Re: Blood and Iron

Chapter 276: Development of Self-Propelled Artillery



It was almost universally considered by the German Reich and the men in charge of it that simply resting on their laurels, and their advanced technology for the remaining duration of the war would be an act of foolish hubris.

Sure, they had an overwhelming advantage in comparison to arsenal when one was to look at what their enemies were fielding. But Bruno's intervention in the timeline had not only helped Germany, but their rivals on the global stage as well.

Necessity was the mother of all innovation, and a desperate nation could easily produce something of value based on what they witnessed their enemies using. The idea of fielding an old clunky machine like the British Mark I that was introduced in 1916 of Bruno's past life was absurd.

Especially when a very clearly effective design was currently being employed by the Germans. Sloped armor, and a single rotating turret that made use of a primary weapon of considerable size, and a coaxially mounted machine gun were far more effective than anything that had come before.

And copying such a design, or at least to the best of their ability became the priority of nations like Britain and France who were capable of doing so. Renault FT, and Mark V tanks seemed like a fool's endeavor to pursue when a German Panzer in this life could obliterate them with a single shot, while shrugging off any hostility rained upon it.

Obviously things like rolled homogenous armor was a concept the British and French didn't quite understand, and would instead opt for things like riveted steel plates as had been used during the Great War and Interwar periods of Bruno's past life, and in doing so making its armor significantly weaker.

The fact remained however, it would not be long before the Allies were capable of fielding some degree of armor that was at least capable of competing with current German advancements in the field.

As a result, the engineers in Bruno's factory had not been idle since the completion of the Panzer 1, and the Spähpanzer Ausf B. Variants, both of which were based on the E-10 Standardpanzer tank paper design from Bruno's past life.

Rather, there were new variations of the same chassis being worked on by Bruno's engineers. All of which were designed to aid in the idea of mechanized warfare. The first of these armored vehicles was a self-propelled artillery piece.

Based upon the E-10 Chassis which had a minimum weight of 10 tons, and a maximum weight of 25 tons, this vehicle mounted a 10 cm K 17 artillery piece on the top of it, in a design that was akin to self-propelled artillery pieces like the US WW2 era m40 self propelled 155mm gun. Or the 170mm M-1978 Koksan North Korean artillery piece.

There were plenty of other such designs, but more or less the design philosophy of these self- propelled artillery differed from those more like the German Hummel, or modern day m109 Paladin which the union states used.

And that difference was that the gun was mounted on top of the chassis but was not placed within an armored turret for the protection of the crew. Rather, the crew would stand on the back of the chassis and manually load and aim each shot.

Considering the E-10 chassis weighed somewhere between the size of a Panzer II and Panzer III from Bruno's past life, and had an overall length similar to a Panzer III. Its size was ideal to make use of the 105mm gun K 17 howitzer, rather than something larger like the 15cm SFH 18, which was more standard among artillery units.

In fact, one might even say that the weapon utilized on this armored vehicle was actually more akin to the 10cm SFH 18, as the engineers had improved upon the designs of those 105mm field guns currently fielded in the German Field Artillery during the development process of this armored vehicle.

The introduction of Self Propelled Artillery, which made use of the same armored chassis as Panzer is currently seeing service, vastly simplified logistics when compared to those field guns currently being dragged around trucks.

But even so, the German Engineers did not stop here, and were currently in the act of testing prototypes of several other variants. Such as a Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun variant, or SPAAG for short. This SPAAG made use of a single 2cm Flak gun mounted on top of the chassis similar in overall design to the Flakpanzer I from Bruno's past life.

From the standpoint of the German Army, this was far more effective than the quad mounted 20mm guns mounted in the back of transport trucks that were a stopgap measure currently being used by the 8th German Army in the Balkans.

And while Self Propelled Artillery and Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft weapon solved many problems. There was a new weapon system being introduced by the Germans, that was also designed to aid in combined arms warfare.

This was the addition of an MLRS system added to the back of an E-10 chassis. With the phenomenal performance of the Nebelwerfer introduced to the battlefields outside Bulgaria, German Engineers at Bruno's arms corporations quickly began to introduce a self-propelled variations for use in German Combined Arms Battalions.

Finally, there was one last variation of the e-10 chassis made. And that was the introduction of a dedicated Self-Propelled Anti-Tank Gun. With fears of Allied Armor being introduced into the war, and the possibility of all out battles between such machines of war, the engineers at Bruno's factories had long since been preparing for such a potential reality.

And they did this first by introducing a dedicated Anti-Tank gun, which came in the form of the 5cm Pak 38 from Bruno's past life. This was more or less the weapon used on the current issue Panzer Is as their main gun, but modified for use in the artillery.

Secondly, they decided to strap the beast onto the top of an E-10 chassis. In Bruno's past life, the Germans had done something similar during the Second World War with the Panzerkampfwagen I Ausf.B mit 7.5 cm Stuk 40. Granted, this vehicle made use of the superior 7.5cm Pak 40, but introducing such a weapon so early would only give the allies ideas that Bruno did not wish to give them.

Even so, at this point in time, the Pak 38 was a weapon that could thoroughly obliterate any armor put in front of it.

It was also a weapon that, if thoroughly maintained, could even be useful in the Second World War, should this timeline be cursed enough to have such another conflict even after everything that Bruno had done, and continued to do to prevent it from occurring. Or at least could prove useful in its initial days.

Either way, Bruno would not actually see these weapons until they were fielded en masse for his unit. And when he did, he would be amazed at what his engineers had been up to over the last couple of years as he prioritized other aspects of the war.

However, the process of their creation would be prioritized as weapons deployed to the Italian Theater immediately became a problem to overcome.

The lines had stabilized for the course of several months following the disastrous defeat during the dead of winter within the Alpine Theater. Every days thousands of men were either wounded or killed in action as both the Allies and the Central Powers exchanged wins and

losses.

This was the first time the Central Powers had been forced to engage in offense outside of the Balkans and the Western Front since the war began. And their relative lack of armored units showed itself to the world as they fought in brutal trench warfare for control of the territory they had lost months prior.

It was a complete and total stalemate, and the reason was simple. The Germans had only been manufacturing tanks and armored cars for at most two to four years before the war began.

This, combined with a variety of other priorities which the German Army had in making its preparations made these machines of war being given to the armies in the Balkans and the

Western Front.

There simply weren't enough armored vehicles to go around, especially in an area like Isonzo where Bruno had quite honestly expected to remain unchanged until he, the cavalry, arrived in full force to obliterate the Italian Army and march on Rome in a show of overwhelming

force.

But the sisters of fate were mustering all their power to restore the weave of prophecy in this world. One which Bruno had utterly changed with his interference. And as a result of Austro- Hungarian interference, and his own fear mongering, the Allies had gained ground in then/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

most unexpected region.

And while the loss of territory had yet to be regained, the battlefield had remained a stalemate since the allied initial breakthrough had been halted. That is, of course until today. Because of today, the Allies revealed their first use of armored vehicles in the Great War. And the roar of their engines most certainly caught the attention of the German and Austro- Hungarian soldiers who gazed down upon their advance up the hills with trepidation in their

hearts.

A silent prayer was said by each and every man before the gunfire rang out across the mountain pass, signaling that the battle had begun.