At this time, many countries had actually developed air burst bombs or had experience in research and development, because everyone knew that air bursts could double the lethality...the shells exploded in the air instead of penetrating into the soil and exploded in a radiating pattern.
, its cannonballs will fly around with terrifying kinetic energy, and they are numerous and dense with strong lethality.
However, these research and development have all come to nothing without any exception.
The reason is that it is very difficult to achieve airburst, especially just right a few meters above the target.
In this era, there are two main ways to achieve air explosion:
One is the long rod fuze, as the name suggests, a long rod like a lightning rod is installed in front of the fuze.
This method is simple and effective, but it also has many problems... The air burst distance is only the length of a long rod. If it is shorter, it will have no effect at all. If it is longer, it will affect the flight of the shell in the air and may even be accidentally detonated, so it was quickly eliminated.
The other is the delay fuze.
The delayed fuze is much safer. In theory, it only needs to calculate the landing time of the shell and then detonate it a little earlier to achieve the effect of air explosion.
But it sounds easy in practice but very difficult in practice.
The reason is that the muzzle velocity of the cannonball reaches more than 500 meters per second. Although the speed is reduced by air resistance when it hits the ground, it is still 300 to 400 meters per second.
When a projectile can fly three to four hundred meters in one second, how can we use a delay fuse so accurately that the projectile explodes a few meters ahead of schedule?
The distance of these few meters is calculated as one hundredth of a second in time. What kind of delay lead can be accurate to one hundredth of a second?
In addition, can the time of the cannonball landing be calculated accurately to one second?
Can each cannonball experience the same resistance in the air?
If these are not accurate, how can we talk about the best effect of air explosion?
The result is both laborious and thankless...I originally hoped to increase the lethality by installing a delay fuse, but in actual combat I found that it either exploded too early or too late. Only a few of them could really achieve the desired effect, but instead the lethality was increased.
Not as good as ordinary cannonballs.
But this problem is not a problem for Wang Xuexin...
Wang Xuexin sent a telegram to Su Liguo, asking: "Can we produce self-produced proximity fuzes?"
Su Liguo was a little strange about Wang Xuexin's question.
Because the Eighth Route Army's demand for proximity fuses is not particularly large, the main purpose of this device is to install it on anti-aircraft gun shells. It can save the gunner the step of adjusting the delay fuse to improve combat effectiveness.
But the Eighth Route Army does not yet have a few anti-aircraft guns... There are dozens of imported anti-aircraft guns equipped near the airport, but they are only better than none.
The Eighth Route Army's proximity fuzes are mainly used on missiles, including air-to-air missiles.
However, the proximity fuses previously imported from Yingjiang were enough to meet the demand, and half of them have not been used up yet, and they can continue to be imported from Yingjiang at any time... Why is the group leader anxious to ask if he can produce them himself?
However, although he was confused, Su Liguo still replied: "There is no problem in self-production, it just needs to use small electronic tubes!"
The reverse research and development of proximity fuzes has already begun. Su Liguo has figured out its principles before, and it is not considered a high-tech thing if he can produce his own radar.
Wang Xuexin replied without thinking: "We will start production immediately, but the target is not enemy aircraft, but the ground. Is there any problem?"
"No problem!" Su Liguo answered firmly.
This is not a difficult task. In fact, all you need to do is completely copy Yingjiang's proximity fuse and then change the sensitive band, just like Yingjiang's ground mapping radar.
Su Liguo originally didn't know what the purpose of Wang Xuexin's ground-sensitive proximity fuse was, but he understood it after receiving a few fuses and drawings...
Su Liguo worked in the arsenal and knew that the Eighth Route Army had recently introduced a batch of howitzers. After contacting the fuses sent by Wang Xuexin, he easily guessed that they were howitzer fuses.
"Why do we need proximity fuzes for howitzer fuzes?" Su Liguo said to himself while looking at the drawings: "And it's also sensitive to the ground!"
After thinking for a while, Su Liguo suddenly thought of something:
A proximity fuse means it will explode when you get close to it, right?
If it hits the ground and then explodes, it makes no sense. That is...an air explosion?
Thinking of this, Su Liguo couldn't help but exclaimed: "What a master! Use the proximity fuze to solve the problem of air explosion. Even Yingjiang who has the proximity fuze would not have thought of this! He is indeed the leader of the group, and he has solved a world-class big problem casually.
problem!"
Wang Xuexin indeed used a melee fuse to achieve air explosion.
Problems that cannot be solved with delay fuzes, such as one hundredth of a second, are no longer a problem with proximity fuzes.
However, there are still some differences compared to the proximity fuze used by anti-aircraft guns.
The reason is that anti-aircraft gun shells require the projectile to be as close as possible to the target, and its detonation point is the moment when the detection distance changes from near to far.
Shells used for air explosions must not use this detonation point, otherwise they will plunge into the soil and explode like ordinary bombs.
This requires Su Liguo to test the self-produced radar, that is, the signal strength received by the radar when it is about five meters away from the ground.
Because the intensity of the radar signal reflected from the ground is similar, this can be used as a reference point, which is the detonation point.
Su Liguo's test results are... Since the accuracy of the self-produced radar is not high, there is a certain error in the received signal strength. It is recommended to set the detonation point at 10 meters.
Wang Xuexin estimated that modern buildings are about 3 meters high, and 10 meters is higher than a three-story building. This height is also suitable for air blasting, so he agreed without much thought.
It was later discovered that the lethality of a 10-meter air burst may be higher than that of a 5-meter air burst.
The reason is that Wang Xuexin underestimated the power of the m30 shell and worried that too high a height would affect its lethality. This is a bit unfounded. Or it can be said that Wang Xuexin did not consider the kinetic energy of the shell itself... When the shell explodes towards the enemy, it is not just the explosion.
Power, and a speed of three to four hundred meters per second.
This speed coupled with the force of the shrapnel exploding, the target below is basically dead or alive. The important point is that its killing range has been expanded by more than twice.
If there are such artillery shells, Wang Xuexin believes that a regiment with 12 howitzers and an artillery detection radar can solve most problems.
In fact, using this kind of proximity fuse can not only hit infantry, but also hit enemy artillery without any problem...
Wang Xuexin couldn't help but think that the shrapnel exploded from the air had better kill the enemy's artillery without damaging the artillery. In this way, the enemy's artillery could be completely captured. Wouldn't that be a beautiful thing?