Chapter 506 Rifle Design
Charles thought that Lieutenant General Ives would show off his power in front of him, or at least pretend to give him a lecture, but to his surprise, there was nothing.
When Charles and Tijani stepped forward to salute him, Lieutenant General Ives returned the salute casually and said expressionlessly: "I have inspected the airport with His Majesty. You have done a good job. The battlefield needs Excellent commanders like you! Keep working hard, the Germans will be crushed under our feet in the near future!”
Lieutenant General Ives exchanged a few polite words with the two of them without any pain, and left in despair before finishing a cup of coffee.
Charles looked at Albert I in confusion, this must be his fault.
Albert I spread his hands and looked innocent: "It has nothing to do with me, Major General. I just told him that this is Belgium. He may have recognized this."
Ciel rolled his eyes, which was an admission.
Tijani thought of the First Special Reconnaissance Army and the Airport Guard that Albert I had established a few days ago, and understood what was going on. He laughed at Albert I: "Why do I think this is A conspiracy, Your Majesty, have you made a lot of preparations for today?"
Albert I replied seriously: "No, no, this is not a premeditation, absolutely not."
He also raised his hand: "I swear, I didn't know he would come today."
Charles and Tijani looked at each other and smiled. This was perhaps the only truth spoken by Albert I.
…
Although Albert I blocked the Charles from British interference, the Charles did not think it was safe.
The British had command in Antwerp and even over the French army.
The latter was indirect, as they controlled the French army by controlling Nivelles.
Although this "control" is very limited, because Nivele must be responsible to the French Parliament. Once the French Parliament is dissatisfied with him, it can kick him away at any time just like Joffre.
But Parliament does not understand military matters.
When it comes to formulating a battle plan, it can only be what Nivele says.
Charles went over his situation in his mind:
The British did not want his performance to suppress the entire British army, and the same was true for France's veteran generals. Parliament did not want a military dictatorship to appear.
They can all be said to be their own enemies.
Therefore, the battle plan drawn up by them cannot be beneficial to them!
Ciel believes that there must be no illusions and one must prepare for the worst.
"I'm going to Ghent." Charles got up and took some paper and pen.
"Ghent?" Tijani looked at Charles's back with a confused face, and then smiled knowingly: "It must be to see the future father-in-law and mother-in-law. What a boy, I underestimated him!"
…
Ghent is the third largest city in Belgium. It evolved from the Celtic word "Ganda", which means "the place where rivers meet". The Scheldt and Les rivers meet here. Convenient transportation makes it a A wealthy trading city.
(The picture above shows the Ghent building)
On the eastern outskirts of Ghent, a few kilometers south of Antwerp Road and Damport Railway Station, the FN Arsenal is located here.
Browning had an independent laboratory in the arsenal. Dominic was surprised to find that Browning's laboratory was much simpler than his own. Many of the equipment were manual and quite old, and there were only a dozen or so assistants.
Perhaps sensing the strange look in Dominic's eyes, Browning said coldly: "Firearm design does not rely on machinery, but ideas and analysis!"
As he spoke, Browning pointed to his head: "If there is no idea, no matter how advanced the machine is, it will be in vain."
Dominic nodded, he understood this well.
Browning casually hung his coat and hat on the hangers, sat at his desk, took a piece of paper and started drawing, saying as he drew:
"I know your identity, Steed's youngest son, and you are likely to be the heir to the Saint-Etienne Arsenal in the future."
"But I just hope you understand."
"The moment you walked into the laboratory, you were nobody but my assistant. Do you understand?"
At this point, Browning stopped for a moment, raised his head and looked at Dominic with questioning eyes.
"Understood, sir." Dominic replied tremblingly.
Browning seemed to sense Dominic's nervousness, and he comforted him: "Relax, we are designing firearms, we don't need to carry them on the battlefield."
Several assistants around him laughed, which made Dominic a little embarrassed.
What Browning didn't know was that Dominic was nervous because he was afraid he wouldn't be able to do the job, not because of the gun.
After starting work on the design, Browning found himself in a dilemma:
His first consideration was whether it could be modified on the basis of the BAR, so that it could not only meet the requirements of a semi-automatic rifle but also be compatible with the BAR, and save a lot of time.
But he found that the weight could not be reduced by doing so.
Semi-automatic can shorten the gun body even further.
The ammunition capacity can be reduced appropriately, but to what extent is it appropriate?
5 shots? 8 shots?
Or 10 rounds?
The most troublesome thing about firearm design is this. Many things are not imagined out of thin air. They need to be combined with the needs of the battlefield. Ultimately, the "user", that is, the soldier's experience on the battlefield, has the final say.
And these all require a lot of time to test, modify, give feedback, modify and test again...
For now, let’s make a prototype gun first.
Brownie thought and drew a sketch on the paper.
Dominic followed the other assistants to familiarize themselves with the equipment. As he passed by, he occasionally glanced at Browning's sketch and couldn't help but interjected: "Sir, if you want to reduce weight, I think the magazine can be eliminated."
Browning was stunned, and it seemed to make sense. If the ammunition was within 10 rounds, why not change it to a double-row built-in magazine?
Browning nodded slightly and immediately crossed out the magazine from the sketch.
At this time, an assistant answered the phone and hurried forward to report: "Sir, Charles is here. He said he wants to see you."
Browning was stunned: "It's only been a few days now, he doesn't think it's so easy to design a brand new rifle, does he?"
Dominic sighed inwardly: "Sir, I don't think Charles is here to ask for a gun. He is probably giving us a design."
"What?" Browning looked at Dominic in shock: "You mean, Charles has already designed it?"
Dominic nodded: "That's probably the case."
Browning laughed: "This is impossible, he doesn't even have a laboratory, he has been commanding the army..."
"Sir." Dominic replied helplessly: "He designed the 'Saint-Etienne 2' machine gun under the circumstances and also proposed the concept of a submachine gun."
"SMG?"
Dominic suddenly realized that he had let slip. At this time, the submachine gun was still a military secret.
