Battle of the Third Reich
v5 Chapter 15: Battle (3) Devil Wolf
apcbc, this is the German abbreviation for the capped armor-piercing grenades, it also has a universal number.
When the bright muzzle flame of "Fenris" flashed over, eight whistled out of the barrel, and then swept along the straight trajectory.
A second later, the shells hit their respective targets head-on.
When this 10.2 kg armor-piercing warhead hits a hard obstacle head-on at a speed of more than 700 meters per second, the destructive power produced is awesome.
The shiny copper hood on the artillery head did not have any armor-piercing ability. Under the action of huge kinetic energy, it squeezed and deformed and then torn when it touched the hard front armor of the French tank. The position of the shell on the armor surface was stabilized, the ballistic characteristics were not damaged, and the rear of the shell continued to advance with the original ballistic.
Then the steel armor-piercing warhead, covered by the beautiful hood, was viciously chiseled into the thin front armor of the French ft17. The 22-mm front armor could not stop the advance of this high-speed shell. The steel armor-piercing warhead was like It penetrated the layer of metal as easily as a piece of paper.
At this time, the speed of the armor-piercing projectile did not decrease much because of the obstruction of the thin armor. It still had huge kinetic energy. The armor-piercing projectile continues to advance forward, tearing through any object that is obstructing it, whether it is a human body or a machine, the powerful air pressure caused by the high-speed penetration of the cannonball into the armor, and the fragmented and torn down armor fragments in the narrow interior of the French tank There was a storm of blood and blood in the space. In a flash, the tank became a steel coffin carrying death.
But the nightmare of the French tank driver is not over yet, pzgr. 39 also had ammo bottom charges. With the sound of a delayed fuze detonator, two kilograms of high-energy Zha medicine smashed a whole burning **** onto the head of a French tank driver mercilessly. All of this happened in less than a second, which was the first blow the French tankers encountered before the German head of state entered the guard regiment.
Eight French Renault tanks were torn to pieces in an instant, cracked armor plates, twisted and broken rivets and fragments of various large and small parts, the incomplete corpses of the crew and the small tank turret in all methods* * A huge fireball flew up to the sky in front of people. At that moment, the entire French tank assault group seemed to be stalled.
"Good job! Keep shooting!"
Major Rawls waved his arms cheerfully, and now he was completely fascinated by the behemoth around him.
"Fenris" is full of momentum and powerful volley, as well as the terrible destructive power, which brings Rawls a peculiar enjoyment over the enemy.
"Speed up, destroy all French tanks, and when the battle is over, I will ask the head of state to honor the gun that wiped out the most enemies!" the excited Air Force Major's adjutant shouted loudly.
"It's already the highest speed, no matter how fast you can guarantee accuracy, sir!" the adjutant answered loudly, covering his ears with one hand.
During the period of their conversation, "Fenris" has shot three volleys.
"Then maintain this speed!" Rawls frowned, then put his eyes on the front of the artillery mirror and continued to observe the target group.
"Fenris" made another salvo. This tank sniper gun named after the demon wolf that killed the gods in Nordic mythology was Xu Jun's first large-scale work after he came to this world.
In fact, this kind of tank sniper gun should be called a tracked anti-tank self-propelled artillery. Because this thing does not look like the tank sniper guns in the history of World War II, it is just a huge ugly simple self-propelled artillery, and it is a way of building blocks together. style of.
To be honest, Xu Jun really designed this artillery based on the idea of building blocks, maybe not to mention the design, he just made a simple calculation of one plus one equal to two, at most on some basis And the details have been improved a little.
Xu Jun’s original intention to create this kind of thing was just to show those German generals the huge effectiveness of tank sniper guns on the battlefield. Since it is an experiment, the simpler the better, and a special tank is designed specifically. The sniper gun takes too much time and too much manpower and material resources, so Xu Jun chose to piece together a simple vehicle like the most simple, labor-saving and money-saving method in the existing equipment.
But what Xu Jun didn't expect at the time was that he really came up with an effective anti-tank vehicle. After the end of this battle, Fenris not only disappeared from the German equipment, but the manufacturer also specially proposed an improvement plan for it.
(As a result, when the improved Fenris appeared in front of Xu Jun again, Xu Jun could hardly believe his eyes. It was an "elephant" tank sniper vehicle with "Fenris" as its version.)
Now this original version of "Fenris" still retains the appearance of a simple self-propelled artillery, Xu Jun did not spend any effort on its shape design. This tank sniper gun appears to be a tracked chassis with an artillery randomly installed, not even a semi-enclosed combat room, and it is simpler than other similar modified self-propelled artillery.
The simple appearance obscures its essence, and only on the battlefield "Fenris" can show its super strength.
In the choice of artillery, Xu Jun did not hesitate to choose the famous 88 mm anti-aircraft gun from Germany.
Regardless of the rate of fire and power, it is the most outstanding of the artillery that can be selected now, so Xu Jun decided to use the flag36 type 88mm anti-aircraft gun with a diameter of 56 times as the sharp tooth of "Fenris".
Then he began to choose the model that carried this artillery among many German armored chassis. He wanted to choose the most suitable body for "Fenris", both strong and fast.
Unexpectedly, this simple screening work made Xu Jun start to hurt. Those light chassis could not afford the six-ton gun at all or the recoil of the gun when it fired.
Although the mid-size tank chassis can withstand those forces, it is unable to drag the gun to keep up with the speed of the tank formation because of insufficient power. It can only crawl slowly behind, which cannot meet Xu Jun's requirements at all.
Although there are two kinds of requirements for the half-track chassis, the tall cab has become an obstacle when the artillery is firing. As a result, the artillery must be raised higher than the cab to shoot forward. This is simply the extreme on the battlefield, so The half-track chassis were all denied.
Just when Xu Jun had a headache for this, a report submitted by Rheinmetall reminded him of a large tracked chassis produced by this company. This chassis was never mass-produced due to its special purpose. Because this kind of thing is so rare, Xu Jun almost forgot that there is such a chassis.
That's the German Army's largest mortar, the 600-type tracked chassis.
After carefully studying this chassis, Xu Jun felt that he had found what he wanted, but this big guy still had a considerable distance from Xu Jun's requirements, so this chassis must be thoroughly improved.
Karl 600 has only produced one door so far, but the Rhine Company has now produced four prototype cars for it.
Because it has to carry a huge artillery of 70 tons, this chassis is huge and strong. It is 11 meters long and 3 meters wide, and its own weight is 50 tons. This obviously cannot meet Xu Jun’s requirements, so Xu Jun ordered Rheinland to redesign the chassis within half a month, and requested that 20 samples be produced immediately.
According to his orders, the chassis was reduced to seven meters long, 2.5 meters wide, and 2.4 meters high. Due to the removal of unnecessary gun mounts and reinforcement ribs, the number of load wheels and tracks was reduced, and the weight of the car body was reduced to 22 tons.
Under the request of Xu Jun, Rheinland also improved the mobile device, replaced a large-diameter load wheel, increased the travel of the crawler, replaced the gearbox of the No. 4 tank, and installed it on the rear of the car. The generator is arranged on the front of the car, which is connected in series with the engine and gearbox originally placed on the front of the car to form an integrated power room.
The driver was still sitting on the left side of the cab according to the original arrangement, and the mechanic was sitting behind him. This layout can free up the entire body and rear space for the installation of the flag36.
The power system uses the Maybach 507 diesel engine used on Karl 600, which is one of the most powerful engines in Germany at present, reaching 600 horsepower and low fuel consumption.
This engine can drag the 124-ton body of Karl’s 600-mortar gun at a speed of 10 kilometers per hour, and now it is replaced by a "Fenris" with a total weight of only 35 tons. The unit power is simply a flying jump, and now it can easily run to forty kilometers per hour.
This means that "Fenris" can carry out rapid assaults with the tank cluster, and the Rhine Company has finally successfully completed the task assigned to them by Xu Jun.
Since this was the first task the new head of state personally assigned to Rheinland, and in order to rescue the company's board members who were still under investigation by Gestapo, Rheinmetal did not hesitate to invest all of its strength.
With the efforts of all workers and technical experts, "Fenris" climbed off the production line half a month after Xu Jun proposed the technical improvement request, which was completely a miracle at the time.
Of course, there are some technical reasons. After all, the overall structure of this vehicle is only a reduced version of Carl 600, and it uses relatively mature technology. It is not too difficult to improve. The processing machinery and molds designed and constructed by the 600 Hundred Chassis are still there, and the manufacturing of "Fenris" can be completed with a slight modification.
The flag36 also made some improvements, mainly on its gun mount. Since this self-propelled artillery has only an unprotected open-air battle room, in order to ensure the minimum protection of the members of the artillery group, Rheinmetall has deliberately lowered it. The height of the 88 gun.
Now the gun body of this gun is almost extended against the top armor. The gunners can get the armor protection of the body as long as they bend down and lower their head. Although the armor is only 12 mm thick, it is enough to deal with the attack of the enemy's small caliber weapons. Too.
A narrow armor shield is also installed on the body of the gun, which can protect the aiming hand from being damaged by the opponent's light weapons or shell fragments when the head must be exposed.
Behind this open-air combat room is a huge bomb bay. Due to the ample space of the chassis, Rheinland unreservedly filled that bay with 88 mm shells, which made the tank sniper gun's ammunition capacity reach It was an amazing one hundred and sixty-six rounds, and it did not make the crew members on the car feel a little crowded.
There are nine members of "Fenris", including a pilot, an electromechanical engineer, and a mechanic. These are the basic members. The rest are all members of the 88-gun battery, two loader, one A gunner, an aimer, a gunner and a bomber form the entire combat team. As the vehicle was traveling, they sat on the folding chairs in the open air combat room. The wide car body left a lot of space in addition to the volume of the cannon, which allowed them to carry more than other tank members. For supplies and personal items, the crew of the early "Fenris" tank sniper gun was the most comfortable soldier in the German Army's armored forces at that time.
Due to its experimental nature, Xu Jun only ordered twenty "Fenris" prototypes from the Rhine Company to form a headquarter guard tank sniper battalion.
Although Rheinland did not know the head’s intentions, they saw the head’s interest and attention to this combat vehicle, and then they also discovered the potential value of “Fenris” on the battlefield.
In order to please the young and strong head of state as much as possible, Rheinmetall made all preparations for mass production in the later period, and what Xu Jun did not expect was that they had begun to develop an improved development on the basis of "Fenris" .
The powerful power and good performance of "Fenris" played a key role in the battle at dusk. However, in the face of the intensive attacks swarmed by the French, even "Fenris" had to fall into a hard fight.