It should be said that Yoshio Shinozuka's thinking was restricted by the trend of domestic equipment.
At this time, the Japs also focused on "killing an enemy with every bullet" in equipment research and development, which meant saving resources and ammunition as much as possible, and using marksmanship and military quality to make up for the lack of firepower.
That's why the Japanese didn't pay attention to the development of submachine guns, and the rate of fire of machine guns was abysmal.
Yoshio Shinozuka, who grew up in this environment, saw the Eighth Route Army's repeating rifle, and his first reaction was: This thing is just a show-stopper. If the ammunition capacity cannot keep up, it is not as good as a bayonet.
There are many people with ideas like Yoshio Shinozuka. This is why most countries in World War II had the ability to develop repeating rifles but did not, and some even blocked their development plans.
However, they have not considered one of the most fundamental issues: war is about killing the enemy to win, not ensuring that every soldier has enough bullets.
Taking the bolt-action rifle as an example, each Japanese soldier carries about 120 rounds of ammunition, and they are full-power rounds.
Even if calculated with intermediate power bullets, 120 rounds of ammunition can be replaced with four magazines.
With the same amount of ammunition and the same consumption, can a bolt-action rifle produce the instant explosive power and combat effectiveness of the AK47? Can it produce the results of the AK47? Can it save a soldier's life at a critical moment?
What's more, the AK47 can also be fired single-shot. As long as the soldiers are willing, they can also save ammunition. All they save is the time of loading and pulling the bolt.
To put it simply, AK47 can basically do what a bolt-action rifle can do, but not vice versa.
Neji Okamura said with a heavy face: "Mr. Shinozuka, you should know that our army has been unwilling to develop continuous-fire equipment for a long time. This has directly led to the lack of firepower of our infantry's light equipment, and it is a serious shortage. This point,
It has been proven on the Pacific battlefield. It was not obvious before because the firepower of the Chinese army was inferior to ours, but now..."
As he spoke, Neji Okamura picked up the AK47 and looked at it, then put it down worriedly and looked at its test data thoughtfully.
Although Okamura Neji's words have not yet reached the point, it is almost there.
The Eighth Route Army's situation is somewhat different from Yingjiang's firepower.
Although the firepower of the Eighth Route Army equipped with AK47 is also not something that the Japanese can withstand, there is still a difference in detail.
Yingjiang's firepower mainly comes from heavy equipment rather than individual weapons.
The main personal weapons of Yingjiang are Springfields, and some are equipped with semi-automatic weapons.
At this time, Yingjiang was engaged in an island dispute with the Japs in the Pacific. Yingjiang used naval gun bombers to bomb the Japs on the islands for days and nights. After landing, whenever they found any movement, they used artillery and rocket launchers to blast them randomly.
Or crazy machine gun fire...
This is basically a type of trying your luck with a large amount of ammunition.
There was no other way. Yingjiang had a lot of money and the soldiers had no combat experience, so they could only use this method of "spending money to eliminate disasters" to pile up as much ammunition as possible.
What is different about the Eighth Route Army is that its firepower comes from individual soldiers and equipment.
If the Eighth Route Army fights like Yingjiang, it really can't afford it, but the individual equipment and the Eighth Route Army have the habit of "saving ammunition" since the founding of the army, so unless it is unnecessary, the Eighth Route Army soldiers will not use it like Yingjiang.
The bullets are poured in the direction of the enemy like water.
In other words, the ammunition of the Eighth Route Army can be better utilized, which actually means reducing ammunition consumption.
Shinozuka Yoshio didn't understand it at all, Okamura Neji didn't understand it all, and only Kono Shinta understood it.
"We also have a similar research and development project!" Kono Shinta looked at a bullet and said with a pale face: "We call it an intermediate power bullet!"
At this time, Hans' intermediate power bomb had been developed, and even STG44 was also under development. The problem was that it was rejected and was not allowed to be produced.
But since Hans has research and development in this area, Kono Shinta certainly knows its significance.
"Intermediately powerful bullet?" Neji Okamura narrowed his eyes and asked, "Is there anything special about it?"
"To put it simply!" Shinta Kono replied: "It is a bullet between the pistol bullets used in submachine guns and the full-power bullets used in rifles. Its recoil is small and it can be fired continuously. At the same time, it can achieve full power.
Powerful bullets are in great demand on the battlefield!"
Okamura Neji understood it this time.
Especially the last sentence... intermediate-power bullets can meet most of the requirements of full-power bullets on the battlefield.
Does this mean that the intermediate-power bullet saves a lot of charge and cartridge case length, but can achieve almost the same lethality as the full-power bullet?
This also means...
Neji Okamura asked with an expression of disbelief: "Kono-kun, do you mean that this bullet not only does not increase production pressure, but actually saves production pressure?"
"You can say that!" Shinta Kono nodded: "When it produces bullet casings, the difficulty will be lower than that of full-power bullets!"
This is because each bullet is formed by rolling a complete steel ingot. The caliber of the intermediate-power bullet is the same as that of the full-power bullet but the shell is shorter, so the difficulty and time are shorter than that of the full-power bullet.
"In addition, there are raw materials!" Kono Shinta continued to explain: "If you only look at one bullet, it won't save much raw materials, but if it is tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions..."
Okamura Neji nodded slightly, he somewhat understood the significance of this kind of bullet.
Shinozuka Yoshio did not agree with Kono Shinta's analysis. He retorted: "Even if there are these benefits, it is not very important, right? Kono-kun..."
Shinozuka Yoshio took the test data and said to Kono Shinta: "I don't know if you have noticed that its range can only reach 300 meters. After understanding this, we will keep fighting at a distance of more than 300 meters with the Eighth Route Army in order to
Can the range of our army's bolt-action rifles ensure that our army is in an invincible position?"
Yoshio Shinozuka looked a little proud when he said these words, as if he had found a loophole in this rifle.
But Shinta Kono shook his head slightly, and he only asked: "Shinozuka-kun, how long has it been since you were on the battlefield?"
Yoshio Shinozuka was stunned, and this question stopped him. The last time he personally commanded on the front line and faced the enemy's hail of bullets was probably five years ago when he served as the commander of the 10th Division to attack Wuhan.
but……
"There shouldn't be any connection, right?" Yoshio Shinozuka replied.
"Of course there is a connection!" Shinta Kono replied: "Shinozuka-kun, if you make a complete statistics on the battles, you will find that most of the battles occur within 300 meters. If you want to achieve the situation you imagined, almost
It’s impossible! That was only possible when the two armies fought trench warfare in World War I, but not now!”