Chapter 1621: The Air Defense Panther

The Corian anti-aircraft tank is a front-line field anti-aircraft vehicle modified from the chassis of the Panther V medium tank.

It is also because of the use of the Panther tank chassis that the Corian has very strong armor protection, comparable to the main medium tanks on the front line.

Not only is the protection of the body reliable, but its turret protection is also at the standard medium tank level, and it adopts a fully enclosed turret design instead of an open turret. The protection performance is invincible among armored combat vehicles such as anti-aircraft vehicles.

Strictly speaking, the Corian is the front-line field anti-aircraft vehicle with the best protection performance and comprehensive combat effectiveness at present and throughout World War II, at least from the perspective of paper performance alone.

As for the actual performance, it involves many additional factors, such as the reliability of the Corian and the performance of the newly installed fully enclosed anti-aircraft turret, which still needs to be tested in actual combat.

In terms of firepower, Kolian uses two FLAK 44 37mm fully automatic anti-aircraft cannons. The spacious and huge chassis of the Panther tank, which is comparable to the size of the Allied and Soviet heavy tanks, gives these two 37mm main guns an unusually high amount of ammunition.

In other words, as long as Kolian is not destroyed and has enough fuel, this thing can continue to accompany the front-line troops to fight multiple high-intensity battles without leaving the front line and without replenishing ammunition.

This is crucial for anti-aircraft vehicles with huge ammunition consumption, which means that Kolian can maintain high-intensity combat for a long time even without the supply of ammunition trucks, which is exactly what the German army needs for some time in the future.

In the original existing history, in the timeline where the special time factor of Malashenko does not exist.

Kolian should not have been born at this time, but later.

And the first Kolian was only equipped with a wooden proportional turret for testing. Until the Third Reich collapsed, Kolian never went to the battlefield to show its strength, and became a burial object like other prototype test vehicles of the Third Reich.

But in this timeline, the appearance of Malashenko indirectly led to the mass production of Kolian and its entry into the battlefield.

The full conversion of the Panther 2 tank led to a problem. A large number of Panther 1 chassis produced in advance were abandoned because their armor thickness did not meet the needs of the German Army.

The German Army, which particularly valued the protection performance of the Panther 2, could not accept the "waste of resources" of installing the turret of the new Panther 2 on such a "thin skin and big filling" body that was like paper in front of the Russian heavy tanks.

Just like when Dr. Porsche lost the bid for the Tiger tank project, these pre-produced Panther 1 chassis can't be wasted. We have to find a way to transform these chassis into front-line armored vehicles for other purposes, to achieve special "waste recycling", just like the Ferdinand tank destroyer.

The Panther tank's mother, MAN, submitted two transformation plans to the German Army.

One is to refer to the successful case of the Ferdinand tank destroyer and transform these Panther 1 tank chassis into tank destroyers. The newly finalized plan is called the "Cheetah" tank destroyer, equipped with the same PAK 43 71-caliber 88mm main gun as the Ferdinand. Modify the tilt angle of the upper front armor of the vehicle body and extend it upward to cover the entire front of the fighting room, greatly strengthening the defense to the level that can withstand the bombardment of Russian heavy tanks within the conventional combat distance.

The second is to transform the company's latest front-line field mobile anti-aircraft armored vehicle plan. On the basis of the Panther 1 chassis, a fully enclosed electric turret and a twin high-rate anti-aircraft machine gun are installed to turn it into an anti-aircraft tank that can accompany the German front-line armored forces to perform air defense combat missions and drive away enemy tactical air strikes.

MAN's engineers called this new blueprint vehicle "Kelian", and the relevant plans and options were soon submitted in written form to Guderian, the director of armored forces who was ordered by the head of state and was fully responsible for tanks and armored vehicles.

In view of the powerful and nearly destructive tactical air strike capabilities demonstrated by the Allies during the Battle of Sicily, Guderian finally decided to take out at least half of the Panther 1 tank chassis to build this new Kelian anti-aircraft tank after listening to the suggestions and reports of the front-line officers who participated in the battle.

Not seeking to stop the Allied strategic bombing of the German industrial area, relying on small-caliber anti-aircraft machine gun tanks like Kelian can not stop those high-ranking Allied bombers.

Guderian only hoped that this anti-aircraft tank, which looked quite good in terms of design ideas and paper data, could escort the German armored forces in the front line and support a theater air defense network, at least to prevent the German tanks from becoming fish to be slaughtered in front of the Allied aircraft.

Of course, Guderian did not fail to consider another modification plan provided by MAN engineers: the cheetah tank destroyer equipped with a long 88 main gun, which is also an excellent armored combat vehicle that looks very powerful, but another report received by Guderian was not optimistic.

Due to the excessive pursuit of the slender fishing rod-like gun barrel, the ultra-high penetration value was brought about. The German military industry, which took a different approach, has tasted the bitterness of the high barrel diameter ratio: the barrel drilling scrap rate is really scary.

The direct result of this is that the actual production of the Chang 88 is not high. Especially under the premise that this thing also needs to take into account the construction and supply of anti-tank guns, the actual situation is even more pessimistic, and it is completely "more guns and fewer barrels".

Guderian's situation shows that there are at least four armored combat vehicles that are already in mass production or planned to be mass-produced, which need to be equipped with the Chang 88 main gun. One heavy tank and three anti-tank destroyers, and this is without counting the supply of anti-tank guns.

Guderian does not think that the German military industry, which is currently suffering from the strategic bombing of the Allies, can deliver so many Chang 88 main guns on time for vehicle production and assembly in the short term. Moreover, the anti-tank weapons on the infantry side are also in short supply, and the demand for the Chang 88 anti-tank gun is also very large. We cannot only take into account armored combat vehicles and ignore the poor infantry.

In view of this, Guderian finally decided to reduce the production share of the Cheetah tank destroyer and give more of the precious and limited chassis to the equally important front-line field anti-aircraft tanks.

There was also a personal reason, which was that Guderian himself preferred the Hunter tank destroyers, which were small in size but had the same protection as cockroaches and were extremely cost-effective. It was obviously more cost-effective to build more Hunters than to build Cheetahs.

Due to various complicated reasons and the butterfly effect of Comrade Lao Ma, the Corian anti-aircraft tank, which was not supposed to go to the battlefield, was born by accident.