Chapter 2172 Careful Jericho
"During yesterday's shelling, we estimated that the German fleet fired at least 15,000 rounds of main gun shells. This has been inspected and confirmed by our relevant personnel. Although it is not accurate, the qualitative is still possible." Lieutenant General Duff said Jericho said.
"With 15,000 shells, the German High Seas Fleet has a total of 96 18-inch guns, 78 350MM guns, and 10 12-inch guns," Jericho said. That's right, the British already know that the German High Seas Fleet has spent this year completing the fleet's super-fearless fleet! After all, it is impossible to hide such a huge change from others. As for these dismantled 12-inch guns? Many of them were used as train guns in the previous stage of the army's battle! Anyway, it will definitely not be wasted!
"That is to say, nearly 200 main guns fired more than 15,000 shells, and each gun fired 75 shells. Is that true?" Jericho asked.
"That's right, Commander." Lieutenant General Duff nodded and said, "And most of them fired heavy bullets, which is a little bit different from our previous understanding. We always thought that the German fleet would use ultra-light bullets." To attack targets at a relatively long distance, but judging from the current situation, the Germans seem to have developed new long-range grenades for attacking ground targets. These grenades are about the same weight as normal armor-piercing projectiles.”
"A range of more than 40 kilometers, or even close to 50 kilometers, can no longer be achieved simply by increasing the elevation angle. If nothing else, these shells are likely to use strong charges when fired. According to our collection Judging from the data of German artillery, their normal charge strength has not reached the mechanical limit of the artillery, so this time, for ultra-long-range attacks, it is also possible for them to use strong charges, just like our 13.5-inch naval guns ’” Thomas said.
"So, if you take into account the daily training of the German Navy, if they conduct such a high-intensity attack again, the artillery of a considerable number of battleships in the High Seas Fleet will be close to the limit of their service life, is that right?" Jericho said .
"If their artillery life is about the same as ours, then it should be replaced." Lieutenant General Duff thought for a while and said.
How long is the lifespan of battleship artillery? The lifespan of this thing cannot be compared with that of ordinary land artillery. If it is calculated by the standard of firing normal armor-piercing projectiles, it is generally about 300 rounds. And the life of the 15-inch drug gun of the famous Veneto-class battleship in history is only more than 100 rounds. There is no way. The price of super vertical penetration is that the life of the barrel is too short. Of course, if you have a more advanced process, such as the chrome plating process used by American naval guns, the lifespan will be longer.
So well, what will happen if the life of the naval gun is up? Bomb blasting is generally not possible, but the spread of shells will definitely be worse, which is obviously a very adverse effect on naval battles. Therefore, in order to ensure the longest life of the naval gun as much as possible, the charge reduction may be used to save costs when using grenades to attack ground targets. Charge reduction, as the name suggests, is to reduce the amount of charge and reduce the initial velocity of the shell. Thereby reducing the ablation of shells.
And the opposite of the reduced charge is the strong charge! Usually a charge that exceeds the standard gauge is used for a purpose, usually for greater range, or greater penetration. And this will undoubtedly increase the wear and tear of the artillery and reduce the life of the barrel. (Actually, land artillery sometimes uses strong charges. For example, the range of the German SFH18 howitzer in World War II is somewhat shorter than that of the Russian 152MM howitzer, so sometimes strong charges are used, and this will It caused great damage to the gun barrel and gun mount.
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Obviously, the German Navy used a lot of heavy ammunition in this attack, and it also shot at a super long distance, so in the eyes of the British, they are frequently using strong charges. And this price is naturally a drop in the life of the artillery! And for a fleet that is ready for a decisive battle at any time, they can't take a bunch of gun barrels that are about to be damaged to participate in the fleet duel? It may not be a problem to use it to hit fixed large targets on land when the barrel is almost at the end of its life, but if it is used in fleet combat, it is really uncomfortable. On the one hand, it may be because of the black face, and the more likely reason is that the gun barrel is worn out and the spread is too large! So, this involves another problem, a considerable part of the warships in the fleet need to change their barrels!
It is not easy for a battleship to replace a gun barrel. It is definitely a time-consuming and labor-intensive task to pull out a gun barrel weighing tens of tons or even nearly a hundred tons from the turret and then press it in again. If you want to replace the barrels of most warships, the amount of work is definitely huge. After all, there are nearly 200 barrels! Such a transfer of heavy artillery, equipment, and personnel cannot be concealed from others. Therefore, in the opinion of Jericho and others, the German Navy may at most perform one more land bombardment mission before considering replacing the gun barrel, because the High Seas Fleet is ultimately To face the big fleet at sea!
"Is there anything going on in the Mediterranean?" Jericho asked suddenly.
"The Spey Fleet may be ready to rush out of the Mediterranean Sea. In French Morocco, the Germans concentrated more than 600 aircraft of various types. They circled and bombed over the Strait of Gibraltar all day long, attacking all targets they could see. And the Spey fleet itself has arrived at the port to the south, and they should be making the final supplies before rushing out of the Mediterranean." Lieutenant General Duff said.
"So, we can now draw up a rough timetable based on the actions of the Germans!" Jericho said. The war will not be dragged on without restraint. Everyone is very tired after the war has been fought, even the Germans who are the victors. War is for victory, for profit, not for pulling the other side to die together. Therefore, the German Navy will try to shorten the duration of the war as much as possible, and maintaining the state of the fleet before the decisive battle is a very important issue.
"According to our speculation, it is impossible for Earl Spey's fleet to return directly to the North Sea. In this case, their fleet will be in a very bad state when they arrive in the North Sea, and they will face our interception. Therefore, if the Germans are sensible enough, Their fleet will first arrive on the west coast of France for resupply and maintenance before returning to mainland Germany," Jericho said.
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