Chapter 430 Spring Awakening (6)

"The replenishment in these months is crucial. Considering the war losses, more tanks are needed, so it is completely worth postponing the production of the Panther. If the quantity is not enough by July, it can be postponed to the end of August. In addition..." Hoffman showed a helpless expression, "Guderian told me three times in a row that he hopes to change the tank destroyer battalion in the 1943 armored division into an armored battalion - so that an armored division has 4 armored battalions. His reason is very sufficient. Tank destroyers are very useful in defensive operations, but offensive operations still hope to use tanks."

Speer also smiled bitterly: the demand for 30 more tank battalions may not be able to switch to the production of Panthers by the end of the year.

"But some workarounds can be adopted." Hoffman suddenly had an idea and proposed a new method. "The 512th Heavy Armored Battalion will be formed soon, and the establishment of independent heavy armored battalions will come to an end for the time being. If the production of Tiger can be increased, in addition to replenishing the losses, three more will be established every month. Consider assigning Tiger armored battalions to 12-15 divisions to replace the tank destroyers in the establishment, so that they have the level of 3 medium tank battalions and 1 heavy tank battalion. In this way, the number of tanks per division is 330, which seems more reasonable."

"If this is the case, in order to ensure the production of Tiger, the new heavy tanks will not be put into production this year. ”

Hoffman knew he was talking about the upgraded version of the Tiger, the King Tiger. This was a heavy tank with 150mm thick frontal armor. Although it had been reduced in weight and improved at his request, the total weight still inevitably reached the 60-ton mark. The plan was to equip it with an 850-horsepower HL234 engine and a new gearbox. Of course, there would also be a "mid-term minor facelift": the frontal armor would be upgraded to 130mm, an 88mm/L71 tank gun would be installed, and the weight would be controlled at around 54 tons. The rest of the accessories (including the engine) would remain unchanged, so the decrease in mobility was still barely acceptable.

He waved his hand: "Since the HL234 engine is not mature, the new heavy tank will be put aside for a while. It is not too late to talk about upgrading the Tiger when it matures. In fact, the King Tiger is not my favorite new tank. I prefer the concept of the E series universal product. The E50 is still a bit heavy. The E45 or E40 will be better. Of course, no matter how it is designed, the production quantity must be sufficient. The design with a monthly output of less than 800 vehicles is unacceptable. So I rejected Dr. Porsche's request to develop a 100-ton Maus tank without hesitation - that thing is purely a fixed turret that cannot move. It is better to use the energy and materials. Build more warships. "

The E series was formally proposed by Heinrich Knickamp, ​​chief engineer of the German 6th Arsenal in May 1942. It was intended to comprehensively utilize existing tank and armored vehicle technologies and develop armored vehicle development plans with highly universal parts in combination with future combat needs. Although the universal parts of the existing Tiger and Panther tanks were promoted by Hoffman alone, they were actually part of the plan. According to the initial concept of the Armament Department, future armored vehicles and tanks will be divided into different models such as E-3, E-5, E-10, E-25, E-50, E-75 and E-100 according to tonnage. Among them, E3 and E5 are mainly used as light auxiliary tanks, E10-E25 are destroyers, E50 and E75 are main battle tanks, and E100 is a super heavy tank.

But Hoffman had his own ideas about the plan, thinking that the series had too many levels and was unreasonable: first, he thought that E3-E5 could be merged into the E-5 series; second, E-10 should be relaxed to E-15 to enhance adaptability; considering that the Red Army was about to launch the T-34/85, the positioning of the two series of E-25 and E-50 was very awkward - E-25 could not beat T-34/85, and using E-50 to deal with T-34/85 was too wasteful, so he wanted to combine the advantages of the Panther 4, the Panther, and the Tiger to launch the E40.

The positioning of the E-40 was very clear: combining the production convenience of the Panther 4, the mobility of the Panther, and the firepower and armor of the Tiger. The closest idea was to further strengthen the armored defense capability of the Panther tank based on the common parts of the Tiger and Panther while ensuring that the production quantity could keep up, but this was a very difficult goal to achieve - switching to the Panther would directly affect the current production and troop reorganization, and starting the improved version of the Panther would involve more. Hoffman believed that this problem could not be solved before the second half of 1944.

As for the E-100, Hoffman cancelled it without a second thought. He also wanted to cancel the E-75, but in view of Germany's unique advantages and deterrence in the field of heavy tanks, he hoped to modify it to E-60 and use it with E-40, using the HL234 high-horsepower engine and 88mm/L71 or 105mm/L68 tank guns to form the backbone of an independent heavy armored battalion - the code name can be called Lion tank (different from the historical No. 7 tank).

Speer has fully understood Hoffman's point of view: First, continue to build No. 4, and consider switching to Panther when it can basically meet the scale of the reorganized division; second, expand the production of Tiger and equip some elite troops, but do not rush to upgrade - at least not consider upgrading within a year; third, study the E series universal tanks and try to launch new products in the fall of 1944 or early 1945.

"The second area of ​​production that encountered problems was shipbuilding. The troubles were more and bigger." Seeing that the tank matter was almost communicated, Speer turned to shipbuilding. "The first outstanding problem is the slipway. At present, Italy has Three battleships are being converted into aircraft carriers, namely Dunkirk, Ise and Hyuga, and will soon be joined by the fourth ship - Jean Bart; the Zeppelin and Scharnhorst, which were damaged at the same time, need Maintenance requires a total of 6 large slipways. Although the Skyhawk aircraft carrier has been completed and commissioned, and the battleship Empire and Harrier aircraft carrier are also undergoing final outfitting, it is still very tight in terms of time and space, but the Italians have proposed it again. new requirements.”

"What request?"

"Due to the success of the Europa, the Italian Navy is very interested. Prime Minister Mussolini has agreed to use two large cruise ships, the King and the Count of Savoy, to be converted into integrated aircraft carriers, and sent me a telegram hoping to get our help. ”

"Has he finally come to his senses? I thought he would always hold on to those two blue ribbon cruise ships and hold a victory party..." Hoffman sarcastically said, "What are the conditions?"

"All the modification costs, materials, supplies and carrier-based aircraft will be borne by us. The Italians will contribute the site and part of the labor. After the completion of the project, one of them will belong to us, but they will take the one that is completed first."

Hoffman kept tutting: "Mussolini's business skills are really straight..."

"Renovation to Europa standards will cost approximately 60 million marks and take 5-6 months."

"Okay, I agreed." Hoffman sighed, "The Navy sank a Europa and has to make up for it."

"This will occupy a total of 8 slipways and corresponding manpower. In addition, in order to transport oil from the Middle East, Italy also wants to start construction of 3-4 20,000-ton oil tankers. The cumulative shipbuilding capacity has exceeded the actual capabilities of various shipyards in the Mediterranean. Both supporting resources and human resources are not enough. We must also reserve 1-2 free slipways for large-scale warship maintenance. For example, the Scharnhorst and Zeppelin will need a lot of time in Italy for overhaul. "Speer's last sentence touched on the core issue, "Therefore, the plan to start construction of two Yunlong-converted aircraft carriers in Italy is probably unrealistic. Forcing the construction of labor unions will cause a large degree of delay. I suggest that they be returned to the country. "

"Can we handle it domestically with our own strength? Will it not affect the progress of Dafeng Kai and the two existing Yunlong Kai?" Hoffman knew that the keel of one Yunlong Kai had been laid in February and March respectively. Originally, April and May Speer said that there were still many variables in laying the keels for the two big phoenixes, and he became a little anxious.

"It can barely cope, but it will cause the progress of the other four aircraft carriers to lag behind. It is initially expected that the Yunlong reform will be delayed by 2 months, and the Dafeng reform will be delayed by 4 months. The original construction period of a single Yunlong reform was 20 months, and now it is 22 months. Dafeng was changed to 24 months, and now it is changed to 28 months. Or the construction of the other two Yunlongs will be temporarily cancelled.

Hoffman thought hard for a long time but could not make up his mind: the North Sea Fleet had only 4 aircraft carriers by 1945, which was obviously not enough. Not to mention the United States, even the Royal Navy could not compare with 6 aircraft carriers plus those in the Mediterranean. I can barely handle it.

Finally, he said: "Two Yunlong and two Dafeng reconstructions will be started first, and the other two will be demonstrated by the Navy Ministry again. Anyway, the real start of construction will be in June. I suggest that transport ships, oil tankers and other civilian ships be arranged in France Build part of it and take the pressure off the Italian direction - any delay is endless trouble ahead."

The second shipbuilding issue raised by Speer was about the Dunkirk renovation project, which was progressing the fastest: During the renovation process, engineers discovered that retaining the main gun at the front of the deck would have a greater impact on the aircraft's takeoff, not only disrupting the airflow. , the muzzle storm will also impact the structural strength of the deck. The Ministry of the Navy believes that from this combat, a single aviation warship cannot bear the heavy task of breaking the engagement. It is necessary to increase carrier-based aircraft and form a fleet to improve the ability to escort the aircraft carrier formation. level of suppression, and if aviation battleships are paired with battleships or heavy cruisers in future operations, retaining the front-end artillery is of little value.

Hoffman agreed with this statement: "How do they want to change it? It will take too long to completely transform it into a standard aircraft carrier."

"We don't need to completely modify it according to the standard aircraft carrier. We only need to remove the main gun and flatten the front end. The internal structure will not be changed and the hangar will not be extended. Only the turret seat ring and ammunition magazine will be reused." Speer took out the modified The rough design was provided for Hoffmann to review.