Chapter Sixteen The Road Ahead Is Still Bumpy

  Years ago, when the military department proposed that the marching speed of the troops determines the victory or defeat of a battle, Germany realized the importance of establishing an armored force. However, due to the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles, it was still just a conceptual idea at that time. At that time, Germany had already planned to tear up this unequal treaty that bound Germany, and secretly negotiated with various financial giants on how to secretly build tank production factories.

  The tank production base in Hanover was the first step of Germany's tearing up of the Treaty of Versailles, and this step was taken very cautiously by Germany, for fear that any mistake would make other countries aware of Germany's intentions.

  After careful consideration, the Supreme Command and various investors decided to establish a tank production base in inconspicuous Hanover. As a result, Germany made more than a year of preparations, first transporting raw materials to Hamburg for storage, and then secretly transferring them strategically. Thanks to the Nazi Party's absorption of international attention, this tank production base was able to be established smoothly.

  In the past year or two, the international community's attention was drawn to the radical National Socialist Party, and the intelligence agencies monitoring the Defense Forces relaxed their surveillance, especially after learning that several clashes had broken out between the Defense Forces and the National Socialist Party. As a result, countries began to shift their focus from the Defense Forces' intelligence organization to the National Socialist Party.

  The facts also tell various countries that the national defense army indeed has a great divergence with the Nazi Party. The mid-term Junker's joining of the Nazi Party has caused special attention from the international community, and various countries are worried that Junker has changed direction, and Germany's dominant class has shifted!

  Judging from the various facts of the Prussian era, Junkers have always been the backbone of Germany. The attitude and will of Junkers are likely to determine the future direction of Germany. That proverb is still popular today: Prussia rules Germany, Junkers rule Prussia, so Junkers are the masters of Germany.

  The development of the Storm Troopers' handling of events was beyond the expectations of various countries. The Junkers, who had been closely cooperating with the Nazi Party, suddenly clashed with the Nazi Party in the corner of Hitler's wall. It seemed that the Junkers had long been discussing with the Defense Army and took advantage of the Nazi Party's negligence to "stabilize the country". Hitler's Nazi Party suffered a significant blow, and Hitler himself was once hiding at home and refused to see anyone.

  Later, various countries began to wonder what was wrong with Germany. The country with clear grievances had become an enemy of the Junker forces, the military forces and the Nazi Party, which had miraculously come together. This also made various countries more convinced that Hitler was a very dangerous person who had made concessions and signed an unthinkable agreement. The specific content of this agreement was not well understood by various countries, only knowing that it restricted some of Hitler's administrative powers.

  Now, while the various countries are paying attention to Germany's ruling party, they have begun to issue warnings to the German military: "You have already violated the Treaty of Versailles and expanded your army to 300,000 men." Meaningless warnings. The whole of Germany responded in one voice to the various countries: If we do not take defensive action again, it is hard to say whether there will still be a country called Germany in this world.

  A sudden event in the red regime in the East has once again drawn the attention of various countries, and that red regime seems to be about to bare its teeth. It is going to take action against one of the three neighboring countries: Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia!

  Led by Britain and France, the Allied Powers began calling out in international society: Beware of that country!

  For the same 'ideology' of Germany, they began to implement a more lenient appeasement policy towards Germany, that is, they tolerated... or indulged in the expansion of German armed forces!

  They naively believed that Germany and the Soviet Union would become enemies (which later became true), and wished that Germany would be the frontline against the red regime. If it weren't for France, Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg, these four countries disagreed, some even thought they could completely abolish the Treaty of Versailles and give Germany the freedom to expand its military power.

  Dizzying era.

  ……

  Xu Yang, accompanied by the factory's technical advisor, first came to the bottom plate production workshop. Here, 15 chassis of Type I tanks had been produced, and the unprocessed chassis looked like an agricultural tractor without a front cover, looking somewhat comical.

  In another workshop, workers are installing the driving wheel and idler wheel, as well as the track rollers on the chassis. A tank's chassis is taking shape, and it will be moved to the assembly line for a thorough inspection. If everything checks out, the suspension system and road wheels will be installed. However, this is still not a complete tank chassis. After passing inspections of the idler wheel, track rollers, suspension system, and road wheels, the chassis will undergo a five-day test of sliding on the driving wheel while suspended in mid-air. Any chassis that fails the test will be reworked, while those that pass will be fitted with tracks.

  At this point, the tank chassis is considered semi-finished and will be transported to a special workshop for installation of the skirt plate and other chassis accessories. The craftsmanship required in this section is the most stringent, as an error in any part can affect the performance of the entire chassis. At that time, the welding technique was not yet mature, and it often happened that the produced chassis could only withstand one hit from a 15 kg shell before collapsing. Only a few of the produced tank chassis passed the final inspection, with 4-5 out of 10 considered to be in the peak period of high production.

  The tank turret has a different manufacturing process, with different calibers of artillery having different processes. The volume and appearance of the turret will have obvious differences. The procedure for manufacturing a tank turret is much more complicated than making a tank chassis. Currently, two types of artillery turrets are designed for Type I tanks: 20mm high cannon and 37mm cannon. To adapt to the two different turrets, the arsenal also prepared two types of engines, diesel and gasoline, as for the effect, it cannot be tested in actual combat yet.

  The finished Type I tank weighed around 5-7 tons, had a crew of two, a speed of 30-40 km/h, a length of 4.02 m, a width of 2.06 m, and a height of 1.72 m, with armor thicknesses ranging from 6 to 13 mm.

  Type I tanks also had a 7.92mm machine gun mounted on the top of the hull in addition to the turret.

  Xu Yang deliberately got into the car to take a look and found that the internal space was very cramped, making it hard to imagine how the tank loader would perform the loading action. The interior of the vehicle, which had not been driven for a long time, had a strange smell of oil. If it were in wartime? After the tank had been running for a long time, the smell would become even stranger. It's really unknown what kind of torture it is for the crew to be in a car full of weird smells and sweltering heat.

  He crawled out and walked around the tank, finding that there was only a large shield to protect the front of the crew, but no armor on top or in the back. This is an extremely dangerous thing, who can guarantee that the enemy will not fire shells from behind?

  Gark-Essen, one of the design engineers for this tank, saw Xu Yang frowning and slapping the side and rear cover of the engine compartment, curiously asking: "What's wrong?"

  Xu Yang ignored him, and suddenly lifted his foot to kick the engine compartment violently. He found that the kicked part was slightly concave. He squatted down, pointing at the concave part, "Are you sure this is a tank for the national defense army's armored forces?"

  He stood up and walked to the side of the vehicle, crouched down and concentrated on checking if the track was tight. "Muddy road, I think this guy is going to break down, the distance between the wheels and tracks is too compact. The chassis is also a bit low."

  The technicians beside him kept recording what Xuyang said, they saw the recessed steel plate and were slightly stunned, a little surprised, their eyes scanning back and forth between Xuyang's big foot and the recessed part.

  Gaulke-Essen said: "The engine determines the coordination between the tractor and the track, their design is designed according to the function of the engine."

  Xu Yang decided to temporarily set aside the issue of the tracks and returned to the position of the engine, pointing to the recessed area and saying: "Ordinary rifle bullets can penetrate the engine cover. I feel that once the engine is finished, it's more like a coffin than a tank. It's not a weapon for soldiers to move around and fight with. Unless... your design intention is to use it as a mobile artillery platform?"

  Gao Erk-Essen's expression was very calm, he said: "The thickness of the armor is still related to the performance of the engine. If it's too heavy, it can't run at all. With our current engine function, 5-7 tons is already the limit."

  Xu Yang was stunned, he took a deep breath and asked: "Is it really going to end like this?"

  That expression was filled with infinite disappointment...