As part of his time off from actively serving on the front lines, Bruno returned to his various enterprises and checked on their progress.
Whether it was advancements in medicine, material sciences, engineering, or what have you, there were plenty of things being worked on that could fundamentally change the world for the better.
But right now, Bruno’s primary concern was the war effort. And naturally, he knew that despite the fact that his factories were working at peak efficiency to maintain the logistic supply, they simply could not keep up with the demands of the German Army, whose numbers were well over five million men at this time.
And more specifically, they could not build enough tanks and mechanized vehicles to fully convert these infantry units into combined arms units. Because of this, the western front was lacking in armor outside of a few scout cars for the purpose of reconnaissance.
If Bruno’s estimates were correct, by 1916, the British and French should begin fielding armor of their own, which would have been hastily designed, trying to mimic his own panzers.
Sure, they would not be nearly as grand as his own armor, but the fact remained the Forces on the Western Front would be severely lacking in armor to combat those that they would soon be encountering.
Because of this, Bruno was at one of his arms factories where they were contracted by his family’s company to produce small arms for the German Military. But, in addition to this, Bruno also had his engineers design new small arms for the wars that were to come in the future.
And currently Bruno was looking at the final product of what had been years of hard work and development by his employees. The weapon in question was the Granatbüchse Modell 39 (GrB 39). What was the GrB 39? It was a single shot man portable anti-tank rifle, which was modified to fire rifle grenades.
More specifically, high explosive anti-tank grenades. Yes, these grenades were designed to absolutely shred armor of the era they were made to fight, utilizing the same explosive technology within the Panzerfaust series of recoilless rifles.
The weapons were relatively lightweight, at a little over 12 kgs or roughly 27 lbs. And had an effective firing range of 300 meters. With these grenades they had continued to see service until the end of the Second World War, still dealing damage too many of the late war armored vehicles in 1945.
But the unmodified version which fired a high-powered rifle cartridge was more than capable of defeating 25mm of armor at 300m. Which was already effective enough to devastate whatever tanks the Allies would be fielding in this war being fought here and now in 1915.
Because of this, Bruno inspected the weapon with a rather excitable gaze as he knew all too well that if properly maintained, these weapons could continue to see service in future conflicts, proving to be effective against armor more or less until the mid-1940s.
Hence why he was quick to congratulate the engineers for their efforts, as well as ask a few questions regarding its production.
“Excellent work as always, but I have to ask, have we begun trials yet? And if not, when can we expect to see them conducted?”
The engineers looked at Bruno as if he were ignorant of the reality, before quickly correcting his lack of understanding in the politest way possible.
“Sir, has nobody told you? The trials have already been concluded and were officially adopted into service this week. We will begin mass production starting tomorrow, and we should see these weapons in the hands of the soldiers who need them most by December at the latest!”
Bruno was not expecting this news, but was happy to hear it. With these weapons in the service of those defending the western front, he could focus entirely on knocking Italy out of the war without having to constantly look over his shoulder to see if something had collapsed behind him without his knowledge.
Thus, he was quick to announce proper compensation to those who took part in the creation of the German Army’s newest weapon.
“That is exactly what I wanted to hear! Christmas bonuses will be doubled this year for every man who took part in bringing this creation to life, and ensuring its adoption into service! You have done well to fortify our defenses against our enemies! Germany owes you all its thanks!”
With this said, the Engineers, and anyone else associated with the project were quite satisfied. Their Christmas bonuses were already large every year, but to have them doubled, that was an absurd degree of wealth they would be receiving from their generous employer.
As for Bruno, he was extremely satisfied with the weapon in his hands, that he was still inspecting, whether the opening of its breach, and the blanks that it was designed to fire in order to activate the rifle grenade.
Or the absolute craftsmanship of the final product. He could not help but smile as he thoroughly examined the weapon that would surely give the Allies a good fright when they finally mobilized whatever pitiful excuse for a tank they managed to create in this new timeline.
In fact, he could not help but smirk as he thought about the abject horror on the faces of the Allied tankers when trying to cross over the German trenches believing themselves to be invincible, only to get shot by a seemingly normal looking rifle from afar that turned out to have enough firepower to kill them and their crew with ease.
After envisioning this horrified expression in his head, Bruno smirked before setting the weapon down and heading off to the next factory on his list. As there were more than just weapons, he wanted to check the progress on before he was once more shipped off to war.
Alas for a man such as himself there was simply never enough time in this world, if only man could resolve their disputes peacefully he would finally be able to live the quiet and peaceful life with his beloved family he hoped he would one day soon be able to achieve.