"The naval strength of the United States of America is not as good as we imagined, our warship officers and men and even the decision-making level have huge omissions, the navy is not just a pile of equipment, we need excellent generals, battleships are different from cannons and machine guns, the navy is different from the army, a slight mistake will lead to irreparable consequences, the French have already taught the navy in the Mediterranean a lesson, just a mistake in judgment can lead to more than ten years of accumulation into ashes."

"In this Saipan incident, the performance of the United States Navy is very bad, our main guns are too large, although they form a straddle fire, but the significance is limited, there is a big gap between our personnel response and proficiency compared with the Chinese Navy, and there are still various problems in our horizontal armor and underwater protection, and all this needs to be corrected. So, I suggest that we can delay the war, at least not rashly until these issues are resolved, and we need to let the whole state apparatus warm up slowly. The navy will be ahead, the army will have to be expanded, and there will be anti-submarines, the Germans are much better than the Japanese, and they have already made the British suffer in the Atlantic! Chief of Naval Operations Benson wrote in his report.

The Saipan incident was like a basin of cold water, which calmed down the United States, which was preparing to join the big war, and this time the stimulus was not only military, but also politically sounded a wake-up call for the United States. Pound and mark? The United States does not need it, the United States already has enough dollars, and even if it does not go to war. Britain and France still had to order large quantities of products from the United States, and if they could get it without going through war, why should they go to war?

Majifen, who had already been marginalized, was once again a decision-making figure in the US Navy. He was ordered to solve various problems in the U.S. Navy, both technical and personnel. First of all, in terms of technology, the first thing that Majifen needed to solve was the problem of walking around the 14-inch 50L main gun installed on the new American first-class battleship. This walk is too big, in terms of firepower density, the firepower density of two 14-inch 50L carrier ships is only equivalent to the firepower density of one 14-inch 45L carrier ship. The idea of the Americans is actually very advanced, after seeing Huaxia play the trick of reserving the gun mount and then changing the gun many times, the Americans also wanted to do the same, so the main guns of the New Mexico-class battleships could actually be replaced with twin 16-inch guns. And the Americans began to prepare plans for the development of 16-inch guns very early. The 14-inch 50L is just a transition.

The idea is good, but the reality is brutal. The design and manufacture of the 16-inch gun was more difficult than the Americans imagined, and it took 2 years to do it. There is not even a shadow! This made Americans feel quite embarrassed and frustrated. And now, there are serious problems with the performance of this transitional product, because of factors such as the ablation of the barrel, the walk of this gun is unusually large. Even a half-salvo will not work out. In desperation. Majifen could only order all the battleships to change back to the 14-inch 45L main gun first, although the power was a little worse, but the victory was relatively high. The 3-0 shooting rate of the Saipan engagement was too sad for the Americans.

The second is horizontal protection, the powerful power of the Huaxia 15-inch heavy gun shocked the Americans, especially the shell that smashed the horizontal armor of the New Mexico, which made the Americans feel the lack of horizontal protection. SO SOME PEOPLE SUGGESTED THAT THE HORIZONTAL PROTECTION OF NEW MEXICO SHOULD BE INCREASED BY 50MM! On this point, Magifin is more optimistic, and he believes that it may have been the hull roll that caused the shell to break through the level at a large angle. There is a certain chance that at the same time according to intelligence. The Germans seem to prefer high-speed flicks, which do not have a strong horizontal penetration, so it should be enough. AND THE WEIGHT PRESSURE FROM ADDING 50MM OF HORIZONTAL ARMOR IS SIMPLY TOO GREAT. However, in the end, Majifen could not resist the pressure from all sides, and still decided to add an inch of armor to all battleships. In this way, the already low speed is even less due to the increase in weight of thousands of tons! Slow-speed, heavy-armored iron tortoise, the American battleship confirmed the name.

In addition to horizontal, for underwater protection. After research, Majifen and others found that this is a more unexpected thing than the level of fighting, unless the Chinese shells are more special, there is a special kind of water bullet, otherwise the probability of such a is too low, not to say that there is not, in the Battle of Malta, the French were hit by one shot, but only occasionally one shot after the two sides fired thousands of shells. And, more importantly, in terms of the current condition of the ship. No matter how it is changed, it will not be able to block large-caliber water bullets, and it is certain that it will be penetrated. The only way to do this is to pray for a little less water in the core chamber and a little less water. But even so, the US Navy decided to increase the depth by adding an underwater mine protection unit to defend against underwater shells and torpedoes. As a result, the iron turtle of the American battleship not only had a hard enough lid, but also a lot stronger.

In addition to the improvement of the capital ship, out of concern for submarines, the US Navy began to install various anti-submarine weapons such as hydrophones and depth charge launchers for destroyers. Discussions began on how to provide escort for future ships heading to Europe. The latter is strongly advocated by Magifin. He believed that the main purpose of the submarine was to attack the slow merchant ships, and that it was undoubtedly best to prevent them from gaining results if they could not sink them. Moreover, the US Navy has found that compared with the anti-submarine of surface ships, the anti-submarine effect of seaplanes or airships will be better, not that the aircraft can deal with submarines in potential water, but because the underwater endurance of submarines is too short, and an airship floats in the air, and after waiting for several hours, the submarine will definitely not be able to escape the vision of the airship. When the oxygen runs out, the submarine must also surface, and by this time, the result is either sunk or surrendered.

Compared with the inferior equipment, the gap in the quality of officers and men is even greater. Historically, the United States had exchanges with the British Grand Fleet after entering the war, and the Americans have always been very confident in their own fire control and equipment, but in fact, the Americans do have unique fire control. It is on the same level as Britain and Germany. However, the effect of live ammunition on target has made the Americans lose face. And it's not just the 14-inch 50L artillery carrier that can't be hit, but the other warships are also inaccurate! Not only the triple turret can't hit accurately, but the twin turret can't hit it either! This is the smell of hands and can't complain about the equipment.

In a word, the quality of the officers and men of the US Navy in peacetime is absolutely not as good as that of Britain and Germany, and the gap is quite large. There is no special way to face this problem, so you can only practice! The number of simulated and live-fire target firing has increased substantially, and the fleet's maneuvering and changing formation training at sea has also become more frequent. At the same time, the Americans also asked British and French naval officers with actual combat experience to come to the United States to impart their experience, and began to reassess the combat strength of the German and Italian navies.

After some research, the Americans believe that the German Navy has an absolute advantage in terms of overall strength and personnel quality, but in terms of flexibility in tactical execution, the Italian Navy is superior, as a maritime country, Italy gives the Navy greater autonomy of action, rather than like the German Navy, which is still dominated by offshore activities, and more importantly, even in the case of a big victory for the Italian Navy, the German Navy's aggressiveness is still slightly insufficient. It is completely different from the Italian Navy's style of play, which gives it all as soon as it strikes.

Thus, the opinion of the US Navy and the Entente was to exterminate the Italian Navy, because they were too active, and to suppress the German Navy! Because a fleet that can only stay in the harbor has no future. Britain thought about it and planned to transfer part of its main fleet to the Mediterranean Sea in the coming year to help the French navy. Anyway, several Queen-class battleships are already about to enter service, and the transfer of battleships will not lead to too much reduction in combat effectiveness. And the Germans do not seem to have a plan for the commissioning of new warships. Although the situation is worse now, the British believe that time is on their side, and if it can be delayed for 2 years, the British said that they can consider one against two! Blockade of the High Seas Fleet in the North Sea, and violent defeat of the Italian fleet in the Mediterranean!

And after seeing the powerful 15-inch heavy gun of the Chinese Navy, the British also had blind confidence in the 15-inch cannon of the Queen Elizabeth-class battleship out of thin air, according to the test of the artillery, the British were still relatively satisfied with the power of this gun, but the British seemed to have forgotten one point, that is, when the artillery test penetrated deeply, it was a shell without a charge, and your charge was replaced with other substances of the same quality, otherwise the armor plate would not be blown away if a shot hit it! So the problem with the fuse and the problem with the charge did not show. Of course, I got quite good results at the shooting range, but I immediately withered when I arrived on the battlefield!

The only problem is that Majifen believes that before 1917, the US Navy was not suitable for participating in battles, not to mention that it would take at least one year for the battleships to enter the dock for improvement, and that it would take time for the battleships to be reorganized and trained in formation and gunnery after they were reconstructed. When Magiffen sent the report to President Wilson, Wilson said that time was not an issue and assured him that the U.S. Navy would not enter the war before 1917 as long as it did not change too much. This is not only the need of the navy, but also the need of American politics, although the British have been cleaned in this matter, but the dead knot in Wilson's heart still cannot be untied. "Even if we are allies, too strong a Britain is not good news for the United States." Wilson once said this privately.

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