It seemed that Colonel Chatham was indeed a good friend. Fang Lang didn't hide anything. He even revealed to Fang Lang the news that a convoy was coming today.
"Mr. Colonel, I wonder if there is any room for maneuver in the middle?"
Fang Lang's answer obviously confirmed Colonel Chatham's question.
After thinking for a while, Colonel Chatham asked:
"you mean?"
"I am developing industry in Brazil, and of course I am very short of machine tools. If I can find some high-quality and cheap machine tools from here, it will definitely be great!"
"However, these machine tools have already been registered, and there is a special fleet responsible for transporting them back to France. This is not easy to operate."
Fang Lang didn't want to force it. If there were any irreplaceable equipment, Fang Lang would definitely try his best to transport them back. However, he didn't know what equipment was there now, so it was hard to say much.
After thinking for a while he said:
"Mr. Colonel, I wonder if I can go inside these factories to see what kind of equipment they have."
Such a trivial matter meant no more to Colonel Chatham than a word.
"Of course, no problem. Do you want me to go with you personally?"
"Mr. Colonel is busy with official duties, so I don't dare to trouble you to make a trip. You can just arrange for someone to take us to visit."
Fang Lang mainly didn't want to go out with this guy. If he was attacked, he wouldn't be in trouble.
"Oh well!"
After speaking, he said to his adjutant:
"Adjutant, you will take Colonel Fang to the machine tool factory in Stuttgart today. You must meet all of Colonel Fang's needs and ensure that Colonel Fang is satisfied. Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir."
The adjutant stood at attention and saluted very simply, and motioned for Fang Lang to go with him.
Fang Lang was not polite and did not stay in Colonel Chatham's office for long. He directly expressed his thanks and followed the adjutant out of Colonel Chatham's office.
As soon as I walked to the parking lot outside the headquarters, I noticed a very handsome young captain sitting in a Willys Jeep parked downstairs of the headquarters.
After seeing the adjutant, the other party took the initiative to say hello to the adjutant. Because both of them communicated in French, Fang Lang knew that the other party was a captain of the transportation company named Gerald.
Although Fang Lang himself is also a young man, he is also a little curious about such a young captain and company commander in the French army.
On the way to the machine tool factory, I did not forget to sigh:
"The officer just now is really young!"
After hearing Fang Lang's emotion, the adjutant looked at Fang Lang and said as if he didn't even look at how old he was:
"Yes! During wartime, capable young people are promoted very quickly."
This actually made Fang Lang have some gossip and said:
"Oh! Is this Captain Gerald very powerful?"
After hearing this, the adjutant introduced it proudly.
"Yes, even though Captain Gerald is young, he is already a veteran.
He had already joined the guerrillas when he was sixteen. During the war, they were often surrounded and suppressed by the Germans behind enemy lines.
Slowly, his comrades around him fell, and at such a young age, he finally took up the banner of the guerrillas.
However, he served as guerrilla leader for only two months before France was liberated.
He also joined the army, originally serving as a company commander in a combat unit.
Two months ago, I took the initiative to apply to be transferred to the transportation company to serve as the transportation company commander.
Now he is mainly responsible for transporting the mechanical equipment dismantled from Germany to the designated factory in France according to the government's plan. "
Fang Lang didn't think much after hearing the adjutant's introduction. After all, no matter which country he is in, such characters will emerge when facing an invasion. There is also a youth league in his hometown!
"That's really amazing. If you have the opportunity in the future, you will introduce me to such a hero.
Heroic figure. "
When the adjutant heard Fang Lang praising his comrade as a hero, he felt honored in his heart and said with a smile:
"No problem, they will rest in Stuttgart for a few days. I will introduce them to you next time we meet."
Fang Lang also expressed his gratitude after hearing this.
Talking and laughing all the way to a large machine tool factory, Fang Lang found that there were French soldiers standing guard at the door. No wonder Mayor Jonas asked him to go to the occupation headquarters.
The convoy stopped at the gate of the factory, and after a simple communication with the adjutant, the convoy was released smoothly.
Soon the convoy stopped at the entrance of a huge production workshop. Accompanied by his adjutant, Fang Lang entered the long-awaited German machine tool manufacturer.
At first glance, it is seen that this is a factory building with a height of more than ten meters, a width of more than forty or fifty meters, and a depth of nearly a hundred meters.
Unfortunately, the situation inside was far from what Fang Lang expected. Most places in the huge production workshop were empty. Fang Lang could tell from the traces left on the ground that many places used to be where machine tools were fixed.
It's just that now there are only some screws leaking out of the ground to fix the machine tools in these places. The remaining number of machine tools in the entire workshop should be less than one-fifth of the original number.
This disappointed Fang Lang. However, there are still more than 20 machine tools left in operation. Fang Lang was not born in engineering and did not know much about machine tools.
However, I have seen some machine tools in TV and movies. The machine tools in front of me are very similar to the domestic machine tools in the 1980s.
Regarding machine tools, Fang Lang's impression was limited to turning, cutting, planing, milling, grinding, boring, etc. He was not particularly clear on how to operate them.
I originally thought that as a machine tool manufacturer, Fang Lang would have the opportunity to see what the legendary industrial hen looked like. However, what he saw now seemed to be not much different from the machine shop in his hometown in the 1980s. the difference.
Fang Lang was watching while walking. When he reached the end of the workshop, he saw several masters using tools to measure the processed workpieces, and curiously walked over to take a look.
When the workers saw outsiders coming, they stood up quickly. Fang Lang smiled politely and asked:
"Master, how accurate can your processing be?"
The translator next to him translated Fang Lang's question, and the master smiled shyly and said:
"0.01 mm."
This really shocked Fang Lang. Could such accuracy be achieved during World War II?
its not right! Fang Lang remembered somewhere that he had heard that the 88mm anti-aircraft guns produced by the Germans during World War II had a machining accuracy of 0.1 mm! How come the processing accuracy here is as low as 0.01 mm!
Of course you have to ask if you don’t understand. Fang Lang directly expressed the question in his heart:
"Master, I heard that the processing accuracy of the 88mm cannon produced by Krupp can only reach 0.1mm at best?"
Soon the master smiled and said:
"That's the machining accuracy of a drilling machine. It's amazing that such a long artillery barrel can be drilled to a machining accuracy of 0.1 mm.
But we are a machine tool processing factory here, and the precision requirements must be higher before we can produce other machine tools with higher precision. "
At this moment, Fang Lang felt so envious! Unexpectedly, the German machine tool processing accuracy at such an early stage has reached such a terrifying level.
Involuntarily, he gave a thumbs up to the master.
After leaving this workshop, Fang Lang went to an assembly workshop and saw workers combining and installing various parts to become some basic machine tools.
Fang Lang understood that now it should be the machine tools that Germany can still produce, and the production of more advanced machine tools should be restricted.
It is estimated that there is nothing left to see in these factories, which makes Fang Lang feel a little discouraged.
Looking at the empty workshops in the huge factory area, Fang Lang sighed secretly, he was late, and all the good things had been taken away by the occupying troops.
I just don’t know if we can recruit some advanced people this time.
After arriving in Brazil, the designers of machine tools produced machine tools that reached the machining accuracy of Germany.
After walking around, I went to the warehouse again and saw a lot of very tightly wrapped machine tools and equipment wrapped in wooden crates. Obviously, these were all ready to be shipped away.
Fang Lang could also see from the packaging that these were recently produced by the factory and were not particularly advanced machine tools. Regarding this situation, Fang Lang could only shake his head helplessly and left the machine tool factory with a disappointed look on his face.
I no longer have any interest in visiting the next factory.
Because Fang Lang knew in his heart that the French would leave nothing for the Germans.
The machine tools left here are not even as advanced as the ones Fang Lang shipped back from the Japanese artillery factory.
At least, among that batch of machine tools, there were several large machine tools produced in Germany for processing gun barrels, and now this factory no longer has these equipment.
Thinking that German machine tools were able to rise rapidly from this situation later, I couldn't help but admire them.
From this point of view, it is talent that ultimately drives technological development! It is right to recruit excellent machine tool designers and technical workers yourself. I believe that with excellent talents, we will be able to produce excellent machine tools.
After all, talent is the most valuable asset! As far as processing technology is concerned, Fang Lang has heard that the same machine tool can process a screw for a lathe. A master can easily process it. However, some masters scrap a hundred pieces of material on the same machine tool. None of them succeeded.
The accuracy of processing is even more different. Therefore, Fang Lang increasingly feels that as long as he has excellent talents, his technical level will definitely reach excellent standards.
As for the machine tools needed by the factory in the early stage, it seems that they can only be purchased from Switzerland, Italy and the United States.
After leaving the factory, Fang Lang went directly back to the hotel, no longer hoping to obtain high-quality and low-cost ready-made machine tools from Germany.
After all, I am about to build an automobile industry system in Brazil, which also requires a large number of machine tools.
Purchasing from abroad is a big expense. It would be great if we could directly use this opportunity to promote the localization of the machine tool industry.
I couldn't help feeling a little regretful. After all, I wasn't born in engineering. Why didn't I think that I should first build a machine tool manufacturing plant and then introduce an automobile factory?
Thinking of this, Fang Lang no longer hesitated and drove directly to the city hall to meet Mayor Jonas.
"What? You mean that your RWTH Aachen University established a machine tool experimental laboratory as early as 1907?"
When Fang Lang arrived at the city hall, Mayor Jonas was planning to recruit technical talents for the machine tool industry that Fang Lang needed and met with several outstanding mechanical engineers.
Among them, two intellectuals who looked to be almost fifty years old were particularly eye-catching, because it seemed that the people around them were dominated by these two people.
When he saw Fang Lang coming, Jonas naturally took the initiative to introduce them to each other.
Through the introduction to Fang Lang, he learned that several machine tool designers here actually graduated from the same university, and the two old gentlemen were outstanding talents from the Machine Tool Experimental Laboratory of the University of Aachen.
