All-people naval warfare: from patrol boats to aircraft carrier fleets

This is actually not Nimitz's suggestion, but Ye Bai. As a light battleship designed and built with German pocket battleships as imaginary enemies, its performance is much weaker than the same level of battleships from other countries.

At that time, due to the impact of the defeat in World War I, Germany lacked sufficient technical reserves in the design and construction of large-caliber naval guns, and its capabilities were also relatively backward.

When building large main battleships, because the design and construction of large-caliber naval guns could not keep up with the progress, they had to be replaced with smaller-caliber naval guns. For example, this Deutschland-class pocket battleship is equipped with a 283mm main gun. It has more firepower than a heavy cruiser, and even worse than a battlecruiser.

Treating this kind of battleship as an imaginary enemy, the performance of the Dunkirk-class battleship can be understood. Not to mention other armor protection and speed, the most important main gun caliber is only 330mm. Even if the main gun caliber is small, , and another huge flaw is that it uses four-gun fire. In naval battles, as long as one turret is blown up, it is equivalent to losing half of the firepower of the entire warship.

Let the Dunkirk-class battleship join the battle line in a naval battle and engage in bombardment with battleships that generally exceed a diameter of 355mm or even a diameter of 400mm. Apart from the thick armor, there is really no advantage.

Ye Bai also remembered that in his previous life, many people had discussed whether the Dunkirk class was considered a battleship or a battlecruiser. There had never been an accurate answer. After all, battleships during World War II were sometimes not so clearly divided.

Later, someone simply put forward a new point of view, which was to call it a light battleship just like the so-called pocket battleship. To put it bluntly, the Dunkirk class was still included in the battlecruiser camp.

Therefore, in the great maritime world, especially after the Chinese fleet mastered the construction technology of Nelson-class battleships, 847 Ye Bai looked down on this light battleship even more. An idea flashed in his mind, and he simply asked the scientific research center to work harder. Modify the power system of the Dunkirk class, increase its speed, and officially transform it into a battlecruiser.

It has been mentioned before that due to their relatively weak armor, battlecruisers were almost slowly eliminated after World War I. However, in the world of navigation, due to different rules and circumstances, their usefulness is still It's not small, even more versatile than a battleship.

Ye Bai discussed this issue with Nimitz. How should the battlecruisers be used? Let them form a battleship formation together with the battleships to face the enemy's battleships head-on. It is not impossible, but it is not suitable.

Even though there are some differences in the rules, the problem of battlecruisers' weak armor has not been improved. Simply looking at the data, the armor value of battlecruisers is much lower than that of real battleships.

The real advantage of the battlecruiser is that it has faster speed and more powerful firepower than ordinary battleships, especially heavy cruisers. To put it bluntly, it is a cruiser killer, typically bullying the weak and fearing the strong.

This kind of battleship is most suitable for leading a group of cruiser boys to specifically attack the opponent's cruisers, rather than fighting battleships.

Previously, the Chinese fleet had been equipped with Prestige-class battlecruisers and Lion-class battlecruisers. These two battlecruisers were designed and built during World War I. The caliber of the main guns was sufficient, but other aspects seemed a bit lacking. We are lagging behind, and the speed is only about 30 knots, and in many cases it is only 28 or 29 knots.

When facing cruisers, especially new-type destroyers, the speed of such a battlecruiser is somewhat insufficient. No matter how fierce the firepower is, it is of no use if it cannot catch up. Its position in the fleet seems a bit embarrassing.

It happened that Ye Bai looked down upon the 330mm main gun of the Dunkirk-class battleship, so he simply suggested that this battleship be modified, even if it weakened some of the armor protection, but also to free up space to modify its power system, so as to The speed is increased to more than 30 knots and used as a battlecruiser.

Ye Bai even suggested that in the future, battlecruisers in the fleet would no longer be counted as capital ships. Just as escort aircraft carriers are mainly responsible for escort, anti-submarine and other tasks, the mission of battlecruisers is to attack the opponent's cruise fleet.

It can be said that what Nimitz just said was, on the surface, just downgrading the Dunkirk-class battleships to battlecruisers, but in fact it actually changed the fleet's naval battle tactics and troop formations.

Why Nimitz wanted to speak out at this time was because Langsdorff was about to take office as the commander of the 308th Island Guard Fleet.

And Langsdorff was also a smart man. He knew the elegant meaning after hearing the news, and immediately understood the hidden meaning of Nimitz. He shrugged his shoulders and said that he understood how to use the modified Dunkirk-class battlecruiser..

But he also raised a new question:"Chief of Staff, which battleship will the guard fleet be equipped with in the future?"

Before Nimitz could answer, Ye Bai couldn't help but rolled his eyes and said softly:"We are now In addition to the Nelson-class battleships, are there any other battleships that can be built by ourselves?"

"Don't worry, half of the aircraft carriers and battlecruisers that have been launched in the small space have been included in the establishment of the garrison fleet. After the new batch of Nelson-class battleships are completed and launched, I will add 5 more Nelsons to the garrison fleet. -class battleship."

Langsdorf smiled when he heard this, and he was immediately satisfied. He didn't expect to be able to get a batch of battleships to supplement him. As the commander of the garrison fleet, of course he was very satisfied.

He had even made plans in his mind. When After these warships joined the guard fleet, most of the battlecruisers were mobilized to form a patrol fleet, responsible for destroying pirate warships in the sea area that could never be defeated. (To read Baoshuang novels, go to Feilu Novel Network!) During this period , Langsdorff has been serving in the Yuntong Island Guard Fleet, and discovered a very critical problem. There are a large number of pirate warships operating in the sea area (cjcb), but these pirate fleets are strong and weak. The strong ones have Battlecruisers, escort aircraft carriers, and a large number of cruisers and destroyers. As for the weak ones, there are not even many heavy cruisers. They are basically small and medium-sized battleships. The patrol fleet on Yuntong Island is basically composed of heavy cruisers, with Light cruisers and destroyers in varying numbers are a bit unsatisfied when encountering these large pirate fleets during patrols. They often need to ask for help from the guard fleet. Firstly, it delays time and makes it easy for the other party to slip away. Secondly, It is also easy to cause greater losses to the patrol fleet.

Now directly using battlecruisers and escort aircraft carriers as the core to form a new patrol fleet, this problem can be easily solved.

Not only Langsdorf, but also Yuntong Island The commander of the garrison fleet, Admiral Cunningham, also had this idea. Unfortunately, when Ye Bai was forming the Yuntong Island garrison fleet, the main fleet happened to be in urgent need of expansion in order to attack the island No. 308, and there was not much at all. Battlecruisers can be added to the guard fleet. This plan has not been implemented on Yuntong Island.

Now Langsdorff has taken advantage of it. Taking advantage of the fact that the main fleet is on the 308th island, he has priority to obtain the battleship. The addition of cruisers allowed the idea in his mind to be perfectly realized.

After the excitement, Langsdorff regained his calm again and continued to ask:"Sir, can the new round of built cruisers and destroyers also give priority to supplementing our guard fleet? After all, we still need to be responsible for the defense of several resource points, and there is a huge demand for these small and medium-sized warships."

Ye Bai did not hesitate at all, nodded directly and said:"This is no problem. The first thing after the establishment of the guard fleet is to use the existing warships to occupy all the five resource points. How to allocate the defense force is up to you. It's up to the commander to decide"

"The new batch of destroyers is expected to be launched tomorrow, and the light and heavy cruisers will be slower, but within a week at most, I promise to replenish the guard fleet with a batch of light and heavy cruisers."

With Ye Bai's personal promise, Langsdorff instantly felt relieved. He stood up, gave a military salute, and said loudly:"Please don't worry, sir. I will definitely live up to your hopes."

The situation that should be inquired has been clarified, and the support he wanted has been obtained. Langsdorff did not stay at the war situation center any longer, turned around and left the Yanhuang.

Over at the military port of the island No. 308, There is a large military camp, which is where the garrison fleet is stationed. When they are not at sea to perform tasks, the officers and soldiers of the garrison fleet stay in the military camp, including Commander Langsdorf. The military camp at this moment Among them, there are many officers and soldiers training and busy. There are also many officers in the fleet headquarters that has been fully equipped for a long time. The guard fleet has just been established, and there are many things to do.

But Langsdorff does not worry about these things now. Under the order, the warships started to power one by one and set sail from the port. A total of 100 warships all set off from Island No. 30.[]

Originally there were only 100 warships, and they still had to occupy five resource points. No matter how the defense force was deployed, it seemed a bit weak, so Langsdorf changed his mind and adopted another approach.

Anyway, with the main fleet here, there is no need to worry about the security of island 308 for the time being. Langsdorff directly dispatches the entire army and captures the five resource points first.

Before the new warships are replenished, he plans to temporarily equip each resource point with 10 small and medium-sized warships as a temporary defense force, and the remaining 50 warships in the guard fleet will form a fleet.

This fleet patrols around 5 resource points. If any resource point is attacked, the fleet can immediately provide support. Although this fleet only has 50 warships, its strength is not weak. It has 2 light aircraft carriers, 2 Escort aircraft carrier, 2 battleships and 4 battlecruisers, the average fleet is no match at all..