduce the service life of the engine, so I consciously controlled the speed of the tank. If it really
I let go and ran, I think there is a possibility of further improvement in this speed.”
"The most important thing is that the human-machine efficiency of this tank is much better than that of Soviet-made tanks. Its maneuverability is also the best among all our current tanks. After running for 200 kilometers, it is no more tiring than driving a car.
Not to mention this kind of 3rd and 4th tank, even the fast BT tank can't compare with it."
"Before the armor arrived at us, it also underwent certain improvements and enhancements. Although the protection is not as good as the T-34 tank, as a fast breakthrough tank, it is much stronger and faster than the BT-7 fast tank we originally used.
, the armor thickness is barely enough to deal with Japanese soldiers."
"At the same time, the abundant power and relatively solid structure allow us to further upgrade this tank. Compared with the Maltida tank, which is almost useless except for its thick armor, this is our real
Tanks needed."
"No. 1, can you coordinate with the British and replace all the Matilda tanks given to us with Crusader cruise tanks? The Matilda tanks are really not suitable for us. Our domestic tanks
The terrain is complex, and the maneuverability of this tank is poor, especially when passing through snow and complex terrain, it is simply difficult to move."
"The skirts on both sides of the tank in winter operations are often blocked by snow, causing the tank's traveling system to be blocked. In winter operations, the crew had to brave enemy fire from time to time to come down and clear the skirts and
The snow between the running system and the suspension system are often frozen in severe cold weather."
"In the summer, I estimate that according to the harsh road environment in our country, which is basically dirt roads, the problems that this kind of tank has in the winter will also appear in the summer. But the difference is that the snow in the winter will probably be a lot in the summer.
It's muddy. Most of our dirt roads will turn into muddy ponds during the rainy season. With a tank structure like this, it would be strange if there is no trouble."
"The British don't have any trouble developing these two tanks at the same time. They can use the engine of the Crusader tank to improve the performance of the Matilda infantry tank. Or they can use the heavy armor of the Matilda tank to improve the Crusader tank.
The protective nature of the tank. Can we combine the two into one?"
Chen Hanzhang's complaint made Yang Zhen smile and say: "Tanks are a new type of weaponry that only appeared during World War I. After the end of World War I, the Western powers that had depleted their people and money were desperately trying to reduce military expenditures to regain their strength.
, the development almost stopped for more than ten years.”
"As a result, until the war broke out in the European battlefield, countries around the world were still in the exploratory period on how to use relatively new weapons and equipment like tanks. And based on the experience of World War I, weapons and equipment like tanks are not used to deal with similar weapons.
It is used to deal with infantry positions. How to quickly break through the enemy's fortified positions is the ultimate goal of various countries' research on tank tactics."
"All countries are constantly exploring tank development and manufacturing technology based on their experience in using tanks in World War I. Firepower, protection, and mobility are the three major elements of a tank. There is no one way to balance them.
A clear reference. Moreover, previous technological development has also made it difficult to achieve a balance between these three elements."
"Either we can use the anti-tank firepower of the time to ensure protection and create such thickly armored but slow-moving infantry tanks and heavy tanks. Or we can ensure mobility and create cruise tanks and light tanks. As for firepower, everyone is the same.
On par with anti-tank guns, it’s not that we don’t have the ability to develop larger-caliber tank guns, but that everyone thinks it’s unnecessary.”
"It's not that there are no tanks that are compatible with both, but because these tanks are limited by current metallurgical technology and engine manufacturing technology, they basically have a common problem, that is, their reliability is quite poor. The Soviets have a heavy tank that
Even if the armor is thick, the theoretical speed is also good. But the reliability cannot be said. Therefore, most countries, unable to take both into consideration, have developed light and heavy tanks respectively.
, to deal with two different tactics respectively.”
"Compared to other countries that use both light and heavy tanks, the British simply developed two types of tanks. One tank has thin armor, but has good maneuverability and can use speed to outflank the enemy's positions. The other is a cover.
The speed is equal to the advancing speed of the infantry, and it is specially used to cover the infantry's breakthrough from the front."
"This is similar to the fact that while the Soviets were developing the T-28 multi-turret medium tank and the T-26 light tank, they also developed the fast BT model tank. Everyone focused their main efforts on breaking through the enemy's established positions.
"We did not consider fighting enemy tanks. Everyone's main focus was on fighting anti-tank guns in the defenders' positions."
"So everyone uses tanks as ancillary equipment of traditional arms. They are either equipped with infantry to carry out frontal attacks and incorporated into the infantry sequence. Or they are equipped with cavalry and cooperate with the mobility of the cavalry to carry out flanking. This approach of the British is also followed.
The world trend at that time was changing. In fact, it was just one name and two ways of calling it."
"In fact, it was the Soviets who first organized tanks into combat groups independently and assigned infantry to tanks. However, due to political reasons, they took a big detour and allowed the Germans to come to the front. Until this European battle,
The German army used tanks to concentrate and carry out rapid breakthroughs, which made armies around the world wake up from their dreams."
"It's just that the inherent development system is difficult to change in a short period of time. In fact, the German tank clusters are not prepared to deal with enemy tanks. They just use the tanks originally assigned to the infantry together.
, it’s just enhanced breakthrough capabilities. The Germans’ tactics are advanced, but their equipment research and development concepts are just the same as those of other countries, and are not any better than the Soviets.”
"The updates and changes in tactics in this world war were so rapid that people were caught off guard. Compared with the traditional mode of trench warfare in World War I, where everyone defended their positions and fought trench warfare, large-scale air-ground integration became the main combat mode. Everyone was completely unprepared.
After receiving a beating from each other, I realized that the best anti-tank weapon is the tank."
"In the future, whether they are light tanks, heavy tanks, cruise tanks or infantry tanks, these tanks that go to extremes will be destined to be eliminated. Like the T-34 tanks with their firepower, mobility, and protection
Relatively speaking, medium-sized tanks that are more balanced will become the main tank development trend."
"The earliest Soviets, the Germans and the British who have suffered heavy losses on the Soviet-German battlefield, including the Americans who will participate in the war in the near future, will all use medium tanks as their main armored force. This type of tank will be the future tank
The main development trend is that tanks that will undertake the main combat tasks on the battlefield and serve as the main tank equipment can definitely be called main battle tanks."