I became Stalin chapter 21
21
The Soviet Union had enough talented people. Of course, there may be talents who have not seen the light of day because opportunities do not come from everywhere, but there were enough people who were either pushed out of the office due to lack of political power during the great purge or were not yet selected at this time.
Korolev, who had just left my office, and Bavilov, who claimed the gene theory, but was purged, deserved to be said to be representative of the former.
And the latter? The latter was like a young Mikhail Kalashnikov, who was still only twenty-two years old.
Kalashnikov was the creator of the AK rifle, who made the weapon that killed the most people in the world.
Born in 1919, he is now twenty-one years old. Kalashnikov had just been a tanker in the Bryansk Front. Although he was still a young soldier, it was easy to find him because he had previously invented a tank gun ammunition meter and even received a citation.
And after all, is youth good? I was mindfully exploring the design of the AK-47, which I was sifting through my memories. Is he doing this because he doesn’t know that Stalin is an absolute power who can take his life lightly?
In terms of physical age, he was like a grandson, and in terms of mental age, he was the same age, so he didn’t look so hateful. I opened my ax eyes from behind and waved my guards out to see him, then I gave him a chair.
“Ah… Thank you… Huh! Comrade General!”
“Why are you so surprised? Sit down and watch.”
He seemed thrilled that he picked up the chair by hand, but I pretended to be indifferent and focused on the design. The StG44 that triggered the development of AK-47 did not yet exist. There was also no 7.62x39mm ammunition that was developed only in 43 and would be used in 49. The PPsh machine gun currently being produced used the 7.62*22mm pistol bullet invented by Tokarev, so it also needed improvement.
First of all, in order to shorten this process, genius developers like Kalashnikov had to quickly realize the ideas I could present. And I knew in advance about the process that was improved through numerous front-line requests.
I had to pass that knowledge on to them as soon as possible. Before paying the price with the blood of more young soldiers.
“I’d like to introduce a gas piston system, but… can we do it? What we want is to fire from a gun that is slightly weaker than a rifle bullet, can suppress recoil, has higher ballistic reliability than an automatic pistol, and is lighter than a light machine gun. It’s an automatic, so to speak, an ‘assault rifle’ with the right balance somewhere in the middle.”
“Yes? I understand what you said, but wouldn’t it be an intermediate weapon with less firepower than a machine gun and heavier than a pistol?”
Oh… I think it’s the first time I’ve seen someone answering me since I took possession. I became more and more cute with this young spirit.
“You might think so, but aren’t machine guns a weapon that is now deployed in squads or platoons? It’s not as certain as a machine gun, but think of it as a semi-machine gun that every soldier can carry. Wouldn’t it be possible to contribute to the increase in firepower?”
As a soldier who has experienced the battlefield, he will be able to sympathize. It’s heavy and cumbersome only when marching, but having an automatic machine gun and machine gun is so reassuring in battle.
“And there’s no need to stick to the original design. From what we’ve compiled so far, a rifle doesn’t need to have a range of more than 600m.
In fact, it would be helpful to meet the weight limit that arises from the point of a personal firearm, as it is necessary to have an effective range of approximately 250m, where meaningful engagements between infantry take place. You don’t need a recklessly strong rifle.”
Kalashnikov nodded. He was already smiling with satisfaction as if he had come up with something. I also ordered a few more. It is not a weapon with the highest performance that artisans make one stitch at a time, but it is reliable and can be mass-produced at a low price.
It should be designed so that there is as much space as possible so that it can adapt to extreme environments. The caliber of the bullet will be about 7.62*39mm, so keep that in mind when imagining the level of recoil. Since I knew the future development direction, the facts presented will be helpful in thinking of the development direction from the developer’s point of view. And Kalashnikov grinned.
“Just leave it to me! Comrade General. I will accomplish the mission entrusted to you as quickly as possible for the people and soldiers like my brother.”
youth was good Seeing this ambitious soldier clenching his fists in front of me, I couldn’t help but think about it.
In addition to my role as the pinnacle of the bureaucracy, I had to play the role of passing on my future knowledge.
Developers and engineers would be better off. All they had to do was accomplish the task I gave them with abundant support. Thanks to the support I gave them because I trusted them, they would be able to create a product that is much more comfortable, and perhaps even better, than the original history.
But my work was only weighted and overlapped.
Take, for example, a train. Let’s say you gave us the basic design for the T-34/85 tank equipped with the 85mm main gun, which is an improved version of Tessam.
If so, the production line should be adjusted as it could cause a setback in the production of the 1939 85mm anti-aircraft gun 52-K, which can be said to be the original 85mm gun.
The expansion of the production line was not so easy, and my head as a general manager of numerous military supplies produced in this wide country was about to explode.
However, it was not possible to invest heavily in factory facilities to mass-produce the 85mm cannon, which is still in the testing stage and cannot contribute to mass production immediately. It will be replaced someday, but if you don’t give the 76mm cannon right away, the tank production will all stop? If you do, the wire will break.
However, this is the most clear development direction, and since it is produced in many factories, it is easy to pick up a part and try it. What about other firearms?
The car body is produced at the Leningrad Kirov plant and Chelyabinsk, the artillery plant No. 172 in Nizhny Novgorod makes the gun, the machine gun is produced at a number of other places… these eventually come together to form the KV-2 tank. .
So where should we turn to develop a new heavy tank – an improved version of the IS tank? If even one stops, the number of tanks to supply to the front will be insufficient right now?
The lull of Rasputicha is coming soon. However, as non-combat consumption increases, the demand for cables will not decrease much.
However, it would be possible to use that time during Rasputi to maintain the rear supply. I had to finish the planning before the hiatus came, and this work was taking up a lot of my work time.
“…So, the contract with Pratt & Whitney was completed within the expected range amicably with the cooperation of the US State Department and the US Army Staff. Two days ago, processing machines from the US arrived in Vladivostok. Raw materials they requested. is being prepared smoothly in Magnitogorsk, but the molybdenum steel is partially lacking.”
“Let me take action on that. Do you know the route to additionally import molybdenum steel?”
“Yes, sir. I have attached it to the report.”
There is another thing like this. I was the general manager. So, I had the authority to turn all the supplies, and at the same time, I had to assign priorities to what was needed with my head.
Subordinates who knew ‘my’ work style found the information I needed in the report in advance, but they could not even know all of the priorities. I don’t even know all of those items.
The biggest problem we faced was uncertainty.
Bingtler, I don’t know who it is, but the ‘future man’ presumed to be Hitler was already effectively suppressing Britain. Among the routes for goods arriving from the United States, the northern route to Murmansk could have been cut off by the Kriksmarine surface fleet, which was still cruising in the sea.
If the US and Japan went to war with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the transport ships coming to the Soviet Union could have been sunk, so it was necessary to stock up on as many supplies as possible now. So that the still insufficient capacity of the Trans-Siberian Railway can be fully filled.
Fortunately, the stable Persian Gulf-Volga route was too long. It is a route from the United States to Suez and then to Iran, so it is like going round and round.
In addition, there was also uncertainty.. In actual history, Britain and the Soviet Union combined forces to drive out the pro-friendly Iranian King Pahlavi I. But now Britain was getting beaten up and beaten in Africa. The demand to divert troops toward Iran was difficult to make.
So I had to send diplomats to appease Iran, and somehow manage the secret non-aggression pact with Japan to secure the Far East Passage.
Believing that we were bluffing the US inside information and the Far East’s military power, Japan seemed to have stopped thinking about attacking the Soviet Far East to some extent… but we don’t know yet. Hitler, you don’t know how he’s going to intervene.
From the production of other materials to securing military supplies, the transport capacity of the railroad, the arrangement of factory workers, the import routes and diplomatic coordination to secure them… There were so many things I had to do. Of course, the Soviet army was steadily getting stronger.
Also, there was one more important point. The Soviet army did not properly secure air supremacy until just before Berlin. Although the Allies continued to attack from the west, they lacked skilled pilots and their aircraft performance was inferior.
Although the overwhelming amount of the Soviet Union contributed to Nazi Germany’s endless consumption, it was simply because it was able to afford much more consumption.
So, with the cooperation of the United States, a technologically advanced country, I decided to build a factory capable of producing American-made engines on Soviet territory. They moved the engine maker after they had put a fairly large amount of gold in a lump sum to the US State Department.
Of course, I believed it would be worth it. The 2250 horsepower 18-cylinder R-2800 molded engine developed by Pratt & Whitney was the engine used by all of America’s masterpiece aircraft.
The P-47 Thunderbolt, Hellcat, Corsair and other American fighters that dominated World War II all used this engine, and we also needed this engine to build aircraft against Germany.
With this engine that we obtained by putting a pile of gold in them and promising them the right to develop a natural gas field in Siberia after the war, we decided to make a strong fighter that copied some of Thunderbolt.
In actual history, the engines used by the Soviet Union during the Great War were worn out. No, it’s just that all the planes are gone I made a lot of it and made a lot of it, but… the amount of aluminum that consumes electricity is not enough, so it’s made of wood, or it’s going to explode while running on the turbocharger.
As far as the aviation industry was concerned, full cooperation with Britain and the United States was required. from one to ten.
If you want to produce airplanes similar to those of Britain and the United States, you just need to bring production equipment from there and copy the process. Through this simplified production path, I realized economies of scale while reducing the total cost and work load, and reduced it while I was doing my work…
The Soviet Army thoroughly pursued mass production of small items. Well, there are my limitations… The inability to cope with various situations can be overpowered by numerical superiority and performance superiority. Also, in terms of supply, it was able to significantly reduce the supply requirement.
Like Nazi Germany did, if you can make a variety of different types of weapons, where can they be used? Only the military officer’s head explodes.
Frankly, I did not trust the Soviet generals. Not in the sense of betrayal, but in their capacity. So it will create a better and stronger weapon.
Please, can you take this with you?
Thank you all readers for reading
I became Stalin chapter 21
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