Fortunately, the performance of these American-made trucks is also excellent. There is nothing wrong with transporting five tons from a three-ton load, and there is no decrease in performance. An American-made IWC truck with a load of three tons can carry two trucks. The sufficient transportation capacity of Soviet-made GAZ 2.5-ton trucks or Japanese cars and American trucks makes the actual transportation capacity of each directly affiliated ** automobile group far greater than it appears.
Although each regiment can only dispatch one battalion in normal times, the mobilization of various supplies relies more on the railway. However, in non-war times, it is mainly used to cooperate with the railway in transferring supplies to various secret supply storage points near the front. The transportation capacity is sufficient to transport ammunition and food for the next battle. After all, there is still plenty of time during non-war times.
On the one hand, this can not only save precious gasoline and reduce the daily wear and tear of vehicles, but also use the equipment of one battalion to alternately dispatch two battalions. It can also improve the familiarity of new drivers with the equipment. It is better than dispatching all the regiments, but Since we can't afford gasoline, most people just stay idle.
The reason for this organization is that in addition to the gasoline supply being severely limited by Jiangbei, a considerable amount of inventory must be maintained. At the same time, the number of trucks must also ensure a certain reserve so that it can be quickly replenished and imported after a large number of battle losses occur during wartime. It is impossible to equip all American trucks at once.
You must know that although the Japs’ planes were not as numerous as those of the Americans during the war to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea a few years later, and they were not as generous in dropping bombs as the Americans, the level of risk-taking that the Japs’ pilots had was unmatched by the Americans. Coupled with the long-range artillery cooperation of the Japanese army, it is also necessary to maintain a certain number of trucks in stock in accordance with Yang Zhen's requirement to estimate the worst possible outcome.
Although the Northeast Bureau obtained Yang Zhen's consent at the beginning of the year, it had already sent a telegram to Peng Dingjie, who was currently in the United States while treating stomach problems and serving as a purchasing representative, to order 3,000 five-ton trucks and 5,000 three-ton trucks produced by Wanguo Company. After taking over the first batch of American cars, the excellent performance of these trucks produced by IWC greatly satisfied the military region's logistics department.
Therefore, when ordering subsequent trucks, they directly specified the trucks produced by IWC. As for the equally excellent products of Studebaker, the Military Logistics Department, after careful consideration, made every possible request and even threatened Pearson, and promised to coordinate a partial loan. Just placed an order for another 3,000 vehicles.
Although another batch of trucks is about to arrive before June, for Yang Zhen, these vehicles are far from enough compared with the needs he will face in future operations. Moreover, all of these scheduled trucks cannot be reserved for combat troops. In the spring of this year, Even the large factories that are about to start construction will also need a large number of transportation vehicles.
It can be said that half of the second batch of 11,000 trucks ordered later will be allocated to the troops. As for US aid, Yang Zhen knows that it will not be his turn until at least the middle of next year, but fortunately The army has these trucks now. As long as it does not face explosive growth and the establishment expands too quickly, it will barely be enough for use.
Although each army is "self-serving" by the Logistics Department, leaving the high-performance American-made trucks to their own ** automobile regiments, and except for the artillery, the other field troops are all American-made trucks, and the rest still have poor performance. There are many complaints about good Soviet-made trucks and Japanese-made trucks with small load capacity.
But in the current situation, using captured Japanese-made trucks and relatively bulky Soviet-made trucks with smaller load capacity is much better than having all the equipment to be carried on shoulders, especially after hearing about this equipment plan. , after Yang Zhen made the decision himself, no one dared to speak out.
Although Yang Zhen, the de facto number one in the entire Anti-Japanese Alliance, is about the same age as the battalion and company commanders under these column commanders and division commanders, after the battles in the past few years, both the column commanders and the division commanders have become No one dared to question Yang Zhen's decision.
Fortunately, the military region has also given various divisions a form of compensation in other aspects. Although there are no American trucks with excellent performance, they have provided a large number of well-bred horses and mules that are stronger than horses to be used as pack horses, which can also be considered in other aspects. Certain compensation was given,
In terms of the rationing of transportation horses, all divisions and animal-drawn units below the division are equipped with high-quality horses captured and Mongolian horses collected after the recapture of the Longjiang area. After these high-quality pack horses are in place, they effectively make up for the regiment's supply. The number and performance of vehicles of the following troops are insufficient to meet the transportation capacity of the first division troops.
You know, no one dares to play tricks on the formation of these animal-drawn transport units and change these transport units into combat units. When each division is reorganized, after the transport horses allocated by the military region arrive, each division commander We honestly established our own animal transport unit in accordance with the requirements of the military region.
Although the number of cars is not large, only enough to transport artillery shells and ammunition, the number of packhorses for each regiment-level unit, thanks to the efforts of the military region, is definitely quite sufficient, including the troops below the regiment level, in order to make up for the number of cars. The insufficient number of horse-drawn carts is also quite sufficient,
Since the recapture of Longjiang Province in Manchuria, which borders the Hung Yen provinces where the Mongols live and are rich in horses, the army's original shortage of pack horses has been fundamentally alleviated. Although the time is still too short, there are not many qualified war horses, but the available The number of pack horses is quite sufficient.
After recapturing Longjiang Province in Manchuria, an area with a relatively large number of Mongolians and a developed animal husbandry, the tight supply of horses was fundamentally alleviated, especially with the seizure of a large number of Japanese horses in Mongolia. Based on the new horse breed that has been painstakingly improved,
After the September 18th Incident, in order to obtain local materials, the Japanese recruited a large number of horses from Mongolian herdsmen in the Northeast region for their own use. They put a lot of effort into improving Mongolian horse breeds and used their country to spend a lot of money to introduce Western horses. After the horse breed was improved, they followed the method of transforming their own country's horses. They introduced British horses and made the same improvements to Mongolian horses, and bred a large number of excellent horses.
But before there was time to promote it, the entire Longjiang and Heihe areas adjacent to the Mongolian pastures were lost. The promotion was not successful, but Yang Zhen got a big advantage. Just a few Kwantung Army horse farms on both sides of the Nen River were seized. More than 20,000 new horse breeds were obtained, which have the advantages of the Mongolian horse's tolerance for roughage and good at long-distance marching, but its transport capacity is much greater than that of the Mongolian horse.
Yang Zhen knew that the Sanhe horse, the most famous draft horse in the Northeast in later generations, was based on the improved Mongolian horse imported by the Japanese after the September 18th Incident, and mixed with the Russian Orlov thoroughbred horse and the Zabaikal horse. It is an improved stallion, but the real foundation is still the Mongolian horse improved by the Japanese using British horses and Arabian horses.
After getting these excellent improved horses, Yang Zhen could almost be described as ecstatic. Except for the 3,000 horses that were allocated to the cavalry unit for expansion, the rest were all used when the existing Mongolian horses were sufficient. They were all kept as stallions by him. As for the use of the troops, they were temporarily replaced by relatively inferior Mongolian horses.
The pulling power of Mongolian horses is indeed inferior to those of these improved horses, but their endurance and tolerance for roughage are incomparable to ordinary horses, and the most important thing is that they are huge in number. There are hundreds of thousands of them in the Nenjiang area alone. The quantity, even if it is overstretched, is enough for the troops.
However, although these excellent horses cannot be used by the army for the time being, Yang Zhen believes that as long as he relies on the high-quality grassland of the Nenjiang Plain and the large-scale Mongolian horse group to cultivate carefully, he can obtain a large number of excellent draft horses in at most two years. Mongolian horses with relatively inferior strength can be eliminated.
With a sufficient number of Mongolian horses, a large number of ready-made outstanding stallions, and the thousand Don, Zabaikal and other high-quality stallions imported from Jiangbei before the military battle last summer, with the cooperation of Jiangbei experts, A new breed of horse that has been improved upon the Mongolian horses commonly used in the Northeast. Tens of thousands of new horses bred last year and thousands of mules deliberately bred are gradually entering their maturity stage.
These captured and high-quality horses cultivated by ourselves, plus the large number of Mongolian horses and Northeastern indigenous horses in the Nenjiang area, and of course those mules that although have no breeding ability, are much stronger than ordinary horses. , the army’s demand for excellent draft horses has been fundamentally alleviated.
It was also the first time that Yang Zhen had a sufficient number of horses on hand that he decided to adopt a mixed approach to solve the army's growing dependence on logistical transportation capabilities. According to the current transportation capabilities of the army, there was no way to create anything but horses. The quadruple-mount anti-aircraft machine gun towed by a truck and the twin-mounted anti-aircraft machine gun that can be towed by just one horse seem to be a blessing in disguise.
Based on the current situation of the army, Yang Zhen no longer cares much about whether a quadruple-mounted anti-aircraft machine gun can be produced. For him, as long as a weapon can suit the current situation of the army, it is enough for him. Of course, the quadruple-mounted anti-aircraft machine gun It still needs to be developed as a technical reserve so that it can be put into production as quickly as possible when there is demand in the near future.
The performance of the twin-mounted 14mm anti-aircraft machine guns produced made Yang Zhen extremely satisfied. The subsequent demonstration of the 57mm anti-aircraft guns was also quite satisfactory. Although there was no automatic compass and anti-aircraft gun shooting director, The performance in other aspects is quite outstanding.
Compared with the Soviet-made 37 anti-aircraft guns and 85-mm anti-aircraft guns that the military region has begun to gradually equip, it is lighter, has a longer range, and is more powerful. It forms a high-low combination with the 85-mm anti-aircraft guns, which is enough to deal with As the current main medium bomber of the Kwantung Army, the Type 97 medium bomber is responsible for the task of air defense in key areas.
And the anti-aircraft guns that also belong to the column, combined with the Soviet-made single-barreled 37mm anti-aircraft guns, are enough to support the strategic air defense tasks at the military and division levels.
This high-performance anti-aircraft gun came out. Although it still lacks some key things and its performance is somewhat lower than that of later generations, but paired with the MiG-3 fighter jet, Yang Zhen no longer has to worry about air defense in the hinterland in the future. , Yang Zhen, who put down the telescope, applauded Xiong Dazhen, but also secretly praised his own memory. After such a long time, after experiencing two lives, he still remembers these things clearly.