Sword: Heart of Iron

Chapter 176 New Howitzer

After the ceremony.

Wang Feng returned to his office. Zhao Fangyuan had just changed out of his tuxedo and came over with a pile of documents.

"Sir, the reinforcements promised by Duke De yesterday have already set off. They are the 30th Army and the 42nd Army, both of which are from the Northwest Army. General Sun Lianzhong is personally leading the troops south."

Wang Feng responded: "Don't forget to say hello to Yu Xuezhong and send the medal over."

Zhao Fangyuan took out a pen and wrote it down quickly.

"Sir, there is another happy event today!"

Wang Feng raised his eyebrows; "Happy event?"

"What's the good news? Tell me about it."

Zhao Fangyuan took out a telegram from Dangshan Railway Station: "Our self-produced new heavy artillery arrived in Dangshan an hour ago. The station has received it and is sending it to us!"

Wang Feng stood up quickly.

"New heavy artillery?"

"What caliber is it?"

Zhao Fangyuan: "122mm, 43.5 times the caliber, a copy of the same Soviet artillery!"

Wang Feng was shocked.

122 mm?

It’s really big!
He did not interfere too much in the design of the artillery, and originally thought that the rear factory would give priority to designing a 105mm caliber heavy artillery.

After all, the main howitzer caliber in the military is exactly 105 mm.

There are only two 150mm howitzers.

Although it is powerful, it is not used as the main fire support unit.

The main reason is that the weight is too exaggerated.

The full weight of the Type 105 1.7mm howitzer is 150 tons, while the full weight of the Type 4.1 mm howitzer is as high as tons.

The difference between the two is more than two tons.

They are not even on the same level!

Thinking back to the Battle of Songhu, when the German-equipped division was stuck in the mud due to overweight artillery, his temples began to throb.

During the march and transfer, Wang Feng had issued a clear order that if the artillery unit got stuck in the mud, in an emergency, they could directly abandon the Type 96 howitzers and focus on transferring the Type 91 howitzers to ensure the artillery's fire support capability.

“Soviet artillery.”

Wang Feng frowned and thought secretly in his heart.

In his impression, Soviet artillery was ridiculously heavy, often weighing more than five tons, and some experimental models that were not mass-produced could even weigh seven or eight tons.

The main terrain in Europe is vast plains, and the infrastructure is relatively complete, so it doesn't matter if the artillery is a little heavier.

But Asia is different.

The Type 96 howitzer, weighing more than four tons, is already extremely heavy.

Wang Feng: "Do you have detailed data? Show it to me!"

Zhao Fangyuan rummaged through the pile of information in his hand, and after a while, he quickly handed it over.

"The new heavy artillery was produced ten days ago, but because the Japanese army cut off the Longhai Railway from Lanfeng to Zhengzhou, the first batch of artillery has not been delivered until now."

Wang Feng took it and glanced at it.

"A copy of the Soviet M1931 (A-19) 122mm field cannon, using a domestically produced improved gun mount, with leaf spring suspension and pneumatic wheels added"

"Caliber 122 mm, barrel length 45 times the caliber, about 5.5 meters, range 18.5 kilometers, average rate of fire four rounds per minute"

"Anti-armor capability: According to tests, it can penetrate 1000mm homogeneous steel armor at a distance of 145 meters. The types of ammunition used are: grenades, armor-piercing shells, and concrete-destroying shells."

“It adopts a lightweight design developed independently, weighing 3.8 tons.”

Wang Feng silently recited the words above and felt very satisfied.

There is also a picture inside.

As a 122mm field howitzer, it certainly cannot be compared with the Japanese Type howitzer.

Whether in caliber, weight or lethality, the two are not on the same baseline.

The characteristics of the Type 1.7 howitzer are obvious. It has decent power and a combat weight of tons, and can be towed by a domestically produced truck.

The mobility is high enough to serve as column support firepower.

As for the Japanese Type 96 howitzer
Wang Feng has disliked him for a long time.

Chunchun is just a "showpiece" used by the Japanese Army to show off!
The first is that the parts are of poor quality and the tolerances are ridiculously large.

The most criticized part is the recoil mechanism - a device that stabilizes the gun and offsets recoil, which often malfunctions when adjusted to the maximum elevation angle.

It would misfire after just a few salvos, was extremely troublesome to maintain, and would last a whole day if it broke down.

Range is also a disadvantage.

The maximum range of 12 kilometers is far lower than that of artillery of the same level in other countries.

The most important thing is that for Wang Feng, the range of artillery is of paramount importance. As long as there is enough range, he can fire artillery shells into the Japanese command post without advancing the front line.

In contrast, the new 122mm howitzer.

Although the caliber was reduced, the range was increased by 6.5 kilometers and the weight was reduced to less than 4 tons.

It can completely replace the Type 96 howitzer.

Wang Feng asked anxiously, "Where is the artillery?"

Zhao Fangyuan glanced at his watch and estimated in his mind: "It should be almost time, probably more than ten minutes!"

Wang Feng took a sip of tea and turned to look out the window: "It's almost done, let's go out and wait!"

"The self-produced new artillery is definitely a milestone in the history of our military equipment!"

Twenty minutes later.

On the school field.

Artillery commander Zheng Zhenzhong straightened his uniform and stared at the gate with an extremely urgent look. Then the roar of an engine was heard.

Within sight, a Field Type I tractor truck was slowly approaching, and behind the car, a tilted dark green gun barrel could be vaguely seen.

"Go left!"

"More to the left!"

The guide immediately stepped forward and directed the motor vehicle soldiers to drive the tow truck into the parking area.

Zheng Zhenzhong could no longer hold back and trotted over before the truck even stopped.

Wang Feng smiled and stood in the distance looking at the new heavy artillery.

I was shocked at first sight.

But from the data on paper, it is impossible to intuitively appreciate the size of the new heavy artillery.

Although the caliber is only 122 mm, its volume is definitely larger than the 150 mm Type howitzer.

Especially the dark green gun barrel that is more than five meters long.

The black muzzle points obliquely towards the sky, and just by looking at it, one can feel an extremely strong sense of oppression.

The truck door opened, the designer jumped out, and trotted to Wang Feng's side: "Hello, sir, my name is Min Zhihong, currently the deputy director of the First Artillery Factory."

When dealing with the technical staff, Wang Feng did not salute them, but extended his hand to greet them.

Zhao Fangyuan looked at the heavy artillery and couldn't help but be amazed: "This gun is designed to be so large. If you didn't tell me, I would have thought it was 203 mm!"

Fearing that his superiors might misunderstand him, Min Zhihong hurriedly explained: "In order to achieve long range and high initial velocity, a long-caliber gun barrel must be used. This is inevitable."

"The gun mount also needs to withstand high recoil and firing shock, so it must be strong enough. The Soviet prototype used solid tires and complex hydraulic devices, which made the structure bulky and had poor stability."

"In order to change this, we designed a new gun mount with leaf spring suspension and pneumatic tires, while ensuring performance and keeping it lightweight."

"Please rest assured, sir. Our factory's lightweight artillery technology is now on par with the world's most advanced level!"

Wang Feng smiled.

While waiting for the heavy artillery to arrive, he searched the system panel for the Soviet prototype M1931 A-19 howitzer.

The original gun weighed 7.1 tons.

Apart from special tractors, the only way to move is to rely on special vehicles.

The domestically produced artillery based on this model can reduce the weight to 3.8 tons, which is already a technological breakthrough.

The M1931 A-19 howitzer is excellent in all aspects except its own weight. Its improved model was the core equipment of the Soviet Army's "big artilleryism" in World War II.

After being tempered repeatedly in the flames of war, there is no need to make major changes.

It is estimated that the entire design team invested 80% of their energy into lightweighting.

This is a remarkable technological breakthrough.

Zhao Fangyuan understood a little bit and nodded politely: "Yeah, very good!"

"Just this one cannon?"

Min Zhihong scratched his head: "This is the only one for now."

Zhao Fangyuan frowned: "What can a cannon do?"

Min Zhihong didn't know what to say, and he hesitated: "Sir, production capacity is limited, and heavy artillery is difficult to produce. At present, our factory can only produce one in half a month."

As he spoke, he looked troubled.

Zhao Fangyuan: "Sir, this..."

Wang Feng smiled and waved his hand: "Since we have it, let's use it first. The artillery column will add another battalion, and when the subsequent artillery is gradually replenished, the troops will be fully staffed."

Zhao Fangyuan nodded and turned to look at Min Zhihong: "Your factory must speed up production. The front-line troops are in urgent need of this kind of artillery. You must increase production capacity!"

"This is a military order! There must be no mistakes!"

Min Zhihong nodded repeatedly, looking forward to something.

But the other party obviously didn't take it seriously. After giving the order, he excitedly ran to the heavy artillery and carefully stroked the barrel.

Min Zhihong was dumbfounded.

No?

What happens after stepping up production?
Go on!

This time when I came to Dangshan, I secretly brought a lot of "private goods".

The military factories in Changzhi are big consumers of resources, but there are very few suppliers of raw materials. Just taking steel as an example, there is currently only one steel plant in the jurisdiction, Jindongnan.

As far as he knows, the factory's orders have been scheduled until October next year.

The artillery factory was established late, and could not compete with the bullet factory and rifle factory in terms of order scheduling.

Song Wenjie has been trying his best to coordinate, but with little success.

Artillery is indeed important, but rifles, bullets, and grenades are even more of a necessity. Once the supply is cut off, the situation will become serious.

But even so, the artillery factory's production task was the most stressful.

He had no choice but to resort to this last resort. Under the pretext of coming to Dangshan to explain artillery technology, he went to the highest commander Wang Feng and cried poor.

As the saying goes, the crying child gets the milk!
Wang Feng grinned.

I saw through his little thoughts at a glance.

"What is the current situation of your factory? Are the resources supplied?"

Hearing this, Min Zhihong immediately perked up: "Sir! It's not enough!"

"Let me put it bluntly. The production line is not made of steel, but they really eat steel as their meal! Even rice and flour don't get eaten that fast!"

Wang Feng smiled and thought seriously for a moment.

"I will keep an eye on the problems at your factory. I will definitely not let you interrupt production. Go back to your business first."

After receiving the verbal guarantee, Min Zhihong was overjoyed.

(End of this chapter)