Add Bookmark | Recommend this book | Back to the book page | My bookshelf | Mobile Reading

Free Web Novel,Novel online - All in oicq.net -> Historic -> I am the God of War in Anti-Japanese War

Text Chapter 88 I am not a country bumpkin

Previous page        Return to Catalog        Next page

    After a slight pause in words, Yang Zhen said calmly: "Admiral Wavell, I am very grateful to the British for their selfless assistance to our ally. Although your equipment is only verbal, none of it is in place yet.  ¡÷But at this time, we are very grateful for your statement."

    "But I would be more grateful if you replaced these Covenant tanks with Crusader cruise tanks or Valentine infantry tanks. Although one of the two tanks has too thin armor and the other is too slow.  . But it¡¯s much better than a tank that goes to the battlefield and collapses due to engine boiling within a few minutes.¡±

    "Of course, if the British side can replace the turrets of these Covenant tanks with Crusader tank turrets and effectively solve the problem of engine overheating, we will not be unable to accept it. Until these problems are solved, I'm sorry to Wavell  Admiral, I will not accept this kindness from the British."

    "I know that on the battlefield in the Middle East, you have a large number of Crusader cruise tanks that have been replaced by American tanks, as well as Matilda infantry tanks. If your country really wants to help us, then we still hope to get these two types of tanks.  Tanks with decent performance. Of course, we have no objection to the Churchill infantry tank and Cromwell cruise tank produced by your country.¡±

    Although Yang Zhen¡¯s words were relatively vague, he still clearly expressed his thoughts.  The meaning of his words clearly told General Wavell, I am not one of those national government officials who are hungry and will buy everything back as long as there is a kickback, no matter whether it is useful or not, or even whether it can be used.

    I am not a country bumpkin who knows very well about the performance of the equipment you are currently using in the UK.  I'm a bit picky about the choice of heavy equipment, but I don't eat everything.  It's not impossible for you to exchange British equipment with inferior performance, but don't fool me with that garbage.

    After all, he is a soldier, although he has reached the rank of general.  But compared with those politicians who rely on their face to make a living, their face is really too thin.  Admiral Wavell, who wanted to take the opportunity to gain some benefits for Britain, was made red-faced by Yang Zhen's hidden words.

    The matter of providing the Anti-Japanese Alliance with Covenant cruise tanks that they themselves did not dare to send to the battlefield was not mentioned again until the British military delegation led by him left Harbin.  But just because he didn't mention it doesn't mean that the British will really let it go.

    Yang Zhen, who originally thought the matter would end there, did not expect that half a year later, he would suffer a heavy defeat in the Battle of Gazala on the North African battlefield and lose a large number of tanks.  In July, they faced the British army at the First Battle of Alamein launched by the German Afrika Korps.

    The performance of its own tanks is insufficient, and the power of its main two-pounder artillery is relatively small.  Their own production of new tanks could not meet the needs, and they were in urgent need of a large number of tanks that could compete with the German Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks. The British turned their attention to the tanks provided by the Americans to the Anti-Alliance.

    The British persuaded the Americans to transfer the second and third batches of 350 M3 Grant medium tanks and 200 M3 Stuart light tanks to the Anti-Japanese War in 1942.  To the British side.  In order to supplement the huge losses in the Battle of Gazala, and to compete with more than 300 Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks of the German Afrika Korps.

    Although the British are also very dissatisfied with these two tanks, especially the M3 Grant medium tank.  But as the German army put the Panzer IV equipped with a long barrel and the new 50mm tank gun into the North African battlefield.  The British army currently has two main tanks, the Crusader and Matilda, on the North African battlefield, and they are increasingly unable to meet their needs.

    Even the new Valentine infantry tank is quite difficult to deal with these two main German tanks.  The Grant medium tank currently equipped with a 75mm howitzer has a smaller range of fire.  But before the British army's new Churchill and Cromwell tanks, which could compete with the Panzer IV tank, were put into large-scale service, they became the first choice of the British.

    ¡°Although American-made tanks have shortcomings of one kind or another, their extremely high reliability is also extremely important in the harsh combat environment of North Africa.  Therefore, in the second half of 1941, these two American-made tanks were put into the battlefield. The British army, which was very clear about the performance of the M3 medium tank, focused on the two tanks that the Americans planned to provide to the Anti-Japanese Alliance.

    But in order not to cause a strong backlash from the Anti-Japanese Alliance, and the British who urgently needed the Anti-Japanese Alliance to provide a batch of 57mm recoilless rifles and anti-tank rocket launchers.  The two hundred local Covenant cruise tanks were refitted according to the layout of the Crusader tank engine, and replaced with the engine of the Crusader tank. Finally, the problem of the engine overheating was roughly solved, and it was used as a substitute for American tanks.  Handed over to the Anti-League.

    Perhaps fearing that the Anti-Japanese Alliance would be dissatisfied, the British also took advantage of the M3 medium tankThe two Matilda infantry tanks that came down and the Crusader cruise tanks that were replaced by the American M-3 light tanks were two hundred each.  And promised to transfer another 130 Crusader cruise tanks and 200 Valentine infantry tanks to the Anti-Japanese Alliance by the end of 1942.

    Although the Japanese army had already reached India at that time, and there was a fierce battle between India and the Japanese army, and Chittagong and most of Bangladesh had been lost, the British and Indian forces also needed a large amount of tank investment.  Moreover, after the defeat on the battlefield in Burma, the Chinese Expeditionary Force retreated to India and was in urgent need of equipment replenishment.

    ????????????????? However, the British, who were troubled by the sudden turn of events on the North African battlefield and were afraid that the Japanese army would continue to invest troops in India to completely capture the whole of India, and who needed the Anti-Alliance to launch an offensive to contain the Japanese army, were relatively generous.  In one fell swoop, it provided 600 self-produced tanks to the Anti-Japanese Alliance to replace the American-made tanks that had been repackaged by themselves.

    It was only after the Second Battle of El Alamein ended in January 1943 that the Anti-Japanese Alliance received the Valentine infantry tank promised by the British, and the US military had landed on the North African battlefield.  At the same time, this batch of 200 Valentine tanks was also the last batch of British-made tanks obtained by the Anti-Japanese Alliance.

    And these two hundred Valentine infantry tanks did not end up in the hands of the Anti-Alliance.  Together with the 200 M-3 medium tanks aided by the United States, which in nominal order should be the sixth batch, but in fact are barely considered the third batch, all were directly handed over to the Soviets in the Soviet Union.

    The Soviets who were preparing for the Battle of Kursk, in order to supplement the Soviet tank units that also suffered heavy losses during the Battle of Stalingrad and the subsequent series of offensives, especially after the failure of the Third Battle of Kharkov,  This request was specifically made to the Anti-League.

    In the meat grinder-like Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviet army indeed fought a truly large-scale annihilation war.  However, its own losses still far exceeded those of the German army, even though its quality was still far behind that of the German army.  At the same time, in the subsequent Battle of Saturn and the third Battle of Kharkov, the losses of the Soviet army were also quite heavy.

    Especially in the Third Battle of Kharkov, the Soviet army suffered huge losses when an entire tank army was eaten by the Germans.  Most of the consecutive offensives ended in failure, facing the German army which still had an advantage in quality.  The Soviet army not only suffered heavy losses in tanks manufactured by itself.  It was a large number of tanks assisted by the United States and Britain that were wiped out on the battlefield together.

    Although the Soviet Union and Germany faced a rare calm on the battlefield at that time, both the Soviet and German armies were resting and seizing the time to regain their strength.  However, the Soviet army was aware of the large-scale offensive that the German army was preparing.  The quality of the Soviet army at this time was far inferior to that of the German army.  The losses in each offensive were quite staggering.

    Just as Yang Zhen said to Hopkins at this moment, after a battle, the Soviet army could lose a month's output of all Soviet tank factories, which is quite normal.  For the Soviet army at this moment, the number of domestically produced tanks cannot be replenished to meet the needs for the time being, and it will take a lot of time for the tanks assisted by the United States and Britain to arrive.

    The Soviets have always been accustomed to using tanks as the main means of assault, and the more tanks the better on the battlefield.  They set their sights on this batch of Valentine infantry tanks that they themselves were using in large numbers.  After these British tanks arrived in Murmansk, they expressed the hope to Yang Zhen that they could transfer these Valentine infantry tanks and the M3 medium tanks provided by the Americans to the Soviet Union.

    Although they do not count other aspects, the three fronts around Kursk at this moment are already equipped with 4,000 tanks, and they are still growing slowly.  Especially the Central Front Army on the front was equipped with almost as many tanks as two of the three strategic clusters of the German army on the opposite side.  However, the Soviet generals on the front line still felt that they did not have enough tanks in their hands.

    And in March 1943, it had just received more than 700 German-made Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks and more than 200 assault guns captured by the Soviet army in the Battle of Stalingrad and the Caucasus Campaign.  Coupled with the fact that the British handed over more than a hundred tanks of the same model to Yang Zhen after the Second Battle of Alamein, it was difficult to refuse this request from the Soviet Union.

    And with a large number of assault guns, Yang Zhen's interest in using M-3 medium tanks to modify self-propelled artillery has also dropped sharply.  The performance of these M-3 medium tanks is not as good as the German Panzer IV tanks and the Soviet T-34 tanks.  The tall and burly figure is also an excellent target.

    Since the Soviets have this need, after a large number of No. 3 and No. 4 tanks with excellent performance are in place.  Yang Zhen, who did not want to be too stiff with the Soviets, simply handed over the 200 M-3 tanks of the same type to the Soviets together with the existing 200 M-3 tanks in the army.  The Soviets reciprocated the favor. Before they had equipped their troops, they handed over 300 Yak 9DD long-range fighter jets specially developed for the Anti-Japanese Alliance at one time.shelf.

    As for this transaction, although many people in the Anti-League felt that they suffered a loss, in Yang Zhen's opinion it was still a good deal.  The early production of the Yak 9DD long-range fighter jet allowed the Anti-Japanese Alliance to obtain a batch of long-range fighter jets in advance that could escort bombing operations against Japan.

    Before the U.S. Panzer IV tanks began to arrive in large quantities at the end of 1943, the main tanks used in the Anti-Japanese War throughout 1943 were captured German Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks provided by the Soviet Union and the British, as well as British-made Crusaders.  Cruise tank and Matilda infantry tank owner.  Even the number of Soviet-made T-34 tanks was less than 500.

    As for the two hundred modified Covenant cruise tanks provided by the British, in addition to the more than one hundred that sank to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean and the Red Sea together with the fifty Crusaders, twenty Matilda tanks and transport ships,  In fact, it was not shipped outside the Northeast.

    The remaining less than a hundred tanks were left behind by Yang Zhen, and together with the remaining T-26 tanks that had been eliminated, they were used as an important base for security and training.  He didn't dare put these tanks into the battlefield.  The lives of their British soldiers mattered, and the blood of the resistance fighters was not bought with salt.
Didn't finish reading? Add this book to your favoritesI'm a member and bookmarked this chapterCopy the address of this book and recommend it to your friends for pointsChapter error? Click here to report