There are two reasons why Zhou Wen sent these two people to continue studying at the German Tank School.
One is that there is a big difference between Soviet tanks and German tanks. The Soviet concept has always been to win by quantity. For example, the Soviet Red Army’s early cavalry and current artillery focused on scale and quantity. The same is true for tanks, so their tanks It is crudely made but strong and durable. Anyway, the manufacturing process is simple, and any tractor factory can produce tanks by modifying it.
If you look at the famous T-34 tanks in the later period, you will know that the number of T-34 series tanks produced during World War II reached an astonishing number of more than 50,000. These do not include the equally famous KV series heavy tanks and IS series tanks, as well as the Su There are probably nearly 100,000 series of tank destroyers, etc. in total. If the process is complicated and the workmanship is precise, no matter how many resources there are, it is impossible to produce such a large number in just four years.
German tanks are different. Due to Germany's limited resources, its production scale cannot be compared with that of the Soviet Union and the United States. It can only focus on quality. Advanced design, precision manufacturing, and excellent configuration are the characteristics of German tanks.
The excellent performance of German tanks and armored vehicles, their brilliant achievements, and their legendary battle history have long been known to everyone. If the biggest flaw of German armored vehicles is that they are produced too little.
From the eve of World War II to the end of World War II, the number of tanks and armored vehicles manufactured in Germany was approximately 50,000, which spanned a full nine years from 1936 to 1945. It also includes many early models, such as the Panzer III medium tank, which was not very advanced after the outbreak of World War II, with nearly 6,000 units manufactured.
The total number of production of the Panzer IV medium tank, which has truly become the backbone of the battlefield, and the more advanced Panzer V "Panther" medium tank, totaled just over 13,000 units. The total number of Tiger heavy tanks, known as the nightmare of the Allies, was also just over 13,000. There are only more than 1,300 vehicles.
The total number of Panzer III tank destroyers, which was regarded by the Allies as a bigger nightmare than the Tiger heavy tank, was only about 10,000.
During the entire World War II, Germany relied on these few but advanced and excellent tanks to compete with hundreds of thousands of tanks of various types from the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom on both the east and west fronts in Europe, and in most cases On the offensive during the time.
Therefore, German tanks have to face one-to-many combat situations from the day they are born, and the performance of German tanks also determines that they can pick out a group one by one.
Of all the typical tank battles recorded during World War II in which fewer troops defeated more troops, most were created by German tank crews.
For example, Germany's top tank ace Otto Karius, who destroyed the most enemy tanks with a single vehicle in World War II, destroyed a total of 178 Allied tanks and more than 100 artillery pieces of various types.
In July 1944, Otto Karius led a disabled tank company and encountered a Soviet motorized infantry division with a tank brigade in the village of Malinovo.
At that time, he only had 8 Tiger heavy tanks on hand, and several of them had problems of one kind or another. At the same time, the defeated troops in front kept running through them and running back. There were no supporting troops around, and those who retreated said that there was a full division of Soviet troops in front!
Otto, completely unaware of the real situation, decided to first send two tanks into the village to gain the initiative. The "Two Tigers" successively killed four T-34 tanks in the village, including a Soviet major who was exploring the terrain.
Otto picked up a map from the major's body and figured out the size and attack route of the Soviet army. The prepared Germans set up an ambush on the high ground where the Soviet army must pass.
When Soviet tanks and convoys passed by, Otto ordered his men to move from head to tail so that the vehicles in the middle could not escape. The German's precise shooting coupled with the Tiger tank's 88 gun caused the Soviet army to become a mess.
After being called one by one, in just ten minutes, more than 60 tanks of a Soviet motorized infantry division and the truck convoy behind them were wiped out. Karius's car, a Tiger tank numbered 217, destroyed eleven T-34 tanks, as well as a varying number of trucks and artillery.
In the end, after the Soviet army retreated, the eight Tiger tanks led by Otto were only injured by the shock at most, and the tanks were not seriously damaged. Otto led the troops back to their own defense line basically intact the next day.
There is also the third-ranked famous German tank ace Michel. Wittmann's destruction record was 138 tanks and 132 artillery pieces.
In the famous Kursk Tank Battle, a platoon of four Tiger tanks he led encountered a Soviet tank brigade of more than 70 tanks.
Wittmann used the advanced observation equipment and artillery of the Tiger tank to discover the Soviet army first, and ordered to start firing freely at a distance of 1,300 meters. As a result, the 88mm tank gun on the Tiger tank was extremely accurate and had huge penetration. The penetration allowed the Soviet army to see what Made in Germany was.
After the first Soviet tank was destroyed, the Germans were discovered, and they immediately set up a battle formation, and then tried to move to the 500-meter distance where the T-34 tank gun could penetrate the side armor of the Tiger tank. Within ten minutes, more than fifty Soviet tanks were destroyed. Among them, Wittmann's car destroyed twelve tanks. The remaining Soviet tanks fled in all directions.
However, the four Tiger tanks led by Wittmann were unscathed.
This shows that the Soviet tanks were defeated before they entered the effective range of their tank guns.
Afterwards, the German army discovered that 17 of the destroyed Soviet tanks were actually the Soviet army's latest IS-2 heavy tanks. This shows that even the armor of the IS-2 heavy tank, which was specially developed by the Soviet army to deal with the German Tiger tank, is scum in front of the 88mm tank gun of the Tiger tank.
In the above two typical battle formations, one is an ambush and the other is a head-on confrontation. They both win with less and have zero losses on their own side. This completely proves that Germany's tank technology and quality are ahead of the times, and it also proves that the German army's tank tactics are also ahead of the times. You said Zhou Wen wants to equip tanks. Is there any other option besides Germany?
More importantly, Zhou Wen did not have the money or ability to build a sizable tank force, which is very unrealistic in China today. His extravagant hope was just to establish a tank guerrilla force.
It is impossible to have too many tanks. 2-4 tanks is Zhou Wen's limit.
Since the number of tanks is small, they will inevitably face a one-to-many situation in most cases. German tanks are the guarantee for victory with fewer tanks.
However, in order to equip German tanks, it is necessary to send people to Germany for systematic study and further study. They must not only learn tank driving skills and master the various technical parameters of German tanks, but also learn the German tactics and concepts of using tanks.
