Chapter 306: Progress on Composite Armor and Knights

After receiving the invitation from Grand Master Leonia, although the specific invitation stated it might take several days or even longer, Morin planned to go without hesitation.

Soon, the news that Morin was leaving the garrison for a few days spread like wildfire throughout the entire camp of the instruction unit.

Originally, upon hearing that Morin was going out on business, the new officers were secretly delighted that they could finally rest.

Because over the past month, they had lost track of heaven and earth in the endless physical, tactical, and theoretical training.

The tense atmosphere on the training ground seemed to relax at that moment.

The officers who might contain “real gold,” although daring not to cheer blatantly, the uncontrollable curvature of the corners of their mouths betrayed their inner feelings.

That “devil” who tortured their physical fitness in different ways every day and treated them like wild boars in mud pits was finally leaving.

However, this secret delight didn’t even last until dinner time that day.

When the sunset dyed the skyline of Koblenz red, all officers and non-commissioned officers were assembled.

Standing on the podium was no longer the smiling but heavy-handed Morin.

Instead, it was Kleist, with a stern face as if he had just swallowed a piece of granite, and Manstein, who looked gentle and had a noble temperament, on the other side.

“Although the Commander is absent, our schedule will not change.”

Kleist’s voice drilled clearly into everyone’s ears. On the huge blackboard behind him, the arrangements for the next few days were densely written.

Morin dared to leave for the Teutonic Knights for a reason…

The training content for officers and non-commissioned officers had long been standardized. Even if Morin was absent, it could proceed normally under the supervision of Manstein and Kleist.

If there were troublemakers, they would be silently noted down and dealt with when he returned, so Morin could be a completely hands-off boss…

On the other hand, Morin emphasized physical training, but that didn’t mean he really made these people train for 24 hours.

In fact, after the physical assessment of officers and non-commissioned officers on the first day, under Kleist’s leadership, the clerks of the entire instruction unit had already completed the registration of relevant information.

So Morin knew very well what level these officers were currently at.

The daily physical training was basically stuck at the edge of their limit, squeezing their physical fitness as much as possible, but not letting them snap.

For the new officers and non-commissioned officers, on this land shrouded in dust and commands, the concept of time seemed to blur.

Every twenty-four hours seemed to be stretched into a century.

If initially, they still had a star-chasing admiration for Morin, the legendary Blue Max winner, or the idea of easily surpassing this former “playboy”…

Then now, this admiration and desire to surpass had quickly transformed into a complex emotion mixed with awe and fear.

“Hell Month”…

This term first popped out of the mouth of a Second Lieutenant who collapsed from exhaustion in a pit. In less than half a day, it spread throughout the camp and was unanimously recognized by all trainees.

And the training and courses of this first month, after some adjustments, became the appetizer that all future officers and non-commissioned officers joining the instruction unit had to “taste.”

Morin was even considering whether to apply to the Army Department and the General Staff to issue a special commemorative medal or something similar to those who passed the first month’s assessment.

Of course, the “hell” of this Hell Month did not refer to the kind of “hell” where one couldn’t eat enough, sleep enough, and had physical fitness squeezed to the limit.

On the contrary, everyone had sufficient calorie intake every day and enough sleep time to recover their energy.

The “hell” of the instruction unit referred more to a “remelting of the spirit.”

The daily schedule packed with various courses made these participating Junker nobles forget about banquets and dance floors, and no longer reminisce about which madam or miss had a softer waist at the ball…

Replacing it were large, medium, and small-scale infantry assault tactics gradually imprinted in their minds, firepower configuration under different tasks, more flexible infantry-artillery coordination, how to find more suitable attack/defense positions in the current terrain, etc.

The effect was as good as brainwashing.

This high-intensity double squeeze of mental and physical strength also made this group of Junker officers, who were used to step-by-step manual training, feel ecstatic pain.

Thoughts that shouldn’t be in their brains were washed clean in the day-after-day training, leaving only the most primitive desire to win and survival instinct.

And what completely ignited this desire to win was the huge blackboard erected in a prominent position on the training ground.

That was a damaging move Morin came up with—the Team and Excellent Individual Leaderboard.

It was densely filled with the scores and rankings of each company, platoon-level unit, and even officers in cross-country, shooting, tactical deduction, and other items.

Not only that, but he also specially listed the report cards of foreign trainee units on the side, marked with dazzling red chalk.

Before dinner every day, the clerk would hold the chalk and update the data under the cannibalistic gazes of a group of officers.

This naked competitive environment was more uncomfortable than beheading for this group of proud Saxon officers.

Especially for those newly replenished members of the instruction unit, such as Rommel and Guderian, this was a “fight to the death for honor.”

How could they tolerate being surpassed by those foreign trainee units?

Thus, an atmosphere called “intense internal competition” began to spread wildly in the camp.

The originally distinct factions were quickly leveled. What remained was the honor of each unit itself. No one cared whether you were from Saxony, Württemberg, or Bavaria anymore, nor did anyone care if you had that “Von” in front of your surname.

In everyone’s mind, there was only how to shorten the time for the five-kilometer cross-country and 400-meter obstacle course a bit more, or how to eliminate those veterans of the 1st Battalion in the simulated confrontation.

Especially the oldest “trio” of Kane, Ballack, and Lahm, who almost beat the new officers like spinning tops in simulated confrontations…

Just as the melting pot of the instruction unit was burning vigorously, Morin had already arrived at the Teutonic Knights’ forward base on the outskirts of Koblenz in a bumpy military truck.

Like the General Staff, the Teutonic Knights also established a temporary forward base outside Koblenz to better coordinate the joint operations of Armored Knights and other units.

It could also shorten the repair time for damaged Armored Knights transported back to the homeland.

When the truck drove into that heavily guarded base, Morin discovered that this place was a completely different world from the army camp.

There was no flying dust and noisy playgrounds, but more steel-structured buildings like small factories.

Deeper in the base, Morin even saw several huge repair workshops. Some Armored Knights damaged in battle were being hoisted by huge gantry cranes, surrounded by a group of Magitech Engineers in white work clothes.

The truck finally stopped in front of a larger building. As soon as he got off, Morin saw that familiar tall figure.

Leonia von Fortis, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights with a nine-head-tall body ratio, wasn’t wearing that iconic knight uniform.

Instead, she wore clothes similar to a capable infantry training shirt. Black military trousers wrapped around her long legs, the white shirt collar was slightly open, and her long golden hair was casually tied behind her head.

“Your Excellency Grand Master.” Morin stood at attention and saluted, his movements standard and powerful.

“It seems our Captain Morin… no, Lieutenant Colonel now, is finally willing to come out of the camp.”

Leonia returned a military salute and walked over with large strides, a smile on her face: “I heard you engaged in some unique training over there, torturing those noble young masters until they cried for their parents?”

“The Grand Master is well-informed.”

Morin smiled: “It’s just some basic training. If they can’t even endure this bit of hardship, going to the battlefield is just giving battle records to the Britannians.”

Seeing Morin seemingly still somewhat restrained, Leonia said relaxedly: “No need to be so formal. This is not a formal occasion… Moreover, today we are asking you for advice.”

“I dare not accept asking for advice, just exchanging some immature ideas.” Morin smiled modestly.

“Excessive modesty is pride, Lieutenant Colonel.” Leonia turned around, “Follow me, the Chief Technician and others can’t wait to see you~”

Morin followed her steps. The two walked into the huge workshop in front of them. The noise here was deafening, and sparks were flying everywhere.

In the center of the workshop, a “Siegfried Type 1” Armored Knight, which had been dismantled into pieces, stood quietly there.

On the main armor of its chest cockpit hung several strange-looking plates, covered with dents and bullet holes from various weapon bombardments.

“Is this the result you came up with?” Morin walked closer and reached out to touch the pitted armor plate.

“Yes, according to your idea, we suspended spaced armor outside the main armor.”

Leonia answered. Just as she wanted to continue speaking, a gray-haired old man wearing thick-bottomed glasses climbed down from the scaffolding of the Armored Knight.

When he saw Morin, his eyes lit up.

“This must be the young man who proposed spaced armor!”

The old man rushed over quickly and grabbed Morin’s hand, his strength surprisingly great.

His palm was rough and powerful, obviously someone who dealt with various mechanical tools all year round.

“I am Hermann Staudinger, the Magitech Technician Chief of the Teutonic Knights, also responsible for the development of Armored Knight protection units.”

“Uh… Hello, hello!”

Morin didn’t expect this old man to be so enthusiastic upon seeing him, and he always felt like he had heard this person’s name somewhere.

Leonia also introduced from the side: “Master Staudinger is also a Mage of the School of Transmutation. You are both spellcasters, I believe you will have a lot of common language~”

Only then did Morin realize that the old man in front of him was actually a “rare species” of the Saxon Empire.

And the other party’s style, more like a technician, also somewhat subverted the stereotype of mages in Morin’s mind.

However, a Transmutation Mage responsible for the development of armor materials… seemed to make sense?

Just as these thoughts flashed through Morin’s mind, Staudinger couldn’t wait to continue.

“Lieutenant Colonel Morin, the spaced armor you proposed is indeed effective, significantly improving defense against HEAT warheads…”

Morin: “You have already conducted tests?”

“Yes, tested for several rounds. At least it has a good defensive effect against our own currently equipped HEAT weapons! But…”

The old man sighed, pointing to one of the completely deformed, crumbling steel plates and continued: “This thing is too fragile. Let alone assault cannons equipped by enemy and friendly Armored Knights, even high-explosive shells from field guns, or even continuous strafing from large-caliber machine guns, can dismantle this layer of spaced armor.”

“Exactly. Rubbing against walls in urban warfare could cause deformation and detachment…”

Leonia also took over Staudinger’s words: “Moreover, after hanging this layer, the machine’s center of gravity changed. Knights reported that the handling felt very strange, especially when performing tactical evasive maneuvers…”

The problems mentioned by the two were actually within Morin’s expectations.

After all, spaced armor wasn’t originally developed for Armored Knights. Armored vehicles and tanks in another world obviously didn’t have the omni-directional maneuverability of Armored Knights, nor would they crash into walls in urban warfare.

So Morin proposed it at the time as an emergency stopgap measure. To really solve the problem…

“So regarding the ‘Composite Armor’ I mentioned last time, have Your Excellency Grand Master and you conducted research?” Morin looked at Leonia and Staudinger and asked.

“Of course!”

Hearing Morin’s question, Staudinger took him to a workbench on the side, on which lay a black plate.

That black plate wasn’t big, just half a meter square, lying quietly on a table covered with fireproof cloth.

From the appearance, it looked no different from ordinary steel plates, but Morin noticed that the side of this plate had a distinct layered structure, like a sandwich cookie.

“This is the first composite armor sample we trial-produced based on your theory.”

Chief Technician Staudinger walked over, stroked the plate cherishly, and then continued to introduce to Morin: “The outer layer is 15mm high-hardness carburized steel, the inner layer is 20mm homogeneous steel plate, as for the middle…”

The old man paused and picked up a white fragment from the side.

“This is what we sandwiched in the middle—has Lieutenant Colonel Morin heard of aluminum oxide ceramic?”

Hearing the term “aluminum oxide,” Morin’s eyes widened instantly.

Because in the bulletproof ceramic materials of another world, the main ones were aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, and boron carbide… and aluminum oxide was also the earliest material used to make bulletproof ceramics.

“‘Aluminum oxide’ I have heard of, but I didn’t expect you to use it as the material for this ceramic…”

“Hahahaha, Lieutenant Colonel Morin is not a professional in this field after all, so naturally not that sensitive. However, we old guys who have long focused on material properties thought of aluminum oxide after hearing you mention using the properties of ‘ceramic’ to counter shaped charge metal jets.”

Staudinger said somewhat proudly, handing the white fragment in his hand to Morin.

Morin took the fragment. It felt slightly heavy, hard and cold in texture.

“Following your idea, we tried sandwiching this ceramic between steel plates.”

The Technician Chief pointed to the armor plate used as a target in the distance. There was an obvious charred pit on it, but judging from the target paper further behind, it was not penetrated.

“The live-fire test results were shocking. When the metal jet of the HEAT warhead hits this layer of ceramic, the high hardness of the ceramic will continuously wear down the jet, and…”

“And the volume expansion and fragments generated when the ceramic shatters will seriously interfere with the stability of the jet, right?” Morin took over the conversation.

“Exactly, that’s the principle! Is Lieutenant Colonel Morin also a Mage of the School of Transmutation?”

The Technician Chief slapped his thigh fiercely, looking at Morin as if looking at a soulmate.

“Ah… actually I am School of Abjuration…” Morin replied.

“That’s the same! In short, the jet that could originally penetrate 80mm steel plates failed to completely penetrate even the last backplate after passing through this composite structure only 40mm thick!”

Leonia stood aside, watching the old and the young chatting happily, the light in her eyes becoming deeper.

Although she was a top knight, she wasn’t proficient in these profound scientific principles.

But this didn’t prevent her from understanding the result—the plan proposed by Morin could really save lives.

“But…” After the Technician Chief’s excitement passed, his face fell again, “The problem is also obvious.”

He pointed to the sample: “This ceramic is too brittle. Although it can block the first attack, the ceramic layer inside will shatter over a large area after impact. If the enemy hits the same spot with a second shot…”

“Then it’s certain death.”

Morin nodded. This was a common problem of first-generation composite armor, poor capability against multiple hits.

“Moreover, fixing this thing inside the armor is also troublesome.” The Technician Chief continued to complain, “Ceramics are afraid of vibration. Armored Knights make so much noise when running. Before the enemy even hits, the ceramics inside might shatter from vibration themselves.”

Morin pondered for a moment.

In this era without Kevlar or high-polymer nylon, solving the fixation and anti-shatter problems of ceramics was indeed a difficult problem.

But this didn’t mean there was no way.

“Did you glue the ceramic blocks directly to the steel plate?” Morin asked.

“Yes…”

“That’s the crux of the problem. Just gluing it on certainly won’t work.”

Morin picked up a piece of chalk, went behind the armor plate, and then added another layer of lines behind the ceramic layer with the chalk.

“Ceramics need constraint. They can’t be directly sandwiched between steel plates hard against hard. We need to add a layer of backing material with high tensile strength behind the ceramic to absorb the kinetic energy when the ceramic shatters and prevent ceramic fragments from flying around.”

“High tensile strength?” Staudinger rubbed his chin, “You mean like silk?”

“Stronger than silk, more heat-resistant, and cheaper.”

Morin quickly searched the material library of this world in his mind. Nylon hadn’t been invented, Kevlar was even more nonexistent, but—

“Fiberglass.”

Morin spat out a word. This was content updated in the system’s [Information] tab when he discussed optical sights with Helga and learned about glass product information before.

“I remember in some insulation material factories, there is already this kind of thing… drawing glass into extremely fine threads, then bonding and pressing them into plates with resin. It’s very light but has excellent toughness.”

Staudinger was stunned for a moment, then slapped his thigh fiercely: “Damn it! Why didn’t I think of this insulation board! This thing was one of the derivatives Master Otto Schott came up with back then…”

“We’ve been using that thing as a substrate for magitech circuits, but never thought of using it on armor!”

(End of chapter)