"After being attacked by a submarine sneak attack, the escort ships in the fleet will expand the search range, and then give the patrol formation a chance?" Jochen asked Tirpitz: "Heavy losses for the main forces of the Mediterranean Fleet?" ”

"Yes, Your Majesty, the escort ships expanded the search range, the apostles pursued and launched the attack submarines, and then as the destroyer patrol formation of the imaginary enemy made a surprise attack on the main fleet, because the escort ships scattered because of the pursuit of the submarine did not have time to return to reorganize the defensive front, so the destroyer patrol formation successfully launched a torpedo attack, resulting in the main fleet battleship 1 sunk and 1 seriously damaged, 1 light cruiser and 1 destroyer sunk, and the escort ship ship sank 1 light cruiser and 2 destroyers. As a result, a total of 4 ships of the main surface fleet were sunk, 1 was seriously damaged, and more than a third of them were damaged. Tirpitz cautiously replied that if His Majesty the Emperor was extremely annoyed by such a gaffe in the exercises of the Mediterranean Fleet, the commander of the fleet of Didrichs would probably have to reprimand him.

"The results of this exercise are likely to make your old partner angry enough, right? What does his summary report say? Jochen was not so annoyed by the gaffe of the main force of the Mediterranean Fleet, and even praised Didrichs that he had the audacity to allow the submarine force to attack the heavily defended main fleet during the exercise, which in itself was an improvement. As for the surface fleet losing face, what does it matter, they will only know the improvement when it hurts to slap their faces.

Seeing that His Majesty the Emperor did not have any dissatisfied looks, Tirpitz, who had served Jochen for so many years, knew that Jochen was really not angry, so he returned to his usual reporting mode and replied: "The report submitted by Didrichs said that the exercise proved that submarines with high underwater speed can change the situation that it was difficult for submarines to track surface combat ships during the day, and they could only take a more passive approach to waiting for enemy ships to enter their own ambush circle, and have the ability to attack surface fleets more actively. ”

"I think those in the Navy who oppose the continued development of submarines like the V-boats for underwater performance should shut up, right?" Far from being angry, Jochen was a little happy, because a considerable part of the Navy was dissatisfied with the development of a submarine with underwater performance as the first priority.

In their opinion, there is only one such means of attack for submarines as the V-type, torpedoes. And the number of reserve torpedoes of the current submarines is not very large, so in practice it is difficult for such submarines to perform long-term combat missions. In addition, torpedoes are not cheap, and not all targets of submarines are worth using torpedoes when performing combat missions, and it is not worth wasting a valuable torpedo on a small cargo ship of a hundred tons, so a submarine equipped with deck guns like Type IV is more economical in combat. Saving torpedoes also prolongs the time for them to perform combat missions.

Some people also think that it is too unchivalrous to launch an attack underwater, and that civilian ships that are powerless to fight back should be raised to fire warning shots with deck guns to allow time for the evacuation of the ship's personnel before sinking them.

Jochen scoffed at these views, the outcome of the war is only life and death, those who talk about chivalry are fools, submarines are underwater assassins, and to expose one's actions on the surface is to seek death. The British don't talk much about chivalry. The Q boat, a submarine hunter disguised as a civilian ship to trick the submarine into floating and then launching an attack, is famous.

In order to save a torpedo and lose a submarine and dozens of well-trained officers and men, the fool knows that the deal is a loss. Jochen didn't want the German submariners to learn this after they had learned the lesson of the war, and it wasn't just the Germans who understood it in the war.

In 1917, in order to contain the unlimited submarine warfare of the Germans, Jerichault, then the British First Sea Lord, proposed the concept of "submersible submarine". Subsequently, in September 1917, the Naval Construction Committee elaborated on this concept, and in February 1918, all design work was completed and construction of the submarine, named R-class, was completed, which was later due to the end of the First World War. Only 10 of the first 12 R-class submarines were completed.

Completed R-class submarines with a displacement of 425 tons on the surface. With an underwater displacement of 503 tonnes and six 18-inch torpedo tubes in the bow, the R-Class is not remarkable if you look at these figures alone, but the R-Class has an underwater speed of up to 14.4 knots and a silent endurance of more than 60 hours, giving the R-Class first-class underwater performance. The R-class submarine was also the first submarine to be designed entirely with underwater performance as the standard, and it can be said that the R-class had the best underwater performance until the appearance of the German XXI submarine. It shows that the British submarine designers at that time were ahead of their time.

Fortunately, at the 1922 Washington Naval Conference, the shy and short-sighted British Navy decided to abandon the R-class, so the R-class submarines were sold to shipyards for scrap steel in 1922.

The German Navy's future imaginary enemy could come up with such a powerful submarine unnerved, and Jochen was not prepared to take the lead in unrestricted submarine warfare as his big brother did in history. Therefore, the threat of German submarines faced by the British will be more severe, and it is difficult to guarantee that excellent submarines such as the R-class will not appear in advance, so they have always strongly supported the vigorous development of submarines with high underwater speed.

However, the emperor's support could not change some of the concepts within the navy, in their view, submarines are used to attack civilian ships, or there are unlucky military ships that happen to crash into the ambush range of submarines, otherwise submarines are not capable of attacking well-defended surface ship units during the day, because the underwater speed of submarines cannot keep up with even if there are surface ships of about 15 knots at real economic speed, even if they can float up at night and use higher surface speed to pursue, it is easy to lose the target.

However, this exercise of the Mediterranean Fleet has overturned this point of view, and submarines with a relatively high underwater speed can completely track and pursue the main surface ships during the day, after all, no fleet will always maintain its maximum speed, which greatly facilitates tracking and summoning other submarines in nearby waters to rush over and launch concentrated attacks.

"The General Staff of the Navy is preparing further research on how to use submarines more effectively." In the face of Jochen's inquiry, Tirpitz could only answer like this, after all, it is impossible to silence some people in one exercise, but after this exercise, the resistance to reducing the number of Type IV submarines and deploying V-type submarines in the North Sea has basically been eliminated.

"Let's move on to Didrichs' report." Jochen, who understood why Tirpitz did not answer him positively, did not continue to dwell on this, and the better the response of the V-type in the navy in the future. The less marketable the arguments of those who oppose them, after all, Jochen believes that no submarine captain wants to target only civilian ships.

"Yes, Your Majesty. In addition to affirming the submarine's doing, the report also reflected the inadequacy of the existing means of submarine reconnaissance: only one Type III submarine was sunk by an escort ship during the exercise, and the captain of the ship said after the exercise that his submarine attack was only an attempt to speculate on the possible retreat route after the submarine launched an attack. There is no definite judgment in practice. Tirpitz continued.

"By luck." Jochen interjected.

"Yes, Your Majesty, by luck." Tirpitz was a little helpless: "Our depth charges are undoubtedly an effective anti-submarine weapon, but we have not been able to detect the eyes of the submarine. ”

"The research progress of underwater hydrophones is not satisfactory, and we have no solution to this for the time being." Jochen shook his head, the underwater hydrophone that was being developed now, that is, the passive sonar, could not completely filter the underwater noise and the noise of the hull itself, so it was not practical at all. The German Navy will probably have to wait a long time to rely on this equipment to search for submarines.

Tirpitz naturally knew about this situation, but it was useless to break through the technical bottleneck, so let's talk about more practical suggestions: "Your Majesty, Didrichs's report said that if there are enough planes in the fleet, you can use planes to search for submarines, and when the planes are in the air, it is easier to find the tracks of submarines or periscopes in an afloat state on the sea. If the hydrological conditions are good, submarines that do not dive deep can also be found in the air. If the seaplane was capable of carrying depth charges. It can also directly launch an attack on submarines, which greatly increases the anti-submarine efficiency. ”

"It's a good idea, it's easier to increase the number of seaplanes in the fleet." Jochen was a little overjoyed, and now at this time someone can see the development trend of using aviation power for anti-submarine warfare, and this vision is obviously ahead of its time.

However, trying to solve a problem often leads to a bunch of problems, and it is impossible to achieve any technology in one step. Now Didrichs' proposal is also facing a host of difficulties. It's also simple to increase the number of aircraft. At present, the German Navy was equipped with seaplanes only the newer, shorter cruisers, because they were the main force of reconnaissance, while the battleships and older armored cruisers did not, because they were not designed with the need for aircraft in mind, and second, there were no hangars. The aircraft is also easily damaged when left outside in the wind and sun.

However, as long as you don't care about the service life of the aircraft in the saline and humid environment at sea, it is not difficult to install a catapult in the tail of the ship, and then put 1-2 aircraft. However, if you want to let the aircraft directly attack the submarine, the problem arises again: "However, the weight of depth charges is not light, and now the navy's seaplanes can not move, and there is a technical difference between the depth charges dropped in the air and those thrown from ships, and we have to solve the problem that depth charges will not be induced to detonate after being smashed into the water from the air, and how to set the detonation water depth, which is again a technical problem." ”

"But it's a very feasible proposal." Tirpitz, who was well aware of the attitude of His Majesty the Emperor to technical problems, knew that as long as it was feasible, then technical problems were not a problem: "We can conduct research in this area. ”

"Of course, it doesn't hurt to try." Jochen laughed: "It's a good thing that one exercise can expose so many problems, that old partner of yours has done a good job, let the Mediterranean Fleet take the lead in solving these problems." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Tirpitz responded that he was also glad that his old partner had been given such an opportunity, and that with Jochen's words, Didrichs was the leader of a series of naval priorities, and that if there was an achievement in the future, it would be a big achievement on his resume.

"The problems exposed by this exercise are good for us, not a pleasant experience for the Ottomans." Tirpitz, who was in a good mood, by the way, told interesting episodes from the exercises.

"Oh, what's wrong with our Ottoman friends?" Jochen was interested.

"Your Majesty, the Ottoman Misudis was hit by a torpedo in the initial attack of the Ub-67 and was condemned to sink. However, in the later assault of the destroyer formation, the Misudis, which was at the end of the line and was not protected by the escort fleet because it was counted as a 'sunken' ship, was considered a defensive hole and concentrated its attack, and the two destroyers fired 18 torpedoes at her, 5 of which hit, and the Ottomans were frightened. Tirpitz couldn't help but laugh, and his forked beard shook and shook.

"Haha, the unlucky guy who was sunk twice, this is an indelible memory." Jochen laughed. (To be continued......)