Iron Cross Fire

On the morning of September 18, the war in Galicia, far away in the east, gradually subsided, and the Austro-Hungarian army was defeated. They lost a lot of manpower, weapons and equipment, and are now gradually withdrawing to the Carpathian Mountains for resistance.

This is good news for Kuster. Even though his former brothers are still alive and dead, he is only concerned about his business now.

The machine guns and several submachine guns that Kuster needs have also been successfully manufactured. Compared with yesterday, three more semi-automatic rifles have been produced. This is a very good sign. If it keeps up, light artillery production can probably start in late this month.

Kuster was in a good mood. He made a cup of coffee, smoked a cigarette, and crossed his legs to read today's newspaper.

His eyes swept across line after line, and suddenly saw an interesting thing:

Franz-Joseph I, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, will visit the Austro-Hungarian soldiers on the Polish front on September 24, 1914.

This message was sent from the Hofburg by the Austrian Chancellor of the Seal, Elenthal. Although a diplomat is not suitable for participating in internal affairs, an Austrian is always more reliable than Prime Minister Istvan of Hungary.

After confirming it with his official friends, Kuster didn't care about him. This time is too short. If you want to get the emperor's approval, you can't just rely on those light weapons.

And the artillery made by Kuster requires a layer of vulcanized rubber on the wheels, and the metal of the gun body requires Kuster's special steel. It will take at least next month to transport these materials, let alone manufacturing.

So Kuster plans to wait until next month to find a suitable opportunity to recommend these war machines made of steel to the emperor.

Seeing that there was no one around, Kuster took out a closed letter from the safe, which also said "Confidential documents, do not move!"

Kust couldn't help but cover his face and smile, tearing it open a few times, revealing the white paper inside, and there were many ink marks on the paper.

When he took it out, he saw the design of a huge tank.

From the top, this tank uses a cast turret (hemispherical turret). Compared with other turrets, this turret has the advantage of being easy to mass-produce. Because it is cast, you can decide which position to thicken or weaken during the design, which is very simple.

As for the other welded turret (multifaceted wedge turret), after this turret is damaged, the damaged part can be cut off; unlike the cast turret, if a part is damaged, the entire turret must be replaced. This turret and composite armor are a perfect match, so the mainstream turret in the world later became a welded turret.

As for the riveted turret, I really can't think of how to describe the advanced level of a tank turret nailed on.

Considering the current level of technology, it is obviously more cost-effective to use a cast turret. It is simple to produce and the thickness is controllable. In this era, there is no composite armor, which cannot be reflected in the welded turret.

The turret weapon changes according to the model: Type A uses a 20MM cannon with an 8MM machine gun, and Type B uses a 37MM short-barreled cannon with an 8MM machine gun. These two models are enough, too many models will bring heavy pressure to logistics.

The engine uses a 12-cylinder 220-horsepower four-stroke diesel engine developed by Kuster. The suspension is 5 pairs of road wheels. The gearbox is 6/1.

Due to the different models, the detailed data of the two types of tanks are also different.

The A-type tank is expected to be: 4.7M long, 2.11M wide, 1.97M high, and weigh 9 tons. The front armor of the turret is 20MM, the side is 12MM, the back is 10MM, and the top is 8MM; the front armor of the body is 15MM, the side and back are both 10MM, and the top is 8MM. The highway speed is 46KM/H, and the dirt road is 29KM/H.

The B-type tank is expected to be: the length, width and height are all equal to the A-type, and the weight is 11 tons. The gun shield armor is 44MM, the front armor of the turret is 27MM, the side is 17MM, the back, 14MM, and the top is 11MM; the body armor is equal to the A-type. The highway speed is 42KM/H, and the dirt road speed is 22KM/H.

Both of these tanks are difficult to produce. The main reason is that the engine is too advanced and complex. Even if Kuster marks the structure, it will take several weeks to manufacture it.

The 8MM machine gun is very simple. Just put the Austrian MG34 they are making into it; the 20MM machine gun and the 37MM short-barreled cannon require extremely high craftsmanship, so it takes a lot of time to carry out various processing, but even so, it is difficult to manufacture.

Fortunately, there are some people from the artillery repair factory in the arsenal who are familiar with the internal structure of the artillery. In addition, this arsenal has the equipment needed to manufacture artillery, and they can use these to try to make artillery.

Of course, there is another point. The tank body cannot be made by a small arsenal. Therefore, he had to spend money again to buy a piece of land and build a tank manufacturing room there in the name of a tractor factory.

After the good things were said, Kuster waited quietly, smoking, drinking coffee, and reading newspapers, day after day...

On September 21, the Galicia Campaign on the Eastern Front officially ended. At this time, Kuster's arsenal already had 800 semi-automatic rifles, 21 submachine guns, and 7 MG34s. The daily output of semi-automatic rifles has reached 100, and the steel plant in Bled will deliver 30 tons of new steel for them to use on the 24th. Their development situation has been getting better and better.

On September 24, when Emperor Franz was visiting officers and soldiers in Poland, Kuster's side was also bustling.

They have produced more than 1,300 semi-automatic rifles, 74 submachine guns, and 13 heavy machine guns.

They have also been very successful in making new engines. They have already made a sample and believe that it will soon be put into mass production.

The steel mill has also begun to transport new steel. Atkinson told Kuster on the phone that the goods will arrive in the evening, which makes the enthusiasm for work even stronger.

That night, a group of mules and horses carrying steel appeared in Vienna. The residents of Vienna, who were used to spending money and drinking, were a little scared when they saw this scene. They thought that the war was coming here. Vienna was a little quiet.

But this scene did not last long. Vienna returned to the carnival again in the middle of the night.

The noise outside was so loud that people could not sleep. But at this moment, apart from the cheers of the workers inside, no other sounds could be heard in the arsenal.

Kuster held up a bottle of malt liquor and said to the workers excitedly:

"Gentlemen! We have made very good progress in recent days. The engine I requested has been completed, and the new steel has been transported. Now, we are going to really step up our efforts. For this reason, I plan to increase the annual salary of each of our workers by 500 kronor!"

This sentence caused the already excited workers to burst into emotions instantly. They shouted "Long live Kuster!" and drank the malt liquor in the cup with Kuster.

Kust slammed the quilt heavily on the table, making a loud noise, and said with a slightly red face:

"Gentlemen, I will announce that the "Tank Plan" will be implemented tomorrow! Next, we will produce 2 engines within a month and send them to the tractor factory for further processing.

At the same time, we will also start producing 75MM and 88MM artillery. Good luck to everyone!"

Kust raised his arm to the crowd, and the people in the audience cheered enthusiastically. Tonight is another sleepless night.

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