"boom!"

The sound of cannons rang out on the playground in the Japanese Army Chariot School in Chiba Prefecture. This was a "Weasel" 2 tank destroyer purchased from Germany, which was firing. The 48-caliber 75mm cannon fired a high-speed armor-piercing projectile using a rammed metal bullet core. In an instant, the projectile accurately hit a thick steel plate placed vertically on the cement base 1,000 meters away.

"Effective breakdown!"

An officer responsible for checking the shooting results ran over, looked at the steel plate pierced by the projectile, then waved a flag in his hand and shouted.

"Yaoxi!"

Japanese Prime Minister and Minister of the Army Hideki Tojo nodded with satisfaction and said to the fool around and Navy Minister Shimada Shintaro: "If we can penetrate the frontal armor of the US m4 tanks 1,000 meters away, then the army should have no problem... Next year, the operation to go south to Australia. If the army and the navy can work together, the empire can greatly open up territory."

"Prime Minister, there is no problem with the army." Sugiyama Moto laughed, "I have discussed it with engineers from Mitsubishi and Osaka Arsenal. Using a 15-ton Type 97 medium tank can definitely change a better fighter chariot than the "Weasel". The specific design work can be completed within the year. The modification of 300-500 vehicles can be completed by the end of June 2018. Now only a few hundred kk40 75mm tank cannons are needed to import from Germany."

The Germans can use 5 tons of 38t and 2 tons of No. 2 to change the "weasel". The Japanese use 15 tons of Type 97 to modify it. However, Japan does not have a suitable 75mm gun now, so they can only import the German KK40 model first and then imitate it.

"But production of Type 97 fighter vehicles is always a temporary measure," said Hideki Tojo. "The research on Tiger tanks needs to be accelerated. We must understand the Tiger technology as soon as possible, and then develop the world's number one heavy combat vehicle based on the Tiger!"

"Hay!" Sugiyama Yuan smiled and replied loudly.

The Japanese have always liked things that are "the world's number one". Now the navy has the world's number one warship like the "Yamato" class. How can the army fall behind? How can it build the world's number one combat chariot?

In fact, before the introduction of Tiger tanks, the Japanese Army was already developing 100-ton super heavy tanks. However, this heavy tank code-named "Taiwan" has too big steps and too big brains, so it has no practical possibility at all. It can only be regarded as a scientific research project. This is also the purpose of the Japanese Army's attempt to introduce Tiger tanks. With the Tiger as the foundation, it will be much easier for Japan to develop a "world-first" tank.

Hideki Tojo smiled and nodded at Navy Minister Shimada, "Shimada, do you think you are sure of launching the ultimate battle to attack Australia in the second half of 2018?"

Australia is now the end of the Japanese Empire's journey south! It was put on the agenda after the battle in Hawaii.

However, at that time, the Japanese Imperial Army had to attack too many places, and the fuel consumption of the Hawaii battle and a series of southward battles carried out later was too high, which almost made the oil depot of Wu Jungang Port bottom bottom.

In addition, it is impossible to go south to Australia overnight, but a steady process.

First, we took control of the Bismarck Islands and the main islands of the Solomon Islands, and then controlled the Bismarck Sea, the Solomon Sea and the Coral Sea. Then we pulled out the important stronghold of the US and Australian troops on the island of New Guinea. After controlling the Solomon Islands and the Moresby Port, the gateway to Australia was completely controlled by Japan. Later, it became possible to implement Australian landing operations.

Now, the Japanese army has firmly controlled the Bismarck Islands and has also built a large-scale construction on Rabaul on New Britain, preparing to build it into a large Japanese stronghold in the South Pacific. The 8th Front of the Japanese Army and the Southeast Front Fleet of the Navy are now stationed there.

As for the Solomon Islands, they are now basically controlled by Japan. In this time and space, the United States lost Hawaii and was beaten by the German Navy on the Atlantic Ocean, and they were unable to compete with Japan for Guadacanal Island. Therefore, important islands of the Solomon Islands such as Tulaji Island and Guadacanal Island were also controlled by the Japanese army.

The frontier bases of the US military in the South Pacific are Saint Espirito Island (which belongs to Vanuatu) more than 500 nautical miles southeast of Gua Island and New Caledonia Island near Saint Espirito Island. These two large islands, together with Rockhampton, Gladstone, Townsway, Cairns, and Cape York at the northeast end of the Australian continent, as well as Port Moresby, together form the defense line for the US and Australian troops in eastern Australia.

If the Japanese Navy can break through this line of defense, the war will be fought on the Australian continent!

However, when Navy Minister Shimada Shintaro asked Hideki Tojo if he was sure, his brows frowned.

"Prime Minister," Shimada Shintaro said, "If the Australian operations are to be launched in the second half of 2018, the navy will be somewhat difficult. If we can advance the time to travel south to Australia within the year, the navy will have a greater grasp."

"Oh? Why is this?"

Shimada shook his head and said, "Because the Zero fighter that the Navy currently relies on is increasingly losing its advanced nature, and the successor model of the 14 test fighter was not very successful."

The "14 Test Fighter" was the later "Thunderbolt" fighter, which was the Zero successor designed by Jiro Horikoshi (the designer of the Zero). However, this aircraft is far less successful than the Zero. In addition to having good dive performance, good defense capabilities, strong firepower, and able to install high-power engines, it cannot be compared with the Zero. In addition, during the test flight, it was found that the drive shaft of this aircraft was prone to breaking and reliability was also a problem.

Tojo Hideki has also heard of the failure of the "14-test fighter jet" and the failure of the "14-test fighter jet" has also been heard. In fact, the Japanese Army's Type 2 fighter jet (Zhong Kui) is also unsatisfactory. Now we have to develop new fighter jets while trying to introduce German technology to improve it.

"Can you consider introducing new aircraft from Germany?" Tojo Hidei made a suggestion.

Shimada shook his head repeatedly and sighed: "Prime Minister, in fact, Germany's new carrier-based fighter F-190t is not very successful. If it weren't for the 2,000 horsepower BMW801s engine, this type of aircraft would have definitely failed. But even if it was a barely successful F-190t, its hovering performance and low-altitude performance were much worse than the Zero."

The f-190t is a carrier-based aircraft that Folk Company has made a major change based on the f-190a-4. Although it also uses the name of the f-190, in fact, its f-190a-4 has been very different. The aerodynamic shape has been greatly modified to enable it to take off and land on the aircraft carrier. It also increases the capacity of the internal fuel tank and designs a foldable wing.

However, after many improvements, Folk and the German Navy Air Force still regretfully found that the aircraft's combat capability at medium and low altitudes was not as good as the Folk Zero, and its range could not be compared with the latter, and its climbing was comparable. Its only had high-altitude performance, dive performance and bomb load capacity exceeds that of Folk Zero. Therefore, this kind of aircraft could not replace Folk Zero at all, and could only exist as a supplement to Folk Zero.

In the end, this aircraft was taken over by the German Navy Air Force as a medium- and high-altitude escort aircraft. It is said that its biggest function is to cooperate with Ju288, so that the latter can drop Fritz-x remote-controlled gliding bombs at an altitude of 7,000 meters. This tactic is very effective in the Atlantic Ocean. Anyway, the British and American fleets avoided Ju288's combat radius throughout the spring and summer.

However, the method of using ultra-long-range land bombers to launch remote-controlled gliding bombs is unplayable in the Pacific Ocean. Because the Pacific Ocean is much larger than the Atlantic Ocean, the combat radius of more than 2,000 kilometers is very powerful in the Atlantic Ocean, but it is still not enough to reach the Pacific Ocean.

And... the Germans don't have any extra ju288 to sell to Japan. This kind of high-altitude high-speed bomber with a super-large range is never enough for the Luftwaffe and Naval Aviation!

As for the imitation of Japan itself, they can't handle it just one engine. The Japanese have not even understood the 12-cylinder db601 liquid-cooled engine, so it is impossible to imitate the 24-cylinder jut 222 series engine?

Shintaro Shimada said with great concern: "The Zero's successor aircraft is slow to progress, while at the same time, the Americans have many excellent aircraft models in service. Their P51 is sufficient to fight against the Zero at low and medium altitudes, and this P51 fighter has a large ammunition load and a solid fuselage, which can be used as a fighter bomber.

In addition, according to German intelligence, a carrier-based fighter with a codename of f4u that may be superior to the f-190t may have been in service. This type of aircraft may not be as good as the Zero in low-altitude combat, but the Zero is also difficult to eliminate it.

If the Navy seeks a decisive battle with the U.S. Navy in the second half of 2018, the situation will be quite unfavorable."

Since the Folk Zero has been arrogant in Europe since 1939, its performance has been understood by its opponents. In medium and low-altitude combat, except for the p51 that can be used to fight (that is, to fight), other aircraft cannot do so. However, as long as you raise the height, avoid the Folk Zero or take a dive attack, you can still deal with the Folk Zero.

"Then the navy means..." Hideki Tojo looked at Shintaro Shimada.
Chapter completed!