Chapter 283： Skoda Arsenal

Skoda's engineers on the side were silent.

Any product is soaked in the painstaking effort of the engineers. For these Skoda engineers, their tanks are like their children. They are eager to produce all their tanks.

However, they also know that this is impossible. Compared with the German tanks, their tanks are too backward. For example, the armor is still rivets. When the opponent's shells come over and the rivets fall off, the splashing rivets , Is the biggest damage to the tank crew.

"Using our streamlined production method, the subordinate factories assigned to the Skoda Arsenal will be manufactured separately, and then assembled here." Knibokamp continued: "We have estimated in the past three months. It should be able to reach the production scale of fifty vehicles per month. After being proficient in the later period, it should be able to achieve a monthly output of 100 vehicles. In this way, the Skoda Arsenal can produce thousands of Panther 3 tanks for us every year."

Cyric was immediately happy. The output here has reached thousands of vehicles every year, which is already a pretty remarkable figure, which is equivalent to doubling the output of its own tanks!

This means that by the end of this year, Germany can reorganize ten armored divisions in full! If it is delayed for another year, and the war will start at the end of next year, Germany will be able to reorganize 20 full-armed armored divisions!

With these twenty armored divisions, enough to sweep the entire Europe! Cyric is of course very confident, the Panther tank of this era is absolutely invincible! It took more than ten years to mature, five years ahead of the entire era in performance!

"So, what about the tanks and chassis we originally produced?" asked the Skoda technician.

Hearing the other party's questioning, Knepokamp also turned his gaze to Cyric. Of course, Cyric had to make up his mind.

Will these tanks be abandoned? Of course not appropriate! After all, they have already been produced. It would be too wasteful to bring them all back to the furnace at this time!

In fact, if Germany hadn’t exerted its power over the years, this LT38 tank would already be considered advanced equipment. This ten-ton tank, so far, is actually a blank in the German equipment sequence. Germany The Panther 2 tank, the lightest tank, also belongs to the 20-ton class and is about to be remodeled, all based on the 40-ton class Panther 3.

Due to the high indicators, the output of this tank is not large, even in wartime, the factory becomes a 24-hour uninterrupted production, at most double the output.

When the Soviet Union was to fight in the future, the Soviet Union had always relied on the sea of ​​tanks, and the number of German tanks was always at a disadvantage.

Therefore, these existing tanks are wasted directly or thrown to the second-line troops.

For the second-line troops, just have a Mauser 98 rifle. What tanks do they need?

Cyric's mind turned around, and he remembered something new.

Stalker tank destroyer! This is an excellent anti-tank weapon formed on a 38t tank chassis, simply using large-angle armor and erecting a long-tube 75mm tank gun.

It is not a self-propelled artillery, because it often accompanies the tank to charge, relying on the mobility brought by high speed, and the protection brought by the high-angle armor to kill the opponent's tank!

This weapon only appeared in 44. At that time, Germany had changed from offensive to defensive and needed more anti-tank weapons. This unique-looking assault gun became the treasure of the German army, and its output was very high. At the beginning, Germany set the goal of producing thousands of vehicles per month, and Skoda could produce four to five hundred vehicles a month at its highest.

In terms of quality, German tanks are sufficient, but in terms of quantity, it is always unsatisfactory. Therefore, it is better to transform the existing chassis, including the manufactured LT-35 tanks, into this tank destroyer!

This is not Cyric’s brainstorming. This type of tank destroyer is famous in history. The Allied Forces praised the excellent performance of this tank destroyer.

And now, Cyric has developed his own explanation of this tank transformation into a tank destroyer, and even drew a few sketches. The inclination angle should be large, the tank should be low, and the caliber of the tank gun should be large. It can be selected from the existing German tank guns. This modified tank has only one task, which is to kill the enemy tank!

Cyric’s explanation won the respect of the Czech military personnel present. They all said that Cyric’s general is almighty. Now, with such a transformation, this chassis of his own will be more useful, even in the future. Can continue to produce!

At the same time, this is also a proposal, and other modifications can also be tried, such as armored personnel carriers.

Cyric’s inspection successfully solved the tank production problem and formulated a policy. Some personnel studied how to modify the tank destroyer, and the other part began to transform the entire tank production workshop to produce Panther tanks. prepare for.

After completing the inspection of the tank department, Cyric continued to inspect the huge Skoda Arsenal. The next item was Skoda's light weapons.

In this era, the ZB26 light machine gun produced by Skoda is famous! It is no stranger to everyone who is familiar with the War of Resistance Against Japan, because this machine gun shines on the battlefield of China!

The Brno factory in the Czech Republic alone exported 30,249 ZB-26 light machine guns to China from 1927 to 1939. However, China produced more imitations. The ZB-26 light machine gun on the entire China battlefield was about 100,000. In anti-Japanese war films, you can often see machine gunners holding this Czech light machine gun. Box is its most obvious feature.

This light machine gun even won an order from the British Army and switched to a 7.7 mm caliber. And its original caliber is 7.92 mm.

Yes, it is exactly the same as the 7.92 Mauser in Germany!

Simple structure, low cost, and powerful firepower. These are the advantages of this light machine gun As for the disadvantages, the 20-round magazine is too few, and the magazine is placed on it, some of which block the line of sight.

Now, Germany also has an advanced light machine gun, the MG34. In terms of performance, the performance of this light machine gun is higher than that of the ZB26. So, should the Brno arsenal stop production of this light machine gun and fully produce the MG34?

Cyric’s arrival gave them reassurance. Faced with the supervisors and engineers here, including the designer of ZB26 Harrick, Cyric solemnly told them: "The performance of the ZB26 light machine gun is good. Machine guns can continue to be produced."

(Let me talk about the previous question again. The 7.92mm stock bullets will not be wasted. After all, there are still class machine guns, which are all Mauser bullets. There are also second-line troops that continue to use Mauser rifles and change to 6.8mm caliber. , Because this is the best caliber, the power has not been reduced, and the smaller the caliber, it will save a lot of raw materials. As for the original production line, it should be changed to the mold if it is changed to a new caliber, right? Confused.)

(Information found by Huadong Zhixiong: The main parts of bullets, such as bullet shells, bullet shells, bottom flame shells and tracer shells, are all cup-shaped with a bottom, and their processing needs to be used in the production of the most widely used bullet Process-"Extension processing", to produce parts with different shapes and wall thicknesses, just change the shape and size of the mold.)