0532
Research & Development Laboratories
Hanyang Arms Manufacturing Complex
Wuhan City, State of Hupei, Federal Republic of
China
Even though this was not in his area of
expertise, Dr. Hugo Schmeisser was called into the laboratory to consult, and
give his opinion. Though he thought the facilities as cruder than what he was
used to, he felt that far more progress was being made, in far less time, than
he would have ever hoped for. For his part, it was nice to be treated as an
honored guest, rather than being prodded at gunpoint to and from the weapons
laboratory at Izhevsk. If those Ukrainian patriots had not spirited him away
from there, he surely would have died there, as old as he was.
Dr. Schmeisser was very excited as to what he
was about to witness: the Luftfaust and the Luftschreck shoulder-fired
anti-aircraft weapons, having been inproved to increase their range and
lethality, were being taken out to the proving ground and test-fired today. It
was such a simple premise, the same that had been used on the FlaK 36, to turn
it from its intended purpose as an anti-aircraft cannon, into a premier,
world-beating, anti-tank gun. The world had Erwin Rommel to thank for that. Had
Rommel not been short on PaK's, he would not have even considered using the
FlaK's in a direct-fire role. Well, this was a different kind of desperation,
with a different set of circumstances, but the results always remained the
same: improvisation and innovation.
The weapons themselves were fairly
straightforward, but still revolutionary. The Luftfaust came in two different
configurations: a 9-barreled 20-mm shoulder-fired projector and a 6-barreled
30-mm shoulder-fired projector. Both were loaded with disposable pre-packaged
cartridges from the rear, and had to be fired from a clear area, as the
back-blast that issued from the projectors was dangerous to the weapons'
operators. The projectiles were
converted 20-mm or 30-mm proximity-fused high-explosive cannon shells, fitted
to a tube filled with solid rocket propellant and outfitted with spring-loaded
fins, that snapped out as soon as it left the muzzle of the projector. The Luftschreck
was a straightforward conversion of the 8.8-cm Panzerschreck, with
an anti-aircraft sight adapted from the one used on the MG34 and MG42 machine
guns, and ammunition optimized for anti-aircraft use. By virtue of the fact
that it still used liquid rocket propellant, and was now fitted with a
proximity-fused combination HE/fragmentation warhead, made its manufacture
problematic, especially in this area, where there were no mass-production
facilities for making the propellant. A problem begging for a solution, thought
Dr. Schmeisser. And as soon as the facilities became available for the
large-scale manufacture of the liquid rocket propellant, there will be NOWHERE
that the bloody Bolsheviks could fly where there wasn't steel shrapnel filling
the air.
There were technicians and soldiers ready to
conduct the tests, waiting only for the targets to appear overhead. And they
appeared on time, huge box-kite targets being towed by Chinese Air Force C-46
tugs on very long tethers. As soon as the targets were released from the tugs
into free-flight, and the tugs were safely away, the shooting began.
Projectiles were flying all over the place, exploding high up, viciously
shredding their hapless wood-and-fabric targets.
One tactic that became apparent to Schmeisser
was that massed-fire was being used to destroy the targets. While he was
more an advocate of good marksmanship, massed-fire had its place, and it was
used to tremendous effect here. He witnessed 3 or 4 gunners concentrate on a
target and completely blast it out of the sky. He also noticed the obvious
difference in altitude ranges between the Luftschreck weapon, and it's
shorter-ranged cousin, the Luftfaust. It was his uninformed opinion that
if they were able to increase the range and devise a way to accurately track a
jet, the Luftschreck would be the perfect weapon to shoot jets down. As
a matter of fact, he would write a letter to the Chinese president to that
effect, and let him know his impressions of this test, and inform him of his
conclusions and ideas...
Now that this test was finished, he needed to
return to his assigned duties, evaluating a new American battle rifle, a direct
descendent of the StG-44, placed in his very capable hands by an American
benefactor. This was an area of expertise with which he was quite familiar...
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