Derek hesitated for a moment and replied with a slightly panicked look: "Sorry, Comrade Commander! I think that as an airborne force... it is difficult for us to avoid such casualties!"
What Captain Derek said can be said to be the truth or a lie.
To be honest, it is indeed difficult for airborne troops to avoid casualties when airborne on dangerous terrain.
If it could be avoided, the 82nd Airborne Division would not have made such a major mistake when attacking Sicily.
The lie is that Yingjiang can reduce the risk of airborne landings as much as possible through some technical means, such as ground mapping radar.
The role of ground mapping radar in the airborne troops is that when the airborne troops have to parachute into the enemy-controlled area at night, the ground mapping radar can at least tell you whether the dark place below is a mountainous area or a plain.
Otherwise, the airborne troops may not know that there is an ocean below and stupidly jump down one after another...
The original intention of Yingjiang to develop this ground mapping radar was to solve the problem of precision bombing by bombers. It was installed under the B17 to provide data support for bombing to improve bombing accuracy. However, Yingjiang soon discovered that this radar
It has value in aerial radar reconnaissance, electronic early warning, etc., and the airborne troops need these very much, so it is natural to equip them with the airborne troops.
Wang Xuexin did not expose Derek's lies. He just waved his hands and said: "I'm sorry too, Captain. I originally wanted to make a deal with you. I think I can provide you with something useful to your army..."
These words made Derek's heart skip a beat.
This is the commander of the Huaxia regiment, the commander of the Huaxia regiment who successfully trained an outstanding airborne force in just over a month. If he says he is useful to the Yingjiang airborne force, he is probably right.
So Derek asked: "Comrade leader, which aspect are you referring to?"
Wang Xuexin replied without thinking: "Repeating rifle, I think you need a repeating rifle, right?"
Captain Derek's eyes immediately lit up.
Wang Xuexin's words spoke to Derek's heart, and it could even be said to speak to the hearts of Yingjiang's senior executives.
When Derek reported to Ridgway the training situation of the Eighth Route Army's airborne troops, he highly praised the Eighth Route Army's repeating rifles.
"This rifle is simply a work of art!" Derek said: "Especially the folding stock. This is a very creative invention. It makes the total length of the gun body only 645MM. Do you know what the concept is? We
You can even put it in your backpack!"
(Note: AK47 fixed stock type 870MM)
"In addition, the firepower of this gun is the best equipment for airborne troops. They can launch a fierce attack on the enemy's defense line at the fastest speed, even if the number of people is much smaller than the enemy!"
Li Qiwei was also convinced when he saw the report.
The former means that airborne troops can easily airborne with this rifle that is only 645mm.
At this time, the rifles of the Eagle Airborne Forces can be said to be diverse, including Springfield rifles, M1 Garands, and even M1 carbines.
From this point, we can also see that the airborne troops of Yingjiang are not professional. They only use Springfield rifles and Garand rifles. The bullets of these two rifles can be used interchangeably, but the bullets of carbines are not interchangeable with the bullets of these rifles. This will cause
The supply of airborne troops was in chaos.
This is quite serious for airborne troops, because airborne troops most often fight when surrounded by enemies, and they need transport aircraft to airdrop supplies, especially ammunition.
If the ammunition is not universal, what kind of ammunition is delivered by air-dropped ammunition?
Or does a carbine have more bullets or a rifle?
Should they be invested separately or mixed together?
If the two types of ammunition are thrown separately, will the rifle pick up the carbine ammunition and the carbine pick up the rifle ammunition?
If they are thrown together, will the ground troops have to spend time distinguishing the two types of ammunition before distributing them when they receive supplies?
But Li Qiwei couldn't express his pain.
Li Qiwei knew these shortcomings, but he still had to do it.
The reason is that the barrels of the Springfield rifle and the M1 Garand rifle are too long, which will cause great inconvenience and even danger to the airborne troops whether in the cabin or when airborne.
Ridgway's idea was to disassemble the rifles and put them in special rifle bags, and then assemble the rifles after they reached the ground.
(Note: The Eagle Airborne Force used this method to land in the early days, and it was not until Operation Market Garden that it was changed to full-size rifle airborne)
However, this method of airborne landing has great risks: once the troops land on the ground, they will immediately encounter the enemy, which means that they have no power to fight back.
Therefore, airborne troops need soldiers equipped with submachine guns and carbines. After they are airborne, they can provide fire cover for friendly forces so that they have time to take out their rifles from their backpacks and splice them together.
It can be seen from this that it would be a wonderful thing if the Yingjiang airborne troops could have a repeating rifle, especially a folding repeating rifle... This is not only a matter of unification of ammunition, but also avoids the problem of landing without combat effectiveness.
The problem of being beaten passively.
As for firepower, let alone that. Repeating rifles are many times more powerful than Springfield and Garand.
As a member of the airborne force, Captain Derek certainly knew these truths. At the same time, he also knew that the Eighth Route Army's repeating rifles were designed by Wang Xuexin. Therefore, as soon as he heard that Wang Xuexin could help with the repeating rifles, he immediately became interested.
.
However, he still replied: "But Comrade Head, I remember that you have sold us the drawings of repeating rifles, so we actually have the production capacity of repeating rifles..."
"I don't deny this!" Wang Xuexin replied: "But you have no intention of producing this repeating rifle according to the drawings, right?"
Captain Derek could only nod helplessly.
Although they wanted this repeating rifle very much, the senior officials always believed that the accuracy of the Eighth Route Army's repeating rifle was too low and not suitable for the Eagle Army.
Thinking of this, Captain Derek couldn't help but want to curse: Damn it, as long as there is a repeating rifle, we all want it in our dreams, but those who don't know how to fight think we need it!
But Derek can't change this, he is just a captain after all.
After thinking for a while, Derek asked: "Comrade leader, do you mean... to provide us with a brand new repeating rifle?"
"Yes!" Wang Xuexin nodded: "Think about it, a rifle suitable for you, I mean, it will be greatly improved in accuracy to meet your requirements!"
Speaking of this, Wang Xuexin changed the topic: "But... this is a deal, if you don't have what I need!"
"No, we do!" Derek replied impatiently: "We have what you need, comrade leader!"