Chapter 559： New equipment imagined by Hoffman

After the signing of the peace treaty between the two parties, the Romanian army also withdrew from the Soviet Union.

In this battle, the armored division, which made great achievements in combat, took the lead to withdraw back to the country as the first group of troops, and Lieutenant General Hoffman naturally needs to retreat with his troops.

"The current battle with the Soviet Union is a thorough experiment of the concept of rapid combat of armored forces led by me. Although the concept of discounting is shown in actual combat for the first time, it is not a special tacit agreement in cooperation, and there are even problems of contact and understanding. . But the result is indeed as successful as I thought. And then, with the cooperation of land and air, we need to further deepen the concept of armored combat."

Hoffman was sitting in the command car, eloquently writing a summary of the battle. This combat experience is very valuable to him, because this is the first time that the armored division is the core of the combat thinking. Although it is not perfect, at least the results of the combat can make his concept recognized by several bigwigs.

And the summary of the battle this time, naturally, let the high-level and the King who silently supported the King see the results, so Hoffman wrote very carefully.

"The actual combat results show that the use of armored forces as an assault force can indeed quickly break through the enemy's line of defense without giving the enemy time to react. This is much better than the previous gathering of heavy troops. The first is concealment. The concealment of heavy troops is very poor. , It is easy for the enemy to figure out the direction of his main attack and make a response. At this point, the mechanized unit is much better, and it is also conducive to its concealment.

The second is the rapid maneuverability after the breakthrough; in previous operations, even if heavy soldiers smashed through the enemy's line of defense, their movement speed was unsatisfactory, because neither infantry nor cavalry could match the mechanized speed of tanks. Moreover, this gap is more obvious when encountering enemy interception forces. Tanks can continuously break through enemy interceptions, even bypassing the enemy’s heavily defended areas, and point directly to the opponent’s strategic points, transportation hubs, and even after cutting off the enemy. Road effect. For infantry and cavalry, it is too difficult to do the above, and there are too many uncertain factors. "

"So in line with the development concept of future war, further investment in armored forces can make the Romanian army stronger. Moreover, for my country's main opponent, the Soviet Union, its vast plain terrain is also very conducive to the use of armored forces. "

Hoffman couldn't help taking out a cigarette when he wrote, took a deep breath and continued to write. "Based on the concept of future armored forces operations, I need to make a few points here. First, the shielding effect of aviation forces on the battlefield is required. Armored forces rely heavily on air support.

First of all, it is necessary to seize air supremacy, which is also a prerequisite for the armored forces to conduct fast and mobile operations. Therefore, it is necessary for our country to further research and develop new fighters to ensure that we have the aviation power to suppress our opponents. Secondly, air power needs to have the means to delay the adversary’s marching speed. At present, my country’s air strike means is relatively simple, its ground attack capability is limited, and it lacks special fighters to accurately attack enemy forces. Hope to increase the speed of research and development of this kind of aircraft, especially the precision bomber is the most dependent method of the armored forces. Because previous battles have shown that armored forces have limited attack capabilities, this type of aircraft is required to increase their attack capabilities. "

Hoffman first raised the issue of airplanes because he regretted not being able to capture Kirovograd first in this war.

If there were Romanian fighters attacking the ground that could delay the adversary’s marching speed, then it would be possible for the armored division to arrive at Kirovograd first, and the subsequent Kirovograd battle would be completely avoided, which would have caused casualties to control the army. It also has a great effect. We must know that most of Romania's casualties in this war were caused in the fortified battle of Kirovograd.

After writing the requirements for the aircraft in the future war, Hoffman finally started working on his main battle weapon and tank.

"The Jackal IV tank currently used by our army can still be used for a period of time. However, for precautionary considerations, pre-research on the next-generation tanks is also required. According to the usage conditions obtained on the battlefield, the off-road speed of the next-generation tanks It shall not be less than 36 kilometers, and the mileage of a one-time refuelling shall not be less than 350 kilometers.

Because with the development of the military of various countries, the number of vehicles in their army will inevitably increase, and it is no longer possible that the supply points and transportation lines are only more than ten kilometers away from the front in World War I. This also requires the tank's long-distance maneuverability to be adequately improved. In addition, according to our intelligence, countries are currently developing new anti-tank guns as a means of responding to armored forces. Therefore, the front thickness of the new tank must also reach 60-80 mm in order to improve the tank's survivability.

Moreover, according to the use of tanks by our army on the battlefield, although the current 47mm Jackal IV tank can deal with all current tanks, considering the future development, it is also necessary to develop new 75mm tank guns. Because the current task of tanks in many cases is to help infantry pull out enemy strongholds. The 47mm tank gun it is equipped with is sometimes not powerful enough. "

"Furthermore, considering the cost issue and the future construction of road bridges and bridges in the field, the total weight of the new medium tank should not be higher than 32 tons. And in order to facilitate the concealment of the battlefield, the height of the tank should not be higher than 2.7 meters. And based on the current situation For tanks’ requirements for battlefield communications, it’s better to install radio stations for new tanks to facilitate combat command."

In previous battles, Hoffman had a deep impression of sign language and semaphore. Many times on the fierce battlefield, in order to facilitate the command, someone needed to wave the semaphore to command the tank, which made it a living target on the battlefield. Many excellent tank soldiers were sacrificed in this way.

And if there is no one to command, the tank's poor coordination ability is not conducive to combat, which makes Hoffman very distressed, so he took this opportunity to propose the installation of a radio for in-vehicle communication. It not only reduces the risk of one's own soldiers, but also improves the tank's cooperative combat capability, which is simply not too good.

According to Hoffman’s request, we can sort it out. The new medium tank requires a speed of 36 kilometers per hour The maximum driving distance is 350 kilometers, and the front armor thickness of the tank is 60. -80mm, the main gun is a 75mm caliber tank gun, the maximum weight must not be higher than 32 tons, the height must not be higher than 2.7 meters, there is a communication radio station.

After Hoffman wrote his requirements for the new tank, based on the consideration of battlefield operations, he also proposed to develop two new tanks. These two tanks deal with reconnaissance and attack capabilities.

I saw Hoffman continue to write. "For the current army wheeled armored vehicles in the reconnaissance there are several shortcomings. The first is the adaptability of the battlefield; the currently equipped wheeled reconnaissance vehicles have very poor adaptability to Soviet roads, and their poor road conditions make them difficult The performance of this war was very poor. So a light tank was needed as a weapon for reconnaissance and counter reconnaissance.

Requires good off-road ability, fast off-road speed (55 kilometers per hour), light weight (not more than 16 tons), general firepower (37 mm gun is good), and good communication capabilities (must have a radio station) ), the necessary protection (30 mm frontal armor).

For the fortified tank, Hoffman also made demands. The front thickness is 100 mm, and the speed must be more than 25 kilometers per hour. Powerful main gun (88 mm or 105 mm main gun), weighing no more than 48 tons.