northernbook Chapter 971 Emptying Two Years' Worth of Inventory
Chapter 971 Emptying Two Years' Worth of Inventory
When Zhang Yunhe pushed open the door to warehouse number 101, he saw that it was filled with countless long wooden crates.
He pried open one of the boxes and saw a green mortar barrel inside, along with a base and several other parts.
“This must be the Stokes 2-inch mortar used by the British army!” Zhang Yunhe picked up the barrel, looked at it, and muttered to himself.
In 1932, Spain introduced a 50mm Valero light mortar, and the British-made 2-inch mortar largely drew on the design essence of this light mortar.
The portability of this 2-inch mortar is not to be overlooked. It weighs only 10.7 kg, has a range of 100 to 500 yards, a rate of fire of 8 rounds per minute, and is mainly equipped with smoke grenades, high-explosive grenades, and illumination grenades.
On the battlefield, this light mortar used smoke grenades to cover platoon and squad assaults 80% of the time, and high-explosive shells to kill enemy troops only 20% of the time, but the number of smoke grenades and high-explosive shells produced by the arsenal was about the same.
In fact, the British army was equipped with 1242 of these light mortars before the start of World War II. However, in the early stages of the war, the British army suffered a crushing defeat on the European continent and lost a great deal of weapons and equipment. The 2-inch mortars in this warehouse must have been produced and stored after the Dunkirk evacuation.
Inside the warehouse, Zhang Yunhe put all the 2-inch mortars into his backpack, which showed that he had enough.
"A mortar? Holy crap!" Zhang Yunhe swallowed hard when he saw the number. "Producing a mortar in two years, that's incredibly productive!"
It is often said that the British army was weak in combat and that the British Empire was like a group of old men on the verge of death, declining in strength. However, in reality, when war broke out, this old empire demonstrated incredibly strong industrial production capabilities.
Zhang Yunhe happily accepted the entire 2-inch mortar.
He then went to another warehouse that stored 3-inch mortars. 3 inches is 76.2 mm in caliber. This mortar was an extremely important weapon for the British Army to provide artillery support for infantry squads during World War II. It was used in conjunction with 2-inch mortars to form a fire coverage, so it was produced in large quantities.
Zhang Yunhe closed the doors in both warehouses.
In a warehouse, Zhang Yunhe saw a dense array of anti-tank guns; based on the caliber of the barrels, they should be 6-pounder anti-tank guns.
Zhang Yunhe had specifically learned about the British weapons development and production during World War II. The development of this 6-pound anti-tank gun was affected by the Dunkirk evacuation, and the mass production plan was delayed. It was not until this year (1942) that it began to be used in actual combat in the North African theater. Equipped with infantry units, it became one of the main anti-tank weapons of the British army, second only to the 17-pound anti-tank gun.
During World War II, the British produced 4.7 of these anti-tank guns in Britain, and another 1.8 were licensed to the Jokers, for a total of 6.5.
There are a total of 2000 doors stored here.
While collecting these weapons, Zhang Yunhe was so excited that he was trembling. This time he had really struck it rich. It's true that you can't get rich without windfall gains, and you can't get fat without night grass!
In another warehouse, Zhang Yunhe saw another British anti-tank gun, the 17-pounder anti-tank gun.
In March, the British Army urgently produced 100 prototype guns and sent them to North Africa to fight against German Tiger tanks. They were equipped with 25-pound howitzer carriages.
However, the 17-pounder anti-tank gun that Zhang Yunhe saw here was not the prototype gun, but a self-propelled anti-tank gun that was developed and produced later. The model was the Achilles self-propelled anti-tank gun, which was modified from the M10 Wolfsbane.
This Achilles self-propelled anti-tank gun looks just like a tank. The term "self-propelled" distinguishes it from towed anti-tank guns, which require external power to move, while self-propelled guns can drive themselves.
It is also called the Achilles self-propelled anti-tank destroyer. 1100 were produced during World War II, and Zhang Yunhe saw 300 of them here.
Zhang Yunhe readily accepted it. If this thing were deployed domestically to fight off the Japanese tanks, wouldn't it be one shell per tank? The Japanese tanks, which were as flimsy as tofu, couldn't withstand a single shot.
In a huge warehouse, Zhang Yunhe saw a full 100 94mm anti-aircraft guns. The cost of producing these anti-aircraft guns in Britain was £1,000, but the cost of producing them in Australia was reduced to £7500, making them quite affordable. A total of 600 guns were produced during the war, with 22 guns produced each month.
In addition to anti-aircraft guns, Zhang Yunhe also found several types of mountain guns and field guns in various warehouses, in quantities far exceeding expectations. The total number of field guns and mountain guns exceeded 100.
这些野炮的型号包括18磅野炮、25磅野炮，还有BL5.5英寸 140毫米榴弹炮；山炮型号包括3.7英寸山地榴弹炮和2.95英寸山地炮。
In reality, relatively few of these field guns, mountain guns, and shells were produced in Britain; more were produced in India and South Africa. The number of 3.7-inch field howitzers alone was 800, with 270 million shells.
"Matilda 2 infantry tank?" Zhang Yunhe saw the tank after pushing open the door of another warehouse.
In the battles between British and German forces in North Africa, the Matilda 2 infantry tank performed exceptionally well and was nicknamed the "Queen of the Desert".
The tank's shortcomings included being equipped with only a 2-pounder cannon, which made its firepower insufficient, and it also lacked mobility. As a result, it was replaced by medium tanks later in the war.
To be honest, Britain was not prepared for the war at all. To this day, the British Army has not equipped itself with a single medium or heavy tank. If it weren't for the Channel, they would probably have been wiped out long ago. The British Army's medium and heavy tanks were developed and produced in the later stages of the war.
500 Matilda 2 infantry tanks—that's the stock here. Zhang Yunhe is quite satisfied with this number. You have to know that until this tank was replaced by a medium tank, only 2900 were ever produced.
At 4:50 a.m., with little time left before dawn, Zhang Yunhe had already turned this huge ammunition depot into a vast, empty space.
The British had a two-year stockpile of army weapons, equipment, and ammunition produced during those two years. Apart from equipping the British forces in the UK and various federal units, and sending them to the North African battlefield, the rest of it was all here. And Zhang Yunhe emptied it all out overnight.
If the British discover this situation, I'm afraid Old Qiu will be so angry he'll vomit blood.
At 6:30 a.m., it was already bright outside.
The first patrol car started its shift in the morning. When Sergeant Locke in the car saw that the door of a warehouse on the right was not locked, but only slightly ajar, he immediately shouted, "Stop! Stop!"
Blake, the driver, immediately slammed on the brakes and turned to ask, "Locke, what's wrong?"
"Get out of the car quickly, the warehouse door over there isn't locked!"
"What?" The other three British soldiers in the patrol car were shocked and immediately jumped out of the car, grabbed their guns, and slowly approached the warehouse next to them in a combat formation.
The warehouse door was indeed unlocked and ajar. Under the cover of the other three men, Sergeant Locke quickly pulled open the warehouse door. When the door was fully open, the four men standing at the door showed expressions of astonishment.
"Where are the weapons in this warehouse? How come all the weapons in this warehouse have disappeared?"
"My God, what is going on?"
Sergeant Locke immediately remembered something and shouted, "Quickly, check the other warehouses!"