Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 14 Anti-tank grenade for tanks

Kong Jie said:
"Hey! Old Li, you didn't cover it up yourself, so you can't blame me! Anyway, I got the horse for you, you have to keep your promise to me!"

"I was just complaining, when did I ever blame you, Old Kong?"

So the next day Kong Jie took two companies of horses and sent them to the place where the soldiers were stationed.

Wang Gensheng naturally continued to serve as the throwing instructor of his independent regiment.

After several days of practice, almost a hundred people have learned how to throw a baseball and can throw a grenade steadily sixty to seventy meters away.

For this group of people, Wang Gensheng started a phased teaching method so that they no longer simply pursued throwing far.

Instead, he asked them to start practicing in the direction of accuracy. Wang Gensheng had only one requirement for them, which was that they should be able to throw the grenade steadily into the trench 60 meters away.

But on the second day, Wang Gensheng heard a soldier say to the soldier next to him:
"It would be great if this grenade could also blow up tanks. That way, next time we encounter a Japanese tank, we don't have to rush up with the explosive pack!"

The conversation with this soldier made Wang Gensheng fall into deep thought. In the Yazhou battlefield of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Eighth Route Army had no choice but to rush forward with explosives to kill the Japanese tanks, which had armor only one or two centimeters thick.

However, the success rate of this method is very low. This is mainly because the Japanese tanks not only have tank machine guns, but also many Japanese soldiers following them.

Therefore, the soldiers holding the explosives were killed before they could even reach the tanks.

But the situation is different on the Ouzhou battlefield. In addition to large-caliber anti-tank rifles to deal with light tanks, there are also Panzerfausts and anti-tank rocket launchers such as bazookas.

In addition to these two types, there are also anti-tank grenades that are cheaper and easier to make.

The manufacture of anti-tank grenades is also very simple. All you need to do is to clear out a space inside the original grenade where the explosives are placed to install the shaped charge shield.

In this way, when the grenade explodes, it can form a high-temperature and high-speed metal jet, which can then penetrate the steel armor of the tank with the help of this metal jet.

The most typical of these is Su Ying's RPG-43 anti-tank grenade, which was the first anti-tank grenade to use shaped charge and a collision fuze. Its explosive armor penetration depth could reach 75 mm.

However, its weight is too heavy, as heavy as 1,200 grams, so the throwing distance is only about ten to twenty meters.

Therefore, it was eliminated after being used on the battlefield of North Korea.

However, in Wang Gensheng's opinion, the power of the RPG-43 anti-tank grenade manufactured by Su Jun was a bit excessive. The Japanese tank armor was not even 30 mm thick, let alone 70 mm. The armor in some weak places was only a few millimeters.

As he thought about it, Wang Gensheng couldn't help but turn his attention to the Type 97 grenade he was carrying.

It just so happened that the Japanese Type 97 grenade also had a collision fuse, so could it be modified by adding a shaped charge shield inside to turn it into an anti-tank grenade? This would also solve the problem that the Eighth Route Army was unable to deal with the Japanese tanks.

Just when Wang Gensheng was looking at how to convert the Type 97 grenade produced by the Japanese into an anti-tank grenade, Kong Jie came over and said to Wang Gensheng:
"What are you still doing here, kid? Come back with me! The cavalry company is about to be formed!" Wang Gensheng immediately became excited when he heard this. After all, he had never ridden a horse in his life!
It’s a pity that in the era of hot weapons, cavalry has become an outdated branch of the military. Only one heavy machine gun is needed to withstand the charge of dozens or hundreds of cavalrymen.

However, cavalry is still very useful at certain times, such as pursuit, harassment, or rapid raids.

"Captain Sun, this is Wang Gensheng, the sharpshooter from our independent regiment I told you about. He's very interested in cavalry, so he hopes to learn from you. For the time being, he'll be the deputy commander of your cavalry company!"

However, Wang Gensheng on the side was stunned. He just wanted to learn how to ride a horse in the cavalry company, so how did he become the deputy company commander of the cavalry company?

Kong Jie seemed to sense Wang Gensheng's puzzled gaze, so he began to explain:

"That's what Captain Li meant. I told Captain Li about you killing the sentry with a flying knife in Wanjia Town! Captain Li took your performance into consideration, so he reported to the cavalry company and appointed you as the company commander!"

Well! In the war years, promotions were fast. Just by killing two traitors, he was promoted to a higher rank. That's right, from platoon leader to deputy company commander, that's not half a rank, but a higher rank. In the military, there's no such thing as a half-rank promotion. It's all one rank at a time.

If this promotion from platoon leader to deputy company commander had taken place in the peaceful era before the time travel, it would have taken three years just to gain experience and military service, not to mention any meritorious service. Now Wang Gensheng only had three years left after killing two traitors.

Of course, if you fight poorly in wartime, like Kong Jie, you will be punished and demoted, or even sacrificed directly.

Just as Wang Gensheng was about to say thank you or something, Kong Jie continued:

"But don't be too happy. This deputy company commander title comes at a price. Li Yunlong said you have to train some talented people for the independent regiment who can use flying knives like you!"

Wang Gensheng was stunned when he heard this request. You know, although the flying knife looks easy, it is actually not simple at all. Although if you are willing to learn the skills of flying knife, you can master the skills of straight flying or spinning flying within a day.

But the most important thing about throwing knives is not the skill but the proficiency.

This is different from firearms. With firearms, you only need to master the shooting skills and keep the three points in a straight line, so it is very easy to hit the target at a hundred meters.

However, throwing knives is easy to learn but difficult to master. It requires a very high level of muscle memory because a flying knife is not a firearm, and there is no three-point straight line for you to aim at.

Instead, they aim by relying on the feel of their hands and muscle memory. It is basically impossible for an average person to hit an apple-sized target from ten meters away without any error without one or two months of practice.

As for someone like Wang Gensheng, who can hit the target every time at 30 meters, it is not just a matter of practice, but also requires a certain amount of talent to succeed.

Well! In fact, talent is the most important thing. For example, before Wang Gensheng traveled through time, he practiced hard for many years to achieve some success in knife throwing, while the thirteen-year-old girl Zhang Keyi had already won the championship in the knife throwing competition.

Especially since the firing rate of the chain throwing knives can catch up with that of an automatic pistol.

However, for the sake of his position as deputy company commander, Wang Gensheng nodded and agreed to this request. After all, there were thousands of people in the regiment, so it should not be a problem to select a few with talent for throwing knives.

(End of this chapter)