I was a tycoon in World War I: Starting to save France - Chapter 598

c590 The reform of the navy depends on you

In the headquarters meeting room, Charles and Darlan’s conversation continued, but the atmosphere had some subtle changes.

Charles turned the topic to the tactics of destroyers hunting submarines. He did this to allow Darlan to rise quickly in the navy and gain power.

Darlan had a complicated expression.

He was willing to discuss this with Charles.

But Charles was in the army. He believed that the navy was different from the army, and naval warfare required a solid theoretical foundation.

If Charles, who had never been involved in naval warfare theory at the age of 18, could explain these things clearly and teach himself how to do them, wouldn’t his years of hard work at the “Brest Naval Academy” and the “Toulon Naval Artillery School”, and even his experience of graduating with the first place in the latter, be in vain?

However, out of respect for Charles, Darlan did not object, but he couldn’t help feeling a little embarrassed.

Charles took the paper and pen and drew while saying: “Submarine diving takes time. The navy usually attacks intensively during the diving stage.”

Darlan nodded in agreement, then looked up at Charles in confusion: “General, what do you mean, we shouldn’t do this?”

Submarines are more likely to be sunk and damaged in shallow waters. If they dive to a certain depth, they will be separated by a thick layer of seawater, making them difficult to detect and artillery shells cannot pose a threat to them.

Darlan was in a dilemma. How should he correct Charles’ mistake?

Saying it directly would make Charles lose face, but pretending to agree with his point of view would cause problems in actual combat…

Charles seemed to see through Darlan’s thoughts, and he said: “I think we should give up bombarding submarines at this stage.”

“Give up bombardment?” Darlan asked: “General, do you mean to rely on the ‘echo sounder’?”

“Yes.” Charles nodded: “The probability of destroying submarines by bombardment is too small, and there is a possibility of accidentally damaging our own ships or even disrupting our deployment. This is a loss-making approach.”

This is determined by the low accuracy of naval guns during World War I. Although naval guns at that time had fire control, they were only basic two-way stability.

(Note: The two-way stabilization of naval guns is similar to the two-way stabilization of tanks, but the shaking of warships on the sea is much more complicated than that of tanks. The two-way stabilization cannot solve the rolling of ships, so a three-axis three-way stabilization fire control system is needed)

(The above picture shows the German SKC/31 naval gun, which was developed in 1931 and is a more successful and mature three-way stabilized gun mount. The first three-way stabilized gun was the SKC/25 developed in 1925, but Germany got the direction wrong when developing this type, thinking that the third direction that affects the accuracy is the pitch of the warship, so the accuracy of the 25 type was not improved much. A few years later, it was changed to target the roll of the warship, and the performance was significantly improved)

(The above picture shows the state of the three-way stabilized gun mount when it is adaptively stabilized to the right.)

In the era without three-way stabilized gun mounts, naval guns often deviate from the target by several kilometers in actual combat. It is common for hunting submarines to fire randomly and accidentally injure their own ships. Such a thing happened during the Battle of the Dardanelles, so more often than not, it is more likely to fail than succeed.

This was a little hard for Darlan to imagine. He thought that hunting submarines should be mainly based on naval guns and supplemented by “echo sounders”.

However, Charles advocated abandoning naval guns and relying entirely on “echo sounders”.

He frowned, hesitated for a while and finally decided to stick to his point of view: “But General, this is a brand new equipment after all. It may have a series of problems such as errors and long feedback time. We can’t put too much hope on it.”

Especially the feedback time.

The “echo sounder” measured the depth of the submarine. When the warship set the time to drop the depth charge, the submarine was likely to be at another depth, so it would never be accurate.

Darlan gave a conclusion: “I think we should not be too radical. Naval guns still play an important role in hunting submarines. We should combine the two and give up the naval guns when the ‘echo sounder’ is mature.”

Charles said “hmm” and replied: “Lieutenant, have you considered one point: the Germans don’t know that we are equipped with ‘echo sounders’.”

Darlan’s eyes lit up, and after a little thought, he nodded slightly: “That’s right, General. Because the Germans don’t know the existence of the ‘echo sounder’, they will think they are safe after diving, and they will definitely stay at a certain depth and go straight. This provides us with an opportunity, an excellent opportunity.”

Charles nodded, that’s what he wanted to say.

Hunting German submarines while they are deep and straight, as long as the error of the “echo sounder” is not too large, it is not easy for the submarine to escape.

On the contrary, it is very difficult to blow up the submarine during the diving stage, because the depth and position of the submarine change very quickly during this stage, and it is difficult for the “echo sounder” to grasp its accurate position in time.

So the whole hunting submarine tactic is reversed.

The more Darlan thought about it, the more he felt it was right. The look he gave Charles gradually changed from doubt to affirmation, and there was a hint of shock.

If Charles’s tactics could work, it would overturn the entire hunting mode of submarines, from the previous primitive hunting methods such as artillery fire, bow ramming, and mine nets to the precise hunting methods of “echo sounders” and water bombs.

(Note: Mine nets are wire mesh and mines spread over a large area in the sea. The wire mesh may entangle the propeller of a submarine and make it captured, but the efficiency is extremely low)

Seeing that Darlan understood, Charles smiled and nodded, and said without thinking: “The reform of naval tactics in the future depends on you, Lieutenant.”

“Tactical reform?” Darlan was stunned.

Isn’t this too much? How can he promote tactical reforms alone!

Charles didn’t answer directly. He spoke calmly, as if he was telling his own story:

“As you can see, it’s not easy to get recognition for everything I do.”

“It’s been more than a year since I launched the tank. It has proved its value on the battlefield more than once, but there are still people who think it is useless and redundant, and still think that cavalry is more useful than tanks.”

The correct version is reading! 6=9+Shu_bar first releases this novel.

“But this can’t change anything. No one can stop the popularization of tanks and their tactics on the battlefield.”

“Because the troops who don’t recognize it, don’t use it, and don’t learn it will be defeated on the battlefield, again and again, and eventually completely destroyed!”

“This is the survival of the fittest on the battlefield.”

Darlan nodded thoughtfully.

He understood that the battlefield was like a touchstone. It would ruthlessly eliminate those people and ideas who did not respect objective laws in its own way.

Therefore, he should do the same in the navy.

As long as we win and survive again and again with the right equipment and tactical theories, we will naturally complete the reform of the navy.

Even, we will reach the pinnacle of life like Charles.

Realizing this, Darlan became more confident. He stood up excitedly and saluted Charles: “I won’t let you down, General!”

I need Charles, Darlan thought, I need his tactics and inventions, not just the “echo sounder”.