Iron Cross

"I have always hoped that the research and development of new tanks can be completed before September, but at present, not only the overall progress is disappointing, but the current design ideas and details are also unacceptable to me. First of all, they are greatly overweight, 4 During the first demonstration in March, I witnessed them being stuck in the quagmire and unable to move. Five months later, the problem is still the same." Hoffman's tone was stern, "What's the problem? Understand the positioning and requirements of this tank. As a breakthrough tank, the biggest and most critical mission of the No. 6 tank is anti-tank combat, so it does not need as much ammunition as it currently has. "

The Ministry of Armament has statistics on tank battles on the Eastern Front. In a battle, a tank consumes an average of 30-40 rounds of artillery shells, with a maximum of about 60 rounds. This is due to the grenades fired during combat to cover infantry attacks. As a breakthrough tank, the 92-round ammunition reserve is actually far too much for the Tiger. You must know that the IS-1 heavy tank of the same level is equipped with an 85MM gun and has 59 rounds of ammunition. The IS-2 is equipped with a 122MM gun. The ammunition reserve is only 28 rounds. The German designers didn't know these data, but Hoffman knew them all.

"The Tiger has about 60 rounds of ammunition, which is enough. After reducing the amount of ammunition, there is no need for so much space in the car." Hoffman walked up and pointed at the Porsche hanging on the blackboard with his pointer. The prototype car drawing said, "Although Dr. Porsche's design still has problems of one kind or another, one thing I think is worthy of recognition is that when equipped with the same artillery and crew, the width of the car he designed is only 3.3 meters, while Henschel The width of the vehicle is 3.7 meters. For this 0.4 meter wider, we not only have to pay several tons of defensive armor, but also bear the consequences of using two types of tracks and triple staggered road wheels. This is completely unacceptable. , I can accept the design of slightly weakening the thickness of the front armor of the vehicle. It does not need 110MM, 100MM is enough. The improvement of defense can be achieved by changing the tilt angle-this is what the Russians did with the T-34. Others The armor thickness of the parts can remain unchanged.”

Dr. Porsche nodded in agreement. The head of state's words finally allowed him to regain some face.

Colonel Tomale and Professor Aboian exchanged opinions and said: "My head of state, if you follow your size requirements and the number of ammunition, coupled with the reduction in armor thickness and the adjustment of the inclination angle, we think that the modified The width of the vehicle can be controlled between 3.2 and 3.25 meters, and the height can be reduced to less than 2.9 meters. Taking into account the corresponding reduction in defensive armor and weight reduction, the suspension design can also be simplified and the design of the outermost road wheel can be removed, which will reduce the impact on the ground. The pressure per unit area can basically maintain the original design. Overall, we think the weight can be controlled within 50 tons... and the maximum driving speed may also be increased. "

"I think the design speed of 38 kilometers per hour is enough. Reliability is our first consideration. The total weight of 50 tons is not enough. Please make sure to control it within 48 tons..." Hoffman can accept 50 tons in his heart. Weight, but he knew that German designers like to be overweight, so he left an additional 2 tons of room.

"For the same reason, the corresponding design adjustments can also be applied to the No. 5 tank." Since the No. 6 has been named Tiger, the No. 5 has also been given the code name of the Panther by Hoffman. Although the Panther was not the main subject of discussion at this meeting, he was obviously not satisfied with the Panther's design. Existing designs show that the Leopard will use 860mm diameter road wheels, coupled with the double torsion bar suspension system used to ensure maneuverability, the height of the vehicle is too exaggerated, reaching 2.99 meters, which is not only far higher than the 2.65-meter of the No. 4 tank. The vehicle height of 2.68 meters even exceeds the Tiger's vehicle height of 2.93 meters - this is completely unacceptable.

According to Hoffman's requirements, the Panther tank also needs to reduce the amount of ammunition and reduce weight. At the same time, it must use the same road wheels and tracks as the Tiger - this can facilitate maintenance on the battlefield, and the Panther body also needs to be used. It was too long and needed to be reduced. Hoffman thought about it. The No. 4 tank had 6 pairs of road wheels, the Tiger had 8 pairs of road wheels, and the Panther, which weighed between the two, would ideally use 7 pairs of road wheels. wheel. On the premise of ensuring maneuverability, since the weight has been reduced and the car body has been reduced accordingly, the suspension system with a single torsion bar and enlarged spring is enough to replace the original double torsion bar design. It can not only reduce the space occupied by the suspension system, but also Improve reliability.

"After these measures are effectively implemented, the width of the Leopard should be no more than 3.1 meters, the height should be reduced to less than 2.8 meters, and the overall weight should not exceed 38 tons." Hoffman said while a group of leaders from the Weapons Bureau nodded. , they unanimously agreed with the head of state's proposal that tanks No. 5 and 6 use the same road wheels and tracks - this was originally their wish, which could greatly simplify production and reduce technical difficulty. If it were not a serious technical demonstration, it would almost be impossible. He had to stand up and shout long live the head of state.

"Besides..." Hoffman saw Speer raising his hand and asked, "Speer, what do you want to say?"

Speer stood up and said: "My head of state, I have received a report that the Weapons Agency intends to use a 70-caliber 75mm gun for the Panther tank. This is a new type of tank gun. Because the barrel is very long, its production is foreseeable. Not high, should you consider replacing it with the 88 gun, which is the same as the Tiger? There seems to be little difference in power, but it can improve the level of logistics support - since the Leopard has adopted the same gun as the Tiger in the engine, road wheels, tracks, etc. There should be no difficulty in using the same gun with parts. If this adjustment can be realized, we will not be too restricted in production, because according to the number of tanks you require, the new 75MM tank gun may not be able to meet the demand. "

Colonel Tomale was completely confused. The 75mm KWK42L/70 tank gun originally planned to be used by the Leopard was of course extremely powerful. To some extent, it even surpassed the 88 gun planned to be used by the Tiger. But this 75mmL70 long-barreled gun However, the production process is very poor. The Weapons Bureau has previously expressed this concern. The reason why it insisted on using it on the Leopard was entirely due to the clear instruction of the head of state to strengthen firepower.

Now that Speer was bringing up the old conversation again, the colonel looked at Hoffman nervously, fearing that the Führer would be furious on the spot, and the heads of the Weapons Bureau were also worried.

To everyone's surprise, the head of state did not get angry, but laughed: "Speer, what you said is very good. This is exactly the point I want to express. The Panther and Tiger should use the same tank gun. As for the power, With bigger guns and thicker armor, we can leave that to the next heavy tank."

He turned around and asked Professor Ai Boan: "Professor, what's your opinion?"

"I think it is possible. The overall weight of the two tank guns is not much different. The diameter of the turret ring of the 88mm gun may be slightly larger, but even after data adjustment, there is still no problem in installing it on the Leopard." Ai Boan carefully After thinking for a while, I gave a positive answer.

There was silence in the audience, and then there was a heated discussion: If the Tiger tank was still a small change, then the Leopard tank was completely adjusted. But this is the leader's will, who dares to defy it? What's more, experts all agree with the head of state's opinion. Now I just hope that the designer will not collapse.

While everyone was busy discussing, Keitel was distracted. He had been thinking about a question: According to the design adjusted by the head of state, the new No. 5 and No. 6 tanks will have a lot of similarities, such as engines, tracks, and road wheels. , artillery, etc. are all the same. There are not many essential differences between the two except armor defense capabilities. Is it necessary to separate them? In other words, is it really necessary to produce a Panther tank with weaker defenses than the Tiger and greater mobility than the Tiger?