March 1941 was an extremely tragic month for Germany's submarine forces. During the month, the radars equipped on the battleships of the British Royal Navy began to work, and the submarine forces of the Germans suffered heavy losses. One of the most painful things for the Germans was that the British Royal Navy quickly eliminated three great German U submarine heroes, and three of the top four submarine heroes returned to the sea.

Li Guang was a little strange, you must know that the Maritime Resistance Army has not lost a single submarine. It is said that although the diving time of the German submarine is not as good as that of the submarine of the Maritime Resistance Army, with the snorkel, it should not be easy to be detected by British radar. Today's radar technology is not yet advanced enough to detect small snorkels and periscopes on the surface of the sea.

Could it be that the German submarine has not been modified with underwater snorkels until now?

Yes, it is true that the German Navy has not yet modified the snorkel. You must know that Claude only began to return to Germany in October, and it took two months of twists and turns to return to the German military port. By the time the German engineers digested the drawings, it was already the end of January of the 40th year. It can be said that the implementation of a new technology at the national level is much slower than that of the Naval Resistance Army, after all, this kind of problem in the Naval Resistance Army is often Li Guang alone.

After nearly a month of discussions within the German Navy, the Germans, with their extremely cautious and rigorous scientific spirit, decided to first modify an experimental submarine and then improve its design.

Although the rigor of the Germans has made their snorkel technology have surpassed the design and manufacturing level of the Naval Resistance Force, it has also prolonged the equipment time of this new technology.

The heavy losses of the German submarine forces in March prompted the rapid implementation of this renovation program. Otherwise, it would take at least half a year for the Germans to implement this plan.

However, although the speed of the Germans was slow, the heritage of a country was incomparable to that of the Naval Resistance Force, and in the following months, the Germans fought and reformed at the same time. After several months of preparation, the large-scale renovation began in August, and by the end of the year, all hundreds of ocean-going submarines had been renovated, and the industrial capacity was very amazing. In the middle of 42 years, hundreds of submarines of 3 or 400 tons have been renovated.

However, at present, the British army thought that it had found a magic weapon to deal with submarines, and it was the spring breeze that was proud, and the German submarines that had been suppressed for a time did not dare to attack easily, and the tonnage of British merchant ships sunk was rapidly reduced, and it is said that the losses in a month had been reduced from 500,000 tons at the peak to less than 100,000 tons.

In fact, this reduction in losses is not entirely due to the increased escort capabilities of the British. There is another important reason here, in order to support the Mediterranean theater, the German army actually used submarines that were not suitable for naval warfare in the Mediterranean direction, although they also achieved certain results, but picked up sesame seeds and lost watermelons, and the threat to Britain was far less great than attacking merchant ships.

For the Navy of the Naval Resistance Army. I don't know if March is a month of comedy or tragedy.

The battleship Pacific, after several months of salvage, was finally able to float. Isn't that good news? But if you see the current Pacific, you don't know what to say.

Here's the thing. After the salvage team arrived in Somalia, it was finally confirmed that the keel of the battleship Pacific was indeed not damaged. So the repairmen of the Navy Resistance Army and the brothers of the salvage team tried their best, and thanks to the power of the generator set on the battleship Pacific, after dozens of days and nights of non-stop labor, all the loopholes were temporarily filled with thin steel plates.

Since a lot of time had to be done underwater, and simple repairs were not so easy, it can be said that the brothers of the salvage team did almost everything they could, and they worked extremely hard to achieve this.

Originally, including Li Guang, I felt that if the loopholes were filled, there would be no problems. But a new problem arose, even with the sea water drained from the ship's hull, the Pacific still could not float.

The draft of the Pacific is nine meters when it is fully loaded, but the water depth in the sea area where it washed and ran aground is only three or four meters during the day, and only six or seven meters at high tide at night. In short, the water is not deep enough, and it can't float at all.

This is a big guy of more than 30,000 tons, and there are no ships in the Maritime Resistance Army that can tow it, and the British Empire does not have a warship that can tow it. At the beginning, Hu Bofeng thought of learning from the French to rush the beach, but what he didn't know was that the French warships were beaching, and the beach was full of sand. Moreover, the French are familiar with the environment, and the location of the beach is also a slope, which is easy to be dragged into the water after repairs.

However, the Pacific Ocean is beached, and the water is full of coral reefs, and the current posture of the Pacific is that the head has a deep draft, the tail has a shallow draft, and the resistance is even greater.

In desperation, the workers had another job, dismantling the scrap steel that had been blown up on the upper floor. Anyway, the superstructure is now being bombed in pieces, and sooner or later it will be demolished.

So, the workers began to get busy again. It was dismantled for half a month, and two or three thousand tons of steel were reduced, but the huge battleship remained untouched.

Later, it was suggested that two main turrets had been scrapped by bombing anyway, and even the barrels were somewhat deformed, so simply dismantling these two turrets and adding the auxiliary organs would reduce the weight by 2,000 tons.

In the process of dismantling the main guns, technicians found that in addition to these two main turrets, the other three turrets also had serious problems with the six main guns.

To put it simply, these guns have developed a swelling diameter, and the rifling inside the barrel is also heavily worn. Li Guangda is called a pit father, doesn't he say that the life span is 200 rounds? According to the statistics that have been counted all along, the main gun of the Pacific should have at least thirty rounds of full charge life.

It should be said that this is Li Guang's misunderstanding. The life of a cannon is definitely not as much as it is designed, especially naval guns.

The naval guns themselves pursue range and power, which is different from the design of army artillery. The charge of army artillery has a considerable safety margin. But no matter which country built the naval guns, they are all "**" guns. That is to say, the strength of the barrel of the full charge is not so sufficient, and the amount of propellant is somewhat beyond the reasonable load of the barrel and the chamber. Moreover, this Pacific is still an old ship built before World War I, when Britain's technical level was leading the world, but the life of the ship's guns was still difficult to meet the design requirements.

After inspection, the battleship had only two naval guns, that is, the penultimate turret located in the stern, and due to the lowest utilization rate in combat, it still had a considerable life. As for the other main guns, it is difficult to say how many cannons they can hit, and they may explode. Especially in the front main gun, the value of the expansion diameter has exceeded the design, and even a semi-charge may cause an explosion. In the first battle in the Arabian Sea, this turret did not have a bore accident, which is simply God's blessing.

Li Guang is so depressed, you must know that the money he spent on this battleship is at least two million dollars, and the main guns are scrapped, what is the use of this battleship?

After thinking about it all night, Li Guang made a decision. The only working main gun turret was used as a shore gun defense for the port of Don Ceylon, and all the others were dismantled and used as scrap metal to make shells.

Li Guang, who was ruthless, simply asked the workers to dismantle the upper bridge, mast, deck armor, etc., in short, everything that could be dismantled. So hundreds of people dismantled for another half a month.

In total, the Pacific dismantled nearly 10,000 tons of steel.

At first glance, the Pacific has become a wrecked ship, and it is in tatters and no longer has the majesty of a battleship.

With the technology of the naval resistance army, it is simply impossible to restore this "battleship" into a battleship again. It's about buying artillery, not to mention whether you can buy it or not, time alone can't stand it. I'm afraid that it won't take three or four years to have combat effectiveness. So this battleship has only one modification direction - aircraft carriers. This is the same fate as the Japanese battleship Hiei, and it is such a coincidence that things in the world are so coincidental, and it is really amazing that two battleships that were crippled in a battle on both sides have the same fate.

The plan never changed quickly, and in August 40, the Naval Resistance Army had two battleships, and at that time Li Guang thought that it was necessary to add a light aircraft carrier and put it into service first. Who knew that by March of '41, the battleship of the Naval Resistance Army turned out to be one, and the plan for aircraft carriers turned out to be three.

After the Pacific was stripped clean and yo-yo, it headed straight for Uruguay. And this day is March 25, 1941.

Transform the Pacific into an aircraft carrier, and other Li Guang can ignore it, and there is a group of designers who will think it through. But there are two things that Li Guang has put forward in particular: the first point, speed. Li Guang demanded that the speed must exceed 30 knots. In this battle between the Pacific and the Japanese army, the loss was due to speed. The speed is slow, and it is difficult to even escape, let alone chase the enemy.

The second point is the setting of watertight cabins. The Pacific had less than 180 watertight compartments, and a single torpedo destroyed more than a dozen of them, and with the addition of the watertight compartments damaged in the artillery battle, there were less than 30 in total. However, the damage was extremely serious, and if the Pacific had not been grounded, it would have sunk long ago. According to the aircraft carrier being built in Uruguay, Li Guang demanded that there should be no less than 600 watertight compartments. This standard is higher than that of the latest aircraft carriers of the British and Japanese ones. However, it is also the most economical anti-settling design. Increasing armor is much more economical than reinforcing the keel, and the technical content is not high.

Of course, the shortcomings are also obvious, that is, in the future, the loss management personnel on the aircraft carrier must be skilled and able to close the watertight hatch door in time. This kind of thing seems simple, but it also requires extremely hard training to do.

If it is to be transformed into an aircraft carrier, Li Guang estimates that it will take at least more than a year, and the funds will be at least six or seven million US dollars. However, if the hull of the battleship Pacific is used as an aircraft carrier, the aircraft carrier's strike resistance is much stronger. As far as Li Guang knows, the current countries do not have a single armored aircraft carrier. The Naval Resistance Army was an inadvertent precedent.

Escorted by the aircraft carrier PC (which will also be converted into a special ship to transport aircraft) and two submarines, the Pacific headed for Uruguay.

On 30 March, the ships sent back a message that they had encountered two Vichy French merchant ships and asked Li Guang to give instructions on whether to rob or not.

After Li Guang thought about it, he gave an order to rob.

Anyway, the British were hanging out at sea all day, and it was not once or twice that they robbed French merchant ships. The British did it, and so did the Naval Resistance. What's more, in the vast ocean, it is not easy to find French merchant ships in ordinary times, and the opportunity must not be lost and never come again. Holding high the banner of justice and committing robbery is simply unpleasant.

As early as March 10, Vichy France had warned the British on the radio about the food convoy.

The French Minister of the Navy, Admiral Darlan, threatened to protect the convoy with the French Navy if the British Royal Navy continued to seize the ships carrying food destined for France. Darlan made these remarks at a press conference for American journalists, and Marshal Pétain was also present.

"I'm responsible for feeding 40 million people, plus millions in Africa," Darlang said, "and I have to provide them, even if I have to use force." Pétain added that before the war, the French ate about 1 pound of bread (454 grams) a day, and now the ration is only half of that amount.

The life and death of the French have a woolen relationship with Li Guang, no matter how the French threaten, will the army that has surrendered still have the courage to fight? I'm afraid I don't have the courage to send the navy anymore. The main force of the French navy is now in the port of Toulon, and as soon as it leaves the port, I am afraid that the British navy will immediately go up and fight in groups.

Therefore, to rob the French, Li Guang had no pressure at all. What's more, Li Guang is still angry about not being able to rob Jibu.

In addition, the robbery of French merchant ships played a role in promoting Li Guang's "zero plan".

In fact, on March 22, the British government agreed to allow American grain ships to deliver emergency flour shipments to Vichy France. Although the French repeatedly protested on the radio against the piracy of the Navy, and the British side even showed a false mercy and acted as a peacemaker, Li Guang would not vomit out the two ships no matter what. The two French merchant ships have since become the pockets of the Maritime Resistance Army.

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