Xu Huandong is actually learning and directing at the same time.
To put it in another pessimistic way, he is commanding the fleet to fight while constantly solving troubles and problems.
The most serious problem is reconnaissance.
The four Fury-class destroyers in the fleet do not have seaplanes. Only the "Zhenhai Ship", a Japanese Nagara-class light cruiser, has a seaplane.
Operating a seaplane is much more complex and dangerous than taking off from land.
This does not mean that pilots cannot be found. The Eighth Route Army already has a certain reserve of pilots, and it is not a problem to transfer a few to the coastal defense regiment.
The problem is that the seaplane is ejected from the cruiser's slide rail, and when recovered, it lands on the water and is hoisted back to the warship.
The take-off, landing and recovery process were too risky for Xu Huandong, who had never operated anything before, and only a seaplane could play a little reconnaissance role, so Xu Huandong gave up decisively.
However, Xu Huandong still made some preparations. He found a few pilots flying civilian aircraft in Dalian... Dalian Zhoushuizi Airport is a civilian airport for the Japanese. It is mainly used for important material and personnel transportation between Huaxia and Bangzi. Among them is Huaxia
pilot.
There were five pilots in this group, and Xu Huandong took them aboard the "Zhenhai Ship" to form a flying squad, specifically responsible for studying the takeoff, landing and recovery of the aircraft in hand.
When setting sail, Xu Huandong said to the flight squad leader named Xie Han: "We are going out to fight the Japanese. We don't know what the outcome will be. Do you know what to do?"
"Yes, I promise to complete the task!" Xie Han stepped forward and answered.
Xu Huandong's words couldn't be more obvious: If there is a fight, the warship may be sunk, so whether it is a pilot or a seaplane, they may all sink to the bottom of the sea to feed the sharks. So instead of waiting to die on the warship
It would be better to fly a seaplane into the sky. On the contrary, there is still a chance of survival by flying a seaplane into the sky!
To put it bluntly, Xu Huandong risked his life and death to force these pilots to learn how to operate a seaplane.
There is no problem in piloting the seaplane. The Japanese seaplane is the "Zero Water Scout" and it has many similarities with the civilian aircraft equipped by the Japanese. Xie Han and the others were almost able to master it after playing with it for a while.
The difficult part is ejection and recovery. This aspect is actually related to mechanical operation, which is the shortcomings of pilots like Xie Han. Therefore, Xie Han can only constantly ask the mechanics on the ship for advice, and sometimes he even deceives them to take the opportunity to learn on the pretext of maintenance.
After a while, they finally figured it out, and then practiced it over and over again, waiting for a real test flight at the last minute.
Xu Huandong tried contacting the Zhou Shuizi Air Force to have the air force provide reconnaissance for the fleet, but this was actually very difficult.
The main reason is that the "La 5" range is too short, and their reconnaissance range is far from meeting the needs of the fleet. Especially if the fleet and the enemy start a pursuit battle overseas, the reconnaissance of the air force will lag significantly behind.
(Note: The maximum speed of the Fury-class destroyer is 37 knots, which is about 66 kilometers per hour when converted into kilometers. That is to say, if the fleet sails at the fastest speed, it will only take about four hours to sail out of the "La 5" combat radius. Not to mention
Talk about cruise reconnaissance)
Wang Xuexin is also helpless about this, because currently the Eighth Route Army does not have longer-range fighters that can provide support for the fleet.
"La5" is famous for its short legs, and Yingjiang's P40 is not much better... This thing's range is only more than a thousand kilometers, and when converted into a combat radius, it is only three to four hundred kilometers, not to mention that the P40 still cannot be produced by itself.
No air-to-air missiles are installed.
After the fleet set sail, Xu Huandong asked Wang Xuexin in a telegram: "What is the mission of our army on this trip?"
Wang Xuexin replied without thinking: "Looking for the main force of the Japanese fleet!"
Xu Huandong was stunned for a moment. With the current strength of the fleet, it should be enough to hide from the Japanese fleet, but now it is actually necessary to find its main force?
But after thinking about it, Xu Huandong quickly understood Wang Xuexin's intention.
The combat mode established by the Coastal Defense Regiment determines that it needs to proactively discover the location of the enemy fleet, because this represents "security".
The reason is very simple. If you passively discover the location of an enemy ship, you may be surrounded by enemy ships or be unable to turn around in time.
This is determined by the small reconnaissance range of the Coastal Defense Regiment. The Coastal Defense Regiment does not have seaplane coordination, so it is unlikely that the enemy will discover it first.
And due to the curvature of the earth, the coast defense regiment is likely to be less than 40 kilometers away from each other when they discover the enemy...The actual situation will be even closer than this distance, because no enemy ships can be seen at 40 kilometers, and no enemy ships can be seen at more than 30 kilometers.
Only a small area at the top of the enemy ship can be seen.
In actual combat, when enemy ships can be observed, they are usually more than 20 kilometers away.
Even if it is measured at 40 kilometers, if the coastal defense regiment passively discovers the enemy ship, the enemy ship will discover the position of the coastal defense regiment very early due to seaplane reconnaissance.
So, wouldn't the enemy ships be able to flank or surround them?
Even if there is no flanking attack or encirclement, if the enemy and we are facing each other at a distance of forty kilometers, it will only take more than ten minutes for us to meet, right?
The enemy's naval guns have a range of twenty kilometers!
How will the coastal defense regiment maintain a distance from the enemy and adopt "fight backwards" tactics outside its range?
Therefore, in this situation of passive reconnaissance, the coastal defense regiment should actively search for the location of the enemy fleet. Only in this way can it be possible to maintain strategic initiative and use new tactics to attack the enemy and save itself.
After thinking about this, Xu Huandong immediately said "yes" and then ordered the fleet: "All attention, spread out in formation to look for the enemy's main force! Repeat, look for the enemy's main force!"
After this order was issued, everyone thought Xu Huandong was crazy. Some people even thought that Xu Huandong was messing with the command and planned to lead the fleet to perish with the Japanese.
But what they don't know is that this is the fleet's real way to survive.
However, this is easier said than done.
If the observation distance is only about 20 kilometers, how can we find the enemy's main force in this vast sea and turn around in time?
Xu Huandong immediately thought of the only seaplane on the "Zhenhai Ship".
He considered whether to try letting it fly!
But what if it fails to fly and causes an accident?
When Xu Huandong was worried, Wang Xuexin sent another telegram to Xu Huandong: "Pay attention to the use of cxam radar!"
When Xu Huandong saw the telegram, he couldn't help but slap his thigh and shouted: "Why did I forget this!"
In fact, it was not that Xu Huandong had forgotten, but that he had always thought that the cxam radar was an air search radar and would not be helpful in finding the fleet.
The cxam radar indeed cannot find the enemy fleet.
But the question is...will the Japanese fleet not have seaplanes?
If the Japanese fleet enters the combat area, will they not take off seaplanes for reconnaissance?