Seven Seas Beacon Fire

How should this script be written?

Many military enthusiasts in later generations have probably become accustomed to seeing numerous reports of unscripted combat exercises between red and blue forces both domestically and internationally on the internet. As a result, they regard such unscripted combat exercises as a universally applicable experience. Consequently, they tend to look down on many scripted military exercises organized by various countries in the last century, believing that such scripted military exercises are essentially just large-scale child's play.

In reality, military exercises cover a wide range of areas and examine many aspects. More often than not, the scripts for military exercises are not outlines specifically for reporting and performing to superiors, and military exercises are definitely not simply about assessing who can win.

For example, when the Colombian Navy was writing a script for a military exercise, they found that the first problem they had to face was: who should we choose as our hypothetical enemy?

Currently, looking at the world, the two main enemies of the Colombian Navy are naturally the Royal Victoria Navy and the Royal Tang Dynasty Navy. The Royal Tang Dynasty Navy needs no introduction; they are old rivals, and in the recently concluded World War II, the two sides were even physically intertwined.

While the Royal Navy of Victoria was an ally in the last World War, the relationship between Colombia and the Victorian Empire was not so harmonious. After all, when Colombians disguised themselves as Indians and poured tea leaves into the sea to protest, they were caught red-handed by the Victorian Empire, which eventually triggered the 13 Colonies Uprising.

Well, although the initial starting point of the uprising was not very honorable, and even seemed a bit sordid, the United States of Colombia was undoubtedly the biggest rebel of the Victorian Empire. The two sides had fought two large-scale wars. If you want to know about the past grievances between the two countries, guess why the White House is white?

Therefore, the first problem that Admiral Edward faced in the fleet exercise was that, according to the normal arrangement of the exercise, there would be two forces in the process: the blue team representing the Colombian Navy itself, and other colored teams representing the enemy.

So now comes the problem.

Is your enemy the Royal Navy of Victoria or the Royal Navy of Tang Dynasty?

From the Colombian Navy's perspective, the most pressing issue right now is undoubtedly the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty. Just a few years ago, they were locked in a bloody battle, and now, due to the Yingzhou issue, the two sides are on the front line of confrontation.

The problem is that, in terms of simulating future wars, the struggle between the Colombian Navy and the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty will inevitably involve the Yingzhou Islands, and will also be inseparable from the Yingzhou garrison fleet.

Leaving aside whether a yellow team representing Yingzhou should be added to the military exercise, even if it were, strategically speaking, it would be inconvenient for the Colombian Navy to simulate a battle with the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty, given the current location of its forces.

Unless Cuba is used as a substitute for an island for military exercises, even its largest port, Havana, is not currently well-suited to accommodate these super-dreadnoughts, let alone the super battleships of the Colombian Navy.

Secondly, although the Colombian Navy was on the front line of confrontation with the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty, the Colombian Navy was a more vital lifeline in Central America.

Panama Canal.

Currently, there is only one naval force in the world capable of immediately threatening the Panama Canal after engaging in war with the Colombian Navy: the Royal Victoria Navy.

With its global reach spanning oceans, the Royal Victoria Navy could launch a surprise attack on the Panama Canal from either side of the ocean. If the Panama Canal were to suffer fatal damage in a war, it would be devastating for the Colombian Navy, a two-ocean fleet, in terms of troop deployment. Not to mention that if they were to bypass the Drake Passage at the southernmost point, they would likely be more vulnerable to ambushes by the Royal Victoria Navy along the way.

Given the urgency of the situation, we should simulate fighting against the Tang Dynasty, but considering the lifeline of the Colombian navy, we should fight against the Victorian Empire.

After much deliberation, General Edward decided to "base" an enemy.

The black side, as defined in the military exercise, did not explicitly identify which country it represented, but it was determined that the black side would launch an attack from the Pacific Ocean—an attack on the Panama Canal.

This black side is designed to have a certain number of high-speed capital ships, as well as multiple combat vessels including two super battleships. You can compare this description to the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty or the Royal Navy of Victoria.

After all, both countries possess battlecruisers and super battleships.

In terms of fleet arrangement, two Constellation-class aircraft carriers that have only been in service for a short time and whose crews are not even very familiar with the ships have also been included in the military exercise. Currently, the two Constellation-class aircraft carriers do not even have their assigned air force units fully equipped. After all, they are ships that have only joined the combat sequence this year. Even if you are playing War Thunder, it will take you a while to get familiar with the operation, let alone a real capital ship.

Normally, warships like these, whose crews haven't even had a chance to get used to each other, are not suitable for participating in military exercises directly, especially Colombia's Type 1 aircraft carrier, which is a brand new vessel and requires even more work to be done.

However, Admiral Edward said it was fine, because the exercise would first test the performance of the two aircraft carriers as gunboats, and the testing of the air force would be left for later fleet issues.

Therefore, the two Constellation-class sisters were separated, with HMS Constellation assigned to the black side and required to play the role of a battlecruiser with a speed of 28 knots and 13-inch guns.

Yes, the production team cut the Constellation's speed by 4 knots, and upgraded its guns from 10 inches to 13 inches.

Now it's quite obvious: which country in the world has a battlecruiser that can reach 28 knots and has 13-inch guns? It's really hard to guess.

The Saratoga, one of the two Lexington-class battlecruisers, was also assigned to the Black side. However, the production team gave the Saratoga better armor protection, but set its firepower to use 15-inch guns and its speed to not exceed 30 knots.

Hmm, 4 tons, 30 knots, 15-inch guns—it's hard to guess what kind of warship this is simulating...

接下来哥伦比亚海军又一口气抽了5条标准战列舰到黑方，这5条标准战列舰当中甚至包括两条马里兰级战列舰——也就是那两条被条约允许换装16英寸舰炮的源科罗拉多级3号舰和4号舰。

Also transferred were two Colorado-class battleships equipped with 15-inch guns. These two ships were the only two battleships in the Colombian Navy's battle order equipped with 15-inch guns. The seven battleships that were transferred were then told that the two Maryland-class battleships would act as "super battleships equipped with 420mm guns", while the remaining three standard battleships would uniformly act as "21-knot battleships with eight 15-inch guns".

At this point, the commander on the black side was completely bewildered. Why did some of the ships under his command look like ships from the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy, while others looked like ships from the Victoria Royal Navy?

Surely I, the black side, can't be a joint force of the navies of these two countries?

How could the Tang Dynasty and the Victorian Empire possibly be on the same page?

In response to the questions raised by the lower-ranking fleet, Admiral Edward stated in an unquestionable tone: "In our military exercises, we naturally need to simulate the most extreme scenarios. If the two most powerful navies in the world were to join forces and launch an attack on us, how would we be able to defend our United States? In this military exercise, we will verify this possibility."

If we cannot hold ourselves to higher standards during military exercises, how can we expect to defeat our powerful adversaries in future wars?

Chapter 365 Fleet Problems? Full of Problems! (2)

By December, the Colombian Navy had assembled a massive force in ports around the Caribbean Sea, comprising two fleets, two aircraft carriers, 13 battleships, 8 light cruisers, and 18 destroyers.

Such a large and formidable fleet naturally aroused the vigilance of neighboring countries. As the main force of the Colombian Navy went to the Caribbean for a "vacation," the Brazilian Navy canceled all the leave of its officers and soldiers, and the three Minas Gerais-class battleships also quietly entered a state of second-level combat readiness, while checking whether there were any Colombian ships docked in their own ports.

After all, the Colombian Navy doesn't have a very good reputation among neighboring countries. They launched a war against Cuba, which was controlled by the Kingdom of Iberia, under the pretext of avoiding quotation marks, even though the Colombian Navy claimed that the Maine was sunk by the Kingdom of Iberia in port.

However, it was obvious to anyone with eyes to see that the Kingdom of Iberia was practically kneeling before Colombia at that time, fearing that Colombia would find an excuse to start a war. How could they possibly take the initiative to sink Colombian naval battleships?

The Colombian Navy didn't take the Brazilian Navy's small security maneuvers seriously. In fact, they found the actions rather ridiculous. The Colombian Navy saw three dreadnoughts with only 12-inch guns each as lacking in firepower, protection, and speed. They thought that if the Colombian Navy really wanted to take action against them, what difference would it make whether the three ships were together or not?

With no time to waste on the Brazilian Navy, once all the ships had assembled, the Colombian Navy immediately divided the fleet into the Blue Team and the Black Team.

The opposing Black Army forces included the Constellation-class aircraft carrier USS Constellation, the Lexington-class battlecruiser USS Saratoga, the Maryland-class battleships USS Maryland and USS Washington, the Colorado-class battleships USS Colorado and USS West Virginia, the Tennessee-class battleships USS Tennessee, USS California, and USS Idaho, and also three destroyer squadrons, each consisting of one light cruiser and six destroyers.

The Blue Force, representing the Columbia Navy, included the Constellation-class aircraft carrier USS Columbia, the Lexington-class battlecruiser USS Lexington, the South Dakota-class battleships USS South Dakota and USS Indiana, the New Mexico-class battleships USS New Mexico and USS Mississippi, the Pennsylvania-class battleship USS Pennsylvania, and the New York-class battleship USS Texas. It also included five destroyer squadrons, each consisting of one light cruiser and four destroyers.

Theoretically, only two countries in the world, besides the Colombian Navy, could muster two such fleets for military exercises, but in reality, only the Colombian Navy and the Royal Navy of China have this capability.

As for the Royal Navy of Victoria?

While the Royal Victoria Navy does indeed have that many ships, given its global reach, it's extremely difficult for it to find an opportunity to gather the vast majority of its capital ships together for such a military exercise. This time, the Colombian Navy has gathered almost all of its capital ships, except for two battleships, which is practically impossible for the current Royal Victoria Navy.

The Royal Victorian Navy successfully prevented a further arms race between China and Colombia through a naval treaty, maintaining its status as the world's leading navy. However, this also reduced the number of capital ships available to the Royal Victorian Navy to its lowest level in decades.

Especially before a large number of heavy cruisers, which can be called secondary capital ships, are built and put into service, the Royal Navy of Victoria will have to use its two buttocks to sit on three chairs, so organizing military exercises such as fleet exercises is naturally impossible in the short term.

Therefore, when the Colombian Navy assembled its warships, it was naturally full of enthusiasm for the upcoming military exercises, and the script was naturally particularly grand.

The despicable "enemy" has crossed the entire Pacific Ocean and is attacking. In the scenario, the enemy has taken control of the Galapagos Islands as a springboard for their advance, preparing to launch an attack on the Panama Canal and destroy the Colombian Navy's transoceanic operational capabilities.

The Blue Force, playing the role of the remaining Colombian naval forces, has the mission of protecting the security of the canal zone or eliminating the Black Force, while the Black Force, playing the role of the formidable enemy, has the mission of eliminating the Blue Force or destroying the canal.

The forces on both sides are relatively evenly matched. The Black Army has a slight advantage in the number of capital ships, while the Blue Army has a slight advantage in the number of light ships. Even the overall composition of the high-speed and low-speed ships on both sides is quite similar.

This fairly balanced division of forces actually reflects the inexperience of the Colombian Navy. After all, the most important thing in military exercises is to effectively simulate the opponent, rather than to pursue fairness, even though the directing team made some "adjustments" to the performance of the black side's ships, just like the Type 59 that played the M1 at Zhurihe.

可有些东西不是导演组给你赋值你就能扮演的，导演组可以让M1A59一炮就干掉99A，也可以让M1A59的装甲能够吃好几发红箭，但是M1A59真的跑不出60公里以上的越野速度，也真的没有热成像可以辅助锁敌。

The same applies here. Among the ships on the Black Army side, which are clearly being portrayed as Royal Victorian battleships, why are they specifically portraying revenge instead of Queen Elizabeth?

Because by having Saratoga impersonate Hood, all that's needed is for Saratoga to run a little slower, but those standard battleships really couldn't possibly run faster than 24 knots even if they tried their hardest.

Furthermore, in the scenario, the enemy is already pushing across the entire Pacific Ocean to their homeland, yet the defending side's forces are roughly equal to the attacking side's... However, these are minor issues. Compared to a groundbreaking large-scale military exercise like the fleet issue, taking this first step is more important than anything else.

But this first step is not easy.

On the first day of the military exercise, the Blue Team, which was tasked with defending the canal zone, chose to take the initiative. After all, they were playing the role of their own warships. The battlecruiser USS Lexington and the aircraft carrier USS Columbia both had speeds of over 32 knots. So the Blue Team deployed the battlecruiser and the aircraft carrier, and then took out the light cruiser that served as the flagship of a destroyer flotilla, and put together three fast ships that could reach speeds of over 30 knots and sent them out.

The USS Columbia aircraft carrier has only been in service for a few months. Currently, there are only 17 carrier-based aircraft on the entire carrier, and only 18 front-seat pilots qualified to take off and land aircraft on the carrier. This means that if even two people have diarrhea, it will be impossible to get all the aircraft flying.

Of the 17 carrier-based aircraft on the aircraft carrier, most are improved Camel variants, which are carrier-based fighters. There are only 6 T2 torpedo bombers. It is wishful thinking to think that such a small number of aircraft can cause any effective damage to the surface ships of the black side in the military exercise.

However, relying on these aircraft to carry out reconnaissance missions is still very useful. In a sense, the role of the USS Columbia aircraft carrier is more like that of an air combat cruiser. The Blue team's plan is to have these fast warships hold back the Black team's forces and find an opportunity to attack the Black team's escort forces.

The Blue Team's unusual approach this time is to start by targeting smaller vessels like cruisers and destroyers. After all, for the Black Team, their ultimate goal is to destroy the Panama Canal, so no matter what tricks they play beforehand, they will eventually move towards Panama.

Therefore, the Blue Army planned to learn from the painful lessons of the Battle of Wonsan in the previous World War, just like the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy that launched a torpedo attack against them, and use a sea of ​​torpedoes to weaken the Black Army's fleet's combat power before the decisive battle.

However, although the Black Army was outnumbered in cruisers and destroyers, the gap between the two sides was not that large. Although the Blue Army had five destroyer squadrons while the other side had three, with one squadron of one cruiser and four destroyers and the other side's squadron of one cruiser and six destroyers, the difference in destroyers between the two sides was only two. The biggest advantage of the Black Army was actually that it had two more Omaha-class cruisers.

Therefore, the Blue Team planned to wear down some of the Black Team's destroyers and cruisers before launching a torpedo bombardment. Of course, there was no warship more suitable for this mission than the Perfect Cat.

It can be said that the Blue Team's series of preparations are somewhat similar to a version of the gradual attack, except that they did not go all the way to the ninth dan like the classmates who are doing well. However, the idea is still the same: to accumulate advantages for the final battle through a series of early battles.

At least in the era of gunboats, this arrangement was entirely correct. It's just a pity that while the Colombian Navy's operational plans were well-formulated, those who executed them were, if not stupid, at least sometimes like idiots.

After departing from their berths as planned, the Lexington and Columbia increased their speed to 30 knots, finally finding an opportunity to run freely on the high seas. This speed gave them an almost invincible advantage. According to the director's instructions, the two ships opposite would have a hard time chasing them. As long as they could maintain this speed, they would be able to roam freely in this sea area.

Both the aircraft carrier USS Columbia and the battlecruiser USS Lexington had relatively young officers and crew. The Colombian Navy placed great importance on the Lexington-class battlecruiser, a project that fulfilled its ambition to rebuild a fast fleet after several years. This was evident from the name of the warship, and the original plan was to equip both battlecruisers with veterans.

However, things didn't go as planned. The Colombian Navy's previously vulnerable battlecruisers died too quickly, and most of them were destroyed after their ammunition magazines were blown up. Very few men survived on a single ship.

Therefore, in order to gather enough personnel, both Lexington-class battlecruisers were equipped with a number of green recruits. These green recruits not only had poor aim, but also made the first fatal mistake during the military exercise.

That is, the chief engineer of the light cruiser USS Detroit, which was accompanying the USS Lexington and USS Columbia, discovered that the rookies had given the wrong fuel before the cruiser set sail.

This mistake wasn't like filling up with 92-octane gas when you need 95-octane for your car. Rather, it was because the recruits misread the units; they mixed up liters and gallons. So, these recruits mistakenly thought the USS Detroit's fuel depot had been replenished with enough fuel, when in fact the USS Detroit had only been replenished with less than one-third of the normal amount.

This is really going to be the death of me.

Although as a ship, the Detroit certainly wouldn't lose power, since it had coal in addition to fuel oil.

However, burning coal is different from burning oil. As mentioned before, a coal-burning ship is, in a sense, still a ship propelled by human power.

Because your driving speed is closely related to the speed at which you add coal.

Now the USS Lexington and USS Columbia are facing an awkward problem: should they break away from the USS Detroit, a light cruiser that can no longer maintain high speed and move with them, and return to their formation, or should the entire formation slow down?

The directing staff was quite speechless after receiving the report from the USS Lexington. They had already anticipated various situations that might arise during the military exercise and had formulated corresponding handling procedures.

It's obvious there's no question of what to do if a bunch of idiots haven't refueled the boat.

After some discussion, the directing team concluded that such a basic error was unlikely to occur under normal circumstances, so they decided to correct it manually. However, the directing team did not plan to send a refueling ship to replenish the fuel. In those days, fleet oil tankers were docked at the pier and pumped oil into the pier's oil storage tanks using specialized equipment, while warships were refueled in the port.

The directing staff employed their brilliant strategy—they switched the positions of the Blue Team's light cruiser USS Detroit and the Black Team's light cruiser USS Omaha, which was not far away.

Okay, from now on, the USS Omaha belongs to the Blue Team, and the USS Detroit belongs to the Black Team.

At that moment, the Colombian naval directing team had no idea that this would be the beginning of chaos in the entire military exercise.

Chapter 366 Fleet Problems? Full of Problems! (3)

When children play hide-and-seek, some children will not behave themselves during the game. Even though their eyes are covered, they will secretly peek through the small gap at the bottom of the blindfold.

For the light cruiser USS Omaha, she was that mischievous child.

After receiving the instructions from the directorate, the officers and men on the USS Omaha were somewhat unhappy, because most of the ships on the Blue Team's side belonged to the Third Fleet, while most of the ships on the Black Team's side belonged to the Fifth Fleet. As a cruiser under the Fifth Fleet, the USS Omaha naturally harbored resentment towards the Third Fleet, its former rival in the Navy.

After all, such internal competition exists within the armed forces of all countries, especially in the Colombian Navy at present. Which fleet can represent the "top main force" of the Colombian Navy? This was a competition that the two fleets were constantly vying for during the outbreak of the war. Moreover, this competition did not end with the end of the war. On the contrary, it intensified as the strength between the two fleets began to become relatively balanced after the war.

Therefore, after reluctantly accepting the appointment from the directorate, the USS Omaha, while maintaining a certain distance from the USS Lexington and USS Columbia, secretly began sending its position by telegram—this was a form of intelligence gathering.

At first, the Lexington and Columbia thought the Omaha was sending a telegram to communicate with the command, but after a while, the two ships realized that something was wrong.

Are you writing an essay at sea? The telegrams have been going on for over half an hour, and they're using a code we don't know. So the Lexington, as the flagship of the squadron, sent a light signal to the Omaha to inquire about the content of the telegram the Omaha was sending.

When the USS Lexington sent a light inquiry signal, the USS Omaha initially pretended not to see it. However, when the USS Lexington raised its signal flags, the USS Omaha could no longer ignore it. So, the USS Omaha stopped transmitting and replied to the USS Lexington that one of its sailors had contracted dysentery, which it suspected was a flu outbreak, and that it had just been contacting the port.

To be honest, this excuse isn't very good. First of all, the great flu that ravaged the world in the middle of last year inexplicably began to disappear worldwide, and there haven't been any new cases of the great flu for a long time now. Secondly, if it were common dysentery, anyone with a little common sense would know that, given the Navy's food standards and supply conditions, Navy officers and soldiers would rarely get this kind of disease that army soldiers are more likely to get when they are stationed abroad.

Secondly, what kind of medical conditions require a half-hour telegram for communication?

The battlecruiser USS Lexington vaguely guessed that the cruiser USS Omaha might have been tipping them off earlier.

"Are those bastards secretly reporting our position?" Rear Admiral Donald, the squadron commander, asked, pointing to the light cruiser USS Omaha, which was about 1 meters away from them.

"Judging from the current situation, that's most likely the case, sir."

"These bastards are cheating!"

Discovering this near-cheating behavior during the military exercise undoubtedly enraged Major General Donald. He was so angry that he slammed his fist against the porthole as if he wanted to smash the tempered glass.

On the bridge of the USS Lexington, the squadron commander was so angry that the operations staff timely made a suggestion to Rear Admiral Donald, the squadron commander:

"Sir, we can immediately report the Omaha's behavior to the command headquarters and request that they regulate the Omaha's drills. Alternatively, we can have the command headquarters relocate the Omaha. Our two ships don't need escort, so the problem isn't too serious..."

Seeing that neither of his two suggestions had eased the commander's brow, the staff officer, familiar with Major General Donald's temperament, understood. His superior was furious about the cheating on the USS Omaha and was probably venting his anger.

However, this is a military exercise after all, and we can't let Major General Donald act impulsively. So the staff officer quickly came up with a third plan: "If you are not satisfied with either of these two plans, then we will have no choice but to launch a direct attack on the USS Omaha."

"it is good!!!"

? ? ? ? ?

Rear Admiral Donald's shout made everyone on the bridge widen their eyes.

No?

What are you doing?

As we all know, in many cases, the last of a series of plans proposed by staff and advisors often sounds very exaggerated. This seemingly impractical suggestion is often used to make the preceding suggestions seem more feasible.

But there are some people in this world who tend to choose the most extreme option.

"Sir, the USS Omaha has now been assigned to our Blue Team... They are now considered friendly ships!"

"I know."