Iron Cross

Japanese high-level officials are very clear: the prices for products sold in Germany must have been increased, but even after the increase in prices, they are cheaper and of better quality than self-made products. There is really no room for struggle or bargaining.

"In order to improve domestic industrial capacity, the sir has done everything possible to use precious foreign exchange and credit resources to import a large number of precision machine tools from Germany, France, and Italy, and he has also tried every means to transport them back to the country as first-class precious materials. This is such a wise decision. It is ridiculous that some people attack the sir. Not importing more military equipment is really short-sighted..."

"Yes, sir, he has always been thoughtful and invincible."

"Yes, sir, not only is he the best in the world in commanding and conducting operations, but he is also top-notch in business..."

Listening to a bunch of people openly praising Horikichi at the meeting, Fushimi Miyahiro Prince's face turned blue and white, not to mention how uncomfortable he was - he had ordered others to release the news of the attack, and now he was being criticized as short-sighted?

"Okay, now that a decision on aircraft carrier construction has been made, the meeting will continue to discuss the next topic, the light cruiser and destroyer construction plans." Inoue Narumi promptly ended the discussion that embarrassed Fushimi Palace and refocused his attention, "The current debate The focus is, firstly, whether there will be additional plans for the Agano-class ship? Secondly, will the construction of the Niyodo ship of the same class as the Oyodo be started? Thirdly, how to reasonably match the four types of destroyers A, B, C and D?”

The Oyodo class is an improved and enhanced version of the Agano class, designed to serve as the flagship of a submarine and aircraft attack group. The 6-inch gun at the rear of the hull was canceled and replaced with a large hangar to accommodate six reconnaissance aircraft. It was put into service half a year ago, but there has been no suitable reconnaissance aircraft. When the combined fleet came back, they immediately got the Ar-372 (codename Ziyun). (modified), a new type of radar was installed, and coupled with its superior communication capabilities, the value of the Oyodo suddenly became prominent. A staff officer believed that it could assume the function of a reconnaissance and command ship (it had historically served as the flagship of the combined fleet), so the question was There is no need to build another ship.

"The Combined Fleet believes that the Agano class can consider building four more ships in the future. However, including the two ships currently under construction, the design ideas need to be significantly modified. Germany has developed Phalanx anti-aircraft firepower, which has extraordinary actual combat effects. The commander thinks it is very It meets the needs of the fleet, and it is recommended to modify and adopt it after introduction; the actual combat effectiveness of the Oyodo is unknown, and the slipway and manpower are tight, so it is recommended that the Niyodo not be considered for construction for the time being; Type A and Type C destroyers are all cut off, and a large number of modified Type B and Type D destroyers are built. Type D..."

"What? You don't want Type A or Type C?" The whole audience was dumbfounded again.

Japanese Navy destroyers are divided into first-class and second-class destroyers. First-class destroyers are the main destroyers, and second-class destroyers are mainly older ships. The so-called A, B, C and D are classifications of first-class destroyers: Type A destroyers are fleet-type destroyers with heavy mine equipment; Type B destroyers are anti-aircraft destroyers, mainly represented by Akizuki Kai; Type C destroyers are so-called ideal destroyers that take into account firepower. It has lightning strike capabilities, but the price is too expensive. Only one Shimakaze-class ship has been built and it was put into service four months ago. The D-type destroyer is a mass-produced escort destroyer. It simplifies the process and is easy to build in large quantities, but it cannot be used in fleet battles.

"Everyone, do you know what the destroyers did the most during this expedition of the Combined Fleet? It was neither cover and reconnaissance, nor lightning strikes, nor combat, nor artillery warfare, nor expulsion, but air defense, dragonfly fishing, and anti-submarine warfare. To be honest, Except for catching dragonflies so-so, the other two tasks were performed poorly, causing disasters many times. For example, Haruna was escorted back to Truk by two warships, Yukikaze and Shigure, but was shot by an American submarine on the way. What's annoying is that he actually let the other party slip away..."

The so-called dragonfly fishing means that destroyers go to rescue pilots who have fallen into the water. Before the war, Japanese carrier-based aircraft pilots often had drowning accidents when they were training hard. All destroyers were trained to be good at fishing for dragonflies, and they could even spot them with the naked eye in the waves during strong winds and waves. A drowning man - this is why the combined fleet was able to rescue pilots many times. Even in a disastrous defeat like the Battle of Midway, the victorious U.S. fleet lost more than 200 pilots, while Japan only lost more than 100. In the combined fleet, those with the best ship management skills are often not the captains of battleships or aircraft carriers, but the captains of destroyers.

But the anti-aircraft and anti-submarine weapons are really a mess, especially the anti-submarine weapons. During joint exercises with the German and Italian navies in the Mediterranean, German submarines often sneaked into the inner guard circle of the Japanese mobile fleet to find good torpedo launching positions. On several occasions, they fired training torpedoes and crashed into the aircraft carrier, shocking everyone to a cold sweat. Every time All of this made Tsukahara 243 very angry and scolded the destroyer captains bloody. Fortunately, the British and American submarine combat skills were far inferior to those of Germany. Apart from occasionally catching fish that slipped through the net, they had not yet formed a substantial impact on the mobile fleet. Sexual threats, but it also sounded the alarm to Horikichi and Tsukahara, because luck may not always take care of the combined fleet. Therefore, in Europe, we focused on the introduction of sonar, and also made destroyer captains undergo anti-submarine training.

There are ways to make up for the anti-submarine capabilities, but the air defense is completely useless, especially for Type A destroyers whose main combat ideas are artillery warfare and lightning strikes. To enhance the air defense firepower, all the artillery on the warship must be replaced. The mobile fleets fought more than ten times before and after, and the number of enemy aircraft knocked down by destroyer firepower was pitifully small (the anti-aircraft firepower on aircraft carriers and battleships was relatively good), and only a fraction of the results achieved by carrier-based aircraft.

So Chiaki Matsuda complained: "Whether it is the decisive battle type or the heavy torpedo type, they are all decorations. After a year of fighting, almost no destroyer has fired a torpedo at the enemy. Except for a few destroyers, most destroyers have not fired a single shot. However, the anti-aircraft firepower of several Akizuki-class destroyers is still fierce-although they did not shoot down many enemy planes."

At the same time, since Japan has no dedicated escort destroyers, old destroyers are used to escort the fleet, and the tasks are completed with bumps. Based on the current situation, it has been mentioned in the reform plan to start construction of the Ding type, strengthen the air defense and anti-submarine capabilities as much as possible, first launch the Song class, and then launch the Orange class based on the Song class. During the construction process, ordinary steel and low-grade HT steel were used to replace the original precious DS steel, the weight was increased, the main engine horsepower was reduced, the maximum speed could only reach 28 knots, and the endurance was reduced to 3500 nautical miles/18 knots, but it was still good to use. However, because the design was determined more than half a year ago, the number of completed ships is very small.

"The Combined Fleet proposed two improvement requirements. First, the production cycle of the D-type destroyer should be completed in 3 months, and the annual completion volume should be no less than 48 ships. Second, the hull of the Akizuki-kai should be appropriately expanded, such as reaching 3,500 tons, and the anti-aircraft artillery should be updated while the torpedo facilities should be removed. No less than 12 ships should be started each year, and the construction period should not exceed 1 year. If this is difficult, the follow-up ships of the Agano class should not be built."

When designing the Akizuki class and the Akizuki-kai, there was a fierce debate on whether to retain the torpedo tubes. At that time, the fleet faction still stubbornly insisted that the destroyer must retain the torpedo attack capability. As a result, the Akizuki class was forcibly added with a 4-tube torpedo launcher and a reloading device. However, after two years of fighting, the torpedo tubes were useless, and they were also worried about the torpedo explosion during the bombing.

The reason for increasing the size of the ship is that we have learned a lesson from the German Hedgehog class. Although the densely packed Phalanx is effective, the German Z-series destroyers are not large enough, and the space and firing range are not enough, which affects the effect. Germany has modified the next generation design to 3600-3800 tons.

In Hori Teikichi's mind, he hopes to have equipment similar to the American Atlanta and Cleveland-class light cruisers or the Royal Navy's Dido-class air defense cruisers. Unfortunately, Japan cannot play such a game with its wealth and can only hope that air defense direct destroyers such as the Super Akizuki can compete with the exclusive air defense light cruisers of Britain and the United States.

The meeting was very heatedly debated, but there was one thing that could not be avoided-the era of heavy torpedoes has passed forever, and the tactical concept of nine-stage operations is also outdated. Japan talks about strategic defense, but in fact it is offensive defense. Now it is a global mobile operation, and fleet encounters like the Battle of Savo Island have never happened. Even the exclusive heavy torpedo cruisers such as Kitakami and Ooi were sold to the Germans, so why did they still have to add torpedo tubes to the Akizuki class?

No matter how reluctant the fleet faction was, they could not deny the fact that the torpedo attack tactics were becoming increasingly weaker. The final consensus reached was: the two warships that Agano had already started to be transformed into exclusive air defense cruisers, serving as the regional destroyer fleet air defense command center to cooperate with the mobile fleet in combat, but no new ships of the same class would be built. Type B and Type D destroyers were built with full strength - just in time to transfer the manpower and materials originally used for submarine construction.

The last topic discussed at the meeting was the construction of escort aircraft carriers. The construction and use of British and American escort aircraft carriers greatly inspired the Japanese side. The army proposed to build escort aircraft carriers and built them first - yes, the Japanese army has aircraft carriers and more than one! Not only aircraft carriers, the tonnage of ships owned by the Japanese army also exceeds that of the navy. However, unlike the situation in history where the Army and Navy argued endlessly until 1944, the relationship between the Army and Navy is much better now. The Navy gave the Army a large number of supplies, tanks and artillery obtained from Germany. In return, the Army handed over some of the ships and aircraft carriers it controlled to the Navy and agreed that all fleets would be escorted and commanded by the Navy.

At the same time, trade between Japan and Germany is extremely frequent. European industrial products and technical equipment are imported into Japan, and agricultural products, rubber and minerals from East Asia and Southeast Asia are exported to Europe. Under such circumstances, escort is a top priority, and the situation in Britain and the United States has proved the great value of escort aircraft carriers. Japan also urgently needs it - this need is not something that can be met by just a few Shenzhou Maru and Akitsune of the Army or Taiying and Chongying of the Navy.

Therefore, the Combined Fleet put forward the construction requirements of 48 standard escort aircraft carriers in one go, and hoped to start construction in succession within 2 years and complete them all within 3 years.