PNB Chapter 134 Taihang Type 1 Anti-aircraft Machine Gun
Chapter 134 Taihang Type 1 Anti-aircraft Machine Gun
In the following days, Zhao Tianyang began to shuttle back and forth between the arsenal, ironworks, and bullet factory.
He continued to work with Liu Ding and others to improve the manufacturing process of anti-aircraft machine guns, aerial bombs, and titanium alloys.
Guyuan, Shaanxi.
"Commander-in-chief, the Central Committee has already recruited 18,000 soldiers from Yan'an, Suide, and Sanbian. In a month, 4,000 soldiers from Guanzhong and Longdong will come to support us!"
Chief of Staff of the Western Route Army, Zhang Zhongxun said to the domineering man in front of him.
"Ah."
The domineering man nodded and asked, "How about the weapons and equipment?"
"We still have a shortage of 10,000 rifles. We have plenty of grenades, but as for grenade launchers, mortars, cannons, and light and heavy machine guns, we only have enough to equip two regiments."
The Chief of Staff looked at the record sheet and preached.
"What about armored vehicles, gliders, radio stations, and newly developed transport aircraft and rocket launchers?"
The domineering man then asked.
"We currently have only thirty radio stations, two-kilometer short-range radios, three armored vehicles, ten gliders, transport planes, and zero rocket launchers."
The Chief of Staff replied.
Hearing this pitifully small amount of data, the domineering man frowned.
"No, it's too slow. If we take this long to equip ourselves with equipment, how long will it take before we can launch an attack on the Ma family army?"
"no way!"
The chief of staff spread his hands and said, "Commander-in-chief, you should also know that although the establishment of our Western Route Army has received strong support from the Central Committee."
"But that's only in terms of soldiers. There is support, but not weapons and equipment."
"We currently rely entirely on the small arsenal in Yan'an and the Huangyadong Arsenal for support of weapons and equipment. The arsenals in other military regions simply ignore us!"
"How can this work?"
The domineering man immediately arranged: "How about this, you train the soldiers here, and I will go to various military regions. At least they have to provide me with bullets and grenades."
"Haha, if the commander-in-chief goes there in person, I believe they will still give you this face!"
"Then it's settled!"
After saying this, the domineering man asked the guard to bring his horse.
1938 October.
"Finally succeeded!"
Looking at the gray-white anti-aircraft machine gun in front of him, Zhao Tianyang sighed.
Who would have thought that titanium alloy could be easily produced?
However, barrel assemblies made of titanium alloy are difficult to manufacture and their accuracy is always below standard.
In the end, it was thanks to the seventh-level workers in the arsenal who manually rubbed the barrel assembly that the anti-aircraft machine gun was successfully manufactured.
"Don't worry, Chief. If the accuracy doesn't meet the standard, it must be a problem with our machine tool."
Shen Hong showed the parts in his hand: "I have organized the best workers in the factory."
"We will manually build a high-precision machine specifically for producing titanium alloy weapons."
"I can rest assured that you will do the work!"
Zhao Tianyang had no doubt about Shen Hong's words.
Although the workers in the arsenal have not yet reached the standard of eighth-level workers and cannot rub fighter jet parts by hand.
But it should be simple and easy to produce titanium alloy weapons by hand using a lathe with higher precision.
"Let's go, let's try out this anti-aircraft machine gun!"
Zhao Tianyang bent over and picked up the anti-aircraft machine gun, but his face turned red from holding it in. He took two steps and put the anti-aircraft machine gun down.
"This machine gun should weigh about 80 kilograms. You two come over and help!"
Zhao Tianyang wiped the sweat from his head awkwardly, and called over two workers who were trying to hold back their laughter.
...........
At the training ground behind the mountain, two sweaty workers placed an anti-aircraft machine gun in the rest area.
"Okay, you two are sweating profusely, go take a rest!"
After the two hard-working workers left, Zhao Tianyang called the gun inspector over.
"Senior!"
"Well, let's get started."
Zhao Tianyang pointed at the anti-aircraft machine gun placed on the ground and said.
"Yes!"
The gun inspector nodded and walked towards the anti-aircraft machine gun.
After a few simple fiddles, he opened the tripod, then picked up the metal bullet belt on the side and installed it.
"Wow, this ammunition belt is much better than the previous ones!"
"And this tripod is different from other machine gun tripods!"
The gun inspector suddenly said.
"Of course, we have improved the process and used industrial alcohol to produce gas after high-temperature cracking to heat the ammunition belt."
"The ammunition links produced in this way have a bright surface, no oxidation, no decarburization, and the hardness of the ammunition links is more uniform after tempering."
Shen Hong on the side proudly explained: "As for the tripod, because it uses a flat square steel structure, not only is its function not reduced at all, but its weight is also reduced a lot."
"awesome!"
The gun inspector sighed, aimed at the scarecrow one thousand meters ahead, and pulled the trigger.
With loud and low "da da da" sounds, the scarecrow in front was beaten to pieces.
Because of the high-powered 12.7x108mm bullets used, the large rocks used to fix the scarecrow under its body were all shattered.
"Okay, try another distance!"
Zhao Tianyang, who was standing aside, shouted loudly to the gun inspector.
"Yes!"
The gun inspector responded and operated the anti-aircraft machine gun to fire at a distance of two thousand meters or three thousand meters.
After a while, the bullets in the belt were used up, and the gun inspector released the trigger reluctantly.
"Section Chief, this machine gun is really powerful. If it hits a stone, the stone will be smashed into powder. If it hits a Japanese soldier, it will be broken into two halves!"
"Of course it's powerful enough!"
While assisting the inspector in adjusting the tripod, Zhao Tianyang said, "This is a 12.7mm caliber machine gun. Not only humans can't handle it, even the Japanese tanks can't handle it!"
After quickly adjusting the height, angle and direction from flat shooting mode to high shooting mode, Zhao Tianyang re-fixed the tripod.
"Adjust the aiming data yourself. I'll have someone release a Kongming lantern not far away. Just shoot according to the altitude."
Zhao Tianyang instructed the gun inspector.
"no problem!"
The gun inspector nodded, adjusted the aiming data, looked at the sky intently, and was ready to shoot at any time.
"Remember, release a Kongming lantern every two minutes in order!"
In the training ground, Zhao Tianyang instructed a worker wearing a helmet.
"Don't worry, Chief. I'm the best at counting. Two minutes is 120 seconds. I remember it clearly!"
After hearing the worker's assurance, Zhao Tianyang returned to the gun inspector with confidence, and soon the first Kongming lantern rose into the sky.
"Don't be impatient. Wait until the Kongming lantern stops rising, then hit it!"
In order to determine the height, Zhao Tianyang added different amounts of fuel to each Kongming lantern. The first Kongming lantern was only enough to fly to a height of 500 meters.
The second one can only fly one thousand meters. By increasing the fuel in this way, it can fly up to two thousand meters.
“Da da…da da…da da…”
After several bursts of shooting, the gun inspector successfully shot down all the flying Kongming lanterns.
"how do you feel?"
Zhao Tianyang asked the gun inspector.
"It feels great, this machine gun is very powerful and it's very smooth to fire!"
The gun inspector said excitedly: "The maximum ground range of this gun is 7 kilometers, and the effective range is 1 meters."
"The maximum air-to-air range is two thousand meters, and the effective range is 1600 meters."
"Maximum rate of fire: 700 rounds per minute."
"very good!"
Zhao Tianyang nodded with satisfaction: "I declare that the anti-aircraft machine gun can be finalized. Its name is Taihang Type 1 anti-aircraft machine gun."