In March 1947, on the eve of St. Patrick's Day, Ireland's most important traditional holiday, the New United Kingdom Navy conducted a unique weapons test in Dingle Bay, southwest of the island of Ireland. www.biquge.info The Fionar-class light cruiser Oscar, which has been in service for nearly 20 years, and the destroyer Agni, which has been in service for nearly 20 years, and the destroyer Agni, which has reached an age of 22 years, were the protagonists of the weapons test, with a pair of specially made slides that can be adjusted in angle and direction at the position of the dismantled No. 3 main gun of the "Oscar" and the torpedo tube of the "Agni". At the end of the slide is an object shaped like a small airplane, which is the M-2 ship-to-ship missile known as the "Flying Mine". This epoch-making new weapon uses a solid rocket engine, and the flight speed after full acceleration reaches 700 kilometers per hour, and the operation mode of combining inertial guidance and terminal active radar guidance is adopted, and its theoretical range reaches 90-120 kilometers, while the effective range in the live fire test is about 40 kilometers.

The total weight of the "flying mines" that entered the test stage is 2420 kg, which is 1.5 to 2 times that of ordinary 533 mm torpedoes, and its armor-piercing warhead is equipped with ******** 285 kg, using two fuses, trigger and trigger delay, and the destructive power of the warship's armor is comparable to that of the 533 mm torpedoes in service, which means that they are enough to pose a lethal threat to large and medium-sized ships.

The first target of the "Oscar" and "Agni" was the former British Navy heavy cruiser "Shropshire", which was damaged and captured many times and was used for naval gun tests, and the hull was already riddled with holes, but it still stubbornly floated on the sea. This time, the four roaring M-2 missiles ended its pain once and for all - two direct hits, two close misses. After a violent explosion, the "Shropshire" slowly sank to the bottom of the sea......

The second target of the temporary duo was the scrapped ocean-going freighter Earz. Born at the turn of the century and powered by several sets of old-fashioned coal-fired boilers and reciprocating steam engines, the 22,000-tonne cargo vessel was behind the times and has been travelling between Wales and Ireland as a large coal carrier since 1934 until the Irish Navy purchased it as a target ship. The Navy Shipyard, which welded waterproof partitions in the bilge of the old ship and loaded hundreds of tons of pine to increase its resistance to sinking, suffered heavy damage twice during tests of new 127-mm and 152-mm naval guns, but both escaped sinking.

During the attack on the "Elz", the "Oscar" launched two "flying mines" from a distance of 20,000 meters, they flew over the sea, one of them deviated from the target, and the other accurately hit the huge target, blowing up a large hole of four meters by five meters in the hull, because this breach was higher than the waterline, the "Elz" did not sink immediately, but ignited a fire. Immediately afterwards, the "Agni" launched two "flying mines" at a distance of 15,000 meters, both of which hit the target, and the scrapped ocean-going freighter was easily torn to pieces......

Although the "flying mine test" in Dingle Bay was carried out in a state of secrecy, the military still informed the German allies of the test of this important weapon as soon as possible. In the field of rocket weapons, the Germans have always been at the forefront of the world, their warships as early as the early 40s equipped with rocket-type anti-submarine depth bombs, and later developed a tube rocket launcher for landing ships to suppress enemy beachheads, and synchronized with the Irish Navy to install ship-based anti-aircraft rockets, but these rocket-powered weapons are either traditional triggered, or manually controlled, and have not evolved to the stage of automatic target search. Upon learning of the success of the new United Kingdom's mine test, the German Navy admiral immediately organized a delegation to observe and study, and although their assessment report did not attract the attention of the current head of the German Navy, Field Marshal August von Oldenburg, it was a treasure to the newly promoted commander of the German High Seas Fleet. At Raeder's strong suggestion, Kaiser Wilhelm the Younger authorized the Navy to invoke the terms of the "German-New United Kingdom Military Alliance Treaty" on military-technical cooperation and to exchange the latest artillery reconnaissance and positioning radar technology from the New British Navy for a complete set of data on the "Flying Mine" for the German Navy to conduct a comprehensive and in-depth study.

After St. Patrick's Day, William Jr. and the Crown Prince embarked on an official state visit to the new United Kingdom, and "Flying Thunder" naturally became a hot topic between the two monarchs.

"Nowadays, warships equipped with high-precision fire control radars can effectively attack sea targets 30 kilometers away, with a hit rate of up to 2%-3%, and the hit rate seems to be much inferior to your 'flying thunder', but don't forget, the cost of a 14-inch shell is only 6,000 marks, and your flying mine costs 270,000 marks, which is equivalent to the cost of an IR-43, right? It is common sense that we should continue to develop high-range, high-precision artillery, but experience tells us that His Majesty the Amazing Joachim I has never failed in the development of military technology. Tell me, Jochen, why are you optimistic about this unusually expensive new weapon? At a salon after a banquet, William Jr. expressed his doubts as he swallowed the clouds.

Xia Shu replied indifferently: "Indeed, the cost of 'Flying Thunder' is amazing, and it is a one-time consumable. If they are put into actual combat, their cost performance will certainly not be as good as that of large-caliber naval guns, and they will be much inferior to ordinary torpedoes, and there are defects and problems of one kind or another. Even so, think of the ugly wooden planes that decades ago were dropping sandbag-sized bombs on enemy troops, most people laughed at their pitiful power and efficiency, not expecting that they would soon become more important war weights than machine guns and artillery. What do you say, His Majesty the Holy Second Emperor? ”

Little William nodded thoughtfully: "In this way, the status of 'Flying Thunder' in military history is comparable to that of an airplane?" ”

Natsuki spread his hands: "That's inevitable. ”

William Jr. then asked, in his peculiar, semi-playful tone: "Listen to your tone, is the new United Kingdom about to mass-produce and equip the 'Flying Mine' and completely modernize the existing ships?" ”

Natsuki grinned, "I had such thoughts, but...... My engineers told me that if we want to fully refit within three years, we need to invest at least 20 billion marks, so in the absence of the threat of war, we will upgrade up to 10-20% of the ships in service in the next three years, and at the same time produce 200-300 M2 'Flying Mines' and their successors. Of course, if the economic situation is better than expected, we will increase the scale of production as appropriate. ”

William Jr. raised his head and laughed: "The new United Kingdom under your rule is currently the richest country in Europe!" In 1946, the per capita national income was 22.14% higher than that of Germany! ”

"Even so, the economy of the tiny new United Kingdom is only 11 per cent of that of the Second Reich." Natsuki responded with a smile.

William Jr. then proposed: "If this promising weapon cannot be popularized only because of the price, then we might as well adopt a standardized model as we have done in the past, and make the M2 the standardized equipment of the navies of at least two of our countries." ”

Natsuki replied almost without thinking, "I have no objection to this suggestion. ”

William Jr., who has always regarded himself as a "shrewd man" on the international stage, habitually touched his lip and beard, and sneered: "Just no objections? ”

Xia Shu said: "In the absence of the threat of war, I do not think it is necessary to equip this immature new weapon on a large scale. As a matter of fact, with the existing industrial capacity of our two countries, as long as they have mastered the technology of weapons and equipment, they can expand production at any time at any cost. For a long time to come, what we need to do is to continuously improve its technology, strive to improve its stability, and find ways to simplify the production process and reduce production costs. ”

"Ha, that's typical Irish thinking!" William Jr. laughed.

In the eyes of most people, the Irish way of thinking is a model of living within one's means living within one's means, a model of a virtuous cycle of promoting business through the military, but in the writings of some critics, the "Irish thinking" means putting cost-effectiveness and economy in the first place, a "small-scale peasant mentality", a "speculator mentality", and its extreme expression is "forgetting what is right" - the Irish never refuse any country's military orders, and as long as they have sufficient economic interests, they can even give up their political dignity - even the Japanese they dislike the most, also bought high-performance aircraft carriers from them!

Natsuki wasn't angry at all, and he asked rhetorically, "Isn't that bad?" ”

William Jr. sighed, patted his brother on the shoulder, and said, "It was very correct to do this in the twenties; In the thirties, it was barely possible; It's the forties, Germany has the largest economy in the world, and Ireland and Wales are among the largest in Europe after the union. Jochen, this is our time, our time, and why should we let this forward-looking, hesitant notion stop us from making great strides? ”

Natsuki's thinking did not stop at the surface of these words, he pondered: "Listen to what you mean, or are you planning to start a war against Soviet Russia?" ”

William Jr. did not answer directly, but frowned slightly: "It seems that the visit to Russia has greatly changed your view of the Soviet power." So is it possible that the bizarre report of the intelligence services is true? ”

Natsuki certainly knew what he was referring to, and while it was unlikely that the Germans would have obtained evidence directly from themselves or the Russians, it was not difficult to infer from the recent massive build-up of anti-nuclear readiness by the Russian military that they had somehow acquired the secrets of nuclear weapons, and then sifted through the few suspects.

Of course, he will not admit that even if German intelligence can get some crucial evidence, he is prepared to shirk responsibility, after all, this is a vicious incident that could lead to a sharp deterioration in relations between the two countries. If nothing else, this incident will be buried in the depths of history for a long time, just like the truth about the Tokyo nuclear explosion, and will not be known to outsiders.

It is said that everything can not be happy too early, the cold has recurred, and the fever has occurred two days ago, blue thin, shiitake mushrooms, and it is the busiest end of the year, sad and urging......

(End of chapter)