Alexei soon gave another modification plan for a half-track armored vehicle.
This modification plan even amazed Wang Xuexin.
"The side armor uses 10mm thick steel plates!" Alexey pointed to the design drawing and said: "Because the side is the main defense direction for armored vehicles, we are likely to be attacked by enemy light machine guns and small-caliber heavy machine guns.
The 10mm steel plate can handle the attacks of these equipment very well!"
Wang Xuexin has no objection to this. 10mm steel plate will definitely not work against large-caliber heavy machine guns such as Mao Xiong's 12.7mm Deshka machine gun, but it can basically meet the requirements against the Japanese's light and heavy machine guns.
Alexei even gave data. He handed a handwritten document to Wang Xuexin and said in detail: "Currently, the type 92 heavy machine gun most commonly used by the devils uses 7.7mm bullets.
The Japs are usually not equipped with armor-piercing projectiles when fighting against the Chinese army. Without armor-piercing projectiles, they cannot penetrate a 10mm steel plate at any distance."
"So..." Wang Xuexin asked: "What if it is equipped with armor-piercing bullets?"
Wang Xuexin is not afraid of ten thousand, but just in case.
Moreover, the half-track armored vehicles are not fighting the Japs. After today's battle, the Japs will know that the Eighth Route Army is equipped with such vehicles, and the next time the heavy machine guns will be equipped with armor-piercing projectiles.
Alexey took out a separate piece of information and handed it to Wang Xuexin and said: "The Type 92 heavy machine gun armor-piercing bullet can penetrate 8mm steel plate at a distance of 500 meters and 10mm steel plate at a distance of 200 meters!"
Wang Xuexin nodded with satisfaction.
In other words, the half-track vehicle can withstand the attack of the Japanese Type 92 heavy machine gun at a distance of 200 meters when using armor-piercing projectiles.
And 200 meters away...the soldiers on the half-track vehicle would have long spotted the Type 92 heavy machine gun mounted like a cannon.
In addition, there is actually not much need to thicken the steel plate.
Because the most powerful heavy machine gun used by the Japanese is the Type 92 heavy machine gun. Another three-year-old heavy machine gun uses 6.5mm bullets and is even less powerful than the Type 92 heavy machine gun.
If you can defend against the Type 92, you will basically be immune to the Japanese's light and heavy machine guns and rifles.
In this case, thickening the steel plate... will not achieve any benefit other than adding weight and reducing performance to your half-track vehicle.
Alexey continued: "I will shorten the body to reduce weight. Originally, the half-track vehicle can carry 25 people, but I think... the loading capacity of 28 is more suitable for the Eighth Route Army. What do you think?"
Wang Xuexin certainly has no problem with this.
2 refers to the two drivers, and 8 refers to the soldiers. The total number of 10 people is exactly the size of a squad of the Eighth Route Army.
Therefore, one half-track vehicle is the strength of a squad, and each vehicle is commanded by a squad leader. Every three squads are a platoon, and the third platoon... This is completely consistent with the structure of the Eighth Route Army, and provides maximum support
The convenience of the Eighth Route Army in combat.
In addition, Alexey also used sloped armor at the front of the half-track vehicle to design the front into a wedge shape.
Alexey explained: "The half-track vehicle has a front engine, and the front is easily attacked by enemy fire. The sloped armor can increase the defense strength without increasing the thickness of the steel plate. At the same time, the armored vehicle also needs to collide under special circumstances.
The wedge shape facilitates this!”
Wang Xuexin immediately had a picture in his mind: What kind of scenery would it be like if this kind of armored vehicle with a file head was used to ram into a Japanese three-wheeler?
These are just cosmetic modifications.
Alexey also dismantled many things from the original car.
Such as bumpers.
The front is already equipped with armor protection, so of course there is no need for a bumper.
Such as front wheel braking.
This is the fault of the Mao Xiong R&D staff. When the Mao Xiong R&D staff designed this half-track vehicle, they simply combined the car and the track device, and the front part of the car was almost copied.
But if crawlers are installed at the rear, the braking device of the front wheels can be said to be useless and even dangerous... If the rear crawlers are pushed forward while the front wheels are braking, not only will the brakes fail, but the front wheels will also be damaged.
Cause considerable damage.
So this becomes a harmful and useless part, and removing it can reduce the load capacity.
Another example is that the pedals are changed from steel to wood:
Steel pedals are conducive to mechanized production in batches, and Mao Xiong retained this design for the sake of production volume.
Wooden pedals can not only replace steel pedals but also reduce weight. The disadvantage is that most of them need to be made by hand, which is time-consuming. This is not a problem at all for the Eighth Route Army.
What made Wang Xuexin admire Alexei most was that he installed a vertical bracket on the main beam of the half-track vehicle. This bracket allowed the soldiers to mount the squad machine gun on the bracket to become on-board firepower...
At this time, the squad machine guns of the Eighth Route Army usually used the Czech type.
In addition, several locks are installed on the rear cabin to lock the mortar chassis.
Needless to say what this is used for, just attach the mortar directly to the rear cabin. When the half-track vehicle moves forward, the soldiers can also fire the mortar from behind.
This is very practical.
Because the mortar's trajectory is curved, you don't have to worry too much about being blocked by your own people in front when firing from the back cabin of a half-track vehicle.
However, Wang Xuexin did not dare to use the Eighth Route Army's 50 small artillery.
Because the failure rate and bomb blast rate of the 50 small artillery have always been very high... There is no way, its positioning is to pursue quantity rather than quality.
If this is used in ordinary troops of the Eighth Route Army, there will be no problem. If it is used in mechanized troops or even on half-track vehicles, if the chamber is exploded in the rear cabin, the explosion will kill ten people and even detonate the vehicle.
Loaded ammunition and gasoline.
Of course, if Alexey's ability is just like this, then he would still be underestimated.
One week after the delivery of the half-track vehicles, the first batch of thirty T26s arrived at Wangxing Airport smoothly.
Wang Xuexin was very troubled by this batch of T26s, because they were rusty and lacked maintenance, and they barely had parts on the ground. Looking at the condition, it was lucky to be able to drive them to Wangxing Airport, but they were still going to be driven to the battlefield?
But this doesn't seem strange.
This tank is already facing elimination for Mao Xiong. Even if Mao Xiong lacks tanks, he is reluctant to drive them to the front line to fight... Mao Xiong also lacks quality tank soldiers. Driving T26 on the battlefield is simply the same as committing suicide.
, that would be an unreasonable drain on the scarce tank troops.
Under this circumstance, the situation of t26 is certainly not optimistic.
What makes Wang Xuexin even more speechless is that many parts need to be replaced for the bear but they cannot provide them because they are also short of these parts...
At this moment, after observing this batch of tanks, Alexei patted his chest and said, "Comrade Battalion Commander, I've got it covered. We can produce the parts we need!"
Wang Xuexin said "uh" and thought to himself: He is indeed the deputy director of the Stalingrad Tractor Factory.