Chapter 543: Bavaria's first hammer

Beard once said that artillery is the king of war. This is questionable during the Cold War. It was more than half of the battles in the 2nd battle, and in the 1st battle, it was completely correct! Why is the German Army strong? Isn't it because there are more than a dozen artillery companies in a division? Army level can also get support such as 210mm heavy howitzer and k16 long-range artillery. Such army field artillery can be described as the best in the world. Why can't the Germans be impressed in the later period? Isn't it because of the quantity and quality of French and British artillery? Why are the Russians bullying? Isn't it because the artillery is not good? Where is Austria-Hungary? This is a man-made disaster greater than a natural disaster, let alone him...

Therefore, in terms of investment, Ruprecht invested more in artillery than in armored units, because artillery was the decisive force on the battlefield of the 1st battle, and the armored units had limited breakthrough and outflank effect in the first battle. Because the German armored forces were able to quickly advance hundreds of kilometers in World War II, but this plane is not good. The armored unit's technology is not good. Not enough motorized infantry to follow the breakthrough is another aspect. If the former can still be used. , If the latter is to build a large-scale motorized army in large numbers, the vehicle production capacity and Prince’s pocketbook will not be enough.

With Bavaria’s national strength, it is unrealistic and uneconomical to build a large and comprehensive artillery force. How about the train gun? Naturally good. But this thing is too expensive, and logistical maintenance and maneuvering are also very troublesome. Train guns and train guns, as the name suggests, are not only artillerymen, but also a large number of railway soldiers. Apart from other things, you need to lay a circular railway when you need a circular shot. And if you want to move forward, you have to lay a narrow-gauge railway. Bavaria does not have that many railroad soldiers to serve these things.

And it’s really unnecessary, because the Eastern Front doesn’t have so many sturdy bunkers and long-range artillery that you need to use train guns to deal with. Even if there are, just let the Austro-Hungarian Empire equip it. The Bavarian Army, which is mainly mobile combat, does not need to equip it, and If it is not possible, you can still ask Prussia for...

The prince had already decided at the beginning of the plan that the maximum weight of the Bavarian artillery equipment should not exceed the limit of the largest crawler site. What was the maximum weight limit of a crawler site during World War I? The prince estimated that more than 30 tons is still okay. After all, the British overhead track series tank mk has this weight, and people still cross the barriers in front of the battlefield. The long-range artillery vehicle does not need to be so strenuous. It is still ten kilometers away from the front line. To bring the artillery over is victory!

And if you want a self-propelled artillery, then you have to mention the gpf self-propelled cannon, which was modified by the French with a 194mm naval cannon. The strength of this self-propelled artillery is not due to his 194mm naval gun. This gun has average performance. It can shoot a 78.83kg shell at a muzzle velocity of 725 meters per second, with a maximum range of 20 kilometers. What is really powerful is that this artillery is self-propelled. Under the load of a huge tracked site, the total combat weight of this artillery reaches 29.6 tons! But with a 120-horsepower engine towed, this artillery can maneuver at a speed of 8 to 10 kilometers per hour. Although the speed is not fast, but fortunately, the terrain passing ability is strong. And it can keep up with the maneuvering speed of the tank on this plane. Walk 8 kilometers in an hour. No division-level unit in any country can achieve this speed.

Of course, it is impossible for all artillery to use crawler sites, because after all, the crawler sites are complex in structure, troublesome to produce, and tanks will grab production capacity. Therefore, most of the self-propelled artillery used on tracked sites in this part are accompanied by armored forces. Used to provide direct fire support. The artillery of the large corps, such as the artillery belonging to the infantry division and the group army, is still carried by tractors, cars and horses. Of course, this is the distance from the station to the battlefield.

In the end, the prince set the composition of the German heavy artillery in this way. The 150mm howitzer will serve as the backbone of the division's first-level firepower. The weight of this level of howitzer is generally about 3 tons. The range is about 10km, and the weight of the shell is about 42-50kg. It can be towed by the current 1.5-ton truck or directly put on a 3-ton truck as a truck cannon.

Generally speaking, at the beginning of the war, the Germans had 9 77mm rapid-fire gun companies, 3 105mm light howitzer companies and 2 150mm heavy howitzer companies. This was already the limit of the mule horse division. Looking at the firepower of the first-level units of the Japanese division, it will not exceed this level too much (the division is higher than the German normal.)

However, in the Bavarian Army, because of the massive use of cars instead of horses, the number of horses and grooms, as well as the consumption of food and grass, has plummeted, but the number of available horsepower is on the rise, so it can have more artillery of larger caliber, and the mobility of artillery Stronger sex!

Considering that except for armored vehicles on the Eastern Front, there is almost no need to touch tanks. Even if it encounters armored vehicles, it can be done with a 50 machine gun. Considering that all the 77mm guns of Bavaria have been packaged to Russia, the prince developed an idea, starting from 1904 Beginning in the year, all the Bavarian Division’s support artillery units will cease to be equipped with 77mm rapid-fire guns. The 14 artillery companies in a division are all 105mm howitzers and 150mm heavy howitzers!

Among the 14 companies, 10 companies are equipped with 105mm light howitzers, and 4 companies are 150mm heavy howitzers. In principle, all infantry divisions’ artillery is towed artillery, and the part designated by the rapid mobile division will mix a certain amount of truck guns. . However, what the prince did not expect was that this plan was rarely resisted by the Bavarian military. Of course, this is something later, so I won't mention it for the time being.

At the military level, the artillery is composed of 210mm heavy howitzer and 150mm cannon~www.wuxiaspot.com~ The m10 210mm howitzer and m16 210mm howitzer in German history played a huge role in the early days of the war, but in fact The performance of this artillery is really average, the projectile volume is really large, a shell weighs 110kg, but the range is too close, the m16 cannon has a range of 11 kilometers, and the m10 cannon has a range of only 9,400 meters!

Although Maozi does not have any ultra-long-range heavy artillery, there are still some large-caliber artillery with a longer range, such as the m1910 107mm heavy gun. The barrel length is 2.9 meters and the elevation angle is not very large, only 37 degrees, but it still has a range of 12.5km. , Enough to suppress 210mm heavy howitzer.

If this howitzer is used on the front line, it will undoubtedly take a greater risk, so it is more important to increase the range, at least to increase it to more than 12km. This increase in range may not make much sense on the western front, because the French and the British There are too many heavy artillery to reach this distance, but it is different for Russia, because Russia's heavy artillery with a range of 15km is simply rare! If you can run into it, 5 million in the lottery ticket is a level chance....

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