Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 172 Anti-aircraft guns to level military courts? Not a chance!
"Develop a large-caliber machine gun with a 12-13mm diameter?"

Upon hearing Brigadier General Lelouch's latest request, the engineers at DWM Corporation, which was in charge of machine gun weaponry, immediately began to assess the requirements.

"What? Is it technically difficult? I only ask that the existing heavy machine gun be scaled up proportionally. That's easy to do, isn't it?"

The DWM engineer considered the matter carefully: "But will this large-caliber heavy machine gun be used solely for fighting tanks? As a machine gun, it will definitely need to be deployed extensively to the grassroots level. If a unit never encounters enemy tanks and can only use large-caliber machine guns against infantry, wouldn't that be a huge waste of firepower?"

Lelouch immediately dispelled the other's concerns: "There's no waste of firepower! The current 7.92 heavy machine guns aren't guaranteed to kill anyone who hits. There are still so many wounded enemy soldiers on the battlefield. It's just that neither side had effective anti-infection drugs before, and more than half of the soldiers who were seriously wounded by 7.92 bullets would die from infection, so those bullets are sufficient."

However, in the future, the Empire's sulfonamide drugs will inevitably leak out gradually, and the enemy will also gain access. Furthermore, the Empire's Farben Chemicals may develop even better drugs. On future battlefields, simply crippling and incapacitating the enemy may not be enough.

And don't you think it's cruel to let someone live with a severe disability for the rest of their life? We should end their suffering from the very beginning, in the spirit of humanity. So, developing a 13mm machine gun that can cut someone in half with a single shot, allowing them to die without pain, would be just right.

As for larger calibers, I won't make any demands. If your DWM company finds it challenging, this project can be handled by Schmeisser, and you can provide some licensing and technical support. I will also find other sources of funding for R&D costs and early orders. Of course, the key to this project is the ammunition, and we'll still need your help in that regard.”

DWM, on the other hand, didn't seem very confident about the project, feeling that the demand wouldn't be too great. After some consultation and discussions with senior management, they only agreed to provide technical support for joint research and development.

If they successfully develop the product, DWM Corporation only needs to license its production. This means that while the patent rights might ultimately belong to Lelouch and Schmeisser, DWM Corporation can manufacture the new weapon without restriction, producing as many as they can sell. However, DWM Corporation will not have the right to sublicense it to any third party.

Preliminary assessments indicate that this new large-caliber machine gun, provided it doesn't use soft bullets, can easily penetrate 10mm of homogeneous steel armor. Using steel-core bullets or even harder bullets would further enhance its armor-piercing capability.

However, the development time for the firearms themselves is at least six months, and they may not be able to keep up with the Bretonnia's future tank launch. Planning the bullet production line will take even longer, as it requires starting from scratch, and the technological challenges in this area will ultimately fall on DWM's shoulders.

Hugo Schmeisser and the Bergman company that originally supported him did not have a production line for bullets, nor did they have the ability to start a new production line for bullets of a completely new caliber.

Today, almost all bullets used in Demand are manufactured by DWM, including bullets for Mauser rifles, which are actually produced to DWM's specifications. Mauser generally only manufactures rifles, and at most, it may outsource production to DWM.

Therefore, from the very beginning of the project, Lelouch had to definitively determine the specific caliber of the new gun required for the future, leaving no room for ambiguity. All future research and development of the new gun must revolve around this fixed caliber, and there absolutely cannot be any further adjustments in this regard. This is because such a caliber did not exist in the world before.

Ultimately, due to the gravity of the matter, Lelouch had no choice but to call Marshal Rupprecht in Odessa for instructions, suggesting that the future large-caliber heavy machine gun should ideally be fitted with a caliber of exactly 13mm.

At this time, there were no cloth-made large-caliber machine guns yet. Neither Russia nor the United States had entered this field, so there was no issue of 12.7mm caliber guns being used to create a .50 caliber. German guns could simply use 13mm.

After listening to Lelouch's request over the phone, Marshal Rupprecht couldn't help but chuckle: "It's quite rare. I never expected someone as fearless as you to specifically ask for instructions on something like this."

Lelouch didn't dare to be negligent at all, and said seriously, "That's for sure. Opening a new bullet production line is much more important than opening a new gun production line. There are at least several hundred gun production lines in the country, but bullet production lines are less than one-tenth of gun production lines."

A completely new caliber of ammunition, initially intended for only one gun model, naturally warrants serious attention. DWM representatives even hinted that to open a new production line, the Baria royal family must guarantee the purchase of at least 30 million rounds of this caliber ammunition annually during future wars, with this figure potentially increasing to 20 million rounds in the first year. Only then can they begin production.

Duke Rupprecht was slightly taken aback, but then gritted his teeth and admitted, "You're really good at getting things done, and you're quite ruthless with money too, promising a deal worth 30 million a year right off the bat! Fine, keep up the good work, and I'll trust your judgment. 30 million a year it is!"

When DWM opens a new production line, the minimum annual capacity is at least 50 million units. Any less and the production line will be idle, and the amortization of fixed costs will lead to a significant increase in the unit price of bullets.

If market demand is high, DWM could have its workers work in three shifts and optimize the production line to increase production to over 100 million units per year. 50 million units is just the minimum break-even production volume.

From DWM's perspective, they only require a commitment of 30 million in sales for a line with a minimum target of 50 million, leaving them to figure out how to sell the remaining 20 million themselves, which already represents a huge risk.

After agreeing on a cooperation model of 50 million units of production capacity and 30 million units of exclusive sales, DWM finally relented and agreed that DWM Munich, a subsidiary of the DWM Group, would be responsible for the research and development and production line manufacturing of the new bullets.

As a nationwide ammunition giant, DWM Group has its own factories and research and development institutions in several major southern states, operating relatively independently. The ammunition needs of Barya are met by DWM's factories in Munich or Karlsruhe (located in Baden).

In addition, DWM promised that the initial trial production ammunition could be launched together with the trial production machine gun, which would take at least half a year. However, this ammunition could only be a scaled-up version of the existing Mauser ammunition, and its ballistic characteristics and accuracy could not be guaranteed.

In the future, the length and propellant charge of the ammunition may need to be fine-tuned based on testing and combat feedback before a refined and stable long-term version can be produced. However, that process could take one to two or even three years.

In addition, DWM suggested that the final caliber of the bullet be set at 13.2 mm instead of exactly 13 mm.

Lelouch was quite curious about this, feeling a sense of historical destiny. He knew that the Mauser anti-tank rifle, which the Demacians later hastily developed, was a larger version of the Mauser rifle, chambered in 13.2mm.

Lelouch initially didn't think about why it was such a strange number, assuming it was just a coincidence. But since there's no such specification as 13.2 in the world, it seems like he could easily come up with a 13mm version himself.

Therefore, the professionals from DWM gave him a very serious answer:

“我们必须考虑弹药研发的简便性问题，之前帝国的毛瑟弹都是7.92毫米乘57毫米的，相比于布/丑系的7.62毫米/0.3布吋整弹药，帝国的子弹在每0.1布吋上都要比敌人粗0.1毫米，所以0.3布吋的子弹就粗了0.3毫米。

The simplest way to manufacture large-caliber anti-tank ammunition is to scale up ammunition from the 0.3-inch range to the 0.5-inch range. Dividing 7.92 by 3 and multiplying by 5 gives exactly 13.2. Therefore, choosing this caliber reduces the complexity of geometric scaling, allowing researchers to speed up the process. Using exactly 13 is also possible, but it would add another six months to a year to the development time.

After hearing this explanation, Lelouch immediately gave up. Waiting another year or two for research and development just to achieve a 0.2mm standard seemed like asking for trouble. Since scaling it up to 13.2mm would be more convenient for the researchers, that would be the solution.

而且听了这个解释，也算是解开了鲁路修内心一个长期的疑惑：难怪丑制M2勃朗宁重机枪最后会选12.7的口径，12.7可不刚好就是7.62的5/3倍么，而13.2是7.92的5/3倍。

Of course, Lelouch could foresee that the final ammunition would not be a scaled-up version in all three dimensions. This is because the cross-sectional area of ​​the ammunition is proportional to the square of its caliber, while the propellant charge is proportional to its volume, that is, proportional to the cube of the caliber/length.

Therefore, the length of a bullet with a larger caliber must be slightly shorter than the caliber; otherwise, the propellant charge will be too high and the combustion will be incomplete, which will have an adverse effect on the initial velocity and ballistic characteristics.

（注：历史上德制13.2毫米子弹如果按照毛瑟7.92-57毫米弹乘5/3应该是95毫米长，但实际只有92毫米长。勃朗宁12.7毫米子弹按春田7.62-63毫米弹乘5/3应该是105毫米长，实际只有99毫米。但鲁路修并不记得这些精确尺寸。）
Lelouch knew that Browning on Earth took three years to finally refine the bullet specifications, and the famous "M2" bullet was developed from 1918 to 1921. So these things can't be rushed.

During this major war, we can only use early-stage ammunition types whose length and propellant charge are not yet fully optimized, and only one production line will be open for the time being. After two or three years of collecting sufficient combat data, we can finally develop the perfect version.

……

After being tormented by the specifications for large-caliber machine guns, Lelouch realized that he had not done some of his work properly.

If I had known earlier that designing and manufacturing a completely new caliber of ammunition from scratch would take several years, I should have started planning for it much earlier—I didn't plan for it before mainly because I was afraid of leaking secrets.

Because the research and production of new ammunition inevitably involves many people and years of development, if project information is leaked, the enemy may become alerted. They would then realize that the 'tank' project, within Demand's military-industrial complex, will impact the effectiveness of future tank battles. Therefore, Lelouch only began seriously investing in anti-tank weapons after his own tanks were nearly completed, in order to counter enemy tanks that might appear six months later.

Only after he started implementing it did he realize how long the ammunition development cycle was.

Fortunately, from then on, there was no need to worry about the secrecy of the tank project. Since the 13.2mm heavy machine gun project had already been approved, they might as well go all out and build up more technical reserves to develop the 20mm autocannon as well.

So Lelouch struck while the iron was hot and discussed the matter with the people at DWM again, but they were not interested in the project and instead advised Lelouch to find someone more capable, suggesting that he contact Krupp to handle it.

DWM has little technological expertise in artillery shells, let alone artillery manufacturing. Moreover, a major characteristic of artillery shells compared to bullets is that their specifications are not easily standardized.

7.92mm caliber bullets are all 57mm long. However, 105mm caliber shells can come in many different lengths; the shells used for cannons, howitzers, and smoothbore guns are all different in length, and the propellant charges are also different.

Since there aren't such high standardization requirements, it wouldn't be too much trouble to ask Krupp to set up a separate project and open a new small-caliber artillery production line.

The day after the large-caliber machine gun project was approved, Lelouch met with the technical head of Krupp in Prague, the same engineer who had previously customized the 57mm 16-caliber short-barreled cannon for the tank project, to learn about the difficulties of developing a 20mm machine gun.

After listening, the other party thought about it for a moment and said that the matter was not very difficult, but the key issues were treaty and legal obstacles.
"Brigadier General Lelouch, I think you may not be very familiar with the relevant international treaties. All the major artillery manufacturers in the world know that as early as December 11, 1868, the world's major powers signed the St. Petersburg Declaration, which prohibited the use of explosive or incendiary charges in gun and cannon projectiles weighing less than 1 pound."

The original intention of this treaty was to avoid the use of explosive ammunition to kill personnel and cause cruel and inhumane consequences. Therefore, after calculations, engineers from various countries determined that the smallest caliber shell allowed to be loaded with explosives could only be 37 mm. This is also the origin of the Imperial 37 mm anti-tank gun; otherwise, who would choose such a strange caliber?

"If we were to develop a 20mm shell for direct-fire penetration of early enemy tanks, it would absolutely violate the St. Petersburg Declaration. Such a significant matter cannot be undertaken without the approval of the relevant Imperial diplomatic departments."

Lelouch was taken aback. He had never paid attention to these treaties before. He only knew that countries prohibited the use of bullets like dumdum bullets, which expand and rupture after entering the human body.

Surprisingly, such a bizarre "St. Petersburg Declaration" still exists.

But this thing probably just became obsolete in later generations, right? Otherwise, how did all those 20mm machine guns appear after World War I?
The earliest medium-caliber multi-barrel anti-aircraft guns from the Americans across the ocean were also 28mm "Chicago Pianos," which certainly violated the St. Petersburg Declaration.

Therefore, after careful consideration, Lelouch boldly deduced a conclusion: it must be because airplanes and tanks appeared during World War I, and after the war, all countries needed to fight new types of fighter planes and small-caliber artillery for thin-skinned tanks, so the St. Petersburg Declaration was gradually swept into the dustbin of history.

In later generations, many netizens with only a superficial understanding of international treaties often make far-fetched connections by mixing up miscellaneous knowledge of international treaties, saying things like "If you shoot down paratroopers, you'll be sent to a military court" or "Put down anti-aircraft guns and you'll be sent to a military court."

In reality, there's no such clause. Relevant international treaties only prohibit shooting unarmed parachuting pilots in the air, not paratroopers. Unarmed pilots are considered incapacitated prisoners of war, so shooting a pilot is analogous to killing a prisoner. But paratroopers are there to kill after landing, so preemptively shooting a paratrooper in the air is perfectly acceptable.

As for the rumors of "laying down anti-aircraft guns and military courts," they were actually just a variation of the St. Petersburg Declaration when various countries in the early days effectively abandoned it.

Because many countries at the time followed the "legislative intent interpretation," they believed that the core legislative intent of the St. Petersburg Declaration's "prohibition of explosive pellets weighing less than one pound" was to "avoid excessive cruelty in shooting people with explosive bullets," which should be the same purpose as the 1999 Hague Convention's ban on dumdum bullets.

Therefore, countries have extended this view to the point that "since we are now manufacturing miniature cannons with a caliber of less than 37 mm in order to shoot down tanks and aircraft, as long as they are not used to directly target personnel but are focused on shooting down aircraft and tanks, then it does not violate the spirit of the treaty."

After figuring out the intricacies of the situation, Lelouch suggested that Krupp let go of its mental burdens.

Of course, he knew that such a big matter, involving whether it violated international treaties, was no longer worth discussing with the relevant technical personnel under Krupp, as they did not have the authority to make such a decision.

So Lelouch simply hung up the phone and went to Essen, asking someone to get Gustav Krupp himself to answer the call.

After the call connected, Lelouch stated his suggestion directly: "Mr. Gustav, I remember you and I discussed a collaboration before, whereby I would provide Krupp with a continuous supply of high-quality electric arc furnace steel solutions."

Your company would form a joint venture with my steel mill to jointly develop and manufacture the future 140mm dual-purpose naval gun. I now have an idea: I hope your company will inject more resources into our joint venture and send a dedicated R&D team so we can work together on a 20mm anti-aircraft and anti-tank machine gun.

My requirement for this new weapon is that its aiming/turning flexibility during firing should be as flexible as that of a heavy machine gun; everything else is secondary. The current 7.92mm machine gun ammunition is becoming increasingly ineffective against newly emerging enemy aircraft; it's no longer possible to shoot down an aircraft by simply hitting it with three to five small-caliber machine gun rounds.

"If we had 20mm cannon shells, I believe that just one or two hits would be enough to destroy all aircraft for the next few years! And 20mm cannons using armor-piercing rounds would be enough to penetrate all tanks for the next few years!"

Gustav had great trust in Lelouch, especially since, with Lelouch's help, Krupp had already produced the 380mm 48-caliber main guns for the new "Baria-class" battleships using three-phase electric arc furnace steel. Previously, the cooperation between Krupp and Lelouch's family's steel mill had gone very smoothly.

So Gustav didn't make things difficult for him, but simply explained his concerns about international treaties again.

Lelouch told him, "I already know all that. It doesn't matter. I believe that in the next few years, all the major powers in the world will sweep the St. Petersburg Declaration into the dustbin of history. Everyone will need new cannons to shoot down planes and tanks."

Furthermore, we initially had two ways to circumvent the treaty: First, we could equip the first-generation 20mm autocannon with only solid armor-piercing rounds, which are simply steel cores without explosives, aiming only at penetration and not high explosiveness. This would absolutely not violate the treaty.

Secondly, in the future, we can gradually lift the ban on projectiles with explosive charges, while simultaneously declaring that such weapons are not intended to directly target personnel, but rather to engage ground or air vehicles, thus not violating the core legislative spirit of the treaty. As other countries gradually follow suit, we can also progressively lift the ban on the use of such weapons.

This measure will at least give the Empire an additional one or two years of first-mover advantage in this niche area.

“Alright, I trust your judgment, Lelouch. I must say, you’ve convinced me again. I’ll take some responsibility for this. Let’s get started on the research and development. I’ll send Dr. Reinhard Beck, Krupp’s best high-velocity small-caliber artillery designer, and his team to our joint venture to be in charge of the project’s development. Let’s start with a solid armor-piercing projectile without explosives.”

Gustav Krupp ultimately approved the project.

Thus, Lelouch's trip to Prague came to a successful conclusion, and all preparations for his return to the southern front were completed.

-

P.S.: Still 6,000 words today, no splitting into chapters...

Tomorrow we'll return to the southern storyline.

I'm currently out and about; I should be able to return to Hangzhou on the 4th.

(End of this chapter)