Beilun Port

There are more than a dozen large and small wharves around the beautiful Sydney Bay, and several large docks on the north side of Beilun Harbour belong to Hongshan Heavy Industries, a large backbone shipbuilding enterprise of the empire, which is famous for building large warships and ocean-going freighters.

this day

A strangely shaped, huge flat-deck boat slowly left the Hongshan Heavy Industry Wharf under the towing of the barge, there were still many planes parked on the deck, shining in the bright sun, the whole hull shape is simple and elegant, very beautiful.

In a few moments, smoke billowed from the huge chimney behind the broadside building, and the flat-deck ship sailed at full speed into the deep sea.

Only a very small number of people can recognize that this is the "Dinghai" aircraft carrier, which is newly equipped by the navy, and the vast majority of the people are confused, and after seeing the novelty, they throw it out of their minds and are busy with their own plans to make a fortune.

The large-scale war that took place in Europe entered its third year, and the continuous wars destroyed the rich industrial and agricultural production order in Europe, countless young and middle-aged men went to war, and only women, old people and children were left in the countryside, and the main labor force was lost, and large areas of land were abandoned.

There has been widespread famine on the Eastern Front in Europe and in the Balkans, affecting Eastern Europe and Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of people have died of starvation, and the famine has affected tens of millions of people, and everything is terrible.

At this time, the war in Europe tended to be white-hot, and the battlefields on the eastern and western fronts were under fire, with tens of thousands of soldiers killed and wounded every day, and a massive supply of materials was needed.

In Australia, far from the war, all walks of life in agriculture, animal husbandry and industry are working at full capacity, and the prosperous economic development has led to a large number of population needs, and the number of people immigrating to Australia from the mainland has reached 1.27 million in the first half of the year, a record high.

The government has also consciously or unconsciously relaxed immigration restrictions to meet the urgent demand for labor in the current boom of economic development, and the expectations of public opinion in the relevant newspapers for the population growth of the empire;

By October at the latest, the population of the empire will exceed the 100 million mark.

Dinghai aircraft carrier

The straight deck of the aircraft carrier is particularly tall, because there is a huge hangar that occupies most of the hull on the lower two floors, with a rated capacity of 108 aircraft, which is an out-and-out heavy aircraft carrier.

Because it was going to sea for sea trials, the ship carried only 21 planes, which were used for exercises such as mooring, flying, recovery, combat preparation, hangar operations, combat bomb hanging, and fuel refueling.

Therefore, the Dinghai aircraft carrier carries a large number of staff officers and shipyard engineers, who will solve technical difficulties on the spot, discover and correct design defects in a timely manner, and gradually improve the entire combat system.

Colonel Li Qianjian, captain of the "Dinghai" aircraft carrier, stood behind the tall command porthole, from which he could see the entire wide deck at a glance, and the three ready fighters were lined up in a "pin" shape, preparing for the deck take-off test.

"Now I command; The first deck take-off tests officially began. ”

"Yes."

After the order was given, it was quickly conveyed to the deck control personnel, and the officer holding the two-color flag waved the flag to fly, and then couldn't help but crouch down.

The silver fighter engine roared and rushed out, galloping forward for dozens of meters before taking off into the air, spreading its wings and flying into the sky.

In the midst of cheers, the second and third wingmen behind him also flew into the sky, flying in the sky with a sturdy body, looking exciting.

Carrier-based pilots are the elite of pilots, each of whom is carefully selected and has accumulated a wealth of experience after a long period of training on the land deck.

They flew the HQ-1 (Hai Jian-1) fighter specially developed for naval aviation, nicknamed "Haiyan", which is a fighter with a lightweight skeleton and alloy skin to combat the harsh environment of high salt and humidity at sea, equipped with an 8-cylinder star-piston engine, and a top speed of 268 kilometers per hour.

The "Petrel" fighter is equipped with three heavy machine guns, and its firepower is extremely fierce.

In today's European theater

Due to the limited engine load, the Allied and Allied fighters were equipped with only one heavy machine gun, and their firepower was relatively weak.

Britain and France have more fighter planes, and German fighter pilots are more skilled, and in the battle for air battles in Europe, they are roughly in the middle of the best.

In the early days, German fighters dominated the skies, and after a large number of "spindle" fighters of the Ocean Empire were exported to Britain and France, this disadvantage was gradually leveled, and the air power losses of both warring sides were large.

Compared with the earlier "Spindle" fighters, the "Haiyan" fighter should belong to the third generation, with more powerful engines, larger loads, more powerful firepower, and a single aircraft's combat capability increased several times.

After hovering in the sky for more than 20 minutes, the released fighter plane was ready to land, which was the most dangerous of all the subjects of the aircraft carrier, and it was a great test of the ship-aircraft coordination ability.

Under the command of Colonel Li Qianjian, the aircraft carrier "Dinghai" maintained a high-speed and straight course, and after measuring the relevant wind speed and surge data, it reached the take-off and landing standards, and the tower issued an order to allow landing.

Two large blue lights on the left and right of the stern of the aircraft carrier flashed brightly, signaling permission to the fighters flying after the aircraft carrier.

If the yellow light is on to warn the sea and wind direction to be bad, the pilot can force the landing if there is not enough fuel, otherwise he should continue to circle.

If the red light is on, it means that you refuse to land.

At this time, there may be dangerous bomb hanging operations on the deck, or moving planes, and the runway has not been cleared, even if the fighter plane is planted headlong into the sea, it cannot land on the deck of the aircraft carrier.

The experienced pilot in charge of the first flight test adjusted the descent route and drove the plane steadily to the deck of the aircraft carrier, followed by the smell of rubber and screams from the emergency brakes, accompanied by the cheers of the deck crew.

The three planes landed safely one after another, and the excited staff rushed forward to present flowers to the three pilots of the first flight, and laughter filled the deck of the aircraft carrier in an instant.

Colonel Li Qianjin led the experts and factory staff of the aircraft carrier test team to greet them and extend warm congratulations to the pilots. "Flying so beautifully, man, congratulations."

"Thank you, sir."

"How does it feel, is there anything you want to say?"

"The attitude of the aircraft is good, the handling is very responsive, and although there are some details that need to be changed, the aircraft is generally excellent. The only thing lacking is the attitude of the ship, when we landed, it happened to be facing the sun, the reflected light of the sea surface and the ship was strong, which had a serious impact on the sight of the landing aircraft, and we could only vaguely see the general deck of the aircraft carrier, and we could only land with two green lights as the base point, and we were nervous for a while. ”

"Uh...... We will definitely improve this point in the future, so let's go and rest first. ”

Unexpectedly, the biggest problem was still with himself, and Colonel Li Qianjin made a big red face.

The test flight of an aircraft carrier is a big girl for the pilots, and once they get on the sedan chair, why not for the commander of the ship?

He took into account the speed, surge, wind direction and other things that affect the safety of take-off and landing, but the omission of the sun's rays, not the pilot himself took off and landed in the air, who could think so carefully?

This is the important role of sea trials, in various climatic conditions, the ship's equipment, lights, deck aircraft mooring scheme, and combat procedures must be tested one by one, as far as possible to find problems, solve problems, and do not leave hidden dangers until the ship is put into service.

The sea trial ship also undertakes the heavy task of writing naval regulations, so the sea trial of this first heavy aircraft carrier takes a long time, and it will take at least 7~8 months to complete in the tense atmosphere of the current European war.

If it is a peacetime period, it is not rare to have 2~3 years of sea trials.

This heavy aircraft carrier is built on the mature hull and power system of the "Princess Victoria" class battleships, which significantly reduces the workload.

The "Dinghai" aircraft carrier went to sea for experiments with a large number of warships to verify the tactics of fleet command and cooperation with other fleets, and submarines will appear in the later stage to help carrier-based aircraft practice submarine search and submarine attack tactics.

There are hundreds of relevant test subjects, all of which are based on the perspective of actual combat to fully tap the combat effectiveness of aircraft carriers.

For reasons in the upper echelons of the Empire, the Admiralty paid unprecedented attention to this new type of ship, second only to the main battlefleet.

In today's world

The militaries of various countries do not attach much importance to the field of application of aviation, especially the traditional naval powers such as Britain, France, and Germany, and their role in aircraft is limited to detecting and countering enemy aircraft, and they do not think that light bombers can pose much of a threat to ships equipped with heavy armor.

Before the Jutland War

The British modified cruiser "Campania" was equipped with a flight deck, capable of carrying 12 seaplanes from the deck, and had the performance of a water carrier.

But when Admiral Jericho, commander of the British Royal Navy's home fleet, led the fleet to attack, he forgot about this battleship.

Thus

In the minds of the British Navy's top admirals, aircraft carriers are completely ignored passers-by, and they have no impression at all, let alone any importance.

The reason why both Britain and Germany sent decoy fleets was because it was difficult to detect the movements of the opposing fleets in the vast sea, so they had to send decoy fleets to search the windy and turbulent North Sea, trying to find the enemy's main force and annihilate it.

Reconnoitering the enemy's situation was a major problem that plagued the British and German navies, and it was also an unsolvable problem.

If the British generals had taken the "Campania" to the fore and given full play to its reconnaissance capabilities over the vast sea area, there would have been no need to send Admiral Beatty's fleet to the Germans, and the losses would have been completely avoided.

Take 10,000 steps back and say that even if the British and German navies were aware of the problem, they categorically refused to make changes.

Even decades later, in World War II, the British Imperial Navy, known as the most powerful, was equipped with very few aircraft carriers, and its performance was far worse than that of the United States Navy.

The British are like this, the Germans are the same, the French and Italy are no better, the fierce aircraft carrier air battle in history took place between the United States and Japan in the Pacific region of World War II, it is not unreasonable, the Europeans' adherence to tradition is unimaginable to outsiders, and the nine cows cannot be pulled back.