Chapter 336: bazooka
Shuerka looked at him and found that he was a major of the US Army.
"Oh, are you guys discussing the military situation?" The American major said, "Sorry, I can come back later!"
"No, major!" Katukov stopped the American major and said, "Let me introduce to you, this is my subordinate, Captain Shulka!"
The U.S. military major was taken aback when he heard the words, and then immediately laughed: "They are talking about you, right? 'Breakout hero'...Wow, you are amazing! Especially in the recent battle, nearly a hundred Germans were killed. It is nothing short of a miracle that a tank sank in the lake!"
"Hello, Major!" Shulka stepped forward and shook hands with the US Major.
"Hello, Captain, nice to meet you!" The US major introduced himself: "My name is Johnson, the commander of the US Advisory Group!"
In comparison, American officers are much easier to get along with than British officers.
But this seems to be normal.
First of all, from the perspective of national interests, the United States at this time sincerely wants to help the Soviet Union defeat Germany... Britain is obviously selfish in this regard. Churchill's calculation is to cause both the Soviet Union and Germany to suffer. The longer the battle, the better. Only In this way, Britain will have more opportunities to recover under the siege of Germany.
The United States, at this time, is considering how to pull the United Kingdom down and sit on the top spot in the world. From this perspective, the United States should actively take up the challenge to expand its international influence.
Secondly, the mentality of the British and Americans is different at this time... Britain is a conservative power while the United States is an emerging power.
Britain has been the hegemon for hundreds of years, and it is natural to feel arrogant after staying in the number one position in the world for a long time.
The United States, on the other hand, is an emerging power that is working hard and is despised and guarded against by the British. It can even be said to be inexperienced in military command, so of course it will not and has no confidence to look down on others.
"We are discussing the issue of tanks!" Katukov frowned and said: "Comrade Captain thinks that your tanks cannot fight against the enemy!"
Johnson nodded in agreement: "I'm here to report this problem to you, Colonel!"
As he spoke, Johnson took out a document from the document bag and handed it to Katukov, saying: "The M3 medium tank has been used in the African battlefield, and we think we should report its problems in actual combat to you!"
Katukov looked at it for a while, then nodded and handed it to Shulka.
Shurka took a look at the document and found that what he said was very pertinent. For example, the shooting range of the 75MM gun is too small. In many cases, it is necessary to rely on the tank to turn to aim at the enemy. Another example is that the rivets will jump out and kill themselves after being hit by enemy shells. Tank crews, and too many tank crews are very difficult to control and so on.
Johnson said apologetically: "As for the other tanks...sorry, we can't get relevant data!"
"Thank you very much!" Katukov said bluntly: "You are much better than those British people!"
"This is what we should do!" Johnson replied: "We admit that this is not an excellent tank. In fact...it was only designed with a 37MM tank gun at the beginning, but because we know the data of German tanks, we know that the 37MM gun Not enough to deal with them, so a 75MM gun was added, which is the M3 medium you see. This will inevitably have many defects, I am very sorry!"
"It doesn't matter, Major!" Katukov said: "This is the greatest support for us!"
"Major!" Shulka asked, "Do you know any examples of M3 tanks and British tanks working together?"
Johnson shook his head and replied: "We don't know anything about it. I asked Stephen before, but Colonel Stephen didn't think it had anything to do with the mission of our trip...he answered like this!"
This is totally expected.
This is in the interests of the United Kingdom. They hope that this war will be a war of attrition. At the same time, in order to save their face, they will not say how their tanks were beaten by the Germans in North Africa.
"Do you have any good advice, Major?" Katukov asked Johnson.
Johnson shook his head helplessly: "If there is, the British should have the initiative in North Africa, but this is not the case!"
Command fell silent again.
After thinking for a while, Shulka said: "If we can't increase the combat effectiveness of tanks, then we should consider enhancing the anti-tank capabilities of infantry, so that we won't be defeated when attacked by enemy armored forces!"
"You mean to increase the density of anti-tank guns?" Katukov shook his head and replied, "No, Captain, first of all, we don't have many anti-tank guns, and secondly, even if we have enough anti-tank guns...these anti-tank guns will Easily overwhelmed by enemy artillery and air power!"
This is the weakness of anti-tank guns. Unlike tanks, which can attack quickly and retreat quickly and have armor cover, they are more useful in defensive battles, that is, to deploy concealedly and wait for enemy tanks to come up and attack suddenly.
Otherwise, the enemy can easily suppress it with mortars or howitzers.
But that's not what Shulka was talking about.
"No, Colonel!" Shulka said: "I hope there is a device that can destroy enemy tanks with a single shot..."
"Are you joking?" Katukov interrupted Shulka with some dissatisfaction: "Captain, we don't have such a thing, just hoping is useless!"
But Johnson looked at Katukov with his mouth half open, and said, "Colonel, we seem to have such equipment!"
"Do you have any?" Katukov looked at Johnson suspiciously.
"I'm not sure, Colonel!" Johnson said: "I don't know much, it's still in the research and development stage..."
A look of disappointment flashed in Katukov's eyes, and the little interest he had just been ignited was immediately extinguished by Johnson's words.
But Shulka will not let go of this opportunity so easily, because he deliberately provoked this topic to let Johnson say what Shulka wanted...
Bazooka.
There was a saying during World War II that was regarded as a classic: "Tanks are the most effective anti-tank weapons."
But with the appearance of the bazooka, this sentence has become a thing of the past... No matter how thick the armor is, no matter how powerful the firepower is, the tank cannot withstand a rocket.
Shulka knew that the bazooka rocket launcher had been formed at this time. It was invented by a US military captain, but it was not valued by the US military because no one believed that such a simple and cheap thing could be used on the battlefield. effect.
Until the American captain took it to the proving ground without anyone's consent and easily destroyed a tank in front of senior military figures.
(end of this chapter)