afterglow

Chapter 666: Revival of Torpedo Attack; Electrostatic Proximity Fuze

After finishing the inspection of the Laizhou test site, Zhou Changfeng and his party went directly to Fushan Prefecture.

In the meeting room of the naval base building, a lieutenant colonel staff officer spoke out to express his views on carrier-based aircraft attack tactics.

"Everyone, reviewing the recent naval battles shows that the enemy's air defense capabilities have improved significantly. The difficulty and losses of our carrier-based aircraft in penetrating defenses are far greater than before. Does this mean that dive attacks are gradually no longer the best choice?"

The colonel sitting across from him calmly poured himself a cup of tea and said calmly, "Indeed, it is much more difficult now than before, but dive attacks have their own big advantage of hit rate, and we can't find an alternative method for the time being."

Seeing that no one on the scene clearly objected, the lieutenant colonel continued to explain in detail:

"During the last Hawaiian naval battle, my air strike fleet used pure bombers as the strike force in the first few sorties. We used a large number of aircraft to concentrate attacks to ensure that the enemy ships were sunk, and we also suffered heavy losses accordingly."

"What if we optimize the attack formation? We use half of the bombers to disperse the attack first. We don't aim to sink the enemy aircraft carrier, but we can damage it, destroy its takeoff and landing capabilities, and reduce its speed."

"Then, the remaining half of the torpedo planes don't have to risk getting too close. Dropping torpedoes from a long distance can guarantee a certain number of hits. Torpedoes have a range of two to three thousand meters at a medium speed. At this distance, they can aim and drop torpedoes and then evacuate."

The lieutenant colonel believed that although the attack formation could ensure the destruction of the aircraft carrier by concentrated attacks with dive bombers, its own losses would also be heavy.

In the recent naval battle west of the Mori Fault Zone, the Ming army's air strike fleet lost more than half of its dive bombers in the first two waves of attacks. After the third wave, the dive bomber units basically lost their combat capability.

Therefore, the lieutenant colonel believed that tactics should be optimized to reduce losses, and it was inappropriate to rely solely on dive bombers as a means of attack.

As the next generation of carrier-based bombers and improved aerial torpedoes are finalized, it is necessary to revive the torpedo attack tactics.

The Type 33 aerial torpedo currently in service with the Ming army was successfully developed and finalized by the Naval Weaponry Institute in the 33rd year of Zhichang. It is a very excellent light torpedo. Since the outbreak of the war, countless warships have been killed by it.

It is no exaggeration to say that if the Ming army's aerial torpedoes were as poor as those of the British and American ones at the beginning of the war, it would probably not have been possible to achieve brilliant results.

初期常用的三三式航空鱼雷乙型设定为最大航速44节时航程1600m，中等航速36节时航程2500m，允许以至多400㎞/h速度和150m高度投放。

In comparison, the MkVII aerial torpedoes used by the British Royal Navy at the time could only be launched at a maximum speed of 144 km/h and an altitude of 30 m, which was a very harsh condition.

Of course, the war tempered everything, and the British and American militaries' aerial torpedoes also made great progress.

The situation of the Ming army was a little special. They kept holding on to the Type 33B, not because they were complacent, but because it was sufficient - the slow torpedo planes might not be able to fly at the maximum speed for delivery.

However, with the rapid iteration of weapons and equipment and the serious internal competition in the Pacific naval and air war, the Ming Navy has decided to combine torpedo planes and dive bombers into one, so that one machine can have multiple uses and simplify the configuration of carrier-based aircraft.

The new carrier-based bomber uses a powerful double-row eighteen-cylinder radial engine. It can take off from an aircraft carrier while carrying heavy bombs or two torpedoes, and it can fly very fast, with terrifying performance.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty Naval Weaponry Institute did not dare to delay and immediately began to further strengthen the Type 33 aerial torpedo.

After key structural reinforcement, when used with a deceleration wooden box and an attitude stabilization frame, the torpedo can be dropped at a maximum speed of 550 km/h and an altitude of 400 m. The failure rate after falling into the water is no higher than 10%, which is completely acceptable.

In addition, in view of the fact that the enemy's newly commissioned warships generally have enhanced underwater protection capabilities, the Naval Institute of Science and Technology has correspondingly expanded the torpedo warhead from the original 250kg to 270kg, and the total weight of the torpedo has increased from 872kg to 910kg. The range remains unchanged and it was officially finalized as Type D.

The Ming Navy conducted an extreme test in mid-November this year - three Type 1200 interceptor bombers, Golden Eagle, dropped six Type 570D missiles at an altitude of m and a speed of km/h, far exceeding the limit.

Despite such harsh conditions, four torpedoes still did not malfunction. Only two torpedoes had propeller damage, yaw, and sank after falling into the water.

The Navy was quite satisfied with this and immediately requested mass production of the new model.

The officers were discussing the matter with great interest.

At the end of this topic, Zhou Changfeng reminded everyone that although the Germans were certain that radio (electromagnetic wave) proximity fuses were impossible with the current level of technology, intelligence showed that the Americans had not stopped their development work on proximity fuses and might have made a breakthrough, so they must not take it lightly.

He added: "It is still necessary to be lenient with the enemy. Regarding this matter, the navy and air force should be more careful, issue a notice, and report any suspected situation in a timely manner."

A technical major from the Naval Weaponry Research Institute said, "It's incredible to control the explosion of artillery shells close to the target through electromagnetic wave reflection. Such a sophisticated instrument... must be both sturdy and compact. I've seen the sample of the electrostatic principle fuze that Ziyun and Yong Chang worked on. It's still not very reliable despite all the trouble. The electromagnetic wave principle... I don't dare to think about it."

The technology of the radio proximity fuze is too difficult and its structure is too complicated. The technical demonstration concluded that it would only be feasible in five to ten years, so the Ming Dynasty gave up related research early.

After weighing the pros and cons, Zhou Changfeng decided to set the research target as the electrostatic proximity fuse - he believed that this would be a simple task for the Ming Dynasty.

More than a year has passed, and the progress is still relatively optimistic.

He asked with interest: "You were still evaluating technical and tactical indicators last month, right? What generation of samples have you produced now?"

The technical major held up his pinky and thumb and replied, "The sixth modification."

“Is there anything real here?”

"Uh... there really is one. Our team brought one back from a research trip to Shanghai the other day."

Due to the high level of confidentiality, the sample of the electrostatic proximity fuze was packed in an aluminum alloy box and stored in the storage room of the naval base.

The subordinates have to run around for just one word from their superiors.

The building where everyone was located was on the northwest side of the naval base, and the storage room was on the southeast side. After a twenty-minute round trip by car, the aluminum alloy box was finally delivered to the conference room.

The two fuses are similar in size, one slightly larger and the other slightly smaller. They look like small conical metal bottles with several threads in the middle.

The larger one is for 131.2mm heavy dual-purpose guns, and the smaller one is for 128mm dual-purpose guns.

The principle of the electrostatic proximity fuze is simple. Its basic structure is a spark discharger, an electric igniter, a battery, and an insulated electrode. It is simple and clear.

When an aircraft is flying, it will carry a large amount of charge. When the electrostatic proximity fuze approaches the aircraft, the electrodes will generate a potential difference, causing the voltage in the circuit to increase. When the threshold is reached, the voltage makes the spark discharger effective and the fuze will detonate. However, due to the uneven charge of the atmosphere in nature, it is easy to interfere with the electrostatic proximity fuze, so the sensitivity must be set just right.

If it is set too slow, the effective distance will be very short, perhaps only one or two meters.

If the setting is too sensitive, it is likely to detonate prematurely when the distance is too far.

However, the characteristics of the electrostatic proximity fuze determine that its maximum effective distance is only 4~5m, while the radio proximity fuze can reach 16~20m. In terms of the upper limit, the former has a natural disadvantage.

【Picture】

"The effective range is about three meters, and the failure rate is 25%. The current problem is that the sensitivity of this thing is hard to determine. It is not easy to find a suitable middle value. If you adjust it slightly higher...it will explode from a distance." The technical major spread his hands and introduced it to everyone.

"It looks pretty complete." Zhou Changfeng played with it in his hand for a while, then looked up and asked, "How long will it take before it can be used in actual combat? The last reply from the Ordnance Bureau was vague."

"If you insist, it's not impossible to use it the way it is now." The major paused and smiled helplessly, "Sir, you know that this won't be very useful. We still need to think about how to optimize it."

"Keep urging them to allocate additional funds, another 100 million! Anyway, the court has recently issued more than 10 billion yuan, so we have to spend it if necessary."

"Mr. Zhou is so generous!"

The Ming Dynasty court was always cautious and wary of issuing more banknotes, probably because it was an overreaction due to historical lessons.

Turning on the printing press to print money to deal with the fiscal deficit is a simple and crude way. Objectively speaking, it does work well, but once you get used to it, it can easily get out of control.

Modern economic theory holds that the key to inflation lies in whether there is sufficient supply of goods circulating in the market. If there is sufficient supply of goods, then issuing more banknotes will not aggravate inflation. This is why it is necessary to vigorously crack down on hoarding.

In view of the fact that there was basically no shortage of production capacity of private consumer goods, the Ming court changed its previous stingy style this time and experimentally issued an additional 150 billion yen in one go, and was prepared to issue another 100 billion yen at its discretion.

The printing presses at the banknote printing factory under the Taxation Administration ran at a high speed day and night, and tons of brand new Sihai banknotes were printed.

The imperial court also deliberately conducted a classification experiment - no deliberate control was carried out in Shuntian and Yingtian, allowing the spontaneous changes in the market to take effect; market circulation management was implemented in Shanghai and Guangzhou to crack down on hoarding and black markets.

During the days when Zhou Changfeng came to inspect, the major battle between the two sides in the Australian battlefield around Bundaberg also entered a white-hot stage.

However, Zhou Changfeng was not very interested in it, because such a head-on offensive and defensive battle was really nothing to watch, it was just a pure meat grinder.

According to the latest battle report, the 127th, 11th and 37th Divisions have all withdrawn from the battle due to heavy losses, and fighting is still fierce on both sides of the Great Divide.

The US-Australian coalition's resolute defense was exactly what the Ming army wanted - they would have to fight a bloody battle sooner or later anyway, so it was better to do it as soon as possible.

The confident military leaders intended to use this major battle to consume a quarter of the US-Australian coalition's manpower and create favorable conditions for continuing to advance southward.

Therefore, when the three divisions retreated one after another, the Australian Corps sent out three more divisions to replace them and repeatedly attacked the defense lines around Bundaberg.

As of December 12, when Zhou Changfeng returned to the capital city of Yingtian, the Battle of Bundaberg had lasted for exactly twenty-three days since it broke out on November 2.

The bloody battle has claimed thousands of lives, and tens of thousands of artillery shells and aerial bombs have turned the plains near the Great Dividing Range into a moonscape with craters and pits.

The Australian 3rd Division in the east was crippled in the first few days of the battle, and the Australian 10th Division in the west was not much better. After holding the line for a week, it suffered heavy losses and was forced to withdraw for reorganization. The US 41st Division followed suit not long ago.

During this period, a rare large-scale tank battle broke out. When the US 41st Division was defeated, Douglas MacArthur ordered the 1st Armored Division and the 1st Armored Brigade (Regiment) to launch a counterattack and disperse the Ming army's offensive forces.

The Ming army then dispatched the 1st Tank Brigade, the 601st Assault Tank Vehicle Team, the 61st Mechanized Infantry Regiment of the 21st Heavy Armored Division, and the division's tank battalion, and after assembling, launched another attack.

澳军总计投入了55辆M3斯图亚特、54辆AC1哨兵、109辆M4谢尔曼，明军则有157辆四〇式、30辆三八式、12辆虎（P）参与战斗。

It is obvious that the Ming army has an absolute advantage in quality - the American-made Stuart light tank is thin in skin and bulky in filling, and the 37mm tank gun it is equipped with is of little use; although the domestically produced Sentinel cruiser tank has good protection, it is equipped with an outdated 2-pound gun. This 40mm tank gun can only be effective when attacking the sides of the Ming army's medium tanks.

【Picture】

A series of tank battles of varying sizes lasted for three days and two nights, with the wreckage of hundreds of tanks, armored vehicles and trucks scattered along the six or seven kilometer-long front.

After nightfall, the burning wreckage turned into a bonfire that illuminated the field.

At the end of the battle, the Australian armored forces were forced to withdraw from the battle, and more than half of the Australian Army's most powerful land combat force was lost in this battle.

The 601st Assault Vehicle Team produced two aces in just a few days. At the same time, the unit also set a record of destroying a target at an ultra-long distance of two kilometers. However, because two vehicles fired at the same time, it was impossible to clearly identify who was responsible for the victory.

Because the performance of the Australian tanks was inferior to that of the Ming army, the Australian armored forces performed mediocrely and caused less than half of the damage to the Ming army's armored forces.

战报显示初步损失的101辆坦克中40辆毁于敌方坦克、16辆毁于地雷、9辆毁于敌方空袭、36辆毁于敌方反坦克炮，而且并非完全损毁，有相当一部分仍可修复。

"The Australians have no chance to fight next. The battle of Bundaberg basically drained their resources. Over the past half month, they have suffered 30,000 casualties."

In the huge hall of the General Staff Office of the Grand Marshal's Office, Zhou Changfeng stood with his hands on his hips, looking at the huge map a few steps away.

Lin Xi beside him nodded, "Australia's troop shortage problem is even more prominent. The gap is 50,000 to 80,000 people. They can't afford to suffer such a loss twice."

One of the staff officers thought of something. "It seems that Australia has approved the bill for women to join the army? Maybe they can squeeze out some young and strong people to hold on for a while longer."

Just as Zhou Changfeng and everyone were pointing at the map, someone suddenly pushed the door open.

The major holding the telegram looked around, took two steps forward and reported: "Sir, Minister, I just copied the news that the French army seems to have made some moves. They seem to have suddenly attacked Melilla."

(End of this chapter)