Chapter 2867: Breaking the Diplomacy 3
How many shells does a Japanese battleship have? The number of main gun shells of the Nagato-class battleship is approximately 1,050. The Fuso-class battleship has about 1,100 to 1,200 rounds. In other words, each gun has about 120 rounds of ammunition. Taking into account the diversity of naval combat targets, you must prepare armor-piercing bombs, semi-armor-piercing bombs and high-explosive bombs. Armor-piercing bombs are naturally used against battleships, semi-armor-piercing bombs are used against cruisers and other capital ships, and high-explosive bombs are used against unprotected battleships and can also be used against destroyers and merchant ships.
Taking into account the characteristics of ammunition, it is not necessarily easy to use armor-piercing and semi-armor-piercing ammunition against merchant ships, because the fuze triggering of these two types of artillery shells has a limit value, such as how thick the armor must be penetrated before the fuze will activate. , or how long it takes for the shell to detonate after it hits the target. Merchant ships are very unfriendly to this setting. First of all, merchant ships not only have no armor, but even the thickness of the hull plate is not thick, so that it cannot even meet the triggering standard of semi-armor-piercing bullets. If it cannot, then The fuse of the shell would not activate, and would not explode. Eventually, the shell would penetrate directly through the hull, and then fall into the seawater from the other side... An excessively long delay compared to high-explosive bombs will also lead to "harmless passage" even if the fuze is activated.
Therefore, the best shells to attack merchant ships are high-explosive shells. In fact, considering that the Japanese fleet lacks enough destroyers, once a large-scale artillery battle occurs, the high-explosive shells of the battleships need to be considered against destroyers, so this is There's some trouble... For the Japanese navy, if hunting a distant transport ship may cause too many high-explosive bombs to be used, then the Japanese fleet will hesitate. This is a very troublesome thing.
As for whether the fuzes of armor-piercing and semi-armor-piercing bombs can be adjusted to suit the defense level of merchant ships? Of course it is possible. You can adjust the fuze to a higher sensitivity and shorten the delay. But such artillery shells will definitely not work against battleships! Because the British artillery shells in the early days of the war were like this. The fuzes were too sensitive and the delay was too low...
Therefore, it seems that breaking the relationship is a simple problem, but simply how to deal with as many merchant ships as possible with as little ammunition as possible is a problem that troubles all gunnery officers. After all, smoke cans are too popular. ……. The cost is very low and the usage requirements are not high.
"If that doesn't work, we can consider using aerial lightning strikes or bombs to solve the target. The speed of aircraft is much faster than that of battleships, and when the aircraft is struck by lightning, it will hardly be interfered by the smoke canister of a single battleship." Betty thought for a while and said. .
After all, the amount of smoke released by a ship is limited and can obscure the field of vision within a certain range. It is incomparable to the full-covering smoke released by a large group of American destroyers surrounding the battleship in the Battle of Sulawesi Sea. Therefore, torpedo planes can naturally launch attacks, and merchant ships have poor speed and agility, and their defensive firepower is also very limited. After all, the hit rate of anti-aircraft guns in this era is not high, and merchant ships do not have many anti-aircraft guns. Therefore, it is a good idea to use aviation torpedo planes or bombers to pursue targets that are faster and farther away. Of course, this approach may expose the aviation strength of the Japanese fleet.
"Use seaplanes on battleships to equip bombs to attack merchant ships. According to our experiments, a 100-kilogram bomb can cause great damage to merchant ships. As for regular carrier-based aircraft? I think we should invest some when necessary. It's okay. After all, we have dispatched 6 battleships. Are we going to say that we don't have an aircraft carrier? I guess the Americans won't believe it, right? At this time, it would be good for us to take the initiative to expose some." Sturdy's opinion to Betty expressed support.
"Two, at most, the strength of two aircraft carriers will be exposed. If three are exposed, then the U.S. fleet is likely to mobilize more than four aircraft carriers to participate in the battle. In this way, our aviation power will have no advantage." Shigetaro Yoshimatsu. After thinking for a while he said. "Theoretically, we can use one aircraft carrier. If we want to use two aircraft carriers, then we must obtain my approval."
As a result, most of the ambush problem has now been solved. With the support of at least dozens of bombers and torpedo planes on the aircraft carrier, coupled with the seaplanes on the battleship, the Japanese fleet has sufficient strike capabilities and strength. Guaranteed, then all that's left is to see what happens on the spot.
Therefore, after discussion, the Japanese fleet formulated a strategy of dispersed deployment of the fleet, encirclement in multiple directions and then launching a centripetal assault. Battleships and carrier-based aircraft attacked the main targets, while destroyers were responsible for pursuing, interdicting, and attacking defenseless targets. This is very easy to say. Simple, but the specific implementation is definitely a very troublesome thing, so much so that before departure, the Japanese fleet also conducts special tactical drills.
However, in several subsequent exercises, the Japanese found that it was still very difficult to effectively annihilate a large transport fleet with 70 transport ships and about 10 escort ships with less than 20 battleships and destroyers in total, because according to the According to the Japanese army's standards, they need to completely destroy 80% of the transport ships to be considered annihilated. This means that each ship, including destroyers, has to kill an average of 2.5 transport ships! And if the opponent's auxiliary cruiser has a seaplane, it will also be a troublesome problem. It is very difficult to make a sneak attack.
As a result, in subsequent plans, the British and Japanese revised the plan, adding plans to use semi-submersible submarines or camouflaged cruisers for long-distance tracking. Of course, this kind of tracking is certainly unlikely to be a visual distance, but more about determining the general direction of the U.S. fleet by observing the smoke column.
When the attack is officially launched, these submarines and camouflaged cruisers will also directly participate in the battle, using naval guns or torpedoes to attack American transport ships to generally make up for the lack of warships. After the war, Japanese camouflaged cruisers also assumed the mission of escorting prisoners of war.
In the end, this entire set of plans to attack the large U.S. transport fleet was called Plan A. In addition to Plan A, the Japanese Navy also formulated a Plan B, and this Plan B was to improve the U.S. high-speed cruise ships into transport ships. Warship! This kind of ship is very fast, with an average speed of more than 22 knots. In terms of long-distance running capabilities, it is not a brand-new fuel battleship. Moreover, the operations are very covert, and the size of the covering fleet is also very small, like a ghost on the ocean. If such a troop transport ship can be sunk, it will naturally be a very big achievement. After all, a large ocean cruise ship converted into a transport ship can carry more than 7,000 officers and soldiers. Killing this ship is equivalent to the army's victory in a month. Got it!
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