Chapter 613 Georgia (4)

As soon as it passed through the Turkish Strait, the German fleet encountered a Soviet patrol ship.

Although the unfortunate patrol ship was easily sunk, the patrol ship also sent the news to the Black Sea Fleet base in Sevastopol before it was sunk.

The commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Philip Sergeyevich Oktyabrsky, was shocked, but he did not dare to delay and immediately reported the news to the Kremlin.

Stalin, who was discussing with senior military officials how to solve the Georgia incident, heard the news and his face became gloomy. "Comrade Kuznetsov, can you destroy this invading German fleet?" The Black Sea has been regarded as its own inland sea since the Russian Empire, until the Soviet era. Now that the German fleet dared to openly sail into their sensitive waters, the Soviet Union naturally could not sit idly by.

If they did not respond, it would be equivalent to giving the entire Black Sea to others, and they would be blocked at their doorstep by the German Navy and bombarded!

Kuznetsov was very depressed. There was only one battleship in his Black Sea Fleet, which was the Paris Commune battleship that was commissioned in 1914. Just looking at the year of service, it was already an antique, and its combat effectiveness could be imagined.

However, he did not dare to say that he would not fight. Looking at Comrade Stalin's expression, if he dared to say no, he would definitely not have a good ending.

"It's a pity that the Soviet-class battleships were transferred from the Black Sea Fleet, otherwise it would not be a problem for more German fleets to come."

The Soviet-class battleships of the original time and space were the first and last class of battleships designed and manufactured by the Soviet Union on the eve of World War II. This class was a battleship designed during the Stalin period.

The design plan for this class was proposed in the late 1930s, but it was never put into service. It was originally planned to build 15 battleships of this class and complete them in 1947, making them the main attack force of the Soviet Navy. However, the slow design progress and excessive trust in Germany forced the Soviet Union to reconsider this overly optimistic plan. Its cancellation made the Soviet Union one of the few countries among the many military powers after World War II that did not have self-built battleships.

Today's "Soviet-class battleships" are the "Yamato" battleships obtained from Germany a few years ago. The Soviet Union has already put three into service and four more are under construction.

In Kuznetsov's view, a Soviet-class battleship can single-handedly challenge a group of opponents, and the 460mm naval gun on the battleship is absolutely invincible.

In fact, the Black Sea Fleet originally had a Soviet-class battleship, but not long ago, due to a rift in relations with Germany, the Soviet high-level officials were worried that once the situation changed, the battleship would be trapped in the Black Sea, so they were transferred from the Black Sea Fleet.

Kuznetsov has always had a question. The design drawings of this Soviet-class battleship were bought from Germany, and the naval guns of the first two battleships were also made by Germans; then why did the Germans not use 460mm naval guns themselves, but 406mm naval guns instead?

He naturally didn't know that Yannick chose the caliber of the naval gun based on the experience of later generations.

In the original World War II, only the Japanese Navy had 460mm naval guns, and when they were developing the main guns, they found that their own equipment could not manufacture them at all. Therefore, they spent a huge amount of money to import 15,000 tons of hydraulic presses and three 70-ton acid open-hearth furnaces from Germany, which created the world's largest caliber battleship main gun.

On the other hand, the United States had the ability to build 406mm cannons as early as 1898. In the early 1920s, the US Navy also ordered 457mm naval guns. However, when the prototype gun was nearly half completed, the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty stipulated that the caliber of the battleship's main gun should not exceed 16 inches (406mm), so the US Navy only continuously improved and upgraded the 406mm caliber naval guns, and the 457mm main guns were also neglected because they were "prohibited weapons".

When researching and designing new battleships in 1927-1928 and 1938, American designers also considered using 457mm naval guns, but were rejected by the Navy many times. The reason was that such a cannon was too heavy and the service life of the barrel was too short, and the angle of the bullet was also very limited. The most important factor was that it violated the treaty. However, after the start of World War II, the treaty restrictions no longer existed, and the test model of the 457mm naval gun once again attracted the attention of the military.

In 1940, the US Navy planned to build the Montana-class battleship with the focus on strengthening firepower. The project organizing committee proposed a plan to install 457mm naval guns. However, after comprehensively considering various factors such as range, firepower density, and displacement, it was decided to continue the design of the MK7 406mm naval gun.

In the view of the US Navy, the performance of the 406mm naval gun is already very good. Its 2-ton capped armor-piercing projectile can penetrate 508mm armor at a distance of 3 km, and the Yamato-class armor cannot resist it at all. The fire control radar and ballistic computer equipped by the US military make the accuracy of the ship's guns far superior to the Yamato class.

Kuznetsov shook his head and stopped thinking about these unsolved problems. "Comrade Stalin, although the Soviet-class battleships are no longer in the Black Sea Fleet, we still have a chance to severely damage this German fleet. The Black Sea Fleet has a large number of fighters (the Black Sea Fleet has 346 fighters, 138 attack aircraft and bombers). If we let our fighters go out in full force, we will surely be able to severely damage the German fleet!" Kuznetsov is one of the few people in the Soviet Navy who has a vision for the development of the navy. Thinking of the two aircraft carriers that were originally owned by the Soviet Union and were seized by Germany, he still feels distressed.

Starling nodded. "Send the ships out, even if you sink a German warship, it will be a great achievement!"

From the outbreak of the European War to the present, Germany has not lost even a single large warship. If it can sink a large German warship this time, it will definitely cause a heavy blow to the morale of the German army; it may also strengthen the confidence of the Americans.

Stalin's orders were quickly transmitted back to Sevastopol headquarters.

Commander Oktyabryski was just in his early forties, a time of great strength and ambition. Now that he had received Stalin's order, he was even more enthusiastic and personally took command of the battle and boarded the battleship Paris Commune.

There was a busy and tense atmosphere in the entire Sevastopol port. Thick black smoke was emitted from each warship, and the boilers were ignited in preparation for sailing.

The entire combat plan is quite simple. The fleet is responsible for luring the enemy, leading the German fleet into the aviation ambush circle, and waiting for the aviation force to launch an attack on the German fleet.

In addition to the aviation of the Black Sea Fleet, Comrade Stalin also mobilized nearby air forces to participate in this battle. The number of fighter jets Commander Oktyabryski can mobilize increased to more than 500, and the number of attack aircraft and bombers exceeded 300.

With nearly a thousand aircraft, Commander Oktyabryski even felt like killing a chicken with a sledgehammer.