"I have always hoped to complete the development of the new tank before September, but at present, not only is the overall progress disappointing, but the current design ideas and details are also unacceptable to me. First of all, they are overweight. When they were first displayed in April, I witnessed them being unable to move many times. Five months later, they are still old problems." Hoffmann's tone was very strict, "What is the problem? You don't understand the positioning and requirements of this tank at all. As a breakthrough tank, the No. 6 tank is its biggest and most critical mission is anti-tank combat, so he does not need so much reserve capacity at present."

The Ministry of Military Affairs has statistics on the Eastern Front tank war. In a battle, a tank consumes an average of 30-40 shells, with a maximum of about 60 rounds. This is due to the launch of grenades to cover infantry attacks during combat. As a breakthrough tank, the 92-round bomb reserves are actually far too much for the Tiger. You should know that the IS-1 heavy tank of the same level is equipped with 85MM guns, with a reserve of 59 rounds, and the IS-2 is equipped with 122MM guns, with a reserve of only 28 rounds. The German designers are not clear about these data, but Hoffman knows them clearly.

"The Tiger Style has about 60 rounds of ammunition reserves. After reducing the number of ammunitions, the space inside the car does not need that much space." Hoffman walked up and pointed to the prototype Porsche car hanging on the blackboard with a teaching pointer, saying, "Although Dr. Porsche's design still has problems in one way or another, one thing I think is worthy of affirmation. With the same artillery and member group, the width of the car he designed was only 3.3 meters, while Henschel's width was 3.7 meters. For this widening 0

.4 meters, we not only have to pay a few tons of defensive armor, but also have to bear the consequences of using two tracks and triple interleaved load-bearing wheels, which is completely unacceptable. In addition, I can accept the slightly weakened design of the front armor thickness of the vehicle. It does not require 110MM, and 100MM is also fine. The improvement of defense can be achieved by changing the inclination angle - this is what the Russians did on the T-34, and the armor thickness in other parts can maintain the existing data without changing."

Dr. Porsche nodded and expressed his approval. The head of state said just now finally made him feel some face back.

Colonel Tomal and Professor Aiban exchanged some opinions and said: "My head of state, if you follow your size requirements and number of ammunitions, plus the reduction of armor thickness and adjustment of inclination angle, we believe that the modified vehicle width can be controlled between 3.2-3.25 meters and the height can be reduced below 2.9 meters. Considering the corresponding reduction of defensive armor and weight reduction, the suspension design can be simplified and the design of the outermost weight wheel can be removed, so that the pressure per unit area of ​​the ground can basically maintain the original design. Overall, we believe that the weight can be controlled within 50 tons...and perhaps the maximum driving speed can be increased."

"I think the design speed of 38 kilometers is enough. Reliability is the first question we think about. The total weight of 50 tons is not enough. Please be sure to control it within 48 tons..." Hoffman could accept the weight of 50 tons in his heart, but he knew that German designers loved the overweight temper, so he left 2 tons of room.

"By the same reason, the corresponding design adjustments can also be applied to tank No. 5." Since No. 6 has been named Tiger, No. 5 has also been given the Leopard type code by Hoffman. Although the Leopard type is not the main object of this conference discussion, he is obviously not satisfied with the Leopard type design. The existing design shows that the Leopard type will use 860mm diameter load-bearing wheels, and the dual torsion bar suspension system used to ensure mobility makes the car height too exaggerated, reaching 2.99 meters, which not only far exceeds the 2.65-2.68 meters height of the No. 4 tank, but even exceeds the 2.93 meters height of the Tiger type - this is completely unacceptable.

According to Hoffman's requirements, the Leopard tank also needs to reduce the amount of ammunition reserve and reduce weight. At the same time, it must use the same load-bearing wheels and tracks as the Tiger-type - which can be conveniently maintained on the battlefield. The Leopard-type body is too long and needs to be reduced. Hoffman considered it. Tank No. 4 has 6 pairs of load-bearing wheels, and the Tiger-type has 8 pairs of load-bearing wheels. The ideal of the Leopard-type with a weight between the two is to use 7 pairs of load-bearing wheels. On the premise of ensuring mobility, since the weight has been reduced, the body of the car has also been reduced accordingly. The suspension system with a single torsion bar plus a spring is enough to replace the original double torsion bar design, which not only reduces the space occupied by the suspension system, but also improves reliability.

"After these measures are effectively implemented, the width of the Leopard should not exceed 3.1 meters, the height should be reduced to less than 2.8 meters, and the overall weight should not exceed 38 tons." Hoffman said, and the group of heads of the Weapons Bureau nodded repeatedly, asking the head of state for the same load-bearing wheels and tracks to the No. 5 and No. 6 tanks to adopt the same load-bearing wheels and tracks. This was their wish, which could greatly simplify production and reduce technical difficulties. If it were not for a serious technical argumentation occasion, they would almost stand up and shout long live the head of state.

"Also..." Hoffman asked when he saw Spel raising his hand, "Spel, what do you want to say?"

Sperer stood up and said, "My Head, I received a report that the Weapons Bureau intends to use 75mm guns with a diameter of 70 times for the Leopard tank. This is a new type of tank gun. Because the barrel is very long, it can be predicted that its output is not high. Whether to consider replacing it with the same 88 gun as the Tiger, it seems that the power is not much different, but it can improve the level of logistics support - since the Leopard has adopted parts consistent with the Tiger in engines, load-bearing wheels, tracks and other aspects, it should not be difficult to use the same gun. If this adjustment can be achieved, we will not be too restricted in production, because according to the number of tanks you require, the new 75MM tank gun is probably far from meeting the demand."

Colonel Tomal was completely messy. The 75mm KWK42L/70 tank gun originally used by the Leopard was of course powerful, and to some extent it even surpassed the 88 guns proposed by the Tiger. However, the production process of this 75mmL70 long-barrel gun was very poor. The Weapons Bureau had expressed this concern before, and the reason why it insisted on using the Leopard was entirely because the head of state clearly indicated that it required the strengthening of firepower.

Now that Sper's old words were mentioned again, the colonel looked at Hoffman nervously, for fear that the head of state would be furious on the spot, the hearts of the leaders of the Weapons Bureau also raised.

To everyone's surprise, the head of state did not get angry, but laughed: "Speer, you said it very well. This is exactly what I want to express. The Leopard and Tiger should use the same tank guns. As for the more powerful tank guns and thicker armor, we can leave them to the next heavy tank."

He turned his head and asked Professor Aiboan: "Professor, what about your opinion?"

"I think it's OK. The total weight of these two tank guns is not much different. The diameter of the turret race of the 88mm gun may be slightly larger, but even after data adjustment, there is no problem in installing it on the leopard." Aiboan thought carefully and gave a positive answer.

The audience was silent, and then there was a heated discussion: If the Tiger tank was a little bit changed, then the Leopard was a completely major adjustment, but this is the will of the leader, who dares to disobey? What's more, the experts all agree with the opinion of the head of state. Now I just hope that the designer will not collapse.

While everyone was discussing it, Kettle was distracted. He kept thinking about a question: According to the design adjusted by the head of state, the new No. 5 and No. 6 tanks will have a lot of similarities, including engines, tracks, load-bearing wheels, artillery, etc., and there is not much essential difference between the two except armor defense capabilities. Is it necessary to separate them? In other words, is it really necessary to produce a Leopard tank with weaker defense than Tiger and stronger maneuverability than Tiger?
Chapter completed!