"Colonel!" While Shulka and Katukov were worrying about these tanks, an officer came in with a translator.
Shulka looked him over and saw that he was a U.S. Army major.
"Oh, are you discussing military situation?" the U.S. Army major said, "Sorry, I can come back later!"
"No, Major!" Katukov stopped the American major and said: "Let me introduce to you, this is my subordinate Captain Shulka!"
The U.S. Army Major was stunned when he heard this, and then immediately laughed: "They are talking about you, right? 'Breakout Hero'... Wow, you are so amazing! Especially in the recent battle, the Germans were so close
Hundreds of tanks sank in the lake, this is simply a miracle!"
"Hello, Major!" Shulka stepped forward and shook hands with the U.S. Army Major.
"Hello, Captain, nice to meet you!" the U.S. Army Major introduced himself: "My name is Johnson, the commander of the U.S. Advisory Group!"
In comparison, American officers are much easier to get along with than British officers.
But this seems to be normal.
First of all, from the perspective of national interests, the United States at this time sincerely wanted to help the Soviet Union defeat Germany... The United Kingdom obviously had selfish motives in this regard. Churchill's plan was to make both the Soviet Union and Germany suffer losses. The longer this war lasts, the better.
Only in this way will Britain have more chances to recover from the German siege.
As for the United States, what it is considering at this time is how to pull Britain down to become the world's number one. From this perspective, the United States should actively respond to the challenge and expand its international influence.
Secondly, the mentality of the British and Americans is different at this time...The United Kingdom is an established power and the United States is an emerging power.
Britain has been the hegemon for hundreds of years. It has naturally grown arrogant after staying at the top position in the world for a long time.
The United States, on the other hand, is an emerging power that is working hard and is despised and guarded by the British. It can even be said to lack experience in military command, so of course it will not and has no confidence to look down on others.
"We are discussing the issue of tanks!" Katukov said with a frown: "Comrade Captain believes that your tanks cannot fight against the enemy!"
Johnson nodded in agreement: "I came here to report this issue to you, Colonel!"
As he spoke, Johnson took out a document from the document bag and handed it to Katukov, saying: "The M3 medium tank has been used in the African battlefield. We think we should report to you its problems in actual combat!"
Katukov looked at it for a while, then nodded and handed it to Shulka.
Shulka took a look at the document and found that what he said was quite pertinent. For example, the firing range of the 75mm cannon was too small. In many cases, the tank had to turn to target the enemy. Another example was that rivets would jump out and kill themselves after being hit by enemy shells.
tank crews, and it is very difficult to control too many tank crews, etc.
Johnson said apologetically: "As for other tanks...Sorry, we can't get the relevant data!"
"Thank you very much!" Katukov said bluntly: "You are much better than those British!"
"This is what we should do!" Johnson replied: "We admit that this is not an excellent tank. In fact... it was originally designed with only a 37mm tank gun, but after knowing the data of the German tanks, it knew that the 37mm tank gun
The artillery was not enough to deal with them, so a 75mm artillery was installed, which is the m3 medium type you see. This will inevitably have many flaws, I am very sorry!"
"It doesn't matter, Major!" Katukov said: "This is the greatest support for us!"
"Major!" Shulka asked: "Do you know any combat examples of M3 tanks and British tanks cooperating?"
Johnson shook his head and replied: "We don't know anything about it. I asked Stephen before, but Colonel Stephen thought it had nothing to do with our mission... This is his answer!"
This is completely expected.
This is in the interests of the British. They hope that this war will become a war of attrition. At the same time, in order to save their own face, they will not talk about how their tanks were beaten by the Germans in North Africa.
"Do you have any good suggestions, Major?" Katukov asked Johnson.
Johnson shook his head helplessly: "If anything, the British should have the initiative in North Africa, but this is not the case!"
So the headquarters fell into silence again.
After thinking about it, Shulka said: "If we cannot enhance the combat effectiveness of the tanks, then we should consider enhancing the anti-tank capabilities of the infantry, so that they will not be defeated when attacked by enemy armored forces!"
"You mean to increase the density of anti-tank guns?" Katukov shook his head and replied: "No, Captain, first of all, we don't have many anti-tank guns, and secondly, even if we have enough anti-tank guns... these anti-tank guns
It is also easily suppressed by enemy artillery fire and air power!"
This is the weakness of the anti-tank gun. Unlike a tank, it can fire and retreat quickly and has armor cover, so it is more useful in defensive battles, that is, it can be deployed in a concealed manner and wait for the enemy tanks to come up and launch a sudden attack.
Otherwise, the enemy can easily suppress it with mortars or howitzers.
But that's not what Shulka was talking about.
"No, Colonel!" Shulka said: "I hope there is a kind of equipment that can be fired by a single soldier to destroy enemy tanks..."
"Are you kidding?" Katukov interrupted Shulka with some dissatisfaction: "Captain, we don't have such a thing, just hoping is useless!"
But Johnson looked at Katukov with his mouth half open and said: "Colonel, we seem to have such equipment!"
"Do you have any?" Katukov looked at Johnson doubtfully.
"I'm not sure, Colonel!" Johnson said: "I don't know much, it's still in the research and development stage..."
A trace of disappointment flashed in Katukov's eyes, and the interest he had just been ignited was immediately extinguished by Johnson's words.
But Shulka would not let this opportunity go so easily, because he deliberately provoked this topic to let Johnson tell what Shulka wanted...
Bazooka rocket launcher.
There is a saying from World War II that is regarded as a classic: "Tanks are the most effective anti-tank weapons."
But with the emergence of the bazooka, this sentence has become a thing of the past... No matter how thick the armor is and how powerful the firepower is, the tank cannot withstand a single rocket.
Shulka knew that the bazooka rocket launcher had already taken shape at this time. It was invented by a U.S. military captain, but it was not taken seriously by the U.S. military because no one believed that such a simple and cheap thing could be used on the battlefield.
effect.
Until this US captain took it to the test site without anyone's consent and easily destroyed a tank in front of senior military officials.