Chapter 507: Former "Secretary of the Navy"

Charles originally planned to completely hand over the rifle design to Dominic and Browning, which could be regarded as a training and test for Dominic.

However, the impending crisis forced him to "speed up".

In the FN Arsenal conference room, Browning and Dominic huddled together and stared at the sketch in front of them.

Browning stared with wide eyes and watched carefully, not missing a single detail. His expression was very complicated, sometimes puzzled and sometimes surprised. Occasionally he looked up at Charles, his eyes full of disbelief.

After a long while, Browning put down the sketch and exclaimed, "General, is this your design?"

Ciel nodded, "It was drawn on the car, so it's not very accurate."

This once again shocked Browning beyond words. Painted on a car?

Antwerp is only 59 kilometers away from Ghent, which would take less than an hour if the speed was fast enough. How could such a complex rifle be designed within an hour?

The point is, everything looks reasonable and perfect, like a mass-produced product that has been finalized after countless tests and countless modifications.

Browning's guess was correct. What Charles gave him was the design drawing of the finalized mass-produced product, the M1 Garand rifle.

This rifle does not look difficult on the surface, but the key point is that it is used to replace bolt-action rifles. Almost every infantryman is required to have one, and millions of them are produced at a time.

With such a large number, any problem, even a small one, may lead to irreparable huge losses.

Therefore, the United States spent more than ten years testing and modifying the product before it finally arrived at the finished product.

(The picture above shows the M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle, which began to be designed in 1919 and successfully developed in 1921. However, it was not officially put into production until 1937 due to the pressure of war. During this period, it was constantly tested and modified for 16 years.)

What Charles presented was the final model of the Garand rifle, which basically completed the task in one step and omitted all the intermediate processes.

The reason why it is called "basic" is that Charles can only roughly determine the data such as the handguard, bullet capacity, magazine, etc., but cannot determine every internal part in detail.

However, these were not difficult for Browning, who had designed a semi-automatic shotgun.

"I hope this is a rifle based on a new French ammunition," Charles said. "7.5MM rimless rifle bullet. Due to the urgency of the military situation, I hope it can go into mass production next month."

"This is impossible." Browning exclaimed: "General, you don't know what mass production means. We must be cautious about this..."

"We need this rifle urgently, sir." Charles reminded: "I know you want more time to test it, but I think the best testing ground is the battlefield. Now is a war time, we can't hope to use it after it is modified like in peacetime."

This is different from the situation in the United States where it took more than a decade to revise. During that period, the United States was not under the pressure of war, so it had the time and conditions to revise.

What's more, what Charles gave was a finished product, so there weren't many places that needed to be modified.

Then Charles added, "We can produce it in small batches, sir, and only equip my troops. The first batch will be... 10,000."

Charles was considering equipping mechanized divisions, which needed to improve long-range firepower.

Browning nodded. "No problem, General, but I can't guarantee its quality."

"Of course," Charles replied, glancing at Dominic who was standing beside Browning.

Dominic was relaxed throughout; he knew what was going to happen.

One day, when Browning had built the gun and tested it, he would exclaim, "My God, it needs almost no modification. It's just the way it should be!"

Dominic has seen this kind of thing many times and is used to it.

This might be the difference between genius and hard work. Dominic sighed inwardly, realizing that no matter how hard he tried, he could never surpass Charles, the ceiling of his career.

…

After doing all this, Charles felt relieved.

The reason why he was so anxious was that he considered that the next battle would most likely be the "Battle of the Somme" led by the British.

This battle in history was launched to relieve the pressure in the direction of Verdun, and the British also hoped to show their prowess on the battlefield and suppress the French army.

However, under the heavy machine gun fire of the Germans, the British created the highest casualty record in human history: 60,000 deaths and injuries in one day.

What would happen if our armored forces faced such an enemy?

bomber?

The Germans' heavy machine guns were deployed in a mobile manner. They would first hide in the trenches to avoid artillery fire, and then move the machine guns up when the enemy came up. Obviously, bombers would be of no use to them.

tank?

The Germans would dig one or more deep anti-tank trenches in front of the trenches, which the tanks could not cross, and the infantry had to move forward to clear the obstacles.

Mortar?

At this time, the range of the mortar was only a few hundred meters, while the range of the Maxim machine gun was one thousand meters!

After much thought, Charles believed that only semi-automatic rifles: three semi-automatic rifles firing in turns could suppress a machine gun on the opposite side.

Only with the addition of our own light and heavy machine guns and tank firepower can this battle be won.

Before we knew it, the car had entered the airport.

Charles was almost asleep. He yawned drowsily and stepped out of the car. He saw several British officers standing on the open airfield. They were pointing at the planes and observing the takeoff and landing of fighter jets with great interest.

What the hell? Charles thought, Vice Admiral Ives hasn't left yet?

However, Charles immediately found out that he was wrong. The lieutenant general in the lead was wearing a navy uniform, while the captain next to him was from the army.

Before Charles could react, a naval officer noticed this side. He waved at Charles from a distance and shouted over the rumble of the aircraft engine: "Hey, Major General, we've been waiting for you for a long time!"

Only then did Charles recognize that it was General Winter.

No wonder they are interested in airplanes. The British Navy is not a group of people who refuse to accept new equipment, otherwise there would be no dreadnoughts or aircraft carriers.

(Note: The world's first aircraft carrier is generally believed to be the "Hundred-eyed Giant" developed by the United Kingdom in 1916)

Charles lazily walked towards General Winter and asked as he walked, "What's up, General? Have you finished the finishing work on the Dardanelles?"

This was Charles's advice, and General Winter finally listened to it and began to withdraw troops from the Dardanelles.

"Almost." General Winter replied, and came forward with the army captain beside him.

What surprised Charles was that General Winter was very respectful to the army captain.

And the army captain looked familiar, as if I had seen him somewhere.

Walking up to him, General Winter introduced, "This is the former 'Secretary of the Navy', Rear Admiral. He wants to meet you."

Charles was stunned for a moment. Former "Minister of the Navy"?

Army Captain?

(End of this chapter)