northernbook Chapter 208 You Can Take Your Hands Off Our Tank
Chapter 208 You Can Take Your Hands Off Our Tank
"This is our rifle storage area, which currently holds over 50 semi-automatic and automatic rifles."
After hearing the officer's introduction in standard German, Army Chief of Staff General Vaszecha and Director of the Quartermaster General Jodl looked at him with puzzled eyes.
They were familiar with semi-automatic rifles, but automatic rifles were somewhat unfamiliar to them.
Lieutenant General Jodel, Director of the Military Supply Department, asked, "Have you, the Restoration Army, been fully equipped with these semi-automatic rifles and automatic rifles?"
The officer shook his head and said, “No, we no longer have semi-automatic rifles, we are all using automatic rifles.
But I think that given your country's resource shortages, a large number of semi-automatic rifles and a small number of automatic rifles are very suitable for your country's situation."
At this time, Lieutenant General Jodl became interested in semi-automatic rifles.
In fact, Hans had already started developing it during World War I, but they were not very interested in rifles.
But it's just a personal interest.
After all, the purchase of firearms involves logistics, so neither of them actually had any intention of purchasing it.
Seeing the two people lacking interest, the officer also noticed this problem.
"Our semi-automatic rifles use the 7.92mm Mauser rifle bullet, and our automatic rifles also use the 7.92mm intermediate power bullet.
This also makes its recoil completely within the soldier's tolerance range and not much greater than that of an ordinary rifle."
"Intermediate power bullet?"
It was the first time they heard this unfamiliar word.
The officer explained: "The recoil of an automatic rifle like the one using the Mauser rifle bullet is too great, comparable to that of a machine gun.
So we made some compromises on the bullets and used shorter bullets, which can significantly reduce the recoil of automatic rifles.
There is an indoor shooting range here. If the two generals are interested, you can go and try it together."
This time, the two of them were really interested.
If it's really as good as it's said to be, they wouldn't mind purchasing some.
Then the two of them came to the indoor shooting range.
The others, led by the guards of the war preparation warehouse, went for a stroll, or rather, to look for treasures.
Obviously, the army delegation came here not just for the Panther tanks.
At this moment, a series of firearms to be sold have been neatly arranged on the table in the shooting range.
"These are the firearms we can sell, the semi-automatic rifles and the automatic rifles are here."
Now the two of them also saw the true appearance of these two rifles.
Lieutenant General Jodel even weighed them one by one with his hand.
"The semi-automatic rifle has a combat weight of 4.7 kilograms, and the automatic rifle has a combat weight of 5.1 kilograms."
The biggest problem with today's semi-automatic rifles and automatic rifles is weight and cost.
They didn't expect that the weight of these two rifles was controlled to a level similar to that of ordinary rifles, which was a bit surprising.
The Gwe98 rifle they are currently using weighs 4.2 kilograms.
The weight of around 5 kg is indeed very well controlled.
"I think we need to try it!"
From lacking interest at the beginning, now I really want to experience it.
After all, the performance of these two rifles is indeed very good.
The most important thing is to use Mauser rifle bullets. They only need to purchase the gun and they can use it directly.
Then the sound of gunfire rang out in the indoor shooting range.
Five minutes later, General Vaszecha and Lieutenant General Jodl put down their rifles one after another.
“I feel like I’ve grown to like them.”
If they can equip themselves with semi-automatic rifles and automatic rifles in large numbers, the army's individual firepower can indeed be greatly improved.
"How much do they cost?"
Compared to Admiral Vazecha, Lieutenant General Jodl was more concerned about their price.
After all, this involves the quantity of purchases.
If it is too expensive, then only a small amount can be purchased to equip elite troops.
"A semi-automatic rifle is 100 marks, and an automatic rifle is 150 marks. These guns are all % new."
Wachaze and Yodel looked at each other.
The price was a little cheaper than they expected.
Lieutenant General Jodl pondered for a while before speaking: "2 automatic rifles and 8 semi-automatic rifles.
If the soldiers in the army give good feedback, we will proceed with large-scale purchases.”
The total price of these 10 rifles was 1100 million Reichsmarks, which is equivalent to 2200 million British francs.
This is a good start for the hard-working army.
There is still a large stock of these rifles, and we finally managed to sell them for 100,000.
The two generals then turned their attention to the other firearms in the shooting range, and two machine guns with somewhat strange shapes caught their attention.
"Is this a light machine gun?"
The two machine guns they saw were the MG34 general-purpose machine gun and the MG42 general-purpose machine gun.
The MG34 machine gun of the current Hans army will not enter service until 35, and the prototype gun has just come out.
So they had never seen this strange rifle before, and now they didn't even have the concept of light and heavy dual-purpose machine guns.
"These are the light and heavy dual-purpose machine guns we are equipped with. We also call them general-purpose machine guns."
The officer then directly mentioned the MG34 general-purpose machine gun and began to introduce it in more detail.
"This machine gun has a 75-round drum magazine and 50-round and 200-round belt feeds. When used as a light machine gun with a bipod, its weight is the same as that of the Czech light machine gun.
At the same time, it can also be equipped with a tripod and used as a heavy machine gun.
And it has a terrifying rate of fire, at full power, it can fire 900 rounds per minute."
This novel concept made the two people's eyes light up.
Its rate of fire also made the two of them very satisfied.
Not only can it be used as a light and heavy dual-purpose machine gun, it also has such a high rate of fire.
This seemed like the perfect machine gun.
Compared to rifles, they are particularly interested in machine guns with fierce firepower.
Moreover, these two machine guns seemed to be tailor-made for them, and the bullets they used were Mauser 98 bullets, which were perfectly integrated into their logistics system.
Of the two machine guns, the one that impressed them the most was the other one, which had a terrifying rate of fire of 1500 rounds per minute.
Its price is also within their affordable range.
The unit price of the MG34 general-purpose machine gun was 300 Reichsmarks, and the unit price of the MG42 general-purpose machine gun was 400 Reichsmarks.
With a wave of his hand, Jodl cleared out the more than 20,000 machine guns in the war reserve warehouse.
Among them, the MG42 general-purpose machine gun has the largest number, with more than 34 units, and the MG8000 general-purpose machine gun has more than units.
The total price is 840 million marks = 1680 million oceans.
Firearms are just appetizers, the heavy weapons that follow are the highlight.
Soon the group gathered at the area where various armored vehicles were stored.
All you see are neatly arranged self-propelled artillery and tanks.
Among them are the German-made Wasp and Wildbee self-propelled artillery.
There are two types of tanks: Panzer IV and Panther.
This is a war reserve warehouse dedicated to storing German weapons, so there is no equipment of other systems.
At this time, they were almost all gathered around the Panther tank storage area, and the sight of the Panther medium tanks made their eyes pop out.
With a combat weight of 45 tons and a 75mm caliber, it is a 70-caliber long-barreled anti-tank gun.
Whether in terms of performance, appearance or other aspects, it almost perfectly fits their philosophy.
So they are very interested in this tank.
When Lieutenant General Jodl, Director of the Military Supply Department, saw it for the first time, he had a strong desire to purchase it.
This tank is also the main purpose of their trip.
"We also have a small armored vehicle training ground next to the warehouse, which provides test drive services."
Now that I have seen the tank, the most important thing is to test drive it.
If the test drive is fine, they will place an order without hesitation.
So the group took a jeep again and left the war preparation warehouse and came to the training ground next to it.
There are not only Panthers here, but also Panzer IV medium tanks, and two self-propelled artillery pieces, the Wild Bee and the Wasp.
The ace crew selected by the Army first demonstrated the performance of the Black Panther tank to the guests.
For example, the vehicle's passability on various terrains, speed, firepower, accuracy and even bulletproof performance were all demonstrated.
Now, the mainstream small and medium-caliber tank guns of various countries are like tickling it when hitting it.
Even a 75mm anti-tank gun could easily withstand a hit on the frontal armor.
There were even multiple ricochets during the battle, which allowed them to see the advantages of sloped armor.
"It's simply the perfect tank. I can hardly find any flaws with it."
This was the conclusion reached by Lieutenant General Jodl after personally experiencing the Panther medium tank.
Not only is the ride inside the tank smooth, but the fire control system is also very advanced.
As the tank with the strongest overall performance in World War II, without a doubt, how could they not be satisfied with the Black Panther?
If this tank were placed in Xizhou now, it would be invincible in the world.
They are also very aware of this.
“I need to know the price!”
Lieutenant General Jodl was no longer calm, but looked at the lieutenant colonel with an urgent look.
"Two hundred thousand marks."
20 Reichsmarks!
Is this price expensive? It seems a bit expensive, but considering its performance, it doesn't seem expensive.
“I’m not very satisfied with the price and I need a more affordable price because we will be purchasing in large quantities.
We expect to purchase 2000 vehicles within three years.”
Procuring 2000 vehicles within three years? That's a truly massive order.
So after some bargaining, the price was reduced to 18 marks per car.
And you can place orders directly on the spot.
A letter of intent was signed to purchase 2000 vehicles within three years, with a total order value of 3.6 million Reichsmarks, or 7.2 million Australian dollars.
Of course, this money is not paid in one lump sum, but a batch of tanks is taken and a payment is made every year.
"Sir, you can take your hands off our tank now."
Looking at the officer with one hand on the tank, Lieutenant General Jodel made a humorous remark in a good mood.