Australian Storm 1876

   Chapter 863 Mechanized Armored Corps

   After more than ten days

   January 9, 1906

Li Fushou light car Jian Cong came to Tasmania in person. After a detailed understanding of the performance of the T2 tank in all aspects, he gave a high evaluation and ordered the accompanying cabinet officials to supervise the relevant cooperative units to solve the technical problems of mass production of the T-2 tank after maturity. .

   To ensure the needs of national defense construction, and to further consolidate the foundation.

   His Majesty the Emperor personally decided to produce and equip 550 T-2 tanks within 10 years, and the two armored divisions were equipped with a total of 200 T-2 tanks, and the rest entered the strategic reserve.

Among them, a total of 350 T-2 tanks are equipped and stored by the Royal Praetorian Guards, and 200 by the Army. The price of each equipment is suppressed to less than 30,000 Jinyang, so as to meet the requirements of large-scale installation and storage, and reduce the pressure on army equipment. .

Thus

The total budget for the Army's equipment of 200 T-2 tanks is about 6 million Jinyang, which is divided into 10 years for equipment and storage. The annual expenditure and equipment cost is about 500,000 to 700,000 Jinyang, which is a little more than the original plan of 400,000 Jinyang. Still within the acceptable range, there will be a squeeze.

  The royal palace near the secret base of Tau Porang

This is a small-scale classical manor-style building, surrounded by streams and beautiful scenery. Zhang Li, Secretary-General of the Royal Family, led Bian Chunsong to pass the Jiuqu Bridge and came to the gate of a garden shaded by trees. He stopped and looked at Major General Bian Chunsong. With a slight smile, he said;

   "General Bian, I have heard for a long time that you are a pioneer practitioner and theoretician of the theory of armored forces. You have been working in this field for a long time and have unique insights. Your Majesty is very interested in this. You can speak freely to you this time, so don't be nervous."

"Thank you for your advice, Mr. Chunsong. To be honest, I'm about to meet Shengyan. My heart is beating so fast that I can't breathe." Fist, look quite nervous.

   Zhang Li was used to this kind of situation. For those high-ranking officials who were called individually, they were rarely nervous when they met with the Holy Face.

Today's sages are not only the heroic masters who created a dynasty, but also the mentors of the vast majority of the leaders. Whether they are trained by themselves, or they are taught by their ears, or they are directed, they all have the grace of enlightenment and reshape the life journey of countless people. , Is it as simple as a leader?

   Holy power is like a prison, and those who are in power know it.

"Take two deep breaths, exhale slowly, and try to calm down the inner turmoil." Being in such a central position as Zhang Li, general well-intentioned suggestions can be rewarded with countless gratitude. Extremely high, he doesn't mind harvesting another wave; "Your Majesty is generous and kind, don't have any pressure in your heart, just keep your duty in mind, and you must not lose your dignity in front of you, remember!"

   "Thank you for your kindness, Chunsong will keep it in mind."

   "Hehe... You're welcome, let's go in now!"

Zhang Li was the first to lead the way into the courtyard, bypassing the flower path in full bloom, and a row of classical palace buildings in front of him came into view. At this time, it was the hot time of the year in Tasmania, and the highest temperature close to 20 degrees.

  Although there was a cool breeze in the yard, Bian Chunsong had already released a layer of white sweat on his back. He neatly arranged his military uniform, and under the watchful eye of the guard officers, he followed Zhang Li into the hall step by step.

  The bronze gluttonous incense burner in the hall burns the refreshing incense of the Dragon Birthday. Li Fushou is wearing a bright yellow embroidered gold dragon robe, a purple gold crown on his head, and a resolute expression on his chiseled face. He is sitting behind the dragon case and is reviewing the memorial.

   "Report to Your Majesty, Major General Bian Chunsong, the Honorary First Division Commander of the Royal Army, has an audience." Zhang Li said respectfully.

   Major General Bian Chunsong hurriedly saluted; "Wei ministers see Your Majesty, Your Majesty's dragon body is healthy."

  Li Fushou put down the memorial in his hand, raised his eyes and looked over, the invisible majesty seemed to be pressing down on Bian Chunsong's body, and his body that couldn't help clenching his fists in salute sank a little more.

  The Ocean Empire abolished the kneeling ceremony, and the courtiers bowed with fists and bows at 90 degrees when they met His Majesty.

   "Don't be too polite, give a seat."

  Li Fushou waved his hand casually and observed the middle-aged general with interest. Seeing that he was well-mannered, polite and respectful, his eyes were filled with admiration and respect from the bottom of his heart, and he couldn't help but nodded secretly.

Judging from his resume, Bian Chunsong is a top student who graduated from the Engineering Department of Red River Valley University. He studied under Professor He Zuguang, academician of the Royal Academy of Sciences, and has completely experienced the development and testing process of the first type of wild wolf light tank. Taking office, deeply cultivating this field, and making great achievements.

  The internal report of the Secret Guard of the Political Intelligence Bureau shows that his fanatical worship leader, loyal to the country, is the core backbone of the Skull and Bones Society, actively participates in related activities, and has a loyalty of 5 stars, which is the highest level.

  Under Li Fushou's gaze, Bian Chunsong felt a pressure that seemed to be substantial, which made him almost breathless. His Majesty's gaze seemed to be able to penetrate his heart, and he could see through it at a glance.

   This kind of feeling, he has never experienced in any superior.

"General Bian don't need to be cautious. I called you here today to hear your opinion on the equipment and organization of the armored troops." Li Fushou paused for a while, and finally spoke up, as if the real pressure had quietly dissipated, his slender fingers gently Beating the dragon case, sitting on the dragon chair in a relaxed manner and said, "You are an expert in this field, and your research is relatively thorough. If you have any ideas, feel free to discuss them, and the speaker is innocent!"

   "Reporting to Your Majesty, Wei Chen does have some thoughts that are unpleasant!"

   "Oh, let's hear it."

   Talking about the topic of tank and armored soldiers that he has been working on for a long time, Major General Bian Chunsong's nervousness was relieved a lot, and he said calmly;

   "The application of tank armoured troops in land warfare has only been around for 16 years. In terms of preparation and application theories and their status, the world's frontier military circles disagree on this, and there are various arguments.

   There are two main factions, one is based on the frontier exploration of the military theory circles of Britain, France, Germany and other countries, and believes that the armored force should be subordinate to the army force and used as a supplementary force of the infantry to enhance the attack power of the infantry force.

  The other faction focuses on the empire and insists that armored forces should be concentrated and used alone. I am also a firm supporter of this theory, and I have explored a whole set of armored soldiers regulations and tactics in practice.

   It turns out that this is a road suitable for the development of armored forces.

   Due to the short development history, I also found the inadequacies of the current compilation in practice.

The main disadvantage of    is that the main battle equipment is single, the ability to perform various tasks is poor, the steel is too strong and lacks toughness, and the ability to deal with the complex and changeable environment of the battlefield needs to be improved.

   This is not caused by the shortcomings of equipment, but caused by insufficient organization capacity, which can be solved by improving the organization of armored divisions to meet the needs of modern high-intensity warfare and forge an invincible armored iron fist. "

His words aroused strong interest in Li Fushou, he pondered for a while, looked at Zhang Li and Li Xiaozu who were standing beside him, and said with a playful smile on the corner of his mouth; "It seems that General Bian has a lot of ideas, then you can speak freely and say what you want. It's a reward, and it's not a crime to say something wrong."

   "Thank you Your Majesty for your generosity, and I have the courage to speak out." Major General Bian Chunsong was more like a scholar talking about his beloved subject at this time, and he put down the burden in his heart and talked freely;

  "In the compilation sequence of today's Honorary First Division;

The    division headquarters includes two wolf light tank regiments, a cheetah medium tank regiment, a mechanized infantry regiment that rides on three-ton trucks, a division battalion, a machine repair battalion, and a mule-horse transportation regiment.

This kind of organization cannot be said to be unreasonable, but the scale is too large. When encountering a high-intensity war, a tank and armored division can only deal with one aspect of the battle, which appears to be too large and inappropriate. The ability to deal with emergencies is poor and cannot fully Unleash the combat power of the armored division.

   for example in battle;

The    mechanized infantry regiment suffered heavy losses from the enemy's surprise attack, and the entire armored division faced the dilemma of no infantry cooperation, and was vulnerable to concentrated fire attacks from anti-tank artillery, mines, and powerful firearms, and faced the danger of defeat.

As a veteran armored commander, Wei Chen has a deep understanding of tank equipment. When commanding tanks on the battlefield, most of the time, the commander can only hide in a narrow tank with poor visibility and obtain forward information through a periscope. .

   At this time, the tank commander's coordination between the left and right sides and the rear is basically blank. In addition, there is a lot of noise inside the tank, and it is difficult to communicate information. Even if the nearby tanks are destroyed, it is difficult to find.

   Therefore, when the armored troops attack, the flanks are the biggest weakness and need the cover of the infantry troops.

However, our division-level combat system cannot take into account this. I call it "lack of tactical flexibility". The attack performance is excessive, the steel is too strong, and the defense weakness is obvious, leaving a great opportunity for the enemy to take advantage of. machine.

  An armored division with an oversized tank armored vehicle lacked the necessary tactical flexibility, so Weichen felt that the organization should be reformed to adapt to the complex environment. "

The deep meaning of    Bian Chunsong's words was clearly explained, and Li Fushou understood it. According to the memory of later generations, this is the direction of the future mechanized armored corps.

   So he asked; "General Bian, how large do you think the reform of the armored division should be?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, Wei Chen thought that the division-level organization could be streamlined and delegated to the regiment level. Each division had two tank regiments, a motorized artillery regiment, a motorized infantry regiment, and a divisional battalion ( Including communications company, engineer company, military police company, hospital and two guard companies)

  Each tank regiment consists of three armored tank battalions and one motorized infantry battalion. In this way, each armored regiment should have independent combat capabilities sufficient for medium-scale battles. "It can be seen that Major General Bian Chunsong has been thinking about this issue for a long time, and the relevant compilation issues are casually said;

"To achieve this goal, then the tank regiment should have a regimental armored communications platoon, including 2 T-2 command tanks and 1 T-2 battle tank. A regimental guard company, military police platoon, equipped with 12 trucks .

   Each armored tank regiment has 4 battalions;

   A motorized infantry battalion of 955 people is equipped with 570 semi-automatic rifles, 72 machine guns, 9 60mm mortars, 6 80mm mortars, 6 60mm field infantry guns, and 140 cars.

   The three armored tank battalions have the same organization; each subordinate has 2 light tank companies, equipped with a total of 44 cheetah tanks, and a heavy tank company equipped with 22 T-2 tanks, and the battalion has a total of 66 tanks.

   The difference between the two tank companies is that the former is equipped with cheetah tanks and the latter is equipped with T-2 tanks.

  The tank battalion has a battalion command vehicle directly under the battalion. The command company includes a communication platoon, a reconnaissance platoon, and an engineer platoon. It has 8 to 10 wild wolf light armored vehicles. 8 to 10 trucks.

  Each tank company has 2 company tanks, 4 tank platoons, each platoon is equipped with 5 tanks, and the full company has 22 tanks.

Thus

   can make full use of the existing wolf light tank and cheetah medium tank equipment, as long as the T-2 tank is properly installed, it is possible to mix up an armored regiment that has always been sufficient for medium-intensity battles.

  The armored division can deal with three aspects of the battle at the same time, which greatly improves the tactical flexibility.

   As an independent combat unit, the armored regiment can flexibly divide its forces, using armored battalions and even armored companies as subdivided combat units, and flexibly cope with complex situations on the battlefield according to different needs.

From fighting for a bridge to attacking a town, you can respond flexibly at the level of the armored regiment without having to hand over the trouble to the armored division headquarters, thus freeing the division-level command structure from the trivial combat tasks , you can concentrate on tactical direction tasks.

   in Panzer Division 1st class

Should be assigned to a motorized artillery regiment consisting of 2 light artillery battalions (525 men per battalion, 12 105mm howitzers) and 1 heavy artillery battalion (650 men, 4 105mm cannons, 8 or 12 150mm howitzers) Doors), a balloon observation company, a guard battalion (720 people, equipped with 550 semi-automatic rifles and 32 machine guns), and the whole regiment is equipped with 260 vehicles of various types.

   is calculated like this;

  The strength of an armored division is 15,600 soldiers, a total of 400 tank regiments, more than 120 light armored vehicles of various types (refitted from wild wolf light tanks), more than 1,300 vehicles of various types, and more than 220 motorcycles. The light and heavy artillery is fully equipped, the armor and infantry firepower are reasonably configured, and it can carry out a variety of combat missions. "

After   Bian Chunsong's words, the hall fell into silence.

   Good guy, this is the big mouth of the lion! How much does this armor cost?

Today's world

   The most powerful European powers are the mule-horse divisions, the most elite troops in the army, most of them are pure infantry, relying on two legs to maneuver.

  Bian Chunsong's theory is at the forefront of the world. This is based on the reality of the popularization of automobiles in the Ocean Empire. The idea of ​​mechanized infantry has been sprouted and tried to be applied in practice.

  Li Fushou did not approve or reject in a hurry, but carefully weighed the pros and cons.

   This is basically the prototype of the German mechanized armored corps in World War II. The combat effectiveness is undeniably powerful, which has been confirmed by practice in the history of war and is the future direction of military development.

   Most of the equipment is readily available, and all that needs to be added are T-2 tanks and a large number of military trucks, as well as some modified light armored vehicles.

   It takes 4 to 5 years to build two mechanized armored divisions with strong combat power. It is not an unrealistic fantasy, but a high feasibility.

   The question is, is it too advanced?

  If there is no accident, in the First World War that broke out eight years later, trench warfare was the mainstream of warfare. Do mechanized armored divisions ahead of the times really play such a big role?

   (end of this chapter)