It's better to conquer them than to command the steel torrent

Chapter 122 | There are always more solutions than problems

On Halloween, Ivan Rus's army on the Oder River launched the third Alexander (Alexandrovna) Offensive.

The 4th Brest Front's strength had grown from 105 million at the outbreak of the war to 180 million. This was effectively its maximum strength due to logistical constraints, with 40 to 50 troops remaining on the mainland on standby. Without control of the air, railways were frequently attacked, making it impossible to transport more supplies.

In order to break the Oder Line of Defense, the 4th Front deployed about 153 million people, 2835 tanks, and 3100 aircraft to launch an all-out offensive.

On its front, Walland's Army Group A also had as many as 99 people and about 2200 tanks, and there was also Army Group E, which was mainly composed of newly formed mobilized troops and had 42 people serving as a strategic reserve.

This is only limited to the situation on the central line. In fact, looking at the overall situation of the three lines of north, central and south, both sides have millions of troops facing each other.

A huge decisive battle broke out, a clash of giants.

"The terrain in Europe is fantastic. There are many plains and good transportation. A showdown of millions of troops would never happen anywhere else in the world."

When Shang Ke went to visit the war situation room next door, he saw several staff officers following the latest changes in the northern war situation on the map, and he couldn't help but sigh.

Anna walked in with a document that had just been printed and bound.

Hearing this, she casually said, "Mr. Consultant, the terrain and transportation in North America are also very good."

Before Shang could speak, someone laughed and denied it: "America is surrounded by vast oceans on both sides. A large-scale war is impossible there."

Shang Ke smiled slightly and said leisurely: "It is indeed impossible, unless..."

Anna curled her lips and said, "I know what you want to say - unless your country wants to attack there. Right, Mr. Advisor?"

"That's right." Shang Ke felt around in his clothes pocket and his pants pocket, and finally pulled out a piece of chocolate and threw it over, saying with a smile, "This is delicious, but it's a pity the store is out of stock."

"Thank you!" Anna took it and thanked him happily.

Anna's unintentional words actually piqued Shang Ke's interest.

Attack America?

At first glance, this seems like a fantasy, but with a little thought, it is not difficult to find that the biggest problems in attacking America are time period and delivery capabilities.

The United States' military was even more dilapidated than the Grand Commonwealth - small in scale, with outdated weapons and equipment, and a serious lack of actual combat experience.

It will take more than one or two years to solve this problem, and the United States' determination and strength to rearm are far less than that of the Grand Federation.

To this day, the American Army is also very weak and pitifully small.

｜15 infantry divisions
｜2 cavalry divisions
｜1 armored division
｜21 National Guard Infantry Divisions

The Army has about 29 people and the National Guard has about 25 people.

In fact, this is much better than the same period in history, because the original plane does not have a terrible industrial Cthulhu like the Grand Federation.

If the American Navy can be dealt with, then defeating the weak American Army will not be a fantasy, provided that there is sufficient sea transportation support capability.

Shang Ke subconsciously thought of the operations in the Swedish original god.

In a later strategy simulation game, it was common to defeat the United States quickly in an early stage before it expanded its military.

However, reality is not a game that simplifies logistics. Ocean delivery capabilities are directly linked to the total tonnage of the merchant fleet. Shang Ke is well aware of this. Only the Grand Federation or the United Kingdom in the world have sufficient maritime transport capabilities.

That is to say...

What's the point of dwelling on this? The most urgent task now is to prepare to defend Budapest!
Shang Ke retracted his divergent thinking and asked Anna, "By the way, Anna, have the instructions for the anti-tank ammunition been printed and distributed?"

The latter just sat back in his chair, looked back and tilted his head and said: "Maybe, this is not my business, but I remember someone mentioned it yesterday."

Afterwards, Shang Ke went to the arsenal.

Before the war broke out, he designed a lightweight hollow-charge magnetic bomb in his spare time.

After the Metal Products and Weapon Machinery Factory (FG) produced trial samples, the Ministry of National Defense was greatly surprised. They adopted the suggestion to name this simple but powerful bomb the 39M magnetic anti-tank bomb and ordered it to be put into production quickly.

More than half a month after the Battle of Tissalek Dam ended, he was still brooding over it and personally ran around to urge the arsenal to trial-produce some anti-tank rifle grenades.

There are two types of rifle grenades in this era. One is the ordinary hand grenade, and the other is a specially designed and manufactured small grenade. Both are launched by the gunpowder gas of blank cartridges.

The appearance of the anti-tank grenade is simple, it simply houses the conical hollow charge structure inside. The technical problem that the arsenal needs to solve is the fuse.

【Picture】

Under current conditions, armor-piercing shells are almost only suitable for mechanical base fuzes. What is frustrating is that we are in such a hurry now that we don't have the time to redesign and manufacture special base fuzes.

As long as the mind does not slip, there are always more solutions than difficulties!
So, Shang Ke suggested: "What about anti-aircraft guns and anti-tank guns? Their base fuses might be used instead."

As the name suggests, the base fuze is a fuze placed at the tail of the shell. It is mainly used for shells that focus on penetration capability, so as to prevent the fuze from being damaged when the shell touches the target.

As for ordinary high-explosive bombs and anti-personnel bombs and other artillery shells, warhead fuses are generally used.

Engineers at the Metal Products and Ordnance Machinery Plant believed this was feasible, so they tried to install the fuses of 20mm armor-piercing tracer bullets and 37mm armor-piercing bullets on the tail of anti-tank grenade for testing.

However, problems soon arose. The anti-tank grenades modified using this method were mostly duds.

Engineers estimated that the reason was that the impact speed was too low and the mechanical fuse could not detonate normally. After all, the muzzle velocity of both anti-aircraft guns and anti-tank guns is often hundreds of meters per second, while the muzzle velocity of rifle grenades is only tens of meters per second, which is a huge difference.

"Shorten the fuse spring and lower the spring force." Shang Ke was not disappointed and encouraged: "Try again, let's work together to find a solution. Anti-tank grenades will play a key role in street fighting."

All weapons follow the principle of "the longer the better." This is also true for anti-tank weapons: longer range is better than shorter range.

Unless absolutely necessary, who would be willing to take the risk of fighting a steel beast in close combat?
Compared to rifle grenades, rocket launchers and recoilless rifles are more effective. However, the Hungarian and Swedish military industries have been squeezed to their limits, and both still have some technical difficulties, so it's not that simple.

Ultimately, we still have to look to the East.

Shang Ke is looking forward to how the Grand Control Federation will carry forward these two.

When he returned to the General Staff Headquarters, he found that the atmosphere there had become much more tense, and some people from the Second Bureau (intelligence agency) were searching everywhere.

He saw a familiar figure among the group of people - Sabo Monica, so he went up to ask.

"You? Congratulations on becoming a colonel." She smiled faintly, then her voice grew colder. "We've already cleared out the spies and arrested many, but yesterday we detected a pattern of signals. We suspect there are more... fish that have slipped through the nets."

(End of this chapter)