"This is the tank killer we prepared for the Japanese? Apart from that cannon, this thing is absolutely not powerful." In the factory of Renault, Xia Fei pointed to a newly assembled chariot in the distance and said jokingly.

"We are now merchants, and merchants only need to produce products that meet the standards according to the customer's requirements. The Japanese's requirements for this anti-tank combat vehicle are very simple. First, they can penetrate the armor of any US active tank at a normal combat distance. Second, the tanks should be as cheap as possible and as low as possible. According to the Japanese's requirements, the Renault FT3o we produce now is definitely the best choice." Louis Renault said.

If the Japanese Navy and Air Force can still ensure that the equipment level is equal to that of the US Navy with the help of the British, and even in some areas, then the equipment level of the Japanese 6th Army and the Americans is at least one and a half different. Even the so-called elite divisions of the Japanese that participated in the war still have a lot of gaps compared with the 6th Army of the US. Perhaps from paper, after obtaining a large number of machine guns and artillery from Britain and France, the paper vitality of the Japanese 6th Army may be similar, but in terms of tank armor power and logistics transportation trucks, the Japanese are not a little worse than the Americans!

It can be said that because the United States has a strong industrial strength and not a large-scale army, the number of armored units and logistics vehicles of the front-line troops in the United States is definitely the world's first! The Americans can even assign each infantry division to an independent regiment-level armored unit, and the total number of various vehicles in each division even reached more than 2ooo. This was unimaginable during the war, even the most elite Bavarian legion.

If the Japanese could barely deal with the US 6th Army in the war on New Ireland, they could only rely on rugged terrain and a large number of preset positions, then when they arrived at New Guinea Island, although the terrain was still not comparable to the European plains, they were much stronger than New Ireland Island. Therefore, the armor and firepower advantages of the US 6th Army could be exerted. How to deal with American tanks and armored vehicles became the top issue of the Japanese 6th Army.

As a traditional European 6th Army power, the French naturally had their own tank research plan after the war. Two types of tanks appeared in the French 6th Army equipment plan formulated by Xiafei in the next ten years. The first type of tank is the FT2o tank produced by Renault. This tank can be regarded as a wolf tank using French components. The second type of tank is a tank destroyer similar to Hu Feng. It is designed by Schneider and is called the A19 plan, with a weight of more than 23 tons and equipped with a 9ommmL4o gun. The chassis is an enhanced version after using an FT2o chassis and adding a pair of heavy wheels.

From the perspective of equal research and manufacturing costs, the French originally planned to sell these two vehicles to Japan. After evaluation and trial by the Japanese delegation, the Japanese were quite satisfied with the French products. After all, the French were in the industrial foundation, and they also had rich experience in designing and trialing tanks. The products produced were worse than those of the Germans, but they were far beyond the imagination of the Japanese.

Then the tanks of both sides successfully entered the final stage - the price issue! On this issue, the two sides had the biggest differences. Even though the French thought they had given a very generous price and said that they could use mineral resources to offset part of the payment, the Japanese still said that the price was too high and could not afford it...

The French were very unhappy about not selling their finished products, but after the Japanese said that as long as the price was reasonable and the number of purchases in the future was at least 500 yuan, Renault still gritted the bullet and designed new tanks according to the requirements of the Japanese. So, a tank destroyer called FT3o finally stepped off the production line from the drawings!

Why is similar turretless tank destroyers produced by Renault instead of Schneider, which already has the finished product of A19? The reason is very simple. Just hit the enlarged and heavier chassis in the A19 plan, and the weight and cost of this vehicle are not economically suitable for Schneider to prepare two production lines at the same time and produce two tank destroyers. Therefore, Schneider decided to be responsible for the artillery and armor of the FT3o plan. He left the chassis to Renault, and Renault's approach was also very simple. They directly changed a tank destroyer based on FT2o, which was called FT3o...

Considering that the Japanese required an artillery that could penetrate all active US tanks, the firepower could naturally not be weak. After all, there were many wolf tanks in the US 6th Army, so the 9ommmL4o artillery in the a19 plan was retained. However, everyone knows that it is obviously difficult to install such a large artillery on the basis of the wolf tank. Moreover, considering the harsh usage environment of New Guinea Island, the weapon system must have a certain amount of redundancy, so this is not a simple problem of no turrets, and even the entire tank is designed to be open-topped.

However, even though the weight was constantly chopping, the internal space of the chariot was still a little tight after installing too huge artillery. In order to meet the required ammunition reserves of the 6th Army, the French racked their brains and finally thought of a solution. They installed the artillery on the right side of the chariot, which saved even more space. Although there may be some problems with the horizontal firing world, at least the hard indicators are satisfied.

What? You ask how to protect the armor? How to say it, the armor on the front and front of the car can block the attack of the Americans' 37mm artillery and shrapnel, and it is unrealistic to expect to block the 75mm. However, in the eyes of the French, this chariot with strong firepower and average mobility and defense can only be called tragedy was actually attracted by the Japanese! Then after field testing, the Japanese placed an order of 15o vehicles!

What the French unexpectedly expected was that the Japanese said that the steel plate behind the combat room could be made detachable, so that a cannon shield and limited defense space on the side would be retained. After opening the rear, it would be easier to replenish the shells and reduce the weight. This operation really convinced the French!

In addition to a 9ommmL4o cannon, this chariot that can ride in four people also has the firepower of two machine guns. One of the machine guns hit the left side of the combat room. From the outside, it is a semi-spherical machine gun tower with 18oo bullets. The other machine gun is placed on the top of the front armor. This is a movable gun frame and can be disassembled at any time. The self-defense firepower is also considered to be fair.
Chapter completed!