My own war game

Chapter 191 Schneider Puzzle
Boom boom! ! ! !
Whoosh whoosh!!!!
The explosions were accompanied by rising flames, and the entire weapons testing center was like purgatory.

"Quick! Quick! Put out the fire! The professor is still inside!" An SS soldier directed the fire brigade to continuously pour water on the burning building.

It was too late. Someone had clearly set the fire. The fire, fueled by the north wind, grew stronger with the help of gasoline and explosives. It soon reached the top floor, the fourth floor.

Seeing that it was impossible to put out the fire in a short time, the officers on the scene had to adopt a risky plan. "Find something to put under the fire, use a loudspeaker to make people in the room jump down."

The area below was filled with temporarily collected cushions and woven materials. Someone was holding a tin loudspeaker and repeatedly shouting, asking the people trapped above to jump down.

At the height of the fourth floor, if there is proper buffering, there is still a chance to save your life.

A figure rushed to the window and kept knocking on it.

"Look! It's the professor!" The people downstairs recognized the shadow
"Move the mat over here! Quick!"

But when the soldiers rushed downstairs, they found that the people on the fourth floor could not open the window no matter what.

"Damn it! The window is sealed! Climb up and help pry it open!" The lieutenant colonel leading the group downstairs shouted to the people around him.

Boom! ! ! ! ! !
Before the people below could react, another explosion occurred on the other side of the fourth floor. The huge shock wave forced open the windows, and glass and broken window frames fell to the ground.

In the raging fire, several flaming stick-like objects were thrown out and landed at the feet of the lieutenant colonel.

"Save them!!!!" someone shouted at the top of his lungs in the fire!

The second, third, fourth... things were thrown out one after another. Someone opened one of them and found that it was actually a torn design drawing.

But just when the seventh scroll was thrown out, a huge explosion occurred on the entire fourth floor.

Boom!!!! As if being hit head-on by a battleship’s main gun, the entire fourth floor became incomplete, and everything turned to ashes.

Snow is falling.
-
On November 1941, 11, the German Weapons Research Institute in Copenhagen was attacked by arson by unknown persons. The entire building was burned down. What was more serious was that the new Asian weapons expert who went by the pseudonym Schneider died in the fire.

On the same day, the German nuclear fission research team in Copenhagen was infiltrated by militants. Danish professor Niels Bohr was rescued by the militants, but Professor Heisenberg was not in the laboratory that day and was safe.

When the mustachioed Führer learned about this, he was furious and smashed his usual water cup in front of Himmler.

The most frustrated person was Air Force Marshal Goering. The weapons expert he had just recruited died in an assassination by the Allies before he could put his skills to use, which made him vent his anger on other people.

"Asshole!!!! Did I arrange a group of donkeys to protect the laboratory?"

"Stupid guys, I should throw you into the Arctic Circle to dig potatoes like the Russians!"

"The Führer just paid attention to the development of new weapons, but all the results were burned in a fire, and the person in charge is also dead. What do you want me to show the Führer?!"

When the marshal calmed down a little after his temper, someone on the side said tremblingly, "Sir, not everything we have was burned."

"What do you mean?" Goering turned his head. "The professor smashed the glass just before he died, protecting his research results with his life." Jonathan Coleman took out a few incomplete drawings and flattened them on the table.

The top one says "Super Tank Development Overall Design Drawing"

"Saved?!" Marshal Goering was overjoyed.

"Well, strictly speaking, a part of it was preserved." Jonathan Coleman weighed his words carefully. "The professor threw out a total of seven drawings, including the general map and some structural drawings of key locations, but..."

"But what? Don't hesitate." The marshal urged unhappily.

"However, many of the preserved drawings have signs of burning, and many key parameters are missing. The professor has passed away, and these numbers cannot be restored."

"Well..." Goering took two steps and made a decision. "The super tank plan remains unchanged. I will explain it to the Führer. I will mobilize weapons experts from Berlin to tackle the missing data and plans. I believe that the collective wisdom of the Germans can solve all problems."

Except when the Führer was around, Goering always had the final say and no one could disobey him.

So a new weapons group was established, and based on the manuscripts left by Professor Schneider, experts began to improve the design of the tank step by step.

It stands to reason that with the initial drawings, the design work is always better than starting from scratch, but as the research and development work progressed, the experts found that this was a very painful thing.

They are like putting together a puzzle with half of the pieces missing. Not only do they have to think about what to draw next, but they also have to keep searching for traces left by the previous designer.

"I would rather start all over again." This is what a Porsche designer said at the time. Some engineers even began to question whether a design was just a fantasy from the beginning and had no possibility of being completed.

But later the engineers discovered that they were wrong, and very wrong.

Because every time they encounter a problem, the designer has thought of it at the very beginning.

For example, when heavy tanks were still considering how to increase the engine power, the original designers had already proposed using a gasoline engine to provide energy to a generator through an indirect gearbox, using electric propulsion to generate power. (This is how the Maus moved in history.)
This idea opened up the engineers' minds, and when they were looking forward to how the designers would improve the thrust-to-weight ratio below, everyone was embarrassed.

Because there is no more below...

The drawing with the electric propulsion design plan was damaged by fire and the content below was completely missing. The engineers could only use their imagination to figure out how to operate it.

There are many similar situations.

The designers had obviously considered the rotation plan of the twin-mounted turret, the four-section track design, and the matching ratio of the engine and generator shafts. However, without exception, the locations of the solutions on the drawings were all damaged due to the fire.

This incredible situation had two effects.
First, the engineers were confident that the tank could indeed be completed. After all, the designers had already thought of all the problems in advance.

Secondly, many people believe that God does not seem to want this monster from purgatory to appear in the world, otherwise why would data be missing at critical nodes?
Therefore, this incomplete design plan was also called the "Schneider Puzzle" by later generations.

(End of this chapter)