Chapter 1861 The Japanese Navy’s Efforts
Chapter 1681 Japanese Navy’s Efforts
Of course, if you want to say that the Japanese are coping this time, it is absolutely unfair. In fact, although the Japanese only participated in this war to a limited extent, the Japanese military also learned war in the war! They are also trying their best to keep this fleet!
The Japanese studied the operational characteristics of the Su Xiong fleet. In addition to the intelligence provided by the Americans, this fleet focused more on obtaining intelligence through radio monitoring and aerial reconnaissance. Coupled with the help of submarines and camouflaged cruisers, they wanted to ambush a huge scale. , and the slow transport fleet is actually not difficult.
The Japanese also realize a problem. It is useless to compete with the world's first-class navy in terms of capital ships alone. The navy is a system that involves all aspects of things. According to the barrel effect principle, these shortcomings directly reduce the comprehensive combat effectiveness of the Japanese fleet. After that, you might say, aren’t radio technology and airplanes quite simple in this era? That is compared with future generations! How many countries can produce engines with more than 350 horsepower in this era? Historically, even Germany could not do it, so only the United Kingdom can be sure! At that time, the United States did not have a truly NB self-produced engine, let alone Japan.
Therefore, this time the Japanese still decided to learn from their teachers, the British, especially the navy. It can almost be said that they followed suit. Whatever the British did, it didn't matter whether the Japanese could understand it or whether it was used now. First, try building a small one yourself, such as an aircraft carrier. The British directly used a warship of more than 15,000 tons to modify the aircraft carrier. Although the Japanese did not have a ready-made hull, they also decided to use a high-speed merchant ship. Try changing it. As for the British naval aviation force, which has a complete range and a large scale, the Japanese also followed the principle that no matter how many, but the variety must be complete, they ordered a large number of aircraft from the British, ranging from V1500, FB27, small From Camel fighter jets to Tucano torpedo planes, the Japanese bought more or less of them.
As for the British's more mature anti-submarine and escort systems, they will naturally be directly transferred to them. The Japanese Navy plans to improve about half of its destroyers, including adding hydrophones and original sonar systems, removing excessive mines, and adding more Number of anti-submarine bombs. At the same time, the British specially provided personnel to train the Japanese Navy in anti-submarine warfare. After several months of hard work, the anti-submarine capabilities of the Japanese destroyer squadron have also improved to a certain extent.
Of course, these are all on the general level. When it comes to this escort, the Japanese Navy has made special responses, especially in terms of radio and aerial reconnaissance. It has made great efforts. Now, the Japanese understand it very well. , if the German fleet is allowed to capture the fleet, then apart from disbanding the fleet and running as many as possible, any idea of exploding the opponent head-on is courting death! The Japanese fleet currently cannot produce enough power to suppress the two German battleships. It is true that if you throw half of the combined fleet into the Indian Ocean, you will definitely be able to suppress the Germans. But by that time, I am afraid that the United States in the Pacific will be guarding Midway Island. A battleship with a fleet of more than a dozen would be lonely, right?
Under tremendous pressure, the Japanese did not even dare to discharge warships above the fearless level this time.
I can only forget about Qian Wuwei's intention... So much so that the order given by the Combined Fleet Command to Hyakutake Saburo is that once the German fleet is confirmed to be discovered, you are allowed to immediately disband the fleet and then evacuate with the fleet.
Well, since a fight to the death is impossible, the only way is to give an early warning, discover the German fleet in advance and bypass the opponent! However, to achieve this, it is nothing more than starting from two aspects. The first aspect is naturally to rely on radio lateral direction, and the other aspect is to suppress the opponent's investigation power while improving one's own investigation efficiency.
Regarding the first one, the Japanese have no good solution, because the Germans have more advanced radio technology and Japanese antennas cannot receive certain communication frequency bands. Moreover, in order to maintain confidentiality during operations, both warring parties will use some covert methods. In the frequency band, the British may be able to detect the Germans by relying on the wider reception band, but the Japanese cannot now. On the other hand, the Enig cipher machine used by the Germans cannot be cracked in this era, even if the physical object is obtained. Therefore, radio detection and monitoring are too difficult for the Japanese.
As for the second one? The Japanese choice is to suppress the German fleet's ability to obtain battlefield intelligence. In fact, no matter how much intelligence the Americans provide, they can only provide an approximate fleet route and configuration. They can tell where the German fleet is and when to intercept it. Well, after arriving in the designated sea area, if you want to intercept the target, you will also need real-time battlefield intelligence provided by camouflaged cruisers, submarines and seaplanes.
In order to limit the acquisition of intelligence about the German fleet, the Japanese specially assigned a seaplane carrier to the escort fleet. The 8 seaplanes on it, plus the 4 seaplanes on the Katori, formed the aviation of the Japanese fleet. On the one hand, the mission of these seaplanes is to search for suspicious ships. Once they find some "inexplicable" ships around them, the Tianlong light cruiser will go up to investigate. Seaplanes patrolling in the air will also deter submarines, causing them to lurk in the sea and not dare to show up. In this case, the submarine cannot keep up with the fleet underwater and cannot send telegrams, which naturally defeats the purpose of detection.
Moreover, if under special circumstances, the Japanese fleet can even rely on a larger number of seaplanes to conduct counter-reconnaissance, detect the German fleet in advance, and take response. In a word, the Japanese navy has greatly enhanced its reconnaissance power this time, and at the same time relies on taking a relatively quiet route to avoid the opponent as much as possible.
"The British have stated that they will provide aviation support after our fleet enters the waters near South Africa. After our last replenishment from Sumatra this time, there will be no more replenishment in the middle, and the intelligence network established by the Americans cannot cover it. The entire Indian Ocean, so we are relatively safe this time." Nagumo Chuichi said.
"Safety? Look at the ships in our fleet. Half of them are ships that have been used for more than 15 years. They are not large in tonnage, have limited endurance, and have no intermediate supplies. There are not many routes we can take. If the Germans decide If they catch us, as long as they can endure and deploy to the east of Madagascar in advance, we will still be in danger," said Hyakutake Saburo.
"So, this time we have a fleet operating at the same time as us. They are heading to India. It is estimated that the Americans have got the news and will send submarines and camouflaged cruisers to attack, right? They can disperse the German forces and thus cover Us." Nagumo Chuichi said.
"I hope we have a smooth journey." Hyakutake Saburo said with a wry smile.
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