Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 109 MP-14 Submachine Gun

Almost unsurprisingly, the Fifth Army was blocked at the front by the Farlan Third Army.

This front line is 60 kilometers long and is about ten to twenty kilometers away from Verdun (next time you see Versailles, it means I am writing about Verdun).

The specific location is in the southwest corner of Verdun.

The entire front extended from Varennes-en-Argonne all the way southeast to Saint-Mihiel, 60 kilometers away.

The main reason for this situation was that Commander Constantine of the Fifth Army actually deployed his troops in such a way that Verdun had to be captured.

Therefore, they first advanced all the way to Mount Bar-le-Duc, cleared their southern side, and then relied on the terrain to advance in the opposite northeast direction towards Verdun.

Judging from the map, it is equivalent to the Empire having previously created a salient, and under the encirclement of the Sixth Army, the Fifth Army and the Sixth Army surrounded Verdun, while the Farland Fourth Army and the Third Army surrounded the Fifth Army.

Considering that the mission of the First and Second Armies was no longer to attack Palu, but to force the Farlan troops to continue to lose men while ensuring their own manpower as much as possible, the Third and Fourth Armies were able to allocate a large part of their troops to fill the gap between themselves and the Fifth Army.

This meant that the Fifth Army on the front line didn't have to worry about whether the enemy would appear to the west of them - they only had to deal with the enemies in front of them and let those Farlans waste their artillery shells to death.

Until the third day of the battle, the evening of September 9th.

When the soldiers of the 502nd Regiment saw Ryan for the first time today, the lieutenant colonel in charge of them had taken off the Imperial Army officer uniform he used to wear every day and put on a dark blue and black combat uniform.

The reason they called it combat uniform was mainly because they saw the black cowhide belt on Ryan, plus a set of buckles wrapped in black cloth.

Judging from the training and education they received during this period, this must be a preparation for subsequent combat.

It's time to join the battle.

Without any words from the officers above, the soldiers immediately returned to their dormitories and packed up their things according to pre-war standards.

But in fact, this was just Ryan trying out new clothes, and the actual attack came a day later.

Ryan knew what these guys were thinking, but he didn't try to stop them.

It is very important for the 502nd Airborne Infantry Regiment to stay alert at all times, not to mention that the subsequent battles will be on the front line.

The soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Battalions had experience in trench defense and night fighting, so they were actually prepared a long time ago.

The only problem was the troops of the Third Battalion who had not yet seen combat.

This force was composed of a large number of reserve officers and officers and soldiers seconded from the 2nd Regiment of the Seventh Army.

Some of them had experience in attacking Belfort at night, but most of them had never even been on the battlefield.

Ryan had no expectations of how much combat power they could exert.

But this mission is actually not difficult.

The airship troops in the air will complete the bombing attack on each artillery position first.

All the remaining people had to do was keep their mouths shut and charge into the enemy's position to kill all the remaining Farlan artillery.

This will be a valuable opportunity to provide them with real-world experience.

But now there is something more important to do.

After passing through several checkpoints, Ryan returned to his headquarters under the watchful eyes of the guards and looked at the technicians from Bergman Company who had been waiting inside.

"Lieutenant Colonel Flig."

The leading engineer immediately stood up, looked at Ryan, and raised his hat as a sign of respect.

"Good evening, everyone." Ryan saluted politely, then plopped down on a nearby chair. He gestured for the other person to sit down, cursing, "Those guys in the Technical Development Department made a new combat uniform based on a thesis defense. It's a zipper jacket. I've been wearing it since noon and haven't been able to take it off yet."

"Now I can't even get a tailor to add buttons, so I have to wear a belt as my official combat uniform. It's fucking stupid."

Ryan's curse words almost immediately left the designers from Bergman speechless, but obviously, they could also hear from Ryan's tone that he had high requirements for equipment reliability.

This immediately aroused the vigilance of the leading engineer.

He tried his best not to show his nervousness, but his hand unconsciously pressed on the briefcase at his feet.

Ryan guessed why they came this time, so he got straight to the point: "So, since everyone from Bergman Company is here, I guess there must be some good progress."

On the 24th of last month, he sent a carbine-type P08 Luger to Bergman's design team, hoping that they could use this gun as a prototype to develop a similar fully automatic weapon with a length of about 80 cm.

Generally speaking, this kind of order requires at least half a year for research and development.

But the time Ryan gave Bergman was actually not long, and he also specifically explained to Bergman the specifications, general appearance and structure of this set of equipment.

More importantly, Ryan also said that Bergman can use existing technology to carry out trial production of equipment.

Therefore, when these engineers appeared in his headquarters, Ryan almost immediately guessed the purpose of their visit.

Then he saw the leading designer, Louis Schmeisser, carefully lift the heavy briefcase on his lap onto the table.

The box is not big, but very thick.

Judging from Schmeisser's movements, the contents of the box weighed at least ten kilograms.

This made Ryan a little dissatisfied, but he did not show it.

This is a new gun after all, and for most firearms these are acceptable.

Schmeisser then carefully and cautiously turned the briefcase over and said, "Lieutenant Colonel Flig, please allow me to state in advance that the weapon I am showing you is not my own design."

But his worries were soon exacerbated.

Because that's what Ryan said.

"Your Excellency may have misunderstood something. What I need is a weapon that meets the requirements of the troops, not a product designed by a designer."

"The troops would only adopt weapons that met the requirements, and even weapons designed by Browning himself would not be adopted if they did not meet the requirements."

Ryan didn't care what Schmeisser would say or come up with.

All he wanted was a submachine gun that suited his ideas.

It just needs to be light, short, able to fire continuously, and have a certain degree of reliability.

But what Ryan didn't expect was that his words sounded completely different in Schmeisser's ears.

The chief designer almost immediately turned his head to look at the young man sitting behind him.

That was his son, a fledgling designer who was too young for Bergmann to be able to design a firearm on his own.

The reason why Schmeisser met with Ryan on behalf of Bergmann Company at this time was because his son Hugo Schmeisser had called the 502nd Regiment without his knowledge and stated that the development of new equipment had been completed.

God has eyes. Whose gun can be developed and completed in just half a month?
In desperation, Schmeisser had no choice but to bite the bullet and bring out the so-called completed rifle mentioned by his son Hugo Schmeisser, and put together a P08 that he had adjusted the sear earlier to obtain full-automatic shooting capability.

Schmeisser hoped that this P08 could temporarily fool the Imperial Lieutenant Colonel, even though he was only a captain not long ago.

Goddess, how could someone in this world be promoted twice in one month? If he could maintain this speed, wouldn’t he become a marshal by the end of this year?
Schmeisser couldn't stop screaming in his heart, but he didn't dare to make a sound.

"Actually," the gray-haired designer swallowed, shifting his gaze from his son to the box in front of him, then back to Ryan, "This is a weapon developed by my son. He's still young and doesn't have much experience..."

But Ryan immediately interrupted him: "I only look at performance, Mr. Schmeisser."

Ryan's words were so decisive that they completely destroyed the last glimmer of hope in Bergman's heart.

The engineer, who was nearly 70 years old, tremblingly opened the briefcase and took out two rifles that looked completely different.

One of them was a standard P08 carbine. Ryan could tell at a glance that this P08 was not a gift from him to Schmeisser, but was purchased by Schmeisser himself.

Because the 502nd Regiment's P08 has a small grip fixed under the barrel, and the barrel is longer than the artillery type, and it also uses a rotating folding buttstock made of steel wire.

But the carbine P08 that Schmeisser brought out was a civilian model with a short barrel. Ryan could also tell from the inscription on the gun body that the bullet was not 9MM. However, this was not a big problem. After all, the basic structure of the Ruger was the key point, but he was actually not satisfied with it.

Ryan knew that the Ruger P08 could be easily converted into a fully automatic weapon, but the high precision of the gun body and the strength of the joint structure were obviously not enough to support this pistol's long-term automatic shooting.

This made him shake his head and look at the other gun.

But his action made Schmeisser's heart tremble.

It was over, Schmeisser immediately regretted it.

He should have remembered on the day Ryan made the customization request that this was an officer with extensive knowledge of firearms, not some fool who only looked at the appearance and then the performance.

On the other hand, Ryan.

He had already been completely absorbed by this newly designed gun. In fact, this gun was not very good looking.

It has a barrel cooling sleeve full of holes, a pitifully short receiver, a grip that is exactly the same as the Ruger P08, and a rotating folding steel stock that is exactly the same as the P08 currently used by the troops and exactly the same length as the later 56-1.

But because the buttstock was currently folded into the gun body, what appeared in front of Ryan was actually a P08 that looked a bit like a P with a heat sink barrel sleeve added.

Next to it, there are three magazines of different lengths.

One is the standard 08-round magazine for the Ruger P8, and Ryan took a look at it.

The other two appear to be 16- and 24-round magazines.

That's a good idea, he thought.

Because the Empire's current bullet rations are issued according to the most common standard magazines.

The standard 08-round magazine of the Ruger P8 means that all 9MM bullets delivered to soldiers are shipped in boxes of 24 rounds, or three groups per box.

16 rounds and 24 rounds can well match the number of bullets in the hands of soldiers.

But Ryan only proposed 24 and 32 rounds, and did not propose the 16-round specification.

It was at this moment that Hugo Schmeisser, who had been huddled behind his father as if he was being punished, immediately stood up.

He noticed a glint of curiosity in Ryan's eyes, so much so that he had forgotten his father's instructions and immediately said, "Lieutenant Colonel Flig, this is the gun I designed."

"Did you design it?"

Ryan glanced at the designer who was almost the same age as him. He remembered that his name seemed to be Hugo.

Then he remembered what Schmeisser had just said: "Are you Mr. Schmeisser's son?"

Hugo Schmeisser was obviously a little flustered. He quickly said, "Yes, Hugo Schmeisser, you can just call me Hugo."

"Hugo Schmeisser?"

Ryan frowned, he always felt like he had heard this name somewhere before.

It just so happened that he took another look at the submachine gun in front of him...

Then he realized: Isn't this just a P18 handle and folding stock stuffed on the MP08 receiver?
The only difference is that the original side-mounted magazine port of the MP-18 has been moved to the bottom, and the ejection port is tilted towards the upper right, which shows that it has been modified.

No wonder it felt so familiar when I saw it before, Ryan thought.

But he didn't show much excitement.

After all, the Empire's industrial capacity is indeed much stronger than that of Germany on Earth at the same time, but this does not mean that the production of weapons can reach the same level.

The fact that the Empire is still using 75mm guns as auxiliary infantry weapons and GW.98 as the main infantry weapon is important proof of this.

He touched his chin, looked at the submachine gun in front of him, and asked, "How is the performance?"

Without questioning or discriminating, Ryan's simple question, "How's the performance?", immediately ignited Hugo's liking for him. This firearms designer, who had never received approval from anyone before, said in an excited yet somewhat reserved voice, "The rate of fire is 350 rounds per minute, my lieutenant colonel."

"Because our machining accuracy is not good enough, I added a limiter. But if we can get a better machining platform, the final theoretical rate of fire should be 450 to 500 rounds per minute."

"The scale adopts the P08 scale design, but the maximum range does not exceed 400 meters, and the effective killing range is 200 meters."

He took two steps forward, stood opposite Ryan, raised the gun to his chest, and stuffed the magazine between the barrel and the receiver, assuming a gun-holding posture.

"For the design and center of gravity, I used the P08 carbine you provided as a reference. When the gun is unfolded, its length is 815mm, its empty weight is 4.2kg, and its total weight is 24kg when using a 4.9-round magazine."

"The bullet is a standard 9mm round, but it is compatible with the high-charge custom rounds used by your unit's P08 carbines, Lieutenant Colonel."

Hugo Schmeisser said, pressing the rifle into Ryan's hands.

Ryan took this strange submachine gun and found that it was very handy.

Without unfolding the buttstock, the center of gravity of the gun is perfectly controlled about five centimeters behind the front magazine, and it is very stable no matter how you hold it.

These are normal.

These were the requirements Ryan set at the beginning, because he had to ensure that the troops could learn to use the new weapons immediately, so the structure and weight distribution had to be close to the P08 carbine he provided.

But there was one design that still surprised him.

Because when Ryan was checking the submachine gun, he found that the grip of the gun still retained the magazine well of the P08.

There's even a standard eight-round magazine for the P08 tucked inside.

Hugo Schmeisser also immediately noticed Ryan's gaze. He said nervously, "I'm very sorry, Your Excellency Lieutenant Colonel. Time is running out. I don't have..."

But Ryan simply raised his hand to stop him from speaking and said, "No, this is fine."

"Ah?" Hugo obviously didn't expect Ryan to say that.

His eyes blinked and he looked at Ryan: "But this will affect the weight of the gun..."

Ryan said, "Just think of it as a place to store spare magazines."

"Besides, if we want to repair this place, the Empire will have to reopen the production line. That would be a waste. It's better not to change it."

After saying that, Ryan put the gun back on the table and removed two of the magazines.

"What's the failure rate?" Ryan looked at Hugo and asked the last question.

Hugo swallowed, feeling a little uneasy. "The version you've seen so far has a failure rate of about 10%."

"When using a 24-round magazine and firing at a theoretical rate of 450 rounds, the malfunction rate is about 12 percent."

"In terms of the number of shots fired, it would malfunction roughly once every 350 rounds..."

This is not an acceptable statistic.

Hugo was very worried about this.

Because the failure rate of the Empire's machine guns that can fire continuously is about one to two percent, while the failure rate of Farlan's machine guns is three to five percent.

In terms of bullets, every time you shoot 1000 rounds, you'll experience 10 to 20 malfunctions, and 30 to 50 malfunctions.

But the machine gun is protected by the position, and soldiers can immediately hide behind the bunker to repair it after a malfunction. However, the user of Hugo's submachine gun obviously does not have such a safe bunker to protect himself.

Hugo Schmeisser could almost conclude that if he took this submachine gun out to the soldiers now and told them that his weapon had a 12% failure rate, he would most likely be chased and beaten by all the soldiers he met.

However, he overlooked one very important thing.

That is, soldiers obviously would not carry so many bullets during an attack.

And Ryan was about to tell him.

"That's not a problem, Mr. Schmeisser."

Ryan said slowly: "Our soldiers will only carry 120 to 144 rounds of ammunition into the battlefield."

"As long as your failure rate is high enough for them to use up all their bullets, it won't be a problem."

Having said that, Ryan stood up and after thinking for a while, asked Hugo his last question.

"Mr. Schmeisser."

he said.

"How many guns of this model can you provide now?"

"Today? Or..."

Hugo was a little dazed by his question.

Ryan: "Before noon tomorrow at the earliest."

Hugo immediately replied, "Twenty, Your Excellency. Our company currently has 20 samples."

then.

Before Hugo could finish his words, Ryan took out a blank check and slapped it in front of Hugo.

"They're mine now, Mr. Schmeisser."

(End of this chapter)