Iron Sonata of World War II

More than an hour later, Helena, who vomited upside down in the toilet on board, cursed angrily with her legs that could no longer stand up: "Damn Captain, damn Uncle Bainke, why didn't you remind me today? There is a speed test!!"

After getting off the boat, Helena was moved to tears when she saw the land she had not seen for a long time, and she sighed: "Curiosity killed the cat. Next time I will never be curious to go to sea with the boat for a trial voyage."

On October 1925, 10, all tests were completed and the "Emden" was officially listed in the German Navy.

At the same time, according to the permission of the "Washington Treaty", the construction of sister ships of the "Emden" class is also accelerating, of which the second ship has been launched and named "Dresden", the third ship and the fourth ship The ship has also started construction one after another, and the 8500-ton light cruiser with a larger displacement has also stepped onto the drawing board. The German Navy is about to usher in a small climax of new ship construction.

Chapter 29 High Speed ​​Reboot

The astonishing speed of the "Emden" during the sea trials made the German navy ecstatic, but the navy officials only announced in a low-key manner that the maximum speed of the "Emden" was 32 knots.

The main purpose of concealing the speed of the "Emden" is to prevent the attention of British and French analysts.Although a 6000-ton light cruiser itself cannot pose a substantial threat to the swarming Britain and France, the advancement of German shipbuilding technology represented by its high speed of more than 36 knots may still allow Britain and France to firmly contain Germany. The determination of the Navy to make a comeback.

In fact, Germany is not the only one that conceals the speed of warships in the world at this time. On the other side of the earth, the Japanese Navy also concealed the speed of its newly built Nagato-class battleships.

Japan claims the Nagato class has a top speed of 23 knots.This speed seems to be the same as the other two classes in the "Big Seven" (referring to the seven battleships equipped with 16-inch heavy artillery in the world at this time): the "Colorado" class of the United States (speed 21 knots), the "Nelson" class of the United Kingdom Class (speed 23 knots) is not much different.But in fact, the Nagato class once reached a high speed of 26.7 knots during the sea trial. The speed level of a proper battlecruiser during World War I is now a genuine high-speed battleship!

Well, it's getting farther.Back to Germany, the 6000-ton light cruiser is already so good, and the German Navy naturally has higher expectations for the new 8500-ton light cruiser.

In the eyes of the Navy, the "Emden" class is almost a perfect 6-ton light cruiser except for the weak firepower of the six 155mm main guns.According to the text of the "Washington Treaty", although the upper limit of the caliber of the main guns of the new light cruiser is still 6000mm, the number of main guns is no longer limited. Naturally, the Navy can't wait to ask for an increase in the firepower of the new ship.

In fact, from Helena's point of view, it may not be a big mistake to say that the number of "Emden" class main guns is small, but Helena will definitely not agree with the claim that the firepower of "Emden" is weak!Because the main gun of the "Emden" class is not an ordinary 155mm gun, but a 155mm gun that is out of low-level fun!

How to increase the penetration of kinetic shells? For more than 100 years, this has been a problem that countless experts in the field of military industry have spent their whole lives and painstakingly studying.However, there are actually only two directions in terms of the direction that can be worked hard: one is to increase the kinetic energy of the muzzle, that is, the kinetic energy carried by the cannon when it is ejected from the chamber; the other is to improve the utilization efficiency of the muzzle kinetic energy of the shell.

Let me talk about the direction of increasing the kinetic energy of the muzzle. There are probably three ways to go in this direction:

The first way is to expand the caliber of the artillery.The larger the caliber of the gun, the larger the bottom area of ​​the shell.When the chamber pressure is constant, the thrust of the shell will naturally be greater, and the muzzle kinetic energy will naturally be greater under the same conditions.

The second way is to increase the length of the barrel. The longer the barrel of the artillery, the longer the acceleration distance of the shell, the more fully the use of the thrust of the gunpowder gas, and the greater the kinetic energy of the muzzle.

The third way is to increase the amount of propellant. In the final analysis, the kinetic energy of the shell comes from the chemical energy contained in the propellant. The more propellant is loaded, the more high-temperature gas will be generated during launch, and the thrust of the shell will be greater. The muzzle kinetic energy is naturally greater.

Since the caliber of the main gun of the treaty cruiser is strictly limited, if you want to take the path of increasing the kinetic energy of the muzzle, basically you can only use your brains on lengthening the barrel and increasing the propellant.

It's easy to say, but in practice, you will find that these two paths are not so easy to walk.

First look at increasing the length of the barrel, that is, increasing the multiple diameter of the gun.This road faces two main problems: one is the increase in manufacturing difficulty, and the other is diminishing marginal utility.

The increase in manufacturing difficulty is easy to understand. The longer the barrel, the more difficult it is to process. After reaching a certain diameter, if you want to extend the barrel, the cost will rise sharply, and the yield rate will drop sharply. In addition, in order to ensure the rigidity of the barrel, you have to pay a weight price. .When the United States increased the diameter of the 14-inch main gun on its dreadnought ship from 45 times to 50 times, there was a problem of a sharp drop in the yield rate.

The diminishing marginal utility is due to the fact that after firing, the shell is not accelerated uniformly in the barrel. With the expansion of the propellant gas, the temperature and pressure of the gas gradually decrease, the thrust received by the shell also gradually decreases, and the acceleration also decreases.That is to say, if you lengthen the gun barrel from 40 times the diameter to 50 times the diameter, the kinetic energy of the muzzle may increase significantly; but if you lengthen the barrel from 50 times the diameter to 60 times the diameter, the increase in the kinetic energy of the muzzle will not be so obvious up.If you continue to lengthen the barrel, the effect will continue to decay!

Look at increasing the amount of propellant, which is commonly known as "drug use" by military fans. This method is relatively simple and crude.However, this road also faces two problems: one is whether the artillery can withstand it, and the other is whether the accuracy can be guaranteed.

Increasing the amount of propellant means higher chamber pressure and greater recoil, which poses a high challenge to the ability of the artillery to withstand such a toss. It must be considered whether the artillery can withstand such a toss.Even if the gun can withstand such a toss, increasing the propellant charge will reduce the life of the gun.The Ansaldo 1934 50-fold 381mm main gun on the Italian "Veneto-class" battleship is a famous "drug gun", and the actual life of the barrel is only about 110 rounds.

In addition to the endurance of the artillery, "drugs" may also affect the accuracy of the artillery. After the artillery is ejected from the chamber, the unburned propellant gas will form an expanding storm at the muzzle, which will not only interfere with the accuracy of your own artillery shells, On joint-mounted artillery, the various guns will interfere with each other (delayed shooting can only alleviate this problem, but cannot eliminate it).

After talking about the path to increase the kinetic energy of the muzzle, let's look at the direction of improving the utilization rate of the kinetic energy of the muzzle.There are probably two ways to go in this direction. The first is to improve the speed storage ability of shells, and the second is to improve the armor-piercing efficiency of shells.

The so-called improvement of the speed storage ability of the shells means to reduce the speed loss of the shells in flight.Generally speaking, the heavier the projectile, the more aerodynamic the projectile shape, the slower the flight speed (because the air resistance is almost proportional to the cube of the projectile flight speed), the stronger the long-distance speed storage ability.

The so-called improvement of the armor-piercing efficiency of the shells means to reduce the armor-piercing resistance of the shells. Designing a more scientific quilt cap and a more slender projectile body will help reduce the resistance of the shells when they penetrate armor.

In order to improve the armor-piercing power of this 155mm naval gun of the "Emden" class, Helena and German designers have made a lot of efforts.

In terms of increasing the kinetic energy of the muzzle, "Emden" uses a long barrel with a diameter of 60 times and moderately "drugs".Germany's deep hole processing technology is leading in the world, but the 60-fold diameter is also the maximum multiple-diameter that Germany can use on cruiser-level main guns under the conditions of technology and cost control (the previous plane The "Konigsberg" 150mm gun and Hipper's 203mm gun are almost at this level).

In terms of improving the utilization efficiency of shells on the kinetic energy of the muzzle, the main ammunition of "Emden" is the armor-piercing shell with hood and cap. Up to 60 kg, good long-distance speed storage ability, and small armor-piercing resistance.

In the end, the main gun of "Emden" can blast out 60 kilograms of heavy projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 900 m/s, and the accuracy is fully guaranteed (the impact of "drugs" on accuracy also depends on the situation, " The 283mm main gun of "Scharnhorst" is also considered a "drug gun" but the accuracy is good).

相比之下上一个位面中魏玛德国海军的“柯尼斯堡”级轻巡洋舰的150mm（实际上是149.1mm）主炮虽然初速达到了惊人的960米/秒，在6英寸舰炮中可谓出类拔萃，但其弹重只有45.5千克，在6英寸级别的舰炮中属于垫底水平。算起来“埃姆登”级的炮口动能比上个位面中的“柯尼斯堡”级高出了近16%！

With ammunition with good storage speed, "Emden" can penetrate 15000mm vertical armor and 110mm horizontal armor at a distance of 30 meters. The throne of "the strongest 6 inches" seems to be as stable as an old dog.

The main gun of "Emden" is powerful enough, and the 8500-ton light cruiser can completely use this one, Helena thought: But the number of gun barrels must be increased.

Chapter 30 The Slaughter Fleet

In Helena's view, with the technical verification of the "Emden" class light cruiser, the new 8500-ton class light cruiser actually has nothing to worry about in terms of specific technical applications. The road opened up by "Emden" can be further optimized and improved. The bigger problem is the positioning of large and medium-sized German surface warships in the future.

Facing the powerful opponent of Britain, which has dominated the ocean for hundreds of years, how should Germany's large surface warships be used to maximize their effectiveness?In the last plane, this problem has long plagued the German navy, and the idea of ​​building the German surface fleet has therefore repeatedly swayed between fleet decisive battles and overseas break-ups.

However, from Helena's point of view, it is meaningless to argue whether German large and medium-sized surface ships should be used for fleet decisive battles or for breaking diplomatic relations overseas, because both paths are dead ends!

First of all, it is absolutely impossible to position large and medium-sized surface warships in fleet decisive battles.

On the one hand, Germany's national strength does not allow it.As mentioned earlier, as a land-sea complex country, it is unrealistic for Germany to fully operate the navy at the expense of the army, so Germany's investment in the navy must be much lower than that of the United Kingdom.Once the war breaks out, the gap between Britain and Germany in naval investment will further widen, because the expansion of the German army will take up a lot of military expenditure.If you consider that Germany needs to maintain a large submarine force during the war, the investment that surface ships can get is even more pitiful.

On the other hand, the reconstruction time does not allow. In the last plane, Germany and the United Kingdom signed the "British-German Naval Agreement" in 1935, which stipulated that Germany could own no more than 35% of the total tonnage of the British Commonwealth Navy ships, and the "Treaty of Versailles" The shackles on the head of the German Navy have only been initially released. At this time, there are only four years left before the outbreak of the Second World War!

Secondly, it is actually not very appropriate to directly use large and medium-sized surface ships as overseas delivery ships.

Germany’s surface ships have always faced a dilemma: No matter how strong your single-ship combat power is, the UK can gradually gather stronger sea power than you; no matter how fast your speed is, it cannot withstand the damage of battle after battle .Taking a step back, even if you are unscathed every time you fight, the increasingly scarce fuel, lack of maintenance power, and hard-to-clean bottom of the ship will slow down your speed step by step.

In other words, as long as the German destroyer is found overseas, unless you can drive Wushuang and rush back to the German mainland after passing five levels all the way, it must be bad luck!The British reconnaissance forces don't need to defeat you at all, they only need to injure you, or even just keep up with you, and there will be a superior fleet to destroy your destroyer.

In the previous plane, both the German Second Reich and the Third Reich used large and medium surface warships as destroyers.Although these broken-off ships once caused great losses to the United Kingdom, the final result was basically the same: they were crushed to death by the superior force of the United Kingdom in isolation and helplessness.

For example, the beautiful "Oriental Swan" - "Emden". During the more than 100 days of fighting, "Emden" sank a total of 16 British merchant ships, worth more than 500 million pounds, which can be described as brilliant. !But in the end "Emden" was blocked by the damn new cruiser "Sydney", ran aground and surrendered.

Light cruisers are no good, and powerful battleships are not much better. Didn't the "Bismarck" that rushed into the Atlantic Ocean be beaten up and die with hatred?Although Britain lost the battlecruiser "Hood" and the battleship "Prince of Wales" was also damaged, but the British family has a big business, playing the game of exchange, let alone one for one, is two for one. It is also a steady profit.

Therefore, what Germany can rely on to destroy the British communication lines overseas is not the fast speed of the ships, solid protection, and strong firepower, but the concealment that is usually easily overlooked!

In Germany's overseas diplomatic activities, what kind of ship is relatively moist?It's submarines and camouflaged cruisers!For the fleet-like Royal Navy, the most troublesome opponent is not the opponent with the strongest firepower, the opponent with the strongest armor, or the fastest opponent, but the opponent who cannot be found anywhere!This is the same reason that later generations of American soldiers are not afraid of Saddam's tanks and artillery, but are afraid of small roadside bombs.

Speaking of this, you may ask Helena: Since decisive battles at sea cannot be counted on, and it is not cost-effective to directly destroy large and medium-sized surface warships, then what do you think the German surface fleet should do?We can't give up treatment and stay in the port as a fleet, right?

For this almost unsolvable problem, Helena gave the German surface fleet a relatively feasible mission positioning after suffering countless brain cells, that is: to indirectly support submarines and raids by continuously attacking the British North Sea blockade. The ship's high seas breaking diplomatic relations activities.

Attacking the British North Sea blockade is the means, and supporting submarines and assault ships to break diplomatic relations in the open sea is the purpose.

In the previous plane, apart from coordinating with the actions of its own army, the German navy basically had two combat missions: the first was to break diplomatic relations, that is, to destroy the sea lines of communication of the Allied forces, especially the United Kingdom; the second was to counter the blockade. , that is, to break the British blockade of the German mainland.Correspondingly, the combat missions of the British Navy were just the opposite: the first was anti-broken diplomatic relations, that is, protecting the sea lines of communication from being cut off by the German army; the second was naval blockade, that is, preventing Germany from obtaining resources from overseas.

Speaking of the British naval blockade against Germany in the two world wars, it mainly relied on the North Sea blockade.This blockade is not a simple straight line, but a deep, three-dimensional, offensive and defensive system.This system is mainly composed of coastal observation posts/radar stations, long-range patrol aircraft, and patrol ships.

If the underwater wolves of the sea wolf king Doenitz in World War II were a noose around Britain's neck, then this North Sea blockade was the prison gate for the German navy.This blockade not only restricted the activities of the German navy, but also almost interrupted Germany's maritime trade. Except for transporting submarines and camouflaged transport ships, which occasionally brought back a little better than nothing, Germany's direct import of resources from overseas was basically closed. state.

With the possible strength of the German Navy in World War II, Helena thought it was almost impossible to completely break the prison door of the North Sea blockade.As long as the British Empire is alive, even if Germany temporarily breaks the prison door, Britain will do its best to repair it.

Although the prison cannot be demolished directly, Helena thinks that the German naval surface fleet, a prisoner in the North Sea, should still beat the jailer violently from time to time.Because Helena thinks this matter is both possible and necessary.

In Helena's view, although the British North Sea blockade is tight, it also has its insurmountable shortcomings. This shortcoming is that the eyes and fists of this blockade are actually separated:

It is impossible for the main force of the British Royal Navy to patrol the blockade every day. The main fleet is expensive to dispatch, and it takes a lot of time to maintain it once dispatched. The British are not rich enough to patrol with aircraft carriers and battleships!Therefore, usually only cruisers, destroyers, and even various temporarily modified auxiliary ships cruise along this blockade, while the main fleet is stationed in major ports in the mainland on standby.Once these patrol ships and aircraft find German ships, if the enemy is not strong, the patrolling cruisers and destroyers will handle it by themselves;

There is actually a problem with this system: the eyes and ears are mostly old-fashioned cruisers, destroyers, frigates and auxiliary ships, plus slow reconnaissance planes.The fighting power of these eyes and ears is actually not strong.Although the main fleet can be dispatched at any time, there is a time lag from lighting the fire to pulling the anchor to arriving at the battlefield!

You must know that throughout World War II, the number of British cruisers and destroyers has been extremely insufficient. On the one hand, it has to maintain the North Sea blockade, and on the other hand, it has to escort the merchant fleet.If more cruisers and destroyers are used on the North Sea blockade, the troops used for escort will inevitably be more stretched!Then the sea wolves and the disguised pirate ships who are active on various routes in the UK must enjoy a more pleasant and sumptuous feast!

In response to this loophole in the British North Sea blockade, Helena is going to extend her evil claws to these weak, poor and helpless "middle school students" and "primary school students"!The construction of Germany's surface fleet will also be built around hunting these "primary school students" and "middle school students".

Chapter 31 Nine Cannon Light Cruisers

What kind of cruiser is suitable for hunting the British destroyers and cruisers cruising along the North Sea blockade?The answer Helena gave was: high speed, heavy armor, and strong firepower.

This sentence seems to be a correct nonsense, because higher speed, heavier armor, and stronger firepower are the pursuit of every warship.In this regard, Helena said that she is not just grabbing eyebrows and beards, but pursuing these three performances with priorities, trade-offs, and measures.

If Helena were to explain it in more detail, it would be the following three items: Item [-]: The speed of the German cruiser should not only be fast enough to hunt down the British patrol fleet, but also be able to avoid the pursuit of opponents who are superior in quantity or quality; Item [-]: The protection of German cruisers must be able to ensure that the core area is intact under the firepower of the cruiser level, and the non-core area must have a certain degree of redundancy; Article [-]: The firepower of the German cruiser must be able to cause fatal damage to opponents of the cruiser level and below.

Regarding the speed issue mentioned in the first article, Helena believes that the speed of 36.6 knots of the "Emden" class is completely sufficient, and the speed of the new ship is not lower than this standard.According to the speed data of the British ships in the previous plane, this speed can not only easily catch up with the British cruisers with a speed of 30-32 knots, but even the British destroyers with a speed of 35-36 knots can hardly escape the pursuit. It's not much slower, but in the rough North Sea, British destroyers can't outrun cruisers with larger tonnages!

The protection mentioned in the second article is also very important.In the process of engaging the German cruiser with the British patrol fleet, it is not enough just to win, but also to ensure that the speed will not suffer serious losses.Even if you sink your opponent, if you are also severely injured and slow down significantly, then you may not be able to go back.To ensure that there will be no serious stalls in battle, not only must the core cabin be solid and reliable in the face of cruiser-level firepower, but the non-core areas also need to ensure a certain degree of redundancy, so that a large amount of water cannot be flooded just because of a few shells, thereby affecting the navigation capability.

After determining the first two principles, the third firepower requirement needs to be carefully determined.

The treaty limits the standard displacement of light cruisers to 8500 tons. Even if Germany uses the method of exceeding the standard, the actual displacement will at most rise to a level of about 9500 tons, otherwise it will be difficult to guarantee that it will not reveal its secrets.After all, Germany at this time could not be as blatant as Japan did at the highest level in the previous plane.Under such circumstances, the new ship must not only be able to catch up with the high speed of the destroyer, but also be able to withstand the heavy armor of the 8-inch naval gun, leaving little room for firepower.

In order to accumulate experience for Germany on triple-mounted naval guns and to replace them with dual-mounted 203mm naval guns when necessary in the future.After repeated discussions between Helena and the technicians, they still adopted the arrangement of three triple-mounted 155mm turrets, two at the front and one at the back, and the first on the back. This is also a classic cruiser gun layout in the previous plane.

In fact, according to the designer’s estimate, if the requirements for speed and protection can be relaxed, for example, the speed requirement can be reduced to 33-34 knots, and the protection can be kept at the level of the "Emden" class, and then a triple-mounted 155mm turret can be inserted. It is not a problem at all to form the front and the back and carry the head and the tail.

A total of 12 155mm guns in four triple mounts!After changing to an 8-inch gun, there are four double-mounted 203mm guns!If it is designed in this way, the firepower and speed of the new ship after the transformation are directly comparable to the "Hippel" class heavy cruiser of Nazi Germany in the previous plane, and the hull protection is several floors higher than that of the "Hippel". The most commendable thing is The tonnage is only 2/3 of that of Hipper!Although Hipper's waste of displacement in the previous plane is unbearable to look at, but this achievement is amazing enough!

If it weren't for a deep understanding of the pitfalls of the German Navy's strategic environment, Helena would have been tempted by this proposal at the time.While Helena was still engaged in an ideological struggle, Admiral Behnke, the commander in chief of the navy, vetoed the plan before Helena, and affirmed the plan of using three triple-mounted 155mm guns to strengthen the speed and protection.

"Is the little girl feeling sorry for the rejection of the 12 155mm gun plan?" Seeing Helena's pained expression, Admiral Behnke asked Helena with a smile.

Now Bainke and Helena have almost become friends.Admiral Behnke also held the same opinion on Helena's proposal to indirectly support the breaking of diplomatic relations overseas by attacking weak links in the opponent's blockade.On the contrary, Behnke has always disapproved of the calls in the Navy to position the new cruiser as an overseas delivery ship.

"I know what you want to say, Uncle Paul. Do I seem to be someone who can't stand the temptation?" Helena pouted and said, "If Uncle is the commander of the British Navy, he must prefer the plan of twelve 12mm guns , isn’t it?” Helena thought to herself: On the previous plane, isn’t the 155-gun plan an enhanced version of the British “Edinburgh” class light cruiser.

Admiral Behnke and Helena looked at each other, patted Helena's shoulder and laughed.

……

The actual standard displacement of the new ship was set at 9600 tons, and the overall plan was quickly finalized:

The main firepower is 50% higher than that of "Emden". It is three triple-mounted 60-fold 155mm main guns, and retains the ability to replace three double-mounted 203mm naval guns in the future.

The protection is further optimized and strengthened on the basis of the "Emden" class design:

The vertical armor still completely wraps the entire ammunition depot and power compartment. It is still 30mm stripped cap armor + 200mm foam cement layer + 130mm (the lowest end is gradually reduced to 90mm) surface hardened armor structure, but thanks to the wider ship The inclination angle of the main armor of the new ship has increased from 12 degrees of the "Emden" class to 20 degrees, and the actual protection level has been further enhanced.

水下防护依然是90mm-30mm的高弹性钢，倾角同样增加到20度。主水平装甲厚度依然为80mm，但主水平装甲两侧和垂直主装甲连接的地方增加一个18度的切俯角，俯角部分的水平装甲加厚到130mm。这样可以在维持核心舱高度的同时减轻一点重量。装甲盒两端垂直装甲厚度增加到130mm。

The front of the turret is 45mm surface-hardened armor inclined at 210 degrees. The sides, rear and top of the turret are all uniform armor with a thickness of 105mm. The side of the turret seat is 240mm thick, and the front and rear are 130mm thick.The side armor of the conning tower is 210mm thick, inclined at 12 degrees, and the top is 80mm thick.The drive shaft is protected by a semi-circular armored sleeve, 240mm thick on the side and 80mm thick on the top.The wheelhouse is protected by an independent armor box, with a side of 210mm inclined at 12 degrees and a top thickness of 80mm.

The power is still the configuration of six atmospheric circular furnace boilers with built-in superheaters and two series/parallel impulse steam turbines.However, the steam parameters have been further improved. The steam temperature reaches 6 degrees, the pressure is 400 kg/cm40, the design output power of the entire power system is 96000 horsepower, and the estimated speed is not lower than 36 knots.

The author has something to say: Are you interested in tanks, fighter planes, and submarines?Hold on a little longer, Helena can only let go of this matter after Mustache comes to power.

Chapter 32 Booster Boiler

The reason why the "Emden" class and the 8500-ton light cruiser to be built can be equipped with heavy armor at extremely high speeds mainly depends on three points: the first point is small size, light weight, and efficient power system; the second point is the drag reduction design ahead of the times; the third point is the weight-saving structural design, including the participation of armor in load bearing and extensive use of welding technology instead of riveting (the "Emden" in the previous plane passed Using welding instead of riveting saves 363 tons of weight, and the original plane saves more than 400 tons).

So far, Helena's golden finger of increasing the tonnage utilization rate of warships has almost been used.Helena made some calculations. Apart from continuing to dig deep into the potential of the original technical path, the only thing left in her pocket was the supercharged boiler, the treasure at the bottom of the box.

The so-called supercharged boiler is relative to the normal pressure boiler. The fuel of the supercharged boiler is not burned under normal pressure, but in an environment much higher than the external pressure. The specific method is generally to use the exhaust gas discharged from the boiler Drive the turbine, and then drive the compressor to send the compressed air into the combustion chamber.If the exhaust gas pressure is insufficient, the combustion chamber can also be pressurized by a motor or a mechanically driven compressor.

Since the fuel is burned under high pressure, the combustion efficiency and heat transfer intensity of the supercharged boiler are much higher than that of the normal pressure boiler. Under the same output power, the furnace volume and heat exchange area can be much smaller than the normal pressure boiler. Therefore, the booster boiler has a huge advantage over the normal pressure boiler in terms of volume and weight!

In the previous plane, military fans were always amazed at the powerful power, compact size and fast speed of the French "Richelieu" class battleship.

In fact, in terms of steam parameters alone, the power of the "Richelieu" class is not outstanding compared with other warships of the same period, with a steam pressure of 29.71 kg/cm350 and a steam temperature of 30 degrees.This is a relatively mediocre parameter in the 40s and 400s, and it is far from the boiler steam temperature in the United States and Germany that often exceeds 450 degrees or even [-] degrees.

But "Richelieu" has a black technology: it uses a Nogai-type small water tube supercharged boiler, and the pressure in the combustion chamber is more than twice that of the atmospheric boilers used by other countries' battleships!The efficient pressurized boiler makes the "Richelieu" class, which does not have ample space in the power cabin, have a very powerful power: in the trial voyage, the "Richelieu" once ran a high speed of 178000 knots with a power output of 32.6 horsepower. Speed, can be called the fastest treaty battleship!

Of course, the supercharged boiler also has disadvantages, that is, the maintenance interval is shorter and the maintenance is more troublesome.Therefore, despite the advantages of supercharged boilers, the United States in the last plane still reluctantly gave up, and insisted on using atmospheric pressure boilers for post-war warship power.After all, Uncle Sam's warships need to be deployed globally, and it is difficult for overseas bases to have such good boiler maintenance conditions as the local ones.

After the war, the Soviet Union replaced France as a fan of supercharged boilers. Soviet warships mainly relied on local operations with good maintenance conditions. The shortcomings of supercharged boilers were not a problem at all. The combination of round-bore boilers and superchargers made the Soviet Union The Navy's boilers, while lagging behind the U.S. in steam parameters, have always been far ahead in boiler compactness.

It is worth mentioning that after the disintegration of the Soviet Union on the last plane, the original complete pressurized boiler manufacturing and maintenance system of the Red Empire was also roughly split. system.At the beginning, Russia could still rely on the remaining parts of the Soviet era to barely survive, and even exported four "Modern" class destroyers to China one after another (the first two were partially completed during the Soviet period, and the last two new ones also used Some accessories produced in the Soviet era).

After the 21st century, the stocks of the Soviet Union were used up and those sold were sold.Russia can no longer maintain the supercharged boilers that need to be carefully served, so those warships that use supercharged boilers are either lame or lying.Not only the "Modern" class has become the so-called "defender of the military port", but even the mainstay of the navy such as the "Kuznetsov" aircraft carrier can only drag billowing smoke at a speed of less than 20 knots all year round. Faltering in the icy water.

However, the story of naval supercharged boilers did not end here. Xiong Da did not fall behind, and the Republic became the new standard-bearer of naval supercharged boilers, continuing to write the legend of naval boilers.

The luck of the ship is the luck of the country, sincerity!

……

After a second of silence for Xiong Da in later generations, Helena returned to reality. In her opinion, the round-bore pressurized boiler is actually very suitable for Germany. The problem of high boiler maintenance requirements is not prominent, on the contrary, the volume and weight advantages of the pressurized boiler can greatly enhance the performance of German warships!

In fact, Helena's ambitions are not limited to this. She hopes to open the line of high-temperature turbines through the development of exhaust gas turbochargers for supercharged boilers. After all, there is still a lot of room for imagination of high-temperature turbines in the future: what turbo Internal combustion engines, pump-pressed liquid rocket engines, and turbojet engines are all inseparable from high-temperature turbines!

Although the working temperature of the boiler supercharger is not so abnormal compared to those toys mentioned above, the technology tree always starts from the simple one and climbs up step by step.

Well, this life is gone...

Helena began to lay out booster boilers a few years ago, and conducted a prototype test on land, and achieved great success.Recently, a well-established booster boiler model is undergoing further validation on a bulk carrier for Baltic Express.

Although the test performance of the booster boiler on the cargo ship is still good, some minor problems have been corrected one after another.However, since the technology span of supercharged boilers is really not small (in the last plane, the supercharged boilers for ships were not considered practical until the 30s), Helena still has some ideas about putting the supercharged boilers on Germany's own warships for testing. A little skeptical.After all, Germany does not get a lot of shares from the "Washington Treaty". Every warship is very precious, and the cost of trial and error is too high.

The attitude of the navy is similar. Although the power system of "Emden" also has many innovations, these innovations are basically a further improvement on existing technologies. With advanced technology, the overall risk is still controllable.In contrast, no one has played with supercharged boilers on warships before. Although the German Navy at this time also likes new technologies, the German Navy is not happy to use the few new ships as guinea pigs.

It seems that Helena needs to find a guinea pig from a foreign country who is willing to try new technologies and pay for them.Helena was lucky, and not long after, a "cute" mouse came into the sight of the Germans.