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Chapter 861 Steel Monster (Part 2)

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    Japan is a martial artist.  When there was no progress in the development of tanks, his first reaction was not to introduce imitations, but to work harder to sell the Bushido spirit to middle- and lower-level officers, in order to paralyze soldiers who dared to resist modern weapons with their flesh and blood.

    So it¡¯s not surprising that there are scenes of soldiers slashing tanks on the battlefield.

    Unlike Zhang Hanqing¡¯s plan of ¡°running fast in small quantities¡±, the flaws of the Japanese¡¯s perfection have begun to emerge: in accordance with the tank plan formulated by its ¡°self-reliance¡± national policy, the Japanese Technology Headquarters began to formulate a ¡°heavy¡± tank design plan.  In March 1925, Japan's first "tank design plan" was officially released.

    Its requirements are not low:

    First, the main tank should be able to adapt to positional warfare and mobile warfare;

    Second, the artillery and machine guns should have omnidirectional shooting capabilities. Therefore, the tank layout should be such that a 57mm gun is installed in the main turret, and a machine gun is installed in the rotating turrets at the front and rear of the vehicle body. This allows the tank to use 1 machine gun on each side.  The door cannon and 2 machine guns attacked simultaneously.  Choosing a 57mm gun with a larger explosive shell can play a greater role in supporting infantry operations;

    Third, thicken the armor, the main part of which must be able to withstand the 37mm anti-tank guns that are the main equipment of various countries;

    Fourth, the maximum driving speed on the highway is 24 kilometers/hour, and the off-road speed cannot be too low.  Because the standard armored vehicles at that time could only travel at this level, they could accompany the armored vehicles in combat and provide them with strong supporting firepower;

    Fifth, only one driver controls the tank;

    Sixth, although the main part is required to withstand 37mm artillery shells, other parts only need to be resistant to bullets and shell fragments;

    Seventh, the fuel in the vehicle body must be able to ensure that the tank can travel for 10 hours;

    Eighth, provided the above requirements are met, the weight of the entire vehicle cannot exceed 16 tons.

    ¡­

    In June 1925, after the plan was completed, it only took 11 months for Osaka, Japan to receive the trial production contract and design drawings.  The reason why the design was able to be completed in such a short period of time was because Japan copied a large number of the structure and layout of the French "Sela" 2c tank.  By the beginning of 1927, all prototypes were completed, which took two years.

    With the industrial level of Japan in the 1920s, it was quite difficult to produce a brand new tank in one year and nine months.  This tank is called "Trial Production No. 1" by Japan. It can be completed in one year and nine months. In addition to the main manufacturer, Japan's Osaka Factory, which has experience in producing 4-ton trucks, Japan's Kawasaki Motors Division, Kobe Hashi Factory and other Hanshin  Regional manufacturers also provided strong support.

    It can be said that this tank was jointly built by all Japanese industries.  It was built with the efforts of the whole country, but a single company could not afford it. It can be seen that the level of Japan's heavy industry at that time lagged far behind that of European and American powers.

    "The total combat weight of the "Prototype No. 1" tank is 18 tons, which is much heavier than the design plan.  Mainly to enhance combat capabilities, a three-turret structure was adopted, and various structures were strengthened to improve safety, resulting in a significant increase in the weight of the vehicle.

    The tank has a total length of 6.03 meters, a width of 2.4 meters, and a height of 2.43 meters. Including the commander's command tower, the tank reaches 2.78 meters, and the bottom height of the tank is 0.4 meters.  It has a crew of 5 and the trench is 3 meters wide.  It uses a V-shaped 8-cylinder water-cooled gasoline engine with a maximum power of 140 horsepower.

    Since it only lasted more than a year, Japan did not develop a new engine and directly used a high-horsepower gasoline engine produced by the Osaka factory.

    "Prototype No. 1" tank has 6 forward gears and 2 reverse gears.  Due to the increased weight of the vehicle, the maximum speed failed to meet the design requirements and was only 20 kilometers/hour.

    Its main turret is equipped with a 57mm short-barreled cannon with a length of 1.39 meters, a range of 5700 meters, a bomb weight of 2.58 kilograms, and 110 shells. There are 1 7.7mm machine guns in the front and rear turrets of the car body, and 5,000 machine gun bullets.  The fire dead zone range is 10 to 20 meters.

    The tank has certain protection capabilities, with the armor thickness of the main parts reaching 17 mm, the sides 8 mm, and the bottom 6 mm.  The body of the car is reinforced with longitudinal and transverse steel beams, which improves the protection capability of the car body, but greatly increases the weight of the vehicle.  However, because its tracks are made of special cast steel and have a turning radius of 11 meters, it can make an in-situ U-turn when using differential transmission.

    In February 1927, the "Prototype No. 1" tank, which attracted much attention from the Japanese Army, was completed. In June, it was sent to the Fuji-Susono Exercise Ground in Japan to prepare for field testing.  The designers and producers who participated in the test were worried that the failure of the test would affect future work, so they prepared to conduct a private internal test.

    " However, the Japanese Army Ministry, General Staff Headquarters, Practical Forces and other units are very concerned about this project. They come to the test site for various reasons such as inspection and study.  Eventually the internal testing turned into a public display.

    When the "Prototype No. 1" tank drove smoothly in the 7-8 kilometers passage in front of the garage, the Japanese soldiers and scholars who were watching cheered, which made the manufacturers who had been worried about the failure of the test let go.stone.

    The next day, the "Trial Production No. 1" tank conducted another off-road capability test. It successfully climbed up a 31¡ã steep slope and passed various obstacles such as Haogou, earthen walls and sandbags.  Due to the excellent performance of the new shock-absorbing system, compared with the past "Reno" and "Greyhound" tanks, not only the speed is increased, but the driver also feels more comfortable.

    The newly adopted planetary differential gearbox gives it the ability to turn on the spot, and it is easy to operate. Only one driver is needed to control the tank. Therefore, Japanese tanks have always used this control method in the future.

    Due to a calculation error in the design, the weight of the entire vehicle reached 18 tons, causing the maximum speed to drop from 25 kilometers per hour to 20 kilometers per hour.  However, compared to the "Greyhound" tank, which only has a speed of 8 to 10 kilometers per hour, the "Prototype No. 1" tank is still relatively fast, and it has a tall appearance and drives majestically.

    The test ended successfully, which means that Japan has the ability to design tanks, which will have a great influence on Japan's future tank development direction.  Japanese high-level officials are not satisfied with the "Prototype No. 1" tank, which is only 18 tons.  What European and American countries think is too light, they think is too heavy.

    Therefore, this tank has not been put into production. After more than a year of adjustments, the top brass of the Japanese Army requested that the weight of tanks developed in the future should not exceed 10 tons!  Following this policy, Japan later designed the Type 89 tank.

    The "Trial No. 1" tank went through a series of modifications and became the "Trial 91" heavy tank, and finally developed into the "95" heavy tank.  That is to say, by the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese army did not have a tank unit that could actually form an army.

    The T-20 tank developed by Zhang Hanqing was conceptualized in 1920, took shape in 1922, and became an army in 1924. By the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War, it had already reached a large scale.

    After continuous improvement, the final tank has a total combat weight of 15 tons, a maximum traveling speed of 30 kilometers per hour, a maximum armor thickness of 30 mm, and a 57 mm gun with a greater shell explosion power.

    ? One step is slow, each step is slow.

    Zhang Hanqing did not follow the multi-turret tanks currently popular in Western military circles, nor did he envy the "steel monster" with four machine guns all around. Instead, he only asked tank research experts to focus on ease of maintenance and excellent mobility.  , protection and attack accuracy, I think this is the trend of future tank development¡ª¡ªof course it is the trend!  (Remember the website address: www.hlnovel.com
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