Chapter 32:
Wilhelm took the confession letter and went straight to William II's office.
Looking at his grandson who had just walked in, William II was a little surprised. "Wilhelm, it's so late, why aren't you resting yet?"
Wilhelm handed over the confession. "Something just came in, grandpa, this is a confession statement."
William II took the document suspiciously. "Statement? What statement?"
"The confession of the Minister of the Logistics Department of the Wehrmacht, Feigert, it is related to G43." Read latest chapters at novelhall.com Only
William II raised his eyebrows slightly. "Feigert? You arrested him? G43? Is that the gun you designed?"
Wilhelm shook his head. "I haven't arrested him yet. I just asked the intelligence department to invite him to talk for a while, and he ended up doing all the tricks. After that I sent him back to his home. But if he is smart enough, he should have committed suicide by now."
Looking through the confession, William II's face became more and more angry. "This bastard! Because the design of G43 is so good, he dares to tamper with the test report for fear of affecting Mauser's business?"
Wilhelm took the opportunity to suggest. "Grandpa, this time I'm looking for someone who is loyal to the royal family to serve as the logistics minister."
As mentioned before, it took William II for ten years to regain control of the army after the last defeat, so this is not a trivial matter. "Then how are you going to deal with Mauser?"
"Grandpa, I will not say anything about this. You can send someone to show Mauser this confession. If Mauser still acts ignorantly, I will import the 1918 modified rifle from China, even it is a copy of our Kar 98. Although the transportation costs will increase the price, Mauser will also have to close the door without an order from the Wehrmacht."
"What if they surrender? What do you want? Or do you want 12% of the shares?"
Wilhelm said very seriously. "Grandpa, I never said that the 12% of the shares would be taken for nothing. I told them last time that the shares will be exchanged with design drawings."
William II couldn't help but wonder. "Then what about the design drawings of rifles and military pistols you gave the Walters? don't you know how much pressure will be on logistics if there are too many different guns in the army?"
"Isn't that the reduced version of the machine gun, the enlarged version of the submachine gun? Why not use rifle bullets or pistol bullets?"
"Because the barrel of this assault rifle is relatively short. Moreover, if you use rifle bullets, you cannot effectively control the bounce and recoil impact of the gun during automatic shooting. If you use a pistol bullet like a submachine gun, the power will be reduced, so I designed a short cartridge rifle to balance the power and control the shooting accuracy during continuous shooting.If the rifle bullets are regarded as full-power bullets and the pistol bullets are small-power bullets, this assault rifle bullet is an intermediate-powered one. "
"Now it's time to talk about Mauser. My request is very simple. Their rifle needs to change the caliber. The 7.92 Mauser ammunition used now has an outdated design, too high trajectory, poor precision, excessive power and heavy ammunition. I want to change it to a more practical 7.62x51mm pointed bullet."
"Change the caliber?" William II frowned again. "If the gun caliber is changed, the production line must be completely replaced, and the process must be improved. The production materials, processing equipment, inspection equipment, etc. will cost a lot of money."
From the perspective of a veteran and a national military decision-maker, Hitler believed that the STG44 assault rifle had an advanced design concept, but must use new ammunition because it was impossible to use the original large stock of Mauser rifle bullets.
The STG44 assault rifle can fire continuously. It can be predicted that the consumption of ammunition in actual combat is no less than that of a submachine gun, so the total consumption of ammunition is also very alarming.
In a war, it is not an easy task for a country to suddenly prepare a complete set of new ammunition systems and meet actual combat needs. In a sense, if it is not handled properly, it can even bring down the country's military industrial system and lead to disastrous consequences.
When the STG44 assault rifle first came out, Germany was already in trouble. A large number of equipment and personnel were lost in the tug-of-war on the eastern front. It was very difficult to make up for the losses on the front line.
If you insist on equipping the STG44 assault rifle, it will greatly increase the burden on the logistics system. From this point of view, it is not unreasonable for Hitler to deny the STG44 assault rifle.
Seeing William II hesitating, Wilhelm continued to persuade him. "Grandpa, now is the best time to replace the army's equipment. Think about it. Fortunately, there are only 100,000 people in the National Defense Forces now, so it's not difficult to change arms. If the National Defense Forces grows to a few million, consider how much manpower, material and financial resources will be needed then?"
After pondering for a while, William II asked another question. "What about Mauser's inventory?"
Wilhelm had already figured out a countermeasure for this. "If there are still stocks left after the restructuring, then all of them will be given to China. After all, they have so many troops, even if they are willing to change equipment, it will not be done in a short time."
William II asked some more detailed questions, and Wilhelm also answered the question without any omission.
William II finally nodded. "Well, then I'll talk to Mauser."