Greece to roman road

Hearing that Constantine was willing to give Andros Company preferential treatment in key factories and was not willing to cancel the production of wooden airplanes, Andros knew that Constantine was resolute in producing airplanes, so he no longer insisted. Read 520 official website

"Your Highness the Crown Prince, you have been very concerned about the armored tractor that can cross trenches and crush barbed wire. We have also made a breakthrough," Andros wanted to invite Constantine.

Constantine was very excited when he heard the news. In fact, compared to aircraft, Constantine paid more attention to the research of tanks.

Since the end of the war in 1912, the Greek Army has been looking for weapons and equipment that can cross trenches and barbed wire to deal with trench warfare, a very bloody tactic for infantry.

When the Greek Army attacked enemy positions during the 1912 War and the two Balkan Wars in 1913, officers at all levels in the Greek Army noticed the powerful defensive capabilities of this war model.

After the start of the European War, trenches were now densely covered in northern France, extending from eastern France to the Atlantic Ocean, making the attacking troops miserable and making the Greek Army pay more attention to finding ways to conquer the trenches.

For a long time, Constantine has given very clear requirements to researchers for tank research work. It only needs to install a turret and machine gun. The turret must be able to rotate 360 ​​degrees manually, with 4-5 members, and can cross trenches and barbed wire.

Constantine directly abandoned the strange tank design ideas such as multi-turret cults, land cruisers, etc., and avoided wasting the energy of researchers.

It does not particularly pursue strong defense and powerful firepower. The most important thing is high stability and not prone to mechanical failure.

Although Constantine believes that his requirements are not high, since the Andros Company's tank research and development project was established, due to weak technology and no reference targets, the research and development progress has been very slow.

Although the R\u0026D personnel have already come up with a plan, they have been working intensively to improve it just to meet the performance requirements of Constantine and army officers.

After hearing the news about Andros, Manugianaski and several young officers who were visiting the prototype of the aircraft were immediately attracted.

"I don't know how the performance of this prototype is, Mr. Andros?" Manujianaski is a person who is very sensitive to the advancement of military technology.

As a veteran on the battlefield, Manugianas had rich war experience. He keenly felt that this special weapon that integrated mobile firepower and defense was very similar to the heavy cavalry on the ancient battlefield.

Several young soldiers who came together were all professional soldiers who had served in the army for several years after graduating from the Army Academy, with military ranks ranging from lieutenant to captain.

As young men in the army, they are young and powerful, active in thinking, and have a lot of war experience. Unlike those old officers who are too old and have rigid and old-fashioned thinking, they were specially selected by Constantine and Manugianasky. Outstanding young officer.

These officers were the commanders of the first armored units of the Greek army.

"Mr. Andros, the war is raging in Europe now, and there is not much time left for Greece. The tanks you have developed have not been able to come up with models that meet the requirements of the army," the young officer Kumonduros said impatiently.

Cumunduros once served in the Greek cavalry, but the current European war has shown that the cavalry can no longer adapt to the battlefield, and its decline is inevitable.

The cavalry in the Greek Army are also not favored by the top military officials.

As rifles, machine guns and artillery fired faster and faster, the cavalry, once the main force on the battlefield, quickly exited the stage.

The cavalry still in service in the Greek army are almost all responsible for the secondary tasks of reconnaissance and pursuit. This is far from the cavalry that Koumundulus had in mind galloping on the battlefield. After hearing that the top brass of the army planned to build a new system in the Greek Army, When the news came about the mechanized cavalry, he immediately submitted an application, requesting to serve in the new cavalry unit.

At the invitation of Andros, several people came to a vast testing site.

From a distance, you can see a strange-looking tracked vehicle parked in the center of the proving ground.

The most conspicuous thing is the two protruding tracks on both sides of the body that reach the waist of the body. There is a curved turret installed on the front of the body, and an upturned "black tail" chimney at the rear. The body is high in front and low in back.

The three test drivers stood next to the tank. After checking with several people, they opened the rear hatch of the turret and entered the tank.

Andros led several people to the high platform directly in front of the test site. Monoculars and binoculars were arranged on several tables.

Constantine stood on a high platform, overlooking the entire testing site, and noticed the special artificial terrain on the site, pitted muddy ground with water, nearly one meter high mounds of soil, and two meters wide trenches. Between these testing points , insert a red flag to indicate the order.

The soldiers standing aside handed the binoculars to several people, and then a soldier waved the flag in his hand in the direction of the tank.

"Your Royal Highness, the test has begun"

Black smoke came out of the tail of the tank on the experimental plant and began to move slowly.

Like Constantine, several people picked up the telescopes on the table and carefully watched the tank's movements.

"Is this the tracked armored combat vehicle that you successfully improved?" Constantine thought to himself while holding a telescope and observing the progress of the test.

Constantine paid attention to the tank in front of him. It was much different from the previous experimental model that always had problems. The body of the tank became taller.

It was Andros who was still personally responsible for explaining to a few people. He pointed at the advancing tanks on the test site and stepped forward to answer Manujianaski and others: "Your Excellency, Minister of Arms, this is what we can do now. It’s the limit.”

"This tracked armored fighting vehicle needs to adapt to complex terrain, so we raised the body. Now its height is 4 meters. In order to prevent the space inside the vehicle from being too narrow, the width has also been increased. The width of the car reaches 5 meters, and the overall length of the car body reaches 5·5 meters.”

Manugianaski heard Andros's explanation and asked in surprise: "Did you change the power of the chariot?"

Faced with Manujianaski's inquiry, Kalaris, a main member of the R\u0026D team, stepped forward and explained: "Many problems with tracked combat vehicles are caused by vibrations transmitted to the engine. For this reason, we have optimized the structure of the chassis. But there are still many problems, and we don’t have any good solutions.”

Andros continued to explain: "We got their latest 40-horsepower gasoline engine from the engine laboratory."

Constantine asked curiously: "What was the result?"

This time Kalaris replied: "It can run at a speed of 40 kilometers per hour on the road and 18 kilometers per hour in the wild. And this is the data after we improved this test vehicle."

Kalaris pointed to the artillery on the tank and continued to explain: "We found that if the height of some turrets is not lowered, it will be difficult to operate this artillery."

"Especially when the chariot is in motion, the bumps are so violent that the driver of the chariot is completely unable to use it."

After hearing Kalaris' explanation, Constantine asked: "So during the march, did you try to stop and shoot suddenly?"

Seeing that the tank completed various tests very smoothly, several people in the stands walked towards the stopped tank.

Andros continued to explain: "It is equipped with a 35mm artillery, 240 rounds of ammunition, and the armor has a climbing angle of 45 degrees. It can pass through a vertical wall with a height of 61m and a wide trench. There are two members, one is the driver and one gunner. The full combat weight 7 tons”

Constantine came to the chariot and began to care about other data: "So what is the fuel consumption of this chariot? How far does it travel after the fuel is full?"

"After testing, the fuel consumption of this prototype car is 5 liters of gasoline per kilometer on the highway and 8 liters per kilometer when driving in the wild."

"We installed two connected 60-liter fuel tanks on the back of the car body, which allows it to run 70 kilometers on the road after being filled with fuel. As for driving in the wilderness, it can only run 55 kilometers. come on."

After hearing Andros's explanation, Manugianasky felt that the performance was not bad and had met the indicators set by the army. So he asked the question he was most concerned about, which was the price of this tank: "In these two battles, How much does it cost to purchase the car?”

Andros and Kalaris looked at each other, and the two seemed to be calculating costs and prices.

Finally, Andros stepped forward and said: "It depends on how many such tanks the army purchases? The more the army purchases, the lower our costs will be."

Manujianasky interrupted them and said: "The military can give priority to purchasing 50 armored fighting vehicles and want them to serve in small batches. During this period, your research and development team must also follow up, collect and solve problems used by the army. For problems that arise during the process, the specific procurement volume can only be decided after the initial feedback results from the military."

These combat vehicles have only completed laboratory performance verification. In fact, after the armored combat vehicles are put into service, they will definitely expose a lot of problems, which require designers and military users to communicate and constantly repeat this process. , to eliminate various hidden dangers of the tank, and then it will be possible to put it into mass production.

Andros hesitated and said: "If the quantity is only 50, then the cost of these 50 vehicles is the unit price of 20,000 drachmas per tracked armored combat vehicle. As for the military continuing to purchase large-scale purchases in the future, the price will naturally be high. significantly reduced”

Everyone, including Constantine, was surprised by the price: "Why is it so expensive? How many trucks can be purchased at this price?"

Andros stepped forward and explained to Cumunduros, who was about to jump up: "Colonel Cumunduros, although this kind of vehicle has some similarities with a crawler tractor, it has more of a unique structure and is different from what we have now. The products produced are very different, and we spend more money. This price is only the cost price of Andros, and the price is decreasing. If our machinery factory does not produce one, not only will we not make money, but we will also lose money."

"And this price is only the initial price. Once the army decides to purchase in large quantities, the price will definitely drop significantly."

In the end, Manugianaski could only apply for a budget from the General Staff based on this price, hoping that they would allow the purchase of tanks.

Cumunduros and other young officers gathered around the chariot and loudly discussed the significance of establishing a mechanized cavalry force and how to use it tactically.

"The military plans to first purchase 50 armored fighting vehicles, and then form two tank battalions, with the intention of exploring the use of mechanized troop clearing," Manugianasky now reported to Constantine.

"If the Germans had had such offensive weapons and equipped more heavy-duty trucks before the war broke out, maybe the Germans' revolving door plan would have really succeeded," Manugianasky suddenly said with emotion.

"It's really strange to say that as the most powerful army on the European continent, the Germans are actually very slow to apply cars in the army, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince," Kumunduros on the side also interjected.

"Our Greek army is limited by the military and cannot equip the army with a large number of vehicles. However, the German army does not use many cars, which is surprising." Seeing everyone focusing on him, Koumunduros He did not show any stage fright and continued to share his opinions.

After all, there are not many opportunities to show your face in front of the military commander.

"According to the intelligence returned from the European battlefield, Germany's revolving door plan (Schlieffen Plan) and the powerful initial offensive could only defeat the French right wing, but could not annihilate it. They could only watch the French and British Expeditionary Force retreat in an orderly manner. , but cannot annihilate it" Cumunduros continued to talk.

"Germany's powerful right-wing offensive relied only on the two feet of the soldiers to move forward. They marched in a hurry for many days and finally exhausted themselves."

"Frankly speaking, the Germans have not paid much attention to the application of emerging technologies in the army. If the right wing of the German army responsible for the offensive has installed a large number of trucks to help the army maneuver quickly, maybe the revolving door plan will really succeed, and the German army will attack in one go. Paris"

"Although the German army's technology of using trains for large-scale troop mobilization is indeed excellent, after all, this is a technology from the Franco-Prussian War. Nearly half a century has passed, and the Germans are still just satisfied with this. For the German army, The real trouble is from the train station to the front line.”

Manugianaski also nodded in agreement and said, "Providing new vehicles for use as assault spearheads should be sufficient to supply six to seven armies. If this plan is implemented, it will greatly improve the mobility of the right-wing German army." With its strength and speed, it is indeed possible to annihilate the weak French army on the right wing."

There is no doubt that Germany was first in the world in railway technology, however, in comparison, the Kaiser's Army lacked the necessary equipment for tactical maneuvers on the roads.

Truck production was slow, and even though Schlieffen emphasized the importance of mobility in accomplishing his life's project, trucks were never a priority for the German military's top brass.

Constantine speculates that the reason may be that trucks of this period lacked sufficient off-road capabilities and were often underpowered.