When the "hail bomb" was originally designed, several designers asked whether steel balls could be added to the bomb to enhance the fragmentation killing effect. Because in their opinion, such densely packed small bombs would not only deal with aircraft on the runway, but also
A good weapon to kill enemy infantry in a large area. But most designers are opposed to it. The reason is the bomber formation.
After it appears, the infantry on the ground will lie down to avoid it. And the power of this small bomb is really limited. Even if it is very close, as long as it lies down in time, the killing effect will be greatly reduced. Not to mention adding steel balls to the bomb, it will
Correspondingly, the amount of charge is reduced and the explosive power is weakened. Moreover, the steel balls are much heavier than the explosives, which will also increase the weight of the bomb.
The final conclusion is not to add steel balls and rely entirely on the shock wave of explosives. After all, the target of this kind of bomb is objects, not people.
After testing, a hail bomb can not only completely destroy an aircraft, but also completely destroy a military vehicle, slightly damage a tank, and cause almost no damage to targets such as artillery.
The so-called lightly damaged tank means that if a direct hit hits the top of the tank, it will not penetrate the top armor, but it will definitely shock the gunner inside, which may make him temporarily deaf or even unconscious. However, the Qing army
The top armor of both the Barutu and Kubu tanks is 28 mm thick. The power of 60 mm mortar shells can only damage, but cannot penetrate the 28 mm thick armor.
In other words, a direct hit can temporarily make a tank lose its combat effectiveness, but it cannot destroy the tank. Unless you are lucky and happen to land on the engine position at the rear of the turret. In that case, the fireball will engulf the tank in one go.
Tank. But the chance is too small.
It is said that there is almost no damage to the artillery, mainly because the target of the artillery is too small, and it is basically impossible to hit it directly. In fact, if it hits directly, the artillery is more fragile than the tank. But it is different from directly hitting a tank or an aircraft.
For example, if you want to directly hit an artillery piece, that is simply
A pea needs to be thrown onto the tip of a needle from a distance of several meters. However, the power of hail bombs is too small. As long as it does not hit directly, even if it is just one meter away, there is still no effect. Even artillery can hardly be hurt.
Arrive - as long as the artillery troops lie down where they are, casualties will not exceed 20%.
…
The results of previous tests were reported to the People's Guard Equipment and Training Department and Army Aviation Commander Li Guoliang, who in turn reported them to Xiang Xiaoqiang.
Xiang Xiaoqiang is not reconciled to this result. He feels that in this case, after working so hard to create such a "hail bomb" and spending so much manpower, material resources, financial resources, and time on training and testing, in the end it is equivalent to saying that it can only be used on d
It was used once and for all during the surprise attack on the Qing army's airport in Japan. Moreover, the Qing army had learned the lesson from the last time and the sneak attack this time might not necessarily have much effect. In his opinion, this made this kind of bomb too useless.
Wang Hexiang, commander of the Equipment and Training Department, also held this view. Although he initially opposed adding steel balls to hail bombs, he hoped to increase the power of hail bombs. When he participated in the design, he advocated not using 60mm but directly using 80mm.
Modified mortar shells. But most designers agree to use 60mm. In their opinion, hail bombs
The main use of the bomb is to bomb airports, and the power of 60mm is more than enough to destroy aircraft. If it is replaced by 80mm, the weight of a single bomb will be doubled, which means that the amount of bombs carried by the bomber will be doubled, and the bombing coverage will be doubled.
The area will also be reduced by twice, and theoretically the number of ground Qing aircraft destroyed will also be reduced by twice. This is completely contrary to the original intention.
But this kind of hail bomb was not led by the People's Guard, but by the General Administration of Military Industry of the Ming Dynasty. The People's Guard Training Department only participated.
…
"No," Xiang Xiaoqiang walked around the office of the People's Guard Equipment and Training Department and said to Wang Hexiang, "We must develop a more powerful hail bomb. One bomb weighing more than 5 kilograms must completely destroy a tank.
Blow up an artillery piece at close range...especially artillery. The Qing army attaches great importance to artillery, even more than tanks. Their dense artillery group is the biggest threat to us."
Wang Hexiang looked at his figure walking around and said with certainty:
"good."
Xiang Xiaoqiang stood up suddenly, turned to Wang Hexiang, and said:
"Especially the artillery groups opposite our cities along the river! For example, the Pukou artillery group opposite Nanjing! The Yangzhou artillery group opposite Zhenjiang! The Jingjiang artillery group opposite Jiangyin! The Hexian artillery group opposite Ma'anshan! The Huaining artillery group opposite Anqing
Group!...but
It is conceivable that on D-Day, within a few hours of us starting the attack and before we have occupied the depth on the opposite side, these artillery groups will pour artillery shells madly into our city! It will be like the Ming and Qing wars at the beginning of the year.
That’s the time!”
Wang Hexiang looked at Xiang Xiaoqiang for a moment, then spread his hands and said helplessly:
"Sir, you also know what the headquarters means. We have only a few cities along the river, and the urban areas are a certain distance from the river. The Qing army is afraid of the artillery on our Yangtze River defense line and dare not place the artillery group close to the river.
sides, all move back a certain distance... Calculated in this way, each clear
The distance between the military artillery groups and the urban areas of our cities along the river is mostly more than 15,000 meters. When it comes to real bombardment, only the fringe urban areas in the west and north will be more damaged. Originally, the target of the Qing army's artillery groups is not us.
urban area, but our Yangtze River defense line."
Xiang Xiaoqiang began to pace irritably again and waved his hands:
"Well, I know this too... The mainstream attitude in the headquarters now is to use the artillery on the Yangtze River defense line to bombard and suppress it at h hour, and then cooperate with dive bombers to destroy those artillery groups... I admit that dive bombers are used to deal with artillery positions.
The best weapon, but the problem is that it is early in the morning, between 3 and 5 o'clock, and it is still dark at that time
Damn it, the dive bombers are just a display. As for the artillery on the Yangtze River defense line, the density of the gun mounts on the line is enough to block the river. If you want to effectively suppress the opponent's superior artillery group more than ten kilometers away... that is, yy
That’s all. Even in normal times, the artillery density of the Qing army’s artillery group on the other side is several times that of our defense line.”
Xiang Xiaoqiang sat down on the chair, stared at Wang Hexiang and said:
"In this case, the most effective way to destroy the Qing artillery group is to fly horizontal bombing formation aircraft over the target and use increased power of 'hail bombs' to carpet bomb. If you want to use dive bombers, you have to aim with the naked eye.
And in the darkness before dawn, it is absolutely impossible to aim accurately... Moreover, this is not only for the lives of the people in the cities along the route. If the Qing army's artillery group is not destroyed, our losses in the cross-river battle will also be huge.
"
Wang Hexiang said:
"Sir, our large bombers are not as many as dive bombers. In addition to the defense of the central and western sections, they are also used for defense in other strategic directions. Those that can participate in the D-Day attack are even more limited. Marshal Zhang Zhaoxian obviously wants to use them all.
All large bombers were invested in bombing Qing airfields. He wanted to basically eliminate the Beiqing Air Force from the beginning. He may not be willing to use too many large bombers to deal with targets such as artillery groups."
Xiang Xiaoqiang understood that Zhang Zhaoxian seemed to be a little superstitious about dive bombers because he was not too influenced by himself or the Pukou Battle and the fortress drills. He advocated using dive bombers to deal with Qing artillery groups, that is
A reflection.
Xiang Xiaoqiang stood up and sat down again, feeling restless. He knew that this was not because Zhang Zhaoxian was not good enough, nor because Zhang Zhaoxian was too stubborn, but because of the common limitations of military generals in this era.
When a new weapon and new tactics are first proposed, these mainstream generals of this era always deny, doubt, and dismiss them. But this new weapon and new tactics shine in the first battle.
After it has won the astonishment of the world, the mainstream generals of this era will overwhelmingly praise it, become superstitious about it, elevate it to a height that is unrealistic, and even think that it is omnipotent.
Xiang Xiaoqiang knew that only after the new weapons and new tactics had gone through many actual battles and had both won a good reputation and exposed their shortcomings could people learn to look at them objectively. Xiang Xiaoqiang, as a person who traveled through time decades later, had already
Jumping out of Lushan Mountain, you can naturally see these "new weapons and new tactics" clearly. And Ming generals like Zhang Zhaoxian are still in Lushan Mountain at this moment, and they are in the stage of spying on the leopard.
He asked Wang Hexiang:
"Mr. He, if we start modifying 80mm-caliber 'hail bombs' now, how long will it take to make 10,000 of them?"
Wang Hexiang said:
"10,000 shells are definitely not enough. If they are to be promoted and used, at least 15,000-20,000 shells will be needed in the first month of the Northern Expedition. This time is a bit tight. However, the processing speed of 80mm should be no different from that of 60mm. After all, mortar shells are ready-made, and they need
It’s just a modification. It took about a month to process and modify this batch of 60mm ones. If we make another batch of 80mm ones, if we do it now, we should be able to do it before the war starts... But, I’m a little nervous.”
He nodded to Xiaoqiang, grabbed his hat and walked out, saying:
"Mr. He, come with me. We will go to the headquarters immediately. I don't believe that we can't deal with those stubborn old men."
…
In the central hall of Purple Mountain Fortress, the scene was still as busy as before the war. At a conference table in a corner, a regular meeting was taking place, and Zhang Zhaoxian was listening to the battle plan reports of several generals.
General Feng Lingcai, commander of the right army group, was scratching the sand table on the table with his command stick and said:
"...In the main assault direction, there is a division every 2-3 kilometers on the front. In addition, for the divisions that carry out auxiliary attacks, the prescribed attack front is 8-10 kilometers. ...So, even if the main attack front is only 25 kilometers
, it also takes 8 divisions to complete the task.
In order to implement auxiliary attack operations on the front of 20-25 kilometers, 2-3 divisions are needed. In other words, 10-11 divisions need to be engaged in this section... The remaining 4-5 divisions should be given the following
Instructions: Which areas to move to and what kind of deployment to make.
"Each assault corps must leave behind their third and fourth divisions. The corps performing auxiliary assault missions must send their third division to the main assault area... In the main assault direction, each first-echelon division
A supplementary artillery regiment is to be attached, and divisions operating in auxiliary directions only need to bring their own artillery into the battle..."
As he spoke, his voice slowly stopped and he looked up at the opposite side.