Tyranny of Steel

The day after the memorial day celebrations, Berengar awoke early in the morning once more. Like usual, he filled out a mountain of paperwork while drinking copious quantities of coffee. By the time he had finished with his daily tasks, the sun had already set, and he was just about to get up and stretch his legs when he noticed an unusual proposal on his desk, which until now had been buried beneath what can only be described as a mountain of paperwork. 

Berengar carefully observed the document, which turned out to be blueprints for a new and improved helicopter. Until now, the German Army had manufactured a limited number of primitive choppers for use with special operations.

The design that had been approved by the Kufstein Royal Armory was essentially a WW2 era Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 Drache, which was severely lacking in nearly every aspect when compared with more modern helicopters. 

In fact, the helicopter currently employed by the Reich was practically a plane without wings and two propellors mounted in a rather unconventional method. Since there was a desperate need for improvement, Berengar decided to alter the blueprints just enough to push his engineers in the right direction. 

If there was one critical component of the German Military, that was preventing it from being a modern fighting force, it was a severe lack of air assault capabilities. With this in mind, Berengar altered the designs of the blueprints which had been submitted to him for approval by transforming the overall shape of the aircraft to match that of the UH-1D Huey from his past life. 

This helicopter was designed primarily for utility purposes, and thus its main armament were two double-barreled, dual feed mg-27s which were mounted to the doors. These guns were modelled after the MG 14z from Berengar's past life and had a cyclic rate of roughly three thousand rounds per minute. 

After making these upgrades, Berengar sent the design back to the Kufstein Royal Armory so that they could figure out how to make it work. He expected the production of the vehicles to take place within the next few months. Perhaps if his troops were lucky, they'd be flying in these bad boys over the Japanese mainland by the end of the war. 

Having concluded this, Berengar then began to write out a new doctrine for Air Assault, so that the proper training structure was in place by the time the new helicopters entered mass production. It took many hours for the man to conclude these efforts, and in the end, he finally placed down his pen after midnight had already passed. 

It was not unusual for Berengar to burn the midnight oil to speak. In fact, more often than not these days, he went to bed after his wives had already fallen asleep. Thus, after finishing his work Berengar rose from his desk, and approached the nearest bedroom he could find, which just so happened to be Henriettas where he stripped before climbing into bed, where he found his sister, and wife spooning together as they slept with smiles on their faces. 

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While Berengar finally got some rest after a hard day's work, Itami was wide awake, in her own bedroom, working on a design of her own. It had become abundantly clear that the German army possessed an overwhelmingly superior amount of firepower. From the infantry to the armored units, the Germans had overwhelmed her forces with sheer volume of fire. 

Initially, Itami had suspected that semi-automatic weapons in the hands of her infantry would be more than enough to deal with her adversaries. However, the average German rifleman was armed with either an automatic rifle in the form of the Stg-27, or a modern assault rifle in the form of the Stg-32. From everything Itami understood, these weapons were simply Fg-42s and Stg-44s. Which, when produced in such massive numbers, had a serious effect on battlefield performance. 

The Imperial Japanese Army would need to increase its overall volume of fire if it could even hope of defending the Japanese Mainland from a German invasion, and thus Itami had spent the last three days under the light of the divine mirror, trying to come up with the ultimate infantry rifle. 

The weapon that Itami ended up developing was essentially a Howa Type 64 select fire battle rifle. However, rather than be chambered in 7.62x51 NATO like during her past life, she made the rifle use the venerable 7.7×58mm Arisaka, which her armed forces currently made use of. 

After designing her new Battle Rifle, Itami grabbed another piece of paper and began to work on another design. What had become perfectly clear during the war with the German Empire was that the Panther Tank and the Jagdpanther Tank Destroyer were vastly superior to her Type 4 Chi-To Medium Tanks. 

As a result, Itami's armored divisions were being shredded in the Korean theatre. She knew that it was only a matter of time before a German invasion of the Japanese mainland occurred, and thus, she had wanted to increase her armored divisions capabilities so that they could properly contend with even the heaviest armor that the reich employed. 

Thus, the first of these two armored designs was that of the Type 5 Chi-Ri, which was essentially a larger and heavier variant of the previously manufactured Type 4 Chi-To. The vehicle had 75 millimeters of armor plating, a 75 mm primary gun, as well as a 37mm secondary gun. It also made use of two 7.7 Type 97 heavy tank machine guns.  The type 5 also had an operational range of 250 kilometers and was capable of 45 km/h speeds. 

If anything, this massive behemoth of a tank was closer in size and ability to the Wehrmacht's Tiger II Tank from the second world war of Itami's past life, then it was to this world's Panther Tank. Which would mean that it was more than a match for Germany's armored divisions.

The only problems that Itami had would be the production of these vehicles. Assuming she ended up losing Korea, that meant that her ability to produce steel, let alone manufacture it into armored vehicles and engines, would be severely depleted. Thus, it was her intent to make as many of these tanks as she could while she still occupied some territory in the Korean Peninsula. 

Aside from the Type 64 Battle Rifle, and the Type 5 Chi-Ri Medium Tank, Itami also planned the production of a dedicated tank destroyer. Which came in the form of the Type 5 Na-To. Which, like the Chi-Ri, and the Chi-To was a prototype weapon designed by the Empire of Japan during the finals days of the second world war in Itami's past life. 

The Na-To was more of a self-propelled gun, then it was a dedicated tank destroyer. Unlike the Jagdpanther, it was not fully enclosed, instead it was an armored chassis with a giant gun mounted on top. The crew would load the weapon from an exposed behind, similar to the German Hummel Self Propelled Artillery. 

However, rather than its historical counterpart, which made us of the same gun that was on the Type 4 and the Type 5 Medium tanks. Itami planned to use an upscaled 88mm High Velocity Tank Gun, which was based upon the type 5 75mm Tank Gun. Essentially giving it the same amount of firepower as the German Jagdpanther.

With these three weapons, Itami planned to make the Germans pay the price should they dare to set foot on the Japanese Mainland. So far, the war had not been going in her favor, and she was wise enough to realize that in a matter of months her homeland would be under threat of a massive German invasion.

If these new weapons could not deal with the German Army when they landed on her shores, then nothing she could possibly design would fill such a role. Thus, while Berengar extended his aerial warfare capabilities, Itami focused on the ground, knowing full well that competing with the Reich in the skies was a losing battle. 

After completing these designs, and reflecting on her grim future, Itami recalled a quote by Erwin Rommel from her past life. 

"Anyone who has to fight, even with the most modern weapons, against an enemy in complete command of the air, fights like a savage against modern European troops, under the same handicaps, and with the same chances of success." -Erwin Rommel

With that depressing thought, Itami turned off the lights to her room, and crawled into bed, no longer wanting to think about just how horribly this war was going for her, and her Empire. By the time she fell asleep, her mind had drifted to thoughts of her past life and her relationship with Julian. When she awoke the next day, she rue the fact that she had not died peacefully in her sleep.

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