It's better to conquer them than to command the steel torrent

Chapter 83｜Magnetic Bomb!
Shang Ke stayed up late last night to write a long letter to his fiancée. He woke up at noon today, but soon learned about this sudden incident.

"No way? Today is September 1st? What a coincidence..."

He muttered a few words, took a few bites of bread, and went straight to the General Staff Headquarters.

Halfway through, a young man selling newspapers on a bicycle was surrounded by citizens, who rushed to buy the newspapers.

A certain Shang introduced himself as "a military advisor from China", and a middle-aged man who looked like a businessman rolled up the newspaper he had bought and threw it to him.

He opened the newspaper and glanced at it, and understood.

After turning a block, we arrived at the General Staff Headquarters. In the past, there were not many people here at this time in the morning, but today was completely different. There was even a serious traffic jam at the gate, and all the men and women in military uniforms looked hurried.

When I came upstairs, everyone was busy.

Anna, who usually works leisurely, is now different and typing away on the typewriter at a rapid pace.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Counselor... I can't make you coffee today... There are so many telegrams that need to be transcribed."

There were dozens of telegrams piled in front of Anna. As she spoke, she reached out and pulled the barrel machine head back to the far left.

Shang Ke laughed dumbly and said casually: "Calm down, just continue working."

The high-level meeting was held half an hour ago, but that level of discussion had nothing to do with Shang.

The other staff officers also have tasks to do, and everyone is making a rough assessment based on the fragmentary information currently available.

"...It can be seen that the Ivan Rus's offensive was a sudden, unpredictable move, and was well-organized. The battle line spanned a vast area, stretching from the Baltic Sea to northern Bohemia. We estimate that the Ivan Rus's deployed no fewer than two million ground troops in the attack. This was clearly a premeditated, all-out war."

A lieutenant colonel staff officer stood in front of a huge map, pointing with a baton, while two government officials were listening to him.

One of them said, "Lieutenant Colonel Toth, the Minister wishes to know how the war situation may have changed."

The lieutenant colonel thought to himself, how could he possibly predict this? But outwardly, he still replied respectfully, "I can't give you a definite answer, but what is certain is that because it happened so suddenly, the Vallanders will be at a disadvantage for some time to come."

Shang Ke found this kind of conversation boring and turned away.

He came to the next door No. 2 war situation room, where six or seven staff officers were intensely analyzing a 1:25 scale topographic map.

"...This number is clear. The 22nd Infantry Army belongs to the 5th Front Army. It should be in the Tarnow area!" A tall and thin major blushed.

"Don't scream! Even if there is a railway, a fully equipped infantry army cannot move there quickly. Can the Ivan Rus people fly?!" Another person slammed the red pencil on the table.

They continued to argue, but Shang Ke pretended not to exist and stared at the map.

The distance from Hwasa to Berlin is only about 500 kilometers, which is a very serious and harsh objective fact.

The road between Varland and Ivan Rus was a vast plain with no strategic locations to defend. The only natural obstacles were the Vistula and Warta rivers and the Oder River below the city of Berlin.

From the current perspective, Ivan Rus's side has forced their way across the Vistula River at the very beginning, and next is the vast Pod Plain.

Of course, Valland had anticipated this situation.

They established two strategic lines of defense behind the Vistula River and three lines of defense between the Warta and Oder Rivers, interspersed with some strongly fortified areas to serve as holdouts.

When the invading enemy was beaten to a pulp on the defensive line, the heavily armed group, waiting for the opportunity, could launch an offensive. This strategic concept was sound, but Shang Ke doubted whether Walland's General Staff had considered it thoroughly. Had they underestimated the efficiency of the Ivan Rus Army's operations?

Of course, there was a battle in the history of the original dimension with a similar situation, that was the Vistula-Oder Battle - more than two million Soviet troops broke through seven lines of defense in succession within twenty days and shattered the entire German defense system.

In this famous battle, the armored forces - the tank army and the mechanized army played a decisive role, with an average advance speed of up to 45 kilometers per day and night, and even exceeding 70 kilometers on some days; the infantry forces also advanced at a speed of up to 45 kilometers per day and night.

Shang Ke has been considering this situation for a long time.

Vallande's tolerance for error is too low, and if they collapse once, the enemy will be at the gates.

In addition, in the early stages of the war, the power of large-scale raids by armored clusters with air support was terrifying.

Because all nations lacked the strategies and experience to defend against this novel tactic, it is no exaggeration to say that the German army in 1939 could hardly withstand that series of fierce attacks.

It took several years for the situation where the spear was stronger than the shield to gradually change - summarizing the experience and lessons and developing better anti-tank weapons.

Shang had previously held the view that Valland should take proactive preventive measures and attack Ivan Ross first.

As the old saying goes, those who strike first will gain the upper hand, those who strike later will lose!
The elites of Walland's General Staff must have had such an idea, but old William was already eighty years old. At this age when he had one foot in the coffin, he probably did not have the courage to implement such radical preventive measures.

Now that the matter is settled, I hope they can withstand the fierce and all-out attack at the beginning of the war.

Shang Ke put the matter aside for the time being and left the General Staff.

He stopped a carriage and told the driver that he was going to the Metal Products and Ordnance Machinery Factory.

In order to enrich the infantry's anti-tank weaponry, Shang came up with something new. After all, facing incoming tanks, relying solely on blasting tubes and Molotov cocktails would be extremely ineffective.

Although the Monroe effect was discovered very early, hollow (conical) charge armor-piercing warheads have not yet been widely used.

Referring to the German HHL magnetic anti-tank bomb that was invented three years later, Shang designed a lightweight magnetic bomb because the HHL weighed 3.6 kilograms and was not flexible enough to use.

【Picture】

The Metal Products and Weapon Machinery Factory (FG) began trial-producing this thing a month ago on behalf of a certain Shang. The Hungarians called it MTVB, which is the abbreviation of magnetic anti-tank bomb.

The armor-piercing power of a hollow charge warhead is affected by many factors, including the shape of the liner, the material of the liner, the type of charge, etc. The optimal solution is trumpet-shaped, copper, and passivated RDX.

However, the engineer helplessly told him that the trumpet shape was difficult to process, so he could only choose a hemispherical shape as a second best option, and the explosive was also replaced with picrate because RDX was too scarce and precious.

"In this case, the ability to penetrate steel plates will be greatly reduced." Shang Ke reminded.

"That's true, but we don't have a better solution for now." The engineer handed over a simple handwritten instruction manual.

Weight: 2.3 kg
Charge amount: 820 grams

Static penetration depth: 100 mm
Charge Type: 50/50 picolatos
The substitute, Picratal, is actually a mixture of 50% ammonium picrate and 50% TNT, which is much cheaper.

"Uh..." Shang Ke hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, "It's okay. I'll go to the Ministry of National Defense to make production suggestions."

(End of this chapter)