readx; At 5:15 a.m., even though it was early in the summer, the sky was still not completely clear at this time, and the sky above the sea was still gloomy. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Last night's storm brought about a large wave that has not subsided so far, and the rainbow can be seen after the storm did not appear in the eyes of everyone, because the sky in the eyes of everyone is still gray, and the meteorological officer of the Mengshan has asserted that today's weather will not be a sunny and excellent weather, except that the sky is gloomy, the wind is strong, the waves are also large, and compared with last night, it is just that there is no rain.

The 21st Squadron and the 22nd Squadron floated around like paper boats, especially those destroyers with only two or three thousand tons were difficult to maintain lateral stability in such winds and waves.

Unlike the light ships in the fleet, which shook violently, several aircraft carriers were in a very stable state to cut through the wind and waves. The aspect ratio of the Aoyama-class aircraft carrier is much lower than that of those destroyers, and its aspect ratio is only eight to one. Although the speed of the aircraft carrier is also important, its stability is equally important, because the aircraft carrier needs to take off and land carrier-based aircraft, and if it shakes violently with a little wind and waves, then there is no need to fight at all.

In addition to the relatively low aspect ratio, the aircraft carrier can maintain stability is also related to its displacement, basically the heavier and larger ships are more stable under the same strength of wind and waves, in the night battle last night, the destroyers of the second mobile fleet and the destroyers of the first guerrilla formation said that the main gun hit rate is extremely low, this is because the wind and waves are too strong and their main guns are difficult to aim and get the firing window, but this situation is not visible on the capital ship of large tonnage, when the storm situation, The 16-inch guns on both sides have never been unable to shoot because of wind and waves.

Mengshan, as the eighth ship of the Aoyama class, was built as an inclined deck aircraft carrier from the time of the design start, because some basic data such as displacement are also different from the previous several ships of the Aoyama class, in general, among the more than ten ships of the Aoyama class, the larger the displacement is the more to the back, especially the last Aoyama-class aircraft carrier Wutaishan that is still under construction, because not only the beveled deck is adopted, but also in order to cope with the arrival of the era of jet carrier-based aircraft, the lifting capacity and size of the elevator have been increased, and the same as the Tianshan-class armored aircraft carrier, the use of a closed bow, but also the newly developed hydraulic catapult, as well as a large number of electronic equipment and anti-aircraft artillery and other facilities, which leads to the fact that this aircraft carrier is actually different from the original Qingshan-class, because its base displacement has already exceeded 30,000 tons, and the combat displacement can even reach 40,000 tons.

In fact, the Navy also divides Wutaishan and the subsequent Qingshan-class aircraft carriers as a separate class, that is, the Wutaishan class.

Therefore, so far, the Tsingshan-class aircraft carriers in the Chinese Navy are subdivided into three categories, the first is the first ship to the sixth ship, these six are the original design, with a straight deck, open bow, Shenyang Heavy Industry's T38 hydraulic catapult, electronic equipment and anti-aircraft firepower are also the initial design. In 1940, under the strong advocacy of Marshal Guan Shijie and the support of President Chen Jingyun, the Navy began to use beveled decks on a large scale, not only the Tianshan-class armored aircraft carriers at that time, but also the seventh ship of the Qingshan-class began to use the beveled deck, and this is the second classification of the Qingshan class: the use of oblique decks, continue to use the open bow, T38 hydraulic catapults, this kind of construction of six, that is, the seventh to twelfth ships. After arriving at the thirteenth ship of the Qingshan class, with the progress of technology, it has been greatly improved, using an oblique deck, but it adopts a closed bow like the Tianshan class, equipped with a new generation of hydraulic catapult T43 of Shenyang Heavy Industry, the size and load capacity of the elevator have been greatly improved, and more auxiliary equipment has been added at the same time, and like all warships under construction today, the electronic equipment and anti-aircraft firepower of the Wutaishan have been greatly improved, not only equipped with a large number of five-inch anti-aircraft guns, It is also equipped with a large number of 76.2 mm anti-aircraft guns, and this 76.2 mm anti-aircraft gun is also the smallest caliber that can use radio proximity fuses. Of course, the anti-aircraft artillery itself has not changed much, and more importantly, a large number of radar and other equipment have been used to achieve completely radar-guided anti-aircraft shooting.

In 1943, the Navy specially developed the 76.2 mm radio proximity fuse shell for the fleet's medium-range air defense, which directly allowed the Navy to develop 76.2 mm anti-aircraft guns, and has planned to install 76.2 mm twin anti-aircraft guns on newly built warships to replace the 40 mm anti-aircraft guns that have been used for many years, and plans to modify them on existing warships. In the second level of short-range air defense, the 20-mm anti-aircraft gun will continue to be used, but instead of the original single-barreled 20-mm model, a double-mounted model will be used.

Therefore, in 1944, although a large number of ships in service in the Chinese Navy were still using five-inch or four-inch VT shells as the main force of long-range air defense, the middle air defense was mainly based on quadruple 40 mm, and the short-range air defense was mainly based on twin 20 mm. However, the new ships built on the slipway, including the Xinggan-class air defense cruisers, the Youshao-class destroyers, and the Wutaishan-class aircraft carriers, have changed their air defense mode to 127 mm VT for long-range air defense, 76.2 mm VT for medium-range air defense, and 20 mm twin for short-range air defense.

From this point of view, the standard anti-aircraft weapon 40 mm anti-aircraft gun used by all countries in World War II will gradually withdraw from the Chinese Navy's anti-aircraft weapon platform.

Of course, this model only refers to those air defense ships used as the main force, in fact, from factors such as the cost of equipment and ammunition stocks, even if the Chinese Navy has decided to replace 40 mm with 76.2 mm as the caliber of medium-range air defense, but 40 mm anti-aircraft guns will continue to be in service with the Chinese Navy for many years.

The coexistence of multiple calibers and multiple modes will continue for a long time.

The progress of technology has made the design and construction of ships of the Navy constantly change, which has caused that although these more than ten aircraft carriers are called the Aoyama class, each one is slightly different, electronic equipment and air defense weapons are slightly different, and these reflect that the displacement of these aircraft carriers of the Aoyama class is getting larger and larger after being built, from the initial design of 27,000 tons to the extreme design of more than 30,000 tons.

As the beveled deck version of the Qingshan-class aircraft carrier No. 8, the Mengshan has been equipped with a large amount of additional equipment in the process of rebuilding and service, resulting in a displacement of more and more, the original rated displacement of 27,000 tons has long been in the past, and now the standard displacement of the Mengshan is nearly 30,000 tons, and the combat displacement is as high as 37,000 tons, which is about 3,000 tons heavier than the straight-deck Qingshan-class, which is basically a state of serious overload.

With a displacement of 37,000 tons, the Mengshan sailed smoothly in the wind and waves.

Although the sky is not yet fully bright, the deck of the Mengshan is still busy with green, the ground crew is carrying out intense preparation work, a large number of fighters are being transported from the hangar to the deck, and the aircraft carrier formation is about to launch the first wave of attacks today.

Before launching the attack wave, the Mengshan, as well as the three large aircraft carriers with angled decks, Wuzhishan and Yandangshan, had already begun to take off reconnaissance aircraft with hydraulic catapults in the position of the bow deck.

More than a dozen planes rose in the gray sky one after another, and after taking off, these reconnaissance planes began to conduct reconnaissance and search in all directions, and they will form the first line of defense for long-range early warning of aircraft carrier formations.

At the same time, Rear Admiral Zhao Zidong, who was temporarily appointed by Vice Admiral Lu Jian as the commander of the aircraft carrier formation, in the conference room, at this time, the large nautical chart had already marked black and red dots, and Colonel Pan Jin'an, chief of staff of the 22nd Fleet, took the command list and said: "Two commanders, colleagues, 30 minutes ago, His Excellency Lu Jian, commander of the mobile fleet, has already sent an order, ordering our formation to send out a group of aircraft and provide air support to the fleet directly under it as soon as it is dawn. According to the information of the enemy fleet transmitted by the fleet directly under the fleet at night, the enemy fleet had three large capital ships, two heavy cruisers, and about 15 destroyers. After a night of hard fighting, the direct fleet had sunk one enemy capital ship, one heavy cruiser, and between three and five destroyers. However, the direct fleet has also been seriously damaged, Shaohao has been abandoned and is expected to sink within two hours, and two other destroyers have been sunk in battle, and the other ships Yandi and Huangdi have been seriously injured, Fuxi has been slightly injured, and the rest of the light ships are either lightly injured or seriously injured, and now they urgently need our support! ”

Colonel Pan Jinan's words did not stop, but continued: "At present, our formation has changed the aviation to due north, which is about eighty nautical miles away from the direct fleet. ”

Although the aircraft carrier formation fled at high speed in the first half of the night, it had already changed course after the second half of the night, and they could not escape hundreds of nautical miles all the way, they needed to keep a certain distance so that they could support the fleet directly under them at any time after dawn.

"The carrier-based wings in the formation have been prepared for a long time, and it is expected that they will be able to attack the first wave of attack aircraft in 15 minutes, and it is also worth noting that, according to the report of the 25th Squadron, they are still in contact with the enemy's fleet in the northeast of the Amami Islands, and it is expected that this part is the escort fleet of the enemy's transport formation, and in addition, it is no longer possible to detect the enemy's main fleet yesterday."

Rear Admiral Zhao Zidong said at this time: "According to the order of Commander Lu, my formation must attack at the first time, how is the maintenance of each ship now?" ”

"The ships of the formation have begun to rebuild in the hangar after the storm stopped in the second half of the night, and now the carrier-based aircraft formations of the ships have successively carried out your final deck rearmament work, and the first wave of attacks has been able to be launched!" Pan Jinan replied.

Zhao Zidong nodded: "Since that's the case, then let's attack!" ”