In the autumn and winter of 1916, with the injection of American funds, Anna's plan was realized, and Kharkov Locomotive Factory obtained all the special manufacturing equipment necessary to produce tanks. Although the locomotive factory had only manufactured tractors before and the workers had no experience in making tanks, the manufacturing work of the 1-12-32 project was still progressing very quickly. During this period, Anna gave the chief designer Alecshenko some important suggestions, such as: the firepower of the tank should be divided into three layers; a machine gun should be installed on the left side of the front cockpit of the tank, and the machine gunner seat should be set; the tank weight and unit pressure should be reduced, while the engine output power and tank speed should be improved.........

Despite the fierce wars on the front line, tank designers were able to put aside everything and participate in the work wholeheartedly under the militarized management of the Secret Service. As a result, nine months later, the "T-17" tank was born.

The T-17 tank is a double-turret tank. There is a small machine gun tower above the main turret, which can rotate successfully. The main turret is equipped with a 45mm cannon, and a 7.62mm machine gun is installed on the spherical machine gun seats on both sides of the artillery, weighing 16 tons.

In July 1917, a cool morning, a grand exercise began outside Moscow. All the royal members were present, and senior government officials and invited representatives of nobles gathered together.

At 9 o'clock, the exercise began on time. As soon as the protagonist's five T-17 tanks appeared, they aroused the curiosity of the VIPs: It is said that hearing is better than seeing at first sight. As the upper class of the empire, the nobles and senior officials heard about the new weapon-tanks that appeared on the Western Front; some great nobles even saw photos - steel monsters made by the British!

When the five tanks passed by the viewing platform one by one, the VIPs clearly felt the "rumbling" motor sound of the tanks. The tank tracks crushed the mud and left clear traces.

Next was a shooting performance and a charge performance. Under the collision of tanks, barbed wire, trenches and simple defensive fortresses became paper-stuffed lines of defense. After the brief performance, the 13-year-old emperor Alexey left amid the cheers of the nobles "Long live!". Everyone believed that with tanks, the recovery of Lithuania and Poland was just around the corner.

............

Because of the successful development of the T-17, the designers led by Alecsenko were rewarded with great rewards. However, they did not have time to enjoy it and invested in new transformation work: without affecting the performance of the tank, the production procedures should be simplified as much as possible so that other ordinary locomotive factories can produce on a large scale.

In Anna's private reception room." Mr. Alecshenko, I hope you remember: simplicity is good. If you can complete the simplification of T-17, I can guarantee that the great emperor will give you the title of Earl."

"This... this will be... my honor!" Alecchenko seemed very excited. He flashed his inspiration and whispered, "Dear Princess, can I call you Your Majesty in the future?"

"? "Anna was stunned. She didn't expect that the skilled man who devoted herself to her career would flatter her. However, the title "Your Majesty" is really pleasant! Anna smiled, "If there is no one around, you can call me Your Majesty privately. For example, now..."

Alecchenko understood that he solemnly gave Anna aristocratic courtesy, "Your Majesty, I wish you good health and happiness! I have said goodbye."

.............

The tactics of fixed fronts on the Western Front are fundamentally different from previous wars. Contemporary wars are terrible artillery battles that are supplemented by machine guns, grenades and hand-to-hand combat, which makes people lose their souls. Shortly after the United States joined the Allies, hundreds of British and French officers crossed the Atlantic Ocean to train new recruits' offensive and defensive methods, but the arrival of Americans in France was the beginning of the real training.

Until the summer of 1917, the only American-made artillery fired on the Western Front was four fourteen-inch naval cannons mounted on railway vehicles. All other artillery were French and British, and so were tanks. Similarly, American aircraft developed too late, so American pilots were flying Allied aircraft, although some were equipped with DH-4 "freestyle engines" designed in Detroit. Heavy weapons and related materials were "buyed" from Britain and France, and paid for them with food and a wide variety of supplies.

However, the United States had first-class single-player weapons and equipment, and military resources continued to pour into the southern terminals of France and then transported to the front line via railway lines. After receiving the blood transfusion, in March 1917, the French army launched a spring offensive on the Western Front and fought with the Germans between Reims and Suissons for a total of one month. However, the French army still made no progress after 100,000 casualties, causing a commotion among French soldiers.

Due to the cruel Verdun defense battle in 1916, 70% of the French army experienced that nightmare. After the battle, French soldiers refused to execute the order of attack and only used passive defense. Although the battles of Lance and Suisson only suffered 100,000 casualties, many French troops still refused to fight and even rebelled. The French army was unable to defend, so the British army had to be responsible for the defense of the Western Front.

............

In April 1917, the British army gathered a large number of troops from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, and relied on American equipment to launch a fierce attack again.

Vimi Ridge is a mountain near Vimi Town north of Alas, France. This place is the best guarded by Germany on the entire western front. Because Vimi Ridge is a highland, both sides believe that this is a strategically important place in military strategy. In 1917, the Allied forces decided to attack Vimi Ridge again. The Canadian army carried out the offensive mission this time. After the Battle of the Somme, the Canadians won the reputation of "vanguard". In order to win the victory of this battle, the Canadian army unified its four divisions to participate in the Vimi Ridge Battle and formulated a good combat plan.

On April 2, 1917, the Canadian army began to bombard the German front with guns. The Canadian army used more than one million shells to bombard the Vimil Ridge, which lasted for a week and was never before this battle. On April 9, the Canadian army began to attack the German defense line. The Canadian army invested about 30,000 soldiers and took about two hours to reach its original destination. By April 12, Canada had controlled the entire Vimil Ridge at the cost of 4,000 casualties and 7,000 wounded soldiers. The German army had about 20,000 soldiers killed and more than 4,000 were captured. On the south of the Vimil Ridge, the British and Australian troops did not achieve their goals, and the territory obtained by Canada did not have much military strategic importance.

At the same time, at the call of Britain and France, the Russian army and the Balkan coalition launched another attack on the Austro-Hungarian Empire to restrain more German troops. The French ambassador pointed out directly that he hoped that Russia could launch a large-scale attack on the Eastern Front to threaten East Prussia to reduce the pressure on the Western Front. For the request of his allies, Mikhail agreed to generously donate and verbally promised to dispatch 1 million troops. However, several days later, on the Lithuanian front, the Russian army only fired hundreds of thousands of shells at the German positions. After three days of artillery bombardment, everything was as usual.

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Chapter completed!