The Rise of the Third Reich

A shabby-looking 10,000-ton bulk cargo ship flying the flag of the neutral country Sweden arrived at the dock in Yokohama. It was a good time for the crisp autumn weather. The clouds and water are clear, and the sea breeze is refreshing. The pier was heavily guarded by RB army military police with loaded weapons.

A car with a military license plate came and climbed steadily to a stop on the gangway lowered by the Swedish freighter. First, a lieutenant got down from the front passenger seat and respectfully opened the rear door. Then I saw an army general with a ribbon and medal on his body and a big knife in his hand emerging from the carriage. This general is the core figure of the RB Army today, General Gen. Sugiyama Moto, the chief of staff nicknamed "Fool Moto". Behind the general, there was another general who was about 40 years old and had a somewhat gloomy face. Like Fool Yuan, he was also carrying a big sword. This colonel's name is Hattori Takushiro, who is now a powerful figure in the RB Army Staff Headquarters and holds the important position of Chief of Operations Section. In addition, Hattori Takushiro is also a confidant of Tojo Hideki, who is now Prime Minister and Minister of War.

The previous operational plan of the RB Army to sweep away the countries in Southeast Asia was the work of Hattori Takushiro and another assistant officer of the Staff Headquarters, Tsuji Masanobu.

After the combat mission in Southeast Asia was basically over, Hattori Takushiro and Tsuji Masanobu began to look for new attack targets.

There are two goals, one is to move westward and completely solve the Manchuria issue; the other is to move south to attack Australia.

Originally, there were many people in the RB Army who advocated westward expansion. After all, these guys had been thinking about this for decades. But the start of the world revolution in June frightened them. The Soviet Red Army was so awesome, with tens of thousands of tanks! Even Warsaw, which was controlled by the Germans, was captured by them.

Moreover, RB military observers in Germany also carefully studied the T-31 and KV-1 tanks captured by Germany. Finally, we came to the conclusion: All RB tanks cannot withstand one shot from them even at a distance of 1,000 meters! All RB's anti-tank guns cannot penetrate their frontal armor even within 500 meters.

How can we fight this? The Soviet Far East Front alone has millions of soldiers and thousands of tanks! What does the RB Army use to fight? I can't beat him at all.

Therefore, the argument that "RB is a country of faith and should abide by the neutrality treaty" gradually gained the upper hand.

The westward expansion is no longer considered, at least until RB completes the introduction and mass production of Tiger tanks.

But RB Army can't just sit idle. If we can't go west, we still have to go south, to Australia!

Australia seems to have quite a large territory, and I heard it is quite rich in resources. If it can be captured, it can be the foundation of the RB empire for generations. The most important thing is that Australia does not have the terrible Soviet Red Army, only the US Army and the British Army with poor combat effectiveness - in the Philippines, Malaya, Burma, and Hawaii, the British and American armies were all defeated by the RB Army. He looks easy to bully!

However, if we want to bully Britain and the United States to seize Australia, we still have to fight a large-scale land war. Because there is definite intelligence that after the fall of Hawaii, the Americans continued to transport troops, weapons and supplies to Australia. And according to information provided by Germany, among the weapons exported to Australia by the United States are many M4 "Sherman" heavy tanks (a Xie Mantou of more than 30 tons is a heavy tank to RB).

To defeat this "heavy tank", according to the experience of the Soviet-German battlefield, it is definitely not possible to rely on a half-meter-long bayonet. The effect of using towed anti-tank guns is not very good, because the US imperialism shipped a lot of artillery and self-propelled artillery to Australia. In the Soviet-German war, medium-caliber anti-tank guns without armor protection and low maneuverability were easily destroyed by self-propelled artillery. The most effective way to defeat "heavy tanks" is to use a more powerful tank or a tank destroyer.

RB definitely does not have such a vehicle. Now the main model of the RB Army battlefield force is the Type 97 series of medium tank vehicles. The 15-ton vehicle carries a 57mm short-barreled gun or a 47mm cannon. It can reach a distance of 500 meters. It can't penetrate the front of the T-34, and it probably won't be able to deal with the M4 tank. The 76.2mm gun of the M4 tank can definitely beat the Type 97 to the ground at a distance of 1,000 meters.

Therefore, the RB tank expert who led the team to visit the tank battle on the Soviet-German battlefield and the principal of the Army Mecha Maintenance School, Major General Hosomi Yuio, proposed to imitate German tanks or assault artillery. At first he wanted a Tiger tank (RB people want the best in everything). After getting Hessmann's approval, the RB devil saw the "Rhinoceros" on the battlefield in Belarus and it seemed good, so he proposed If you want to buy 2 "Rhino", please refer to it.

Considering the overall situation of Japan-Germany friendship, Hersmann not only agreed to provide 2 "Rhino", but also sold 2 additional "Weasel" 2 tank destroyers, 2 "Wasp" self-propelled artillery, and even 2 just The finalized Sd.Kfz.234 eight-wheeled heavy armored vehicle (the basic version of Puma or Puma).

By the way, the "Puma" wheeled armored vehicle (actually the basic version, but Hersman still gave it the code name "Puma") appeared much earlier than in history. The main reason is of course the huge demand. ——Historically, development started in 40 years, but because the demand was not large, it was delayed until 43 years before it was put into production.

But now Germany controls the Middle East and Italy and France control North Africa. Moreover, operations in Africa and India are also on the agenda. In addition, Germany has also intervened in Guyana, South America. In these areas, the enemies Germany faces do not have large-scale armored forces (except for the British 7th Armored Division in India, which has a small number of useless cruise tanks), so Germany does not need to assign a large number of dozens of troops to the troops sent there. A large tank weighing tons. The "Puma" eight-wheeled heavy armored vehicle, which is light in weight, has good maneuverability and is relatively easy to maintain, is obviously more useful. Therefore, "Puma" has become a very important research and development project, with relatively sufficient resources and much faster progress.

And this "Puma" wheeled armored vehicle is actually very suitable for the current RB Army. The "Puma" launched now is only the basic model equipped with a 20mm machine gun. Historically, this wheeled armored vehicle can be equipped with a 50mm L/60 gun and a 75mm L/48 gun. This is almost a wheeled tank!

So Hessmann asked the Defense Department's Arms Trade Bureau to give RB the plans to equip the 50mm L/60 cannon and the 75mm L/48 cannon and strongly recommended that they import and imitate such vehicles.

At the same time, Hersman also strongly recommended the "Weasel" 2 tank destroyer to RB people. It is also recommended that the RB Army use the existing Type 97 medium tank to install a 75mm caliber assault cannon (German-made or RB imitation) to form RB's own "weasel".

This is actually a very conscientious plan, because mechanized equipment is actually a "consumable item." As long as it is started, there will be wear and tear. If it is used for a long time, various failures will be inevitable. If there is a fight, the need for repairs and parts will be even greater.

If Germany provides the RB people with some equipment that they cannot "understand", such as Tiger tanks, Rhino tank destroyers, or T-34 tanks and KV series tanks captured on the battlefield, the RB people will not be able to use them in large quantities (such things You can give RB a reference, but you definitely can't let them use it in large quantities). Otherwise, the pressure of maintenance and logistics alone would be enough to drive the commander of the RB mecha unit to death.

Therefore, instead of equipping a bunch of high-end tanks that are difficult to use, the RB Army should equip some practical mechanized equipment that is consistent with RB's industrial strength.

…

"Your Excellency, General Hattori, I have benefited a lot from this trip to Europe. Not only did I get the prototype and drawings of Germany's most powerful Tiger tank, but I also learned how to improve the actual combat effectiveness of the RB tank in the short term. Effectiveness approach.”

Major General Hosomi Yuio came back with the equipment purchased from Germany under escort. In addition to the "Tiger", "Rhino", "Weasel", "Puma" and "Wasp", he also brought back the KwK40 type from Germany. Samples and drawings of the 75mm tank gun, as well as samples and drawings of various ammunition used by the KwK40 75mm tank gun.

So when he saw General Sugiyama Gen and Lieutenant General Hattori Takushiro, he was quite proud.

"Oh?" Sugiyama Gen nodded, "Is it equipped with a Tiger tank?"

"It's not a Tiger, but a modified Type 97 medium tank. They can be modified into a style similar to the German 'Weasel' tank destroyer. Just remove the turret and install a KwK40 75mm tank gun on the Type 97 site. In this way, combat effectiveness can be formed in the shortest time, which is enough to support the implementation of Australian land operations in Showa 18. "

The Type 97 medium tank is an RB standard medium tank that was finalized in 1937 and started in small quantities in 1938. Starting in 1940, due to the impending war, RB began to step up the production of Type 97 Chinese tanks. In 1940, 361 vehicles were produced; in 1941, 512 vehicles were produced; starting in 1942, 97 modifications were produced, and as of September, a total of 402 vehicles were produced. Including the production in 1938 and 1939, there are almost 1,400 Type 97 and 97 modifications. There are more than 1,000 Type 97 and 97 modifications that are still available. Among them, the performance of the 97 modification is just okay, and it has a 47mm gun with good data on paper. The Type 97 is modified to look like the "Weasel" tank destroyer. Because the "Weasel" is a light-tracked tank of about 10 tons, and the Type 97 is a tank of about 15 tons, it is not difficult to imitate the "Weasel" and modify it.

In addition, because the "Puma" wheeled armored vehicle is a car, it is much less difficult to produce than a tank (compared to RB, there was no need for RB to develop the tractor industry before the war, and wheeled vehicles can still be produced by themselves) ), it should not be difficult to imitate. Therefore, Major General Hosomi Yuio also has the idea of ​​producing a "wheeled assault gun", based on the "Puma", to produce RB's own "Toyo Lion".