Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 290 Discomfort and Helplessness
Thanks to recoil-operated firing, the Schneider M1897 field gun could achieve a normal rate of fire of 15 rounds per minute, and under extreme conditions, it could reach 30 rounds per minute.

Of course, the high rate of fire is mainly due to the small caliber and light weight of the shells, which allows the artillery to load quickly, unlike howitzers with a 155mm caliber.

Based on the Schneider M1897 field gun, the French Army developed its own rapid-fire artillery tactics, which relied on the rapid firing of recoil-operated rapid-fire guns to create a barrage and directly provide fire suppression for charging infantry.

The recoil mechanism of a recoil-operated gun is mainly divided into two parts: the recoil mechanism and the return mechanism. The recoil mechanism is mainly used to absorb the recoil energy during gun firing, while the return mechanism provides energy for the return of the gun barrel.

The main energy storage component of the recoil mechanism and the return mechanism is the recoil cylinder. Currently, most recoil cylinders use high-pressure gas or liquid to operate, resulting in high energy storage efficiency.

Of course, in addition to this, the energy storage efficiency of the depressurization cylinder can also be improved by optimizing its design. A common approach is to use a multi-sleeve design, with each layer of depressurization cylinder filled with either high-pressure gas or depressurization fluid, thereby improving energy storage efficiency through energy conversion between different energy storage media.

The most significant difference in recoil mechanisms for artillery today lies in the recoil recovery mechanism. Since the recoil recovery mechanism primarily helps the artillery barrel return to its original position, there are many different design variations. Currently, the mainstream recoil recovery mechanisms include pneumatic recoil recovery mechanisms, hydraulic recoil recovery mechanisms, spring recoil recovery mechanisms, and composite recoil recovery mechanisms that combine several of these types.

A spring-loaded recoil mechanism involves directly arranging high-strength springs in concentric circles on the gun barrel to help it return to its original position. The advantages are rapid barrel return and a simple, lightweight structure. The disadvantage is that the springs themselves have limited strength, allowing only lighter gun barrels to be returned. Therefore, currently, spring-loaded recoil mechanisms are mainly used in small- and medium-caliber automatic artillery.

The Bofors anti-aircraft gun uses a spring-loaded recoil mechanism.
The characteristics of pneumatic recoil mechanisms, hydraulic recoil mechanisms, and liquid-pneumatic recoil mechanisms based on these two types of recoil mechanisms are high recoil energy, which can absorb a high amount of recoil energy of the artillery and bring the heavy artillery barrel into place. The disadvantage is that the mass and size are relatively large, so they are mainly used on large-caliber artillery. Large-caliber howitzers are not suitable for spring-type recoil mechanisms.

Of course, there are also less common types of artillery, such as the small-caliber aircraft cannons used on early fighter jets. These small-caliber aircraft cannons have a relatively high rate of fire, and ordinary spring-loaded recoil mechanisms cannot meet their recoil speed requirements. Even if they could meet the recoil speed requirements, the high recoil frequency would cause the spring to overheat and malfunction.

Therefore, this type of small-caliber aircraft cannon uses gunpowder gas recoil. During the recoil process of the gun barrel, some of the gas is stored in the recoil cylinder. When it is necessary to recoil the gun barrel, this part of the compressed gas is released to do work on the gun barrel and perform the recoil operation.

From recoil-recoil mechanisms to barrel-recoil mechanisms, recoil mechanisms for artillery have evolved into various variants as artillery classifications have become more refined. Regardless of the variant, all are ultimately based on the recoil-recoil principle of the gun barrel, which represents the dominant position of barrel-recoil mechanisms in the field of artillery recoil mechanisms.

This is precisely why even large-caliber howitzers can achieve a rate of fire of eight to ten rounds per minute. If equipped with mechanical feeding and a water-cooled barrel, the rate of fire can be further increased to forty to fifty rounds per minute.

However, adding these things would rapidly increase the size and tonnage of the artillery, especially the water-cooling system for the barrel, which would be unable to function without a large amount of cooling water.

Therefore, only ships that weigh tens of thousands or even tens of thousands of tons can accommodate such massive equipment, and with such a vast water resource as seawater, the gun barrels can be adequately cooled.

Of course, in order to prevent seawater from corroding the gun barrels, the cooling water on the warships was first fresh water to cool the gun barrels, and then seawater to cool the fresh water.

Just as Wang Gensheng was feeling gleeful watching the soldiers repairing the runway being torn apart by the artillery barrage, the US military was in a much worse mood. Smith, the main person in charge of Hagaru-ri Airport, was furious and immediately picked up the phone to berate Air Force Chief William:

"Shit! Didn't you repeatedly assure me that the enemy's artillery positions had been destroyed?! Why are they still intact?!"

Air Force Chief William responded to this by saying:

"This could very well be another enemy artillery barrage!..."

However, before William could finish speaking, Smith interrupted him, saying:

"Shit, these shellings were all fired with our own domestically produced M1 155mm howitzers. There are even some unexploded howitzers on the plane shells! Do you want me to show them to you? And the number of howitzers we lost was no more than twenty. I think you understand what I mean! That means the targets you bombed these past few times were all decoys!"

However, William also responded to Smith's questioning with equal force, since Smith wasn't his superior, so he immediately replied:
"Smith, do you think night bombing is an easy task? Why don't you come and pilot a reconnaissance plane to drop beacon bombs yourself? Show me your skills instead of just criticizing me!"

William had no choice, after all, he had just been rebuffed by the reconnaissance plane pilot in the same way, but William didn't dare to fly the reconnaissance plane.

Besides being afraid of death, the main reason was that William was not only nearsighted, but also suffered from night blindness due to the smoke from cigars.

As expected, William's angry rebuke brought Smith to his senses. After all, William wasn't his subordinate; in fact, he was even slightly higher in rank than Smith, the Lion Chief. So, his tone softened as he said:
"We've estimated the direction of the incoming shells and the angle at which they land. Their approximate location should be more than ten kilometers from Hagaru-ri Airport, heading towards Sinhsin-ri. Of course, considering the weight of the M1 artillery, it will have to be towed by trucks. So let's have the reconnaissance aircraft patrol along the road from Hagaru-ri Airport to Sinhsin-ri!"

Upon hearing Smith's softened tone, William's anger subsided considerably, and he said:
"Okay! I will patrol according to the location you gave me. This time I will send three reconnaissance planes to patrol! We will definitely find that artillery position!"

There's no way around it. Even though he's from the Air Force, if we don't keep a close eye on things, Smith might complain to Michael Aser.

He'll be in deep trouble then, so he still has to work hard when necessary, since the Air Force is much more comfortable than the Army.

(End of this chapter)