Chapter 476: Vast
This time, Khrushchev breathed a sigh of relief, because the Germans had done him a huge favor. The plane carrying the special envoy sent by Stalin to deal with him was spotted by German fighters as it approached the frontline airfield. A formation of four German Air Force Fw-190D fighters easily tore through the defensive screen of eight escorting I-16s and shot down Stalin’s special envoy a kilometer from the runway. The tragic part was that, until the very end, the special envoy never saw the Soviet Air Force units that were supposed to welcome him.
He naturally wouldn’t see them. The situation at the front was far worse than Stalin knew. A day earlier, the Soviet Air Force no longer dared to take off to engage the arrogant German Air Force. While the German Air Force was indiscriminately bombing the village of Tupos, the Soviet fighter pilots could only watch from a distance as their compatriots were ravaged and killed.
Relying on their complete radar detection network along the border region, as well as the latest railway radar trains, the German army could easily find and attack any Soviet aircraft that took to the skies, to the point that the losses of the few Soviet flying units that dared to fight were close to 100%. After the battle began, due to the unexpected German counter-assault, most of the Soviet fighters were destroyed on the ground. In just a few days, the Soviet Air Force had lost a full 3,000 aircraft of various types.
If Stalin had known that his air force was almost completely wiped out, he certainly would not have let his special envoy fly to the front to relieve Khrushchev of his military command. Of course, if he had known that Khrushchev was now in a panicked retreat with Voroshilov and the army, he would certainly have sent the special envoy to the front with a firing squad.
The captured Soviet KV-2 tank was soon surrounded by a group of experts who had rushed from Germany. They began to measure the various data of the tank, and some news began to spread like wildfire.
“Have you heard? That Soviet tank actually uses a 152mm cannon!” the commander of tank 114, who was usually not one for gossip, couldn’t hold it in this time. “Lieutenant, I hear that tank can theoretically penetrate the frontal armor of a Tiger. After seeing that big guy, it’s the first time I’ve felt that my own tank isn’t very sturdy.”
Marcus was clearly not in high spirits either. He and Rein had been assigned to Panther tank units from the very beginning. For nearly a year now, they had been accustomed to using the tanks they commanded to destroy the enemy’s scrap metal. Their tanks had always been the most advanced in the world. Both in terms of performance and crew quality, they had always been the best in the world.
Now, there was a tank that surpassed the Tiger in their hands. The frontal armor of this tank’s turret was even thicker than the Tiger’s, and it was equipped with a 152mm cannon of unprecedented caliber as its main gun. This immediately put the German panzer forces, whose largest cannon caliber was only 88mm, under immense pressure.
So at this moment, he felt that all the engineers and technicians in the rear should be shot. According to normal development, if the enemy was already using a 152mm cannon, then the German panzer forces should at least be using a 203mm cannon, right?
“Rein! Don’t you know the Führer? Write him a letter and tell him these idiot experts aren’t doing their jobs!” Marcus said, his face gloomy. “The enemy’s tanks are clearly more advanced than ours. Aren’t they sending us to our deaths?”
“Shut up!” Rein glared at Marcus, then signaled for everyone to calm down. He took Alice with him and walked over to the group of experts who were in a constant meeting.
“Excuse me, I am Lieutenant Rein Hardt, the first to discover this tank,” he said, walking up behind an engineer and greeting him politely.
“Ah, Lieutenant Rein! It’s a good thing it was you who encountered this, otherwise it might have caused us even more trouble,” the engineer, who looked thin but was very friendly, said.
Rein gave a wry smile, then pointed to the massive KV-2 tank not far away. “This thing has caused a panic among my men. To be honest, a frontal engagement with this kind of tank would not be an easy matter. So I came to ask you professionals, is there any way to deal with this monster?”
The engineer grinned, then turned and called over a military officer who was in charge of statistics, asking him to give Rein a detailed explanation of the tank’s advantages and disadvantages.
“Obviously, there’s no need to elaborate on this tank’s advantages. The armor is very thick. The 88mm cannon would have some difficulty against this thickness at 1,200 meters. The safest range is at least 1,000 meters. I suggest you open fire at that distance,” the officer said, explaining to Rein after looking at his records.
“But that 152mm cannon… a range of 1,000 meters seems rather dangerous,” Rein said with a frown.
“Don’t worry, I don’t think it’s as dangerous as you think,” the officer smiled. “The interior of this tank was very well preserved, so we know its weaknesses clearly.”
As he spoke, he pointed to the KV-2. “The cannon is indeed powerful, but its aiming device is very primitive, and its accuracy cannot be guaranteed even at 700 meters. So the probability of this tank hitting you from 1,000 meters is not high. Furthermore, its ammunition is two-piece, so after this tank fires, it will take at least 20 seconds to fire again.”
Rein nodded. He had guessed this point. Compared to the 88mm cannon on the Tiger, the Soviet 152mm was too large. If the ammunition were not two-piece, it would be impossible to load it in the cramped tank. So the rate of fire was this big guy’s Achilles’ heel.
“Another problem is with this big guy’s turret traverse mechanism. Because its turret is too heavy, the original rotation mechanism designed for the KV-1 is overwhelmed. The aiming and adjustment of this tank are very slow, unbearably slow. I think, if the people who drive this tank aren’t crazy, then the people who designed it must be,” the officer said with a pout.
“I can probably guess some of the remaining problems,” Rein said, glancing at the tank’s tracks and wheels. He then continued with his own observations, “This tank’s mobility must be very poor, right? I personally saw it get stuck on a road embankment, unable to climb the slope. And its speed was so slow I thought their driver hadn’t eaten.”
The officer nodded and gave Rein a thumbs-up. “You guessed right. This tank’s top speed is not much faster than pushing a Tiger tank, and it’s very easy for its engine to stall when shifting or turning… Now, do you have any other questions?”
“When do we get new tanks?” Rein asked without a moment’s thought.
“New tanks? Don’t even think about it,” the officer was taken aback for a moment, then burst into laughter. “There is a plan to add welded-on steel plates to the Tiger to improve its protection, but as for a new generation… you’ll have to wait a long time.”
The original design philosophy of the Tiger tank was to find a delicate balance between the three main performance metrics of a tank: “firepower, protection, and mobility.” Under this major premise, the Tiger also incorporated the revolutionary concept of simplified logistics and maintenance. Many of its parts were interchangeable with the Panther tank, and it used mature and reliable structures and equipment.
For example, the Tiger’s engine could be said to be the pinnacle of German mechanical engineering design. This engine not only had a high power output but was also stable. Most importantly, it was very reliable and durable. This was why the German army had always maintained a very high operational readiness rate for its tanks. The failure rates of both the Panther and the Tiger were very low, and the negligible number of breakdowns were mostly caused by impurities in the fuel.
The Panther and Tiger tanks, designed through such a rigorous process, had in fact already begun to take on the shape of a modern main battle tank. In several important indicators, these German tanks maintained a terrifyingly perfect balance. If they were to increase the investment in any one indicator, the price would be a sharp decline in the other performance indicators.
So when he learned that the Soviets had deployed the KV-2 to the battlefield, Akado was not surprised or afraid in the slightest. He knew that the Soviets had deviated in their path of tank development and that it wouldn’t be long before they returned to the old road. It would only be when they began to mass-produce the T-34 and the Stalin tanks that they would have truly “graduated.”
Thinking of it another way, the main tanks currently equipped by the German army were the Panther and the Tiger. These tanks could hold their own even against the Soviet heavy tanks, so there was no urgent need to replace them with new equipment. The “King Tiger” tank, with its 105mm cannon and night vision equipment, was still in the design finalization stage. There was no need to disrupt their own pace of development for the sake of a single, half-baked KV-2.
“Trust the Führer. He values weapon innovation more than you can imagine,” the officer said, seeing the silent Rein. “To give you a tank that can only drive a few dozen kilometers before it has to stop for repairs, that would be irresponsible.”
Rein nodded, then turned and looked at Alice. “You heard all that?”
Alice nodded shyly.
“Then go back and explain it to Marcus and the others!” Rein laughed out loud. At this moment, he finally seemed like a kid under 20. Alice then realized she had been used as a messenger, so she began to playfully chase her commander. The two of them ran, one after the other, back to their tank.
The German officer watched the two of them run off, a look of longing on his face. After a long moment, he came to his senses, then shook his head and sighed with emotion. “Youth… it’s really something.”
Published: 2025-08-28T05:10:49.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2025-11-22T12:42:57.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c476-vast-137526555
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