World War Three 1946 Series Boxed Set: Stalin Strikes First

by Harry Kellogg

  Multiple Launch Artillery – The Sherman Calliope

  *****

  0532

  17 August 1946

  Research & Development Laboratories

  Hanyang Arms Manufacturing Complex

  Wuhan City, Hupei Province,

  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 antiaircraft weapons, having been improved 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 antiaircraft cannon, into a premier, world-beating, antitank gun. The world had Erwin Rommel to thank for that. Had Rommel not been short on antitank guns, 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 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 antiaircraft sight adapted from the one used on the MG34 and MG42 machine guns, and ammunition optimized for antiaircraft 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 descendant 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…

  Luftfaust and the Luftschreck shoulder-fired antiaircraft weapon

  *****

  Chapter Eleven:

  Birth Of A Weapon System

  2157

  21 August 1946

  Design Workshop of John C. Garand

  Springfield Armory

  Springfield, Massachusetts, USA

  John was once again working late in the workshop, but he was not alone tonight. He was joined by Dieudonne Saive and Ernest Vervier, of the Fabriqué National de Herstal, of Belgium, and by Alex Seidel, formerly of DWM-Mauser AG, now employed by the Springfield Armory. They had been busy experimenting with many ways to improve the T46A1 (what they were now calling the American Sturmgewehr) and they think that they've discovered a way that they can make an important change that would revolutionize this rifle and make it far superior to anything that the Soviets can ever produce.

  It all started after the initial trials for the T46A1, when one of Garand's contacts at the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield, in the U.K., sent him several thousand rounds of their new .280 caliber ammunition, along with the specs for production. Garand subsequently converted a few M1 rifles to fire the round, and was quite impressed with the ballistics coming out the shortened “intermediate” round (as a matter of metric conversion, the case was 20mm shorter than that of the .30-'06). When Garand proposed the idea to Saive, Vervier and Seidel, they got right to work improving the rifle, incorporating the new British round into its design, and building a new prototype for the testing of the the ammunition to be used by the rifle, and testing the living hell out of it, hoping that they can come up with a battle rifle that is fit for mass-manufacture and can survive and operate under any condition.

  As the design and further development continued, it was Ernest Vervier (who was also developing a general purpose machine gun, independently from this project, but using the same ammunition to increase interchangeability) who recommended the design of special versions for use by special troops, such as airborne and amphibious troops, and favored of the use of synthetic materials, such as Bakelite, over natural materials, such as wood. Another question that was debated was for special versions, was a folding stock a necessity? The two Belgians believe so, as does the German, but to a lesser degree, so prototypes were made in different configurations. Carbine sized, for use by tank and air crews? How short can the barrel be before it adversely affects accuracy and range? Soon, there were all sorts of ideas were being knocked around, from full-caliber machine pistols to extended-barreled squad automatic weapons, and every configuration in between, making selection of the best models for a particular purpose a difficult proposition, at best, and a nightmare, at worst.

  In the end, four weapons derived and developed from the original T46A1 prototype were selected: the base model being a product-improved version of the prototype battle rifle (T46B3 or XM4), in .280 caliber, along with a longer, heavier-barreled squad automatic weapon (T46D4 or XM6) to replace the BAR, shorter-barreled carbine, with a solid stock or a side-folding stock (T46C2/T46C3 or XM7), to replace the M1/M2/M3 carbine system, and a machine pistol (T46G4/T46G7 or XM8) chambered in 9mm or .45 ACP for tank and air crews, replacing the M3 “Grease Gun” submachine gun . They even developed a 30mm grenade-launching weapon (T48A3 or XM9) to install underneath the barrel of the battle rifle, based on a cross between the Walther flare gun and ammunition from the Rheinmetall 30mm aircraft cannon.

  Things got much more interesting when they began some of the other weapons experiments, reverse-engineering and redesigning the Fallschirmjägergewehr-42 as a test machine gun, rechambering it to fire different ammunition and observing the results. Once the final armory prototype was built, it and its drawings were transfer
red in deep secrecy up to Saco Manufacturing Corporation, in Maine, for finalization and pre-production, before submitting the weapon for range and combat testing. The weapon had an initial test designation of T50E1, but in service, would be classified as the XM5/M5 general-purpose machine gun.

  Garand and the other gentlemen present decided that they should submit all the weapons as an entire system, with fully interchangeable parts and ammunition (except for the machine pistols and, obviously, the grenade launcher), and to this end, they would have Alex Seidel enlist the aid of his friends Edmund Heckler and Theodor Koch. They were both colleagues of his from DWM-Mauser, and now advised the Army's Chief Quartermaster, Lieutenant General Levin Hicks Campbell, and the Army's chief of weapon development and procurement, Colonel Rene Studler, and have them convince the two that it was a wise decision to accept these weapons, and the British ammunition, for the U.S. Army, and in doing so, convince the other branches and other militaries to also adopt the system of weapons, making manufacturing the weapons on a mass-production scale highly likely. And perhaps, they could convince Colonel Studler of further developing the under-slung grenade launcher, as the design was still a bit raw, and explosives, not including smokeless gun powder, was not their fortè.

  So now was the moment of truth, where they would learn whether or not their weapons would be mass-produced and win the war for NATO, or they would be relegated to the dustbin of history...

  T46A1 in .280 British

  *****

  0745

  22 August 1946

  U.S. Army Air Force Test Facility

  Hunter Army Airfield

  Columbus, Georgia

  The air was already thick with humidity, as the dog days of summer marched on, and Igor Sikorsky stood there sweating, removing his light suit jacket. Before him was a rushed prototype of his S-55 helicopter, with its bulbous nose protruding below the high cockpit. It was a large aircraft for its type, the largest ever built to date, designed to accommodate and transport up to twelve fully armed and equipped soldiers, or six litters of wounded men and two combat medics. He wanted so badly for this to work, but he feared the worst: that his latest creation would crash and burn, meaning that future contracts would go to his nearest competitor and young upstart, Frank Piasecki. It would simply be his ruin and he could not have that.

  Sikorsky greeted the test pilots as they came up to the helicopter, chatted with them momentarily, then moved a safe distance away as they climbed up to the cockpit. Then the starting whine of the engines, beginning to feed rotor shafts, increasingly spinning up the main rotor and stabilizing tail rotor...and as enough energy is developed by the rotors, the huge lumbering beast lifts off, at first slowly moving up, then picking up speed, then starting to maneuver, hovering, before moving forward, backward, side to side, with no apparent problem. The helicopter begins to gain altitude, start to move faster in forward flight, nimbly sprinting from one checkpoint to another. After 15 minutes of flight, the aircraft lands, to initiate the second phase of the test.

  A squad of eight fully armed and equipped soldiers boarded the stairs of the helicopter, Sikorsky taking note that he would have to enlarge the passenger door and reinforce the boarding ladder for the heavily laden soldiers to be able to embark the aircraft comfortably. The helicopter began to rise again, this time more slowly, due to the increased weight, and began its first nearly fully-loaded passenger flight. This flight lasted another 15 minutes, before landing. Sikorsky looked pleased...

  That was, until Sikorsky saw the twin-rotored monstrosity lumbering just over the horizon. It moved in a controlled slewing motion, its counter-rotating twin-axial rotors like nothing he had ever seen. This must be Frank Piasecki's creation and it was enough to take the wind out his sails. It looked to be twice the size of his prototype, with what appeared to look like three times the load capacity, utilizing a dual counter-rotating rotoring system, with one rotor being mounted on an engine pylon in the front, and the same size rotor mounted on a rear engine pylon situated above the forward rotor, with a long wide body slung underneath them. Sikorsky knew that he was going to lose for sure...

  He saw Frank Piasecki walking up to him, no doubt to gloat, but walking parallel to him was none other than General Jimmy Doolittle himself, now in charge of the Army Air Force's aircraft evaluation and procurement program, first shaking Piasecki's hand, then Sikorsky's. Perhaps, this was a good sign... “Well, gentlemen, we have some good news for both of you: we will be ordering helicopters from both of your companies. Mr. Sikorsky's S-55 helicopter suits our need for a medium-sized vertical personnel transport, whereas Mr. Piasecki's H-25 helicopter meets our requirements for a heavy-lift material transporter. We all win in this situation, gentlemen.” Then General Doolittle turns and walks away, being hustled away by his paranoiac aides.

  As Sikorsky turns to walk away himself, Piasecki quickly turns and catches up with him and grasps his hand and says “Mr. Sikorsky, it is a great honor to finally meet you. It was your inspiration that allowed me to pursue my dreams of becoming an aeronautical engineer and designing unique durable aircraft. Thank you for that, sir.” Sikorsky was dumb-founded and at a loss for words, though he quickly recovered, “you do me great honor, young man, and as once I considered you an adversary and rival, you shall be forever my greatest friend. Please join me for dinner tonight?”

  And thus began one of the greatest friendships of the Third World War...

  Piasecki H-25 helicopter

  *****

  2327

  14-15 September 1946

  Tank Gunnery Range

  Aberdeen Proving Ground

  Fort Meade, Maryland, USA

  Staff Sergeant Barry Swinton was initially wary of the monstrosity known to him as the XM4G heavy tank, being nothing more than an M4A3 Sherman medium tank, retrofitted with an Allison turbocharged diesel engine and the entire turret assembly of the M26 “Pershing” (the “Pushing”) heavy tank, including its powerful 90mm gun, as the M26 hulls would no longer be needing them. Production had started on the M50 Patton, but not enough of that model was being built yet to satisfy current needs, so a stop-gap measure was needed to fill divisional inventories until enough M50's can be built to fill them. But what to do?

  As it turns out, there was a plan before the end of the last war to retrofit older M4A3's the very same way, with excess M26 turrets being built to implement this design. The war ended before it could be done and the plan was shelved. But with the colossal failure of the M26 on the battlefield and the slow build up to full wartime production, the plan was once again considered and now being tested, along with a new gyro-stabilizer, that was supposed to allow the gunner to fire the main gun, while the tank is in motion. Along with the gyro-stabilizer, this tank would also mount a night-vision scope, allowing the tank crew, especially the gunner, to see heat signatures at night. Somebody said that it was something that the Krauts had been working on when the war ended, and our boys had gotten a hold of the research and the prototypes, and a few of the fielded models. That the U.S. had classified the project as “Top Secret” meant that government researchers, perhaps with the help of some the original German engineers on the project, had made a breakthrough in the technology.

  Sergeant Swinton knew that he'd had his background thoroughly scoured by the FBI before being cleared for this project, but he knew that he had absolutely nothing to fear, and had an exemplary combat record to boot. After the war, he was discharged to a life of drudgery, selling women's shoes, until this new war started, and he reenlisted right away, even getting promoted before his first 60 days back were up. This night test would see how this mid-sized beast (he'd heard someone call it '20 pounds of crap in a 10 pound sack') would do, whether it lived up to its expectations, especially the gyro and night-sight.

  Swinton thought to himself “Here we go” as he started up the tank and peeped up through the night-sight in his periscope, looking at all the blobs in shades of red in the infrared spectrum, before switchin
g to light-amplification mode, where all the shapes were clearer, but cast in an eerie greenish light. As his eyes quickly adjusted to the greenish hues of the night-sight, he was able to drive the tank as smoothly as if it were daylight. As they reach their first target area, he felt the tank moving through a 30° slope, and he heard the hydraulic-electric servomotor of the turret moving while they were on the move, then heard the deafening CRACK-BOOM of the main gun, and a splash of exploded earth, then another CRACK-BOOM, followed by a KA-BOOOOOM! of a direct hit. This was all accomplished while the tank was still moving. To Swinton, it was a resounding success. He had never heard of a tank, except when it was handled by no less than a veteran crew and gunner, able to drive nearly flawlessly in the dark, let alone be able to fire on and hit it's targets dead-on, all in the dark. It was nothing short of amazing.

  The five XM4G tanks of the test platoon did this all night, switching their night-sights from light-amplification to infrared, and back again, to find their targets, and each other. Their gunnery improved with practice and the ease with which they eliminated their targets became readily apparent as the sun rose at 0657. It had been a long arduous test, but they now knew that they had a tank, with some minor adjustments, that could match, or defeat, any tank that the Soviets had in their inventories. Knowing now what this new tank could do, Swinton wanted Soviet blood, and would not be satisfied, until he got it.