Chapter 819 German-Soviet War (114)
The sudden explosion startled Commander Isakov, who was deeply anxious, and he saw a huge column of water on the side of a destroyer at the front of the fleet in the distance.
Torpedo!
It must be the torpedoes dropped by the German fighters just now! !
"Quick! Evade!" The explosions that followed drowned his shouts. Watching the explosions of the outer ships one after another, Commander Isakov seemed to fall into a deep ice hole and trembled. He finally understood how the American fleet was sunk by the Germans. He had been skeptical about the German torpedo attack before, but at this moment he was 100% convinced that the German torpedo performance was really so amazing!
It stands to reason that the fleet has evaded several times and completely avoided the German torpedoes, but these torpedoes seem to be able to automatically track the target and bite you. How can this battle be fought? !
Unfortunately, it's too late!
"Oh my God! Ukraine! Ukraine was hit by a torpedo!!" The staff officer on the side shouted in panic. Ukraine was the name of one of the Soviet-class battleships.
"..." Commander Isakov seemed to have heard nothing and stood there quietly. He was about to face death, but his mood was surprisingly calm. He took out a small wine bottle from his arms, unscrewed the cap, and made a toast. "Long live the Soviet Union!" He raised his head and poured all the liquid into his throat. The spicy taste of vodka stimulated his throat and rushed down to his stomach, and immediately his stomach felt burning.
The next second, a dull explosion came from under his feet.
The more than 150 torpedoes dropped by the German aircraft group completely damaged the fleet. They didn't even see the enemy's warships, and they were tilted and sank in such a depressed state.
However, these four Soviet-class battleships are worthy of being called "super battleships". They did not sink after being hit by several torpedoes in succession, but stubbornly floated on the water. The remaining German attack aircraft were equipped with heavy bombs, which were just used on these warships that refused to sink. The four Soviet-class battleships were hit by an average of 10 500 kg bombs each, and finally failed to hold on and slowly sank into the deep sea.
In the German fleet in the waters of Adak Island, the fleet commander Colonel Vogt received the news that the Soviet fleet was completely wiped out. "Haha, Stalin must be heartbroken now." Four Soviet-class ships were sunk at once. I wonder if Stalin would be so angry that he would vomit blood. But then Colonel Vogt sighed with emotion. "Alas, it seems that the era of big ships and big guns is really going to pass, or it should be said that it has passed."
Are the battleships of World War II outdated?
The major powers in World War II in the original time and space maintained a large number of battleship formations, and after being involved in the war, the United States built 10 battleships in one go. Moreover, battleships made many achievements during World War II. Battleships won victories in Guadalcanal, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic. German battlecruisers even sank an aircraft carrier.
The real obsolescence of battleships began in 1943 after the aircraft carrier theory matured. At the beginning of World War II, the combat theory and positioning of aircraft carriers, which had only appeared for a few decades, were basically blank. The gap in combat theory was more fatal than the lack of technology. You should know that battleships first appeared in the 17th century. At that time, battleships were all wooden hulls, using sails as power to propel the ships forward. In 1849, France built the world's first steam-powered battleship Napoleon; in 1860, Britain built the world's first iron-hulled armored ship Warrior; in 1873, Britain built the world's first iron-hulled armored ship Devastated, which used steam power instead of sails. In this way, in the past 100 years, the combat theory of battleships can be said to be quite mature, which is completely incomparable to aircraft carriers.
Taranto and Pearl Harbor only provided theories of ground attack. The theories and experiences of aircraft carriers fighting at sea have always been lacking. The navies of various countries have been struggling whether to put aircraft carriers in the core position of the fleet for protection or to let them have heavy armor to stand alone.
Another aspect is the range of operations. The range of aircraft carriers depends on the range of carrier-based aircraft, which is about 200 to 400 kilometers at most. In theory, all enemies within the distance from the location of the ship to the farthest distance can be attacked. However, aircraft carriers have a combat blind spot, that is, targets within the line of sight. Because at this time, the enemy's naval guns can already attack the aircraft carrier directly, and the loading speed of naval guns is much faster than that of carrier-based aircraft. The shells may have made several large holes in the deck as soon as the plane took off. After all, the armor of aircraft carriers cannot be as thick as battleships. The so-called armored aircraft carriers have only enhanced the armor accordingly, and they are still incomparable with battleships. Moreover, the firepower of the secondary guns of aircraft carriers is not strong, and the caliber is only at the level of light ships. Only a few such as Akagi and Lexington have cruiser-level firepower.
It was not until the Battle of Midway and the Battle of Coral Island, and the arrival of large-scale mass production of aircraft carriers marked by the launch of the Essex, that battleships became truly obsolete. Several large-scale battles provided a lot of experience and theory for aircraft carriers, and the technology and power of carrier-based aircraft were greatly improved. Fighting within the visual range was no longer possible, and the ocean had become the world of aircraft carriers.
The adjutant on the side nodded. "I heard that the higher-ups no longer plan to build battleships."
"No more battleships?" Colonel Vogt raised his eyebrows slightly. "Are the higher-ups planning to completely abandon battleships?"
"That's not the case." The adjutant shook his head. "It means that no new battleships will be built, and those that have already been in service will continue to serve."
The United States in the original time and space was very persistent about battleships. In October 1990, the Iowa was retired from the Navy for the last time, and was once deregistered in 1995. At that time, Congress was worried that the Navy would lose its naval gunfire support capability after the retirement of four Iowa-class ships, so it passed a bill requiring the Navy to retain at least two Iowa-class ships in the ship register. The Navy initially chose to retain the New Jersey and Wisconsin, but in 1999, the New Jersey was to be donated to a private group as a museum ship, so the Navy re-registered the Iowa. In 2006, the then US Navy Secretary used administrative power to deregister the Iowa, making it available for donation, but the Navy and local governments and private organizations have not been able to reach a consensus on the donation. It was not until 2011 that the donation plan for the Iowa was implemented, and it was finally transformed into a floating museum in 2012 and opened in Los Angeles.
Yannick also plans to repair and use these existing battleships for a few decades.