Iron Sonata of World War II

Because it was really difficult to resist Mussolini's countless telegrams from Rome urging the army to advance, after leaving nearly 4 guards in the newly occupied Adwa and Axum areas, General Bono, the commander-in-chief of the Italian East African Army, Finally led an army of 12 to embark on the journey again, and the target of the Italian army's attack this time is the northern important town of Ethiopia, Makare, the capital of Tigray State.Although General Bono thought he was cautious enough, the difficulty of this march far exceeded his expectations. The main reason was that the intelligence agency's assessment report on Ethiopian military strength before the war had seriously underestimated.

比如博诺将军直接率领的北线意军在攻入埃塞俄比亚时总共装备有112辆坦克，包括32辆菲亚特3000轻型坦克和80辆CV33型超轻型坦克。虽然博诺将军手中的这批菲亚特3000轻型坦克都是经过改进的Mod30型，也就是1930年以后新生产的型号。相比那些仅装备两挺6.5毫米机枪的Mod21型，该型号将主武器升级成了37毫米加农炮，发动机功率也从50马力提高到了63马力。

However, the Fiat 3000 series tanks were developed on the basis of the French Renault FT-17 after all. The basic design is still the foundation of the last World War. The 16mm riveted armor combined with the maximum speed of 21 kilometers per hour made this tank very embarrassing in the combat background of the 30s: you can use it to support infantry, the armor of this thing can even be used at close range with large-caliber machine guns Breakthrough; you can use it to wander around, the road speed of this thing is about the same as the speed of a human running fast, and the cross-country speed is even more conceivable.

如果说菲亚特3000轻型坦克Mod30型是上次大战中法国雷诺FT-17坦克的遗孤，那么CV33型超轻型坦克倒是可以算意大利坦克工业遵循自己思路发展的成果。CV33型坦克之所以会被称为“超轻型坦克”，不难想象这种坦克最为显著的特点就是它的袖珍和轻盈。事实也确实如此：3.2米的长度和1.4米的宽度让CV33坦克的车体尺寸甚至不及后世大部分家用轿车，而区区3.2吨的战斗全重也仅仅相当于后世很多轻型卡车的量级。在这样局促的尺寸和重量的限制下，自然不能指望这个小不点能拥有多么强悍的防护和火力。

In fact, in order to minimize weight, this CV33 ultra-light tank is not even equipped with a rotating turret, and all vehicle weapons are only the 8mm dual-mounted steering wheel operated by the commander on the left side of the front of the car body. machine gun.Such poor firepower combined with the frontal armor with a thickness of only 14 mm made the CV33 tank in the previous plane look like a shrunken version of the German Panzer I with a fixed battle compartment design.It was a blessing in disguise that because the combat weight was light enough, the CV33 could run at a speed of 43 kilometers per hour relying on a 42-horsepower gasoline engine, which was twice as fast as the slow Fiat 3000 series tanks.

The reason why the Italian tank industry, which started earlier, faltered in its later development, is of course the limitation of Italy's overall industrial technology capabilities. For example, in the previous world, Italy failed to master mature Armor plate welding process, Fiat company used welding technology on the CV1933 tank as early as 33, but faced with various quality problems exposed in the subsequent service, it had to return to the traditional riveting after 1935 craft.The riveting process not only needs to pay more weight, but also the rivets are in danger of breaking and collapsing when the tank is shot.

If the limitation of technical capabilities is still an objective factor restricting the development of Italian tanks, then the subjective problems of decision-makers hinder the development of Italian tanks should not be underestimated.The concept of the use of tanks by the top Italian army has been behind for a long time. At that time, many senior Italian generals believed that the main force of the battlefield in the future would still be cavalry and infantry regiments, and the main role of tanks was to support their own infantry to break through trenches, and to fight against infantry artillery like cavalry. Responsible for reconnaissance and security tasks around the regiment.

The combination of the Fiat 3000 light tank and the CV33 ultra-light tank that appeared on the Ethiopian battlefield this time vividly demonstrated the Italians' understanding of tank development: the former with slightly better firepower and protection but slower speed is used to support infantry to break through the defense line The latter, which is faster but weaker in firepower and protection, is responsible for providing reconnaissance and security for infantry like cavalry.This sounds a bit like the British way of dividing tanks into infantry tanks, cruiser tanks, and light tanks, but the combination of the Italians is really shabby.

In the previous thinking of General Bono, who was in charge of commanding the Italian Army in East Africa, the tanks he had might not be considered advanced, but Ethiopia on the opposite side didn’t have a single tank, so he just had to push forward slowly without haste. However, to the surprise of General Bono, the small Ethiopia also possesses good anti-armor capabilities.However, the anti-armor weapons that drove the Italians the most crazy were not those serious anti-tank guns, but an unprofessional anti-aircraft gun that the Germans sold to Ethiopia before the war: a single-barreled 30mm gun code-named flak20 Anti-aircraft guns.

In fact, Ethiopia originally purchased this artillery to defend against Italian air strikes, but since Ethiopia obtained the first squadron equipped with BF-108A2 fighter jets, the Italian Fiat CR. The speed decreased at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the pilots of these planes were all civilian volunteers from the German Flying Club.It is said that these volunteers are all tempted to get a raise and promotion when they go back. Ah, I am right, they are all inspired by the great spirit of internationalism to go to Ethiopia to support the people of Ethiopia in fighting.

Although the performance of the Fiat CR.32 fighter is actually good among biplanes, the BF-108A2 armed with a new generation of design concepts is not something that the Fiat CR.32 can compete with, as long as the volunteers of the German Flying Club pay attention to avoid In low-speed dogfighting, the Italian pilots had almost no chance of countering the BF-108A2 and could only be beaten passively.So when some of the best German volunteers had accumulated four kill records, and they could be promoted to ace pilots as long as they shot down one more Italian aircraft, the Italian pilots suddenly began to work together, causing The German volunteers scolded the Italian pilots for their lack of professionalism.The reasons given by the Italian pilots for refusing to fly into the air include but are not limited to: the mechanical failure of the aircraft has not been ruled out, the weather conditions are not suitable for attacking, and the pasta is not cooked, causing diarrhea...

Because there was really no air target to hit, the flak30 anti-aircraft artillery, which refused to do nothing, began to declare its presence to Italy on the ground.Since this thing weighs only more than 400 kilograms, the Ethiopian army can use pickup trucks, mules and even manpower to carry it to any place you can imagine with the help of local people.The terrain of Ethiopia is simply tailor-made for the ambush of this anti-aircraft gun. In fact, every hillside, every pile of rocks, every bush, and every house in Ethiopia can provide this anti-aircraft gun with a height of only 1.6 meters. hidden.So in the hands of the Ethiopians, the Flak30 anti-aircraft gun is a versatile artillery. Anyway, Italy has no heavy armored targets.

The sad Italian army often walked around, and suddenly received cordial greetings from the crossfire of 20mm anti-aircraft guns that came out of nowhere. What was even more sad was that the weak armor of the Fiat 3000 and CV33 tanks around them also could not Resist the attack of 20mm capped armor-piercing bullets, which can penetrate 500mm armor at a distance of 25 meters, and often turn Italian crispy tanks into piles of burning bonfires in the wilderness, while human flesh and blood The body of a person cannot resist the power of a 20mm projectile, and the body of the person who is hit will often be torn to pieces by the powerful kinetic energy.

And when the opposite side finally stopped after shooting a few magazines, the Italian army rushing forward to prepare for revenge would find that the opposite Egyptian army and their Flak30 had long since disappeared, and the Italian army, fearing to be ambushed again, had no choice but to leave After all, this cannon can be dragged away by a horse or a camel, or two or three people without animal power.There are even whimsical Ethiopians who disassemble Flak30 into several parts, and then use animal power to pull them along the rugged mountain trails to the cliffs to assemble them, and then when the Italian army passes by from below, they face the following from the cliffs on both sides. The Italians shot down.Till at last the paranoid Italians, almost suffering from a nervous breakdown, began to look suspiciously at every bush and every rock-pile, and, seeing no enemy in sight, poured upon them indiscriminately. Ammunition, the morale of the Italians, which was not very high, also declined further.

Although Italy suffered a lot of losses in personnel and equipment, General Bono's new offensive did not yield nothing. He commanded the Italian army to capture Adigrat on the east side of Adua. The two cities of Mu are connected in a line in northern Ethiopia. This is a posture that can be attacked, retreated and defended.However, the time at this time has advanced to November 11th. At this time in the previous plane, the Italian army had already cooked pasta in Makare, the capital of Tigray State, and the Italian army on the northern front in this plane was paying After a heavier price, it has only just broken through Ethiopia's northern border area.

However, the progress of the Italian army on the southern front, which served as an auxiliary attack mission, was not even as good as that of the northern front. Although they once broke through the Golahei line of defense on the southern border of Ethiopia, after more than 1 reinforcements from Ethiopia arrived and launched a counterattack, the Italian front not only It returned to the original point, and was even broken into the territory of Italian Somalia by the Egyptian army.The British, who had long been dissatisfied with Italy’s expansion in East Africa, had a sense of humor this time. They added Amharic (the official language of Ethiopia) to the boundary markers between British Somalia and Italian Somalia, reminding them Do not cross the border when the Ethiopians counterattack.

Chapter 281 It's time to be handsome

Although General Bono's offensive in Ethiopia did not go smoothly, he occupied the area between Axum and Adigrat after all, and established a fairly reliable advance base for the Italian East African Army in northern Ethiopia. The casualties of the Italian army have steadily exceeded [-], but thanks to General Bono's constant caution, they have never been wiped out by the establishment.Moreover, most of the casualties were slave troops recruited from Eritrea, and the regular army from the Italian mainland plus the black shirts also killed and injured thousands of people.

In fact, from Helena's point of view, it is not easy for General Bono of this plane to be able to lead the Italian army, which generally has a strong war-weary mentality, when it is difficult to exert armor and air superiority. At least compared to the embarrassment of the Italian army in the last Italian-Egyptian war, the performance of the Italian army this time is notable.However, General Bono's mature and prudent command style has obviously become increasingly unable to satisfy Mussolini's gluttonous appetite.In fact, since the Italian army captured Adigrat, the self-proclaimed dictator Caesar of the New Roman Empire has not received news of the Italian army's significant progress in Ethiopia for a long time, so the increasingly anxious Mussolini Then it started an even more confusing operation.

After General Bono occupied Adigrat under the urging of Mussolini's countless telegrams, he returned to the previous cautious state. His era was not top-notch, but this did not prevent General Bono from understanding: in the case of a large loss of technical equipment in the early stage and general low morale of the troops, it is best not to fight too aggressively, and use the method of establishing a stronghold to fight every step of the way. Playing dumb is the safest choice.Although it is difficult to achieve an epic victory, at least it can guarantee that there will be no humiliating defeat like the last Italian-Egyptian war.

Mussolini obviously lacks enough patience in the face of General Bono, who has returned to his old ways. What he needs now is not this kind of steady and slow advance, but a quick and decisive victory in Ethiopia to wash away the defeat of the Italian-Egyptian war last time. shame.After all, with Italy's current poor and weak economic situation, the longer this war drags on, the more unfavorable it will be.Italy paid a heavy price in the last world war, which made many people in Italy lack interest in war. If the Italian army's combat operations in Ethiopia do not see returns for a long time, the increasing economic burden and personnel Sooner or later, the casualties will cause domestic war weariness to erupt, which will lead to the complete bankruptcy of the blueprint for the new Roman Empire that Mussolini has long advocated in the hearts of the people, and will even threaten his continued legitimacy in power.

Therefore, recently Mussolini racked his brains to force the Italian Army in East Africa to speed up the offensive. He awarded the rank of Marshal to General Bono, who is commanding operations in Ethiopia, hoping to urge the veteran to launch a new offensive as soon as possible. Always bring 10,000+ main Italian troops to squat between Axum and Adigrat.However, after being promoted to Marshal, General Bono did end the rest of the army, and successfully captured the small town of Erdagahamut in the south of Adigrat, threatening the northern gateway of Makare, the capital of Tigray State, Vikro , but what particularly drove Mussolini crazy was that Marshal Bono, who had just been promoted, did not continue to march in the direction of Macalé, but chose to sit down in Erdagahamut and continue his squatting career.

Faced with the attitude of Marshal Emilio de Bono, Mussolini finally made the same decision as on the previous plane when he had no choice but to change the commander in front of the battle. Marshal Pietro Badoglio succeeded Marshal Bono as Commander-in-Chief of the Afrika Korps.After receiving the news, Marshal Bono did not feel too disappointed. He quickly completed the handover with Marshal Badoglio and returned to China by boat from Italian Eritrea.

Ever since the war with Ethiopia began, Marshal Bono began to fear for no reason that he would lose his life on this rugged plateau. This is also the underlying reason that prompted him to be more cautious in his decision-making than usual. When this piece of hot potato was handed over to Badoglio, Marshal Bono felt a lot lighter all over.Although he wasn't completely worried about the future of the East African Legion, the responsibility for the outcome of the war finally fell to him.

When they learned that the new commander-in-chief of the Italian East African Army was Pietro Badoglio, many generals in the German General Staff had indescribable smiles on their faces.The Germans still know the details of Marshal Badoglio, because during the last world war, the Germans fought against Badoglio, who was still a major general at the time, and Badoglio was in Italy at the time The 27th Army of the Second Army served as the commander.However, in the later Battle of Caporetto, the Second Italian Army with 25 divisions collapsed under the active attack of 7 German and 8 Austrian divisions despite its absolute superiority in strength. The number of casualties in the group army was only 3, but the number of surrendered and captured people was more than 20.

Badoglio, as a senior general in the Second Army, was naturally responsible for the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Caporetto. However, after the battle, not only was he not punished, but his rank was promoted from major general to lieutenant general , The reason is that throughout the Battle of Caporetto, the battlefield performance of many Italian generals was not as good as that of Badoglio.

The highlight moment of Badoglio in World War I was when the British and French reinforcements arrived in November 1918. Under his leadership, the Italian army with the support of its allies recovered South Tyrol, which was occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Since then, Badoglio has become a well-known national hero in Italy and was promoted to general.However, the officers in the German General Staff obviously didn't like Badoglio, who was once defeated by his subordinates and later won by relying on his allies.

However, Helena, who traveled from a later life, knew that although Marshal Badoglio's victory in the First World War in the previous plane was remarkable, it was not the worst thing he had ever done in his life. Brilliant thing.Although the performance of Marshal Badoglio in the last plane was still lackluster on the battlefield of World War II, such as attacking Ethiopia and using poisonous gas, and finally because of the defeat of the Italian army in Greece, he was defeated by Mosso. Lini was fired as chief of the general staff.But in 1943, when the situation in the Axis countries continued to deteriorate, Marshal Badoglio first put Mussolini under house arrest through a coup, and then turned his spearhead to declare war on Germany in October 1943. On the same day, the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union The government also issued a declaration, acknowledging that the Badoglio government is a party to fight together. Everyone is familiar with the following things. Italy won again because of the Badoglio government's timely reversal...

Helena also admired Marshal Badoglio's talent of being able to lie down and win at the last minute every time despite repeated defeats on the battlefield.So when Manstein, who had just been promoted to major general (a few months earlier than in history), was disdainful of Marshal Badoglio as the commander-in-chief of the Italian East African Army, Helena also joked to Manstein: "Don't talk about Marshal Badoglio like that, Uncle Manstein. Some people win when they lose, and some people lose when they win." Helena said Covering his mouth with his hands, he let out an uncontrollable laugh. Unfortunately, Manstein in his own plane didn't seem to be able to share Helena's bad taste. Instead, he was stunned by Helena's sudden laughter...

Chapter 282 Torpedo Failure

In fact, if Mussolini had immediately chosen to stop extending the front line and switch to the defensive mode when General Bono occupied Vekro, he would continue to consolidate his control over the existing occupied areas while fighting with the Ethiopian government. Negotiations, Italy may still have the possibility of dignified escape from the quagmire of Ethiopia.However, the greed and arrogance in his character determined that Mussolini would never accept that his Italian East African ambitions would be abandoned halfway before he had time to display them. Therefore, he chose to ignore the balance of payments of Italy's poor and weak war resource reserves, and would rather take a risk. Italy's military operations in Ethiopia will continue at the risk of changing hands, but this is exactly what Helena is busy digging for Italy.

In fact, it is a daily operation for Italy to join the war with almost no preparations for war. For example, when the Second World War broke out in the previous plane, Italy's iron ore reserves were only enough for 180 days, and the coal reserves were even more Only enough for 50 days.So much so that Mussolini's son-in-law, Foreign Minister Galiazzo Ciano, after inspecting the industrial situation in Italy, wrote very sadly in his diary that day: "How dare we be in such a situation?" How about a war?"Ciano's subtext is: With the industrial strength and resource reserves we have in Italy, the father-in-law just needs to stay at home honestly. Why are you rushing out with Germany right now?

Although Mussolini's aides in this plane reminded him before the war broke out: the consumption of hundreds of thousands of Italian troops fighting in the distant East Africa for a long time was beyond the Italian economy's ability to bear, but such harsh words Every time it can only make the headstrong Mussolini furious.Before the war, Mussolini stubbornly believed that Italy could quickly destroy Ethiopia, so he didn't put too much thought into the strategic resource reserve. The foreign exchange reserve balances are falling every month, and now that the war has been fought from October 1935 to 10, the ultimate victory still seems to be in vain.

Although the League of Nations officially launched the sanctions against Italy on November 11, due to the obstruction of France and the negative attitude of the United Kingdom, it did not include coal, oil, iron ore and other strategic materials in the embargo list against Italy, but still Restricting Italy's international financing and banning imports from Italy has also made it much more difficult for Italy to obtain foreign exchange.Under the current favorable situation, Helena will naturally not rush to launch a strong attack on Lila.Just like cats often eat after catching mice, Helena is really ready to do it when Italy's foreign exchange reserves are almost burned, so now she is going to let Italy flop in the big quagmire of Ethiopia several months.

Although Italy's poor performance in Ethiopia brought Helena a lot of joy, it was obviously impossible for Helena to just stare at Italy for such a long time without doing other things.It is said that the Navy's newly established submarine force was very satisfied with its performance after accepting six Type II submarines, so it added an order for six more submarines of the same type in the 1936 budget. However, recently Dönitz's submarine force seems to have encountered It's a big trouble, but this trouble is not on the Type II submarine itself, but on the submarine's most important attack weapon-submarine-launched torpedoes.

The cause of the incident is that when the German Navy recently tested the 550mm torpedo developed for Type II submarines, it found that the failure rate of this submarine-launched torpedo in certain test situations was surprisingly high.According to further investigations, the main reasons for the failure are mainly reflected in two aspects: first, the depth-fixing device cannot be used to determine the depth normally, and the actual navigation depth of the torpedo is usually too large than the set depth, causing the torpedo to directly pass through the bottom of the target ship. Secondly, the fuze of the torpedo cannot be triggered normally, which exists no matter in the new magnetic proximity fuze or in the traditional mechanical trigger fuze.

The horrific test data made Colonel Karl Doenitz, who had just taken office, look ashamed. When he received Hitler's task of forming a submarine force, Doenitz swore in front of Hitler that the first batch of six submarines in the submarine force would Combat strength can be initially formed in the first half of 1936 at the latest, and now the time has come to 1936, but the submarine force has become a toothless shark due to technical problems with torpedoes, which makes his hairline the closest They all retreated a lot, and he even gritted his teeth and said to the person in charge of the torpedo's research and development: "Thank you, it is still a peaceful age. If it were a war, you gang of idiots would have been tried in the dock of the military court long ago." gone."

In fact, in the early days of World War II on the last plane, the German torpedoes quickly exposed very serious problems.For example, as early as October 1939, Churchill, who had just taken over as Secretary of the Navy, took the battleship "Nelson" and went to Scapa Flow under the cover of as many as 10 destroyers to investigate the sinking of the battleship "Royal Oak" by a German submarine.As a result, he was ambushed by the German submarine U-10 on the way. The captain Zeiss crossed the cordon formed by destroyers and lost no time in shooting three torpedoes at Churchill's ship "Nelson" and scored a hit.But none of these torpedoes exploded. Apart from frightening Churchill into a cold sweat, the only result was a crash on the hull of the battleship "Nelson".

Doenitz knew that Churchill was very annoyed after he escaped the catastrophe because of the dumb mine problem of his submarine. He believed that the failure of the attack by the U-56 submarine was a "major military mistake."However, Churchill's narrow escape was only the beginning of the exposure of the German submarine-launched torpedo problem. Later in 1940, during the German attack on Norway's Weserburg, Dönitz's submarine force cooperated with surface ships. A massive attack was carried out.However, what is surprising is that during the battle, the German underwater wolves launched a total of 38 attacks, but only destroyed one British transport ship. Instead, they destroyed four ships because their positions were exposed after the attack.

Among them, the ace captain Günter Prien, who became famous for diving into Scapa Flow and sinking the British battleship "Royal Oak", fired 8 torpedoes in this battle. As a result, none of the torpedoes hit the British battleship. The explosion, on the contrary, was a torpedo that missed the target and was detonated because it hit the reef. As a result, a group of British anti-submarine ships used depth charges to send warm greetings to the ace captain's submarine.Günter Prien, who managed to escape the siege and interception of the British destroyer, complained to Dönitz angrily after returning to Hong Kong: "I never want to use this kind of wood-like weapon in the future."

The main reason why the problem of German submarine-launched torpedoes in the last plane was not discovered before the war started was that the torpedo R&D department took care of all the links from torpedo design and development to testing and acceptance.This is tantamount to allowing the torpedo research and development department to act as both athletes and referees, without external supervision or competition mechanism.Under this system, it is conceivable that the torpedo research and development department will set all the tests under the most ideal conditions, with the purpose of producing beautiful test data so that the products it develops can be approved by the military as soon as possible. Procurement, so the captains of the German submarine force were misunderstood by these irresponsible guys.

Since Helena on the original plane optimized the competition mechanism of military enterprises earlier, and basically eliminated the phenomenon of self-grading in the weapon inspection process, the failure of the German torpedo on the original plane was exposed quickly enough.However, the exposure of the problem does not mean that the technical problem will be solved soon. For example, after the German torpedo problem was discovered in the last plane, although Dönitz ordered the establishment of a special "torpedo committee" at the first time, it was not until the end of 1942 that Germany The reliability problem of submarine-launched torpedoes was initially resolved. However, at this time, the golden age of German submarine activities has basically passed.

Chapter 283 Carving a Boat and Seeking a Sword

After hearing the news that the navy's submarine-launched torpedo test failed, Helena not only did not show any disappointment, but also showed a relieved smile. Germany on this plane can discover the torpedo problem earlier in the test field, which is of course better than the previous It is much better for a plane to improve in a hurry after being embarrassing in actual combat.Besides, Helena didn't expect that the German designers on this plane would suddenly be enlightened, and then perfectly avoid the technical traps in torpedo design. You must know that torpedoes are highly complex naval warfare equipment, even in the eyes of Helena, who has a lot of design experience in later generations. Here, it can be regarded as a tough nut to crack.

Now Helena's state of mind when she sees the German torpedo designers falling into the pit in this plane is like her middle school teacher in her previous life sitting in front of the blackboard with an inscrutable expression on her face, quietly watching the students below answering the questions. A certain difficult exercise racked my brains.And when the students with better grades in the class finally excitedly reported the answer they finally solved, they didn't know that there was actually a deep hidden trap in this question.Then when the teacher finally stood up and wrote down the correct problem-solving process on the blackboard, the students in the audience would probably wail like "it's all because the teacher who gave the question is too cunning".

Thanks to Helena's advance layout on this plane, Germany is currently making good progress in torpedo power technology. The kerosene/hydrogen peroxide thermal power torpedo driven by the Walter steam turbine has already served on new destroyers, while the silver-zinc battery-powered The development of electric torpedoes is also proceeding relatively smoothly.The problems found in this torpedo test are of course not in terms of power, but in the reliability of the torpedo depth-fixing device and the fuze of the warhead. The depth-fixing device is to ensure that the torpedo can sail and attack at the most suitable depth. The target and the fuze are to ensure that the torpedo can detonate its warhead charge at the most appropriate time.

The torpedo depth-fixing device has repeatedly encountered problems in recent tests, which is indeed beyond the expectations of the German torpedo designers, because in the eyes of these designers, the torpedo depth-fixing device that has been developed for decades is already a fairly mature technology, so The designers only made some simple improvements on the basis of the submarine-launched torpedoes used by the German army in the last World War. No one knew that there were deadly traps hidden in the seemingly simple depth fixer.However, the results of many recent experiments have shown the designers with no doubt that they did overturn in places where it seemed impossible to overturn, and that the torpedoes they designed sometimes behaved completely normally, and sometimes actually sailed deeper than the designed torpedoes. The set depth must be deep, and the value of the deviation from the set depth is different each time.

Such a strange phenomenon immediately made the torpedo designers feel at a loss. They first suspected that there was a quality problem with the depth fixer produced by the manufacturer. However, the results of many random inspections showed that the accuracy of the depth fixer was completely qualified, but until this time Still no one suspects that there are flaws in the design of the depth chamber. After all, they have adopted a design that has been used for many years and has been tested in actual combat. How could something go wrong?If there is really a problem with this design, it should have been exposed long ago. How can we wait for today?However, no matter how puzzled the designers were, the problems that emerged during the experiment were clearly there, and it seemed impossible to muddle through without giving the navy a satisfactory explanation, so the dejected designers finally chose to ask Helen Na tells their confusion.

"There is a fable in the far east. It is said that when a man was crossing a river by boat, he dropped his sword into the river, but he didn't go into the water to salvage it immediately. The people on the same boat said: "This is where my sword fell." When the boat docked, the man jumped into the water from the marked place to salvage it, but he couldn't find his sword no matter what, you said Is this person very stupid?" After patiently listening to the designers' intentions, Helena did not immediately give the answers they wanted, but first said the fable recorded in "Lushi Chunqiu".

"My dear uncle designers, don't patronize and giggle at me after listening to the story. You follow the experience of the last world war in the design of the depth fixer of the new torpedo, but is it true that among you Has no one noticed that the launch technology we used in the Type II submarine is completely different from the past?" Helena first raised her hand to support her forehead, and then pretended to look sadly at a 45-degree posture: "If If I remember correctly, when our submarines launched torpedoes in the last world war, they all used the method of torpedo self-propelled out of the tube?" Helena asked.The so-called self-propelled launch here is to open the front cover of the launch tube and start the torpedo engine, allowing the torpedo to swim out of the launch tube by its own power.

"Although this launch method is light and simple, it cannot launch our new thermal-powered torpedo, nor can it launch mines that have no power of their own. Moreover, the low exit speed also greatly limits the speed of submarines when launching torpedoes, so We're starting to use a new type of aerodynamic unbalanced torpedo launcher on newer submarines, I think all of you are aware of this, but have you looked at both carefully before copying the depth setter design of the past The characteristics of the launch method and the possible impact of these characteristics?" Helena said earnestly.

On the new submarines of this plane, Germany began to adopt the so-called "aerodynamic unbalanced" torpedo launcher. This launch method no longer needs to rely on the torpedo's own power to swim out of the launch tube. Fill up with seawater, then use the compressed air in the high-pressure cylinder to push the torpedo in the launch tube out of the launch tube together with the seawater.This launching method is not only suitable for launching new thermal-powered torpedoes and unpowered mines, but also can be used when the submarine is at a higher speed. It was the most commonly used torpedo launching method for German submarines during World War II on the last plane.

"You should know the self-propelled torpedo launch method we used in the past. The surrounding sea water will automatically fill the space in the launch tube after the torpedo swims out. The pressure will not change. But now we are using the aerodynamic unbalanced launch method. In order to prevent the high-pressure air that pushes the torpedo out of the tube from forming bubbles outside the boat, the position of the submarine will be exposed after surfacing, and to prevent After the heavy torpedo is launched out of the tube, the left and right and front and rear of the submarine are unbalanced. The launch device must recover a large amount of gas into the launch chamber in a short period of time, and also recover seawater roughly equivalent to the weight of the torpedo. .”

"However, this process of recovering gas and seawater will cause the interior cabin of the submarine to be pressurized instantaneously. In fact, after using the aerodynamic unbalanced launcher, the pressure inside the submarine will be higher than the normal atmospheric pressure for a long time. Now you can Do you understand why the depth gauge design, which was used without any problems in the last world war, is suddenly not easy to use on the new submarine? The fable of the boat and the sword just now is about you!" Helena still did not forget to give The torpedo designers delivered a knowing blow.

Chapter 284 Triggering the Fuze

When Helena mentioned the impact of the new torpedo launch method on the pressure of the submarine's internal cabin, many designers had already shown a look of sudden understanding on their faces.After all, when Helena has already made it clear to this point, if the torpedo designers still can't think of the reason why the products they design cannot accurately determine the depth, it is probably an insult to the professional level of these engineers with professional backgrounds .In fact, there is no problem with the professionalism of these designers, what they lack is the opportunity to break the stereotype of thinking, and now Helena's reminder just helps them break the cage of the stereotype of thinking.

To put it bluntly, the problem of German torpedo depth determination is that the new submarine has a greater diving depth and a new torpedo launch method. The by-product is that when the new submarine dives and launches torpedoes, the air pressure inside the submarine cabin will rise to a certain extent.However, torpedo designers did not pay enough attention to this change, so they did not do a good job of sealing the air pressure box when designing the torpedo depth finder.Therefore, after being stored for a period of time in the submarine cabin environment exceeding the standard atmospheric pressure, the air pressure box as the measuring scale of the depth fixer will be slowly infiltrated, and the internal pressure will gradually exceed the original standard atmospheric pressure.

According to the design idea of ​​the German torpedo depth gauge during World War II, when the torpedo sails close to the sea level, the pressure inside and outside the pressure box of the depth gauge is balanced, which is equal to the standard atmospheric pressure. is zero meters.As the depth of the torpedo increases, the pressure outside the pressure box will increase. The sensor of the depth gauge only needs to measure the difference between the pressure inside and outside the pressure box to know the current navigation depth of the torpedo and the ratio of the set depth. Then you will know how to adjust the elevator: when it is too deep, the elevator will control the torpedo to float up, otherwise it will control the torpedo to dive.

But what if the pressure inside the pressure cell is not equal to standard atmospheric pressure, but higher than standard atmospheric pressure?Originally, the pressure inside and outside the pressure box was equal when the torpedo was sailing near sea level, that is, at a depth of zero meters. Now it needs to sail at a certain depth to balance the pressure inside and outside the pressure box.That is to say, if the pressure in the pressure cell exceeds the standard atmospheric pressure, the zero-meter scale of the torpedo depth gauge will move a certain depth underwater.And because the standard zero-meter scale is deeper than the actual depth, the measurement results of the depth fixer at all depths will be shallower than the actual depth, and the actual navigation depth of the torpedo will be deeper than the set depth, which will cause some The torpedo that hit the enemy ship eventually passed through the bottom of the enemy ship without damage to the enemy ship.

Although the reason for the German torpedo depth setting problem is not complicated, and the difficulty of solving it is not too great from a technical point of view, but Helena believes that if she does not give some hints, the German torpedo designers may not be able to solve it for several years .Because the problem of the depth setting of German torpedoes in history began to be exposed as early as 1939, but these designers who could not bend their brains did not find out the crux of the problem in the following two years, until 1942 1 On March 30, the captain of submarine U-94 found that the internal pressure of the air pressure box was too high when he inspected the torpedo depth finder privately. This ghost that tormented the German submarine force for more than two years appeared.Although the problem of the torpedo depth finder was completely solved that year, countless Allied ships had narrowly escaped death before that.

After the torpedo designers got the answers they wanted from Helena, they immediately followed Helena's instructions to thoroughly inspect the pressure chamber of the torpedo's depth chamber, only to find that the devil that had disturbed them all night was indeed hidden here.In many highly complex projects, the difficulty of troubleshooting is much greater than the difficulty of solving the problem. Now that the problem of torpedo depth determination has been found out, and a pressure box of the depth determination chamber with better airtightness has been redesigned, these It's not a difficult task for the engineers, after all, it didn't take long for them to get this done in the history of the last plane.

After Helena helped the designers find out the crux of the torpedo depth problem, the reliability problem of the German torpedo has not been completely resolved. Redesigning the airtight depth fixer can only ensure that the torpedo does not deviate from the setting when sailing depth, but it does not guarantee that the torpedo can be detonated accurately at the moment it hits the target, and it is the mission of the torpedo fuze to detonate the torpedo at the right time.There are two main types of fuzes for German torpedoes during World War II. One is the traditional trigger fuze, and the other is the magnetic proximity fuze that is full of black technology compared to this era. However, it is frustrating that these two None of the fuzes are reliable.

In the early days of the war, the magnetic proximity fuze equipped by Germany could theoretically explode under the keel of the enemy ship, thereby bypassing the mine protection system on the side of the enemy ship and giving the opponent a fatal blow. However, in actual use, the failure rate of this new type of fuze It is as high as 60%, which means that even if the torpedo fired by the German submarine equipped with this fuze can achieve a hit, there is more than half of the probability that the fuze will not detonate the warhead on time.These problematic torpedoes either exploded prematurely before reaching the enemy ship's position, or passed under the keel of the enemy ship without saying a word, and then sank into the deep sea after exhausting their energy.

The matter of the magnetic proximity fuze is ignored here. The endless resentment of the captain and the crew finally took effect. Germany was forced to abandon the use of this advanced torpedo with a magnetic proximity fuze from the middle of 1941, and to pick up again. A more mature mechanical trigger fuze was introduced, and the improved magnetic proximity fuze was not re-equipped until after 1942.Although the reliability of the German trigger fuze is indeed better than that of the magnetic proximity fuze, it is not completely without problems.For example, the Germans found that when the hit angle is less than 50 degrees, the reliability of the torpedo fuze will drop significantly.

The funny thing is: the German torpedo trigger fuze is unreliable when the hit angle (the angle between the ballistic tangent of the projectile point and the target or ground surface tangent plane passing through the point) is too small, while the American torpedo trigger fuze is too small. Unreliable when big.In other words: if a German submarine wants the torpedo's trigger fuze to work normally, you must hit it straight enough. If you hit it crookedly, the torpedo may not explode normally; You must hit it obliquely enough. If you hit it straight, the torpedo will not explode normally.

For example, in the last plane, during the Pacific War, Captain L. R. Daspeet, the darkest-faced captain in the United States since the founding of the United States, commanded his submarine "Black Scorpion" and was ordered to intercept the Japanese "Tonan Maru" oil tanker. . The submarine "Black Scorpion" fired 15 torpedoes successively. Except for the two torpedoes that hit the inclined part of the stern and detonated normally, the other torpedoes that hit the "Dunan Maru" at a nearly vertical angle did not explode. The ship was scared to death. The Japanese also took their lives because of this.

The main reason for this difference may be the difference in the structure of the trigger fuze of German and American torpedoes: the trigger fuze of German torpedoes is fired by pushing the firing pin to deflect based on the principle of leverage. If the posture of the torpedo hitting the target is too inclined, the lever system may The torpedo is stuck under the impact of lateral force, causing the torpedo to fail to fire normally; while the American torpedo is fired by the slider on the guide rail to push the firing pin. When the torpedo hits the target vertically, the huge inertia will make the slider and the guide rail violently. The friction causes insufficient firing pin strength, and even deforms the fragile firing pin slider in severe cases, and the torpedo fuze cannot be fired normally.

Of course, Helena knew that the German torpedo designers would fall into the pit of triggering the fuze, so when the torpedo designers fell into the pit and struggled to get up, they were surprised to find that the ambulance sent by Helena was already very serious. They waited attentively by the side of the pit for a long time, so after falling into the pit, the German torpedo designers were able to enjoy the most professional medical service in the world from Helena at the first time...

Designer: Miss Helena, you are the best to us in the world!Wait, you have time to send an ambulance, why don't you put up a warning sign on the edge of the pit beforehand?

Helena: You don't understand that, do you?If you broke your leg in the pit, you would thank the doctor who set the bone for you; but if you avoided the big pit according to the warning signs, would you still thank the person who helped you put up the warning signs?

Designer: ...

Chapter 285 Piezoelectric Fuze

Although the specific structures of the trigger fuzes currently used on torpedoes in various countries are different, their essential principles all belong to the mechanical structure that is triggered by inertial action.Specifically, there is a slider or a heavy ball connected to the spring inside the fuze. When the torpedo hits the target, the overload will cause the inertia force on the slider or the heavy ball to exceed the set value of the spring force and move along the The slide rail or lever moves, and then closes the detonation circuit or releases the firing mechanism to detonate the torpedo warhead.

In fact, there are many insurmountable defects in this fuze structure.The most difficult problem is that the slider or the heavy ball must move in a specific direction to trigger the fuze normally, but the exact angle at which the torpedo hits the target is highly uncertain, that is to say, when the torpedo hits the target, the heavy ball or the There may be an included angle between the direction of the inertial force on the block and the intended direction of action.This included angle will not only weaken the force of inertia on the heavy ball or slider, but also increase the movement resistance inside the mechanical structure.During World War II on the last plane, this was the crux of the reliability of torpedo trigger fuzes in various countries.

According to the idea of ​​improving the torpedo trigger fuze in Germany, the United States and other countries in history, improving the reliability of the torpedo fuze is nothing more than optimizing the performance of each mechanical component and improving the cooperation between them.For example, make the slide rail more durable, make the slider lighter, make the firing pin stronger, and make the friction between these parts smaller, etc.These improvements are of course useful. For example, the reliability of the MK-1943 torpedo fuze equipped in September 9 by the United States on the last plane has been greatly improved compared with the MK-14 torpedo. % increased to 6% in 20, and finally improved from basically unusable to barely usable.

But we must also see the cost behind these limited improvements. We must know that in history, the U.S. Navy recruited a large number of cutting-edge science and engineering talents across the country to solve the problem of torpedo reliability, and then passed experiments that were basically not costly. It took several years to achieve this result.Even great scientists like Einstein were recruited by the U.S. Navy and signed a three-year labor contract with the U.S. Navy to participate in solving the torpedo fuze problem.The situation in Germany is similar. From the discovery of the torpedo fuze problem at the beginning of the war to the basic reliability of the torpedo fuze at the end of 1942, it not only took more than three years, but also consumed countless valuable scientific research funds and scientific research resources.

The reason for this phenomenon may not be difficult to understand. This kind of fuze that is triggered by inertia actually uses a very mature mechanical structure. Gaining even a small performance improvement on the basis of , may require paying a huge price.This is like the 21st century before Helena's crossing. For traditional heat engines like internal combustion engines, which have developed very maturely, every percentage point of efficiency improvement requires a large number of scientific researchers to make extremely hard efforts.

But will Helena choose this thorny road?Her advantage lies in her grasp of the future development of science and technology. If she had to make penny-pinching improvements to already very mature technologies, Helena would not be sure to do better than the team of experts from various countries in the previous plane. research results are better.However, this does not mean that Helena has no idea about the torpedo trigger fuze. After all, there are so many crooked neck trees on the banks of the Rhine, why must the research on the trigger fuze be hanged on the tree of the mechanical fuze?So while the designers were still racking their brains to compete with the mechanical fuze, Helena had basically given up on improving the inertial mechanical fuze, and invented a new trigger fuze with better performance.

The new fuze developed by Helena still belongs to the category of inertial trigger fuze, so the fuze still has a heavy ball used to sense the overload of the torpedo, but this heavy ball is not connected to the mechanical structure such as the lever like the traditional mechanical fuze, but It is surrounded by a shell with a quartz crystal on the inner wall.And it is such an unremarkable structure that just constitutes the sensing core of this fuze.In order to distinguish it from the traditional mechanical inertial fuze, Helena called this kind of fuze a piezoelectric inertial fuze, because it uses the piezoelectric effect of a quartz crystal to sense changes in overload.

It should be known that quartz crystal is a piezoelectric material with excellent performance. When physical pressure is applied to it, its internal electric dipole moment will be shortened due to compression. At this time, positive and negative charges will be distributed on the opposite surfaces of the quartz crystal to generate weak Potential difference.Therefore, relying on the overload produced when the torpedo hits the target, the heavy ball will exert pressure on the quartz crystal under the action of inertia, and a weak potential difference will be generated on the upper and lower surfaces of the quartz crystal. As long as this weak potential difference is converted into a corresponding electrical signal, and then After corresponding amplification and logical discrimination, as long as the preset conditions are met, the detonation circuit will be closed, and the torpedo warhead will be detonated by arcing.

This piezoelectric fuze has inherent reliability advantages over mechanical fuzes.Because it does not have any macro-moving parts, it does not need precise slide rails, levers and corresponding elastic components, which fundamentally eliminates the problem of impact angle and the movement direction of the actuating mechanism. adverse effects on the reliability of the active mechanism.That is to say, as long as the impact overload exceeds the pre-set threshold, the torpedo can be detonated normally, and there is no common trouble in mechanical fuzes such as the jamming of the movable mechanism, excessive frictional resistance, or insufficient firing pin strength.

In addition, the active mechanisms and electrical contacts of traditional mechanical fuzes are more likely to fail due to corrosion in the marine atmosphere with high salt spray. Therefore, the deployment life of torpedoes using mechanical fuzes on ships is strictly limited limits.The piezoelectric fuze does not have such things as movable mechanisms and electrical contacts at all, which not only improves the reliability of the fuze, but also allows this kind of fuze to be deployed on ships for a long time without frequent maintenance, which reduces the reliability of the naval logistics department. workload.

Finally, the manufacturability of the piezoelectric fuze is better than that of the mechanical fuze, not only because the piezoelectric fuze has fewer parts than the mechanical fuze, but also because of its convenient factory inspection.Mechanical fuzes need to be selected one by one from a large number of parts or finished products from the manufacture of parts to the factory, while piezoelectric fuzes are qualified as long as they can obtain the specified current output under the specified overload, so although piezoelectric fuzes have requirements for the purity of quartz crystals Not low, but the man-hour consumption for production is lower than that of traditional mechanical fuzes.Piezoelectric fuzes also have a series of advantages such as convenient sensitivity adjustment, good anti-interference performance, and less prone to misfiring accidents. In short, there are too many benefits to say.

However, the piezoelectric fuze was not specially developed by Helena. It was actually a by-product of the development of sonar in Germany on the original plane. After all, sonar is the real high-end application of crystal piezoelectric effect.It's just that the previous German torpedo designers have been on the road of improving the mechanical fuze. They never thought that the trigger fuze of the torpedo could not rely on any mechanical mechanism, so they didn't know that the problem that troubled them had been solved by Helena. Send another group of people to solve it quietly.

Chapter 286 Struggling Hard

The value of the piezoelectric inertial fuze brought out by Helena to the new German torpedo is self-evident, because this kind of fuze directly eliminates the chronic problem of low reliability of the mechanical fuze from the principle level. The improvements are incomparable.What's more, there are no precise mechanical parts in the fuze. To change the sensitivity of the fuze, it only needs to change the circuit slightly, instead of changing and adjusting the elastic elements like traditional mechanical fuzes, which makes this fuze very flexible. The activation and detonation conditions can be determined, so that various refurbished gameplays can be evolved, so that surface ships and naval aviation can benefit at the same time.

For example, if an aviation torpedo uses this kind of fuze, there is no need to worry that the carrier aircraft will be too high or too fast when throwing mines, which will cause the impact force of the torpedo to damage the precise mechanical structure in the fuze when it contacts the sea surface, because the impact resistance of the circuit is better than that of the mechanical The structure is much taller.Of course, there is no need to worry about this kind of impact causing the torpedo to explode, because there is no power in the fuze before the torpedo touches the seawater, and the battery will not be activated by the electrolyte of seawater until a few seconds after the torpedo enters the sea.After the depth gauge stabilizes the navigation track at the predetermined depth, the insurance is released, and the high-voltage detonation circuit in the torpedo starts to charge, and then the torpedo warhead will officially enter the state of waiting for detonation.

Therefore, while improving the reliability, maintainability and producibility of torpedoes, the piezoelectric inertial fuze will also bring two additional tactical advantages to the future German navy, especially naval aviation:

First of all, when Germany develops aviation torpedoes for naval aviation in the future, it finally no longer has to worry about the fragile torpedo fuze failing in a violent collision with the sea surface. It only needs to concentrate on making the structural strength of the torpedo body meet the requirements.In this way, the German torpedo carrier can launch torpedoes at a higher altitude and faster speed, which will greatly improve the tactical flexibility of the torpedo carrier, reduce the exposure time of the torpedo carrier to the enemy's anti-aircraft fire, and increase the torpedo carrier's combat effectiveness. Penetration probability and survivability.Even if the speed of mine throwing is increased to 500 kilometers per hour, the penetration capability of the torpedo plane is still difficult to match that of the dive bomber, but at least it does not need torpedoes like the TBD "Destroyer" of the United States at the beginning of the Pacific War on the previous plane. Like a bomber, it walked leisurely at a speed of about 200 kilometers per hour in the opponent's dense anti-aircraft firepower network.

Secondly, the mechanism of activating the fuze by seawater greatly improves the safety of torpedo storage on the ship, because this kind of fuze must be fired by charging the high-voltage detonation circuit with seawater batteries, so in daily use, the torpedo equipped with this fuze is It is very difficult to be detonated due to wrong operation of personnel. Even if the torpedo storage area is hit by the enemy during the war, as long as the passivation of the torpedo warhead is done well enough, catastrophic consequences are not likely to occur.From this point of view, this small piezoelectric fuze can not only improve the survival probability of its carrier aircraft, but also improve the survival performance from submarines to surface warships.

Although the piezoelectric trigger fuze is a relatively novel thing in this era, its technical difficulty is actually relatively low compared to the real black technology of the magnetic induction proximity fuze. You can completely imagine it as a large pressure Electric lighters are only fired by the inertia of the heavy ball, and the current generated by the piezoelectric element is not directly used for ignition like a lighter, but is first used to connect an independent high-voltage circuit, and then the electric current generated by this The independent high-voltage circuit is responsible for the detonation work, so Helena didn't spend too much energy on it except instilling the researchers with general improvement ideas in advance.

In contrast, the improvement of the magnetic induction proximity fuze really exhausted Helena's brain cells. You must know that even in the 21st century with a strong technical foundation, the design of the torpedo magnetic induction proximity fuze is not very easy. The logic circuit in the magnetic induction proximity fuze still relies on electronic tubes and relays.But Helena didn't want to give up this technology so easily, because the temptation of this technology to her was indeed too great.

If the torpedo equipped with the magnetic induction proximity fuze follows the ideal situation, the fixed depth can be set at a level slightly deeper than the draft of the enemy ship, so that the torpedo will be detonated when it passes under the keel of the enemy ship. This unique detonation The method can bypass the thick mine protection zone on the side of the enemy ship and directly attack the weakest abdomen of the enemy ship.You must know that even for a large battleship of the battleship level, the protection of its abdomen is only a triple bottom design in a relatively important area, and this protection depth cannot withstand the shock wave of hundreds or even hundreds of kilograms of high explosive explosions, not to mention There is also an important load-bearing structure such as the keel at the bottom of the ship.

Therefore, the side mine protection belt of the battleship may be able to resist a few torpedo attacks, but as long as even one torpedo equipped with a magnetic induction proximity fuze detonates normally under the core cabin, then even if the opposite is a "Yamato" level super Battleships are still dead or disabled: if you are lucky, it is possible to kill an enemy ship with a single torpedo. Even if the enemy ship returns to the home port with a wrecked body, it is likely to lose the value of repair due to severe structural damage ; Even if it is barely repaired, it is likely that it will no longer be capable of high-intensity combat activities.Like this kind of potential that can be huge with a small amount, even thinking about it can make Helena's blood boil.

Although Helena knew that it would be almost impossible to produce a magnetic induction proximity fuze with perfect performance based on the current level of basic technology, but after careful consideration, she was still reluctant to put this technology in the sidelines, so she decided to Struggling within the framework of the existing basic technical conditions, after all, Germany on the last plane once gave up the magnetic induction proximity fuze, and at the end of 1942 began to equip torpedoes with magnetic induction/trigger composite fuzes again.Helena doesn't ask for the improved magnetic induction proximity fuze to be completely reliable, she just needs to make the magnetic induction fuze reach a usable level of reliability.

Chapter 287 Logic Circuits

The torpedo magnetic induction proximity fuze, as the name suggests, is a torpedo detonation device that is triggered by sensing changes in the surrounding magnetic field.The earth we live in is a magnet, the distribution of its magnetic induction lines is dense near the poles and sparse near the equator, but because the body of the earth is so huge, its magnetic field strength can be considered uniform in a small range Distribution.

But just like putting an iron rod near a magnet will cause magnetic field distortion, a ferromagnetic warship will also destroy the uniformity of the earth's magnetic field around it. The magnetic induction proximity fuze uses this principle to sense the presence of surrounding warships and torpedoes. distance from the battleship.

The sensor core of the magnetic induction proximity fuze is very simple. It is a magnetic induction coil rod composed of an induction coil wound around an iron core. Students who have studied physics in middle school should know that this device will generate an induced electromotive force in a changing magnetic field, the magnitude of the induced electromotive force and the magnetic flux proportional to the rate of change.Since the magnetic permeability of steel battleships is much higher than that of air and sea water, the magnetic field lines near the battleship will be much denser than elsewhere. We can assume this phenomenon is that the battleship forms its own magnetic field under the influence of geomagnetism.

When the torpedo passes through the magnetic field area around the target warship at a substantially constant speed, the induction coil in the fuze cuts the magnetic induction line to generate an induced current, thereby converting the change of the magnetic field strength around the torpedo into an electrical signal.However, it is not possible to judge whether the fuze will be triggered by the electrical signal alone. The designer needs to design a special logic circuit for the fuze, and judge the distance between the torpedo and the target warship by interpreting the direction and strength of the electrical signal input, and strive to detonate it at the most suitable position. torpedo.

However, it can be said that it is easier said than done. How to judge the best detonation timing of the torpedo from the change of electromotive force is the biggest obstacle in the research and development of the magnetic induction proximity fuze.Historically, the judgment method used by Germany on the magnetic induction proximity fuze is to connect the induction coil to the starter through the signal amplifier, and then set a certain starting threshold for the fuze starter.When the strength of the signal received by the starter reaches the preset activation threshold, it means that the density of magnetic induction lines around the torpedo is dense enough.At this time, the fuze starter will judge that the distance between the torpedo and the target is close enough, and then the delay detonation circuit will start to energize, and the warhead will be detonated when the torpedo sails below the keel of the target.

On the surface, this logical design seems very reasonable, but there is an unreasonable assumption behind this logic: that is, the magnetic field background in the torpedo combat area must be very clean, that is to say, the environmental magnetic field must be uniform and meet the design value, while This is almost impossible to do in the actual use of torpedoes.Firstly, on a larger scale, the Earth’s magnetic field is not uniform, but the distribution of magnetic field lines is denser at higher latitudes; secondly, on a smaller scale, various magnetic mineral deposits buried underground and even shipwrecks may affect the earth’s magnetic field. Magnetic field distribution in the region.We can refer to these disturbing factors as environmental background noise.

The existence of noise is a great obstacle to the normal operation of the magnetic induction proximity fuze introduced above, because the detonation threshold designed for the fuze in advance is determined, but the magnetic field strength of the combat area where the torpedo is located is highly uncertain of.If the ambient magnetic field strength is higher than expected, the signal strength received by the starter will reach the detonation threshold in advance, causing the torpedo warhead to detonate prematurely; otherwise, if the ambient magnetic field strength is lower than expected, the signal strength received by the starter will be lower. It will delay reaching the threshold, or it will never be able to break through the threshold, which will cause the torpedo warhead to detonate too late or not detonate at all.