Chapter 316 New Armored Vehicle

Hearing that Constantine was willing to give Andros Company preferential treatment as a key factory and was unwilling to cancel the production of wooden aircraft, Andros knew that Constantine was determined to produce aircraft, so he no longer insisted. Read 520 official website

"Your Highness, the Crown Prince, you have always been very concerned about the armored tractor that can cross trenches and crush barbed wire. We have also made a breakthrough," Andros invited Constantine.

Constantine was also very excited to hear the news. In fact, compared with aircraft, Constantine pays more attention to the research of tanks.

Since the end of the war in 1912, the Greek Army has been looking for weapons and equipment that can cross trenches and barbed wire to deal with trench warfare, which is a very bloody tactic for infantry.

During the 1912 War and the two Balkan Wars in 1913, when the Greek Army attacked the positions of enemy forces, officers at all levels in the Greek Army noticed the powerful defensive capabilities of this war mode.

After the start of the European war, the trenches in northern France are now densely covered, extending from the east of France to the Atlantic Ocean, making the attacking troops miserable and making the Greek Army pay more attention to finding ways to conquer the trenches.

Constantine has always given researchers very clear requirements for tank research work. They only need to install a turret and machine gun, and the turret must be able to rotate 360 ​​degrees by manpower, with 4-5 members, and can cross trenches and barbed wire.

Constantine directly abandoned all the strange tank design ideas such as multi-turret cults and land cruisers, and avoided wasting the researchers' energy.

It does not particularly pursue strong defense and strong firepower. The most important thing is high stability and no mechanical failure.

Although Constantine believes that his requirements are not high, since the establishment of the Andros Company's tank research and development task, the research and development progress has been very slow due to weak technology and no reference targets.

Although the R&D personnel have already come up with a plan, they have been making intensive improvements just to meet the performance requirements of Constantine and the army officers.

Hearing Andros's news, Manogianaskis and several young officers who were visiting the prototype of the aircraft were immediately attracted.

"I wonder how the performance of this prototype is, Mr. Andros?" Manogianaskis was a person who was very sensitive to the progress of military technology.

As a veteran on the battlefield, Manogianas had rich experience in war. He keenly felt that this special weapon that combines mobile firepower and defense was very similar to the heavy cavalry on the ancient battlefield.

Several young soldiers who came together were professional soldiers who had served in the army for several years after graduating from the Army Academy. Their ranks ranged from lieutenant to captain.

As the young and strong faction in the army, they were young and strong, with active thinking and no lack of war experience. Unlike those old officers who were too old and had rigid and old-fashioned thinking, they were excellent young officers specially selected by Constantine and Manogianaskis.

These officers were the commanders of the first armored forces of the Greek army.

"Mr. Andros, the war is raging in Europe now, and Greece doesn't have much time left. The tanks you developed have not yet produced models that meet the requirements of the army," said the young officer Kumonduros impatiently.

Kumonduros once served in the Greek cavalry, but the current European war has shown that the cavalry can no longer adapt to the battlefield, and its decline is inevitable.

The cavalry in the Greek army is also not favored by the military leaders.

As the firing rate of rifles, machine guns and artillery is getting faster and faster, the cavalry, which was once the main force on the battlefield, has quickly withdrawn from the stage.

The cavalry still in service in the Greek army are almost all responsible for secondary tasks of reconnaissance and pursuit, which is far from the cavalry that Kumonduros wants to gallop on the battlefield. When he heard that the army leaders planned to build mechanized cavalry in the Greek army, he immediately submitted an application and requested to serve in the new cavalry unit.

At the invitation of Andros, several people came to a large test site.

From a distance, a tracked vehicle with a strange shape was parked in the center of the test site.

The most conspicuous thing is the two protruding tracks on both sides of the body that reach the waist of the body. The front of the body is equipped with a curved turret, and the rear is an upturned "black tail" chimney. The front of the body is high and the back is low.

Three test drivers stood beside the tank. After the test, they opened the hatch at the rear of the turret and entered the tank.

Andros led the few people to the high platform in front of the test site. Several tables were lined with monoculars and binoculars.

Constantine stood on the high platform, overlooking the entire test site, and noticed the special artificial terrain on the site, the muddy ground with potholes and water, the nearly one-meter-high mound, and the two-meter-wide trench. Red flags were inserted between these test points to indicate the order.

The soldiers standing by handed the telescope to the few people, and then a soldier waved the flag in his hand in the direction of the tank.

"Your Highness, the test has begun"

The tail of the tank on the experimental plant emitted black smoke and began to move slowly.

Like Constantine, several people picked up the telescope on the table and paid close attention to the actions of the tank.

"Is this the tracked armored vehicle that you have successfully improved?" Constantine thought to himself as he observed the progress of the test through a telescope.

Constantine paid attention to the tank in front of him. It was much different from the previous experimental model that always had problems. The body of the tank became taller.

It was Andros who was still personally responsible for explaining to a few people. He pointed at the advancing tanks on the test site and stepped forward to answer Manujanaski and others: "Your Excellency, Minister of Arms, this is what we can do now. It’s the limit.”

"This tracked armored fighting vehicle needs to adapt to complex terrain, so we raised the body. Now its height is 4 meters. In order to prevent the space inside the vehicle from being too narrow, the width has also been increased. The width of the car reaches 5 meters, and the overall length of the car body reaches 5·5 meters.”

Manugianasky heard Andros's explanation and asked in surprise: "Did you change the power of the chariot?"

Faced with Manujianaski's inquiry, Kararis, a key member of the R&D team, stepped forward and explained: "Many problems with tracked combat vehicles are caused by vibrations transmitted to the engine. For this reason, we have optimized the structure of the chassis. But there are still many problems, and we don’t have any good solutions.”

Andros continued to explain: "We got their latest 40-horsepower gasoline engine from the engine laboratory."

Constantine asked curiously: "What was the result?"

This time Kalaris replied: "It can run at a speed of 40 kilometers per hour on the road and 18 kilometers per hour in the wild. And this is the data after we improved this test vehicle."

Kalaris pointed to the artillery on the tank and continued to explain: "We found that if the height of some turrets is not lowered, it will be difficult to operate this artillery."

"Especially when the chariot is in motion, the bumps are so violent that the driver of the chariot is completely unable to use it."

After hearing Kalaris' explanation, Constantine asked: "So during the march, have you tried to stop and shoot suddenly?"

Seeing that the tank completed various tests very smoothly, several people in the stands walked towards the stopped tank.

Andros continued to explain: "It is equipped with a 35mm artillery, 240 rounds of ammunition, and the armor has a climbing angle of 45 degrees. It can pass through a vertical wall with a height of 61m and a wide trench. There are two members, one is the driver and one gunner. The full combat weight 7 tons”

Constantine came to the chariot and began to care about other data: "So what is the fuel consumption of this chariot? How far does it travel after the fuel is full?"

"After testing, the fuel consumption of this prototype car is 5 liters of gasoline per kilometer on the highway and 8 liters per kilometer when driving in the wild."

"We installed two connected 60-liter fuel tanks at the back of the car body, which allows it to run 70 kilometers on the road after being filled with fuel. As for driving in the wilderness, it can only run 55 kilometers. come on."

After hearing Andros's explanation, Manugianasky felt that the performance was not bad and had met the indicators set by the army. So he asked the question he was most concerned about, which was the price of this tank: "In these two battles, How much does it cost to purchase a car?”

Andros and Kalaris looked at each other, and the two seemed to be calculating costs and prices.

Finally, Andros stepped forward and said: "It depends on how many such tanks the army purchases? The more the army purchases, the lower our costs will be."

Manujianasky interrupted them and said: "The military can give priority to purchasing 50 armored fighting vehicles and want them to serve in small batches. During this period, your research and development team must also follow up, collect and solve problems used by the army. For problems that arise during the process, the specific procurement volume can only be decided after the initial feedback results from the army are available."

These combat vehicles have only completed laboratory performance verification. In fact, after the armored combat vehicles are put into service, they will definitely expose a lot of problems, which require designers and military users to communicate and constantly repeat this process. , to eliminate various hidden dangers of the tank, and then it will be possible to put it into mass production.

Andros hesitated and said: "If the quantity is only 50, then the cost of these 50 vehicles is the unit price of 20,000 drachmas per tracked armored combat vehicle. As for the military continuing to purchase large-scale purchases in the future, the price will naturally be higher. significantly reduced”

Everyone, including Constantine, was surprised by the price: "Why is it so expensive? How many trucks can be purchased at this price?"

Andros stepped forward and explained to Cumunduros, who was about to jump up: "Colonel Cumunduros, although this kind of vehicle has some similarities with a crawler tractor, it has more of a unique structure and is different from what we have now. The products produced are very different, and we spend more money. This price is only the cost price of Andros, and the price is decreasing. If our machinery factory does not produce one, it will not only make no money, but also lose money."

"And this price is only the initial price. Once the army decides to purchase in large quantities, the price will definitely drop significantly."

In the end, Manugianaski could only apply for a budget from the General Staff based on this price, hoping that they would allow the purchase of tanks.

Cumunduros and other young officers gathered around the chariot and loudly discussed the significance of establishing a mechanized cavalry force and how to use it tactically.

"The military plans to first purchase 50 armored fighting vehicles, and then form two tank battalions, with the intention of exploring the use of mechanized troop clearing," Manougianasky now reported to Constantine.

"If the Germans had such offensive weapons before the outbreak of the war and equipped more heavy trucks, perhaps the German revolving door plan would have really succeeded," Manugianaschi suddenly said with emotion.

"It's really strange to say that as the most powerful army on the European continent, the Germans are very slow to use cars in the army, Your Highness," Kumonduros on the side also interrupted.

"Our Greek army is limited by the army and cannot equip the army with vehicles in large quantities, but the German army does not use many cars, which is very surprising." Seeing that everyone's eyes are focused on him, Kumonduros is not afraid of the stage and continues to share his views.

After all, there are not many opportunities to show up in front of the army commander.

"According to the intelligence sent back from the European battlefield, Germany's revolving door plan (Schlieffen Plan), the initial powerful offensive, can only defeat the right wing of the French army, but cannot annihilate it. It can only watch the French and the British Expeditionary Force retreat in an orderly manner, but cannot annihilate it," Kumonduros continued to talk freely.

"Germany's powerful right-wing offensive relied only on the soldiers' two feet to travel, and they marched for many days in a row, and finally exhausted themselves."

"Frankly speaking, the Germans did not attach importance to the application of emerging technologies in the army. If the German right wing responsible for the attack had equipped a large number of trucks to help the army to maneuver quickly, perhaps the revolving door plan would have really succeeded, and the German army would have attacked Paris in one go."

"Although the German army's technology of using trains for large-scale troop mobilization is indeed excellent, this is the technology of the Franco-Prussian War after all. It has been nearly half a century, and the Germans are still satisfied with it. For the German army, the real trouble is the section from the train station to the front line."

Manujianaski also nodded and agreed, "Provide new cars for use as assault spearheads, and the number should be enough to supply six to seven armies. If this plan is implemented, it will greatly improve the mobility and speed of the right-wing German army, and it is indeed possible to annihilate the French army with weak right-wing strength."

There is no doubt that Germany is the world's number one in railway technology. However, in comparison, the German Emperor's Army lacks the necessary equipment for tactical maneuvers on the road.

Truck production was slow, and even though Schlieffen stressed the importance of mobility to accomplish his life's work, trucks were never a priority for the German military leadership.

Constantine speculated that this was probably because trucks of the period lacked adequate off-road capabilities and were generally underpowered.