Chapter 1563: Dinner Table Talk (Part 1)

The large piece of roasted lamb had been placed on the table before Malashenko sat down, sizzling with oil, and the rich aroma filled the air. Even at the restaurant door seven or eight meters away, you can smell it. The shiny lamb, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, was placed on the tray for people to enjoy. Seeing this, Malashenko immediately pounced on it like a hungry wolf.

Malashenko's eating style was still the same as before, and he was so greedy that he wanted to stuff the whole plate into his mouth. Kotin, who was used to this, didn't feel surprised at all, but just quietly waited for the moment when Malashenko had almost finished eating.

"How does it taste? This roast meat tastes good."

"Mmm! It smells so good! If I could eat this every day on the front line, I could kill a hundred Germans a day, no bragging."

Before becoming a tank city, Nizhny Tagil was first a small town with animal husbandry as its main economy.

The herdsmen living here have their own unique cooking skills for making grassland-style barbecue. This kind of greasy barbecue with almost half fat and half lean meat may be junk food in the future.

But for Malashenko, who consumes almost two or three times more calories than ordinary people in daily battles, this kind of food is the best energy supplement, nothing else.

Kotin, who knows what kind of food is to Malashenko's taste, smiled when he heard it. While chewing slowly with a knife and fork, which is completely different from Malashenko's rough way of eating with his hands, he also began to introduce the topic to the positive side that is important to both parties.

"Tell me about the feedback, Malashenko. I heard that your division severely taught the fascist invaders in Cherkassy. I wonder if you are satisfied with our new heavy tanks?"

It was only a matter of time before Kotin would ask this question, and Malashenko was prepared for this.

So when he swallowed a large piece of meat in his mouth and touched the oil at the corner of his mouth with a napkin, Malashenko's tone of answer to Kotin was naturally well prepared.

"In general, it's very good. There are no major problems with equipment performance and reliability. It has an absolute advantage over the German tanks."

"In Cherkasy, we encountered the enemy's new heavy tanks. We call this thing King Tiger. It is a huge monster with a combat weight of nearly 70 tons. But the Germans are really not very good at tank design. The protection level of the 70-ton thing is not as good as our IS6 of just over 50 tons, not to mention the 60-ton IS4, and the mobility is also terrible.

Malachenko estimated that as Kotin, he should have learned about the King Tiger and may even have visited the captured King Tiger vehicles transported back from the front line. After all, this is crucial to the improvement and new design of the Red Army's heavy tanks. The enemy's new weapons and equipment are always the most worthy of reference.

So Malachenko only mentioned the relevant news about the King Tiger and didn't say too much, and Kotin's expression did not change much afterwards, which also confirmed Malachenko's guess.

"Regarding the enemy's new heavy tanks, I have received some battlefield reports. The captured vehicles are being transported from the front line and will arrive in the next two days. Then we can actually disassemble them and analyze them. "

"Most of the reports sent by other troops on the front line describe that this new heavy tank is very difficult to deal with, but I want to hear your opinion. Compared with other Red Army tank units, your opinion has a higher reference value. Your division's experimental equipment is the future development direction of our Red Army heavy tanks."

Kotin stated his true thoughts truthfully. Malashenko, who had already stuffed the last piece of meat on the plate into his mouth, chewed and thought, and after organizing his words, he told Kotin his truth.

"Firepower, when we faced the Germans' new Tiger King, what we felt most lacking was firepower. "

"Although the Germans' design is not very good and wastes a lot of tonnage, this is a steel monster of nearly 70 tons after all. Our 122mm main gun can only penetrate the front armor of the turret of this thing at close range, and it has to be the vertical armor part of the non-gun shield area. As for the front part of the hull, it is even more impossible. The front part of this thing is completely indestructible. "

Malachenko told Kotin the truth about the real situation he encountered. The 122 heirlooms of the Red Army's heavy tanks were indeed seriously underpowered in front of the Tiger King. They could not do anything to the monster at the conventional combat distance. They could only effectively penetrate the enemy's armor when they were close to a very dangerous close distance.

Although the armor of the IS6 and IS4 heavy tanks was more reliable and indestructible than the Tiger King, no tank commander would like to withstand the enemy's crazy anti-armor firepower and treat his tanks as shield vehicles in ancient wars. They had to push all the way to the enemy to cause effective attacks. This was a serious imbalance between offense and defense.

Even if this imbalance between offense and defense was based on the fact that the armor protection of the enemy's tanks was too strong, it was not because the Red Army's main guns were not powerful.

People who lead troops to fight want to use stronger equipment so that they can be more relaxed when commanding the battle next, and Malachenko is no exception.

Faced with the situation described by Malachenko, Kotin, who was not surprised, nodded slowly.

"As described in the reports of other troops, all the tank guns in service in our Red Army cannot effectively threaten this thing. Although large-caliber high-explosive shells can destroy it, using high-explosive shells to fight tanks is only a stopgap measure. In the long run, we still need more powerful armor-piercing firepower to effectively penetrate this thing. Is this what you want to express?"

Hearing Kotin's question, our old comrade Ma nodded fiercely and said, "That's what I mean."

"Well, I guessed in advance that you might raise this opinion. This is indeed a tricky one."

"According to the latest test results sent to the shooting range, the new 100mm tank gun modified from the army cannon has a better performance, and the armor penetration depth of the homogeneous steel armor target plate of the shooting range is stronger than that of the 122 gun. The armor penetration depth alone is about 15% higher, and the charge of the 100mm armor-piercing projectile is also relatively large, which can ensure the damage effect."

"The current plan we have proposed is to use the new 100mm tank gun to upgrade our heavy tanks in exchange for more powerful armor-piercing firepower and higher combat rate of fire. What do you think of this plan?"