Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 221 Half-finished machine gun

The collaboration between Krupp and ZF to develop new large transmission gears and gearboxes is merely a side project in Lelouch's current strategy, and it's unlikely to yield results in less than two or three years.

Judging by the timeline, by the time the first batch of four "Baria-class" battleships are completed this year, the four "Mackensen-class" battlecruisers already on the slipway will certainly not have time to use these new propulsion technologies.

However, according to the Empire's complete shipbuilding plan, which is the budget that Marshal Tirpitz has already approved, a total of 5 Baria-class ships will be built (the four southern German states plus Saxony), and a total of 7 Mackensen-class ships will be built.

等目前刚上船台才几个月的这4艘“马肯森级”将来也下水舾装、腾出船台后。帝国在1917年底或者1918年初，应该就会再上“巴里亚级”的5号舰“萨克森号”，以及“马肯森级”的5/6/7号舰。

Those four ships might have time to make some modifications during the design phase, using the future first-generation "new type of steam turbine with reduction and torque gearbox", and equipped with large-diameter low-speed propellers, high-pressure small water tube boilers, and new alloy steam turbine blades that are more resistant to high temperature and high pressure.

This also serves as a way to accumulate construction experience and collect feedback data for the future, more refined "second-generation gearbox warship." These are all necessary tests that cannot be omitted. If we hope to ultimately defeat the United States in the future, this work is indispensable.

Upgrading the entire warship's power system actually requires a very comprehensive improvement. The gearbox only solves a key shortcoming, making other improvements meaningful and preventing them from becoming useless.

However, other improvements are equally essential. Boilers cannot increase pressure on their own, steam turbines cannot increase their tolerance to air pressure on their own, and propellers cannot increase in size on their own. All of these require research and development investment.

From the perspective of someone who coordinates a large project, those problems are relatively easier to solve; they can be resolved with advancements in materials science. The gearbox is the biggest bottleneck.

As for improvements in manufacturing processes, those are icing on the cake. It would be even better if the propeller's curvature could be designed to better conform to hydrodynamics, ensuring that propellers of the same diameter can rotate once and providing greater thrust to seawater.

However, these things require advancements in mathematics and multi-axis machine tools. In the future, with computers, we can directly use machines to perform finite element analysis simulations. Now, without computers, we rely entirely on mathematicians' ingenuity, or on continuous trial and error experiments, creating propellers with various curved surfaces to conduct actual water tank experiments to see propulsion efficiency.

Of course, if Lelouch were to make a breakthrough in computer technology in the future, it would be of some help to the speed of various military research and development projects in the country, especially in areas involving a large amount of computation, which could improve research efficiency in all aspects.

Although vacuum tube computers in Earth's plane weren't finally built by the University of Pennsylvania laboratory until 1946, Lelouch could have easily avoided waiting for vacuum tube technology to mature and instead instructed relevant personnel to create a more primitive computer using relays.

If given enough support, Conrad Zuss, the Demanian mathematician from the Earth plane, could have almost invented a relay computer during World War II.

If the first vacuum tube computer, ENIAC, had an addition speed of 5000 times per second, then Conrad Zuss's first relay computer could also achieve an addition speed of 1200 times per second.

Once resources are plentiful, this thing could be secretly developed in the early 1920s. As long as we don't build too many, just a few units will be built and placed in research institutions to handle the outsourcing of computing for the Empire's important scientific research. Lelouch would control them directly, which would completely prevent leaks, and the enemy might not even know of its existence for many years.

The specific model is similar to publicly stating that "a certain computing institute employs a large number of mathematicians, and then tells major military R&D giants that there are a large number of computational simulation tasks. They then hand over the requirements and questions to the professional computing institute, and after the computing institute completes the calculations, it returns the process and results to the military enterprises and collects some computing fees." In this way, outsiders would never know how the computing institute operates internally. It is always a black box to the outside world, and it may be kept secret for ten or eight years.

Of course, Lelouch's status is not high enough, his decision-making power is not great enough, and his resources are not abundant enough, so this thing can only be a dream for now.

……

Having reviewed the overall upgrade roadmap for the future warship's propulsion system and facilitated connections for Krupp, Lelouch also took the opportunity to carefully tour the warship during the final stage of the "Baria" commissioning ceremony.

General Hipper also took the time to personally accompany him on the tour.

The warship's armor protection and command system were nothing special; Lelouch hadn't interfered with these aspects, and they were all as they were supposed to be.

Therefore, the focus of the visit was definitely on the firepower systems.

The most eye-catching feature is undoubtedly the eight 48-caliber, high-pressure 380mm main guns.

Lelouch even asked Hipper, "During the last sea trial, were all these main guns actually fired and tested?"

General Hipper was also very proud: "Krupp products are still reliable. The design specifications have all been met. Although the barrel is only three times longer than the first version, which is 1.14 meters, the muzzle velocity has increased by more than 10%. This is mainly due to the stronger barrel, which allows for a larger propellant chamber and a stronger propellant charge. However, the shell remains the same, still the original 750 kg armor-piercing shell. There's no time to change that."

Lelouch did some mental calculations. If the muzzle velocity increased by 10-15%, it would mean that the muzzle velocity of the "Barria-class" main gun would be as fast as that of the "Bismarck-class" main gun 20 years later in the Earth plane, or even 20-30 meters faster.

Of course, in terms of the destructive power and armor-piercing capability of the shells, they should be slightly weaker than those of the Bismarck, because the shells used were older. The armor-piercing shells used by the Baria-class weighed 750 kilograms, while those of the Bismarck-class weighed more than 800 kilograms. More importantly, after more than 20 years, the improvements in the materials, structure, and especially the hard cap technology of the shells were very obvious.

Therefore, the main gun of the "Baria-class" can only be said to have barely caught up with the "Bismarck" in terms of muzzle velocity and ballistic characteristics, and the accuracy gap has also narrowed (only referring to the accuracy of the gun itself, without considering the time difference in sighting and fire control systems), but its power and armor penetration are still not in the same league.

Seeing that the final result was good and the warships were able to be broken in smoothly, Lelouch was no longer worried.

However, just before he finally left the warship, he wanted to take a look at how the new 138.6mm dual-purpose secondary guns performed, but when he got to the secondary gun deck, his eyes were drawn to some strange new gadgets.

He saw some makeshift platforms erected on the sides of the superstructure of the "Barria," just above and behind the dual-purpose secondary guns, with some strange little pipes piled up.

"What are these things? Are they newly prototyped small-caliber anti-aircraft guns? But they look so strange," Lelouch couldn't help but ask.

Gustav Krupp immediately helped him out: "Back in the middle of last year, when Skoda's armored vehicles had just rolled off the production line, didn't you make a request to have DWM build a 13.2mm heavy machine gun and have us set aside a team to build a 20mm autocannon? We were all working very hard. Dr. Reinhard Baker's team worked overtime for a full six months."

Lelouch was stunned, then touched the 20mm cannon in front of him: "So... you guys got it done so quickly? Impossible! Even working overtime every day wouldn't be enough. And why does this thing look... so 'slim'?"

Gustav then touched the 20mm cannon and pointed out: "This is not actually the complete version. Currently, both we and DWM have only produced the original ammunition and the single-shot guns that are compatible with it but do not yet have automatic firing capability. At present, these two models are only used to test the ballistic characteristics of bullets and shells, and the rate of fire is very slow."

Lelouch suddenly realized, and couldn't help but think of the Mauser 13.2mm anti-tank rifle from Earth. He quickly confirmed and asked, "So, you actually developed a single-shot rifle and... a small-caliber cannon with a hand-cranked mechanism?"

Lelouch was already very familiar with all kinds of military guns and cannons, so he used his experience to examine the 20mm cannon in front of him that was not yet loaded with ammunition, and realized that it was a cannon that required manual ejection and loading.

Well... it's roughly similar to a "Bismarck-class" junk 37mm hand-operated anti-aircraft gun in the Earth dimension, or even more rudimentary.

Moreover, it's understandable that a 37mm gun is pulled by a hand-cranked machine, since current technology can't produce something like a 40mm Bofors.

However, the 20mm cannon was still operated by hand-cranked, requiring one shot to be loaded, fired, and ejected, which was far too rudimentary.

Lelouch couldn't help but ask a question: "How fast can this thing fire at if it's manually loaded?"

Gustav thought for a moment: "About thirty or forty rounds per minute, I can't remember exactly. Why don't you ask Dr. Baker? He's here for the acceptance ceremony today too."

Lelouch: "The project manager has come in person? That's good, let's find him and ask him."

Gustav then instructed his assistant to find people, and soon they brought Reinhard Becker, and even an additional technical director from DWM, who was in charge of the development of 13.2mm caliber ammunition and machine guns, as well as an engineer on loan from Mauser to DWM to assist.

Lelouch's status is now vastly different from what it used to be. Although he is still a brigadier general, he can now command a great deal of influence.

As the "father of the Oerlikon cannon" in the Earth dimension, Dr. Baker was naturally very familiar with his own creation and told Lelouch that the current limit of this new cannon was about 45 rounds per minute.

A 20mm cannon, and so slow at that—it would be a disgrace in later generations, but who cares when it's just the beginning?

Lelouch didn't ask for too much. He first asked if he was satisfied with the current ballistic characteristics. Dr. Baker also said that the ballistics were fine, and the accuracy, propellant charge, and power were all acceptable. If there were any improvements in the future, the gun itself would be modified accordingly, while the ammunition would remain unchanged.

Lelouch then asked him about his ideas on how to achieve automatic firing in the future, such as whether he wanted to learn from the locking mechanism and ejection recovery system of the traditional MG08 heavy machine gun.

On this point, Dr. Baker had his own ideas. He declined this technical route, saying that if it was to be used as an anti-aircraft gun and a sweeping machine gun against lightly armored targets and fortifications, he preferred a structure similar to the MP15 submachine gun with a "free bolt" mechanism.

Of course, when applied to a machine gun, it should be called a "free-fire machine gun," but it is certainly not exactly the same as the MP15. He is envisioning a firing pin mechanical structure with delayed ignition. In any case, the principle most similar to the MP15 submachine gun is that he does not intend to pursue "completely locking the barrel before firing," but rather, like a free-fire submachine gun, it can tolerate some issues of gas leakage, smoke leakage, and spark leakage in the breech.

The chamber pressure and range may be reduced as a result, as may the armor penetration and kinetic energy, but that is to ensure the fastest possible development and a fast enough rate of fire.

Dr. Baker also said that the 20mm autocannon is more than enough to deal with the 8mm armor of the enemy's "Little Willy" tanks, and as long as it is built as soon as possible, it can definitely penetrate all of the current tanks of the Burkina Faso.

It can shoot down any aircraft, penetrating or severing it if it hits. Whether it can shoot down an aircraft in one shot depends on whether it hits a vital part. Otherwise, even if it penetrates or severs the aircraft, if it's not a vital part, the aircraft can still struggle to fly back, and there's nothing that can be done. As long as it hits the core of the aircraft, any aircraft will be instantly killed.

Lelouch didn't originally understand the intricacies of automatic loading mechanisms for machine guns and cannons, but he knew that the Oerlikon cannon in history seemed to have a similar design. Now, due to the butterfly effect caused by Lelouch, the MP18 submachine gun has become the MP15, born three years ahead of schedule.

The "free bolt" on the MP15 greatly simplifies the structural design of automatic gun extraction and reloading. Dr. Baker recognized this advantage, which inspired him to apply it to other areas and accelerate his own research, which is not surprising.

Because Lelouch had discussed things at length with Hugo Schmeisser of the Bergman Company and had learned a lot about the automatic principles of submachine guns, he immediately used the experience he had gained last year to exchange ideas with Dr. Baker. They learned from each other's strengths and weaknesses, which can be considered as each having their own advantages and disadvantages.

Dr. Beck already knew most of what Lelouch said, but if one or two of his sentences could inspire Beck, that was a good thing.

After some deliberation, Reinhard Baker's ideas became more mature. He said that if he had a few more months, he could fully break in and finalize the ammunition, and then he could start working on optimizing the automatic reloading technology and converting the manual mechanism into an automatic cannon.

The two sides discussed the timeline, and Lelouch suggested that he produce a batch of manually operated versions before the start of the spring offensive in April, and put them into actual combat testing on land as soon as possible. After ensuring that the ammunition was in good working order, the integration of automatic loading technology could begin in May or the second half of the year.

Dr. Baker estimated that it would take about another six months to produce the automatic loader version, and with the time for small-batch production, the early automatic version could be put into actual combat around the spring offensive of 1917.

However, the "gun mechanism" used at that time will definitely be lighter rather than heavier, because if it is too light, at most it will leak air and fire more seriously, while if it is too heavy, it will cause incomplete recoil, poor extraction stability, and jamming - a similar situation occurred when the MP15 submachine gun was first developed and equipped the first few assault battalions.

By the end of 1914, the first batch of soldiers who received MP15 submachine guns were equipped with thick leather fireproof gloves and gas masks, in order to prevent their arms from being burned by the muzzle flash of the submachine gun and to avoid being choked by the thick smoke.

If a 20mm artillery shell leaks smoke or fire from its breech, it would be far more terrifying than a 9mm pistol shell.

It is estimated that the gunners will have to stay far away, and the first batch of users will even have to wear fireproof suits similar to those worn by firefighters to avoid being burned by the gunpowder gas leaking from their own gun breech.

However, these costs were worthwhile in order to accelerate the research and development process and put it into actual combat testing as soon as possible. If the approach of meticulous refinement and thorough testing on the proving grounds had been followed, it's estimated that fine-tuning and breaking in the gun mechanism would have taken one or two years after the first automatic cannon was produced in the spring of 1917.

The M2 12.7mm heavy machine gun developed by the Ugly people in the Earth dimension took a long time to refine, with a total of 3 years of research and development.

现在这种激进的路线，可以确保初代20毫米自动炮1917年春入役、到1917年秋就通过大规模实战反馈调整好设计、1917年底或1918年初，就可以把量产的第二代稳定款批量投入实战。

This stable version, which was mass-produced in early 1918, is basically similar to the Oerlikon MK-1 machine gun in the Earth plane in the 1920s.

(Note: The Oerlikon MK-1 was already basically usable; all Oerlikon systems before World War II were of this type with minimal modifications. The Oerlikon MK-2 only entered mass production and combat in 1941, and was a targeted improvement based on data collected from combat experience of various countries after the outbreak of World War II in late 1939. Even if the protagonist accelerated research and development, the Oerlikon MK-1 would only be available by early 1918.)
(End of this chapter)