Add Bookmark | Recommend this book | Back to the book page | My bookshelf | Mobile Reading

Free Web Novel,Novel online - All in oicq.net -> Historic -> chinese fourth empire

Text Chapter 1,421 Naval Reform

Previous page        Return to Catalog        Next page

    Compared with the army's reform, which mainly focuses on the construction of armored forces and the construction of army aviation, the navy's reform is much more troublesome!  The three major fleets of the Imperial Navy have thousands of ships including capital ships, aircraft carriers, heavy cruisers, light cruisers, destroyers, frigates, landing ships, transport ships, gunboats and patrol boats!  In addition, the previous establishment of the Home Fleet, Pacific Fleet and Indian Ocean Fleet is no longer suitable and needs to be changed!  Coupled with the changes caused by the emergence of aircraft carriers, the navy will no longer be centered on capital ships, but will be centered on aircraft carriers. The construction plan for aircraft carrier formations, etc., are all very complicated!  The General Staff and the Navy teamed up and spent half a month. During this period, the Chief of the General Staff, Marshal Cai Yun, and the Minister of the Navy, Marshal Zhang Cheng, met with the Emperor Wang Yuze several times to seek his opinions before finally finalizing the navy's reform plan.  Come down.  This process alone has exhausted the generals and staff officers of the two departments!

    On January 8, 1914, Emperor Wang Yuze and Crown Prince Wang Zirui attended a naval meeting held at the Ministry of the Navy. The navy's reform plan will also be announced to the navy generals at this meeting!

    "Your Majesty, after discussion, the Navy has decided to reduce the number of capital ships to one. The remaining capital ships include two 'Imperial-class' battleships, four 'Tang-class' battleships, six 'Hanshin-class' fast battleships, and six  The 'Han-class' battleship, the captured US Navy's 1 'Pennsylvania-class' battleship 'USS Massachusetts', 1'Nevada-class' battleship 'USS Arizona', 1'New York-class' battleship 'USS Texas',  Two 'Wyoming-class' battleships 'Wyoming' and 'Louisiana', one 'Queen Elizabeth-class' battleship 'Queen Elizabeth' of the British Navy, five 'Iron Duke-class' battleships, including 'Iron  HMS Duke, HMS Benbow, HMS Canada, HMS Marlborough and HMS Erin, 4 'King George V' class battleships, including HMS King George V,  'Ajax', 'Audacious' and 'Centurion', 1 'Thunder' in the 'Orion-class' battleships, a total of 34 ships, including two battleships with a caliber of 406 mm, caliber  There are 6 battleships with a caliber of 381 mm, and the rest are battleships with a caliber of 343 mm!

    In addition, there are 3 'Qin-class' battleships, 4 'Zhonghua-class' battleships and 3 'Baiqi-class' battlecruisers, as well as 4 captured battleships of the French Navy, 13 battleships of the US Navy, and the British Navy.  1 battleship, 4 battleships of the Italian Navy!  The main guns of these battleships have a caliber of only 305 mm!  Therefore, the Navy Department decided to mothball these battleships or sell them to friendly countries!

    In terms of heavy cruisers, the Imperial Navy only retains the ¡®Jianghe-class¡¯ heavy cruisers, with a total of 32 now.  In terms of light cruisers, only the ¡®Ningbo-class¡¯ light cruisers are retained, and there are now 62 in total.  In terms of destroyers, only the ¡®Fuqing-class¡¯ destroyers are retained, with a total of 106 now.  All 60 ¡®Lop Nur-class¡¯ frigates are retained!  At the same time, these warships will gradually undergo modern modifications, mainly to enhance the power system, install sonar systems and air defense weapons, and enhance the warships' air and anti-submarine warfare capabilities!

    In addition, according to the new fleet organization with aircraft carriers as the core, the Navy will build a large cruiser specially used for air defense, as well as a new heavy cruiser!  The Navy will cancel the development of light cruisers and use large destroyers to replace light cruisers. This large destroyer will have the functions of both light cruisers and destroyers!  The design of new frigates will also be launched to further enhance anti-submarine and air-to-air combat capabilities!  "Marshal Zhang Cheng introduced to the Imperial Emperor Wang Yuze and the important generals of the Navy!

    Wang Yuze has long known the specific reform plan of the Navy.  Many of these suggestions were made by him!  For example, cancel the light cruiser and so on!  In a fleet with an aircraft carrier as its core, the maximum speed of the fleet must be increased to about thirty knots.  Therefore, the supporting battleships need to be redesigned.  When China's enemies also begin to develop aviation power on a large scale, dedicated anti-aircraft large cruisers that provide protection for aircraft carriers become even more important!  This kind of large air defense cruiser does not need to have strong anti-ship or land attack capabilities. Their main duty is to serve as the aircraft carrier's personal bodyguard. Once the aircraft carrier fleet is attacked by enemy fighter planes, it will use its powerful anti-air firepower to shoot it down.  Enemy fighter planes, protect the aircraft carrier!  When necessary, he can even serve as a human shield and sacrifice himself to protect the aircraft carrier!  At the same time, because China's enemies are already very powerful in terms of submarines, it is also very necessary to strengthen the anti-submarine warfare capabilities of the fleet!

    The naval generals who attended the meeting felt somewhat uncomfortable when they heard that more than 20 battleships and battlecruisers would be mothballed or sold!  Many of their generals came from the era of giant ships and cannons, and had special feelings for capital ships. Compared with using planes to sink enemy warships, the battle between capital ships made their blood boil even more.  !  However, even if it is sealed and sold,These battleships have a caliber of 305 mm, and the number of remaining battleships is still as high as 34. This is already the world's largest main fleet!  Of course, according to the character of Emperor Wang Yuze, if other countries are willing to purchase these battleships, Wang Yuze will definitely sell them and only retain about a dozen large-caliber battleships to undertake operations under special conditions!

    Although aircraft carriers have become the dominant force in naval battles, we have to admit that in certain battlefields, battleships still play an extremely important role!  For example, during a night battle, once the aircraft carrier formation is approached by the enemy's main fleet, it will be a dead end!  The fragile aircraft carrier is simply vulnerable to the main guns of the battleship!  One shot of the 381mm main gun is enough to cause an aircraft carrier to be severely damaged or even sunk!  This requires that the aircraft carrier fleet must have high speed. When encountering the enemy's main fleet, it can escape with the speed advantage, and then wait until dawn before taking off fighter planes to kill the enemy's main fleet!  In addition, when supporting the landing of the Marine Corps, the capital ship also plays a huge role!  The main gun of the battleship can easily penetrate the enemy's coastal defense fortress and clear obstacles for the Marines.  And this kind of sustained firepower is something that an aircraft carrier cannot achieve!

    "Submarines are also an important direction for the development of the Imperial Navy! During the war, Germany used submarines to sink more than two million tons of British and American merchant ships, almost blocking the eastern Atlantic route, which beneficially weakened Britain's war potential! Once  If a war breaks out between us and Germany, we will also be attacked by the German Navy's submarine force! Don't forget, Germany has colonies in the Pacific consisting of countless islands, and submarine docks can be built on many islands! Therefore, the Empire  The Navy will also develop submarines! In the next five years, the Imperial Navy will build more ocean-going submarines, at least hundreds of them, to form the German advantage of the Imperial submarine force! Once a war breaks out, the Imperial submarine force will also be able to blockade  Germany¡¯s sea lines of communication!¡± Marshal Zhang Cheng, Minister of the Navy, continued!

    Although the Chinese Navy began to develop submarines as early as 20 years ago, as the Chinese Navy gradually surpassed other countries in surface ships, it did not pay much attention to the development of submarines.  Germany was different. When they were blocked by the British Royal Navy, their surface ships could only stay in the port. The only ones that could break through the British Navy's blockade were underwater submarines!  This has greatly improved the tactics of the German Navy's submarine force and the performance of submarines. The most famous one is undoubtedly the 'Wolf Pack' tactic!  Even though the Chinese Navy has built a 'Lop Nur-class' anti-submarine frigate specially used for anti-submarine warfare, special attention is still required for underwater submarines!

    Germany¡¯s development of submarine force is also a last resort!  Being cornered by the British Navy, with no other option, we had to rely on submarines!  Of course, submarines cannot make Germany a maritime power. After all, submarines are only destructive weapons, not control weapons!  If you want to gain control of a certain sea area, you still have to rely on surface warships!  Of course, now the German Navy has once again begun to vigorously develop surface ships.  But we have to beware that once China and Germany go to war and the German Navy's surface ships are annihilated, the German Navy will definitely use submarines as the last means of counterattack again!

    Therefore, in addition to tit-for-tat development of submarines, the Chinese Navy must also speed up the development of weapons to counter submarines!  The ¡®Lop Nur-class¡¯ anti-submarine frigate is the Chinese Navy¡¯s first attempt!  Although the 'Lop Nur' class anti-submarine frigates were equipped with crude sonar, they still showed extremely strong combat effectiveness during the war. They sank a large number of submarines when fighting the US Navy and the British Navy!

    To this end, the Chinese Academy of Naval Sciences is already developing newer sonar!  These sonar will not only be equipped on anti-submarine frigates, but also on all destroyers to strengthen the anti-submarine capabilities of the fleet!

    In addition, the speed of the battleship is too low to quickly search the vast sea area to find traces of enemy submarines!  Emperor Wang Yuze has made a request to develop an aircraft specifically for anti-submarine warfare, which can be deployed near the empire's coastline and on overseas islands to cooperate with warships on the water to form an integrated air and surface anti-submarine warfare force!  (To be continued. Please search Piaotian Literature, the novels will be better and updated faster!)
Didn't finish reading? Add this book to your favoritesI'm a member and bookmarked this chapterCopy the address of this book and recommend it to your friends for pointsChapter error? Click here to report