Film and Television: Starting from the Journey to Guandong

Chapter 137

The Taiho also has a powerful power system: what drives the Taiho aircraft carrier is the same steam turbine system as the Shokaku-class aircraft carrier.

The maximum output power is the same as 160000 horsepower. After the cruise turbine is improved, the maximum cruise horsepower is increased to 66000 horsepower. It can allow the Taiho, a 3-ton giant ship, to reach a high speed of 33 knots.

On July 1941, 7, construction of Taiho began at the No. 10 slipway of Kawasaki Kobe Shipyard.

On February 1944, 2, Taiho sailed out of the Port of Kobe and entered the 3th channel of the Kure Navy Yard through the Laishima Waterway to implement the final outfitting project; on March 4, the aircraft carrier Taiho was finally declared completed and commissioned, ahead of schedule. 3 months.

The aircraft carrier Taiho carried the expectations of the RB Navy and began its short service career.

After serving in the army, after a short period of adjustment, Dafeng returned to Tokuyama on March 3 and was incorporated into the newly formed first mobile fleet (Ozawa Mobile Fleet). On the 25th, he followed the mobile fleet and sailed to Singapore's Linga Anchorage. .

On April 4, Taiho replaced Shokaku and became the flagship of Vice Admiral Ozawa Jisaburo. At the same time, he led the two aircraft carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku and organized them into the First Air Force.

The aircraft carrier Taiho in Tawi Tawi base, the aircraft carrier Zuikaku parked near her and the battleship Nagato can be seen behind and to the right

On May 5, the Ozawa mobile fleet entered the Combined Fleet Tawi-Tawi base to assemble. News of the appearance of a large US fleet and its attack on the Mariana Islands came, and an aircraft carrier decisive battle was about to begin in the Mariana Islands.

In the early morning of June 6, the entire fleet sailed out of Tawi-Tawi base.

Unexpectedly, the launch was unfavorable. Not long after leaving the port, a Tianshan attack aircraft landing on the Dafeng accidentally collided with multiple tethered fighters on the deck and caused a fire. Two Zero Fighters and two Type 2 aircraft were damaged. The Tianshan warship attacked one aircraft, killing one pilot and seven ground crew members.

Although the fire was quickly extinguished, a serious problem had been exposed: the pilot's skills were simply not up to par.

On June 6, the world's largest aircraft carrier battle officially began.

At 8:25, the three aircraft carriers of the First Air Force (Force A) turned into the wind at the same time and dispatched the first attack wave of 3 fighters. Compared with the "Shuanghe", which has fought against US aircraft carriers three times, this is Dafeng's first battle, and everyone on the ship is very excited.

But at this time, the Taiho aircraft carrier had already been targeted by a clever hunter - the USS Big Mackerel submarine was tracking Ozawa's huge aircraft carrier formation with the Spinfin submarine.

Among this large fleet with nine aircraft carriers, the most attractive target is the Taiho.

Only one of the six torpedoes of the submarine Big Blue Fish successfully hit the Taiho, but it successfully sank it. This is also a miracle in the history of naval warfare. Just five months later, the Big Mackerel also struck a mine and sank.

Just as the Taiho was launching its carrier-based aircraft, the submarine Dae Macker fired six torpedoes at the Taiho.

Komatsaki Yuhei Souchang's fighter plane was the last one to take off. He accidentally saw the torpedo track heading towards the Taiho at high speed.

In order to protect the fleet's flagship, he plunged the nose of the plane down and used his fighter plane to block a torpedo for the Taiho.

This painting shows the scene when Komatsaki Yuu's soldier, Captain So, hit a torpedo.

Although Komatsaki Yuhei Cho heroically blocked one torpedo, and the captain steered the ship with all his strength to avoid several torpedoes, one torpedo still hit the Taiho.

However, the Taiho was a cutting-edge aircraft carrier and continued to sail smoothly and at high speed as if nothing happened.

Taiho's elevator was damaged, the volatile oil fuel tank was damaged, and fuel began to spread into the ship's hull.

The command staff decided to plug the leaking hole and ventilate the entire ship to prevent fire.

However, the upper part of the volatile oil fuel depot is the front elevator. There was a fighter plane on the elevator when the impact occurred. The fighter plane was stuck in the middle in a tilted attitude. The current state cannot accommodate the returning fighter plane.

No one could have imagined that almost no one from the first wave of attacking teams would be able to return.

Everyone was busy trying to accommodate the returning fighters. They used wood to prop up the elevator and blocked the entrance to the elevator.

But in fact, only by restoring ventilation to the blocked elevator opening and exhausting the oil and gas can we save the Taiho, which is being pushed to the edge of the cliff by our own people.

In fact, almost no fighter planes were able to return. In the sky above the Ugly Army fleet, they were completely wiped out by the cooperation of fighter jets and anti-aircraft artillery. The skills of the small-book pilots were completely different from those of the Ugly Army.

Xiao Benzi did not expect that all their fighter planes were wiped out by the ugly army, and there was no need to contain the returning fighter planes.

In order to allow the expected return of the carrier-based aircraft to land, both elevators of the Taiho were raised.

Although the ventilation fans of the hangar ventilation system were all turned on, it was still a drop in the bucket, and the concentration of oil and gas quickly rose to a level that made it difficult for people in the hangar to open their eyes.

At around 10:30, it was confirmed that the blocked front elevator port was sufficient to handle the take-off and landing of fighter aircraft. Immediately, the st and nd Air Force aircraft carriers, including Taiho, took off a second wave of attack aircraft. Ozawa Command on the Taiho ship began to turn its attention to air surveillance, and looked forward to sending back good news from the attack team that had been dispatched.

At this time, the accumulation of oil and gas in the hangar of the Taiho aircraft carrier became more and more serious. The crew members were running around, shouting "Don't use fire", but Ozawa did not take any more measures to save the Taiho.

At 11:20, the submarine USS Spiny Fin fired 4 torpedoes and sank the aircraft carrier USS Shokaku.

This veteran ship that had experienced many battles finally sank into the sea. Ozawa lost an aircraft carrier that could be used to accommodate returning fighters, and there was no reason to lower the rear elevator.

At 14:32, a big explosion suddenly occurred on the Taiho (an accidental spark ignited the oil and gas filling the entire ship). The aircraft carrier had stopped traveling at high speed and was only moving forward at idle speed. The surrounding area was as quiet as a dead city.

Suddenly, the machine turret on the port side of the flight deck caught fire. There was a crackling sound of ammunition exploding, and red flames spread everywhere.

This was a fire that broke out from inside the hangar. The defensive steel plates set up for defense were raised high, showing how violent the explosion was.

However, because all the machinery and equipment were also destroyed, water could not come out even when the fire pump was turned on, and thick smoke billowed out from the whole ship.

The fire was out of control, and Ozawa and other commanders had no choice but to evacuate his flagship Taiho and transfer to the heavy cruiser Haguro to continue command.

At this time, the fighter jet moored on the flight deck also deflagrated, and burning aviation gasoline flowed into the sea, quickly turning into a sea of ​​​​fire.

Before Dafeng sank, the ship's interior was filled with ferocious flames, damaged and twisted steel, and the thick steel flight deck was as soft as sugar as it was burned by the fire.

The entire Taiho was like a huge steel-making furnace, burning crazily. While leaving, Commander Ozawa ordered all survivors to gather on the flight deck and evacuate.

The nearby destroyer Isokaze rushed to support and tried to rescue the survivors on the Taiho.

Because the ammunition on the Taifeng was also exploding at this time, the destroyer was unable to approach Taifeng for a while.

After a while, the Isokaze finally approached the Taiho's hull and rescued some personnel.

As soon as the destroyer Isokaze sailed away from the Taiho hull, Taiho made a loud sound from the inside like a final roar, and then quickly capsized to the port side and was submerged in the vast waves.

After three months of service, the warship on which the Ugly Army had pinned its hopes sank.

大凤号沉没在北纬12度05分、东经138度12分海域，1650名官兵随舰同沉，1945年8月26日大凤被除籍。

The aircraft carrier Daeho was an ideal unsinkable battleship in my book, but in actual combat, it was hit by only one torpedo before an oil and gas explosion occurred and sank. There are many reasons for this tragedy:

First of all, Ozawa made a huge mistake in his command. He ignored the possible serious consequences of oil and gas leaks and did not choose to lower the elevator for ventilation, causing the battleship to eventually explode and sink.

At the same time, Xiao Benzi's almost crazy rush to get him into service as soon as possible was also one of the reasons for such a tragedy.

While rushing to work, Xiao Benzi used extensive welding techniques, which made some parts of the hull unstable, which caused the volatile oil fuel tank to leak, and the warship sank to the bottom of the sea.

In general, the Dafeng aircraft carrier is one of the best aircraft carriers in the second station. It has avant-garde design ideas and strong protection and strike capabilities.

The performance in all aspects is very excellent, and it is well-deserved Neon's strongest aircraft carrier. However, Dafeng alone cannot prevent the decline of Xiaobenzi. He can only do his best to do more for his country in the end. A little contribution.

Of course, Xiao Benzi's navy is mainly contained in the Eastern Pacific. In the Western Pacific, there are almost no threats to Xiao Benzi's navy.

This is why Zhu Chuanren is willing to recommend submarines as a killer weapon to Lao Chang.

But there is also a problem. If a submarine is allowed to go to sea alone, the results may be disastrous, because the submarine is a younger brother in front of a destroyer equipped with an advanced radar and sonar system.

You know, during this period, the role of destroyers was far less powerful than that of later generations.

From the first station to the end of the second station, the core mission of the fleet destroyer is not air defense, but anti-torpedo boats/ships + anti-submarine + fireline search and rescue + launching torpedo attacks on the enemy fleet.

The first destroyer in the history of human warfare was HMS Havock of the Royal Navy. Her full name at the time was Torpedo boat destroyers, which translated into Chinese was "torpedo boat destroyer". Later it was shortened to destroyers, which means "destroyer".

The emergence of this kind of warship was to deal with the increasingly powerful torpedo boats in offshore battles at that time. The design idea of ​​HMS Havock was to be larger than the torpedo boats, faster than the torpedo boats, and the gun barrel was thicker than the torpedo boats. Her function in the fleet was Drive away or destroy all torpedo boats that dare to approach the battleship. This function will still be the main function of the destroyer until the station breaks out.

At the same station, submarines turned naval warfare into a three-dimensional battlefield for the first time. In February 1917, the German Navy launched unrestricted submarine warfare, giving destroyers a brand new mission: anti-submarine warfare.

One Station was the most glorious era of submarine warfare. The German Navy sank a total of 1285.1 million tons of Allied merchant ships, and only lost 178 of its own.

At the same time, the threat of submarines to the Allies was not limited to breaking up engagements. U-9 sank three Royal Navy armored cruisers in one hour, and U-21 passed through Gibraltar and sank the Royal Navy's Triumph and HMS Triumph in the Mediterranean. The two battleships HMS Dignity proved that submarines posed a huge threat to surface warships.

Before hydrophones and sonar were used in anti-submarine warfare, surface ships lacked the ability to detect submersible submarines.

The mainstream anti-submarine method at that time was to detect submarines through torpedo tracks or the position of the submarine's exposed periscope, and then conduct multiple rough attacks with main guns or depth bombs.

This method is doomed to have a very low attack efficiency, and it requires highly maneuverable warships to quickly occupy attack positions to drop depth bombs. Destroyers, which have the mobility to surpass torpedo boats, are also responsible for the number one anti-submarine attack in the fleet.

Even after hydrophones and sonar were used in anti-submarine warfare, it was still difficult for surface ships to accurately locate submarines, so they could quickly change their positions. Destroyers with small turning radius further strengthened their status as the main anti-submarine force.

From the 20s to the 30s, the concept of torpedo boat motherships gradually became obsolete, and the threat of torpedo boats to fleets operating in oceans gradually decreased. At the same time, the concept of fleet submarines entered the navies of various countries. The threat of submarines to the main fleets increased day by day, and the anti-submarine function of fleet destroyers was also eliminated. With further strengthening, the functions of anti-torpedo boats will gradually weaken.

Even in the Second Station period, anti-submarine destroyers specialized for anti-submarine warfare appeared.

During the second station, the Battle of the Atlantic proved that the efficiency of aviation anti-submarine warfare was higher than that of surface warships (during the Battle of the Atlantic, 50% of German submarine losses came from Allied aviation), but the aviation force could not guarantee the full escort of the fleet.

Therefore, destroyers have become the last layer of submarine defense for the main fleet. Until the 21st century, many destroyers are still undertaking this layer of tasks.

Aviation joined the naval battlefield during World War I, but aviation never became the main force in naval warfare until the outbreak of the Pacific War. Many capital ships did not begin to gradually strengthen their air defense firepower until the 30s, let alone small warships such as destroyers.

By the outbreak of the second station, most of the battleships were exposed to the shortcomings of weak anti-aircraft firepower and firepower delivery capabilities far inferior to aviation. Destroyers were no exception. However, at that time, few destroyers were responsible for the main anti-ship mission, so such a shortcoming was also Not obvious.

By the end of the second station, the anti-aircraft firepower of most countries' destroyers had only been strengthened to the extent that they could defend themselves. The efficiency of destroyers' small-caliber anti-aircraft guns and high-level dual-purpose guns was far inferior to that of cruisers' large-caliber anti-aircraft guns + proximity fuses. The curtain is effective, but it's not completely useless.

After all, small-caliber anti-aircraft guns can pose a serious threat to torpedo aircraft approaching at low altitude and low speed, and can also become the last line of defense to block torpedo aircraft together with the small-caliber anti-aircraft barrages of battleships. This also reflects the role of fleet destroyers to a certain extent. .

However, after dive bombing became the mainstream anti-ship tactic, the anti-aircraft value of destroyers gradually disappeared. It is difficult for small-caliber anti-aircraft guns to pose a threat to fighters that dive down at high altitude and high speed.

The popularity of aviation on the battlefield has also caused another problem, that is, the problem of rescuing pilots who have fallen into the water. Battleships, cruisers, aircraft carriers and other main battleships slow down to rescue pilots who have fallen into the water on the battlefield. This is a high-risk behavior and may disrupt the tactical formation. Let us A chaotic phalanx will also turn a high-value warship into a high-value living target.

Therefore, in order to solve this problem, the destroyer has once again assumed the role of the savior of pilots. The mobile and flexible destroyer can reach any corner of the battlefield at high speed and rescue pilots who have fallen into the water, ensuring the morale of the aviation force and preserving the precious maritime aviation. pilot.

At the same time, destroyers have also become their saviors for the crews of friendly warships who have abandoned the ship and escaped. For example, the famous destroyer Yukikaze often performs search and rescue missions on the battlefield.

After World War I, torpedo boats gradually withdrew from the stage of fleet combat and retreated to the second line.

After that, the role of the fleet's lightning strike ships gradually changed to unprotected cruisers and destroyers.

Destroyers taking on the role of torpedo boats began to have the firepower to threaten capital ships. Most fleet destroyers built in the 20s and 30s had two or more torpedo-mounted torpedo launchers.

Among them, the Little Book Navy regards destroyer lightning strikes as a key fleet tactic in drills, so that the destroyer formation can disrupt the opponent's battle line and destroy the enemy's battle formation through uniform ultra-long-range torpedo salvos during the fleet decisive battle. It can even cause devastating damage to enemy fleets.

In the Battle of Tassafaronga, the eight destroyers of the Second Mine Squadron led by Tanaka Yorizo ​​dealt a devastating blow to the U.S. Navy's 8th Task Force. With an absolute disadvantage in terms of strength, they followed textbook destroyer torpedo tactics. As a result of the 67th Task Force, one heavy cruiser was sunk, three were severely damaged, and two destroyers were slightly damaged, while the Japanese fleet only lost one destroyer.

Frigates in the combat fleet do not exist. The frigates in the second station will almost never appear in any first-line combat fleet because they are too slow.

Before the war, the design speed of most frigates did not exceed 25 knots. During the war, many frigates produced in an emergency had a speed of just over 15 knots.

For the main fleet that often requires a cruising speed of 20 knots and a tactical speed of 30 knots, the frigates' poor firepower and poor speed are destined to miss it. Most of the frigates in the RN are incorporated into escort formations or North Sea anti-submarine formations. , the Chinese frigates were used as coastal patrol ships, and some also joined the escort formation.

The German F-class frigates are simply handymen, undertaking various tasks such as mine-laying and mine-sweeping weapons testing and offshore patrols. The small navy does not have frigates, but those outdated second-class destroyers can barely be regarded as frigates, and they basically only patrol in safe waters. Anti-submarine or undertake transportation tasks.

Between battleships and destroyers, there is another ship type, and that is cruisers. Cruisers are divided into light cruisers and heavy cruisers.

First of all, we must understand that light and heavy cruisers are a very deformed product: light cruisers are a natural extension of light armored cruisers, but the division of heavy cruisers is the forced division of the London Treaty. The essence is that heavy cruisers are only "the most powerful under the Washington Treaty" "Cruiser" was the name given at the time of the London Naval Treaty.

If given a choice, large light cruisers will never use 6-inch main guns, and heavy cruisers will never be limited to a displacement of tons. These are obvious.

Note that if it is possible for a large defensive light cruiser to choose an 8-inch gun, absolutely, no, any, it is possible to use a 6-inch gun.

Leander's 6-inch firepower is essentially a semi-avant-garde general-purpose cruiser that walks between the 8-inch gun and the 5-inch gun. This does not mean that the 6-inch gun is really the best and first-line light artillery.

The real first-line anti-destroyer cruiser is a small cruiser like the Dido class with 10 5-inch guns (5.25), combined with an ultra-high rate of fire and a large number of air defense and anti-destroyer ships, rather than the expensive -ton city class.

IJN, the originator of the 8-ton light cruiser, replaced Mogami with an 6-inch gun. The USN pursued it all the way into this pit, trying to improve the efficiency of the -inch gun along the way.

The RN's 4-ton light cruiser was a very half-finished activity. The initial plan was to continue to use the Leander class and the Aretosha class to complete the confrontation with Mogami (1 to numerical advantage), and finally decided to build a city-class and future A series of ships based on the City class - and these ships themselves are enlarged versions of the Leander class, not the Super Dido class.

This is very similar to the problem of heavy cruisers. At first glance, the City-class, Brooklyn-class and Mogami are all 5-ton large light cruisers. In fact, the City-class is a general-purpose ship that can replace both the 8-inch cruiser and the -inch cruiser when necessary. The super luxury version.

Brooklyn is the fleet's sword-wielding escort, and the possibility of them replacing the 8-inch cruiser is not considered at all. The last one was an 8-inch gun cruiser from the beginning, but was only temporarily equipped with 6-inch guns.

At first glance, they all appear to be large light cruisers, but in fact they are quite different on the inside.

Having said that, the main users of heavy cruisers: the navies of the British Commonwealth, Germany, Japan, the United States, Italy, France, the Soviet Union, Spain, and Afghanistan have different requirements for them.

As a type of cruiser, of course, the heavy cruiser can be used as an escort cruiser for convoy escort, colonial guarding or as a fleet cruiser for reconnaissance and vanguard engagements.

The British heavy cruiser first places less emphasis on fleet attributes (but this does not mean that the British heavy cruiser is a colonial cruiser, the County class is 100% fleet cruiser, and the real colonial cruiser is a third-class cruiser like the Jewel class or the Aretosha class) :

On the basis of the 2nd and 3rd class cruisers maintained by the British Army - including the post-war C, D, E class and Hawkins class, the British army needs a larger cruiser to act as the core force in the overseas division (capital ship locked down by treaty), delaying a possible offensive by the major naval powers (the United States and Japan) until the Empire could muster sufficient forces to counterattack.

A direct manifestation of this is the famous "70-hulls" plan: out of a total of 70 cruisers, 35 are used to fight Neon's Far Eastern invasion, and the rest are used for imperial security.

Of course, the reality is that the British army has never produced 35 heavy cruisers, and the small book has never obtained 30 heavy cruisers.

When defending, the cruiser is an imperial garrison. When a large-scale combat fleet is operating (fighting against Japan in the Far East), its essence is still to defend the empire and deter attacks.

And this kind of cruiser designed for Ugly and Neon killed the possibility of German overseas raiding ships raiding - the traditional German overseas raiding ships were unable to fight against this kind of heavy cruiser, until the emergence of pocket battleships that could be used As a new product of super raider, the proportion of battleships used exceeds that of all heavy cruisers;

When the London Naval Treaty of heavy cruisers was standardized and Germany received quotas, the German army turned to building large modern battleships and smaller modern heavy cruisers, namely the Hipper class.

Like the British army, Japan, the United States, Italy and France emphasized the fleet functions of heavy cruisers (avant-garde battles and main force decisive battles) from the beginning, but the difference is that there is no need to worry about the quantitative requirements of imperial defense:

The Italian heavy cruiser is initially the same as the French heavy cruiser, a specialized body that places great emphasis on high speed and low defense; while the Zara class is a modernized version of the armored cruiser, or a smaller version of the fast battleship; the Zara itself is a second-class battleship , with strong defensive capabilities, and insanely high tonnage. Every aspect of its design is a scaled-down version of a battleship.

The Kirov class of the Bear Navy was designed with the help of Italy. Each of the three major fleets deployed two ships to supplement the naval fleet that fell into the valley. The two heavy cruisers of the Argentine Navy were built in Italy; in contrast, the heavy cruisers of the Spanish Navy were built in Italy. It is the Spanish version of the county level.

The IJN's heavy cruiser is an enlarged version of the cruiser. What IJN needs is a bigger, better, and faster cruiser that can overwhelm the opponent's cruisers.

It sounds similar to Italy's tactical needs, but the end result is that IJN prefers to use cruisers to consume and delay the enemy before the final battle, and often prioritizes ensuring firepower in shooting.

In contrast, what the U.S. cruisers need is the ability to respond to the Japanese war. They are designed to reject neon cruiser formations - and because of the larger size of the U.S. navy, it "responds" to neon itself. Threat strategic situation, they are truly cruisers in a large fleet, and relatively little consideration is given to the ability to operate independently.

The heavy cruisers of H.M. Navies do not consider the Hawkins class, which is a technical extension of the World War I cruisers. The rest are the treaty cruisers A and B of the RN and RAN, commonly known as the County class and the York class, which are essentially second-class battleships.

Their value is similar to that of pre-dreadnought second class battleships or the battlecruisers planned to be operated by the colonies during the dreadnought era:

Overseas branches serve as the core force for imperial border defense.

Because the Washington Naval Treaty turned the Royal Navy, the U.S. Navy and the Neon Navy into "cherry trees" and cut off the backbone of your main fleets, the number of available battlecruisers and dreadnoughts - which can operate within the Naval Treaty - dropped sharply. , and at the same time powerful enough to overwhelm the enemy's second- and third-class cruisers, and to confront or even destroy the enemy's first-class fleet cruisers, cruisers can only serve as large ships.

The maximum limit for a cruiser is 8 tons and an -inch main gun. This was the county-level initial selection plan.

The Navy Department finally decided to adopt the largest plan among the five initial heavy patrol plans: 5 tons and 8 heavy guns.

And because the main gun requirement of 4*2 was initially set, the final result was that the living conditions and overall space of the county class were ridiculously good. Until after the war, there were voices asking to keep these 30-year-old cruisers as command ships. .

Since the formation of the so-called "Second British Empire" (in fact, it has been 19 years since decolonization was completed today, this demand has become particularly obvious. Today's RAN, RCN or RNZN cannot do without capital ships). This demand exists. In the traditional sense, there are two major fleets that must exist for a long time:

The Home (Atlantic) Fleet is responsible for blocking German forces in the North Sea and monitoring German/Russian ships entering the Atlantic from GIUK or Denmark Strait when retreating;

Channel (Reserve) Fleet, responsible for the security of the English Channel and for challenging the French fleet;

In addition to these two fleets, the British army maintains a large number of overseas branches in various geographical sea areas: such as the West Indian and American branches in the Caribbean, the Hong Kong branch, the Australian branch, the New Zealand branch, the Mediterranean branch - these The fleet is destined to engage in firefights with the enemy before the empire's main fleet can arrive.

Therefore, it is necessary to have second-class capital ships that can destroy assault ships and even delay enemy capital ships.

Renown in 1895 and the Centurion class before it were purpose-built battleships for this purpose.

Entering the interwar period, the essence of the county-class ships was also this kind of ship.

In the late 20s when the County class was launched, the only cruisers the IJN could produce in the Far East that could catch up with the County class were the obsolete reconnaissance cruisers, while the USN only had the Omaha class, which was equivalent to the late C-class model. The County class was capable of fighting in the British Army. Destroying these enemy ships before the main force arrives will at least delay them and buy time.

When the war broke out, it was obvious that the county level was no longer a match for the new cruisers of the United States, Japan, Germany and Italy, and could not delay the enemy's offensive deployment.

However, the British army still enjoys an overwhelming advantage in the number of cruisers (the number of cruisers in the entire Axis navy is similar to that of the British army itself. If completed during the war, the total number of cruisers in the entire Axis navy is not as large as that of the British army itself) , even though the USN, which was also an ally, caught up with it later in the war, the County class could still be upgraded to monster-level electronic equipment and used as a fleet cruiser.

In the Atlantic Corsairs, Spey died at the hands of the 2nd Cruiser Fleet. Even though he was able to severely defeat 2 Leander-class ships and 1 York-class ship, the 2nd Cruiser Fleet was still able to take out a County-class ship after both sides ran out of ammunition. The hope of the German ships was completely ruined.

Bismarck was also pursued by Suffolk and Norfolk during his escape, and eventually died in Dorsetshire.

Dorset, Cornwall and Canberra literally died in heroic resistance to the IJN according to their design intentions, and ultimately contributed to the Allied forces gathering strength to decisively destroy the IJN.

The County class was the basis for the newly designed British cruisers after the entire war. The York class after the County class was a reduced version of the County class. Then the Leander class was directly based on the York class. The Aretosha class was a reduced version of the Leander class. The Dido class and Aretosha class are closely related to each other in many details.

In a literal sense, the county level was the forerunner of the British patrol in which "no one was innocent".

After the county level assumes the functions of the fleet and faces the enemy directly, the smaller cruiser can more safely perform the task of imperial security. This is its significance.

K.M's heavy cruiser is just the opposite.

Very similar to the German battlecruisers in the Anglo-German naval competition, the German army's heavy cruiser requirements were directly aimed at the British army.

既然英军13艘有8门8寸主炮，航速高达32节的郡级，总计18（5）艘重巡，那么德军就需要能够与之对抗的巡洋舰。

As for what to use it for, that is a secondary question.

But if the British army has the German army, then the German army is destined to be at a disadvantage. This idea directly gave birth to the Hipper class.

Prior to the Hipper class, pocket battleships were very, very clearly "raiders" with relatively similar performance.

The 11-inch main gun is designed to directly crush the best overseas battleship the British army can provide: the heavy cruiser in terms of caliber and range. The Hipper class returned to the routine of a standard new cruiser with an 8-inch main gun, and was also built under the terms and shares of a cruiser.

The end result was that they did not perform well when operating as raiding ships. For example, in the Battle of the Barents Sea, the boilers were knocked out by a 6-inch gun, causing the ship's speed to drop and retreat.

It should be said that the defense level of the Hipper class is fully capable of resisting British 6-inch guns at normal combat distances. As a pocket battleship, the Lütsov is almost immune to 6-inch guns based on the experience of the Battle of the Bayou;

However, in extremely bad sea conditions, when the radar lacked identification of friend or foe, the British ship forcibly put on the bayonet and touched the enemy to visually confirm whether the German ship was unlucky or that after four hundred years of battle, it still had no understanding of the British maritime strategy. It's hard to judge.

This is a typical "excellent ship is not necessarily a suitable ship" routine problem.

The so-called 18 Swordsmen of IJN are probably the pinnacle of early heavy cruiser use. Their quality is better than that of early British and American heavy cruisers, and their quantity is greater than that of Italian heavy cruisers.

This is first due to the fact that IJN's heavy cruiser thinking is completely different from that of RN: they have been positioned to be fleet cruisers from the beginning.

Starting with the Furutaka class, these ships are more like the Super Omaha class than the County class.

Their positioning is exactly the same as when the USN originally designed the Omaha class: to operate as a fleet cruiser group.

Why does the IJN need cruisers? Most of the time, the answer to this question is to serve as the lead ship in water warfare, that is, those IJN reconnaissance cruisers of the 20s.

The emergence of heavy cruisers itself is the need for IJN to appear in addition to water battle leaders. It needs a "large and powerful fleet cruiser" that is more powerful than before, used to coordinate multiple water battles or direct activities of formations, or to join the main fleet in decisive battles. .

In the final analysis, the main fleet of the US military has a numerical advantage. If it wants to fight against the US military, it must master a series of advantages before finally entering the decisive battle. The information, location and possibility of consuming the enemy brought by the avant-garde battle cannot be ignored.

In short, the role of cruisers is there, but not as great as imagined. Especially after entering the new century, cruisers have gradually been replaced by large destroyers, so there is nothing to be afraid of.

During the second station, the advantages and disadvantages of destroyers from various countries were also very obvious.

Take Mao Xiong’s destroyers as an example. From the initial “Leningrad” class destroyers to the final “Kiev” class destroyers, except for the “Tashkent” class destroyers imported from Italy, most of the Mao Xiong navy’s destroyers , not only the displacement is small, but also generally there are big problems in power.

In the 20s, as the domestic situation in Maoxiong gradually stabilized, heavy industry gradually developed.

At that time, the Mao Xiong Naval Science and Technology Committee decided to build the Soviet Union's first modern destroyer for the Mao Xiong Red Navy.

Taking into account the actual situation of Mao Xiong's domestic heavy industry at that time, the indicators of the new destroyer were not high, with a design displacement of only 2100 tons, and its main weapons were five 5 mm naval guns.

However, Mao Xiong Red Navy believes that such indicators cannot meet its own needs.

Because the Mao Xiong Red Navy intends to use this type of destroyer to serve as the destroyer leader of each squadron under the Mao Xiong Red Navy, leading the old destroyers of each fleet in battle.

Therefore, in 1929, the Red Navy gave the original design to Szymansky for design.

Szymanski was based on the "Vauquelin" class destroyer of the French Navy at the time and adjusted the original design.

希曼斯基将设计排水量由原方案的2100吨增加到2250吨，并用76.2毫米高射炮和12.7毫米高射机枪取代了此前落后的37毫米高射炮。

After review, this plan was approved in 1931, and construction permission for 10 ships was obtained and named "Leningrad" class destroyers.

Because the expected combat area of ​​the "Leningrad" class destroyer is not the ocean area, the ship adopts a short forecastle design. Although it simplifies the construction difficulty, it also results in a smaller space inside the ship, and the equipment layout and personnel activities are restricted. certain influence.

在武备方面，除了5门130毫米单管舰炮外，“列宁格勒”级驱逐舰还装备了2门45毫米高射炮、2门76.2毫米高射炮、两挺12.7毫米高射机枪和2座4联装533毫米鱼雷发射管。

At the same time, the ship is also equipped with a "Poseidon" sonar, which can cooperate with the depth bombs on the ship to perform anti-submarine operations.

A total of 7 "Leningrad" class destroyers have been built, all of which are named after Mao Xiong and important cities in the Union Republics, which shows the Red Navy's expectations of Mao Xiong.

However, in the Second World War, the "Leningrad" class destroyers did not achieve much success. Due to the loss of major ports, in most cases the "Leningrad" class destroyers could only be used as floating forts at sea to carry out executions. Land fire support mission.

In addition to the limited performance improvement caused by the short forecastle design, as the first type of destroyer designed and built by the Soviet Red Navy, it was still built using riveting methods, which resulted in the five 5mm naval guns it was equipped with unable to fire at the same time, otherwise it would cause damage to the hull. Safety is affected.

In addition, when sea conditions exceed level 8, the hull structure of the "Leningrad" class destroyer will also suffer a certain degree of damage.

Overall, the "Leningrad" class destroyers had greater symbolic significance than practical significance for the Mao Xiong Red Navy at that time.

A series of problems exposed during the construction and service of the "Leningrad" class destroyer proved that it was not a destroyer that could meet the needs of the Soviet Red Navy.

The original designers of the "Leningrad" class destroyers also quickly summed up the shortcomings.

As a result, Mao Xiong officially approved the "No. 38" project, the first ship was named "Minsk", and the "Minsk" class destroyer appeared.

(End of this chapter)