Episode 121 Water-Shooting Fish-class air defense submarine

Nanjing High Command,.

Xiang Xiaoqiang had just had a meeting with the main military commanders of Office Zero, assigned a lot of tasks, and ordered them to do their own things, and now they are coming out, ready to go to the cafeteria to get something to eat. It was already five o'clock in the afternoon, and I had eaten very little at noon, and now my stomach was already growling.

When he came back from eating and passed by the central command hall, he saw a bunch of senior naval officers muttering something around the chart table, and he looked a little nervous. Several of them are also from Office Zero.

Xiang Xiaoqiang immediately smelled the smell and walked over to the chart table.

When those officers saw Xiang Xiaoqiang, they all looked strange, and then unnaturally dodged their positions. Xiang Xiaoqiang squeezed to the chart table and saw that on the chart, hundreds of kilometers southeast of Tokyo Bay, Japan, a small red cross was drawn, and it was also marked next to it: The sinking place of the submarine Blackfish.

Xiang Xiaoqiang nodded: Oh, a submarine was sunk. Of course this is unfortunate, but ...... It's not like these high-ranking officers have the same face, right? Anyway, it's just a submarine, not a cruiser! In the large-scale submarine battle in the back, there were many more sunks.

He looked at the marker again and asked:

"Blackfish? Well, the 'fish' class, that's a medium-sized submarine. When was this? ”

An officer replied:

"My lord, that's just what happened. Five minutes ago, a telegram had just arrived from the East China Sea Fleet to the General Staff of the Navy. They received a distress telegram, which was half an hour ago. ”

"What's going on? How did it sink? Xiang Xiaoqiang drank tea after dinner, glanced at the chart and asked, "Have you taken the initiative to provoke the Japanese warship?" ”

"My lord, no," said the officer, "the Blackfish was sunk by planes. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang was stunned for a moment, swallowed a sip of tea, put down the cup and exclaimed:

"Sunk by a plane? Bomber? ”

"Not bad, dive bombers. Bombed and sunk. ”

"What bomb? Depth charges or normal bombs? ”

Another officer took over and sighed:

"Although the telegram did not say what kind of bomb it was, it was a telegram. That's still on the water. That's an ordinary bomb. ”

Although Xiang Xiaoqiang had been mentally prepared before, when he heard the news now, he still felt shocked, as if it shouldn't have happened.

"Oh, most of them will survive if they are sunk on the water......" he asked, touching his head, "Did you send rescue?" ”

"Electricity has been generated to all submarines in the nearby seas. The detailed coordinates have been informed to them, and they have been asked to put down all tasks and rush to the coordinates to rescue. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang nodded and breathed a sigh of relief. After a moment, he muttered:

"Our submarine was sunk by planes. This is no small matter. ”

With that, he got up and left, leaving behind a bunch of inexplicable officers. After a while, Qiu Yun came running and told the members of Office Zero to hurry to the meeting.

So, a large number of people who had just come out of the conference room were now sitting back in the conference room.

……

Xiang Xiaoqiang had a gloomy face and said coldly:

"Who's in charge of communicating with the submarine force?"

Xiuxiu's face turned slightly pale, stood up, and said in a low voice:

"Report to your lordship, it's my ......"

Everyone's eyes were focused on this "Ryukyu princess".

Xiang Xiaoqiang nodded, and said in a deep voice:

"Well, these days I have repeatedly stressed that submarines must be on high alert for aircraft when they operate in areas where the enemy has air supremacy. Once the plane is spotted, unless it is too close to be too late, it must immediately make an emergency dive. It doesn't matter how big the prey you're chasing, no matter how sure you are of your anti-aircraft guns. Shang Xiu, I have also repeatedly emphasized that we must communicate with the submarine force and let them understand that every word is not a joke. Let me ask you, how do you communicate with people? ”

Xiuxiu lowered her head and said softly:

"Back to your lordship...... Subordinate...... I went to the Submarine Force Command and talked to Lord Qi about this issue...... After that, his subordinates also sent a telegram to the East China Sea Fleet, asking them to pay attention to this problem...... My lord, it may be that his subordinates are not good at communicating and the words are not clearly expressed, so that the submarine force does not pay enough attention to this issue...... This one...... The responsibility is on me. ”

After Xiuxiu finished speaking, she stood with her head down, and did not make unnecessary defenses. Everyone present looked at Xiuxiu and then at Xiaoqiang, and felt that according to Xiuxiu's words, the responsibility was not on her at all. That's all people can do, what else? Your submarine unit itself has turned a deaf ear to the repeated warnings of others, and this responsibility is very clear.

Of course, as you know, there are representatives of the submarine forces here. The adjutant of the commander-in-chief of the submarine forces, Qi Xiaofeng, sat here. Xiang Xiaoqiang can't accuse others in front of others. After all, Xiang Xiaoqiang cannot directly command the navy, and the loss is also the subordinates of the submarine force itself. If you want to jump, you have to jump first. Anyway, it's not your turn to blame people.

So, Xiang Xiaoqiang loudly scolded the people in his No. 0 office, reprimanded Xiuxiu, and asked her how she did it and how she told others, but she definitely didn't say it well. If you say it well, the submarine force is not a fool, maybe it will be a deaf ear? It must be that you were perfunctory when you said it, and you didn't understand it with reason and move it with emotion. You're still in the submarine forces! Now that you sit in the office, you don't take those officers and soldiers who are desperate at sea seriously?

In the midst of the stormy reprimand, Xiuxiu just stood there, her head bowed, biting her lip, and her face expressionless. She also knew in her heart that at this time, she could only be an unlucky target. In fact, all the words he said to the adults to train themselves were to the adjutant of Commander Qi. In particular, the last sentence, "Now that I sit in the office, I don't take those officers and men who are desperately working at sea seriously" is even more directed at those who "sit in the office" in the submarine command.

Commander Qi's adjutant sat there, feeling more and more eyes on him. He also felt that he couldn't sit down anymore, so he laughed dryly, and said with a smile in a round-playing posture:

"Hehe, Lord Xiang, don't be angry...... I can't complain about this matter, Her Royal Highness the Princess...... Alas, Lord Qi has always attached great importance to it after talking with Her Royal Highness the Princess, and specially issued orders to the submarine bases of various fleets, telling them to be vigilant against enemy planes and give priority to diving after encountering enemy planes...... Alas, the captains below are too confident one by one. I always felt that the Japanese planes were similar to the planes of the Qing army, so they couldn't do anything...... This can be regarded as a painful lesson for the whole army. ”

……

Seeing that the people from the submarine command also expressed their position, Xiang Xiaoqiang nodded, stopped reprimanding Xiuxiu, and asked her to sit down. Then, he glanced at everyone present, and said word by word:

"Therefore, it is time to open the curtain on a new era of submarine warfare!"

After saying that, he slapped his palms twice.

Immediately, a door opened next to it, and two little female soldiers came in carrying something and carefully placed it on the conference table. Then, the cloth covering it was lifted.

Everyone sat forward at once, staring at the thing.

This is a model of a submarine, wooden, not yet painted. However, the details of the various components above are very delicate and in place. At first glance, this is a professional model made by R&D units such as the State Administration of Military Industry.

The few people from the General Administration of Military Industry here also seemed confident and calm. The others understood that this was really something that their R&D department was doing. I guess I wanted to keep it a secret, but now I've taken it out in advance. The model hasn't even had time to be painted.

Looking at the length of this model, it should be an ocean-going submarine of more than 1,000 tons. But if you look closely, there seems to be something different. But after all, this is Office Zero, and even if they are not R&D personnel, they are all people who are familiar with submarines. They immediately saw the doorway.

On the front and rear decks of the submarine, as well as on the conning towers, there were several more guns.

Xiang Xiaoqiang gestured with his eyes, Qiu Yun stood up and said:

"Ladies and gentlemen, please see, this is a 'Shooting Fish-class' air defense submarine. The 75mm guns, which are usually installed on the foredeck, were removed from the Fisher class and replaced with a twin 40mm 'Bofors' cannon. The twin 20mm cannons on the aft deck were also removed and replaced with a quadruple 20mm 'Ericon' cannon. Here, the length of the conning tower was lengthened, and a piece was added to the back as a gun emplacement, where a quadruple 20 mm 'Erikon' cannon was mounted. On the front conning tower, where the usual lookouts are on duty, are armed with four twin 12.7 mm M2 heavy machine guns. As soon as an enemy aircraft is spotted, it is operated directly by the lookout on duty. That is, on such anti-aircraft submarines, it was the machine gunners who acted as lookout posts.

"Each anti-aircraft gun and machine gun is equipped with lightly armored baffles to enhance protection as much as possible without hindering flexible rotation, and can completely withstand the impact of bullets and shrapnel." The 'Fish-class' anti-aircraft submarines can be built purpose-built or retrofitted with other submarines. If it is purpose-built, there are no torpedo tubes and no torpedoes. The weight savings were used to strengthen the armor of the conning tower and deck, as well as to enhance the resistance of the hull to shock waves. Make sure that as long as you don't get directly hit by the bomb, there will be no major damage and no hindrance to the dive.

"The problem with ordinary submarines is that after discovering the plane, the captain will be in a dilemma. Resist the planes, the submarine is clearly too much to lose. Dive in, and I don't know if it's too late. Because the submarine is completely submerged in the water at the beginning of the dive, it is completely defenseless during this time. Why? Because the anti-aircraft weapons are on the fore and aft decks, and the lowest deck is the first to be flooded. As soon as an emergency order is given to dive in, the gunners on the fore and aft decks must immediately enter the submarine without a second delay. Then during this time, the submarine became a complete target. As long as the plane can catch up, you can attack as much as you want, and you don't have to worry about being counterattacked.

"Now this 'Shooting Fish class' has no such problem at all. First of all, it is designed to hunt and kill aircraft, and when encountering an enemy plane patrolling alone, you don't have to dive at all, you can directly fight it. Secondly, if the enemy aircraft really has the upper hand, the Shooter Fish class can also continue to shoot while diving, so that there will be no resistance at all. You see, the Shooting Fish class has a quadruple 20mm cannon mounted on the conning tower, and four twin 12.7mm machine guns are also mounted on the pylon. These weapons are mounted on the highest part of the boat, and can be fired continuously during the dive until the last moment when the water floods the control tower.

"Also, on both sides of the deck of the Shooting Fish, and around the conning tower, there is a ring of smoke canisters. If you find it difficult to support yourself against an aircraft, you can cast a smoke screen while diving. With so many smoke canisters, a large number of smoke screens can be released in a very short time, completely enveloping the submarine and blocking the view of the aircraft. It can make the submarine as safe as possible during the dive. ”

……

Qiu Yun said such a big deal, and everyone present still looked at each other, feeling incredible.

An officer hesitated to turn to Xiaoqiang and asked:

"Lord Xiang, this air defense submarine ...... Since there is no torpedo, what was the purpose of designing it? ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang knew that this question would be raised. He laughed and said:

"The main armament of ordinary submarines is torpedoes, with ships as the main target. Unlike the water-shooting fish-class air defense submarine, its main armament is anti-aircraft guns, and aircraft are the main targets. The main thing is to hunt down the kind of enemy planes that patrol alone for the purpose of anti-submarine purposes. With the anti-aircraft armament of the Shooting Fish level, it is still not a problem to shoot down one or two enemy planes without major damage to themselves. And this kind of submarine looks at high altitude, and it is basically no different from our ordinary submarines. But when the enemy plane swooped down and prepared to attack, it was found that it had been fooled - it was greeted by extremely powerful anti-aircraft fire. This kind of anti-aircraft fire at close range has surpassed most of the current destroyers, and is even comparable to some light cruisers. The Bofors and Erlikon cannons are currently the world's top small-caliber anti-aircraft guns, with a high rate of fire, good performance, and electric drive, which cannot be compared with our old guys.

"It is certain that for some time after the commissioning of our air defense submarines, a large number of such single or double patrol bombers will be shot down by the Japanese army. The problem is that from high altitudes, it is impossible to tell whether there is an air defense submarine or an ordinary submarine below. This will cause the Japanese naval aviation unit to have a kind of frightened psychology towards the Ming submarines as a whole, so that every time they set sail for anti-submarine warfare, they must be prepared to die. This leads to three possibilities:

"First, the Japanese military high-level decided that the aircraft anti-submarine was not feasible, so they resumed anti-submarine patrols mainly with destroyers. This is what we want most. Because of this, the probability of our submarines being spotted on the surface during the day has been greatly reduced, and it is similar to the situation before the era of sea and air.

"Second, the pilots of the Japanese army have been afraid of our submarines since then, and they have always consciously or unintentionally avoided close confrontation with our submarines. This result is certainly good. However, the Japanese are so desperate to fight that they will not retreat because they are afraid? We can't be too optimistic.

"The third is that the Japanese army still insists on aircraft anti-submarine patrols, but changes the patrol method, from the original one or two planes patrolling together, to a larger group of aircraft patrolling together, such as a group of four. Or once a submarine is discovered, a single plane cannot attack, but hovers above and calls for reinforcements from friendly aircraft. In this way, of course, the superiority over the submarine was regained. But as a result, the planes that were originally scattered on patrol had to be concentrated.

"For example, it turns out that a squadron of 16 aircraft, if a single cruise, can patrol 100,000 square kilometers of sea area. Now, four planes cruising together can only patrol 25,000 square kilometers of sea area. Of course, HNA can also deploy more aircraft for anti-submarine purposes. But there are fewer planes in other areas. Then, of course, the pressure on the submarine forces is greater, but on the frontal battlefield, the pressure on our surface ship forces is smaller, and we can achieve greater superiority in naval and air warfare. Either they can hit the Japanese Navy harder, or they have to force the Japanese to transfer back the HNA planes. In short, let them take care of one or the other. ”