The whole land was filled with the scorching sun, and the hot air mixed with the unique humidity of Louisiana's southern states, wrapping people's whole body tightly, and sweat flowed from all over the body like rain to military boots. Colonel George Patton, the commander of the 7th Cavalry Regiment with a steel helmet, was riding on a horse at this time, leading his subordinates to follow the m2 light tanks of the armored regiment of the 7th Mechanized Cavalry Brigade, and advanced to the flanks of the 4th Blue Army.

"Those killing bitches!" The colonel cursed loudly on the horse's back. This terrible exercise completely aroused his memory and interest in tanks during the European War. It was precisely because of the actual problems that he began to reject the views of the cavalry director Major General John Knowles Hull, as well as some major figures in Washington, who disliked the current organization, namely, the mix of cavalry and armored soldiers, such as the current 7th Mechanical Cavalry Brigade.

In the army, everyone knew that the Colonel was swearing in his mouth at any time, so his curse at this moment did not attract the attention of his subordinates. Everyone was sickly in the sun. Brigade Commander of the Mechanized Cavalry Brigade, Brigadier General Daniel von Wallis, was standing in the turret of an M2a1 tank. This was a new tank with a fifty-six-diameter 37mm cannon, holding a telescope, as if tracking the light tanks rushing in front.

At this time, the barbed wire in front of the Blue Army infantry position in the distance was quickly destroyed by tanks. As soon as the tanks crossed the trench, they rushed on the Blue Army's position and continuously destroyed the enemy infantry with machine guns. At the same time, the flour bags thrown by the defensive infantry hit these tanks and anti-tank guns, and fired one after another. In such a intensive counterattack, the referees kept blew the military whistle to determine that the tank was destroyed and injured. Or they were judged that some infantry had been killed and the scene became chaotic.

In this difficult chaos, Colonel Patton's 7th Cavalry Regiment was rushing into the enemy formation along the road broken by the tanks. The cavalry knife that was straight ahead flashed with dazzling light in the sun. Soon, the infantry who had just thrown the flour bag was sentenced to death, and the flank of the Blue Army was broken through by the 7th Mechanized Cavalry Brigade.

"nie!" The cavalry director of the battle from another angle, Brigadier General Hull happily put down his telescope. He laughed at the deputy minister of the Army, Brigadier Marshall, Commander of the Army Headquarters, Brigadier General McNair, and Colonel von Hill of the German Army, and others, "Gentlemen, this is mechanized cavalry! We cannot be misled to allow untested machines to replace horses that have proven useful. Of course, we cannot forget that tanks, or the chariots mentioned by the Chinese, have strong firepower, good defensiveness and strategic mobility; at the same time, it also has many disadvantages: the unreliability of the machinery can only rely on fixed supply lines and requirements for special terrain. But if these two are combined..."

At this moment, Brigadier General Hull seemed to have forgotten the heat and proudly reached out to the battlefield ahead: "...that's all perfect! It, the 7th Mechanized Cavalry Brigade has both the flexibility and tactical mobility of a cavalry, as well as the firepower and good protection of a tank, and nothing is more perfect than such a combination."

"Hmm." Brigadier General Marshall responded without comment, and did not say it was good or bad, but the German Army Colonel von Hill, who was specially invited to watch the exercise, was having a close conversation with Major Albert Weidmai beside him. It was just that they spoke German, and no one else understood what they were talking about.

"I think we should go ahead and take a look." Brigadier General Marshall turned to look at Major Weidmai who was talking to the Germans, and then muttered to McNair beside him that this exercise mainly tests the combat capabilities of the infantry division after the evolution from a block division to a triangular division, or to verify the configuration of division artillery, the combat of mechanized cavalry is just an additional program.

"What are he talking about?" On the land of the Blues' position, Marshall specifically called Major Weidmai in front of him. He wanted to know Colonel von Hill's evaluation of the 7th Mechanized Cavalry Brigade's battle.

"It's terrible." Major Weidmay has been loyal to him since he was pulled into his office by Marshall. Although the Germans' evaluation was unappreciated, he still had to give back truthfully. "The Colonel thinks that the mixing of armored forces and cavalry is terrible. Instead of doing so, it's better to cancel the cavalry directly and turn the infantry into chariots and let the infantry carry them on the chariots. You can get out of the chariots when needed, just like the Chinese did twenty years ago."

"Cancel cavalry..." Marshall shook his head and smiled bitterly when he thought of the proud expression of the cavalry director Brigadier General Hull. As an ancient army, the status of the cavalry unit is unshakable in the army. Unlike the Chinese Army or the Japanese Army, there is no cavalry tradition. Because of this, the army is not a cavalry or an infantry, and the armored soldiers are simply invisible.

The Infantry Director believes that tanks should be organized into infantry divisions to support infantry combat; the Cavalry Director believes that armored soldiers are actually mechanized cavalry, and they have stronger firepower and armor. However, they have vulnerabilities and limitations that cavalry does not have, so mixing them is the best way to solve these problems. This is actually the reason why they prefer light tanks rather than medium tanks. Their strategy is to use tanks as heavy cavalry, hoping that they can assault quickly.

But in the past, even if we don’t mention the first real armored war in the world, in 1914, the Chinese Revival Army Panzer Division beautifully encircled and annihilated the Russian Siberian Army in Manchuria, judging from the two classic battles that shocked the world during the last European war, the armored division of the Chinese Expeditionary Force and the German Armored Division, the armored division was not just a mechanized upgrade of the cavalry division. Unfortunately, there is very little information about the Battle of Verdun, and twenty years have passed. The Germans talked more about what would the outcome of the war if Marshal Leo William was not assassinated. The French did not want to mention the history of Paris occupied by the Germans. They were optimistic that they had forgotten all this and only remembered the glory of Versailles.

Perhaps this kind of exercise will be held next year to test the real armored division, Brigadier General Marshall muttered in his heart. Afterwards, he asked Weidemai again: "What other opinions do the Colonel have?"

"The Colonel also thinks our tanks are really bad." Major Weidmai said everything. "Especially artillery and armor. Judging from the situation in Spain, he believes that 30mm armor is obviously not enough. The rpg bazooka sold by the Chinese arms smuggling merchant Huoshui Company to both sides of Spain can penetrate this armor instantly..."

‘Ah Fuck’ bazooka reappeared and turned back to ‘rpg’ as soon as it was in English. Although its real name is no longer Ade, at least the name is back. This weapon is said to be able to destroy all armored combat vehicles in the world. Those who oppose the theory of armored victory immediately used this as a weapon, believing that tanks or combat vehicles can only become auxiliary weapons for infantry and cannot become independent services at all. Especially after the Chinese Army announced that it would gradually cancel the armored division, this argument basically became the mainstream in various worlds.

Indeed, the new weapon weighs only thirteen pounds and has a caliber of only 60mm. It can break three-inch homogeneous steel plates at a distance of 150 yards. If the ammunition is improved or the caliber of the rocket is increased, it is no problem to break four-inch homogeneous steel plates. This is equivalent to declaring that the tank's death penalty armor thickness cannot catch up with the armor-breaking power of the rocket launcher. Once the tank's armor thickness increases to above, with the current engine technology, the tank will become a crawler. In addition, a rocket launcher is only 30 sub-yuan, which is about fifteen dollars, while an m2 medium tank exceeds 30,000 US dollars. This money can be purchased for two thousand rocket launchers. Any rational person knows that equipting tanks is worse than equiping infantry bazooka.

"Why do they think of rpg bazooka?" Marshall asked the third time. This was one of his most concerned questions.

"It is basically divided into two factions. Most of the officers of the mechanized troops insist on the importance of independent organization of tank troops. They believe that when attacking rapidly in open areas, even if the infantry is equipped with a certain RPG rocket launcher, they can only destroy some vehicles. More tanks will break through the enemy's defense line and penetrate directly into the rear. Prime Minister Goren's wife also holds this attitude." Weidmai said.

"It's that Chinese duchess?" Marshall thought of the mixed-race yellow-type woman who fascinated Gorene.

"Yes, General." Weidemai nodded. He had the honor of seeing this legendary lady while studying in Germany and admired her very much.

"Have she not received any valuable news from the Chinese?" Marshall lit a cigarette in the bumpy car and handed one to Weidemai. When the entire army completely advocated the French army, he needed Weidemai to tell him something new, especially the current situation of the German Army. This was of great help to his urgent work at the moment, such as the establishment of the Triangle Division basically copied the structure of the German infantry division, rather than the French infantry division.

"I think the colonel is not clear about this." Weidmai replied regretfully. Like Marshall, he also knew that the war would break out in the past few months. Since the Japanese government handed over the Marshall issue to the League of Nations last year, Japan and the United States have already entered a state of preparation for war after the Marines occupied the Kwajalin Atoll in July last year, the Marines found a female heel during the search process. After careful identification, it was considered part of Miss Ellhart's leather shoes. It is not difficult to infer that Miss Ellhart was brutally killed by the Japanese. The body was completely hidden.

"That's a pity." The car had stopped, and Marshall muttered before getting off the car.

"General. Most of the tanks were destroyed by infantry." As soon as Marshall appeared, Brigadier General Wallis, the commander of the Cavalry Brigade, stepped forward to report a bad news to him. He should have told him this news to Brigadier McNair, the commander of the Army Headquarters who got off the car first. Brigadier McNair, who was an artillery-born artist, was drawn by Marshall from the 2nd Field Artillery Brigadier. He was smart and capable, with unique insights. He was the best candidate for forming a new army. His only disadvantage was that he had a little deaf ear.

"All were destroyed?" Marshall repeated, "It seems that we underestimated the power of infantry anti-tank weapons."

"Yes, General." Brigadier General Wallis's face was heavy. He had great expectations for the 1st mechanized cavalry regiment. "Especially those flour bags, they destroyed almost all the tanks, but the infantry were not satisfied. They believed that if they used RPG, they could safely destroy the tanks from hundreds of meters away..."

"I get it, Daniel." Marshall held the brigade general's shoulder, and he felt an indescribable disappointment. After that, he walked to brigade general McNair and said loudly: "What do you think?"

"What?" McNair obviously didn't notice that Marshall came over. In order to hear him clearly, he turned his good ear to the side.

"I said, what do you think?" Marshall said again, his voice louder, and his hand pointed at the tanks that were judged to be destroyed.

"Everything terrible!" Brigadier General McNair shook his head. The man responsible for the establishment of the US Army and wartime doctrine during World War II also lost confidence in the tank troops. "Tanks need thicker armor, but then it will be too heavy. I think we should also imitate the Chinese weapon, preferably buying its production patent."

"This is impossible," Marshall answered the latter suggestion of the brigade general, "we can only copy it."

"Then it should be as soon as possible!" After a while, Brigadier General McNair reminded, "I heard that the League of Nations will announce the investigation results soon." He said, and smiled again: "This time it is said to be true."

"Haha..." McNair laughed, and Marshall laughed. Since the Japanese government submitted the Marshall issue to the League of Nations in July last year, the League of Nations, which understood the importance of the matter, sent a huge investigation team, which has repeatedly investigated three times in total, but no final report has been made so far. Everyone knows that before Miss Earhart's body, the US Navy would never withdraw from Kwajalin Atoll or other islands and reefs in Marshall. The Japanese believed from beginning to end that the US occupation of Marshall was a conspiracy. If their emperor had not ordered all citizens to wait for the League of Nations ruling, the war would have begun. To this end, giving the United States enough time to find the body and then turn the matter into an ordinary murder is the voice of most people in the world.
Chapter completed!