Spy Wars: Get the Predator equipment at the beginning

Chapter 976 New Weapons

After leaving the steakhouse, Zhang Yunhe booked a room at a nearby hotel.

After closing the door, James took a stack of photos from his briefcase and handed a few of them to Zhang Yunhe: "Take a look at these!"

Zhang Yunhe took the photos and looked at the first one. The photo showed a clown soldier wearing a protective mask and protective clothing, holding a tool that looked like a spray gun in his hands. The handle of the spray gun was connected to a pipe, and the other end of the pipe was connected to two connected cylindrical steel barrels on the soldier's back.

"This is..." A thought struck him, and he vaguely knew what this thing was.

As expected, James gave Zhang Yunhe the answer he had guessed: "This thing is called a flamethrower, or flamethrower. It is operated by special troops and is used on the battlefield specifically to deal with bunkers and pillboxes!"

"The flamethrower was first invented by the Germans in 1901, but it was not used on the battlefield until World War I. On February 26, 1915, the French army was the first to encounter German flamethrowers, suffering heavy casualties. The soldiers died in horrific conditions, and the French army had to retreat 12 miles. On July 30 of the same year, the British army suffered greatly from German flamethrowers in the Battle of Hogg in Flanders. In just two days, 35 officers and 715 soldiers died under this weapon!"

"As a result, Britain and France took it seriously and began to develop flamethrowers. The French army was more pragmatic; they directly copied the design of the German flamethrower. However, at that time, the German flamethrower used a mixture of petroleum as fuel, and its range was only 10 meters. It was also very cumbersome."

"The British designed and manufactured a flamethrower weighing two tons, and made a total of four, with a range of 18 meters, which was much longer than the German flamethrower."

"In 1935, the Italian army was the first to mount flamethrowers on tanks and invade Abyssilla. Now, the German army has a large number of individual flamethrowers, which are generally used by small groups of three people. One person carries and operates the flamethrower, while the other two are responsible for observation and guard duty!"

"Polar Bear also uses armored vehicles equipped with flamethrowers, and even produces specialized flamethrower tanks!"

"Their flamethrowers don't have a long range, at most about 20 meters. But this year, a research team from Harvard University here developed a flamethrower and used a new type of fuel, which increased the range of the flamethrower to 50 meters!"

"With such a range, whether the flamethrower is mounted on armored vehicles and tanks or carried by individual soldiers, the survivability of both the mounting equipment and the individual soldier on the battlefield will be greatly improved. In the past, flamethrower soldiers were killed on the spot if they were captured, and their survival rate on the battlefield was lower than that of other branches of the military!"

After listening to James's account, Zhang Yunhe looked at the remaining photos and then asked, "How did you know about this flamethrower and get its photos?"

James said, "Of course I have my channels. The military has already used this thing to conduct real-world tests on the battlefield to test its combat capabilities. The results are excellent. Previously, its range was less than 20 meters, and flamethrower soldiers had to carry it and rush to a position very close to the bunkers or pillboxes to use it. But now, flamethrower soldiers can launch fire attacks on enemy bunkers or pillboxes from 50 meters away!"

"If enemy soldiers are hiding in deep tunnels, it would be very dangerous for attacking soldiers to go into the tunnels to fight. However, if this flamethrower is used, it can burn away all the oxygen in the tunnels, and the enemy soldiers hiding inside will suffocate to death!"

After hearing this, terrifying images involuntarily appeared in Zhang Yunhe's mind.

"What do you mean by showing me this photo?" he asked.

James said, "I mean, I'm trying to sell you this flamethrower. It can be used for both offense and defense on the ground. I think you'd need a lot of these flamethrowers to deal with the Japanese, right?"

Zhang Yunhe, smoking a cigarette, asked, "If it's really as you say, with a range of 50 meters, it's indeed a powerful weapon for both offense and defense. Do you have a source of them?"

“Of course there are, but this thing needs to be used with special fuel to achieve such a long range!” James said.

Zhang Yunhe frowned: "So, if I buy this flamethrower, I also have to buy their special fuel?"

James nodded: "Yes!"

Zhang Yunhe thought for a moment and said, "I'll think about it!"

He was actually somewhat reluctant to buy this weapon. Not that he didn't want it, but he simply didn't want to buy it. It required special fuel to achieve a range of over 50 meters; if the fuel ran out, wouldn't it just be a pile of scrap metal?

He now sells weapons; he can manufacture bullets and shells, even aerial bombs, and supply ammunition to customers at any time. But if he buys these things and sells them to customers, and the customers come back to him when they run out of fuel, he has to ask James for help, and James has to go to the original manufacturer. This back-and-forth process is too time-consuming and cumbersome.

Zhang Yunhe put down the photo in his hand, looked at the remaining photo in James' hand, and asked, "What's that?"

James quickly handed the photo to Zhang Yunhe and said, "This is a weapon for dealing with tanks, armored vehicles, and ground fortifications such as bunkers and firing positions. It's called a bazooka rocket launcher!"

"It weighs only 5 kilograms, uses armor-piercing projectiles weighing 1.55 kilograms, has a range of up to 270 meters, and can penetrate 76 mm of armor at a 60-degree angle. It is a powerful weapon for anti-tank and assault operations. If used in conjunction with a flamethrower, it is virtually invincible in assault operations!"

Zhang Yunhe knew that this bazooka rocket launcher was indeed a good thing. If it were used to deal with the Japanese tanks on the domestic battlefield, it would almost be one shot per tank.

He asked, "Which arms factory developed this thing?"

"It was manufactured by the Picatinny Arsenal, and it was developed by a rocket engineer named Leslie Skinner from the Ordnance Department and his colleague Edward. They first invented a rocket launcher, which was an electronically ignited metal tube. Another munitions research expert from the Ordnance Department named Henry was developing an infantry anti-tank grenade, the M10, but infantry could not effectively throw it!"

"But when Skinner fired the M10 grenade with their rocket launcher, it had an unexpected effect. The Ordnance Department immediately realized the value of this new weapon and tested its combat performance on the battlefield! Because the rocket launcher looks like a tubular instrument called a bazooka, it is also known as the bazooka rocket launcher. Its official name is actually the M1 60mm rocket launcher!"