Bismarck

Really, the captain and I are going to starve together, and it has been delayed until now, it’s already dark!

It's really annoying to make trouble! Bismarck thought to himself angrily.

"What's wrong? Are you in a daze again? The meeting is over and we should go back." Lütjens, who had already stood up, looked at the secretary beside him who was still in a daze. Out of habit, he reached out his hand again, accurately grabbed the ear of his secretary hidden in the long golden hair, and pulled it out.

It feels really good, but it’s not good to be dazed all the time... Lütjens thought with emotion.

"kindness?!"

Bismarck shook her hair. How could she protest against this bad habit of pulling ears casually?

"Let's go. The workload for the scientific research progress meeting is very heavy. We need to prepare well when we get back. Oh, remember to bring back the E-50 drawings. The Führer has also entrusted us with the improvement of this thing..."

Shaking his head, Lütjens, who was somewhat helpless with his silly cat, picked up his briefcase and walked out of the meeting room. He left behind a Persian cat who had not yet recovered and was confused in the meeting room.

"Hey hey hey? Captain! Wait for me! Let's go eat!"

"Wait, have you got the E-50 blueprints? The Führer has set a deadline!"

“Eh?!”0.0?

"Go get it now!"

"Ah... yes, yes..." Lütjens glanced at him, and Bismarck quickly ran back. Soon he ran out with a smile, holding the fallen documents.

However, I still complained a few words in my heart. How could the captain, a grown man, let such a delicate girl like him do such errands?

One man and one cat, one walking and one running, carrying information and drawings, walked out of the meeting room one after the other.

-

"Emmmmmm... So it's said that those who are capable should do more work? Now we are responsible for the progress of the tanks?"

Looking at the several sets of drawings in front of him, with his ears drooping, Bismarck said he was not very happy.

The progress of the tank... I am not familiar with it at all?

"It's okay. They are responsible for program demonstration and review, and we are just the supervisory department of the scientific research joint meeting." Lütjens shook his head and sighed.

After all, I don't know anything about tanks...

The secretary ship over there has already started to complain:

"It seems that the evaluation of this tank has not been finalized for several rounds, so they just let us have a look..." Bismarck raised his head with an unhappy look on his face: "This tank... is it a pitfall made by those people in the army and military industry..."

"Yes, and the Führer also issued a death order at the meeting that it must be completed before the end of September..." Lütjens shook his head. How could he, a general in the navy, be in charge of the army's tanks...

This is too different from other fields. The design of naval guns requires a lot of consideration. As for the army equipment... It turns out that personal development still depends on the progress of history.

There was also a report document on the development of tanks in front of him. However, after reading it over and over again, Lütjens always felt that he was in a state of confusion...

The German Army had a tank development committee, whose main participants were Porsche, Henschel, a series of companies such as Krupp and Rheinsteel, which were responsible for artillery, as well as engineers of vehicles, tanks, power and artillery, and maintained close relations with the military.

In fact, this "50-ton tank" project had already been pre-researched.

German tanks have never been advanced, and the military and industry are well aware of this. In fact, as early as 1936, the Tank Development Committee had already carried out preliminary research and demonstration of heavy tanks. When attacking France in 1940, the French BS-1 heavy tank and the British Matilda tank also gave the German Army a great shock. As for the T-34 tanks and KV tanks that Bismarck provided when Hitler visited the Soviet Union, they were even more daunting! The latter has strong defense and superior firepower (especially the 152 main gun model), while the design concept of the former is even more revolutionary!

Although Speer improved the Panzer IV into a tank with sloped armor on the front and increased production capacity in just over half a year under Hitler's strong promotion, it could only compete with the T-34. As for the KV heavy tank with strong defense, there was no hope unless the resource reserves were very tight, so that each tank was equipped with less than five rounds of tungsten core armor-piercing shells per battle, or the 88mm anti-aircraft gun was mobilized...

In particular, it is said that the Soviets have now replaced their T-34 tanks with 85mm main guns.

Thinking about it this way, it's no wonder that the Führer threw the research plan of the new tank to me...

only……

How many people here know about tanks? (╯‵□′)╯︵┴─┴

Zeppelin is good at air force, but when it comes to tanks, she only knows how to fly a plane to fight tanks. Needless to say, Top and Eugen are two complete laymen when it comes to tanks. As for the little hamster who was coaxed by Lindemann, he just grabbed the electron tube and silently said that his sister could not help...

Seeing that all the people in the office were from the navy, Lütjens felt that this should be shown to Guderian. But now... a navy man was in charge of the army's affairs. Isn't this a bit heartbreaking? And it also feels like a dog trying to catch a rat...

"This is so annoying! Wouldn't it be easier to just build five pairs of wheels?"

Bismarck, who was going crazy over there, was already scratching his head and shouting. However, this shout made the crowd confused:

"What five-wheeled vehicle? The Russian T-34?"

Bismarck looked at his secretary cat with some surprise: Does this girl know anything about tanks?

"No! What I mean is..." Bismarck's main gun suddenly jammed halfway through his speech.

She only knew about the five pairs of wheels, but she had no idea about their design!

I am dumbfounded. What should I do? QAQ.

"You..."

As soon as Lütjens saw his Persian cat scratching its ears and cheeks, he knew that the girl was simply having a brain seizure.

I thought she would say "five pairs of wheels" as soon as she opened her mouth, so she must have something profound to say...

But it doesn't matter, after all, my own ship cat has come up with a lot of creative ideas. And in this kind of thing, I am only a nominal integrator after all - maybe the army and the tank development committee may not be convinced by my integration!

The factions in the army were fine, but the list of the Tank Development Committee was made up of a bunch of big companies and engineers. Even those who were not involved in the Berlin Vanity Fair knew that Dr. Porsche was a good friend of Hitler and that he designed one of the plans. But even so, he was not able to bring any help in the review...

"The water is probably very deep... Come to think of it, who proposed to the Führer that I integrate these things? Isn't this a trap!" Looking at the report, Lütjens felt very uneasy.

This mission was a hot potato! After all, who among these army bosses and Junkers military industry bosses would listen to a navy man like me? If I intervened, it would be overstepping my bounds - this is a very taboo behavior! But if I didn't intervene, and the tanks couldn't be delivered, the responsibility on my side would be very heavy!

I'm afraid that this guy from Lei Lou is plotting something against me again.

Lütjens, who was already the victim of the German Navy's Ship Girls Squadron, had already begun to silently complain.

(At this time, in the Admiralty building, Raeder was very happy about the achievements of the Kumetz Fleet and German submarines in severely damaging several escort fleets. He was just about to have a cup of coffee, but he suddenly sneezed for no apparent reason and almost choked himself. He even lost his balance and spilled the documents on the table...)

"Forget it, just do as much as you can..."

No matter how MMP he felt in his heart, Lütjens calmed down and continued to look through the blueprints and files. Seeing his captain start to look through the relevant materials carefully, the Persian cat who was still frantic over there also accepted his fate, leaned over and looked at the blueprints and files with the captain.

After all, I am a Persian cat that is crazy about scratching...

But...if you look closely, it seems that you can still see something?

After all, some things are still written in the report!

(Bismarck secretly thanked himself that no one blamed him for not reading carefully...)

It has been confirmed that the tank's firepower is modified from a 105/60mm anti-aircraft gun, but the power system is very troublesome.

According to the report, modern tanks do not have a perfect gun stabilizer, so they must stop and fire when firing (of course, some veterans just release the clutch, and then the heavy tank stops by inertia and the gun basically does not have brake vibration). But even so, it is conceivable that such frequent starts are also a huge load on the power system.

Bismarck could even imagine why those legendary German heavy tanks in the later period often broke down.

Well, this is what a bunch of nerds in a gaming group who always argue over which is stronger, the Soviet Union or Germany, said...

"In other words, the main problem should be the power system..."

"So what that means is that we just need to find the one with the best vehicle reliability among the several options?"

After looking at each other, a bunch of "bold ideas" appeared in Bismarck and her captain's heads almost at the same time, and the contents were surprisingly consistent.

Zeppelin and Lindemann, who were watching this scene, rolled their eyes, turned their heads and made a "hush" gesture to Top and Eugen, and the four of them quietly left. As for the hamster... it had buried itself in the bread basket, with only a strand of hair sticking out, swaying left and right...

The man and the cat here did not care that the light bulbs over there had been secretly turned off. Instead, they put their heads together and opened the three design books in their hands.

Well, after being together for many years, at least we understand each other's thoughts very well.

After opening a few design books and flipping through them, the two of them had a general understanding of the situation.

The main designs for the new tanks are from Porsche, Henschel and MAN. All three designs are not perfect in some aspects:

Porsche's vehicle body is the heaviest among the bidding teams, and it uses an engine-motor transmission mode that has never been used in tanks before: two sets of gasoline engines drive generators respectively, and transmit electrical energy directly to the motors that drive the tank's driving wheels. Porsche claims that this mode is very useful in engineering machinery. The DC motor can resist double the overload current when starting and provide double the starting torque! And there is no need to worry about the possibility of the German gearbox breaking the gears during frequent heavy-load starting and stopping! At the same time, you only need to adjust the output of the motor, and in theory you can achieve very convenient stepless speed change - commonly known as driving a heavy tank!

(PS: In history, the Tiger tank did move around in a sluggish manner under Kalius’s command—or in other words, driving the Tiger in a sluggish manner to avoid the Soviet army’s almost ubiquitous heavy artillery AOE was Kalius’ daily routine on the Eastern Front!)

However, the disadvantages of electric transmission are also obvious - not to mention the dusty battlefield, even on the test site, Porsche's solution has serious dust accumulation and overheating, and even often spontaneous combustion! The average failure rate of the test site is once every ten kilometers, which is not reassuring at all!

In comparison, Henschel's 56-ton solution is of medium weight, using a gasoline engine and hydraulic transmission to cooperate with each other, and in the future it can also be replaced with a diesel engine with greater torque. At the same time, the interior of this vehicle is relatively spacious, and the performance is relatively average. At the same time, a relatively large turret ring can also support the use of large artillery. However, the design of the vehicle body is very similar to the Tiger tank seen in the previous life, except that the front of the vehicle body has been changed to inclined armor! Moreover, the mobility is only at a barely acceptable level, and the cost and manufacturing hours are very high. According to Henschel, this tank is enlarged based on the modified Panzer IV tank...

This design looks a bit outdated...

As for MAN's design, Bismarck could even see the shadow of the Panther tank in it: 45 tons in weight, with a wide range of inclined armor, so the frontal defense is even better than the 56-ton design, and the cost and labor hours are also more economical - but despite this, the cost of the hydraulic transmission system that requires high-precision processing is here, and it is impossible to be lower. At the same time, the size of the turret ring of this tank is the smallest among the three vehicles - if the original Panther tank's slender 75/70 main gun can still show a certain beauty, now it has been changed to a thick 105/60 main gun. The feeling on this vehicle is as exaggerated as a small car pulling a cannon - in fact, the body design of this vehicle can no longer bear the size of 105/60...

The worst thing is that MAN said that their body design can no longer further expand the size range of the turret ring, or even the load-bearing capacity! This method of separating the turret ring from the body side wall is actually borrowed from the design of the T-34. However, although this ensures the side defense, it cannot guarantee the load-bearing strength of the turret ring at all!

(Historically, the T-44 was equipped with a 100mm gun, but this was also aborted because the vehicle's potential was exhausted.)

Although she is not a military fan, she knows that the three tanks in front of her can be seen from some World of Warcraft or War Thunder in the future, seeing a bunch of 2D otakus arguing about Soviet and German tanks all day long. One is called Ferdinand or Elephant? Or Tiger? Or Panther? Anyway, they are all German tanks that are very popular among the so-called German bastards...

but……

None of these three tanks meets the standards!

不知道是不是自己当初把T-34和KV坦克告诉了小胡子的结果，这一次对于E-50坦克的设计要求，希特勒要求比谁都变态：火力的底线就是一门粗壮的105/60倍径的SKC33高射炮改装来的坦克主炮！

Bismarck knew the performance of this gun very well, because this was the heavy anti-aircraft gun used by the four sisters! The shell weighed 15.45 kg, the initial velocity was 900-910 m/s, the maximum range was 17700 m/45 degrees, and the maximum firing height was 11450 m! The chamber pressure was 2950 kg/cm4.6. The only problem was that it weighed tons...

Although the 105mm anti-aircraft guns on her body did not have armor-piercing shells, it was "supposedly" that the results of the tests conducted by the army showed that when using APGR.40 tungsten core armor-piercing shells, the penetration depth could reach 1000mm/140 degrees (30 degrees vertical, 90 degrees lying flat) at 0 meters, and even if conventional armor-piercing shells were fired, it could probably penetrate 1000mm vertical armor at 203 meters, and more than six inches of vertical armor at 1000 meters - although Bismarck was not sure whether this data was true, after all, seeing is believing, and he had not seen the army's armor-piercing shells, so he was not sure whether it was fake...

However, with a 5.5-meter-long, 4.6-ton giant like this, the design of the vehicle body is very troublesome. At least the one proposed by MAN is basically a simple modification of the Panther tank design, and I am afraid it can no longer withstand it this time. However, the two proposals from Porsche and Henschel have poor reliability of the transmission system, and basically all of them exceed the design weight...

In fact, although it was annoying to see these guys arguing with each other, at least Bismarck had heard of it. Even for the Leopard tank, the transmission reliability was already very poor - after all, in terms of tonnage, the Leopard tank was even heavier than the Soviet (historical) IS-2 main battle tank...

After reading the relevant materials, Bismarck felt very bad...

It doesn’t matter to her whether she supports Hitler or not, but there is only one month left for this matter. If it is not resolved properly, her own captain will be in trouble!

However, if the transmission system of a 2333- ton tank can't handle such a heavy object, the consequences will be very serious!

Whether it is mechanical transmission or hydraulic transmission, a tank that cannot move is less powerful than a bunker...

After all, the defenses on all sides of the bunker are the same, and it can fire from all directions...

"What... should we do?" The helpless Persian Cat looked at his captain, and Lütjens over there also pondered for a long time, but it seemed that there was no good solution for the time being...

"Forget it. Without investigation, we have no right to speak... How about this, Captain? Let's go to the test site and take a look! Maybe I can use my perception ability to find some solutions!"

Bismarck, who had been racking his brains to no avail, finally had to suggest a last-ditch solution to his captain.

"Okay, let's go and take a look." Lütjens responded, but soon came to his senses: "'No investigation, no right to speak'?! This is a brilliant saying! Where did you learn that from?"

"Eh? Did you read it in a book?"

Bismarck was shocked by what he had said and immediately decided to continue playing dumb and get away with it.

Fortunately, our captain nodded and didn't say anything else.

only……

Why does that annoying hand that always pats me on the head and messes up my hair like pinching my ears now? !

Hate!

Chapter 757: The All-Match Old Lu

In the hot summer, in the army test field, the heat was high in the sky and the dust was flying. Three tanks of different shapes were speeding on the rugged and muddy test field track.

Under the command and timing of the commanding officer on the roadside, the three tanks suddenly ran at full speed, and suddenly a big bend appeared and they began to turn sharply. After turning the big bend, they began to sway left and right, and then they reversed back and forth at full speed. They were even moving at full speed just a moment ago, but suddenly they stepped on the emergency brake and then stepped on the accelerator again as soon as the vehicle body stopped steadily, with the roar of the engine that was a little overwhelmed, and they restarted the heavy body with difficulty on the muddy road...

After all, as we all know, main battle tanks are offensive weapons, and mobility is one of the three core indicators. For the pre-selected prototypes of the three companies, this back-and-forth operation is completely for the purpose of tossing and turning, in order to maximize the performance and life of the engine and transmission system, and to identify the design that best suits the needs of the field troops.

Although, I have already done this kind of appraisal on sports car tests at the proving ground dozens of times...

In the observation shed outside the sports car track, braving the scorching summer heat, the "head of the scientific research project host unit" appointed by the mustache, General Lütjens, the scientific research director of the German Kaiser Wilhelm Society, and his secretary, as well as the Minister of Industry Speer, and the head of the Army Equipment Department, that is, the German Army Ordnance Bureau, and of course the most indispensable are the bosses of big companies and engineers from the German Tank Development Committee, while watching the three prototypes in the sports car track, they gathered around several design materials and chatted idly.

However, the atmosphere here seems a little subtle...

Even Bismarck, who had been using his perception to pay attention to the situation of the power compartments of the three tanks in the field, could feel that there seemed to be a certain sense of alienation and awkwardness between himself and the captain and the Army Ordnance Bureau and the Tank Development Committee.

After all, although it was the little mustache who appointed him to be in charge, the fact that the navy was leading the army's weapons research and development still gave people a feeling of being a little bit...

Looking around him, the captain seemed indifferent, listening to the views of the army and several large companies on land warfare, tanks, tactical use, etc. And occasionally with the help of Speer and Krupp, who were relatively familiar with him, he could find a gap to speak so that the situation would not be too awkward.

Well, Krupp had indicated in this bidding that it had no ambitions - the 105mm main gun was the work of their rival Rheinsteel, but in order to maximize production capacity, Speer also allowed Krupp to participate in the production in the form of an "authorized license", and that was all.

Germany did not have many resources. Apart from coal, which could be completely self-sufficient, even steel had to be produced by importing iron ore from Sweden and Norway. So although many people had complaints about Speer's approach of unifying the models of similar weapons for the army and navy and arranging production in a unified manner, most people could accept it. After all, even if they failed in the bid, they could still get a large number of orders, which was basically a guarantee of success. In addition, it could provide the army with more unified weapons, so there was nothing to complain about.

Fortunately, the captain was able to interject a few words like this. Although the atmosphere was a little subtle, it was at least not so awkward that people couldn't even speak.

Bismarck also knew how awkward today's occasion was: tanks were running on the field, everyone was harboring their own ulterior motives outside, and the captain was caught in the middle. If he wasn't careful, he would be neither a popular figure nor a popular figure!

But... this matter was something that was pushed down by the mustache, so it had to be done, and it had to be done well...

"This mustache, maybe Parkinson's disease is affecting the brain..."

Bismarck secretly complained in her heart - and she couldn't say this publicly. God knows how far the officers' group has gone in plotting rebellion! She knew very well what kind of morals the officers' group had, and she also knew what would happen to them. As the secretary of her own captain, she didn't want the captain to be involved in these things!