"The impact point distance is 43 kilometers!
The maximum flight altitude is 120 meters!
The actual flight distance is 76.9 kilometers!
The maximum speed is 1400 meters per second!
The diameter of the crater is 12.5 meters and the depth is 7.8 meters!
The killing range is 200X200!
..."
The detailed artillery parameters were quickly counted, and the numbers shocked the experts on the scene!
"With a maximum speed of 1,400 meters, the penetration should be strong, right? Can it penetrate the permanent fortifications of the French on the Maginot Line?"
"I don't know, I haven't tried it, but it should work!"
"Well, I think so too, but we should still conduct live-fire shooting and use experiments to test the destructive power of this giant cannon against fortifications!"
"Well, but this thing has a very slow rate of fire. It takes a long time to hoist the shells, extract the shells and prepare for firing. It can only fire 5 shells in an hour at most, and 50 shells in a day at most!"
The Gustav cannon is too heavy, and the shell hoist has not been equipped yet, so an additional crane is needed to help load the shells. All these have slowed down its firing speed. In fact, if all of these are equipped, even if its firing rate cannot be increased to the level of naval guns, it can at least be greatly increased several times on the current basis!
After all, this is only a 500-meter Gustav cannon, not the 800-mm cannon in history!
Mainz remembered that when participating in the Battle of Sevastopol, the Gustav cannon was too heavy, so on the most intense day of the battle, it only fired 13 shells!
Of course, although Although the number of shells fired by the Gustav cannon was relatively small, due to its immense power, it caused great damage to the Soviet fortifications. Among them, a shell from the Gustav cannon accurately hit the Soviet ammunition depot located 38 meters underground, completely destroying it, which directly led to a huge gap in the Soviet defense line, laying the foundation for the German army to capture it!
Mainz heard the conversation of these artillery experts and felt their excitement.
Although these guys were too focused on discussing the data of this artillery, which resulted in Mainz, the military boss, being left aside, he was not angry about it.
"General, what do you think of this artillery?"
Gustav was originally just a diplomat, but after marrying into Krupp's family, he gradually turned into an arms dealer.
Although Gustav was not a military expert at this time, he was no longer ignorant of the various weapons under his company as he was at the beginning. He knew a little about various weapons!
When this artillery was being developed, Gustav originally meant to call it the Mainz Cannon and intended to give the naming rights of this cannon to Mainz, but Mainz rejected his proposal and instead called it the Gustav Cannon!
This is definitely an honor for Gustav!
You know, not everyone can get the right to name a weapon. The German army has so many meritorious marshals and veterans, but none of them have ever received the honor of naming a weapon, but Gustav has. How respected is this?
Moreover, Mainz is now considered the son-in-law of their Krupp family and one of their own, so Krupp and Gustav have already sworn allegiance to Mainz in their hearts and are determined to stand with him unswervingly!
"The power is OK, but the weight is still a bit heavy. The problem of the loader should be solved as soon as possible, so that the combat efficiency of this artillery can be maximized!"
In general, Mainz is quite satisfied with the Gustav Cannon. This cannon is not the pinnacle of the Gustav Cannon, but it is the limit of what they can do with the existing technology.
When the casting process of the barrel is improved and they can cast barrels with a caliber of more than 500 mm, the Gustav Cannon will usher in greater development!
"Yes, I have noted these down, and I will definitely make achievements in this area in the future, just wait and see, General!"
Gustav was full of confidence. Krupp's technical strength was very strong, and now it had the strong support of Mainz. He believed that they would be able to overcome this technical difficulty and perfect this artillery in the shortest possible time! Mainz nodded. The development of this giant cannon cost a huge sum of 5 million marks. It was a lot of money. If they could not succeed, then all the money would be wasted.
After visiting the test firing of the Gustav cannon, Mainz did not stay at the shooting range for too long. He followed Gustav and the others and took the lead in returning to the city of Essen and returned to the Krupp factory!
As soon as he returned to the factory, Mainz handed a set of drawings to Gustav.
"General, is this a tank?"
Gustav was very excited when he saw these familiar yet unfamiliar drawings. Gustav was keenly aware that this thing would become the flagship product of their Krupp company!
"No, it's an assault gun!"
Mainz said with a smile:"A weapon that looks like a tank, but it is not a tank!"
Gustav nodded in confusion. Although he didn't know what the difference was between this thing that looked very much like a tank and a tank, since General Mainz said so, there must be a difference between the two!
"Tanks are weapons that mainly emphasize speed and protection performance, and they are used in armored forces as vanguards and pioneers.
Infantry cannot expect tanks to accompany them in combat.
However, in war, in order to keep up with the speed of tanks and armored forces as quickly as possible, infantry will adopt mechanization and motorization to increase speed.
The increase in speed brings a problem, that is, the accompanying firepower of the infantry will not be able to keep up with their speed!
"
Mainz patiently explained to Gustav that there are some things that people who have never been to the battlefield and have not experienced actual combat will never understand!
In the German-Polish War half a year ago, the German army had used the tactic of rapid assault by armored forces.
This tactic played a huge role in the war, and many times it caught the Polish army off guard.
The German army was able to achieve such a brilliant victory, which was inseparable from their lightning tactics of wrapping up the unresponsive Polish army in a very short period of time.
However, in the blitzkrieg, the German army also exposed considerable problems. One of the main problems was the lack of firepower of the German army!
The tractor tanks had no turrets, only some temporarily equipped machine guns. The speed of the armored vehicles was enough, but the protection capabilities and firepower were also insufficient. Therefore, they could quickly surround the Polish army, but there was no way to eat up the Polish army in the encirclement immediately after the encirclement. They needed to wait for the German infantry units in the rear to catch up.
Although a large number of motorized troops composed of trucks quickly caught up with the armored units Team, but most of the weapons of these motorized troops are towed artillery. After they arrive at the battlefield, they need to pull the artillery out from the back of the truck, and then determine the location of the artillery position and move the shells off the truck.
In this process, they also have to send troops in advance to protect the safety of the artillery to prevent enemy attacks!
After this series of tedious work is completed, most of the day or even a whole day has passed, and the Polish army in the encirclement can also use this time to slowly recover from the initial panic. Some Polish troops can even rely on the terrain to resist the German army.
All of this has caused a lot of trouble for the German army!
In order to solve this problem, the German army must have an accompanying firepower that can keep up with the speed of mechanized troops and can be put into combat immediately without preparation. This is the rapid support firepower of the infantry proposed by Manstein in World War II-assault artillery!
Of course, this thing has another more domineering name: tank killer!