Wang Zhong intended to praise the designers, but before he could utter a word, General Zinov excitedly began to clap, “Good! Very good! The aim is accurate, and the power is impressive!”
Anatoli also clapped his hands, but after a few claps, he asked Wang Zhong with a puzzled look, “General Rocossov, what is this designed to counter? The Prussians don’t have any tanks that require such firepower, do they?”
Wang Zhong thought to himself that they didn’t have any now, but they would have Tigers and Panthers in the future. However, he couldn’t say that outright, so he simply said, “The Prussians have already captured our KV series heavy tanks, repainted them with their symbols, and started using them. We need a way to destroy the KVs from a long distance.”
Anatoli nodded, “Indeed, I’ve heard that during the counter-offensive some units encountered KVs painted in Prussian gray. But they didn’t exist when the project started, right?”
Wang Zhong replied, “We abandoned so many KVs; the Prussians could put together new ones just from the wreckage, it’s impossible for them not to.”
In fact, a large number of KVs were simply abandoned by the roadside due to walking mechanism failures, as the Ante Army had no capacity to repair them, nor enough tractors to tow the broken tanks back for repairs.
Wang Zhong suddenly had an idea, and he asked the test range director, “Do we have a KV available for testing here?”
The director replied, “We do, for testing improvements to the walking mechanism, but the testing phase is already completed, and it’s stored in the garage.”
Wang Zhong said, “Bring it out and place it at the 1000-meter mark, next to that Prussian Panzer IV.”
“This…” the test range director looked troubled, “It’s not good to move test vehicles around without approval, right?”
By then, Wang Zhong already had ample experience handling such situations and simply stated, “Create a document that says we need to test the destructive power of the 100mm gun using a KV that has completed its test missions, and I’ll sign it.”
The director immediately changed his tune, “Okay. Right away.”
Indeed, the little trick learned from General Chekhov worked wonders.
Ten minutes later, after Wang Zhong had signed the paper, the KV was driven out from the garage to the test range, parked beside the recently extinguished Prussian tank.
Once the researchers had all left, Wang Zhong took to the radio and called out to the 100mm carriage, “Roe Deer, reverse two hundred meters, aim at the KV tank.”
The prototype vehicle codenamed Roe Deer immediately began to reverse, and Wang Zhong, watching from an overhead perspective, called out when it reached two hundred, “Stop! Once aiming is complete, fire at will.”
After he spoke, he handed the radio to Vasily—after all, the device was actually quite heavy, and tiring to hold for too long. He wondered if brick phones were also this heavy; it wouldn’t be easy for Teacher Yu Qian, who always kept it in his back pocket.
Less than five seconds later, Roe Deer fired, and just like before, a blast of wind from the gun muzzle swept up the snow in front of the vehicle.
Wang Zhong even saw the sunlight reflecting off the projectile as it sped towards the KV, hitting the front hull square on. The next moment, the KV’s turret hatch was blown open by the shock wave, followed by flames erupting from the air vents behind the turret.
The fire spread quickly, and the tank caught ablaze.
“Great!” General Zinov clapped furiously, “Excellent! With this, even if we encounter captured KVs, we’ve got nothing to fear!”
One of the drivers who had accompanied General Zinov in delivering tanks then added, “With this firepower, we won’t fear the enemy’s Carolingian tanks either. They’ve converted their Carolingian heavies into flamethrower tanks and inflicted a lot of casualties on our infantry.”
Wang Zhong paid no attention to the driver, as he was busy observing the burning KV from his overhead perspective. Zooming in, he could see a hole in the KV’s front armor, indicating that the shot didn’t hit the machine gun port or the observation window, but simply penetrated the front armor of the vehicle.
1200 meters, first shot hit and destroyed the KV!
At this point, whether the Whirlwind tank destroyer’s front armor was reliable became less critical; with this kind of firepower, there was a place for it at the front lines.
But if the Whirlwind’s front armor was dependable, that would be even better.
If the reliability also met standards, that would be even better still!
If the production time could be reduced further—
Wang Zhong decisively dismissed the fantasy; it was impossible to have such good luck.
“Very good,” he turned to Ke Jing, the chief engineer, and said, “I’m very satisfied.”
Ke Jing showed a modest smile, “It’s the quality of the navy’s 100mm gun that’s good, not really my design.”
Wang Zhong asked, “How did you solve the aiming problem? Our sights were designed for engagements under 800 meters, yet you achieved a first-shot hit at 1200 meters, how did you manage that?”
Ke Jing replied, “First, the test driver is an excellent marksman. Second, we used sights and optical equipment captured from the Prussians. The work of replicating the sights has been handed over to Factory 251, which was reestablished based on the employees of Saint Andrew Optics Factory that retreated from Saint Andrew Fort.”
Wang Zhong asked, “Is that the factory that produced optical glass? How many people retreated?”
Ke Jing said, “One-third of the technicians and engineers managed to retreat. Initially, we also planned to evacuate the skilled workers who hand-ground the lenses, but all the workers were devout members of the Secular faction. Determined to defend the city named after Saint Andrew with their blood and lives, they refused to retreat.”
Wang Zhong exclaimed, “What folly! This is exactly where they are most needed! Not having anyone to produce the sights, or having sights of poor quality, will cause huge casualties in our army! I’ll personally write to them and urge them to evacuate.”
Ke Jing was overjoyed, “Excellent! If it could be so, that would be the best. Factory 251 is currently in great need of skilled lens workers. If you could write to the workers of the electron tube factory to also evacuate, that would be great.”
Wang Zhong said, “Okay! Vasily, remind me to write letters tonight.”
Vasily was surprised, “Eh? I thought I’d be drafting them for you. Are you really going to write them by hand?”
Wang Zhong replied, “Of course. Only then will it show my sincerity, and I plan to persuade all those workers in Davarish to come back to produce high-quality lenses for us. Of course, imports from the Federation are also important!”
The Federation at the time was a bit like the later Ceres, able to produce everything—it wasn’t necessarily the best, but it solved the problem of availability.
Shocking, the Federation turned out to be a mini Ceres.
Wang Zhong, looking at the burning KV once again, felt his spirits dampened after learning that the 100mm carriage used captured Prussian sights. He had thought they’d achieved the 1200-meter first-shot hit and destruction with entirely domestically produced equipment.
Although it didn’t match up to the 1500-meter first-shot hit and destruction by the elite Sturmtiger crews of the Tigers, it was still quite an achievement.
Never mind, although it wasn’t perfect, at the very least it proved that the navy’s 100mm gun was no less capable than the Prussian’s 88mm gun.
Suddenly, something inside the burning KV exploded, and a gush of flames burst out of the turret hatch, forming a fleeting miniature mushroom cloud.
Wang Zhong, “What exploded?”
Researcher, “It might be some shells left over from the test, probably stored somewhere we didn’t spot when we unloaded the ammunition.”
Wang Zhong frowned tightly; how could a shell have been overlooked? But then he thought about the fact that it was the Russians, and he could accept it.
————
Stay tuned for updates on M-V-L
Next, Wang Zhong watched as two prototype vehicles completed a series of experiments.
They were able to reach a highway speed of 60 kilometers per hour, with almost the same obstacle-clearing level as the T34—after all, they shared the same chassis. And it seemed that because of the reduced weight, the reliability had also improved.
The two prototype vehicles raced around the test field for nearly a hundred kilometers without any malfunctions.
Of course, more detailed reliability tests would require repeated experiments over a period of more than a week to finally determine the durability of this tank.
Wang Zhong hadn’t yet started the protection tests, but he was already captivated by this vehicle.
Then at five in the afternoon, with the onset of dusk, the protection test began.
The two prototype vehicles were brought in specifically because one of them was to undergo protection testing.
The researchers at the test center stuffed several dummies into Vehicle No. 2, nicknamed “Mule Deer,” and then the center director asked Wang Zhong for instructions, “Should we fire from 1,000 meters away?”
Wang Zhong, “No, we need to be stricter with the protection test, let’s start from 800 meters.”
“Yes, General.”
Wang Zhong, “Also, we captured some of the enemy’s tanks, right? After testing the 45mm gun and the anti-tank rifle, let’s use one of the enemy’s tanks to fire a shot. Use the No. 3 tank’s 50mm gun.”
The Prosen Armored Divisions invading Ante seldom equipped their early Panzer III tanks with the 37mm gun; they used the 50mm version instead.
In fact, what Wang Zhong really wanted to use for the test was the Panzer IV tank equipped by the enemy with the 75mm long barrel gun. No, considering the Prosen would later deploy an even longer 75mm gun, the current 43-caliber (meaning the barrel length is that many times the caliber) 75mm gun should be called a medium 75.
The 75mm gun of the Panzer IV tank had already reached its limit when extended to 48 calibers; further lengthening would result in the imbalance of the vehicle’s weight, causing the rate of failure of the first road wheel to soar.
At that moment, Anatoly spoke up, “Among the captured equipment that we brought back, there was also a new anti-tank gun, which appears to be 75mm.”
Wang Zhong was overjoyed; wasn’t this the PAK40? If it could withstand this, there would only be the fear of the 88 “anti-everything” gun.
So he said, “Bring it over as well, let’s test it all together.”
Soon, the captured PAK40 anti-tank gun was dragged onto the test field.
Wang Zhong walked around it and found it was much larger than it appeared in the games.
The Ante 45mm anti-tank gun next to it looked like a miniature toy.
At that time, several captured Panzer III and IV tanks were also driven over.
Wang Zhong, “Let’s start the test with the Buffalo Anti-Tank Rifle, which has the lowest capability.”
A few minutes later, the results came in, and the Ante Army’s standard anti-tank rifle, the PTRS-41, basically couldn’t penetrate the “Whirlwind’s” frontal armor.
Because Ke Jing designed the Whirlwind without any openings on the front armor. The driver’s observation window was placed on top of the tank, and the driver’s seat was designed to be adjustable; it could be raised by turning a bolt during non-combat to peek out and observe, and lowered during combat to use the periscope to see ahead.
And as for things like the hull machine gun, Ke Jing had completely removed it, opting instead for an anti-aircraft machine gun above the combat room.
So this Whirlwind was doomed to have poor anti-personnel effectiveness, having only one anti-aircraft machine gun.
As for the gunner’s scope, Ke Jing also placed it at the top of the combat room, using a periscope structure to transmit the image.
In short, there were simply no vulnerability points on the front of the Whirlwind that an anti-tank rifle could exploit—in actual combat, the only targets would basically be various observation ports.
Not for a moment saddened by the defeat of the PTRS-41, the next to enter the stage was the Ante Army’s standard 45mm anti-tank gun.
Watching the gunner operate the gun, Wang Zhong was reminded of the early days of the war, when he was desperately begging everyone he could to secure a platoon of these coveted weapons.
In the end, it was Loktov’s mechanics who managed to assemble three guns.
Hey, wasn’t it the 76mm guns they assembled? In any case, they were treasured at that time.
The gunner fired, and Wang Zhong saw with his own eyes the shell hit the front armor of Vehicle No. 2 and then bounce off.
A ricochet!
Researchers ran over, checked the dummies inside the vehicle, and reported they were unscathed!
Then the gunner switched to different aiming points, but the results were the same: the frontal armor repelled the shots, new vehicle at 800 meters distance immune to the 45mm gun!
Following the principle of caliber progression, the Panzer III’s 50mm gun was tested next, which also posed no issue whatsoever.
After the 50mm test was complete, it was time for the Panzer IV’s 75mm short-barreled gun.
The 75mm gun’s high-explosive shell caused some of the interior side of Vehicle No. 2’s armor to collapse, and the researchers ruled one crew member slightly injured and two others with minor abrasions, still combat-capable.
Finally, it was the turn of Ante’s ZIS-3 model 76mm anti-tank gun, which should be the tank gun with the best armor-piercing capability available at the testing ground—Wang Zhong’s troops were heavily equipped with the ZIS4 model 57mm anti-tank gun, which was not available at the test ground, so it couldn’t be tested today.
Whether the new vehicle could withstand and protect itself against attacks all came down to whether it could withstand a hit from the 76mm gun!