Chapter 1322: Lessons Learned
Although it is tropical, the scenery of French Guiana is still different from that of the southern part of China. (Well, the southern part of this has expanded into the Indonesian archipelago.) The beautiful exotic scenery satisfied Su Mo, who had just experienced a long war and was extremely exhausted, but this satisfaction did not last long, and after a short vacation, he needed to sum up the experience of this battle. This was the first meeting between the main forces of the Entente and the German navy, and its significance and value were extraordinary!
"The German fleet has formed a complete system of operations, although from a technical point of view, the German subsystem and our highest level are somewhat different, but the Germans have obviously integrated the various systems of naval warfare, and have accumulated quite a wealth of actual combat experience, which is beyond the reach of our country and the United States and Britain. Britain is constrained by the limitations of national strength, and the size of its fleet is far inferior to that of Germany, while the United States has a large fleet and strong national strength, but the protection of aircraft carriers (aircraft carriers without armored flight decks) is its strictest shortcoming. If we compare the combat strength of the navies of the United States, Germany, and Britain, the actual combat strength of the German navy should be slightly stronger than that of the US navy, far surpassing that of the British navy. At the beginning of the report, Su Mo commented on the combat effectiveness of the navies of the three countries.
"Maritime operations are still an effective asymmetric means. The efficiency of the coordination between submarines and surface warships is very high, and the German Navy has spent so much money in order to deal with a small fleet in the North Atlantic. But alas, once the war starts. We're going to have to deal with the Germans. The Entente were far more dependent on maritime transport than the Central Powers. We should learn lessons from the Germans' anti-sabotage operations, such as the coordination of camouflaged reconnaissance ships and ocean-going reconnaissance aircraft. Summer then expressed his concern in a telegram.
"From the point of view of sea-based aviation power. Britain and the United States had very obvious shortcomings, but the Germans had a relatively balanced sea-based aviation force. The Spitfire of the British was really good. In terms of performance, it is somewhat stronger than the German BF109T fighter. But alas, the range is so short that it can even be described as unbearable. This necessarily limits the combat radius of the aircraft carrier. Although the range of the American F4F fighter is long enough, the performance is really unflattering. If it is said that the carrier-based fighters of Britain and the United States have their own advantages and disadvantages compared with Germany, then in terms of attack aircraft, the various attack planes currently in service in Britain and the United States are inferior to the German JU90 attack aircraft, which is faster and has a large bomb load. It is also a dual-purpose aircraft for bombing and lightning strikes, and it has excellent versatility. It is the best attack aircraft in addition to the current Seagull carrier-based attack aircraft in our country! "When he saw this paragraph, Xu Jie almost couldn't help but burst into foul language!" You bear child, the seagull is a pirate made by Lao Tzu! Is this a fighter good? Although I haven't found a suitable engine yet. But sooner or later, it will come out, although pirates in the later part of history also do some air raid business, but people's main business is air warfare! I've shot jets on the battlefield in Korea! ”
However, the only thing that allowed Xu Jie to save some face was that Su Mo mentioned in the later report that the pirates were still very strong, and if there was a suitable engine, the performance would be significantly improved. At the end of the report, Summer expressed concern about the large number of unarmored and lightly armored aircraft carriers in the US Navy. This time, the Persian watchlist made Su Mo a little afraid. Su Mo was reluctant to use such an unsturdy aircraft carrier as a ship again. Although the Americans' aircraft carriers are larger and more bomb-resistant, the deck is still wooden, and it is not an exaggeration to scrap the aviation capability with a few bombs. In Sumer's view, even if it is repaired with the divine damage tube that Americans are proud of. The external injuries caused by the 500KG bomb cannot be solved lightly, after all, as soon as the bomb is fired, a big hole more than 20 meters square will come out! Although the Americans' later Essex-class aircraft carriers were covered with a thin layer of armor on the flight deck, the Soumer decided that this was still insufficient. In the face of 500KG semi-armor-piercing bullets, it is better than nothing! Should you wear it or wear it!
While Huaxia is summing up the lessons, the Germans are doing the same thing, and this encounter is an opportunity for Huaxia to get to know their opponents. And what is not the chance of the Germans? And as the attackers, the Germans felt more about this battle. "We still have some gaps with our opponents in terms of electronic warfare." Consider that not long ago, the Count of Speu was secretly mocking the poor performance of the Luftwaffe's electronic warfare units in the air battles in the two river valleys. Today, the Navy was overshadowed by its opponents. Although the end result is acceptable. But there's something humiliating about the process.
The Germans did have some level of mechanics, but there was a certain gap between them and the Entente in terms of electronic technology. Among them, there are reasons for attaching importance to Cheng dù, and there are also reasons for the foundation. This time, the Germans finally relented in electronics. They admit that the technical level of German electronic equipment is weaker than that of its opponents under the same specifications. But admitting it doesn't mean doing nothing! The Germans are trying to make the difference between the two sides on the basis that I am inferior to you in quality, but I am more numerically than you in aid! The Germans used guò to compensate for the qualitative gap by adding more powerful and more numerous electronic devices to electronic warfare aircraft. And what is surprising is that the Germans actually came up with a magnetron in advance, although there is still a long way to go from application, but it is much stronger than the German electronic technology in history! You must know that the Germans did not come up with microwave radar until 1944!
In addition to the electronic warfare aspect, this naval battle also had a profound impact on the operational concept of the German aircraft carrier formation. The BF109 fighter is not considered to be the best carrier-based aircraft, the range is still somewhat close, although the theoretical load can be, but in fact, the BF109 fighter's small body is hung with fuel tanks or bombs, and the maneuverability deteriorates sharply. At the same time, the fragility of the liquid-cooled engine leads to the fact that once the aircraft engine part is hit, it basically cannot return to the control range of the own fleet. Therefore, the demand for air-cooled engines in the German sea-based aviation is becoming more and more intense. To the relief of the German Navy, the BMW 801, the only mature air-cooled high-power engine in Germany, has finally been designed. The FW190 fighter is finally about to enter small-scale mass production, so much so that part of the FW190 fighter has already entered the troops. And stationed at the front line for combat testing.
Finally, the invincible German naval aviation system in the early stage of World War II began to enter the final stage of perfection, and the FW190T fighter (the sea-based version of the FW190A), the FW190F bomber, and the BF111 maritime twin-engine multi-role aircraft equipped with the BMW 801 engine were finally successfully developed. In particular, it is worth mentioning that the BF111 maritime twin-engine aircraft is a large family, including dive bombers, torpedo aircraft, radar sentry aircraft, anti-submarine aircraft and electronic warfare aircraft. This series of aircraft allows the German Navy's aircraft carrier formation to form a complete combat system after breaking away from shore-based aviation!
The arrival on board a large number of twin-engine aircraft also led to a further increase in the tonnage of aircraft carriers of the German Navy. In the existing German naval battle sequence, only two large aircraft carriers, built under the name Supercruise, could accommodate twin-engine aircraft in a single formation. Other aircraft are not suitable for twin-engine aircraft due to hangar size and flight deck limitations. According to the experience of the German Navy, if it is an armored deck aircraft carrier, then the tonnage must be at least about 38,000 tons to effectively operate twin-engine aircraft, so in the future, the German aircraft carrier fleet must further increase in size and tonnage to meet the needs of large carrier aircraft. For this reason, the German Navy had to design larger aircraft carriers, which, of course, is a later story, not to mention for the time being.
With the brand-new aircraft, the high-speed fleet that the Germans had dreamed of was finally coming true, and with the range of the aircraft improved to a certain extent. 200 to 250 nautical miles of engagement will not stretch the range of the aircraft. 250 nautical miles is only 450 kilometers when converted into kilometers, and if you don't count the climb and marshalling time after the fighter takes off, the newly formed fast fleet can fly this distance in an hour! And now the speed of the German sea-based aviation is only about 150 knots per hour, and the speed has increased by about 6 percent! The impact of this qualitative change can be said to be very huge, but unfortunately, in addition to Xu Jie's preparations as a traverser, Britain, the United States and France are not clear about this, the performance advantage of FW190 when it first came out and the speed advantage of the carrier-based twin-engine aircraft in the early stage can only be known by the traverser. However, although Xu Jie can think of this, there is not much he can do, on the one hand, Huaxia does not plan to participate in the war at the beginning of World War II. Another aspect is that the R2800 and the later Morin engines do not come out, and it is unrealistic for the American and British aircraft to suppress their opponents. In addition to the P51, the 2 fighters are basically whose engine is good, whose performance is NB. It is currently a strong period for German engines. Xu Jie can't help it! I can only pray that the aviation department will give some strength.
On the whole, the Iranian fleet's operation to break diplomatic relations was quite successful, although the number of merchant ships destroyed was not particularly large. But because of the survival of this fleet, a large amount of the German navy was contained. It makes it unusable for use in the Indian Ocean theater, while at the same time taking into account the safety of navigation. There was also a noticeable reduction in maritime transport in Germany. This also indirectly contributed to the weakness of Germany's performance on the Middle East front. This is a bit like the historical light cruiser Emden, the success of the battle is one aspect, but at the same time it also greatly reduces the volume of sea traffic of the British in the Indian Ocean, and the latter causes more losses than the former in some sense! And in the night battle, the lucky defeat of the battleship King is even more unexpected, not to mention the performance of this battleship, as the flagship of the German High Seas Fleet in World War 1, it is of extraordinary significance to be able to sink this ship! The Entente side did not lack much publicity, and even the British newspapers believed that the night battle in the Bay of Biscay was enough to comfort the royal officers and soldiers who died in the naval battle of World War 1. Although it was the Chinese destroyer that sank the King, it did not affect the propaganda of the British at all.
"In a future war, the North Atlantic and the Eastern Indian Ocean will be the frontal battlefields of the Navy, but this does not mean that the Imperial Navy will be inactive in other seas! The Iranian Navy can find us trouble in the Atlantic, then we can also find trouble with our opponents in the Pacific, and our purpose is to make the Entente and China understand that the Imperial Navy will launch an attack on the opponent in all the seas of the world! "At the first meeting of the Navy's top brass after Count Lukner's return, Count Spee proposed his own idea of breaking diplomatic relations.
Geographically, Germany in this plane wants to play a much better relationship than in history, and one of the biggest advantages is that Germany's colonies in Africa have been preserved, Cameroon and Namibia in West Africa are still in German hands, and they are facing the South Atlantic. The confrontation between the US-British and Allied navies in the Atlantic was mainly in the North Atlantic, and the South was bound to be somewhat relaxed, so the Germans could camouflage attack ships and submarines use this as a base. By the same token, German East Africa is also outside the main battlefield in the Indian Ocean, and the core area of the war between the two sides in the Indian Ocean should be in the waters around India, such as the Arabian Sea. Britain and the United States did not have enough strength to blockade the German African colonies when they confronted the Allied fleet, which was an opportunity for the German Navy!
From the point of view of the route of the Entente, the material exchange between the United States and Britain is mainly through the North Atlantic route, which will be the key defense area of the other side. The exchange of goods between the United States and South Asia would have to cross the vast Pacific Ocean and half of the Indian Ocean to reach its destination. In Count Spee's view, the actions of shipwreckers and submarines in the Pacific would be a greater blow to the Entente, because the Pacific Ocean was so large that it would be difficult for the United States to leave enough escort forces in the Pacific Ocean. German submarines off the coast of the Indian Ocean could directly cross half of the Indian Ocean and enter the waters around India and the western Pacific Ocean to break up diplomatic relations. And German submarines from Namibia could also bypass South America and enter the Atlantic. Germany even planned to deploy camouflaged supply ships in the pro-German countries of South America to supply German submarines that had broken diplomatic relations in the Pacific Ocean.
Even in the case of stable frontal battles, Count Spee planned to send aviation cruisers to cooperate with submarines in the Pacific Ocean to break up diplomatic relations. The density of forces on both sides in the North Atlantic and the western Indian Ocean is still too high, and under the suppression of land-based aircraft and a large number of sea-based air forces, the space for the destruction of the fleet is actually very small. It's not the same in the Pacific. The territory is vast, and the density of the opponent's forces is relatively small, although the probability of encountering the opponent has decreased, but it is not easy for the opponent to seize the broken ship that acts alone. Count Spee didn't even ask how much an aviation cruiser with a single ship could do, as long as it could contain the opponent's forces.
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