Strategic Arms Quest 3/2: Armor Edition

A Short List of Irromine Heavy Weapons

(As of Anno Domine Solaire 879)

Light Weapons

Lmg.71
-An early repeating rifle project later enlarged into a full sized light machine gun. Recoil operated, long stroke, fed from top rack to be charged with ten round stripper clips. Changed to a detachable box on ausf. E, which can be topped off with stripper clips. Weighs 6.1kg, feeds 6.5 Irrome.

Lmg.79
-A new model of light machine gun designed to provide more powerful suppression fire without the punishing action of the Lmg.71. Recoil operated, short stroke, fed from a canvass belt spool. Has integral bipod and mount for Model 75 prismatic optic for long range work. Weighs 6.2kg, feeds 6.5mm Irrome.

Mg.52
-The oldest and first deisgned model of machine gun in Irromine service. Recoil operated, short stroke, toggle locked, fed from a canvass belt box. Generally mounted on a tripod or converting sled mount. Weighs 65kg, fires 6.5mm Irrome

Mg.58
-A refinement and massive weight reduction on the Mg.52, using a heavier recoil spring and a more massive bolt to delete the toggle lock, as well as being open bolt. Recoil operated, short stroke, feeds from canvass belt box or spool. Weighs 50kg, fires 6.5mm Irrome

Mg.66
-A further redesign of the Mg.58, this time air cooled with a three-stage spring system for the recoil buffer and a new metallic belt that supports push-through loading. Recoil operated, short stroke, feeds from metallic belt box or spool. Weighs 23kg, fires 6.5mm Irrome.

Smg.62
-A heavy machine gun designed for long range work and attacking airplanes, armored cars, and use on ships. Gas operated rotating locking bolt operation, tripod mount, feeds from thirty round feed strip. Gun weight 28kg, tripod 25kg. Fires 13.2mm Irrome.

PzJGew.69
-An antimaterial rifle designed to defeat new and improved enemy armor assets. Bolt action operation, integral bipod mount, single shot feed, uses 3.2x or 5.6x prismatic optics. Gun weight, 16.3kg. Fires 13.2 Irrome

Slk.69
-An autocannon developed by Skoda Arms and production liscensed to Wanderer for their tanks, and very similar to the Smg.62. Gas operated rolling locking bolt design, pintle or dedicated weapon mount, feeds from twenty round strip, can use standard optics. Gun weight, 34kg. Fires 20x80mm rimless.

Heavy Weapons

3,5cm/50 Field Cannon
-Weight: 100 Kilos
-Elevation: -5 to 20
-Carriage: M.55 split-trail
-Shell Weight: .645 kilos
-War Load: 120 shells in 20-shell cases on the ammunition cart, 80 shells in shell cases on the limber
-Movement: One Horse or Two Men or One Kettenkrad

5,5cm/50 Field Cannon
-Weight: 1100 Kilos
-Elevation: -3 to 25
-Carriage: M.55 split-trail, or M.59 split-trail
-Shell Weight: 3.2 Kilos
-War Load: 80 shells in 10-shell cases on the ammunition cart, 10 shells in shell case on the limber
-Movement: Two horses or One Oxen or One Kettenkrad

7,5/50 Field Cannon
-Weight: 1400 Kilos
-Elevation: 0 to 30
-Carriage: M.60 split-trail, or M.64 split-trail
-Shell Weight: 7 kilos
-War Load: 60 shells in 6-shell cases on the ammunition cart, 12 shells in shell cases on the limber
-Movement: Six horses or Two oxen or One Kettenkrad

10,5/40 Field Howitzer
-Weight: 2,500 Kilos
-Elevation: 0 to 30 (0 to 60 on M.890 and later)
-Carriage: M.45 single-trail, M.55 split trail, M.60 split trail, or M.64 split trail
-Shell Weight: 19 kilos
-War Load: 60 shells on ammunition cart in two-shell boxes, up to four shell carts per gun organically.
-Movement: Eight horses or four oxen, two horses per ammunition cart or one tractor

5/60 Anti-Armor Gun
-Weight: 420 Kilos
-Elevation: -10 to 30
-Carriage: M.55 split trail, M.60 split trail, or M.70 split trail low profile.
-Shell weight: .90kg
-War Load: 20 shells on the limber, 40 in on ammunition cart or tow vehicle.
-Movement: One Kettenkrad or One Truck or One Tractor.

(Edit: Despite appearances, the defining line between light and heavy isn't weight, but is capacity to fire explosive shells)

Your name is Oberstlieutenant Otto von Rabe, and you'd just caught a hand grenade thrown at you with the pin left in it. After the realization that you were the man holding the bag for at least one of the new armored vehicles, you promptly decided that it would be better to give the new kids like that Sommer fellow something easy enough, like the new anti-tank gun slash assault gun thing that was getting kicked around. You'd throw yourself on the anti-aircraft vehicle, and hopefully not tank your career in the process. If you did somehow manage to scuttle things on yourself, though, there was always the option of going over to Fenrus and talking to him about a job as a contractor, though. You'd banked up a good amount of money, so if shit happened then you could always just go private.

First things first, you had to figure out how the hell the whole "plane" thing worked, anyway. For that, you'd need an adjunct from the Luftwaffe, whose main job was to be telling you that you were clearly being stupid and then explaining why. You'd also probably need to develop a way to test the damn thing, plus the ever-critical issue of where you'd even need to start with- gun, chassis, whole nine yards. Developing this was going to be an uphill struggle, before you got into the mess that was the Luftwaffe.

It was telling that not only were you older than the whole damn branch of the service- you had six years of age on the concept- you also had more time in the Army than the current Luftwaffe had existed. Aviation used to be handled in the Aviation Regiments of Dimarchsen, Ravensburg, and Aachen; from which they would distribute squadrons of planes as needed to where they were needed. The Kaiser had reformed things by breaking them off into the Luftwaffe and thus creating the Luftwaffe High Command, gave them a minister in the Diet, and royally added the Air Regiments of Lunesburg, Saxe-Gotha, and Iserlohn. Since then, they'd expanded rapidly, and now stood at fourteen air regiments of forty eight planes, with each air regiment having one Heavy Bombardment squadron of twelve Bauerman 222s, two Aviation Bombardment squadrons of refitted Alder-Arado 68s or Gotha XXIV bombers, and one Pursuit Squadron of twelve Alder-Arado 68s or the brand new Heinkel 112 design.

Back in the office, it was time to start putting together your Board. You had to have your Adjunct, though, so it was time to start going through the submitted profiles.
Hauptmann zur Himmel Rudolf Windisch was your first find. Twenty-two victories in the Great Pig War, captured and held briefly in Carragian prison, and parroled and reputed in the (failed) Sun Week peace talks, the man had an exciting career. He had also been involved in one instance of airborne espionage, dropping off a saboteur in Balkh territory. Since then he'd been a mediocre wing commander, failing to advance to squadron commander due to a war wound disfiguring his face while he was in Carragian captivity. While the long scar on his jaw and lip gave him a very slight lisp when he talked, Windisch was eloquent enough in writing and offered a very sound argument to take him on, mentioning that a headquarters tour would allow him to get some much needed staff experience and help your cachet with the Luftwaffe by adding a well-known ace to your roster, opening up options with getting facilities and assistance from his own wing if nothing else.

Next up was, and this required a double take and a nip of schnapps to process, Hauptmann Erika Hess. Who was a girl- well, young woman- and an officer. Her service in the war had been as a factory pilot delivering flying boats to the Reichsmarine to start, until she'd been jumped and her ship had downed two planes from a Balhk pursuit squadron. After being denied combat pay by the Reichsmarine, she proceeded to 'transfer' to the Luftwaffe, who saw two destroyed planes by her vessel and took her in faster than you could say "field promotion". Naturally after the War this led to a long-running legal battle led by the Reichsmarine to get the now-ace bomber pilot back, as well as accidentally opening the door to females to serve as air crew on Luftwaffe multi-crew vehicles. She brought to the table a history of ground attack missions, which were exactly what you were trying to stop, but on the other hand it would mean major complications if you tried to mine the Reichsmarine for information on the state of naval AA.

Finally, there was Hauptmann zur Himmmel Johannes Janzen, another ace combatant during the War. After scoring seventeen victories, he was finally farmed out to pasture in the Dimarchssen Aviation Regiment, in command of the light pursuit squadron there that was the first to be converted into a ground attack squadron by modification of the Adler-Arado 88. While he personally wasn't a dive-bomber himself, he could easily secure access to the personnel involved when they weren't on training deployments making sure everyone else could do it. He also was apparently an aircraft engineer in his spare time, and was largely responsible for the structural modifications like the swinging cradle used to clear the bomb of the propeller and drop it straight through the Alder-Arado's fixed landing gear.

Fortunately, the armor half of the crew would be mostly composed of the Usual Suspects, so all that was left to do was open up your rollodex and get dialing.

---

VOTES

(Y'all know the drill, no plan voting or I throw it out.)

ADJUNCT (choose one)
[] Hauptmann zur Himmel Rudolf Windisch
[] Hauptmann Erika Hess
[] Hauptmann zur Himmel Johannes Janzen

BOARD (choose four)
[] Abbot Marchevion: A Bohemian national who emigrated after a scandal in the Werser crowns forced him from home, this man is rumored to be an intelligence expert and Lithuanian sympathizer.
[] Edmund Volkstuppe: A young reserve kaptain who's spent most of his career in the artillery, Volkstruppe has an unnering knowledge about light artillery and what advancements have been going on in your old backyard.
[] Movo Leib: A Jewish captain of the armored car cavalry sent by the Wersers in part of a bid to get you to adopt the Straßenpanzerwagen S865, now with an anti-air model.
[] Leutnat Paul Heinz: A Pioneer from Ostafrika who moved to the mainland, he is incredibly familiar with light rail and improvised logistics trains.
[] Kaptain Jacob Adler: An up-and-coming proponent of the Luftwaffe's new Battlefield Support doctrine, who worked with them and the Kriegsmarine in the new Flugzeugpeitsche project.
[] Jan Mittlewesk: An engineer from the Thryssen gun labratory interested in seeing if there's any sort of new weapon he can deliver for the project.
[] Etatmäßiger Percius Vogt: A master weaponsmith and operator at one point or another of every gun the Irromic Empire has used since black powder from the Ulm Proving Ground.
[] Vizewachtmeister Mathias Lang: An anti-air gunner from the Great Pig War who was placed into medical reserve after Balhk paratroopers attacked his position.

7734 said:

-War Load: 60 shells on ammunition cart in two-shell boxes, up to four shell carts per gun organically.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

You know, it never really sunk in for me why so fucking many people were in supply columns, or in artillery units, until I actually started looking over numbers like these while researching a project. Even an hour's barrage from a unit goes through some fucklarious weight per artillery battalion.

Fire two shells a minute for an hour, at ~20kg a shell, plus a couple kg for the shell-boxes, and that's a quarter-ton per gun, and a ton per battery. Early wave Wehrmacht used 3 battalions of 12x10.5cm leichte Feldhaubitze, so 36 guns is nine whole tons of ammunition gone in an hour, without even considering the 15cm battalion they also had, or the weight of mortars used down the chain. So that's about four trucks loaded with ammo that need to arrive on the hour every hour to keep that division in supply just for the 10.5s, assuming everyone is conveniently located. Keep that firing up for a day of heavy combat and you're going to need a train load to replenish that unit by itself.

...

Sorry, that was a bit of a sidetrack. Lingering research/maths trauma, you see. >.>