Armored Corps

In the 1890s, Germany built the famous Three-B railway, which runs from Berlin through Constantinople to Baghdad. This is Germany's largest capital export in decades. The total length of the railway is 2,467 kilometers. The supply of rails, carriages, and other equipment for this railway has brought a lot of profits to German capitalists. Germany has also obtained underground railways along the railway. Mining rights of mineral deposits.

Britain successfully drilled two valuable oil wells in Masjid Suleiman on the border between Persia and Iraq in January and March 1908. The first large oil field in the Middle East was discovered on May 26 of the same year. .

In January 1910, Kemal overthrew the Ottoman Empire with the help of Germany and established the Turkish Democratic Republic.

In March 1910, Chentian invested 5 million marks in East Prussia to establish Gigi Oil Company, and sent two oil exploration teams to the eastern part of the Turkish Democratic Republic for exploration. The next month, abundant reserves were discovered between Mosul and Kirkuk. The oil field is named William Oil Field.

With the full support of the Kemal regime, in May 1910, the William No. 1 oil field was officially exploited, with a daily output of 5,000 barrels. In August of the same year, the William No. 2 oil field was officially exploited, with a daily output of 8,000 barrels. Every day, tens of thousands of barrels of oil are transported from the William Oilfield to Mosul, and then transported to Germany by the Three-B Railway, and then refined at the Jiji Oil Company.

In August 1910, Chentian established several large oil storage warehouses in East Prussia, with gasoline reserves of tens of thousands of tons.

In 1910, Jiji Petroleum Company invested a large amount of funds for infrastructure construction, and lost 3.5 million marks that year.

In February 1911, Chentian and the Turkish government established a large-scale oil refinery in Mosul. Part of the oil was refined and then shipped back to Germany.

In February 1911, Chentian proposed to Kaiser Wilhelm II to implement a strategic oil reserve. With Wilhelm II's consent, Germany immediately began to build many large oil storage warehouses in the north and central regions, and purchased a large amount of oil and oil from the Jiji Oil Company. Gasoline, German oil and gasoline reserves are increasing rapidly.

In 1911, Jiji Petroleum Company made a profit of 8 million marks, and the profit increased year by year.

It is precisely because of sufficient fuel guarantee that Chentian dared to request the establishment of a large armored force at this time. In his plan, the armored unit of 50,000 people is organized into one army, with 4 divisions under its jurisdiction, one tank division, one armored combat vehicle division, and two mechanized infantry divisions. The tank division includes 250 tanks, 50 armored vehicles and The logistic unit consists of 100 trucks, the armored fighting vehicle division includes 50 tanks, 200 armored combat vehicles and armored personnel carriers modified from ordinary trucks, 100 ordinary trucks and 50 large-caliber howitzers, and the mechanized infantry division consists of 200 Trucks and 3,000 motorcycles carry ordinary infantry divisions and all equipment.

For Germany with sufficient reserves, it is not difficult to recruit 50,000 recruits and 100,000 reserve troops. After half a month, Chentian's armored force has reached full strength, and another 100,000 reserve troops will be recruited one month before the exercise. It was dissolved on the spot after the exercise.

After the plant with a full production capacity of 200 tractors per month is converted to production tanks, it can produce 15 "Stone I" and "Stone II" tanks each month, and at the same time convert 20 trucks into armored vehicles, 800 trucks and 6000 Although orders for the motorcycles have been sent to German automakers, it will take 12 months to complete them. Therefore, during the exercise half a year later, Chentian���s only tanks, armored vehicles and trucks were only a little more than half of the establishment, but these were enough for him. The more difficult task was how to train an unprecedented fast armored force. .

One month later, the recruits of the 50,000 armored units had been reorganized. Chentian's armored army recruits new recruits instead of reserve soldiers. He mainly considers that reserve veterans are already very familiar with previous weapons and tactics and are easy to form a mindset; while the new recruits are more capable of accepting new weapons and tactics. It's the same as writing better on white paper.

In the appointment of armored army officers, Chentian decided to build a team of officers that belonged to him. The commander of the Panzer Army was personally served by Chentian. Because Brigadier General Ollie is currently the deputy commander of the First Army of the East Prussian Army, the deputy commander of the Panzer Army is another classmate of Chentian, Colonel Olger, who is also the chief of staff. His classmate, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew, and his classmates are his juniors at the Königsberg Military Academy. Half of the lower-ranking officers of the Armoured Army are non-commissioned officers and lieutenants who have just graduated from the Königsberg Military Academy, and the other half are An officer temporarily transferred from the East Prussian Army. Due to the limited number of equipment, Chentian arranged for the newly graduated officers to participate in the training of new equipment and tactics for practical operations. The officers temporarily transferred from other units were responsible for imparting the discipline and style of the German army to the recruits. They will return to their respective forces, and the vacant positions will be filled by a group of outstanding soldiers from among the recruits.

On the training ground outside Königsberg, hundreds of young officers were silently staring at the parked tanks and armored vehicles. These were "monsters" they had never seen before. Every country has airplanes, so airplanes don't need to be kept secret. Every country has submarines, so submarines don't need to keep secrets, but tanks and armored vehicles need to be kept strictly secret. Although countries such as Italy already have the most primitive armored vehicles, their role is completely different from the armored vehicles here. Therefore, it was the report that was handed to the emperor, and Chen Tian also indicated that it was highly classified, and the emperor was requested not to hand it over to the staff for research.

"Okay, don't stand here stupidly. We have explained the specific introduction and operation instructions to you in detail before. Now let's start the actual operation!" Chen Tian is standing next to everyone, and he will participate in the training of officers throughout the process. And practice.

The officers climbed onto the tanks or armored vehicles and began to explore, while the technicians ran back and forth to solve the problems raised by the officers.

"Let's go, let's try it too!" Chentian pulled Olger and Matthew onto a "Stone II" tank, which is equipped with a 37mm caliber rapid-fire gun and 2 water-cooled Firebirds. Machine gun, which is larger and faster than the "Stone I" tank, and a radio transmitter is installed on this tank as a company command vehicle. The members also add a transmitter and machine gunner. .

Chentian proficiently launched the tank, advancing, turning and retreating on flat ground at a speed of 25 kilometers per hour, which made the officers who were distinguishing the accelerator and the brake enviable. Unfortunately, after 1/4 of the incense, the Olger in the turret couldn't stand the bumps and made Chen Tian stop the tank, and then climbed out of the car in a thunderous manner and threw up.

"Mr. Olger, you can't even sit on a tank, and you, the deputy commander of the armored army, are too embarrassing!" Chen Tian opened the cockpit hatch and watched the motion sickness guy vomiting there.

"No, it's okay! Spit, you will get used to it!"

When other officers launched tanks and armored vehicles to practice, there was another group of drunken beetles on the training ground.

When Olger spent two months getting used to vomiting next to the tank, the number of tanks and armored vehicles finally allowed all the tanks and armored soldiers to take turns in actual operations. The infantry also carried out coordinated battles under the guidance of Chentian. Exercise. In addition, Chentian also transferred 50 aircraft from the two squadrons to the armored army, so that the soldiers began to familiarize themselves with the most primitive ground-air coordinated tactics.

The most painful thing in the world is that a tank loses its chain on the way. A dozen kilometers of marching and training, there will always be a dozen or twenty tanks, armored vehicles and trucks on the road, which makes Chen Tian sigh. However, there is no way to put high demands on the quality of vehicles in this era. In addition to requiring factories to improve, the only way to arrange drivers to participate in special training for vehicle repairs.

As the half-year period approaches, Xiaomoqi and Chentian have mobilized reserves in Prussia and East Prussia respectively, and hundreds of thousands of reserve forces will be assembled for a month and a half. Germany announced that it would conduct a large-scale exercise code-named "Pineapple" in the west, and invited ambassadors and observers from various countries to watch it.