Chapter 113 Submarines and Planes

Qin Chuan's question made Commander Chen's expression darken again, "Yes, but it can only be during the day. But torpedo boats cannot get close to the enemy fleet during the day, so they can only attack at night, and at night our torpedo boats are in the sea.

It is also difficult to find the location of enemy ships."

"But."

Commander Chen cheered up and said, "In the Yangtze River, our torpedo boats can use the waterways along the river to hide and wait, or even go down the river at night to attack enemy ships."

What Qin Chuan was waiting for was this sentence from Commander Chen. It was originally intended to be used to persuade Commander Chen to give up preparations for purchasing large warships. Although it was no longer useful, it could still be suggested that he pay attention to torpedo boats and submarines.

Qinchuan discovered that the Republic of China Navy seemed not interested in submarines, killers of warships and freighters, so much so that the Republic of China Navy had not had a single submarine in decades. If torpedoes could be used as an opportunity, Commander Chen could be persuaded to pay attention to submarines, and even

It would be great to buy a few submarines before the war.

Qin Chuan nodded and said, "So I have two suggestions. One is about torpedo boats."

"Since it is impossible for our torpedo boats to attack enemy ships in the sea, then we are in the Yangtze River. If we can sink some Japanese shallow-water gunboats in the Yangtze River, we can also prevent the Japanese fleet from moving up the river and threatening our coastal cities.

Since they only operate in the Yangtze River, our torpedo boats do not need

It requires a complex design, as long as it can launch torpedoes, or even no naval guns, just a self-defense machine gun. It is estimated that our Hankou shipyard can build such a simplified torpedo boat. If we build it ourselves, then

We will use limited funds to build more torpedo boats."

Qinchuan's suggestion was immediately approved by everyone. The purchased foreign torpedo boats can all operate in offshore waters. Not only are the ships larger, they also have more weapons and facilities on them. At least they carry a lot of fuel. But if only

When operating in the Yangtze River, such a torpedo boat is much simpler. As long as you can build civilian ships, you can build such a torpedo boat, which means that it is completely feasible to build it yourself.

"My second suggestion is that we need to buy a few small submarines."

Although submarines had already appeared in World War I, they did not play a big role. What made them shine was that in World War II, few people in the Republic of China Navy and even the top generals of the Republic of China were aware of the important role of submarines.

After all, these people still have too little communication with the outside world.

So Qin Chuan began to briefly explain to everyone the role that submarines could play in naval battles. He specifically mentioned that once China and Japan started a war in Shanghai, if the Japanese army and navy wanted to transport troops to Shanghai, they would have to transport them by sea. If there were submarines, they would

It can threaten the Japanese transport lines. If a few Japanese troop transport ships can be sunk, it will definitely be of great help to the war in Shanghai. Even the defense of Hangzhou Bay will be more guaranteed.

Qinchuan's purpose is to maximize the effectiveness of this simple self-guided torpedo in the early stages of the war, because not only Europe and the United States, but also Japan, their scientific and technological strength is far stronger than that of the Republic of China, and the self-guided torpedo is

Once such weapons appear, these countries will immediately invest huge efforts in research and development, and will soon develop new advanced self-guided technologies.

Qin Chuan remembered that the first self-guided torpedo was at the end of World War II. The Germans first developed a single-plane passive acoustic homing torpedo. In 1945, they also developed a wire-guided torpedo. After that, the self-guided torpedo technology became more and more mature. It can be said that self-guided torpedoes

Guidance technology is developing extremely rapidly.

Qin Chuan's suggestion not only brought brilliance back to Commander Chen's face, but also moved Director Chen and Minister Song, so that they both discussed with Commander Chen and Director Yu how to arrange the construction of the Hankou Shipyard as soon as possible

A shrunken version of the torpedo boat, and which country to purchase the submarine from.

In order to save time and ensure that the submarines purchased can be obtained in the first half of the year, Qin Chuan also suggested not ordering new submarines, but only selling existing old submarines, even at a slightly higher price, as long as they can launch our self-made homing torpedoes.

That’s it.

Regarding this new torpedo, Qin Chuan began to call it a self-guided torpedo for the sake of convenience, although it can barely be regarded as self-guided.

Looking at Director Zhou of the Aviation Commission who had been silent, Qin Chuan couldn't help but feel something in his heart again, "Director Zhou, can our aircraft be improved to release torpedoes on the water?"

At this time, not only did no country use aircraft to launch torpedoes to launch attacks on enemy ships, but the use of aircraft to bomb enemy ships as a naval offensive method had not yet been accepted. It was still stuck in the age of cannons and giant ships, even in Britain and the United States, which had more aircraft carriers.

, France, Japan and other countries are still the same, their thinking is still stuck in

In the era of cannons and giant ships, the aircraft on the aircraft carrier were only used to support land battles or for the fleet to detect the location of enemy ships. The weapons for naval battles were giant cannons and torpedoes. The first one to be modified into a torpedo machine was the Swordfish.

Type reconnaissance aircraft and dedicated torpedo aircraft would not be manufactured by the British until World War II.

Even if these technologies appear slightly, they will not have any impact on the domestic war of resistance, because the Kuomintang will not engage in a large-scale naval battle with Japan, and there will be no naval ships for Japanese aviation to bomb.

Qin Chuan's question suddenly silenced the heated conference room, because everyone knew that Qin Chuan might have some strange ideas.

Director Zhou was slightly startled, and then said, "No, not only our planes, but also the planes of the great powers."

Director Yu was obviously inspired by Qin Chuan's whimsical idea, but suddenly said, "Director Zhou, I think it is feasible. There are no aircrafts abroad that drop torpedoes. We can give it a try. As long as the aircraft is slightly modified, it should be fine."

Qin Chuan nodded and said, "The requirements for this kind of modified aircraft are not high. As long as it flies smoothly and has a larger take-off weight, it will be fine. I have read in foreign materials that the British developed a reconnaissance aircraft called the 'Swordfish' last year.

, that’s totally fine.”

Director Zhou nodded, and then said to Director Yu, "I need more help from Director Yu on this matter."

Director Yu said without hesitation, "Don't worry, Director Zhou, our Ordnance Industry Administration will definitely support it fully."

Director Zhou turned to Qin Chuan again, "Captain Qin, do you have any good suggestions for the Air Force?"

Regarding the Kuomintang Air Force, the most important thing is the quantity and quality of aircraft. In Qinchuan’s memory, the Air Force, which has been officially established for less than five years, has only more than 500 aircrew and 314 aircraft, including 12 heavy bombers and 90 light bombers.

, 113 fighter jets and 55 reconnaissance aircraft, due to the integration of various local forces

The Air Force not only has old aircraft, but also has backward performance, and there are various models, including those from Britain, France, the United States, Italy, the Czech Republic, and Sweden. Only the Hawker 3 of the American Curtiss Aircraft Company has advanced performance. And

, Judging from the number of various aircraft, the Air Force obviously focuses on bombing the enemy and does not pay attention to air control.

This has a lot to do with the fact that the Kuomintang had no air threat during the civil war.

Qin Chuan thought about it and said, "Once we go to war with Japan, the biggest problem is air supremacy. Without air supremacy, our ground troops will be under tremendous pressure if they don't enter. Moreover, the air defense of key areas is also a big problem, and they can only be passively bombed. So

I suggest that we

The top priority for the Air Force now is to purchase advanced fighter jets instead of bombers, and it is now more convenient for us to purchase aircraft from the United States. It is recommended that all the aircraft we purchase be American, such as the Hawker 3 we just purchased from the United States."
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Just at the beginning of this year, the Kuomintang just purchased 105 Hawker 3s from the United States. Although this aircraft is not a famous aircraft, it was the main model of the Kuomintang Air Force in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, and it was nothing compared to the Japanese aircraft.

Not inferior.
Chapter completed!