The Rise of the Third Reich

"Baga, it was a cross-shot... He hit a cross-shot in the third round!!!"

When the third salvo of shells from the main guns of several American heavy cruisers fell around the Chokai heavy cruiser, Mikawa Junichi was simply stunned.

Because the U.S. Navy, which has always been considered to have poor gunnery skills and is not good at night fighting, actually launched a cross-fire so quickly!

Still at night with extremely poor visibility, still at a distance of 22,000 meters, and without using flares!

"Baga, have you learned your shame and then become brave?" Mikawa Junichi, who doesn't know much about the situation in Britain and the United States (he majored in French at sea, served as a naval attaché stationed in France, and is proficient in the navies of various countries in continental Europe) Immediately, I thought of a group of American observation soldiers with cloth strips wrapped around their heads, chewing carrots and swallowing cod liver oil, practicing cat eye skills day and night - it must be the bacterial bombs dropped by the Army's Red Deer on the West Coast of the United States that made those young American soldiers I know I have to work hard!

"It's a fire-control electric detector! It's a very advanced fire-control electric detector!" Kami Shigenori is a fan of the Japanese Navy, and he is younger than Mikawa Junichi, so he has a better understanding of the most advanced electronic technology and knows many German Radar technology made leaps and bounds in 1943!

The progress of German radar was mainly due to the British becoming a member of the Axis Powers. Germany obtained the full set of "alien coupling between multi-cavity magnetron cavities" technology transferred from the UK (Germany had previously reverse-engineered the seized multi-cavity high-energy magnetrons, but the performance was still not as good as the British original). The alternating teeth of the magnetron can be tied together to constrain its stability. As a result, an output power of 50KW was obtained at 3000MHz, which greatly improved the performance of microwave radar. It makes it possible to manufacture high-performance airborne radar and fire control radar.

Moreover, Germany also cooperated with the United Kingdom to develop a ship-based fire control radar, which Germany called the FuMo274 artillery control radar-this is actually the famous British 274 radar in history. Before the British surrendered, the research and development work of this radar had already Nearing the end.

But because Britain actually lost the war and had no use for it, Germany invested in cooperation and ordered a large number of FuMo274 radars and multi-cavity high-energy magnetrons from British factories.

However, when the United Kingdom exported the technology of "alien coupling between cavities of multi-cavity magnetrons" to Germany, it put forward additional conditions: before the signing of the Anglo-Japanese peace treaty, the technology of "alien coupling between cavities of multi-cavity magnetrons" was not allowed to be transferred to Japan. "technology and other advanced technologies originating from the United Kingdom that have military applications.

Therefore, Japan did not obtain the most advanced radar technology from the United Kingdom. However, even without the British's "cautiousness", the Japanese Navy would not have been able to upgrade electrical detection on a large scale. Because the No. 13 electric detector (air), No. 22 electric detector (sea) and No. 31 electric detector (fire control) currently equipped by the Japanese Navy are all "advanced equipment" developed with the help of Germany, and many of them are used. Germany spent a lot of precious money on electronic components and equipment, and it was only in the second half of 1943 that it was fully equipped. How could it be possible to resell them, discard them, and then import radars produced in England and Germany?

However, some German navy generals made suggestions to the Japanese military delegation to immediately upgrade the radar system!

Because through exchanges with their British counterparts, they already know that the United States has also obtained a full set of British radar technology, and obtained it earlier than Germany. In 1941, they obtained the technology of "alien coupling between cavities of multi-cavity magnetrons" and completed industrial imitation (laboratory imitation is easy, but industrial production is difficult). Therefore, the United States is very likely to have developed a fire control radar whose performance far exceeds that of the No. 31 electric detector.

Kami Shigetoku knew this opinion in the first half of 1943, but there was nothing he could do (he was a colonel, not a minister). Now that he saw the Americans shooting the first round, he immediately understood what was going on.

"Your Excellency, Commander, please disband the formation, order the ships to charge, and launch a lightning strike!" Shen Zhongde knew that the formation was definitely no match for the artillery battle, so he suggested charging and setting off thunder.

"Now the formation is disbanded and each ship launches a charge." Mikawa Jun immediately made a decision, "Chokai performed evasive maneuvers and fired back at the same time."

According to his order, 8 cruisers (4 heavy cruisers, 4 Light cruiser) immediately turned, faced the enemy with the bow of the ship, and began to charge at the maximum speed each could achieve.

However, the heavy cruiser Chokai did not rush along with it. Instead, it ran an S-shaped evasive maneuver on the sea at high speed. This is because there is no 93 oxygen torpedo on the Chokai, and it is impossible to launch mines to attack American ships more than 10,000 meters away.

Moreover, "Ciaohai" has been locked by the U.S. fleet's fire control radar, and dozens of 203mm naval guns are firing at it, making it impossible to get close to it.

The purpose of firing and bombarding enemy ships while performing S-shaped evasion is not to hit - Japan's No. 31 electric detector has poor performance and cannot distinguish between water jets and ships, so it must be used with light detection. Its efficiency at night is Very bad. However, even if the Chokai's 10 203mm main guns fire randomly, it will cause some interference to the US fleet and facilitate the approach of other ships.

However, the S-shaped evasive maneuver of the Chokai did not have any effect. Just 2 minutes after the first straddle shot by the US fleet, the chart room under the bridge of the Chokai was hit by a 203mm shell. It killed all the staff inside and caused a fire. Now the "Sea of ​​Birds" has become a sea target that attracts artillery shells. Even without fire control radar, the Americans can hit it.

In the next five minutes, the heavy cruiser Chokai received eight more 203mm shells in succession. Two main gun turrets were destroyed. The waterline on the starboard side was penetrated and flooded, causing the ship to collapse. A steam pipe was damaged due to the vibration of the shell explosion. , causing the Chokai's speed to drop to less than 15 knots.

When the fight reached this point, everyone knew that the Chokai heavy cruiser was probably going to be destroyed. Everyone on the bridge was stunned - the night battle that the Japanese Navy was so proud of was completely defeated by the Americans. Can you win? Only Kami Shigetoku, who had made tonight's adventure plan, was still shouting hoarsely: "The battle has just begun. The navy still has Type 93 torpedoes. The Japanese Navy will win!"

I don’t know if his roar had any effect. At this moment, a dazzling fireball suddenly rose on the sea surface about tens of thousands of meters away from the starboard side of the Chokai, and then a second and third fireball. That should be the 93 torpedo launched by the third destroyer fleet that hit the target!

At the same time, the U.S. main fleet no longer bombarded the Chokai, which relieved the people on board the heavily damaged Japanese heavy cruiser.

"It's the destroyer team that has made a contribution!" Kami Shigetoku became very excited at this time and shouted loudly, "Now let's watch the cruiser's lightning strike...boom!"

Before he finished speaking, another huge fireball appeared on the sea less than 6,000 meters ahead of the Chokai, accompanied by a series of frightening roars.

At this time, even Shen Shigetoku was stunned, because that position should be a Japanese cruiser that was charging and preparing to lay mines!

"It's the Furutaka!"

A few minutes later, someone suddenly shouted: "Your Excellency, Commander, the Furutaka reported that it was hit by an enemy ship on the port side torpedo deck... 4 Type 93 torpedoes exploded, and the entire ship was in flames!"

The most worrying thing has happened!

It turned out that Major General Wright, the commander of the U.S. 51.7th Group, had long noticed that eight Japanese cruisers were approaching to launch spear torpedoes. So when he saw that the Chokai was almost beaten, he immediately ordered the ships to fire freely to stop it. The Japanese ship approaches.

At the same time, he also ordered the 14 destroyers under his command, the Old Destroyers (called Old Destroyers by American standards), to launch a charge - they were also there to throw torpedoes, but at this time the Americans did not have any good mines, and the cruisers and destroyers were equipped with high-performance mines. The unsatisfactory Mk11 torpedo has a diameter of 533mm and a 34-meter energy saving range of 9140 meters. It cannot compete with Japan's 93 oxygen torpedo and can only scare the Japanese.

However, Japan's 93 oxygen torpedo also has a fatal flaw - it is too unsafe and is almost as dangerous to itself as it is to the enemy!

Therefore, the 93 torpedoes placed in the torpedo launch tube usually do not add oxygen. All ships equipped with 93 torpedoes carry oxygen generators and only add oxygen to the torpedo before launching. The 93 torpedo that has been filled with oxygen is very dangerous and can easily be hit and explode.

In order to increase the power of the 93 torpedo, the Japanese Navy modified the torpedo launch tube from the traditional fixed type on the middle deck to the rotating type on the upper deck, and made a structure of 4 launch tubes placed on both sides of the deck amidships. . The Furutaka had two such deadly torpedo tubes, but one of them was hit by an American shell before the torpedo was launched... Obviously, given the weight of the 10,000-ton class (the Furutaka's standard displacement is 8,700 tons) It is very unreliable to install 93 torpedoes on cruisers.

However, the other seven cruisers that charged with the Furutaka successfully fired the torpedoes, dozens of 93 torpedoes (now, except for the Kaohsiung-class heavy cruiser, all Japanese first-class destroyers and cruisers are equipped with 93 torpedoes , most of the submarines were also equipped with the submarine version of the 93 torpedo 95 torpedo). Silently like an underwater ghost, at a super high speed of 50 knots, it pounced on several American cruisers that were making evasive maneuvers 10,000 meters away. And go. Only 7 minutes later, three dazzling fireballs suddenly rose on the dark sea.

The fierce sea battle, which later historians called the "First Battle of Midway", finally reached its climax!