In the huge assembly workshop, dozens of "Black Panther" tank bodies lined up and were placed on a flatbed trailer. The sky truck on its head made a harsh metal friction sound, slowly assembled one by one.
The turret is lifted on the welded body of the suspension system that has been installed.
Due to the failure of the Eastern Front and the heavy blow in Zhuashviligler, Hitler re-appointed the dismissed Guderian as the director of the German Armored Forces after reflecting. Guderian not only had the command of the armored forces, but also
It also has the right to produce and manage domestic armored equipment.
After Marshal Manstein stabilized the battle on the Eastern Front, Guderian returned from the front and began to inspect the tank factory. Now there are only more than 3,700 tanks on the entire Eastern Front. The new armored corps director is really not sure what is going on in production.
What's the problem?
In Man's tank factory, the electric-welded blue-white flash illuminates the workshop brightly and darkly. The entire workshop is filled with various noises. Under the clamping of large machinery, a large-power diesel engine is
The hoist was sent to the tank power compartment where the turret had been installed, and groups of technicians wearing blue work clothes were nervously installing and debugging the power system.
Man Company and Republic China have always maintained a good cooperative relationship. Internal combustion engine plants, tractor plants and tank plants in China, Wuhu and Hanyang were all established based on cooperation with Man Company. Germany and Republic China developed it in cooperation.
The latest "Black Panther" tank was also completed by Man Company and Hanyang Arsenal. In terms of production line layout and factory scale, Man Company's tank production line is comparable to the Wuhu Tank Factory and Hanyang Arsenal in Republic China. However, the output is now
More than three times the difference.
Republic China can produce more than 1,000 latest Black Panther tanks in these two tank plants every month, while Man can only produce 150 units a month. This is far from meeting the needs of the frontline.
On the sidewalk of the assembly workshop, General Guderian, accompanied by Colonel Sauer, assistant to the Minister of Military Production, and two senior directors of Man Company, inspected the production situation of the assembly workshop. The general guided him from time to time.
The production line is asking about some situations, and in a noisy workshop, such conversations are almost impossible to proceed normally.
"Our tank factory is not inferior to that of Chinese factories in terms of scale, but why has the output been unable to increase?" Several people left the assembly workshop, and Guderian then threw out this problem that made him feel troubled.
"We have many tank factories. Like Krupp, Henschel, Man, Porsche and Daimler-Benz, there are also Skoda factories in the Czech Republic, and the Chinese have only seven tank factories, but they are
We can build nearly 300 million tanks, and we are only one-tenth of them."
"General, there are many reasons for this. The main reason for our products is too complicated. In terms of the number of chassis, our annual output is more than 23,000 vehicles, but most of them are used for self-propelled cannons and assaults.
Cannons, crawlers and even semi-track transport vehicles were on board. However, the Chinese only focused on the production of a single product. There were only two types of tanks, one for use in tropical jungles and mountains, with only 25 tons of 28 modifications.
Amphibious tanks. Another type is the main tank they equipped with a large number of equipment. After the Black Panther tank was set, they had stopped the production of Type 39 tanks. All tank factories adjusted the production line to just producing Black Panthers with all their efforts, except for Hanyang Tanks.
The factory retained a light tank production line." said Hesengel, the production director of Man Company. He often traveled between China and Germany and knew a lot about the ordnance production method of Republican China.
"Does destroyers and self-propelled guns have a great impact on tank production?" said Guderian. In the Republican Army, there are not many self-propelled guns in the armored forces.
"This is not contradictory, general, but the problem is that our models are too complicated. The tanks include four models: No. 3, No. 4, Leopard and Tiger, and new tank development missions are being continuously issued on it.
This also requires the use of production lines. In addition to the production of five types of assault guns, our tank number naturally cannot be increased. Due to the complex models and the parts are not universal, all parts can only be made by the factory themselves, and in China, most of them
General standard accessories are purchased from civilian factories, and tank factories are only responsible for the assembly and processing of some large and difficult-to-process parts. In Germany, we have never had a unified standardization system, which makes it difficult for civilian factories to join military production.
Large military-industrial enterprises have always wanted to monopolize military production, which is another important reason why we cannot increase production capacity." Colonel Sauer said, "Germany has more than 800,000 machine tools, but only one-tenth of them can be used for use.
Military production, and our special steel production capacity is limited."
Guderian nodded. German tank production seemed to require major adjustments, which required the full support of the head of state who did not understand military production. Hitler only noticed military production after he fully grasped the command of the army in early 1942.
The German tank production cannot meet the consumption of the front line. Moreover, compared with the Russians' T34 tanks equipped with 85mm tank guns, the German tank No. 4, which was only equipped with 75mm long barrel tank guns, has always been at a disadvantage.
Fortunately, the Black Panther tank developed by Man Company and the Chinese solved the urgent problem. Before Hitler ordered the production of Black Panther tanks, Man Company's plan was not recognized by the Military Industry Production Department until the Chinese had already started.
After a large number of Black Panther tanks were equipped, Hitler began to order Man Company to start the production of this type of tank, and only this company was the only one. Other tank production lines were still manufacturing a large number of types of assault guns that could only be used for defense.
, and even squeezed into the production line of the No. 4 tank.
Under the interference of Hitler, Henschel's tank production line was being renovated to produce new Tiger Heavy Tanks. However, in February 1943, the company only produced 25 Tigers and Porsche.
The tank factory was asked to fully produce a "elephant fighter" with a man-consuming heavy anti-tank fighter producing only a poor 15 vehicles per month.
Now only Krupp and Daimler are still producing the No. 4 tanks, the main German army, and they also have to undertake a large number of No. 3 and No. 4 assault gun production tasks. No wonder Germany's tank production has not been increased.
Guderian felt it was necessary to have a good talk with Hitler and carefully explain the basic theory of armored soldiers to the head of state. Now Hitler is becoming more and more obsessed with some unrealistic "heavy tanks", which has greatly affected the production of German tanks.
.In fact, the Republic of China has been conducting research on heavy tanks, but because it cannot meet the army's mobility requirements, the heavy tank project has always been in the development stage, and has never planned to start equipment to the army on a large scale.
In terms of the design and use concept of tanks, there are some differences between the German army and the Republican army. The earliest German tanks attached importance to mobility and despised firepower. In this regard, the Republican army first attached importance to firepower, but then began to pay attention to mobility.
The problem.
The theory of the Republican Army is that due to the limitation of engine power, the armor of the tank cannot keep up with the development of artillery in any case. Under the same conditions, the tank has better maneuverability and has better survivability on the battlefield. In fact, it is
Heavy tanks weighing nearly 60 tons like the Tiger, their front armor cannot withstand the 88mm/l56 and the Black Panther 90mm/l56 equipped by the Republican Army. The American Pershing tank 90mm m3/l52 tank gun is 1800.
At this time, mobility is particularly important for the attacks of Minne.
The Black Panther produced in Germany is equipped with 75mm/l71 tank guns, which have armor-piercing capabilities that are not inferior to those of 88mm or 90mm tank guns, and their accuracy is much higher than those of the above tank guns, but they are 50 times the body tube.
Because of the short muzzle movement trajectory, the tank guns have a capacity to capture and monitor targets with a caliber of 70 times higher. Compared with German tanks, although the Republican and American tanks are not as sophisticated as German tanks, they
It has better productivity and transportation performance, and is more reliable on the battlefield due to its solid chassis.
This is also the gap between superpowers and Germany. Due to limited resources, Germans prefer to make more precise products, while the United States and China are more focused on adapting to large-scale production and maintaining their quantitative advantages.
The current situation is very bad for Germany. Zhuyashviligler's crushing defeat and the large-scale bombing of the US and British air forces have caused panic in Germany. If this situation is not changed, the future will not be optimistic. (To be completed)
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