The Rise of the Empire

In a barracks on the outskirts of Vienna, there were stationed the Bavarian Guards and two other imperial cavalry companies who accompanied the prince to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The role of this force is not only to support the prince's appearance. At the same time, quite a few of them will carry weapons and ammunition as the advance force sent by Bavaria to Libya, and the commander of this force, Lieutenant Colonel Karl, is making the last mobilization! They will face a European power this time. Considering the difficulty of resupply, their preparations must be quite meticulous!

Although the vehicles brought this time did not have heavy weapons such as towed artillery, they also carried a large amount of ammunition. At the same time, because the military systems of Bavaria and Austria have been docked to a certain extent, some weapons can use Austrian ammunition and accessories. Cici was indifferent to this war, but after the prince expressed his willingness to buy at the price, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was also willing to provide ammunition for the expeditionary force.

"Including the cavalry, we had 1,500 people in the first batch. Considering the difficulty of ammunition supply, the number of 75MM artillery we carried was very small, only 4. The main weapons were machine guns and mortars. Together with the spare machine guns, we There are a total of 120, and there are 20 60MM mortars, 20 82MM mortars and 12 120MM mortars." When Prince Ruprecht came to check the readiness in person, Lieutenant Colonel Karl will carry the weapon The list is reported.

Naturally, the strength of one regiment cannot use so many weapons. In fact, at the beginning of World War I, a German division did not have 120 machine guns. It is said that when the entire Western Front broke out, the number of machine guns concentrated by the German army would not exceed 2,000. These weapons are largely prepared for part of the Turkish army.

"What about the related equipment?" the prince asked. According to the history of the Italian-Turkish war, the two sides fought directly for more than a year. It may be difficult to survive with so many machine guns and mortars brought by myself, so this time Lieutenant Colonel Karl has to Bring a suggested reloading line, simple gun repair equipment, and spare parts.

Why bring so many mortars? The reason is simple. The production of shells is simple. Cheap pig iron can be used to make the shells. The shrapnel produced after the explosion is no worse than the copper shells. If smokeless gunpowder is not available, black powder can also be used as propellant powder. The range is shorter, just change a set of gun watches. Make do with it.

"According to your ideas, we have designed two simple four-wheeled carriages for transporting machine guns and mortars, and related orders have also been issued. They will be produced in Egypt under the name of ordinary carriages, and then passed Special channel to bring them here," Lieutenant Colonel Carl said.

In fact, this kind of carriage is not like an ordinary four-wheeled carriage. It is actually composed of two parts, a front cart loaded with ammunition and maintenance tools, and a rear cart equipped with a machine gun. The equipment rides on the front car.

A new MG98 machine gun is fixed on the rear car. The machine gun is almost integrated with the car body through the gun mount. Of course, it can also be removed when necessary and can be attached to an ordinary tripod.

"In the absence of artillery, this rear vehicle is a reliable firepower point." Lieutenant Colonel Carl stepped forward and said. He opened a box to the right of the machine gun and pulled a belt from it. "The ammunition box on the right side inside the hull can hold at least 2,000 rounds of ammunition.

"On the left is the cooling water tank. We use a conduit directly connected to the cooling water barrel of the machine gun. There is about 50 kilograms of water in it." 98 and the Germans in history used a large number of MG08 machine guns in World War I to use cooling pipes of the same size.

Requires 4L of water when full.

In addition to consuming a lot of ammunition, machine guns also consume a lot of coolant. The MG98 machine gun on this plane is an imitation of the British Wicks machine gun. While ensuring a lighter weight, it also wastes water. The problem is inherited.

According to the experiment of Lieutenant Colonel Karl and others, when the outside temperature is not too high, continuous shooting of 500 to 600 rounds of bullets will make the water in the cooling bucket of the machine gun boil, and the temperature is high enough to cook eggs... . If you are not willing to let go of the trigger at this point, an average of 1.5 pints of water will evaporate for every 1,000 rounds. And shooting for a long time will cause firearm damage.

If it is in a normal environment, although the consumption of this water source will be very troublesome, there is still a certain distance from being fatal, but this time, the place where the blue army is going is North Africa! The problem of water source is very serious, why do you have to get this carriage? To a large extent, it is to ensure the water source for personnel and machine guns!

Lieutenant Colonel Karl was afraid that 50KG of fresh water would not be enough after learning about the situation, and hoped that the water storage tank of the mass-produced machine gun carriage would be more than 80KG. … The cooling water of the MG98 machine gun can re-enter another water tank along a rubber conduit. This is a condensed water collection tank, which is used to reduce the waste of water as much as possible.

"The baffle at the back of the car body seems to be able to flip up?" the prince who was close to the carriage body looked curiously at a steel plate hanging behind the car body.

"It's like this. After entering the combat position, this steel plate can be turned up as a shield for the machine gun shooter. And this rear car has independent braking equipment. Just pull up the brakes and then open the bracket. It will become a very stable vehicle. design platform."

"Let me see your mortars." The prince was quite satisfied with the machine gun carriage.

"If it is a 60MM and 82MM mortar, you can use the same carriage directly, and even the 60MM mortar can be easily removed from the vehicle to shoot. The bottom plate of the 82MM mortar is the vehicle itself. The gun body is also fixed On the car. The most troublesome thing is the 120MM mortar, which weighs more than 225KG. So we arranged this for it.”

Lieutenant Colonel Karl pointed to the suggested gun carriage in the distance and said. Generally speaking, the so-called gun carriages have at least 4 to 6 horses. But in order to be flexible, all carriages are based on double horses, which requires that the weight of the entire carriage must be as low as possible. The weight of the former plus the rear carriage should preferably be below 800KG. You know, a 120MM mortar The weight is only 225KG. So Lieutenant Colonel Carl simply added 2 wheels on both sides of the artillery directly as the rear vehicle, and connected the ammunition vehicle with a connecting rod in front.

The weight of a 120MM mortar shell is as high as 15KG. In addition to carrying a cannon, a double carriage needs to carry 25 mortar shells and corresponding guns, which is almost close to the carriage carried by a carriage. After all, you can't count on how good the road conditions in Africa are.

"Most of our weapons are ready, but on the whole, there are still some problems, because I can't let the attacking troops also get enough fire cover." After hesitating for a while, Lieutenant Colonel Carl said his concerns.

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