In 1906, Lewis Nicholson of the British Royal Navy invented the world's first sonar, a passive listening device mainly used to detect underwater icebergs.
During the World War, sonar was used to detect submarines, and the technology developed rapidly. In 1915, French physicist Paul Langchin and Russian electrical engineer Konstantin Chilovovich invented active sonar. By 1918
, the United Kingdom and the United States have both developed similar active sonar equipment.
What Jackson Marshall and Garfield never expected was that although Britain already had active sonar, it still used the most primitive passive sonar on its warships. It used the most primitive sonar technology to detect the latest submarines and could not find them.
It's also normal.
As for why the world's most powerful fleet does not use the world's most advanced technology, this is also a British characteristic, and even Major General Oliver Lamb could not give a reasonable explanation.
Don't ask, just ask because there is insufficient funds.
Three hours flew by, and the Mediterranean Fleet did not find the Blue Army submarine within the specified time.
When the ghost submarine playing the role of the Blue Army was ordered to surface, the officers and soldiers participating in the exercise were surprised to find that the ghost submarine was less than a thousand yards away from the battleship "Queen Elizabeth", the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet.
If this were on a real battlefield, the battleship "Queen Elizabeth" would have been buried underwater.
In the next part of the exercise, the British K submarine acted as the blue force. The Indian Ocean Fleet also had to find the K submarine in the scheduled exercise area within the prescribed three hours.
What do you say about the British K submarine——
Just like the Royal Navy of the British Empire, if you only look at paper data, the K submarine is the largest and fastest submarine in the world.
Looking at the data alone, even in World War II, the K submarine's data were outstanding.
The K submarine has a displacement of 2,500 tons, a surface speed of 25 knots, an underwater speed of 9 knots, and is equipped with 8 torpedo launch tubes.
For comparison, the U-boat built by Germany in 1934 had a displacement of only 380 tons, a maximum surface speed of 13 knots, and an underwater speed of 6.9 knots. The weapon system only had three 533mm torpedo launch tubes and five bombs.
The performance of the K submarine, which was powerful on paper, was a disaster after service. The powerful power system proved to be a waste. In order to accompany the fleet, the British installed not only a diesel power system but also a diesel power system on the K submarine.
As a result, the K submarine must first shut down the boiler before diving, then drain the steam and lower the chimney. During this period, the submarine's power must be provided by an auxiliary diesel engine.
Because this set of procedures is too complex, it takes about five minutes to complete this set of procedures.
On a battlefield where every second counts, the impact of five minutes can be imagined.
On January 31, 1918, the British fleet received an order to perform a mission in the North Sea. Because it was a combat mission, a blackout was implemented.
After receiving the combat order, the British fleet took the K submarines of Squadrons 12 and 13 as the lead, cruisers, battlecruisers, and battleships lined up in a single column and left the port at a speed of 20 knots.
When sailing to May Island, the leading K14 discovered a small boat appeared in front of it, so it made an emergency evasion. However, the K22 following closely behind could not dodge and directly hit K14.
Due to the blackout, other warships knew nothing about the accident after the collision and continued to move forward in the original formation.
Then the battlecruiser "Indomitable" hit K14, and the light cruiser "Valiant" directly cut K17 in two.
At this time, the fleet's flagship "Courage" discovered that there was an accident, so it ordered all submarines to emergency stop.
K4 received the order and stopped, but K6 behind K4 had no time to brake and hit K4 again. The good boy K4 who obeyed the order sank to the bottom of the sea inexplicably.
In a very short period of time, 7 warships collided, 2 K-type submarines were seriously injured, and 2 K-type submarines sank.
This is the most famous example of K-submarine warfare.
If you look at it this way, the Indian submarine force really has the tradition of the Royal Navy submarine force.
Although the K-submarine has a bad reputation, it can still be used as a blue force in exercises.
So after the battleship "Queen Elizabeth" sent a signal, in full view of tens of thousands of naval officers and soldiers, the K submarine playing the role of the blue army began its performance.
According to regulations, when K submarine dives, it takes five minutes to complete the entire process of shutting down the boiler, draining the steam, and lowering the chimney.
Just after the battleship "Queen Elizabeth" sent the signal, the four Indian Ocean Fleet destroyers preparing to hunt the K submarine had not had time to take action. The anti-submarine aircraft mounted on the battleship "East India" and the aircraft carrier "Cape" were already eager to board the aircraft.
Set off.
Then a scene that completely humiliated the Royal Navy occurred. Four anti-submarine aircraft kept circling around the K submarine that was evacuating steam. After finally evacuating the steam, the K submarine's chimney could not be retracted.
"What's wrong with this submarine? Are you going to dive?" Captain Tong Gang, the pilot of No. 2021 seaplane, couldn't help but swear. He flew over the K submarine several times and sometimes threw depth charges directly into the chimney of the K submarine.
impulse.
"Failure -" the co-pilot Captain Neal sneered. The K submarine was not only powerful on paper, but also had a surprisingly high failure rate. It could only come in handy during exercises.
"What?" Tong Gang didn't react immediately. In fact, this kind of thing rarely happens in the Southern African navy.
"I mean the guy down there has a malfunction in his chimney recovery system -" Captain Neal's expression collapsed. If there were such a group of pig teammates on the battlefield, there would be no need to fight.
"Nah, there is still such a thing——" Tong Gang muttered to himself.
On the K submarine below, a sailor finally appeared on the deck with a crowbar in his hand. It seemed that there was indeed a small problem.
In the bridge of the battleship "East India", officers such as Jackson Marshall and Garfield silently put down their telescopes at the same time. The atmosphere was awkward and scary.
"Which - the weather is nice today -" An Qi, who was invited to watch the exercise as a guest, finally broke the embarrassing silence.
"Yes, the weather is very suitable for the exercise -" Major General Oliver Lamb, who was already so embarrassed that he wanted to pick his toes, continued to chatter to death.
"Is this normal?" Angie ignored the joke of Oliver Lamb. General Jackson Marshall was more reliable.
Jackson Marshall, who was also born in the Royal Navy, was embarrassed and wanted to scratch the wall.
"Normal, of course, this is normal. After all, our British Empire does not need a submarine force at all. Our Royal Navy is invincible!" Chief of Staff Garfield finally relieved Ram and Marshall.
This is also true. The Royal Navy does not need submarines at all to deal with the German High Seas Fleet. Only Germany and France, which are severely lacking in surface power, will try their best to develop submarine forces.
As a result, France also developed a loneliness.
"The performance of the ghost submarines is quite good. After this exercise, the Royal Navy can consider purchasing a batch of ghost submarines -" An Qi is from the Army and has a neutral stance on the Navy, so she spoke unscrupulously.
However, the speaker has no intention of listening, and as soon as Angel finished speaking, Major General Oliver Ram's eyes immediately lit up.
Yes, the Royal Navy's submarine force is not good. There is also the submarine force of the Southern African Navy. The ghost submarine is indeed not as big as the K submarine, nor as fast as the K submarine. It does not carry as many torpedoes as the K submarine, but it has to sink a submarine.
A merchant ship does not need several torpedoes, just one is enough.
The most famous example of German U-boats during the World War was the U9 boat. On September 22, 1914, the U9 boat sank three 12,000-ton British heavy cruisers in just one hour.
Although Britain has the most powerful fleet in the world, even for exercise considerations, it is necessary to purchase a number of submarines from southern Africa.
The conversation was lively here, but the K-submarine over there was still unable to repair the fault. The destroyers of the Indian Ocean Fleet were also very shameless. The destroyer "Brave" actually came directly to the K-submarine and put down the small boat and asked if it needed help.
Help your sister!
Probably the commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, Lieutenant General Roger Keyes, also believed that the K submarine's performance was so shameful. Half an hour later, the battleship "Queen Elizabeth" sent a signal to cancel the rest of the day's exercises.
There is nothing we can do if we don’t cancel. The K submarine cannot repair the fault in a short time and must be towed back to the home port for repairs.
The good news is that the K submarine is very fast and can return to its home port in the shortest time.
If this can be considered good news.
Although the Mediterranean Fleet performed poorly during the daytime exercises, the generals of the Mediterranean Fleet were not affected when they attended the banquet in the evening. Roger Case even asked Jackson Marshall about the ghost submarines, and he was probably also planning to purchase ghost submarines.
idea.
"Although the performance of the ghost submarine is not as powerful as the K submarine, the performance of the ghost submarine is still very good. Submarines are not battleships. The more powerful the performance, the better. Survivability is more important for submarines." Jackson Marshall is not superstitious about battleships. He once said
Jackson Marshall's greatest ideal was to command a battleship, but now he became the commander of the Indian Ocean Fleet, chatting and laughing with Rock Keys.
Roger Keyes was a very capable and charming naval officer. He was born in the North-West Frontier Province of India. He vowed to become an admiral at the age of five.
Roger Keyes did exactly that, and he was awarded the rank of Field Marshal in 1930.
In 1885, Roger Keyes joined the Royal Navy. In 1900, Roger Keyes participated in the Eight-Power Allied Forces with the British Eastern Fleet. In 1904, the Russian Baltic Fleet went eastward to participate in the Russo-Japanese War and accidentally hit a British fishing boat on Dogger Sands.
What he did, he ended up paying Russia a large sum of money to settle the matter.
During the World War, Roger Keyes participated in the Battle of the Dardanelles and the Battle of Jutland. After the war, he was appointed Commander of the Battle Cruiser Fleet and was transferred to Commander of the Mediterranean Fleet last year.
The period when Roger Keyes served as commander of the Mediterranean Fleet was also considered to be the era when the Mediterranean Fleet had the highest level of combat readiness training. Many famous generals during World War II rose to prominence during Roger Keyes' tenure.
However, it is probably not easy for Roger Keyes to purchase a ghost submarine. Ramsay Macdonald has always advocated reducing armaments. After he takes office, the Royal Navy will have hard times.
