Steel Soviet Union

The huge piece of roast lamb had been placed on the table before Malashenko took his seat. It was sizzling with oil. The rich aroma that filled the air could be smelled even from the door of the restaurant seven or eight meters away. A large piece of shiny, charred-on-the-outside and tender-on-the-inside mutton was placed on a tray for everyone to enjoy. Seeing this, Malashenko immediately pounced on it like a hungry wolf.

Malashenko's eating style was still the same as before, with such a gobbling attitude that he just wanted to stuff the entire plate into his mouth. Kogin, who was already used to this, didn't feel that surprised at all. He just waited quietly for the moment when Malashenko had almost finished eating.

"How does it taste? This barbecue tastes good."

"Oh! It tastes so good! If I could eat this every day on the front line, I could kill a hundred Germans a day without bragging."

Before becoming a city of tanks, Nizhny Tagil was first a small city with animal husbandry as its main economy.

The herdsmen living here have their own unique cooking skills on how to make prairie-style barbecue. This kind of greasy barbecue, with almost half fat and lean meat, may be considered junk food in future generations.

But for Malashenko, who consumes nearly two or three times more calories in combat every day than ordinary people, eating this kind of thing in his stomach is the best energy supplement.

Kogin, who knew what kind of food suited Malashenko's taste, smiled when he heard this. While chewing slowly with a knife and fork, which was completely different from Malashenko's rough eating method of grabbing it directly with his hands, he also began to eat it. Introduce the topic into positive aspects that are important to each other.

"Tell me about your feedback, Malashenko. I heard that your division gave the Fascist invaders a hard lesson in Cherkasy. Are you still satisfied with our new heavy tanks?"

It was only a matter of time before Kogin would ask this question, and Malashenko was already prepared for this.

So when he swallowed a large piece of meat in his mouth, picked up a napkin and touched the corners of his mouth, Malashenko's tone of reply to Kogin was naturally fully prepared.

"In general, it is very good. There are no big problems in terms of equipment performance and reliability. Compared with those German tanks, it has an absolute advantage."

"In Cherkasy, we encountered the enemy's new heavy tank. We called this thing the King Tiger. It was a huge monster with a total combat weight of nearly 70 tons. But the Germans were really not very good at tank design. , the protection level of a 70-ton thing is not as good as our 50-ton IS6, let alone the 60-ton IS4, and its maneuverability is also terrible.

Malashenko estimated that in his capacity as Kogin, he should have learned about the King Tiger, and might even have visited the actual King Tiger vehicles that were captured from the front line. After all, this is crucial to the improvement and new design of the Red Army's heavy tanks. The enemy's new weapons and equipment are always the most worthy of benchmarking.

Therefore, regarding the news related to Tiger King, Malashenko only mentioned it casually without saying much, and Kogin's expression that did not change much later confirmed Malashenko's guess.

"Regarding the enemy's new heavy tanks, I have received some battlefield reports here. The captured actual vehicles are on their way from the front line and will arrive in the next two days. At that time, they can be actually dismantled and analyzed."

"Most of the reports sent by other units on the front describe that this new heavy tank is very difficult to deal with, but I want to hear your opinion. Compared with other Red Army tank units, your opinion is more High reference value, your division’s experimental equipment is the future development direction of our Red Army’s heavy tanks.”

Kogin stated his true thoughts truthfully. Malashenko, who had already stuffed the last piece of meat on the plate into his mouth, was chewing and thinking. After organizing his words, he immediately spoke the truth to Kogin.

"Firepower. When we faced the Germans' new King Tiger, what we felt most lacking was firepower."

"Although the design of the Germans is not very good and a lot of tonnage is wasted, this is after all a nearly 70-ton steel monster. Our 122mm main gun can only penetrate the front armor of this thing's turret at close range. , and it has to be the vertical armor part of the non-gun mantlet area. As for the front of the car body, it is even more impossible. The front of the car body is completely indestructible. "

Malashenko truthfully told Kogin the real situation he encountered. The 122 Heirloom of the Red Army's heavy tanks was indeed severely lacking in firepower in front of the King Tiger. Under normal combat distances, there was no way it could do anything to deal with this monster. It could only get very close. Only at dangerous close range can it effectively penetrate enemy armor.

Although the armor of the IS6 and IS4 heavy tanks is more reliable and indestructible than the King Tiger, no tank commander would like to stand up to the enemy's crazy anti-armor firepower and treat his tanks like shield vehicles in ancient wars. Only by advancing all the way in front of the enemy can there be an effective attack. This is a serious imbalance between offense and defense.

Even if this imbalance of offense and defense is based on the fact that the armor protection of the enemy tanks is too strong, it does not mean that the Red Army's main gun is not powerful.

Those who lead troops in war all want to use stronger equipment so that they can be more relaxed when commanding the next battle, and Malashenko is no exception.

Facing what Malashenko said, Kogin, who was not surprised, nodded slowly.

"Similar to the situation described in reports from other units, all the tank guns currently in service in our Red Army cannot effectively threaten this thing. Although large-caliber high-explosive bombs can destroy it, using high-explosive bombs to anti-tank is ultimately just It’s a temporary measure. In the long run, we still need more powerful armor-piercing firepower to effectively penetrate this thing. Is this what you want to express?”

Hearing Ke Jing's rhetorical question, our Comrade Lao Ma also nodded vigorously and said, "That's what I mean."

"Well, I guessed in advance that you might raise this opinion. It's really tricky."

"According to the latest test results from the shooting range, the new 100mm tank gun modified from the Army cannon has better performance, and the homogeneous steel armor target plate of the shooting range shows a stronger armor penetration depth than the 122 gun. A single The armor penetration depth has been increased by about 15%, and the charge of the 100mm armor-piercing projectile is also relatively large, which can ensure the damage effect. "

"The current plan we are proposing is to use a new 100mm tank gun to upgrade our heavy tanks in exchange for more powerful armor-piercing firepower and a higher combat rate of fire. What do you think of this plan?"