Chapter 606 Tiger, Black Panther and Can Opener
On May 10, 1942, German Defense Minister Hersmann left the German capital Berlin and arrived at the Dollersheim military camp near Vienna with Marshal Kleist, the director of the armored forces.
This was the training ground of the former Austrian Army. After Austria was incorporated into Germany, it was under the management of the German Armored Forces General Administration. After some reconstruction, it became a secret base for the Armored Forces General Administration to test new equipment. The surrounding area has become a military restricted area. A barbed wire fence was erected 10 kilometers outside the core tank test site of the base, and any unrelated personnel without a pass were strictly prohibited from entering or leaving.
Hersmann and Kleist took a special train from Vienna via a dedicated railway. Then, accompanied by General Wilhelm von Thomas, the director of the Army Ordnance Bureau, they went to the tank test site to watch the performance of the 501st Heavy Armored Battalion's demonstration of the No. 6 tank, that is, the Tiger heavy tank.
The No. 6 tank named "Tiger" and the No. 5 tank named "Black Panther" were both secretly carried out for many years, and the preliminary development work began in 1935. According to the requirements put forward by Hessmann, who was the first quartermaster general at the time, the No. 5 tank was defined as a new 40-ton tank with the project code VK4001. The No. 6 tank was defined as a new 50-ton tank with the project code VK5001. This is very different from the process of the No. 5 and No. 6 tanks gradually evolving from 20-ton and 30-ton projects in history. While Hessmann put forward "excessively high" requirements, which slowed down the progress of the project, he also avoided many detours and allowed the development of the No. 5 and No. 6 tanks to take longer.
In addition, Hessmann also put forward some very "advanced" requirements for these two tanks. For example, it used tilted armor, 700 horsepower gasoline engines (diesel engines at that time took up more space and were heavier, and were not necessarily suitable for tanks. Moreover, when the VK4001 and VK5001 projects began, Germany had not yet conquered the Middle East, and the only fuel available for these two tanks was synthetic gasoline), 80mm/100mm frontal armor, 50mm-85mm side armor and 100mm-150mm gun shield armor, and used 75mm/88mm large-caliber main guns with certain upgrade possibilities (No. 5 can be upgraded to 88mm guns).
After 6 years of development and testing, the two projects, VK4001 and VK5001, were finally finalized in early 1942 and entered the trial production stage. At the same time, the German General Staff also ordered the establishment of the 501st to 509th, a total of 9 independent heavy armored battalions, all equipped with the most technically and experienced officers and soldiers, for trial use of the No. 5 "Black Panther" tank and the No. 6 "Tiger" tank.
According to the plan, each of the nine independent heavy armored battalions has a tank company equipped with Tiger tanks and a tank company equipped with Panther tanks, as well as a command company and a repair company. The equipment of each tank company is the same as that of a standard tank company, with 22 Tiger tanks or Panther tanks. The nine battalions have a total of 198 Tiger tanks and 198 Panther tanks.
The 501st Battalion is the first of all nine independent heavy armored battalions to complete equipment and training. According to the plan of the General Directorate of Armored Forces, the 501st Battalion will be shipped to Poland in mid-May to test the performance of Tiger and Panther tanks in the upcoming actual combat.
Now, the 44 large tanks belonging to the 501st Battalion are all painted with standard olive green battlefield paint, arranged in two rows with their muzzles facing each other, and appear in front of Hessman and Kleist.
The Panther tanks are almost the same in appearance as the historical Panther G tanks, and they look a bit like enlarged versions of T-34 tanks. The appearance of the Tiger tank is very different from the historical Tiger tank because it uses oblique armor. It is a bit like an enlarged version of the "Black Panther" tank, similar to the historical Tiger 2 heavy tank, but not as big.
Admiral Thomas, director of the Army Ordnance Bureau, has been in the Dolesheim military camp for a week and has personally driven the Tiger and Panther tanks. Judging from his current spirit, he is obviously very satisfied with these two tanks.
"Imperial Marshal, Marshal, the performance of these two tanks can definitely be described as perfect. There are no problems with defense, firepower, speed and reliability." Admiral Thomas said, "I believe that before the completion of Plan E, there will be no more powerful tanks in the world than them."
Plan E was proposed by a chief engineer named Heinrich Knickamp of the arsenal under the Army Ordnance Bureau. He suggested finding a combination point between existing tanks and armored vehicles and future tanks and armored vehicles, and developing a future tank/armored vehicle development plan with high versatility of parts and convenient mass production.
In May 1942, the plan was approved by Hessmann and Kesselring and has now been implemented.
According to the E plan approved by Hersmann, four series of tanks/armored vehicles, namely E-10, E-25, E-50 and E-75, will be developed in the future to replace the various types of existing tanks/armored vehicles. In addition, only these four series of tank/armored vehicle projects that can obtain the Wehrmacht development contract in the future (there was originally an E-100, which is a 100-ton tank/armored vehicle, but it was cancelled by Hersmann).
That is to say, the Panther tanks and Tiger tanks shown to Hessmann now will also be replaced by E-50 tanks and E-75 tanks in the next two or three years. The 38t, No. 3, No. 4 and other series of tanks/armored vehicles will be replaced by E-10 and E-25.
However, E-50 and E-75 must be developed on the basis of Panther tanks and Tiger tanks, so the technology and experience gained through the two projects VK4001 and VK5001 are also very valuable.
"I also hope that the performance of Tiger and Panther tanks is superior enough." Hessmann nodded and said to Marshal Kleist, "Marshal, if today's test really meets expectations, then organize mass production as soon as possible. Now the Soviet Union is ready to move, I am worried that the No. 4 H tank can't stop Stalin's T-34 and KV-1."
T-34 and KV-1 are top-secret projects in another time and space, but now the German armored soldiers have long known their existence (mainly Hessmann knows), and even know the general performance indicators.
Therefore, Germany started the anti-tank gun upgrade plan in 1941. All the 37mm, 47mm, and 50mm caliber anti-tank guns belonging to the anti-tank companies of the Wehrmacht/SS Army were replaced by the Park40 anti-tank gun finalized in 1940.
The ordinary armor-piercing projectile fired by this anti-tank gun can penetrate 116mm homogeneous steel armor at a right angle at a distance of 1000 meters, and can also penetrate 94mm armor at an angle of 30 degrees. If it is replaced with tungsten alloy armor-piercing projectiles, which are almost freely available in the German Wehrmacht at present, the power of the Park40 anti-tank gun will be further enhanced, and it can completely penetrate the armor of the KV-1 heavy tank at a distance of 1000 meters.
At the same time, after the Mediterranean Campaign in 1941, the No. 4 tank belonging to the German Wehrmacht Armored Corps was also upgraded. The G type, which was originally widely equipped, was eliminated and given to Germany's friendly countries such as Italy, Croatia-Hungary, Spain and Bulgaria. All the Type 4 tanks of the German Wehrmacht Armored Corps were replaced with H-type tanks with 48-caliber 75mm guns, which had enough firepower to penetrate the armor of the KV-1.
"Imperial Marshal, I am not worried about the Soviet tanks on the Eastern Front at all." The Director of the Armored Corps, Kleist, like most of the German Wehrmacht generals, did not think highly of the combat effectiveness of the Soviet Red Army, even though they had T-34 and KV-1.
Kleist said: "Our No. 4 H-type, Park40 and Panzerfaust anti-tank grenade launchers can deal with it. And we also have an aircraft that specializes in attacking tanks, the Hs129 attack aircraft. Last week I saw how powerful it is at the Air Force Weapons Test Site on the Kurland Peninsula... It is a No. 3 tank with wings, and the key parts are armored. It is difficult to shoot it down with a 20mm gun. And it also has a 50mm anti-tank gun, which is enough to deal with T-34 and KV-1 tanks."
This anti-tank attack aircraft, which was called a tank can opener by the Germans in another time and space, was born in advance not because of Hessman's administrative order, but because of France's full surrender and the significant improvement in resource supply after the Mediterranean Campaign, which made the aircraft and aircraft engine production capacity of the German side very abundant. Therefore, many projects that the General Staff had wanted for a long time but could not be launched due to insufficient production capacity were launched.
The Hs-129 attack aircraft, which was used to replace the old Hs-123 attack aircraft, was a project that was launched in early 1941.
Moreover, because Germany gave the production license of more advanced engines such as 1WW801 and DB601 to the French Land God-Rhone Company and the Spanish-Swiss Company, the Hs-129 now gets not the 700 horsepower G.R.14M engine from the French, but the more powerful 1000 horsepower BMW601 engine - the small double-row 14-cylinder engine used by the Fokker Zero.
Therefore, the performance of the Hs-129 attack aircraft in this time and space is even stronger than the original Hs-129 in history. After being equipped with a heavy 50mm anti-tank gun, it still flies at a maximum speed of 440 kilometers per hour (3,800 meters altitude).