"Yes, that's them." Zhou Changfeng took the photo and found a note with a paper clip on the back, with rough parameters written on it.
He glanced at it for a few times, put it back on the table, and then said: "This...type nine cruise tank I think is not bad, but there are big problems with the enemy's use."
"Tell me."
"As a type of combat vehicle known for its mobility, their armor is weak and should not be used to accompany infantry in attacking pre-set positions. The cost of doing so is that they will be easily destroyed by the defender's anti-tank vehicle firepower."
Light tanks are obviously not suitable for directly hitting preset positions. This task should be completed by medium or heavy tanks.
"Then if it were you, you only have these thin-skinned things on hand, how would you use them?"
"If it is determined that the opponent does not have combat defense artillery, then I will use it as a mobile direct-aiming firepower point and deploy it at the offensive starting position, so that the opponent's combat defense artillery cannot penetrate them, but they can shoot at the opponent's exposed firepower point."
The lieutenant colonel nodded and then asked: "What if the other party has combat artillery?"
Zhou Changfeng stretched out his hand and drew a circle, and replied: "Use your mobility advantage and go around to the rear of the opponent's battle line. Combat defense artillery has an advantage on the preset position because it is short and concealed, but the attacker can choose to attack from other directions, or even Attack in multiple directions to overwhelm the opponent."
The colonel with the Chinese character from before mused: "But this only applies to open terrain. Even if the attacker can choose to attack in a roundabout way, what if the place is special and cannot be bypassed? It will still be defeated."
"You mean storming a solid position, right?" Zhou Changfeng smiled slightly and said, "In that case, you will need to re-arm your units, with heavy tanks as the spearhead, and with the support of air strikes and artillery, to force the opponent's solid defense line. Open a gap. Then, mixed units of medium tanks and motorized or mechanized infantry follow closely to consolidate the breach or quickly expand the results."
"This requires a high level of coordination among all units, and the preparation time will not be short." The serious-looking brigadier general spoke.
"You are right, but this is an extremely effective tactic at present. Once the preparation is completed, it is almost impossible to stop it."
Nowadays, the thinking of the military of most countries is still stuck in the European War, or there is not much progress, and they lack the mental preparation to deal with this kind of mobile warfare coordinated by multiple arms.
This set of tactics is raised to the battle level, and if the air force is further improved to carry out deep bombing of the enemy, it will become the famous blitzkrieg.
However, blitzkrieg should not be overly mythical. In fact, it is just a set of effective battle and strategic ideas designed by the Germans based on local conditions.
Gu Bushuai believed that Germany had no advantage in war resources compared to Britain, France, and Russia, and that Germany could not sustain a protracted war represented by trench warfare.
Therefore, it is necessary to fight quickly, that is, to take advantage of mobile warfare and annihilate a large number of the enemy's effective forces so that the enemy's replenishment rate cannot keep up with the rate of loss.
However, cavalry and light infantry capable of mobile warfare are unable to carry heavy weapons, so their ability to attack fortresses is very weak. Once they hit the enemy's preset positions, they can easily waste a lot of time or even be directly blocked.
Therefore, Gu Bushuai said that tanks are the key to solving this problem, because tanks can not only carry out mobile warfare, but also have good attack capabilities.
The core of blitz warfare at the operational level is mobile warfare, and try to avoid deadlock and forceful attacks.
Gu Bushuai explained in his work that the more risky blitzkrieg was used because Germany was at an overall disadvantage. This would not be necessary if the army had an overwhelming advantage.
If you can push forward in a straight line and kill your opponent with resources, why take the risk of making detours, dividing, encircling and annihilating?
[The American soldier threw away the chocolate he took a bite of, took a sip of Coke, and liked this view. 】
"...However, combat vehicles have large targets, are difficult to deploy covertly, consume a lot of materials, are troublesome to maintain and support, and are also complicated to organize and command. Therefore, it is not easy to correctly use armored forces and maximize their strengths and avoid weaknesses. Theoretical construction in this area may still be needed. Complete."
After a short exchange, several officers were very satisfied and fully affirmed Zhou Changfeng's presentation and ideas.
These people were all very interested, probably because they thought his words were very valuable, so they kept talking.
The lieutenant colonel put down his pen, pushed up his glasses, and continued to ask: "In your opinion, how is the construction of our country's tank force?"
Zhou Changfeng looked ahead and talked eloquently: "Our country's terrain features are complex. There are many plains in the north, many hills in the south, and dense water networks. The road conditions are not good, which seriously restricts the maneuverability of the armored forces. If we consider the imaginary enemy, I think the armored forces The construction direction should be mainly medium-sized, light-sized, and amphibious tanks. Although heavy-duty tanks are indispensable, only a small amount is needed."
"Hmm... I noticed that you seem to prefer to use the words 'light' and 'medium' to distinguish the types of tanks. Do you think this is more appropriate?"
"Yes, I think it is too one-size-fits-all to classify tanks based on the nature of their missions. Light tanks can 'cruise', medium tanks can also 'cruise', heavy tanks can accompany infantry, and so can other tanks. Isn't it? Chariots should be flexibly used according to local conditions, rather than being designed to limit them from the beginning."
Regarding Zhou Changfeng's words, the brigadier general commented calmly: "It makes sense. The so-called soldiers have no constant momentum and water has no constant shape. Flexible use is the way to go."
These days, many countries divide tanks based on the nature of their missions. The representative is the British Empire. They divide tanks into infantry tanks and cruise tanks - the former has thick armor and poor maneuverability, and is used to accompany infantry in combat; The latter has thin armor and strong maneuverability, and is used for mobile combat.
The same was true in the Ming Dynasty. The Ministry of War called these two types of tanks guerrilla tanks and assault tanks, which is very vivid.
This classification method cannot be said to be wrong. It can only be evaluated as relatively old-fashioned and limited by the background of the times. No one knows whether it is right or wrong. Countries around the world are crossing the river by feeling the stones.
Next, the lieutenant colonel who had been silent until now also asked questions. He was a civilian from the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of War, and the questions he asked were also related to weapons and equipment.
Rifles, portable machine guns, automatic guns, light machine guns, heavy machine guns, anti-aircraft machine guns, combat anti-aircraft guns, etc., there are more than a dozen forms in total, with detailed investigation and feedback from many aspects.
Zhou Changfeng strongly praised the excellent performance of the Vz.35 heavy machine gun, saying that it performed extremely well and was very suitable to be identified as the next generation heavy machine gun.
After the debriefing, several officers and typists left one after another, but the colonel with a Chinese character stopped before going out.
He turned back and smiled and said: "Good boy, I've made you shine this time, but you haven't buried your talents. Treat your injuries well and wait a few days... hum~"
