Chapter 462: Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis
Bruno’s attention was immediately caught by the ongoing testing of a weapon that had completely stolen his focus away from everything else that was being displayed to him by both his engineers, and those that had come to Berlin from Russia to give their insights.
Because what he saw was a weapon that should not exist, not now as 1919 reared its ugly head, and sure as hell not in 1945... No, this was something that could easily have existed in the early interwar period with the technology that existed, especially in this new world where Bruno had advanced Germany’s capabilities by decades by providing a few investments, and pointers in the right direction.
But even then, in another life, such a weapon would not have existed until the dawn of the Cold War. What was being demonstrated was a simple tubular weapon, but Bruno recognized it instantly. It had the sleek, lightweight and thin profile of the RPG-2 anti-tank launcher, along with a pistol grip and trigger mechanism similar in simplicity and design.
But it had the robust manufacture of the late war Panzerfaust 250 prototype anti-tank launcher, as well as the conical rear end to help disperse the backblast of the weapon when fired.
In addition to this, the weapon had an integrated optics mount that allowed for the use of a ZF-4, 4x fixed magnification with a BDC reticle etched for the exact flight trajectory and calculations needed for the 44mm heat shaped charge fin stabilized warhead to precisely hit targets out to 250 meters.
And when the warhead hit its target, and old Austro-Hungarian 16m TAS Light Tank, on its thickest and most sloped plate, the armored vehicle exploded into a fiery heap of scrap metal.
Bruno was stunned, that tank was Austro-Hungary’s attempts to replicate his Panzer I, which was based upon the e-10 series chassis, and was by all means likely the second best tank in the world, or had been when it was introduced during the final days of the Great War during this new life.
By now, most of these tanks were in Germany’s possession, or what remained of them after the annexation of Austria. They were either serving among reserve units, decommissioned and entered into museums dedicated to the "Weltkrieg" or were being used as testing platforms for new weapon systems which were being designed and optimized for defeating armor.
As was clearly being displayed here and now in the hallowed halls of Waffenwerke von Zehntner.... And after taking a moment to truly understand what he had just seen, Bruno could not help but break out into applause as he congratulated the men, who had not only performed the functional test but also those who had designed the weapon system.
"My god... simply marvelous! The shot was impeccable! Truly! Do you mind if I take a look at that beautiful thing?"
The soldiers did not hesitate to hand the weapon over to the man who was the current Chief of Staff of the German Armed Forces, and when Bruno inspected the anti-tank launcher, he couldn’t help but be thoroughly impressed by its performance.
Unlike what Germans had a tendency to do when it came to creating, well, anything... This weapon wasn’t over-engineered and complicated, rather it was stripped to pure necessity and refined to absolute perfection in that manner.