Munitions Empire-Chapter 924 - The outmoded chassis 847

Chapter 924: The outmoded chassis #847 Chapter 924: The outmoded chassis #847 The cheers continued until an Orc’s 130mm caliber howitzer shell fell, stirring up a cloud of gravel and finally subsiding.

The brief excitement made Qin Army soldiers forget they were still on the battlefield—now, the Orcish artillery fire reminded them, making them aware of the imminent danger.

Lately, the Qin Army and the Orcs had both replaced a lot of their gear with better stuff, with the combat power of both sides alternately rising, which was unnerving to witness.

The Shireck Consortium sold the Orcs quite a few 130mm caliber howitzers: these cannons were old models discarded by other countries, with their production lines repurposed for waste, and then sold directly to the Orcs.

At the same time, outdated Maxim heavy machine guns discarded by various countries, numerous untraceable Shireck Model 1 bolt-action rifles, and 70mm caliber mountain guns all made their way en masse into Orcish troops.

With some investigation, it was easy to ascertain that countless rifles, bullets, shells, and guns—even tents, gauze, underwear, and socks—landed in Nanshan Port in the southern part of Chu Country, crossed through Chu and Shu Countries, and were delivered to the Orcs.

Unfortunately, Qin Country’s information department, while generally diligent, had always been silent on this matter. They never investigated Nanshan Port in Chu Country, acting as if nothing had ever happened there.

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From this smuggling route, the Orcs obtained the various weapons and equipment they desperately needed: if not for the strong support of the Shireck Consortium, they might still be using flintlock guns and muzzle-loading cannons.

In just one year, the Orcs got their hands on bolt-action rifles and modern artillery they had never even dreamt of before and even purchased the incredibly powerful Maxim heavy machine guns.

With new weaponry, at least the Orc frontline troops reinforced their strength and began learning how to dig trenches and build defenses, rapidly enhancing their combat capabilities.

The Orcs even formed their own air force, hiring some human pilots as instructors to learn how to fly aircraft.

Shireck sold all their unsaleable biplanes to the Orcs, a deal that brought in a staggering amount of wealth for Shireck.

That is why Orcish aircraft appeared near the western wall defense line and engaged in aerial combat with the Qin Country Air Force.

Having their own aircraft, the Orcs also began to learn aerial reconnaissance, making it much harder for Qin Country to launch surprise attacks.

After tasting success, the Orcs were actively seeking sellers of bombers, and once they succeeded in purchasing them, the air battles near the western wall would be even bloodier and more brutal.

Of course, Qin soldiers also got what they wanted: Tang Country’s Thompson submachine guns, plenty of ammunition, and various standard Tang Army weapons and equipment.

For instance, 75mm caliber infantry cannons, 105mm caliber howitzers, and even 155mm caliber towed howitzers.

Even more incredibly, to recoup some of the costs, Tang Country sold the self-propelled howitzers modified from Panzer II chassis to Qin Country. These outdated armaments were no longer useful for the Tang Army, as keeping them would have been a burden for logistics.

The chassis of the Panzer II was actually completely obsolete, as the Tang Army now had the superior and comprehensive M113 armored personnel carrier chassis and the also outdated Panzer IV chassis, effectively rendering the small Panzer II redundant.

But in the hands of the Qin Army, these modified self-propelled howitzers were a different story; they were in dire need of such equipment to gain experience in using self-propelled artillery.

New weapons brought new concepts, and without hands-on experimentation to accumulate experience, the critical elements would remain unknown, making it impossible to master the techniques accurately.

While the Tang Army had Tang Mo as a beacon of guidance, the Qin Army did not—they had to experiment themselves or learn from military advisors from Tang Country.

Hiring military consultants from the Tang Army cost money, and they might not be willing to teach all their most guarded tactics, so the Qin Army thought it better to explore on their own.

Of course, apart from dumping such outdated junk, the Tang Army also provided Qin Army with some genuinely good stuff.

Take the M113 armored personnel carrier, for example: before the Orcs could buy tanks, these armored vehicles were enough to provide Qin Army with protective armor and establish a substantial armored advantage.

If the Qin Army needed, Tang Mo could also provide second-hand Panzer IV tanks—these short-barreled 75mm cannon-equipped tanks were sometimes very effective.

Even though they were actually outdated, many were still willing to pay for them because of the Tang Army’s unstoppably victorious reputation.

The Tang Army was gradually phasing out their Panzer IV tanks; they truly couldn’t be used any longer.

In terms of protection, these early WWII tanks with openings on all four sides and doors everywhere simply couldn’t meet the armor requirements of the Tang Army’s Armored Corps. They were incapable of siege warfare or combating enemy tanks.

Speaking of firepower, the Tang Army was extensively equipped with the Type 4 Tanks, all of which utilized short-barreled 75mm caliber low-pressure guns. Not only did they lack sufficient armor-piercing capabilities, but the upgrade path was also anything but smooth. The long-barreled 75mm guns were even looked down upon by the Tang Army.

In addition to mediocre power, the Type 4 Tanks had now become completely obsolete, unloved, and pitied by no one.

After the Panther Tanks began to enter service, a large number of Type 4 Tank chassis were converted into assault guns and self-propelled artillery. In fact, various Armored Corps were making do by utilizing Type 4 Tanks as ad hoc assault guns.

Those Type 4 Tanks discarded by the Tank units were either directly handed over to the Infantry to fill the gaps for Type 4 assault guns or repurposed as training vehicles in newly established second-line Armored Corps.

Despite not being completely phased out, there really was no need to further develop or upgrade the Type 4 Tanks.

These machines were never advanced to begin with, and with technological advancements in other countries, their performance no longer allowed the Tang Army to maintain its technological edge.

In their place was the mass-production-ready Type 59 Main Battle Tank, this new medium or rather, main battle tank, would completely replace the Panther Tanks and Type 4 Tanks in the future.

The only issue was that the Type 59 Main Battle Tank had very limited room for modification; it couldn’t be developed into self-propelled artillery nor converted into assault guns.

Yet, assault guns and self-propelled artillery were still crucially important to the Tang Army and weren’t easily dispensable types of equipment.

In the Soviet-style weapon lineup, the role of the assault gun was divided between the Infantry fighting vehicle and the Tank, which is one of the reasons why the underpowered BMP-1 Infantry fighting vehicle was forcibly equipped with a low-pressure 100mm cannon.

Thus, Soviet-style Infantry fighting vehicles generally appeared mighty, almost giving off the illusion that they could go head to head with Tanks.

Western armored troop carriers were designed to replace the “half-track vehicles,” and they tended to delegate the role of assault guns to tank bombers and artillery.

The differing substitution strategies led to completely different focal points in armaments. They could not, however, actually replace the true assault guns designed for breaching defenses.

With technological advancement, assault guns would indeed be replaced by these new armaments, but their existence was still meaningful for the current Tang Army.

The most critical issue was that the Tang Army was equipped with too many Type 4 assault guns and Type 4 self-propelled artillery to replace such old equipment at the drop of a hat.

Using Panther Tank chassis to replace the Type 4 was downright laughable, and the upcoming Type 59 Tank chassis was also unsuitable.

This led to a very serious problem: the Tang Army lacked a chassis to develop new-style self-propelled howitzers…

They had to either continue using the outdated Type 4 Tank chassis or develop a new specialized howitzer chassis.

For the continued development of his troops, Tang Mo had no choice but to earnestly select the second solution; after much consideration, his only option was the M-109.

The caliber of self-propelled artillery from the Soviet era and that used by Tang Country were incompatible. Changing the artillery would require extensive modifications to the vehicle body, which was a tremendous undertaking.

Given Tang Country’s technological abilities, their only real option was to proceed with the M-109 self-propelled howitzer, which, at the very least, had no major drawbacks and could be used for over a decade.

Moreover, since it wasn’t particularly technically challenging and had no significant barriers, the howitzer’s caliber was appropriate, and future advances in self-propelled artillery wouldn’t necessitate a replacement.

The only awkward point was that while the Air Force and Tanks used Soviet-style equipment, the self-propelled artillery was American-style, leaving Tang Mo a bit… confused.

This chapter is updated by freēwēbnovel.com.

Alas, there was no other choice. The final conclusion was that the Tang Army would be equipped with Type 59 Main Battle Tanks, M-109 self-propelled howitzers, and J-6 jet Fighter Jets in the future.

Eager to phase out the Type 4 Tanks, Tang Country began considering donating some to Chu Country and selling others to clear space for a large-scale re-equipment effort.

Plans, however, cannot keep up with rapid changes, and the tank version of the night vision device system, which hadn’t been officially deployed, became standard for the Type 59 Tanks.

And the Panther Tanks, initially planned to be equipped with night vision devices, were outright abandoned. Once the Tang Army had a sufficient number of new Type 59 Main Battle Tanks, these Panther Tanks would be sold to the highest bidder.

Both Qin Country and Shu Country expressed interest in purchasing Type 4 Tanks, which was good news for Tang Country. The bad news was that, for the foreseeable future, Tang Country couldn’t produce enough new armaments to replace this fleet of Type 4 Tanks.

The factories in Tongcheng once again operated at full capacity, not at war but in peacetime, with all workers on a double shift, laboring 12 hours a day to produce the urgently needed new weaponry for the Troops…