What is the most important thing for armor-piercing shells? Of course it is speed! Only with speed can there be energy. In the process of breaking through armor, it is a process of continuous reduction of kinetic energy. The speed of shells is very important.

At the same time, another aspect is also very important, that is, the diameter of the warhead.

With the same energy, tearing a small hole is definitely easier than a large hole, so under this idea, Krupp's engineers began to study how to thin the tank shells.

This result is a sub-caliber armor-piercing bomb.

As the name suggests, the secondary caliber means that the caliber is smaller, and this kind of shell is equivalent to a sandwich structure.

The outer warhead is a traditional caliber warhead, accounting for about 60% of the entire armor-piercing bomb. It has a sharper inner warhead inside. This one with a diameter that is much smaller than the diameter of the shell, and is called a sub-caliber warhead.

When firing, the shells were shot out like ordinary shells. When they hit the tank armor, the warhead was shaken. The back of the secondary warhead was filled with inert gunpowder, and the warhead inside was fired.

In this way, the stainless steel bullets outside pierce armor, and the sub-diameter bullets inside tungsten alloy are also pierce armor. Even if the outside cannot be penetrated, the bullets inside have a thinner diameter and are easier to penetrate. This penetration depth has been improved.

"We have now completed the development of a 75mm sub-caliber shell. This shell is more than 30% higher than the existing ordinary armor-piercing shells." Alfred said.

The initial development was not an 88mm gun, because the performance of this gun is sufficient, and any opponent's tank main armor will be penetrated.

Among the German army's equipment, there are also a large number of 75mm towing anti-tank guns, which will be the main infantry anti-tank weapons of Germany in recent years. Therefore, the first thing to do now is to improve the performance of this anti-tank gun. After all, the barrel of this gun is not long and its power is not as powerful as that of the 88mm gun.

The performance improvement of 30% is definitely an amazing number. Alfred is very confident.

In later generations, in the late World War II, Germany's sub-caliber armor-piercing bomb technology had developed and expanded to all aspects. Compared with all shells being tungsten alloys, it was much cheaper, and its armor-piercing ability was better.

but…

Cialek frowned and said lightly: "I think there is still a lot of room for improvement in this kind of shell. In other words, our armor-piercing shell mainly relies on the sub-caliber core inside to penetrate the opponent's armor. Then, such a heavy warhead outside is a burden."

The inner core is used to penetrate, but the outer part accounts for 60% of the weight. Isn’t this a burden?

After hearing Cirick's proposal, the Krupp experts present couldn't help but be scared. How could they explain to the head of state?

The reason is very simple. The muzzle is so thick that it is not on the outside. How can it keep it sealed from the barrel? Is it possible to let an anti-tank gun with a diameter of more than ten centimeters?

Cialick continued to state his point of view: "I think that the outside part can be removed, so that the warhead can be thinner, the air resistance is less, and the storage speed in the air is very high. At the same time, under the energy of the same barrel, the lighter mass warhead can obtain a higher initial velocity. For anti-tank guns, the higher the speed of the shell, the better."

"So, how do we solve the problem of airtightness?" Alfred asked, because he knew that since Cirick mentioned this, there must be a way!

"This is simple. We add a bullet holder with the same diameter as the muzzle at the back. Wouldn't it solve the problem?" Cialick said: "When it flies away from the muzzle, it will take off the bullet holder and only let the thin armor-piercing missiles in front fly, isn't it better?"

Suddenly, everyone opened their mouths wide. It was a good idea! This is indeed a good idea, why didn’t I think of it?

Head of State Cialick is really a genius!

"At the same time, I think that the slender bullet body may roll in flight, so we can install a tail wing at the tail of the bullet body to stabilize it," Cialek continued.

Of course, these were not thought of by Cialek. These were originally common tail-stabilized shell-exposed armor-piercing bullets in later generations!

A lightweight bullet holder is used to sandwich the armor-piercing projectile in the middle. The diameter of the bullet holder is the same as the diameter of the gun. The armor-piercing projectile is made into a slender rod shape. After the bullet holder is released, the bullet holder will automatically fall off due to the resistance. The bullet holder points along the barrel and continues to fly. This is the origin of the term "shelling".

At the same time, in order to ensure the smoothness and accuracy of the slender bullet body during flight, when manufacturing armor-piercing bombs, four tail wings are installed at the tail, which are arranged in a cross shape, so it is called "tail wing stability".

The only difference is that the smoothbore guns were common in later generations, and the tail wing was used to maintain stability, because this shell did not rotate when it flew out. Now the common rifled guns are still needed, and the tail wing is also needed. This is the experience of the British.

Because, this kind of thing was actually invented by the British. In the late World War II, the British developed this new type of bullet and successfully used it on 17-pound anti-tank guns.

Ordinary hollow-loaded armor-piercing bullets can penetrate 130 mm of armor over 500 meters. After using shell-piercing armor-piercing bullets, the penetration depth under the same circumstances reaches an astonishing 204 mm! It is definitely a heaven-defying existence!

Now that Britain has been conquered, there is no need to worry about this kind of armor-piercing bomb of the heaven-descending level. Germany still uses this new ammunition as a technical reserve, and new technologies have many unknown risks.

For example, although the British in history had this kind of shell-piercing armor-piercing bomb, they had low accuracy, large dispersion, and small number, so they did not have many applications in practice. If Germany wanted to study it, they would definitely encounter many problems.

This kind of sub-caliber armor-piercing bomb has matured. The next step is to develop a better shell-piercing bomb!

"In addition to armor-piercing bombs, we are also studying armor protection issues." Alfred continued: "Now, we are studying ceramic materials, sandwiched between two layers of armor, hoping to improve armor protection."

Germany has the best armored steel and has developed rat tanks weighing nearly 200 tons. However, the final orthodox is still the king of composite armor, and this thing depends on industrial accumulation and certain luck.

German researchers are actively studying new technologies. At the same time, in the factory, Tiger tanks have finally begun to enter the production stage in large quantities according to the already established plan.
Chapter completed!