Iron Germany

"Your Majesty, the performance of the 'Black Panther' tank we equip is very advanced. According to the information we have received, the tanks of other countries cannot compare with our 'Black Panther' tank. Our 'Black Panther' tank, At least five years ahead of them!" General Guderian, commander of the 8th Army, smiled.

As one of the commanders of the two armored armies of the Imperial Army, Admiral Guderian is now full of ambition. He is very much looking forward to the upcoming war. Looking forward to leading the army of the German Empire and defeating powerful enemies. In that case, he would also be able to get the marshal's scepter he had dreamed of.

Manstein, who was a staff officer, was already one step ahead of them, becoming the Imperial Field Marshal, Minister of War and Chief of the General Staff. This made General Guderian and General Rommel, commander of the 9th Army, very envious. You know, before the last world war, when Qin Tian was the commander of the 8th Army, he valued all three of them very much.

Qin Tian nodded, the performance of the 'Black Panther' tank is indeed very advanced. As a traveler, he is well aware of the flaws of the 'Black Panther' tank in another time and space. Therefore, he also personally participated in the design of this type of tank, found out all those defects, and made improvements. This has greatly improved the performance of the "Black Panther" tanks currently equipped by the German army.

Qin Tian knew that if war broke out, the 'Black Panther' tank would be the main tank of the German armored forces. At least, in the early or even mid-term of the war, the large number of "Black Panther" tanks will become the most powerful armored weapon for the German armored forces to crush other countries. As for more advanced tanks, due to production and cost reasons, they will not replace the 'Black Panther' tank as the main force in the armored forces in a short time.

The "Black Panther" tank weighs 38 tons, is 8.66 meters long (with gun barrel), 3.22 meters wide and 2.68 meters high. It adopts a 1,000-horsepower Maybach gasoline engine, with a maximum speed of 60 kilometers per hour, a maximum travel distance of 250 kilometers without an auxiliary fuel tank, and a maximum travel distance of 500 kilometers with an auxiliary fuel tank. The tank gun is a 52-caliber 75mm tank gun equipped with capped armor-piercing projectiles, tungsten carbide core armor-piercing projectiles, hollow-charge high-explosive projectiles and tracer projectiles.

"How big is our 'Black Panther' tank production now?" Qin Tian asked.

"Your Majesty, the current monthly output of the 'Black Panther' tanks is 300. If war breaks out, this output can be quickly increased to 600! If necessary, it can even be increased to 900!" Chief of Staff Man Marshal Stein said.

Qin Tian nodded, the output is not low. The "Black Panther" tank has only been mass-produced since last year. At present, only the 8th Army and the 9th Army are equipped. The other 10 armies are still equipped with the previously produced 'Leopard 4' tanks or even 'Leopard 3' or 'Leopard 2' tanks. The previous tanks still have a lot of immature performance and lack of reliability. Therefore, the output is not large. In the plan of the German Army, they will be replaced with "Black Panther" tanks one after another.

If the monthly production of 900 "Black Panther" tanks can be increased during the war, it will be more than 10,000 in a year. This output seems to be high. But the various losses of tanks during the war were also great. In addition to being destroyed by enemy tanks, it was more lost due to various mechanical failures. Therefore, it is necessary to have a large number of tanks to supplement the front line at any time, so as to maintain the powerful assault capability of the armored forces.

You know, in another time and space, more than 80,000 Russian T-34 tanks were produced. If Germany wants to conquer other major powers in this time and space, it will definitely need more tanks. Therefore, in Qin Tian's view, even if the monthly production rate is increased to 900 'Black Panther' tanks, it is not enough.

"Let's find a way to further increase production. After the outbreak of the war, our 'Black Panther' tanks can be increased to 1,200 or even 1,500 vehicles per month. Follow-up more powerful tanks, if you want to In terms of mass production, the output needs to be further improved. Only in this way can our armored forces have enough tanks in the war." Qin Tian said.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Marshal Manstein nodded. He knew that because of Qin Tian's order, the arsenal responsible for producing tanks had to expand again, install more production lines, and recruit more workers.

Qin Tian stayed in the Eighth Army for three days before leaving Warsaw and returning to Berlin.

The tank factory of the Deutsches Arsenal on the outskirts of Berlin is working overtime to produce the most advanced tanks of the German Army. The "Black Panther" tank is nothing more than a medium-sized tank, although its performance is very advanced, enough to beat any tank from other countries. However, the German Army still needs a more powerful tank in order to be able to deal with the powerful tanks of other countries with thick armor. For example, once Bu Russia is defeated on the battlefield, they will soon launch the KV series of heavy tanks. The KV tank with rough skin and thick flesh, the 75mm tank gun of the "Panther" tank will be quite difficult to deal with.

It was precisely to guard against this that the German Army developed a more powerful heavy tank at Qin Tian's request. Now mass-produced is the 'Tiger 3' tank. The previous 'Tiger 1' and 'Tiger 2' tanks are both experimental. Because of the immature technology, all aspects of the performance of the tank failed to achieve the expected results. Therefore, only a very small amount was produced for testing. It was not until the latest "Tiger 3" tank that its performance matured that mass production began.

The 'Tiger 3' tank, named the 'Tiger' tank, will be mainly used to equip the heavy tank brigades of the armored army, the heavy tank battalions of the armored forces of other armies, and so on. The cost of the 'Tiger' tank is much higher than that of the 'Black Panther' tank. Therefore, mass production will not be carried out on a large scale at present, only small batch production will be used to equip the main forces. On the battlefield, they will also mainly assume the role of the sharp knife of the armored forces. Unless the performance of the enemy's tanks has been greatly improved and the "Black Panther" tanks are very difficult to deal with, the "Tiger" tanks will be mass-produced on a large scale and deployed in troops.

Of course, if that time really comes, the German Army should have developed a more powerful tank. For example, advanced tanks equipped with 105mm tank guns, or even main battle tanks equipped with 120mm smoothbore guns and armor-piercing shells with stabilized tail fins, etc.