"Sir!" Shaking off the drizzle on his uniform, Liu Guozhu stood at attention in the warehouse and saluted, greeting his superior.
"Do you know why I came to you?" The other party handed Liu Guozhu a thick document, and then motioned for him to follow his pace.
Under the illumination of a row of lights, Liu Guozhu followed his battalion commander and passed the place where ammunition and spare parts were piled.
"I don't know!" Liu Guozhu told the truth. He was even thinking about why the armored unit he was in had not been transferred to the front line by General Redman to participate in the battle.
You know, wasn't there a meeting before because of the problem of blocking the attack? It is said that the enemy's defense line is very strong and the frontline troops lack heavy fire support.
"I have been saying before that I will replace you with new weapons and equipment. Now it is finally done. I will first give you the 1st Battalion of the 1st Regiment of the 1st Armored Division. Let's try it out and see if it works." Logisticsman walking in front of the battalion commander The officer of the unit turned around and said to all the commanders with a smile.
"Look at it! This is our 'Panther Tank', an absolute super tank!" Walking to the front of the new tank, the officer of the logistics force pointed to the tank parked there and introduced it to all the commanders present.
This is a much larger tank than the No. 4 tank. It is equipped with a long-barreled 75mm caliber gun and a longer body. It also uses a classic drive shaft design, with a gearbox in the front and an engine in the rear.
The entire car body is very well-proportioned. It adopts a large inclined armor design with inclined angles on all sides. Skirt armor is also installed on the sides of the car body.
The armor on the front of the vehicle eliminates the closable observation window, and adopts the front design of the later Leopard G tank, emphasizing defense.
The most distinctive thing is that the tank also uses a special layout of double rows of road wheels, uses wide tracks that are completely different from the No. 4 tank, and has only simple openings on the huge gun shield.
That's right, Tang Mo directly took out an improved version of the classic Panther tank from World War II. This tank can provide almost all-round high-strength protection, and the power of the artillery is definitely sufficient.
The action mechanism has been improved and is not particularly vulnerable, and Tang Mo also uses a self-developed diesel engine, which reduces the risk of unsafe spontaneous combustion of the tank's gasoline engine.
Except for some cumbersome production processes, this may be the best tank of the World War II era - frontline soldiers like it very much, the combat effectiveness is very balanced, and the reliability is higher.
The most important improvement is: this tank uses a classic 75mm long-barreled tank gun, which can easily penetrate most known World War II tanks at a distance of more than 500 meters.
As long as they are equipped with this kind of artillery, Tang Mo's tank troops can change the caliber of their tank guns in a short period of time.
At the same time, a new type of armor-piercing projectile specially developed for this kind of artillery has also been produced. When the two are combined, the power will definitely be more exaggerated.
This series of improvements gave the tank soldiers of the Tang Dynasty a great tactical advantage. Their tanks were almost impossible to penetrate by the enemy, but their tanks could destroy any opponent at a safe distance.
Of course, there are improvements. Because a more powerful diesel engine is used, the Panther tank is more powerful and uses a better generator.
With more power, better lighting, better turret rotation motors, more powerful radios, and more powerful smoking equipment can be installed.
The shape of the main gun turret has also been re-improved. Although the main shape maintains the original design, the "storage compartments" used by the No. 4 tank are added on both sides, which can be regarded as maintaining the usage habits of some soldiers.
On the one hand, these storage compartments increase practicality, and on the other hand, they also increase the side defense performance of the tank turret.
The rear still maintains the reloading port for artillery shells, but some connection structures are welded and a sundries basket is hung externally to block the circular hatch.
After this improvement, the turret of the Tang Leopard tank looks fatter, but its functionality is better than before. Because a more powerful motor is used, the rotation speed is even faster.
As for the widely criticized double-row road wheels, it is actually not as outrageous as people say. At least it has very good performance indicators, giving the tank crew a more stable combat platform and correspondingly increased Defense capabilities near the wheel.
Anyway, the pressure is on the logistics troops and factory production units, so the tank crews on the front line don't have much problem using it.
The Tang State itself is an industrial power, so it is obviously no problem to put pressure on the tank production factories in the rear. Anyway, the Tang State's Leopard tank production speed is not too slow.
In short, the new tank looks similar to the Panther tank, but in terms of performance it is a more advanced and improved model. It can definitely be called the best World War II main battle tank.
"Everyone can get used to the brand new tank at the station these days, become familiar with its various performance indicators, and read more about the instruction manual."
The intelligence department of Tang State naturally knew that all countries were manufacturing their own new tanks, so Tang State's R&D department could not stand still.
Most of the previous No. 4 tank chassis have been taken out and converted into other armored support vehicles. The number of No. 4 tanks has never reached its peak in the armored forces of the Tang Kingdom.
Each armored division only has more than 200 tanks, but according to the organization, each armored division should be equipped with more than 300 tanks.
The gap in the middle is intentionally reserved, and the reserved part is the position prepared for the equipment of subsequent new tanks.
The Panther tank is the "main battle tank" launched by Tang Mo. He needs a tank with balanced defensive maneuverability and firepower to support his armored forces until more advanced tanks can be produced.
"Great, we can finally stop using short-barreled cannons!" Among the armored soldiers of the Tang Kingdom, everyone has long criticized short-barreled cannons.
After all, short-barreled guns with low chamber pressure have low power, small warheads, and curved trajectories, making them unsuitable for use as tank guns.
This is also the fundamental reason why many tanks with larger-caliber artillery installed on their bodies in World War II were eventually eliminated.
Low-bore pressure guns rely more on curved fire during the aiming process. This deceptive ballistics increases the difficulty of aiming for tank crew members.
What's more, due to cost reasons, some tanks are not equipped with corresponding aiming equipment for the cannons at all, which makes the tank crews' accuracy when using the cannons very impressive.
But equipping only one long-barreled artillery is completely different. It hits where you want, the difficulty of aiming is significantly reduced, and there is no need to adjust according to habits. It is obviously a more suitable firepower solution.
As a very good tank commander, Liu Guozhu actually liked the Panther tank in front of him. Although he didn't quite understand the significance of the double row of road wheels, he really liked the 75mm long-barreled tank gun installed on the tank in front of him.
He lowered his head, flipped the information to the description of the main gun, and saw the experimental parameters of the main gun's power - it clearly stated that it could penetrate the No. 4 tank at a distance of about 1,000 meters.
This is a bit scary. Liu Guozhu previously commanded the No. 4 tank in combat. He knew that the frontal defense of the No. 4 tank was the strongest among known tanks today.
However, the main gun of the new tank can actually penetrate the front armor of the No. 4 tank at a distance of 1,000 meters. This can be described as unbelievable.
This means that the new tank can fire as long as it sees the enemy, and it is guaranteed to destroy any enemy tank within the distance where the enemy is found!
"That's amazing." Looking down at this data, Liu Guozhu felt that his blood was about to boil. As a tank commander, isn't his dream just to hope that one day his tank will be able to crush all enemies?
"The tank uses the latest sight produced by Chang'an Optical Instrument Factory, which is more accurate than the sight used on the No. 4 tank! It also comes with a small mechanical computer that can simply calculate shooting parameters." He also looked at the information about optical instruments. Introduction, Liu Guozhu feels that his tank is really powerful.
What made him even more excited was that, for the first time, the brand-new tank was equipped with a roof-mounted machine gun used by the commander, making him less helpless when he stuck his head out to direct the battle.
"There is also a power interface here. I don't know what it is for. It is said to be for external equipment... I don't know what kind of external equipment it is..." Another commander standing next to Liu Guozhu lowered his head and looked carefully at the commander's side. There was an extra interface, and he murmured.
Of course they didn't know that it was the power interface for the reserved night vision equipment. Datang Group was designing an infrared night vision system for the Leopard tank to enable the Leopard tank to gain combat capabilities at night or in low-visibility environments.
"Although I don't know why there is a slope in front of it, it really looks better than the No. 4 tank." Liu Guozhu said sincerely after seeing the tanks with slashes everywhere.
"Yeah, he looks a lot more handsome." The commander standing next to him nodded repeatedly, agreeing with Liu Guozhu's words.
The theory of tilted armor design is still in the exploratory stage. Except for Datang Group, tank designers in other countries currently have no awareness of this aspect at all.
What they are still thinking about is: how to put a more powerful engine into the car body, and then install thicker armor on the car body.
"However, it's not easy to climb up." Liu Guozhu smiled, walked to the tank covered with camouflage, stretched out his hand, and touched the cold steel.
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In the past, I always had to take over German tanks, modify them and reuse them, especially those "cheating" double-row road wheels. This time I will be willful and I won’t change it, just use it like this. Ha ha ha ha! This is purely the author's personal preference. It does not mean that this choice really has any basis or advantages. Please don't take it too seriously.
