the world is at stake

The Shenyang Arsenal retained hundreds of Japanese technicians, creating conditions for the factory to resume production as soon as possible.Now the best arsenal in China has ushered in a large number of American-made equipment.

The most important of these are two sets of 12 cubic blast furnaces, capable of producing [-] tons of molten iron per year.Three [-]-ton electric arc furnaces are used to produce high-grade steel products, such as gun steel and tool steel.

In addition, there are rolling mills, forging machines, plate rolling machines and other profile processing equipment.It was specially prepared for the construction of a steel factory, picked up by Zhou Qingfeng from Pittsburgh.

Today's Pittsburgh is also known as the "Steel Capital of the World", where the famous U.S. Steel Corporation is located.If it casually eliminates some equipment, it is enough for the earth to rejoice.

In order to arrange this set of steelmaking equipment, Minister Wang of the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry rushed to Shenyang by plane, laughing at the huge blast furnace.The ministries and commissions who came with him all smiled.

New China is really short of steel. This is an era when ordinary people don't even have kitchen knives, iron pots and hoes.Compared with the Kuomintang, which was able to bankrupt steel factories during the Anti-Japanese War, the Turkish Communist Party has a sincere affection for steel.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, all the few steel factories in China were mobilized for production, but only 10,000+ tons of crude steel were smelted a year.This is just the smelting ability, there are still many processes to turn steel into usable profiles, otherwise it can only be called steel ingots.

In later generations, China's crude steel can reach a terrifying one billion tons, and what is even more frightening is that it can digest all this output by itself and turn it into public facilities such as railways, buildings, airports, and ports.

Now... every ton of steel is extremely precious.Just a few random battles on the battlefield can consume tens of thousands of tons of steel.

Especially when he saw the electric arc furnace, Minister Wang from the Northeast Ministry of Industry was so happy that he was crying, touching the cold furnace with tears in his smile, "We are short of this, we are short of this."

Ordinary blast furnaces can only produce crude steel. Only electric arc furnaces can precisely adjust the element content in molten iron to produce alloy steels with different properties.

"With high-end alloy steel, we can produce machine tools, trucks, ships, bridges, blast furnaces, seamless steel pipes and chemical equipment ourselves.

Anshan Iron and Steel is expanding its scale and urgently needs advanced smelting equipment.I dreamed about where to get this thing, but I didn't expect it to come by itself. "

Seeing the equipment nameplate of the U.S. Steel Company on the steelmaking furnace, the group laughed even more happily.Everyone has a tacit understanding not to care about how this good thing comes from?Anyway, in the hands of the CCP, it has to serve the common people.

But the batch of second-hand equipment sent by 'Holy Light' is not the point.On the contrary, the modification of the thousand 'Willis' jeeps is the most important thing.

A large number of German technicians have come to the Shenyang Arsenal. Not long ago, they helped the factory re-plan and prepared to receive a batch of equipment from Germany.

Another task is to combine the 'Willis' jeep with the PAK36 anti-aircraft gun.

The Korean War has been fought for half a year, and the volunteers are quite familiar with the equipment of the US military.The officers and soldiers are not particularly afraid of tanks, but they have a profound impact on several light combat vehicles of the US military.

M16 anti-aircraft machine gun vehicle, M19 tracked anti-aircraft gun, M8 'Greyhound' armored vehicle, the mobility of these ten-ton vehicles is far better than that of tanks.

In mountain combat, it is more dangerous to encounter a 'Greyhound' than an M26 'Pershing'. The 'Pershing' has a limited elevation angle and can't deal with targets on the mountains, but the 37mm cannon of the 'Greyhound' is very annoying.

The Volunteer Army also needs lightweight mountain combat vehicles, but it would be a loss if a ten-ton armored vehicle is only equipped with a [-]-[-]mm caliber artillery.

So the "Willis" jeep with an empty weight of only one ton came into the sight of the volunteers.

It doesn't matter what the protection is, as long as the firepower can penetrate the 'Greyhound' on the opposite side - the armor of the 'Greyhound' is very thin, the thickest part of the turret shield is only 24mm, and the armor in other positions is only in single digits.But its weight is nearly eight tons.

Equip the small 'Willis' with the same small PAK36, or a [-]mm mortar, so that the Volunteer Artillery Squad can conduct mobile operations.

The U.S. military had a similar design, but they found that their artillery firepower was strong enough, so there was no need to make similar awkward modifications.As long as the commuter car does its job well.

But when 'Willis' arrived in China, he had to be given a more important task.

German technicians feel that modification is not difficult.They removed the mount from the PAK36, kept the shields, and mounted the gun on the rear seat of the 'Willis'.

The defect of the modification is that the space inside the vehicle is very narrow after the artillery is installed, and the artillerymen must get out of the vehicle to shoot, and only fifteen rounds of shells can be carried in the vehicle, so another 'Willis' must be equipped as an ammunition delivery vehicle.

After the test, it was also found that the 'Willis' was too light, and the sideways shooting of the artillery was unstable, and it would definitely overturn.If you want to obtain higher shooting accuracy, it is best to stop and put down the hoe.

But no matter how many flaws there are, this is a self-propelled artillery vehicle anyway-the original PAK36 requires a four-person artillery squad to push nearly half a ton of artillery.Pushing this thing to fight in the wild is simply a nightmare experience.

'Willis' can also be converted into a commuter vehicle, a reconnaissance vehicle, an ambulance, and a transport vehicle.In short, how the Americans use it, the volunteers can do the same.

For this batch of artillery vehicles, Deputy Commander Hong, who was in charge of the logistics of the Volunteer Army, also rushed to Shenyang and saw three modified prototype vehicles with his own eyes.

On the shooting range on the outskirts of the city, three infantry artillery squads temporarily learn to drive, and the staff of Zhisi is currently compiling the operation manual.A dozen or so people stared at the four-person artillery crew for operation.

Drive, stop suddenly, park the hoe, aim at the target about 800 meters away, and fire.

Because 'Willis' is twice as heavy as the original PAK36, the shooting stability is more guaranteed.Especially when the hoe is put down, the accuracy of artillery strikes within 1000 meters has improved a lot.

"This car is very small." Deputy Commander Hong held up the binoculars to look at the target set in the distance, "It's quite accurate."

The target 800 meters away is a two-meter-by-two-meter wooden plank, on which concentric circles are drawn with lime.Three gun carriages fired at it one after another, and the sound of brisk cannons rose and fell on the shooting range.

'Willis' is really small, and the cannon on it is not even two meters high.

"This little thing doesn't make a lot of noise when it fires. If you just find a corner and squat it, and put on some camouflage, it will be difficult to spot it on the battlefield." Deputy Commander Hong fell in love with the modified 'Willis' artillery vehicle at a glance.

"The enemy's light tanks can't withstand its shelling, and even the side and rear armor of the tank can be penetrated. The key is that it is cheap, whether it is a car or an artillery, it is free. And it is fuel-efficient."

Fuel saving is really important. The fuel supply of the Volunteers is still too tight, and there is no way to open the supply.

Tanks with dozens of tons are oil tigers. In contrast, 'Willis' can run [-] kilometers with more than [-] liters of oil. It is like a donkey that is easy to use and durable.

"The army is about to fight a big war, and immediately produce a hundred 'Willis' artillery vehicles to equip the Ninth Corps. We must try to teach the [-]st Marine Division on the opposite side a hard lesson before the summer begins."

Deputy Commander Hong gave orders to the arsenal and took a look at the training ground next to the shooting range.More than a dozen German instructors are training the armored teaching battalion of the Volunteer Army, and a 'Pershing' captured from North Korea is parked opposite them as a teaching aid.

In the Korean War, both sides fought fiercely, and each captured something.

But the Americans were not interested in the seized North Korean T-34s, but the Soviets were very concerned about the 'Pershing', and they immediately sent people to operate it when they learned that it was captured.

While driving the 'Pershing', Soviet armored soldiers kept their eyes on a row of German tanks parked opposite the training ground.

Those were 'stalkers' that had just been refitted in the Czech Republic and were painted with the August [-]st military emblem. They had a low body, a gray-green paint job, and they looked like they had no combat effectiveness.

The Germans were teaching Chinese soldiers armor tactics, which made the Soviet officers very uncomfortable.A few years ago, they fought desperately with the same group of people with the same equipment in the European battlefield, but now they actually watch the other party 'passing the torch'.

"Can these Chinese comrades learn the armor tactics of the Germans?" On the turret of the 'Pershing', a Soviet tank soldier lay down on the hatch and asked.

Standing under the tank was a second lieutenant of the Soviet Army, looking coldly at the opposite German instructor who was acting as the commander of the vehicle, training the Chinese driver on how to understand the commander's orders.

From time to time, the translator had to discuss a few sentences with German military officers before he could clarify some special vocabulary. The general meaning is that the 'assault gun' is a defensive weapon, and no one has considered how to use it to attack in the mountains.

The trained Chinese armored soldiers are very optimistic. For them, being able to equip tanks is a huge improvement, so why not consider it?

On the other side of the training ground, a selected 'Stalker' is ready to shoot.Several German technicians and Soviet officers carefully loaded ammunition into the tank's 75mm gun.

A war-wrecked 'Pershing' was parked about 1000 meters away.It was destroyed by a special armor-piercing projectile fired by the M18 recoilless gun, but its front armor was still intact, and it was brought back by a large trailer to serve as a physical target.

After the shells were loaded, there were still high-speed cameras filming the scene.The Soviet officer took a deep breath, grabbed the walkie-talkie and gave the order. The 'Stalker' immediately fired a cannon, and the 'Pershing' on the opposite side lit up in the blink of an eye.

Not long after, cheers came from the walkie-talkie from the person who reported the target on the opposite side: "Pierce through, completely through. The new sub-caliber tungsten-core armor-piercing bullet can penetrate the frontal armor of the 'Pershing'. We have to fight against our opponents." The ability to fight."

The crowd cheered loudly.

When the news reached Deputy Commander Hong who was at the scene, the old soldier also sighed softly: "The thousands of tons of tungsten ore we worked so hard to dig are not in vain. These German military workers have finally produced a sharp weapon."

Chapter 55

In March 51, the Yalu River Railway Bridge on the border between China and North Korea was blown up by enemy planes. This was the third time.The Yankees came to bomb during the day, and the railway soldiers rushed to repair it at night.

It's just that the bombing this time is different from the past. The enemy only used a few bombs to destroy the railway bridge.

During the air strike, the Volunteer Army's air defense radar was interfered, and the screens of multiple Soviet-made radars were full of snowflakes, and nothing could be seen.Only the "American-made radar" obtained by Zhou Qingfeng has a fast frequency modulation function, which stabilized the air defense line.

Although the railway bridge was destroyed, engineers built several temporary pontoon bridges on the Yalu River.Teams of auto soldiers are dragging anti-aircraft guns heading south.They acted during the day, seized the window period when enemy planes attacked, and quickly passed the border.

Inside the car canopy, the soldiers of the anti-aircraft artillery unit looked out through the car baffle, and exclaimed at the scorched plane wreckage on the river bank.

"This is the B-29? It really is a big plane."

"I heard that it can hold nine tons of bombs for carpet bombing."

"What's the matter? It hasn't been killed by us yet. It will be the one we will beat in the future."

The soldiers of the anti-aircraft artillery unit laughed happily, but a group of people surrounded the wreckage of the B-29, headed by "Academician" Zhang - he is not yet an academician, but a radar technician who has just graduated from Tsinghua University and joined the army.

美军利用轰炸机释放干扰箔条，并针对志愿军雷达进行了电子欺骗。其307轰炸大队的十二架B-29在50多架F84和F86的护送下执行了对鸭绿江大桥的轰炸任务。

The bombing caused great losses to both sides.

The Volunteer Army's air defense operations in recent months have been very efficient, and they were unprepared for the enemy's new methods; the U.S. military did not expect that some of the opponent's radars could be tuned quickly and could not be interfered.

The two sides collided abruptly.

The largest air battle since the start of the war broke out yesterday over the Yalu River.From Dandong to Turtle City and then to Pyongyang, nearly [-] fighter planes fought in the sky, and the roar of jet engines resounded across the peninsula.

The U.S. military lost all twelve B-29s, along with two dozen fighters.The Volunteer Army Air Force is also having a hard time, and the loss is not small. In addition, the important Yalu River Railway Bridge was blown up, but the logistics supply line was temporarily interrupted.

The B-29 that crashed on the bank of the river was shot down yesterday. Six people on board were parachuted and captured, and five people fell to their deaths randomly.Academician Zhang led the team to the wreckage to find out one thing - what new things did the Yankees lose during the bombing yesterday.

The charred remains of the fuselage had fallen apart, and the wings and fuselage were broken into several pieces, scattered within a range of several hundred meters.

Zhang 'Academician' looked around in the broken fuselage skin, pointed to a twisted iron chair and said, "This should be the navigator's seat of the B-29, and the bombardier is nearby."

The 'Norton' bomber used by the B-29 was so accurate that it claimed to be able to drop a bomb into a pickle bucket.But yesterday's bombing accuracy was even more frightening. Just five bombs blew up the railway bridge.

What they're looking for now is some kind of guidance device, but no one knows what it is.Even the Soviet Union is very interested in this new gadget, but their people haven't come yet, so Academician Zhang led people to search for the wreckage of the aircraft first.

The airframe was extensively damaged and nothing was found near the navigator's seat.The search personnel spent half an hour to determine the layout of the cabin, carefully opened the wreckage in the cabin, and found a TV-like gadget under a dark American corpse.

These days, few people in China can recognize what a TV is, let alone a TV that is deformed and falling apart.But "Academician Zhang" finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this thing, and said in a low voice: "It's a TV-guided bomb, and it matches the information provided by the intelligence personnel."

During World War II, the United States and Germany were engaged in guided weapons, and the radio-guided bombs developed by the Germans also achieved considerable results.However, pure radio guidance must allow the bomber to hover over the target, which is not intended to seek death in high-intensity confrontation.

After the Yankees came up with the TV, they were thinking about TV guidance. Simply put, it is to install a camera on the bomb head and transmit the image back to the bomber's TV in the form of radio waves.

The advantage is that the bomber can drop bombs far away, which is safe and accurate.

"In order to deal with us, the Yankees finally came up with the technology of pressing the bottom of the box." Academician Zhang carefully recovered the receiving and controlling part of the TV guidance from the wreckage of the aircraft.

As long as you know the frequency and mechanism of the US military's TV guidance, you can completely interfere with it on the corresponding band.This is what Zhang 'Academician' does - radar and guidance, electromagnetic countermeasures and anti-resistance.

Just after the recovery of the wreckage was completed, Academician Zhang received a new task—putting aside the matter of the new guided bomb of the US military for the time being, and went south quickly with a newly formed anti-aircraft artillery unit, preparing to prop up an air defense umbrella for the front line.

Without hesitation, Zhang 'Academician' followed the anti-aircraft artillery radar vehicle into North Korea.He soon discovered that it was not just anti-aircraft guns that entered North Korea, but also assault guns carried on heavy trailers.

For volunteer soldiers who rarely see tanks, they are very curious to see a flat 'assault gun' protruding from a gun tube.

When the troops met each other, the anti-aircraft artillery unit asked the armored soldiers, "What's on your trailer?"

An armored soldier wearing a tank cap poked his head out of his tank, and replied stiffly, "Three Tuas."

"What do you say?"

"Three studs."

This sounds like the equipment 'nickname', and it also reveals the arrogance of an armored soldier, but he refuses to answer it properly.

But the anti-aircraft artillery didn't like this. The soldier who asked the question patted the Flak41 anti-aircraft gun dragged behind his truck, "Did you see my 88mm cannon? It can be used to shoot aircraft, and it can be used to shoot tanks. It is specially designed to destroy your armored soldiers. "

The occupants of the 'Three Tuzi' on the opposite side were pissed off by these words. If it wasn't for the prohibition of getting off the car on the marching road, they would have come over to argue.It can be seen that the colleagues on the opposite side are furious, and the officers and soldiers of the anti-aircraft artillery unit are in full bloom.

"Zhang Gong, what is the 'Three Tuzi' on the other side?" The anti-aircraft artillery officers and soldiers in the same car were still curious, "It is very strange to say that the tank is not like a tank, and that the artillery is not like a artillery."

Zhang 'Academician' is not too clear.Looking at the convoy of armored soldiers rumbling forward, he shook his head with a smile, and changed the subject: "Now we are really changing our guns, and our equipment is much better than before.

Let’s just talk about this anti-aircraft gun. If there was such a thing back then, we would have been bullied so badly by the Japanese’s broken planes?Those of my classmates would not have died in the bombing while fleeing. "

When it comes to anti-aircraft artillery, the officers and soldiers are always in high spirits.Today, U.S. air power has an absolute advantage.The anti-aircraft artillery of the air defense force has made great contributions to keeping the front and rear of the Volunteers from being bombed.

在早期使用苏式高炮防空后，近期志愿军到手一批德式88毫米高炮。都是周青峰从欧洲搞来的Flak18/36/37/41型号。

These are all things that were famous in Europe back then.Whether it is the Soviet Union, Britain, France, or the United States, they have all tasted its power. The 'Tiger', 'Tiger King', 'Cheetah' and 'Ferdinand' also used its variant as the main gun.

When these antiaircraft guns were found from the warehouses of various European countries, most of them were dilapidated or even damaged.After being transported to East Germany under the name of 'scrap iron', they were successively refitted.

The gun mount was redesigned to solve the shortcoming of the 88mm anti-aircraft gun being too high; the old-fashioned bulky base was replaced with a new swivel gun mount to capture targets faster;

The introduction of motor-assisted and fire control devices, linked with the radar, improves the shooting accuracy and response speed; the semi-automatic loading mechanism is designed to increase the rate of fire and reduce the physical exertion of the loader.

Hundreds of improved 88mm anti-aircraft guns will become the main equipment of the Volunteer Army's field air defense. By strengthening coordination and command, the efficiency of air defense will be improved.

Zhang 'Academician' accompanied the anti-aircraft artillery unit to the south and then east to North Korea's Changjin County. Several armies of the Ninth Corps squatted here for several months.

The troops stationed in place, deployed radar immediately, and stretched out the air defense net-the advantage of the German-made 88mm anti-aircraft gun is that it is light.It only weighs more than four tons, and it can be deployed in the field and follow the armored troops.

After arriving at the destination, the wartime atmosphere suddenly became tense.

The U.S. Air Force has already regarded the Volunteer Air Defense Force as a thorn in the side and a thorn in the flesh. Every air strike gives priority to bombing radar and then bombing anti-aircraft artillery.Both sides were red-eyed.

After Zhang 'Academician' arrived at the front-line air-raid shelter, he met Zhao Glasses and German Schmidt who were here in advance.When the latter summed up the experience and lessons, he mentioned that the Yankees tried their best to blow up the radar of the Volunteers.

"They came up with an anti-radar tactic, sending electronic reconnaissance planes around the air defense circle, tricking us into locking the position after the radar was turned on, and the fighter jets flew over to destroy it immediately at low altitude."

"Ah... the loss is not big?"

"Several Soviet-made mobile radars were destroyed, and many radar soldiers were sacrificed. In order to deal with the enemy's tactic, we implemented the tactical trap of time-sharing start-up and low-altitude blind filling, which also caused the Americans to suffer a lot."

"If one trick fails, the U.S. military has changed to many tricks.

They were throwing chaff in the air almost every day, plus moving radar jammers to B-29s to fight us.We now urgently need to install frequency converters for Soviet-made radars to eliminate enemy interference. "

"Ah...that's what I came here for. I was short on electronic parts, used cans and twine for jammers, and boards for tuned circuits.

Recently overseas comrades shipped a large number of electronic components, and I made a lot of tuned frequency converters, which can add frequency conversion functions to Soviet-made radars. "

Zhao Glasses has been working in the frontline artillery regiment for a while, and he used to look like a white and clean scholar in Zhisi, but now he looks like a tall and thin black whirlwind.