Chapter 855 Fin-Stabilized Armor-Piercing Discarding Sabot Projectile

It’s the fifth update. It’s not easy for me to write a book. Please give me a few more monthly passes!

"Let's put it this way!" Qinchuan said to Conrad: "In the battle against the Soviet army, the 48th Panzer Army and the 2nd SS Panzer Army were obviously equipped with stronger tanks than the 2nd SS Panzer Army. More, why is the 48th Panzer Army progressing smoothly while the 2nd SS Panzer Army is in deep trouble? "

"That's because the 48th Armored Corps is equipped with ME63!" Conrad replied.

"That's the problem, Colonel!" Qinchuan replied: "Compared to the 'Tiger', the T34 is a cheap, batch-equipped equipment that can be deployed quickly, and the ME63 is very important to the T34. , is a cheaper equipment that can be mass-produced in a short time and deployed quickly, so we can win in the Kovo Plain and Prokhorovka!”

"Lieutenant Colonel!" Konrad replied with a smile: "You seem to have completely ignored your role. As far as I know...if it weren't for your use of the Soviet anti-tank trenches, the 48th Armored Corps would also have been unable to obtain victory!"

Qin Chuan was speechless for a moment. He didn't expect that Conrad would use this as an argument, and what he said seemed to make sense.

"Colonel!" Qin Chuan said: "Didn't you see that more than half of the 'Tiger' broke down during the battle and was unable to fight?"

"But that's just because of the problems that the Tiger just produced!" Conrad said: "It won't take long before we can solve these problems!"

"This is impossible to solve!" Qin Chuan said: "Because these failures are caused by the excessive weight of the 'Tiger' itself, unless you reduce its weight!"

After a pause, Qin Chuan continued: "Also, because of the weight of the 'Tiger', many bridges and roads cannot bear its weight, which makes it have a lot of trouble during marches and operations!"

"We're going to fix these problems!" Conrad said.

"No, you can't solve it!" Qin Chuan objected.

In fact, Qinchuan knew very well that a series of problems such as the high failure rate and maintenance difficulties of the "Tiger" could not be solved until the end of the war.

In the end, Colonel Conrad seemed to have no choice. He spread his hands and said: "Lieutenant Colonel, I don't know why you are prejudiced against the 'Tiger', but it is indeed a very popular weapon among soldiers on the battlefield." A popular tank, many people are proud to drive it!”

Qin Chuan had to admit this, mainly because of its super defense and firepower. Many armored heroes used the "Tiger Style" to create miracles one after another on the battlefield. For example, they met Ke in Maliwo Village before. Nisper, like Wittmann and Carlius, all used the Tiger to create an astonishing record of hundreds of enemy tanks.

"I'm not biased against the 'Tiger', Colonel!" Qinchuan said: "I mean, we can no longer waste time developing tanks with thicker and heavier armor. That is a waste of time and a waste of time." Resources and productivity!”

"Why?" Conrad spread his hands.

"As you said before, one of our ME63s can easily penetrate the thick armor of a tank, even if it is two hundred millimeters or more thick!"

"But this problem has been solved, hasn't it?" Conrad asked.

Qin Chuan was choked. In today's discussion, Conrad perfectly interpreted the phrase "use the other's spear to attack the other's shield".

"Lieutenant Colonel!" Conrad said: "Let's put it this way, if you think we shouldn't waste time on a Tiger or a heavier tank, then which tank do you think we should use?"

Qin Chuan replied without thinking: "Leopard's front armor also reaches 100mm, which is equivalent to Tiger's, but its side armor and rear armor are much thinner than Tiger's, which makes it weigh more than The 'Tiger' is 12 tons lighter, so its failure rate, maneuverability, and cost are much better than the 'Tiger' in all aspects!"

The "Leopard", also known as the "Plank 5" tank, was one of the most successful medium tanks in World War II. The German army produced more than 6,000 tanks during the entire World War II. It was the main tank of the German army on the battlefield, along with the "Planzer 4" tank.

"Lieutenant Colonel!" Conrad couldn't help laughing: "But the artillery used by the two is different. The 'Tiger' can destroy the 'Leopard' from a long distance, but not vice versa. If two tanks meet... Who do you think? Will it win?"

It's obviously unfair for Conrad to ask this.

But this problem gave Qin Chuan an inspiration...

"Colonel!" Qin Chuan said: "When we talked about the ME63 just now, you said that the problem has been solved, so we don't have to worry about the problem of rockets, so we can develop tanks with thicker armor!"

"You can say that!" Conrad nodded.

"But..." Qin Chuan said: "What if there is another kind of equipment that can also easily penetrate hundreds of millimeters of armor?"

Conrad looked at Qin Chuan with an incredulous expression and said hesitantly: "I don't think there is such equipment, Lieutenant Colonel!"

"Of course we have this kind of equipment, Colonel!" Qin Chuan said: "We can change the gun for the Leopard tank!"

"Change a different gun?"

"Yes, replace it with a smoothbore cannon!"

Conrad was stunned for a moment, and then he laughed: "Lieutenant Colonel, I think you don't understand that the range of a smoothbore cannon is far inferior to that of a rifled cannon..."

"Of course I know, Colonel!" Qin Chuan said.

"You know and think we should switch back to smoothbore cannons?" Conrad was a little confused.

The evolution of tank guns has a process... Initially, due to technical and turret space issues, short-barreled mortars were generally used.

Although smoothbore guns have the advantage of long life, they are unstable and may roll in the air because they do not have rifling. Therefore, their range is far less than that of rifled guns... The rifling of rifled guns can make the shells rotate at high speed when fired, so they can fly stably in the air to increase the range and hit rate.

Therefore, when technical conditions permit, all countries have installed rifled guns. But after World War II... most countries replaced rifled guns with smoothbore guns again.

The reason is that rifled guns have unsolvable shortcomings: such as short life, complex process, high cost and low initial velocity.

However, the shortcomings of smoothbore gun shells can be well solved... If the gun cannot be changed, the shells can be changed so that they can remain stable in the air even when fired with smoothbore guns.

So there was the "fin-stabilized armor-piercing discarding sabot"... It has to be said that human wisdom is infinite. Its appearance has enabled tank guns to avoid all the shortcomings of rifled guns, while also having the advantages of rifled guns with long range and high hit rate. It can be said that it takes the best of both worlds.

"The key is the shells, Colonel!" Qin Chuan said, "We need a new type of shells!"