Imperial Overlord

"This thing is an ugly iron lump." A German engineer said regretfully to the apprentices beside him, patting a model of a chariot that was about to be completed beside him.

From his experience, if he really designed such a piece of junk in his lifetime, it would definitely be a shame that he could never get rid of.

This kind of weird vehicle proposed by the head of state is simply a disaster of industrial civilization. Such desecration of the word industry is definitely an unbearable historical retrogression.

Everything produced by the German industrial sector is as fine a work of art as possible, and this thing is simply indescribable in words.

"It...is just a soap box. Believe me, I have found the best and most appropriate word to describe it." The engineer looked at the thing helplessly, and reluctantly gave a statement that he thought was very pertinent. evaluation of.

According to the standards of German engineers, or according to German industrial production capacity, this newly designed armored vehicle is really a soap box.

The lengthening also widens the chassis of some 38T tanks, and more than 40% of the parts of the original 38T tanks are common.

In this way, this tank can be easily repaired on the front line, and can be towed and transported with existing transport vehicles, which is very convenient.

The universality on the chassis makes its cost surprisingly low, and the body uses a large inclination angle that the German team has never seen before, making this tank destroyer look very avant-garde.

Just how rudimentary is the Stalker tank destroyer? It can be seen only from its improvised performance and improvised design.

In the eyes of the German industrial sector, this is just a kind of special vehicle for beggars that is reluctantly brought out for emergency at the end of the world.

I have to say that their eyes are indeed very vicious, and they immediately saw that the Stalker tank destroyer was the beggar's car that they launched in real history.

Even on the factory prototype line, the Stalker has a humble side.

It was almost welded with some scrap iron sheets. Because there was no spray paint, it looked like a patch on the whole body, which was sad to see.

Because it is necessary to install a latest pak38 artillery in a small body.

This kind of artillery has a caliber of 50 mm and a long barrel with a caliber of 60 times. It has good armor-piercing ability. It was used by the German army to refit the No. 3 tank on a large scale, and it is also equipped with many towed anti-tank guns of the same type.

Because the 75mm caliber anti-tank gun that Li Le required to produce was not able to complete the design on time, hunters can only install relatively mature weapons at this stage.

It is precisely because of this kind of ideological guidance of installing as soon as possible that the stalker has been turned into a hodgepodge of existing weapons.

In order to install a large recoil gun in a small space, the hunter can only place the gun on the right of the central axis of the entire tank.

This design allows the 50mm anti-tank gun to have a field of fire of only 6 to 7 degrees to the left and 12 to 13 degrees to the right.

However, because the gun is not placed on the central axis, the center of gravity of the entire Stalker tank is also offset.

Therefore, the right side of this tank has to bear more than 560 kilograms of pressure. Although it is better than the real hunters in history, it also makes the German designers who are pursuing perfection collapse.

They simply can't understand, how can this kind of garbage with different turning radii to the left and right be delivered to the troops so that the troops can continue to use them?

The extra weight of more than half a ton on one side makes the right suspension of the Stalker tank more easily damaged, affecting the tank's climbing, steering, and off-road capabilities.

At the same time, the added weight makes the track on the right side of the tank more prone to wear, as if a person with an incorrect walking posture wears out the parts of his sole that are often used more easily…

The asymmetrical design has already made German designers intolerable, and some other designs have made them even more desperate.

In the entire stalker's battle room, the driver is at the forefront, behind him is the gunner, and behind the gunner is the loader - three people are arranged in a row, one next to the other.

On the right is an artillery gun, and behind the artillery is the commander of the car, who also takes on the responsibility of the radio operator.

In a small space, four people sit in an L-shape in the car, but there are only two exits on the roof - one for the captain, and the rest can only take the other exit behind the loader if they want to leave.

Usually it is just the disadvantage of inconvenient access. Once it is destroyed, the members of the stalker can run out at most 2 - the commander and the loader.

The remaining two people didn't have enough time to leave, they could only be burned to death in the tank, which was another intolerable thing for the German designers.

It is worth mentioning that the Stalker tank destroyer uses a sloping armor design that looks fashionable and avant-garde now, and it also adheres to this design on both sides.

The height of the vehicle is only 2 meters, and the height of the anti-aircraft machine gun on the top is only 2.17 meters.

The front adopts 60mm thick armor, and the inclination angle reaches 60 degrees! The underside of the hull is also 60 mm thick armor, and the angle of inclination is 40 degrees.

If you just look at the armor arranged in front of the hull, this tank destroyer even has armor comparable to the No. 4 tank.

But in fact, this is not the case. In other directions of this tank destroyer, the armor thickness is simply terrible - the thickness of the side of the hull is less than 20 mm, and the rear and top are only 10 mm thick.

This makes the Stalker tank destroyer outside the front, and can only defend against bullets and shell fragments, and cannot block the attack of armor-piercing projectiles at all.

Of course, as the saying goes, if you give up, you will get it. The stalker uses a 160-horsepower engine that is not powerful, so that it can run at a highway speed of 40 kilometers per hour.

Compared with the road speed, the off-road parameters are a bit appalling: because of the center of gravity of the car, the car can only maintain an off-road speed of 17 kilometers per hour.

Another "advantage" that makes the top management satisfied is the cheap cost of the hunters. Despite using the more expensive 50mm anti-tank gun, the Stalker is still cheaper than the 38T tank, and a lot cheaper.

It saves man-hours and has a simple structure. Many unprofessional apprentices can also produce it. The cost saved in the end can almost make another Stalker tank destroyer like this.

"I think this kind of thing is a kind of backwards." The engineer sighed while stroking the cold iron plate on the model of the Stalker tank destroyer.

He personally participated in the design of this tank destroyer, and the entire design process was as if someone was rushing to work with a gun to his head.

Is the center of gravity of the vehicle unstable? No problem, make do with it, as long as you can open it! Insufficient armor thickness? It doesn't matter, anyway, it's better than nothing!

After the problems that were regarded as difficult problems by German engineers were directly thrown away, a clear road appeared in front of them.

"Backward?" An officer came over, also stroking the cheap Stalker tank destroyer in front of him: "It's simply a work of genius!"

"What? You said this soapbox is good?" The German engineer couldn't believe his ears.

Some people even think that a work that has not been carefully designed at all, and has an air of cutting corners from head to toe, is an epoch-making genius work.

"Sir, if this kind of weapon is used for tank troops, then this weapon is absolutely the worst kind of garbage." The officer smiled and said to the engineer in front of him.

Neither the engineer nor the apprentices around him spoke, because the officer said what they had just concluded.

But why, while agreeing with them, did the officer say that the weapon was a work of genius?

"But this kind of weapon was not developed for the armored troops." The officer didn't delay for too long before revealing the mystery himself.

"It's a cheap alternative to tanks for infantry." While stroking the cold steel, the officer looked at the huge "Führer toy" with satisfaction.

Apparently, he was very satisfied with this Fuhrer's toy, since this weapon was the "ultimate product" of the Army's project of cheap self-propelled anti-tank guns.

Weapons for infantry do not need to be very delicate, because those infantry are not used to using delicate things.

What they need is a lot of cheap, easy-to-use, low-maintenance gear.

As long as the performance is sufficient, it is better than the original weapon~www.wuxiaspot.com~ Then this is the most popular advanced weapon for infantry!

What did the infantry have in the hands? The 37mm caliber anti-tank gun is nicknamed the can opener - ridiculed that it can only open canned iron, and can't penetrate the enemy's tank at all.

Moreover, this kind of weapon is still towed, and it needs a car to drag it. When there is no car, it needs to be pulled by mules and horses. When entering the position, it can only be pushed by soldiers!

Under this premise, the Führer provides the infantry with another option: more ferocious armor-piercing firepower, with basic armor protection, and the ability to move forward on their own, even as a cameo tank when necessary...

Is there a more genius option than this? When the generals of the army heard that they would be equipped with a large number of armored self-propelled anti-tank guns in the future, no one felt that this equipment was so poorly designed.

What they saw was the magic of this weapon - it can effectively engage enemy tanks at a distance of 500 meters, and can also accompany infantry to attack and defend!

What? You say this weapon is too rudimentary? My god... you think of it as an anti-tank gun that doesn't need to be pushed around and has 360-degree armor protection, don't you think it's taller in an instant?