In history, in order to deal with the possible World War III in Europe, the US military developed the M50 emergency equipment. No matter what the US military did with it later, the original purpose of making this thing was indeed used for anti-tanks.

At that time, NATO had just been established, and the whole of Europe was trembling under the shadow of the red giant beast. Even as powerful as the US military, they would not dare to hope to shake the Soviet army's steel torrent head-on. The Soviet tank sea was so foul, and a group of veterans who had been honed on the cruel Eastern Front completely crushed the European army in terms of combat effectiveness.

At that time, NATO armored troops could not compete with the Soviet Red Army in terms of quantity or quality. Therefore, in order to cope with the threat of Soviet tanks, the US military decided to develop a batch of targeted emergency equipment to survive this transition period before the development of a new generation of heavy tanks. The M50 was developed and manufactured in this era.

Initially, the US military wanted an anti-tank armored vehicle that could be equipped with military gliders and quickly deployed across Europe. This was a very advanced tactical concept at the time and could effectively alleviate the problem of insufficient troops in Europe. The M50 was classified as a tank destroyer at that time. In order to be stuffed into the cabin of a heavy glider, it had to control the weight of the vehicle body. The total weight could not exceed twenty tons, and the length, width and height should also be strictly standardized.

At the same time, this kind of vehicle must have strong enough firepower to destroy the main tanks of the Soviet army within normal combat distances, and also have the ability to support infantry units on the battlefield. These indicators seemed a bit harsh at the time. To be honest, the main tanks equipped by the US military probably could not meet this firepower requirement, which was verified in actual combat on the Korean battlefield. If you want to penetrate the latest Soviet tank armor, your armor-piercing ability cannot be less than 250 mm. This indicator was not until the 1950s, and only a limited number of large-caliber cannons could be achieved during close bombardment. This type of small car with strict weight restrictions was obviously impossible to carry this type of cannon.

However, weapon designer Aris Chamos still came up with a solution, and he focused on the large-caliber recoilless cannon. Among the artillery tribes of the same caliber, the weight of the recoilless cannon is the lightest, but the power of the ammunition will not be reduced as a result.

The 106mm M40 recoilless gun, which the US military just developed in the mid-1950s, was built to deal with Soviet tanks. This large-caliber recoilless gun has considerable armor-piercing capabilities. When it uses the M344A1 HEAT (high explosion armor bomb) produced by the United States, the penetration depth reached an astonishing 700 mm, and the effective range was also increased to 1,300 meters.

The only disadvantage of this artillery is that it has a relatively slow firing rate. The well-trained shooting team can only maintain a firing rate of one shot per minute, which means that in dangerous anti-tank operations, this artillery often has only one shot. M50 designer Aris Chamos cleverly made up for this defect with a stupid look. Since he can only shoot one shot at the end of the battle, he simply installs a few more shots. Anyway, the total weight of this artillery is only 200 kilograms.

As a result, he installed a closed armored combat room on the full track chassis developed by Cadillac for the M56 paratrooper self-propelled anti-tank gun, and then installed six M40s on the roof and sides. A strange-looking but full firepower tank sniper vehicle was completed in this way.

When the M50 was developed, it did not achieve the expected success, and the US Army canceled its original weapon order. Because the Army found that it could be equipped with an ordinary jeep with an M40 recoilless cannon, which was more maneuverable and maintained and relatively low-priced.

Fortunately, the US Marines were looking for vehicles that could be used to attack tanks at that time. Ma Run and others were hungry and the fourth class were not qualified to be picky about food. As soon as the Army gave up purchasing this equipment, they picked up the order thrown away by the Army. The Marines classified this vehicle as self-propelled artillery and were very satisfied with its performance. In the past three years, they ordered a total of 297 M50s.

Everyone knows the story later. This kind of cart, which was originally used to fight against the Red Army tanks, showed its power in the tropical jungles and rice fields in Vietnam. The flames emitted by the six-pronged volley became a nightmare that North Vietnamese soldiers would never forget.

The German "Scorpion" tank destroyer, in addition to the different chassis and artillery, was almost a copy of the M50. Xu Jun borrowed the design concept of the M50, which was just a concept. The head of state did not have the drawings of this kind of vehicle in his hand, and this kind of car had exceeded the age of the database.

Xu Jun was unable to create the M40 recoilless gun developed in the mid-1950s, but he had similar versions of the German army, as well as a complete set of drawings for the US military to equipped the M20 75mm recoilless gun system in the late World War II. The German 105mm LG40 recoilless gun was a technical pioneer of the large-caliber recoilless gun group. The US military borrowed a lot of German technology in the research and development of its own recoilless guns.

The territory of this destroyer is not a complete copy of the "Surveyer". Because there is no need to install that cannon, it can completely reduce the height of some cars. The "Scorpion" has a body height of only two meters, a total weight of only thirteen tons, and its armor thickness is roughly the same as that of the "Surveyer", which is enough to withstand the attacks of most Soviet light weapons, including their favorite anti-tank rifles.

The entire vehicle was equipped with four people, a commander, a radio, a driver and a gunner. The crew did not arrange loaders because when the six guns were fired, everyone would be loaders.

A large hatch opened above the rear armor of the vehicle body to allow the crew members to enter and exit quickly. This kind of artillery arrangement means that it is impossible to reload the second loading under the enemy's firepower, so the tactics Xu Jun formulated for this kind of destroyer vehicle were exactly the same as the M50, that is, pouring firepower into the enemy and leaving if the situation is wrong.

Guderian was very clear about the strategic shortcomings of the German army, and the senior leaders of the commander in history knew it well, but the success of the Western Front was too smooth, which led to most of them deliberately overlooking these problems.

When the German army started war on the Eastern Front, they never thought that it would become a war of attrition. Whether the blitzkrieg model would still be effective in the vast Soviet territory, no one had seriously considered this. Even if Guderian noticed the existing problem, he only felt that this was another strategic adventure of Hitler, and he did not think that the German army would have the possibility of failure.

In fact, the Commander's Office also knew that with the strength of Germany, it was impossible to annex the entire Soviet Union. One plan proposed by the Commander's Operations was to fight a high-intensity blitzkrieg that lasted from nine to seventeen weeks. They drew a bottom line on the map, starting from Arkhangelsk in the White Sea (Arctic Sea) across Soviet territory and reaching the important coastal town of Astra Khan in the Caspian Sea. This is the famous AA line. The plan proposed was Lieutenant General Erich Max, who was the chief staff officer of the combat situation at the time (the lame general in the movie "The Longest Day" who was preparing to land in Normandy in the commander's battle flag deduction.).

Now all these situations have changed. The German army gave up on active attack and turned to full defense. This was a wise choice in Guderian's opinion. The new head of state is worthy of being a strategic genius. However, Guderian was not satisfied with fixed-point defense. He was a tank combat expert. In his opinion, only by adopting mobile defense can the German armored forces exert their true value.

He has always advocated the development of armored forces in preparation for mobile defense operations. Tanks are not used as bunkers. Armored forces should use their excellent mobility to disrupt the enemy's combat deployment, use powerful firepower to eliminate the enemy's live power, destroy the enemy's supply logistics, and destroy the enemy's command system.

Looking at this majestic little car at this moment, Guderian couldn't help but look forward to its performance on the test field.

PS: Thank you for your support, the author will continue to work hard.
Chapter completed!