Iron Sonata of World War II

In the fourth step, the exhaust gas enters the carbon dioxide absorber, and the carbon dioxide is absorbed by seawater, which forms an oxygen-depleted exhaust gas from which water vapor and carbon dioxide have been removed. Next, this treated oxygen-depleted exhaust gas is sent to the oxygen mixing chamber, and then Repeat the first step.

The reason why Helena wants to focus on the development of closed-cycle diesel engines is mainly because of its several outstanding advantages:

The first advantage is that among various AIP systems, the technical threshold of closed-cycle diesel engine is the lowest. Except for the absorption efficiency of carbon dioxide absorber, which can be regarded as a technical difficulty, there is no technical barrier that is difficult to overcome in Germany today, and this technology The difficulty can also be compensated by infiltrating a small amount of argon into the oxygen mixing chamber.

The second advantage is that the closed-cycle diesel engine does not need to be equipped with another set of engines and another kind of fuel. The engine of the closed-cycle diesel engine system is a very common submarine diesel engine (the difference is only the circulation method), and the fuel is also very common for submarines. diesel, which greatly facilitates the logistics support work.

The third advantage is that the power of the closed-cycle diesel engine can be made larger, which can give the submarine a higher underwater speed.In theory, as long as the liquid oxygen supply can keep up, the closed-cycle diesel engine can be as powerful as it is on the surface of the water.

The fourth advantage is high thermal efficiency. In closed-cycle mode, the thermal efficiency of diesel engines is much higher than that of Stirling engines and steam turbines, and the fuel consumption is generally lower than 250 grams per horsepower.

Speaking of which, some people may ask: Since closed-cycle diesel engines are so good, why are they not used much after World War II?

Indeed, when it comes to the large family of AIP power plants in full bloom, the first thing that people think of may be the fuel cells used by the Germans on the 212-class submarines of later generations, or the Stirling engines used by the Swedes on the Gotland-class submarines, The closed-cycle diesel engine was probably the one that had no sense of existence after the war. In fact, after the war, the Soviet Union built a batch of Q-class submarines equipped with closed-cycle diesel engines in the 50s.What is going on here?

The main reason is also an inherent disadvantage of closed-cycle diesel engines: noise.Let's take a look at several other AIP systems: the fuel cell itself produces almost no noise, and its noise basically comes from the operation of the electric motor, and the noise of the electric motor is very small.Both Stirling and closed cycle steam turbines have a gentle and continuous combustion process despite the noise of mechanical motion.The closed-cycle diesel engine is different. The working method of the diesel engine is relatively rough, and the combustion of the diesel engine is not continuous, but explosive, so the noise of the closed-cycle diesel engine is obviously greater than that of other AIP forms. After the 60s, with the advancement of sonar technology, submarines have higher and higher requirements for quietness. Therefore, even though closed-cycle diesel engines with relatively loud noises have all kinds of benefits, it is difficult to win the favor of submarine designers from all over the world. .

Although the closed-cycle diesel engine has the fatal flaw of high noise, Helena chose to focus on the development of the closed-cycle diesel engine without hesitation.The reason for Helena's choice is that there is no other choice. Except for closed-cycle diesel engines, other AIP systems are unlikely to reach a mature and usable level within ten years.

The fuel cell?This needs to be out of the question in World War II.

Stirling engine?Although this thing was invented very early, the maximum power has remained at the level of several kilowatts.In the last plane until the 21st century, the maximum stand-alone power of the Stirling engine was only at the level of one or two hundred kilowatts.The weapons used by submarines in World War II were mainly direct torpedoes, which required frequent maneuvers by submarines to occupy attack positions.Moreover, the heater of the Stirling engine is always at high temperature. To make the Stirling engine work reliably for a long time, the requirements for the development of heat-resistant alloys are also very high.

As for the more unreliable things: such as the Walter steam turbine with hydrogen peroxide as the oxidant, you should go to the promising job of torpedo power.

On the last plane in 1940, the University of Stuttgart in Germany first successfully developed a closed-cycle diesel engine. In the late World War, the Germans installed a 1500-horsepower closed-cycle diesel engine on a submarine and achieved a 16-knot underwater speed. speed.Although the experiment of closed-cycle diesel engine on the submarine was successful, this success obviously came too late, because the V80 submarine equipped with the Walter turbine had already arrived first.In one test, Dr. Helmut Walter's turbine-driven V80 submarine ran an astonishing speed of 28 knots underwater, so the Germans have since then focused their research on VIP technology on the more "tall" submarine. Walter turbines, while the development of closed-cycle diesel engines was naturally sidelined.

Helena in this plane will not make the same mistake again.Although closed-cycle diesel engines have the problem of loud noise, if some German submarines can obtain the ability to sail underwater at high speed for a long time, it will still be a great tactical advantage.In the next step, Helena also plans to ask the Ship Construction and Engineering Bureau to actively test equipment such as submarine snorkels, oxygen regeneration panels, oxygen candles, activated carbon air purifiers, etc. Although these small things look inconspicuous, the combination is still indispensable for submarine combat effectiveness Booster.

The small test submarine equipped with a closed-cycle diesel engine has undergone several trials, and the technical feasibility of the closed-cycle diesel engine has been generally verified. Just when Helena thought that the purpose of this trip to Japan was almost completed, she suddenly heard an alarm She was quite surprised by the news.

Helena: "What? Our Ship Construction Engineering Bureau is competing with Japan's Hyogo Prefecture Harima Shipbuilding Company for warship orders from China? When did this happen? Show me your bidding plan."

The author has something to say: Guess which ship China bought in 1931.

Chapter 60 Clearing Inventory

"You use such a plan to bid, most of the customers will not buy it." Helena touched her forehead, then put the draft of the bidding plan she had just read back on the table, and said: "You need to know, your client It's the Chinese Navy, not the German Navy, and you don't seem to have a deep understanding of what kind of warships your customers want."

In fact, Helena was a little surprised when she heard that the Shipbuilding Engineering Bureau was going to participate in the bidding for warships from China, because the Nanjing government of China in the previous plane had never bought a ship from the Germans.However, after inquiring about the details, Helena quickly regained her composure, because at this time Helena had already remembered that this purchase by the Chinese Navy also happened in the previous plane.

In the history of the last plane, the most important purchase activity of the Chinese navy during the Nanjing government period was the order of the "Ninghai" cruiser from the Harima Shipbuilding Institute of Hyogo Prefecture in Japan in 1931.This battleship equipped with three twin 140mm naval guns is nominally a cruiser, but its standard displacement is less than 3000 tons, not much larger than some large destroyers.After ordering the "Ninghai", China relied on accessories provided by Japan at the Jiangnan Shipyard to imitate a sister ship "Pinghai" with a slightly reduced performance.

The sisters "Ninghai" and "Pinghai" were the warships with the largest tonnage purchased by the Chinese Navy during the Nanjing government.But in Helena's memory, the fate of the two ships seems to be rather tragic: in the war of resistance on the previous plane, both ships were damaged and sank in the Jiangyin section of the Yangtze River after a fierce battle.After the Japanese army occupied Jiangyin, the two ships were salvaged and repaired, and then Japan renamed the "Ninghai" to the "Wubaidao" and the "Pinghai" to the "Eighty Islands", which were incorporated into the Japanese battle order.The final fate of the two ships was to be sunk in the Pacific War. Among them, the "Five Hundred Islands" was sunk by a U.S. submarine in the waters of Hachijo Island near Tokyo, and the "Yakushima" was hit by a U.S. aircraft in the waters off Luzon Island, Philippines. Shen.

Thinking of the history of the previous plane, Helena's thoughts drifted a little far away, until someone asked Helena why she was not optimistic about the bidding plan of the Shipbuilding Engineering Bureau, and Helena slowly came back to her senses.This order from China, Helena is still going to try her best to help the Ship Construction Engineering Bureau to win it, at least it is worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

"In your eyes, a warship is a war machine, and it serves to win naval battles. Am I right?" Helena had reorganized her thoughts at this time, seeing the designers of the Ship Construction Engineering Bureau nodding, Helen Na smiled and continued, "However, for China, the main reason they buy new ships at this time is not to fight wars, but to scare people."

"Scaring, scaring people? Who are you scaring?" The designers all looked puzzled. They really couldn't think of who the two thousand-ton cruisers could be used to scare.

"Used to scare domestic warlords." Helena paused, then continued: "On the surface, China is now politically unified, but this is only the appearance. In fact, China now is a series of warlords An aggregate of forces. The reason why Jiang Guangtou can become the spokesperson of this warlord aggregate is only because he is the most powerful of this series of warlords."

"It's a bit like the Holy Roman Empire in German history. The emperor of the empire was also a member of a large number of German princes and lords, but he had relatively strong strength and high prestige." In order to let the ship The designers of the Construction Engineering Bureau can understand that Helena used the history of the First German Empire as an analogy: "Only when he has enough power to deter other princes in the country, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of Germany can command other princes. If If you can’t do this, even if you are the emperor, you are just a nominal mascot. The logic of the Holy Roman Empire is also applicable in China today. If Jiang Guangtou does not want to become a political mascot, he must Other domestic warlords maintain sufficient deterrence, and this purchase of ships is also a manifestation of this purpose."

"You mean that the Nanjing government's purchase of ships is not mainly to strengthen coastal defense? It is to deter local warlords?" At this time, the designer of the Ship Construction Engineering Bureau seemed to understand a little bit.

"If it is to strengthen coastal defense, with China's current financial resources, the most urgent need is to build a speedboat force and a submarine force!" Helena said: "Our customer's demand is actually very clear, that is, to buy a watch with as little money as possible." Going back to a warship that looks scary enough, the ocean-going performance is not important, and the protection ability is not important. So let us now work together to study how to make our bidding warships cheaper and more scary."

……

So under the combined efforts of Helena and the designers, a new bidding draft was released a few days later.I have to say that the new solution perfectly meets the requirements in terms of "scary" and "cheap".With a displacement of 4300 tons and a speed of 22 knots, the main weapon is three double-mounted 42mm main guns with a diameter of 210 times, and a seaplane, and the price is only 30 pounds each.

At this time, some people may be surprised, how can such a small displacement and such a strong firepower be achieved?

It turns out that Helena referred to a special type of ship—coastal defense ship, which is a small battleship built for coastal defense.

Because the freeboard of the coastal defense ship is very low and the hull is fat, the coastal defense ship does not worry about the initial stability caused by heavy armament; due to the low speed requirement, the coastal defense ship can leave more space for armaments instead of power .Take the "Vinamoinen" class coastal defense ships of the Finnish Navy as an example.This guy can actually stuff two twin Bofors 3900mm main guns and four twin Bofors 254mm secondary guns into a hull with a displacement of only 105 tons.Of course, there are also costs for coastal defense ships to do this: slow speed, short range, and poor performance in high sea conditions.However, these are not problems for the Chinese navy. The Chinese navy basically operates in the offshore and inland rivers, and has no need for oceangoing.

As for the reason why the price is so cheap, it is mainly because the main gun and power system are all refurbished old World War I.For example, the dual-mounted 42-fold 210mm main gun was originally prepared by Krupp for the second ship of the "Blücher" large cruiser before World War I, but because the original construction plan was cancelled, these The artillery was piled up in Krupp's warehouse.In Helena's wishful thinking, instead of letting these stock parts rust in the warehouses of major arms dealers, it is better to take this opportunity to sell them at a discount.

Chapter 61 Cleaning up the mess

Thanks to Helena's active participation, the new bidding proposal of the Ship Construction Engineering Bureau caught the attention of the Chinese almost immediately.The so-called not afraid of not knowing the goods, but afraid of comparing goods, compared with the new German plan, the Japanese Harima Shipbuilding Institute's plan is similar to the previous plane, and it seems that there is no cost performance at all.

After all, the original intention of the Nanjing government was to spend the least amount of money to buy a warship that was scary enough, and the German plan was scary enough just because of the name "Battleship"!Although the caliber of the main gun of this "battleship" is only 210mm.However, according to the provisions of the "Washington Treaty", as long as the caliber of the main gun exceeds 203mm, it is considered a capital ship. 210mm is a few millimeters beyond the standard. Who dares to say that the name "Battleship" is not worthy of the name?At best, add an attributive to it, saying that it is a "coastal defense battleship" is always no problem.So this order was accepted by the Ship Construction Engineering Bureau without any suspense, and the "Battleship" with the smallest main gun caliber on this plane was born.

On the Chinese side, Lieutenant General Chen Shaokuan, who was in charge of the Ministry of the Navy at the time, presided over the procurement of new ships.Lieutenant General Chen Shaokuan also served as the director of Jiangnan Shipbuilding Institute at this time, and naturally hoped to take this opportunity to allow Jiangnan Shipbuilding Institute to improve its technical capabilities, so he proposed to let Jiangnan Shipbuilding Institute participate in the construction of new ships.

In this regard, Helena expressed her wish for it, so she proposed that the German side provide design drawings and important accessories, and let Jiangnan Shipyard complete the construction of the two ships under the guidance of German technicians.After all, the restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles on German arms exports still exist. The construction of the two ships in China will not only allow Germany to more easily circumvent the constraints of the treaty, but also ensure that Germany will get the bulk of its profits.

Speaking of Germany bypassing the "Treaty of Versailles" to provide weapons to China, it is not just now. In 1927, Colonel Max Bauer, an artillery expert who formerly worked for the German General Staff, came to China and became an economic affairs advisor to the Nanjing government.Yes, you read that right, not a military affairs advisor, but an economic affairs advisor.This is mainly because the "Treaty of Versailles" does not allow German citizens to serve as military advisors in the armies of other countries, so there is the phenomenon of artillery experts serving as economic advisors.

After Max Bauer served as a consultant in China, on the one hand, he actively made connections and contacted more retired military officers to come to China as consultants; on the other hand, he contacted arms dealers in Germany and began to quietly export weapons to China.The former gradually formed the team of the German advisory group that profoundly influenced the process of China's military modernization, while the latter pioneered the larger-scale arms trade between Germany and China after 1933.In this plane, if Helena hadn't stopped her father from taking the former crown prince to the military parade in time, General Seekert would have become an advisory group to China after he lost his position as the commander of the National Defense Forces because of his political death. one of the.

Considering that China does not have enough foreign exchange reserves to purchase these two coastal defense battleships, under the coordination of Helena, Germany finally expressed its willingness to accept China's non-ferrous metal minerals to pay the price.

Regarding Helena's suggestion, the Ship Construction Engineering Bureau was not very willing at first. After all, the world economy is now in a serious crisis, and cash is the object of everyone's competition.However, Helena's view is completely different. Helena believes that since the economic crisis, due to the sharp shrinkage of industrial output in various countries, the prices of upstream resource products have also fallen sharply. This is the best time to buy resource products. good time.

The unexpected episode of selling coastal defense battleships to China made Helena stay in the Ship Construction Engineering Bureau for an extra month. It was not until March 1931 that Helena boarded the cruise ship back to Germany.

Shortly after returning to China, Helena was invited to the Kielder Deutschland Shipyard to participate in the launching ceremony of the first [-]-ton armored ship. The new ship was named "Deutschland" at the launching ceremony. Paul von Hindenburg hosts.All of the above are similar to the previous plane, the only difference is probably the accompanying Admiral Erich Raeder.Since the current commander-in-chief of the navy, Admiral Bernke, still looks full of energy and shows no sign of retiring, Raeder, who should have been the commander-in-chief of the navy in the last plane, is still the commander of the Baltic Navy District.

By the time Helena had managed to arrange all of this, almost half of 1931 had passed.Helena felt quite tired from the continuous assignments all the time, but just as Helena was about to relax for herself, an uneasy thing came to trouble her again.

This huge trouble is that the Bavarian aircraft factory where the famous aircraft designer Willy Messerschmidt is located is about to close down.And the maker of this dilemma is precisely Messerschmitt himself.

After joining the Bavarian aircraft factory, Messerschmitt designed a small single-engine aircraft, the M20, which was probably one of the biggest failures in Messerschmitt's aircraft design career, because the safety record of this aircraft is too bad. The M20 suffered a series of flight accidents during the flight test stage, but this is not the end. After Lufthansa purchased this aircraft in 1931, two consecutive crashes occurred in the M20, so Lufthansa directly canceled all of this model. order, the Bavarian aircraft factory was pushed to the brink of bankruptcy.

In the last plane, the Bavarian aircraft factory went bankrupt in 1931.Although Messerschmidt later made friends with Hermann Göring, with the support of Göring, the Bavarian Aircraft Factory finally reopened, but the two-year bankruptcy brought the loss of technical talents to the entire company. Problems such as design experience dating are difficult to make up for.

In fact, the bankruptcy of the Bavarian aircraft factory is not the whole of the consequences of this incident. The M20 designed by Messerschmidt caused the death of Hans Hackman due to a flight accident during the test flight, and Hans Hackmann Mann was a close friend of Erhard Milch, who headed the German Civil Aviation Administration.This incident directly led to the feud between Willy Messerschmidt, the famous aircraft designer, and Erhard Milch.The feud between the two also had long-term negative consequences for German aviation.

Although the plight of the Bavarian Aircraft Factory is entirely caused by Messerschmitt's own design problems, the so-called "the company is too big to fail". Considering that the Bavarian Aircraft Factory is one of the leaders in the German aviation industry, Helena has no choice but to Dissatisfied with the black lines on his face, he came forward to wipe Messerschmidt's ass.

Chapter 62 Trouble Solved

Looking at the history of the world aviation industry in the last plane, Willie Messerschmidt can be called a generation of design masters.He presided over the design of BF109 and BF110, two classic fighters in World War II, enough to make the name of Messerschmitt immortal in aviation history!However, this dude’s works are not always so reliable, and there are quite a few unsuccessful ones, such as the ME210 twin-engine fighter that was prone to stall accidents, and this time almost brought down the Bavarian aircraft factory. The M20 transport aircraft.

Although the failure of the M20 transport aircraft is indeed one of the "black history" in Messerschmidt's aircraft design career, Helena knows that although the master can make mistakes, many of the master's mistakes are often high-level mistakes.Messerschmitt's setbacks on the M20 transport plane are largely typical "high-level mistakes".

In 1925, Messerschmitt designed the M17 sports aircraft. Although this aircraft is actually just a small aircraft with a very simple appearance, Messerschmidt has integrated his own advanced design concepts into it. The main load-bearing structure of the M17 sports aircraft is designed as a whole, which not only reduces the weight of the structure, but also reduces the production cost, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

Messerschmitt's concept of modularization and easy production was undoubtedly very advanced and even advanced in the 20s. When designing the M18 transport aircraft and M19 sports aircraft, Messerschmidt continued to implement and perfect this concept .However, it turns out that there will always be problems if the concept is too ahead of the practice.So on the M20 transport aircraft, Messerschmitt, who was overly superstitious about the weight reduction benefits brought about by the integrated structure, finally played himself off.Excessive structural weight loss directly leads to insufficient structural strength of the M20, which is one of the main reasons for the M20 accident.

Of course, the problem with the M20 is actually more than just the lack of strength. Another major design flaw of the M20 is that the main landing gear spacing is too narrow. For this aircraft with a large wingspan, the narrow main landing gear spacing has brought great hidden dangers to the aircraft's take-off and landing safety. Some of the takeoff and landing accidents of the M20 were related to the too narrow spacing of the main landing gear.

Helena didn't know if the fall on the M20 would touch Messerschmidt this time, but Helena knew that Messerschmidt was actually a talented but stubborn aircraft designer.Helena really loves and hates Messerschmidt's stubbornness when she thinks about it.

For example, in the previous plane, it was precisely because of Messerschmidt’s stubbornness that the concept of modularization, light weight and easy production started from the M17 sports aircraft was persisted. The implementation of this concept finally created the excellent BF109. productivity and maintainability.During the entire life cycle of the BF109 series, the total production volume reached 34852, ranking first among all fighter jets produced in World War II (if not limited to fighter jets, the combat aircraft with the highest output should be the Soviet Il-2, with an output of more than 3.6 million frames)!According to data, the man-hours it takes for Germany to produce a BF109 fighter jet is only about one-third of that of the UK to produce a "Spitfire" fighter jet. This is simply not like a weapon designed by the Germans! .

Also in the last plane, also because of Messerschmitt’s stubbornness, the too small main landing gear spacing, a bad problem that started from M17, has been passed down to BF108 sports aircraft and BF109 fighter jets. .Of course, the ancestral problem that the main landing gear spacing is too narrow is not because Messerschmidt has a problem with his mind and deliberately prevented the pilot from taking off and landing, but because Messerschmidt designed almost all gears to reduce drag and weight. Single-engine aircraft use the ancestral narrow fuselage with a single wing spar.Due to the insufficient structural strength of the single spar, the landing gear had to be connected close to the narrow fuselage, and the wheel spacing naturally became very cramped.

In order to save the precarious Bavarian aircraft factory and prevent the loss of personnel due to the company's bankruptcy, Helena proceeded as follows:

One, an emergency injection of bailout funds into the Bavarian aircraft factory to restore the company to normal operations.

Second, ask the Bavarian Aircraft Factory to temporarily remove Willy Messerschmidt from his position as chief designer. Protect Messerschmidt on this cusp.

Third, let Messerschmitt's good friend, Robert Ruzel, who once worked for Heinkel, take over the post of Messerschmidt, and try to prevent the R&D project of the Bavarian Aircraft Factory from being interrupted by the M20 accident. be more severely affected.

By the way, Robert Ruzel, who succeeded Messerschmidt, was also a very famous aviation designer in the last plane. He is the engine of He219 night fighter, He280 ​​jet fighter and V-1 cruise missile. s work.In Helena's memory, after 1933 in the last plane, Robert Ruzel came to the Bavarian Aircraft Factory, and then he and Messerschmidt had a long period of close cooperation, and the BF109 fighter jet Both the BF110 and BF[-] fighter jets were born during this period.

For this series of arrangements of Helena, Erhard Milch, then the leader of the German Civil Aviation Administration and the president of Lufthansa, praised him greatly. According to his original words: "The murderer Messerschmidt is not The guy who blinked finally called the chief designer to get out!"

And Messerschmidt himself is also very grateful to Helena, because the bailout funds brought by Helena brought his company back from the brink of bankruptcy. What made Messerschmidt even more happy is that Helena also said, " The "Peace Fund" can invest in the parallel two-seat trainer project that it is conceiving.Besides, the person who replaced him was also his old friend, so Messerschmidt readily gave up the position of chief designer of the Bavarian Aircraft Factory to Robert Ruzel.

So far, with Helena's all-out efforts to fight the fire, a fire that seriously affected the German aviation research and development process basically dissipated invisible.

Chapter 63 Primary school students

Shortly after the first German 1931-ton-class armored ship "Deutschland" was launched in Kiel, in November 11, the fourth ship of the "Deutschland-class" also started laying the keel.Under the butterfly effect of Helena, the funds of the German Navy in this plane are relatively sufficient, so the construction speed of the "Deutschland-class" ships is much faster than that of the previous plane. The construction of the third ship of the "Deutschland class" above was delayed until October 1332.The above means that following the service of four "Emden-class" light cruisers and four "Konigsberg-class" light cruisers, the German Navy will soon have four "pocket battleships" with a standard displacement of more than 10 tons. .

So far, according to the provisions of the "Washington Treaty", there are only 24 destroyers left in Germany that can continue to work.So the navy began to turn its attention to elementary school students in the fleet like destroyers.Moreover, it is indeed time for the German destroyer fleet to be updated. The destroyers of the German Navy were all old models built during World War I or even earlier, and their speed was slower than that of the cutting-edge cruisers. This is really embarrassing Useful.

Although elementary school students in fleets like destroyers do not have the power and arrogance of battleships and aircraft carriers, it is actually quite difficult to design a work with truly outstanding performance.The main source of difficulty in destroyer design is that compared to main ships with ample tonnage, destroyers are really small in terms of size. However, destroyers are small in size and need to undertake a lot of functions!All artillery battles, lightning strikes, anti-submarine, air defense, and mine-laying have to be shouldered.This is like giving you a small dwelling of only 30 square meters, and now you need to decorate it so that the living room, bedroom, study, kitchen, and bathroom are all available. The difficulty is no less than that of decorating a mansion.

It is precisely because of this difficulty in the design of destroyers that in the last plane, starting from about the 1930s, as the number of missions undertaken by destroyers increased.The contradiction between combat effectiveness and displacement has become more and more acute, and designers from various countries have begun to have obvious differences in the development of destroyers. The main point of difference lies in whether to build special-purpose destroyers or general-purpose destroyers.

The so-called dedicated destroyer is a destroyer that highlights and strengthens the performance of a certain aspect of the warship by sacrificing or partially sacrificing other aspects of combat performance. Typical examples before and after World War II are the French "Utopia" destroyer with outstanding artillery capabilities, the Japanese The "Shimakaze-class" destroyers with outstanding lightning strike capabilities, the "Akizuki-class" destroyers with outstanding air defense capabilities in Japan, and the "Buckley-class" destroyers with outstanding anti-submarine capabilities in the United States.The so-called general-purpose destroyers are "bucket destroyers" with relatively balanced performance in all aspects and no obvious shortcomings. The most typical examples are the "Fletcher-class" destroyers of the United States and the "Tribal-class" destroyers of the United Kingdom.

The debate on whether destroyers should be generalized or specialized can be described as protracted. This debate even continued until the end of the Cold War without a winner. For example, the destroyers of the Soviet Union were more specialized, while the United States was more inclined to generalization.Although the debate over which design idea is better has been going on, in the long-term use practice, the respective advantages and disadvantages of special-purpose destroyers and general-purpose destroyers are relatively clear.

For a dedicated destroyer, its biggest advantage is that it can make a certain aspect of the battleship's capabilities extremely prominent without losing control of the displacement, avoiding the embarrassment of being able to understand everything and loose everything.The main problem with dedicated destroyers is that although this kind of destroyer is a fish in water in a specific combat environment, once the combat environment changes, it is likely to become a tasteless one.For example, the Japanese destroyers whose main design targets are artillery battles and lightning strikes, in the night battle on Guadalcanal, followed their own cruisers whose main design targets were artillery battles and lightning strikes. brought great loss.But when it comes to occasions where destroyers are required to demonstrate fleet air defense capabilities, the performance is lackluster.

For a general-purpose destroyer, its biggest advantage lies in its strong adaptability, and it can be competent for different combat environments and combat objectives.Moreover, since one type of general-purpose destroyer can adapt to multiple targets, it is possible to concentrate efforts on building a certain type in large quantities instead of producing some of each special type, which is of great benefit to improving production efficiency and reducing production costs.For example, in the last plane, 175 "Fletcher-class" destroyers of the United States, the "one-size-fits-all" destroyer, could be built in a little over two years. In addition to benefiting from the strong industrial capabilities of the United States, it also has a simplified model pedigree with general-purpose destroyers. Great relationship.However, the main problem with general-purpose destroyers is that it is not easy to achieve a high level of performance balance under the limited displacement of destroyers. It not only tests the design skills of designers, but also tests the development level of subsystems.

In Helena's view, if there is still controversy about whether the destroyers of other countries are specialized or generalized, then the new German destroyers can only take the road of generalization.After all, Germany only has a total of 24 new destroyers. If you divide these 24 destroyers into several special models, it is completely unreasonable to build only a few of each type.As for the technical challenges of general-purpose destroyers, Helena believes that if she can't design a high-level general-purpose destroyer even if she has fully lit up the technology tree of round-bore supercharged boilers, new steam turbines, and high-level dual-purpose naval guns. , then German designers can go home and sell sweet potatoes.

The only regret now is that although the 550mm diameter hydrogen peroxide torpedo research and development project hosted by Helmut Walter has made gratifying progress, it has not yet been finalized. The new destroyer wants to be equipped with a mature hydrogen peroxide torpedo It will take time.However, this small regret does not affect the development process of the new destroyer, as long as the torpedo tube of the new destroyer is designed to be compatible with the new torpedo.

新驱逐舰的设计要求很快就发了下来，大体要求是标准排水量不超过2750吨，装备4-5座新研制成功的双联装60倍径105mm高平两用炮，8-10具550mm鱼雷发射管，最大航速不低于40节。

Compared with this displacement, Helena's requirements for the new ship's armament are not as frenzied as those of French, Italian, and Japanese destroyers. Over-heavy arming on the small hull of a destroyer can cause accidents! (At this time, in Japan far away, Kikuo Fujimoto, who was scribbling on the drawing board of "King Kong Generation Ship", suddenly sneezed, and muttered to himself: "Who is talking about me?")

In fact, Germany in the last plane tried to equip destroyers with 150mm guns during World War II. It turned out that the high center of gravity not only affected the stability of the ship, but also caused the ship to have serious bowing in high sea conditions. Phenomena, it can't adapt to the sea conditions in the North Sea at all, so it has to be changed back to the lighter 128mm gun in the construction of subsequent ships.

Chapter 64 Seagoing Ships

After repeated weighing by Helena and a group of designers, the main weapon of the new destroyer finally chose a very balanced and stable solution: four double-mounted 60-fold 105mm high-level dual-purpose guns carried front and rear, two five-mounted The 550mm torpedo tubes are arranged on the central axis in the middle of the hull.On the surface, the new ship's four dual-mounted 105mm high-level dual-purpose guns do not seem to have outstanding artillery firepower on a destroyer of this tonnage, but Helena said that everyone who holds this view will pay a heavy price for their rash judgment cost.

Helena's confidence mainly comes from her trust in the performance of this 105mm naval gun. This long-barreled dual-mounted 105mm naval gun can propel a 16kg projectile to a high speed of 900 m/s. It uses a water-cooled barrel and electric power Rotate pitch and have manual backup.During the shooting process, the timing, pushing and ejecting actions are all automatically completed by the machine.What the sailors need to do is to continuously put the shells raised from the follow-up hoist into the push tank. The high level of automation allows the single-barreled firing rate of this naval gun to reach 25-30 rounds per minute. .

If someone wants to ask whether the rate of fire of this naval gun can be further increased, Helena said that the current rate of fire is basically the limit of the large-caliber high-level dual-purpose naval gun at the current technical level.If the rate of fire wants to continue to increase, then the speed at which the ammunition depot replenishes ammunition to the bomb lifter will become the most important limiting factor.To solve this problem, the ammunition rack has to be designed in the style of integrated ammunition storage/feeding of later naval guns, such as the multi-drum ammunition rack of the Italian Otto 127mm/54 naval gun, such as the Soviet AK130 130mm Planetary ammunition racks for naval guns, and belt-shaped track-type ammunition racks for French 100mm compact guns...

However, even if Helena knew the feeding principle of these naval guns in later generations, she would never dare to play like this now. With the level of electrical control in the 1930s, it would be completely a castle-in-the-air fantasy if she wanted to automate such a complex machine. Even if it is made, the reliability is definitely going to hit the street.

But having said that, with the current configuration of eight cannons and ten mines, the three major performances of the new ship's artillery battle, air defense, and lightning strike are enough to reach a very high level.

Let's talk about artillery first.What is the comparison of destroyer gun battle?The comparison is the projection amount per unit time!The four double-mounted 105mm guns of the new ship can project more than 3 tons of ammunition per minute.This projection ability is placed on the previous plane before and after World War II. If it is compared with other large destroyers with the same standard displacement of 2500-3000 tons, it will definitely be among the best!Even compared with the last-generation artillery destroyer "Keeling-class" in the United States with three dual-mounted 127mm guns, there is not much difference.So Helena is not worried about the new ship's artillery capabilities.

Let’s talk about air defense again. The air defense potential of the new destroyer should not be underestimated.Still compared with the last generation artillery destroyer "Keeling class" of the United States, under the premise that the projection volume is not much different, the 105mm naval gun with high muzzle velocity of the new ship has a higher firing rate than the short-barreled 127mm naval gun of the "Keeling class". Accuracy, the four turrets of the new ships also have better target distribution than the three turrets of the "Keeling class".However, these are only the air defense potential, not the air defense strength.If the potential is to be transformed into real strength, an advanced fire control system and anti-aircraft ammunition must be combined.

Finally, let’s talk about lightning strikes. The new destroyer has two five-unit 550mm torpedo tubes, which can launch ten 10mm heavy torpedoes to one side of the ship at a time.This lightning strike ability on the previous plane is basically more than the upper and lower than the lower, and the Japanese "Shimakaze-class" destroyer, which can launch 550 15mm super-heavy oxygen torpedoes at a time, is definitely no match for the "King of Thunder Drive". However, after the new type of hydrogen peroxide torpedo is installed in the future, it will still be at a very good level among general-purpose destroyers.

Compared with the balanced and stable weapon configuration, the ship type selection of the new destroyer is quite novel and radical.The bottom of the new destroyer has a large rise angle from the middle to both sides, making the entire bottom of the ship V-shaped. The bilge connecting the bottom and the side of the ship is no longer a smooth transition, but has an obvious fold line.This type of ship is exactly the deep V sharp bilge ship type that Helena developed by using the ship design experience of later generations. Its main purpose is to greatly improve the seakeeping and maneuverability of the ship without greatly increasing the construction cost.Under Helena's guidance, this ship type has gone through several years of research and testing, and now it has reached the stage where it can be used practically on warships.

Let’s look at the seakeeping first. According to the data of the tank experiments of the ship engineers, after the new destroyer adopts this new ship type, the probability of waves on the deck is reduced by 25%, and the probability of hull slamming It has been reduced by 6%, and the probability of the propeller being exposed to the water has been reduced by 77.9%.Under the conditions of Class 76.9 waves and a speed of 47.4 knots, the transverse waist of the hull is reduced by 6% compared with the traditional flat-bottomed round bilge ship.In addition to superior seakeeping, the maneuverability of this ship type is also better than that of conventional ship types in the past, and its sailing stability, turning stability, and braking performance are far superior to conventional ship types.

However, everything has advantages and disadvantages. The deep V-shaped bilge ship has a larger wet surface area in the water, which leads to the increase of the frictional resistance of the ship in the water. The resistance in water is obviously higher than that of the round bilge ship, among which the low-speed resistance under still water is 20% higher than that of the round bilge ship, and the high-speed resistance under still water is 4% higher than that of the round bilge ship.

If Helena designed a destroyer for Italy, there is a high probability that she would not use this type of ship. After all, the Mediterranean Sea is calm most of the time.But Germany is different. The combat area of ​​German destroyers is the North Sea with high winds and high waves. In the North Sea, there are more than 200 days in a year with waves higher than 4 meters, and sometimes there will be huge waves exceeding 10 meters!Moreover, the size of the destroyer is relatively small, and it cannot rely on its huge displacement to fight against the stormy waves like a large ship. In this case, the superior performance of the deep V-shaped bilge ship in terms of seakeeping is very important for destroyers operating in the North Sea. It is very important, not to mention that this ship type can also improve the maneuverability of the destroyer, which is also very beneficial to the destroyer, a ship type that often needs to rely on maneuvering to eat.

As for the increase in hydrostatic resistance, Helena said that she doesn't need to worry about it at all.Because Helena knows that waves will bring a resistance value increase, making the ship unable to reach the theoretical speed of still water.Take the British "Tribal-class" destroyer as an example. Its speed can reach more than 36 knots in still water, but it can only run to 32.5 knots under high sea conditions.

The deep V sharp bilge ship has better seakeeping, which makes its resistance increase in waves 20%-30% smaller than that of conventional round bilge ships.The final result is a deep V-shaped bilge boat with greater resistance in still water, but in medium and high sea conditions, the navigation resistance is even smaller!According to the calculations of German engineers, in more than 90% of the days in the North Sea, the navigation resistance of deep V sharp bilge ships is lower than that of conventional round bilge ships.Moreover, Helena can further reduce sailing resistance through bulbous bow, rounded square tail and tail wedge/plate combination.

In short, in the specific combat environment of the German Navy, deep V sharp bilge ships have an overwhelming advantage over conventional ship types on ships of the destroyer class.In this case, is there any reason for designers not to choose?

Chapter 65 High Pressure and High Temperature

The power system of the new destroyer still uses the combination of a round-bore pressurized boiler and a reactionary steam turbine that has been proven in practice. There are a total of four boilers and two sets of steam turbines.These boilers and turbines are arranged staggeredly in the middle of the hull in the form of boiler room, engine room, boiler room, and engine room to increase the anti-strike capability.If the boilers and turbines are arranged centrally, there will be a risk of being hit by the opponent to destroy all the boilers or all the turbines.

The new destroyer uses dual five-bladed propellers and parallel twin rudders. The rated power can reach 10 horsepower, and the estimated speed exceeds 40 knots.Due to the different occasions of use, the power system of the new destroyer is still significantly different from the power system previously used on the "Deutschland-class" armored ships.

The first difference is the higher steam parameters. Although the "Deutschland-class" pocket battleship used a supercharged boiler for the first time, its steam parameters were the same as those of the previously built "Konigsberg"-class light cruiser, with a steam temperature of 400 degrees and a pressure of 40 kg/cm480.The steam parameters of the new destroyer are much higher than this. Its steam temperature is as high as 60 degrees, and its steam pressure is [-] kg/cm[-]. This steam parameter is basically the same as the "Scharnhorst-class" battlecruiser of the previous plane.

The second difference is a more simplified steam turbine unit. The steam turbines of the "Emden-class" light cruisers, the "Konigsberg-class" light cruisers and the "Deutschland-class" pocket battleships are all composed of three sets of turbines: high-pressure steam turbines, medium-pressure steam turbines, and low-pressure steam turbines.The new destroyer has only two sets of high-pressure steam turbines and low-pressure steam turbines.These two sets of steam turbines are output in parallel at high speeds and in series at low speeds.The advantages and disadvantages of adopting this design for the power system of the new destroyer are very obvious: the advantage is that the volume of the entire power plant becomes very compact, and the power-to-weight ratio can be made very high.The disadvantage is that the high steam temperature affects the reliability of the power system, and the simplified steam turbine affects the thermal efficiency.

Helena and the ship designers carefully weighed whether the new destroyer should adopt higher steam parameters.In Helena's memory, the "Scharnhorst"-class battlecruisers and "Bismarck-class" battleships built by Germany on the previous plane both used high-temperature and high-pressure steam boilers. very high.The high steam parameters make the power-to-weight ratio of the power systems of these two types of warships quite good, and their power output per unit weight is second only to the French "Richelieu-class" battleships that use supercharged boilers, and greatly exceeds that of the American "clothes class" that debuted much later. Iowa-class battleship.Moreover, this is the achievement of the Germans when the power system is highly restricted, and the benefits of high-temperature and high-pressure boilers can be seen.

However, corresponding to the benefits are troubles. The relatively high steam parameters have affected the reliability of the power systems of the "Scharnhorst class" and "Bismarck class" to a certain extent, which caused the power systems of the German large warships Although there have been no major problems, various minor problems have continued.