Seven Seas Beacon Fire

"Are you still sure you want to launch an attack?"

"Aren't we purging traitors from within the Colombian Navy? The crew of the USS Omaha are clearly playing the role of traitors who are tipping off the enemy during the war. This is part of a military exercise!"

? ? ? ?

Is that a correct understanding?

Although Rear Admiral Donald's personality and style were considered quite individualistic within the fleet, he still commanded considerable authority within his squadron. With a single command from Rear Admiral Donald, the four twin 16-inch gun turrets of the battlecruiser USS Lexington began to rotate.

In real-world military exercises, paint bombs and similar items are unlikely to be deployed. Even if you were to produce a paint bomb and hit a destroyer or light cruiser, it would still pose a deadly threat to the officers and soldiers on these medium and light vessels.

Military exercises are ultimately for training. If they are just for tormenting soldiers, then it would be better to do what the regimental commander in the TV series "Soldiers' Assault" said: "Arrest them all and mow them down with machine guns."

Therefore, during fleet exercises, only propellant is loaded during artillery firing. The main purpose of firing the artillery is to create an atmosphere; the shells do not actually fly out. Thus, whether a hit is determined is by "rolling dice".

Well, in this respect, it's actually like a tabletop game or a tabletop exercise. The hit rate of each ship is determined based on the hit performance of each ship in the live-fire artillery target practice before the fleet exercises.

For example, if the USS Lexington had a 3% hit rate at a distance of 15,000 yards in previous target practice tests, the directing team would assign a probability of straddle firing to the battlecruiser USS Lexington based on the 3% hit rate. In the shooting phase of the military exercise, if the USS Lexington fires and rolls a straddle firing result, then rolls the dice again to calculate whether there was a hit in this round of straddle firing. If there was, rolls the dice again to determine which part of the target the shell hit.

In general, the probability of rolling the dice at each stage is determined based on the actual performance beforehand, which can basically reflect the training ability of the officers and soldiers on the entire warship. Of course, the probability of the black army's ships hitting the target is based on the data statistics of the Royal Navy of Victoria and the Royal Navy of Tang Dynasty during the previous World War, and the hit rate is higher than that of the blue army.

As for why dice are used to determine the hit and why cant artillery be loaded with propellant to fire blanks, it's because the atmosphere during training is very important. Just like how blank rounds are used in army exercises, the navy also tries to create an atmosphere that is as close to real combat as possible for its officers and soldiers during exercises.

So when the Lexington's guns turned towards the Omaha and began roaring, the Omaha was clearly startled. Then, realizing it had been discovered, the Omaha didn't even try to explain. It simply turned while releasing smoke and radioed Saratoga and Constellation in plain text, reporting the positions of their sister Lexington and sister Columbia to Saratoga and Constellation respectively.

The production team clearly hadn't expected the fighting to break out so suddenly, and this could be considered an internal conflict within the Blue Team, right? However, the production team didn't suspend the military exercise despite this situation, because before they could make a decision, the USS Omaha had already been determined to be sunk.

A distance of less than 12,000 meters is not a very long distance for the post-war Lexington-class battlecruisers. After all, although the Lexington-class battlecruisers have not been in service for long, they just won the shooting championship in the 12,000-meter distance category this year.

With such strength and a bit of luck, the production team determined that after six salvos, a shell from the USS Lexington hit the engine room of the USS Omaha, forcing the Omaha to slow down to 18 knots as required by the production team.

What happens to a cruiser when it loses speed? It goes without saying. Despite releasing smoke and dodging left and right, the USS Omaha was judged by the production team to be completely incapacitated after 20 minutes and was completely sunk by the USS Lexington. In fact, if the USS Lexington hadn't been firing armor-piercing shells and forgotten to order a change in ammunition, the USS Omaha would probably have been sunk even faster.

It was hit by a total of five 16-inch shells and nine more five-inch shells, which was absolutely fatal for the USS Omaha.

However, somewhat embarrassingly, the Columbia aircraft carrier's nine 10-inch main guns also opened fire. For the Columbia aircraft carrier, which had only been in service for a short time, the crew and the carrier were not yet fully integrated, so its performance in all aspects was somewhat awkward. For example, even without ammunition, the 10-inch main guns were 70% slower in terms of firing rate than the theoretical firing rate.

This is a typical case of someone being unfamiliar with the equipment; in terms of accuracy, there's even less to expect.

However, since it was for a military exercise, the production team gave the USS Columbia aircraft carrier a reasonably high hit rate.

However, from start to finish, none of the nine 10-inch guns on the USS Columbia hit their targets. In fact, several cross-fire shots were rolled in succession when the dice were rolled, but none of them hit their targets during the roll.

After dealing with the USS Omaha, although Major General Donald felt a sense of relief, the positions of the USS Lexington and USS Columbia had been completely exposed. Major General Donald had to start considering whether they should proceed with the military exercise as originally planned by the Blue Team.

It's worth noting that at this very moment, the battlecruiser USS Saratoga and the aircraft carrier USS Constellation may have already set sail for them. If it were just these two ships, there wouldn't be much to fear. Although the Blue Army and Black Army's fast forces actually consist of the same type of warships, the director assigned different values ​​to each side. The Black Army's battlecruisers have better protection, but the Blue Army's two fast ships are much faster.

If Rear Admiral Donald is determined to leave, the Black Army's battlecruisers and aircraft carriers should have little chance.

However, the problem actually lies with those slow-moving warships. If the Black Army takes advantage of this time to block their main fleet—that is, those slow-moving battleships—in the waters around the mouth of the Panama Canal, how will Rear Admiral Donald bring those two ships back?

Although if things really came to that, he could take the two ships to a port on the southern coast of Colombia's west coast, but that would mean temporarily withdrawing the Blue Army's two most important fast ships from the battlefield—the southernmost port on the west coast is still quite a distance from Panama.

"Let's retreat!"

After venting his anger, Major General Donald calmed down and, after some thought, decided to withdraw first, since the fleet issue was not a military exercise that could be resolved in a day.

However, what Major General Donald didn't know was that at this very moment, although there were no slow-moving battleships stuck in the Panama Canal, it was still quite lively.

Colonel Watson was currently on the side of a destroyer lying on its side at sea, looking helplessly at the group of destroyers that were tilting and leaning in front of him. His heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally died. He knew that his naval career was probably coming to a complete end here.

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P.S.: Updating is much harder than giving a casual answer on Zhihu.....

Chapter 367 I Once Had a Job.jpg

Colonel Watson had a promising future; he came from a naval family in Colombia.

For a relatively young country like Colombia, the phrase "naval family" might carry even more weight than it would for the Royal Victoria Navy.

After all, there are plenty of naval families in the Royal Navy of Victoria.

During World War II, Colonel Watson—who was then a lieutenant colonel—did not have the opportunity to serve on the most powerful capital ships, but he performed quite well in his service with the pre-dreadnought fleet. The Colombian Navy's Atlantic Fleet during World War II was mainly composed of pre-dreadnoughts, and these old ships played an important role in the convoy warfare in the Atlantic.

Colonel Hua Sheng once served as the gunnery officer of the former dreadnought USS Alabama, successfully commanding the secondary guns on the broadside of the battleship to sink a disguised cruiser of the Leitanian Empire.

Thanks to these experiences and his family’s connections within the Colombian Navy, he was promoted to colonel after the war and became the commander of the 11th Destroyer Squadron.

During this fleet-related military exercise, his 11th Destroyer Squadron was disbanded and reorganized into one of the three destroyer squadrons of the Black side in the exercise. Originally, the flagship of their destroyer squadron should have been the light cruiser USS Omaha during the exercise.

However, because the number of light cruisers on the Black side was very valuable, the Black side formed a separate cruiser squadron with only three light cruisers outside of the organization assigned by the directorate, for various patrol and reconnaissance missions.

Therefore, Colonel Watson had no choice but to select a destroyer as his flagship. Of course, this was not a big deal, since Colonel Watson also had experience serving on destroyers.

Just as the Blue Army was trying to achieve a surprise victory, the Black Army also planned to use a surprise tactic. However, instead of deploying their large warships, they sent a destroyer squadron. The mission of this destroyer squadron was to lay mines in the waterway near the outlet of the Panama Canal on the west side.

This type of mine-laying mission is very suitable for destroyers, which are small boats that are good for stealthy operations. They are not only small targets, but also fast and not easy for the enemy to detect.

Furthermore, they exploited a minor bug in the military exercise: as a destroyer with a full-load displacement of only 1247 tons, although it has fairly balanced performance indicators, is equipped with new 21-inch torpedoes and launch tubes, and also has a professional mine-laying ramp, torpedoes and mines are somewhat like certain Gundams equipped with gun-type equipment cannot be equipped with longsword-type equipment. Torpedoes and mines are mutually exclusive.

It's not that the torpedo tubes can't be loaded with torpedoes once the mines installed on the torpedo slide are full, but it's true that the torpedo tubes can't rotate once they're full of mines.

However, this is a military exercise after all. During a military exercise, no actual mines are carried out. Once the formation arrives at the designated location and announces the deployment of mines, the area will be designated as a minefield by the directing department. If any other ships enter this area, the directing department will forcibly classify them as slightly damaged, moderately damaged, severely damaged, or sunk.

The Black team had seriously studied the military exercise rules. They discovered that mines were a very special weapon in the exercise. In combat, whether artillery and torpedoes were used was determined by the directorate by rolling dice, but minefields formed by mines were determined by the directorate to be "guaranteed hit".

Of course, the directing department doesn't say that ships that enter a minefield will be destroyed immediately. They will assign different statuses based on the tonnage of the ships. Also, if the entire fleet enters, only one heavy mine will be set for ships of the same class. For example, if three destroyers and three cruisers enter a minefield, then it will be determined that one destroyer and one cruiser have been hit by a mine.

Such regulations certainly don't accurately reflect the real battlefield. Some incredibly lucky individuals are able to pass through minefields unscathed. After all, minefields rely on waiting for prey to fall into their traps, unlike the intelligent sea mines of the 21st century.

However, this arrangement by the Colombian naval command is likely intended to raise the awareness and attention of Colombian naval personnel regarding minefields.

Therefore, the Black side plans to use this "causal law mine" to their advantage. Their plan is to preemptively lay a minefield in the Blue Army's patrol area north of the canal estuary without the Blue Army being aware of it. If they can manage to hit a few of the Blue Army's large ships, even if the directing staff determines that these large ships are damaged, it will be enough for the Black side to gain a more significant troop advantage, thus enabling them to launch a desperate attack on the Panama Canal.

Colonel Watson was given this task.

The so-called "bug" actually refers to these destroyers. Although they are designed to carry mines, the mine channels are actually empty. So if they suddenly encounter an enemy, it will not affect the destroyers' ability to launch torpedoes.

It can be said that this version of the fleet issue is indeed beneficial to destroyers.

After completing the mine-laying mission, Colonel Watson did not immediately return with the destroyers. Because there had been relatively dense morning fog in the Panama region for the past few days, Colonel Watson planned to take several destroyers directly to the mouth of the Panama Canal under the cover of darkness after laying the mines. He wanted to see if he could block the Blue Army passing through the Panama Canal and then give them a surprise with torpedoes.

After consulting with General Zangwell, the commander of the Black Army, Colonel Watson's actions were approved.

As required, the 11th Destroyer Squadron maintained a cruising speed of 20 knots and a heading of 160 degrees. In order to save fuel, Colonel Watson also required that only two of the four boilers on each warship be turned on. This way, if they were to encounter the enemy, they would have enough fuel to maintain maximum speed and escape quickly after launching their torpedoes.

Even so, a speed of 20 knots in coastal areas is not slow in foggy weather.

Colonel Watson and two other experienced navigators aboard the USS Delphi believed that, under such complex weather conditions, the only way to navigate safely was by using the traditional dead reckoning method, which calculates the ship's position solely by the direction and distance of the voyage, without the aid of any astronomical instruments.

Although this method is not precise, it has a long history of use and has proven to be reliable.

Their insistence on using traditional calculation methods stemmed from their distrust of the nascent radio navigation system, but this distrust brought the fleet near annihilation.

The reason for distrusting radio data was that it was a new technology, and the crew had not yet mastered it. Their interpretation of the data was not professional enough, so they could not trust Colonel Watson.

According to traditional calculations, Colonel Watson believed that their fleet could reach the mouth of the Panama Canal at 7:00 AM, at which point the entire fleet would turn left and slow down to linger at the canal mouth.

As the fleet continued forward, the fog ahead grew thicker, making it impossible to clearly discern the situation at sea with the naked eye alone. It was also impossible to verify whether the course had deviated from its intended course, causing considerable concern among the crew.

Although the Panama Canal is almost a necessary route for the busiest shipping lanes in the Americas, there are still some reef areas near the canal mouth.

Under such poor visibility conditions, the fleet should reduce its speed, use depth sounders to accurately determine the ship's position, and make timely course adjustments.

However, Colonel Watson was very confident in his experience and judgment. To reassure everyone, he led the way with his flagship, followed closely by the other warships in a single file, traveling at speeds of up to 20 knots, attempting to cross the fog-shrouded sea and reach the canal outlet as quickly as possible.

Originally, there was a newly built U.S. military radio direction finding station north of the canal mouth. At 5:15 a.m., the flagship USS Delphi had already determined its position through this station and was sailing along the coast accordingly.

In the thick fog, the destroyer fleet was getting closer and closer to the canal mouth and the planned turning point. However, as the sun gradually rose from the horizon, the morning fog reached its thickest point, and the visibility was less than 1 nautical mile. People's nerves involuntarily tensed up.

Then at 3:30, the fleet received a warning from the navigation station that it had deviated from its course, with a heading of 310 degrees.

Colonel Watson, however, considered this impossible, as it was tantamount to almost turning around, and suspected a navigation error. He ignored it and continued onward. Sure enough, 10 minutes later, the fleet received another navigational forecast, correcting its course to 179 degrees.

But by this point, Colonel Hua Sheng no longer trusted the navigation station's data; he only trusted his own judgment. He stubbornly continued onward, relying solely on his experience.

The sea had become exceptionally dark, but the fleet maintained a high speed of 20 knots. Behind the flagship, six warships were lined up in a long, serpentine formation, closely following one after another. In such poor visibility, every ship was afraid of falling behind, and no warship dared to reduce its speed to sound out the depth and determine its distance from the coast, which was a necessary action to correct its course.

After making a series of mistakes, a series of unpleasant grinding noises, like teeth grinding, came from the bottom of the USS Delphi, the flagship of Colonel Watson. Before the startled crew could react, the USS Delphi was violently rammed, and the entire warship crashed into the rocks in the diving area.

The immense kinetic energy caused the entire destroyer to almost sit on the reef, with its bow section grounded on the rocks. The tremendous impact also resulted in numerous casualties among the sailors on board.

The USS Delphi wasn't the only unlucky ship today. The other five destroyers, following too closely, entered the densely packed reef area one after another, even after discovering the flagship's predicament.

Ultimately, five of the six destroyers ran aground, three of which were in particularly bad condition. The only survivor was the USS Jared Wilcotts, which was at the very back.

Due to the violent impact, a total of 9 crew members on the five grounded destroyers lost their lives on the spot. Ultimately, the accident resulted in 14 deaths and more than 90 injuries. Three of the five grounded destroyers were so badly damaged that they had to be scrapped. These three destroyers were essentially forced to cosplay as destroyers from the Land of Light. The huge impact caused the bows of these three destroyers to sit on the rocks. However, as the tide began to recede, these three destroyers lost their stability and ended up lying on their sides on the sea.

That's why Colonel Watson was able to stand on the side of his flagship and take a very valuable photograph—although, given the circumstances at the time, the other side probably didn't want the photograph at all.

After making such a mistake, Colonel Watson's future in the Navy was naturally over. No matter how much his parents were from a naval family, he had really succeeded in losing three destroyers and tearing apart more than a dozen families. As a result, the fleet's military exercises were forced to be temporarily suspended.

However, for the Colombian Navy, although this embarrassing incident was very shameful, they were unwilling to waste this good opportunity for the main force of the naval fleet to gather together. The fleet problem military exercise, which was forced to be interrupted, resumed after a three-day suspension—at this time, not all of the stranded destroyers had been cleared away.

While the fleet-related military exercises resumed, a similarly large-scale military exercise had just concluded in the South China Sea, far to the east.

All procedures of the military exercise, the operational plans of the participating troops from both sides, the evaluation of the actual execution, the post-exercise debriefing, and the exchange of experience reports between the participating troops from both sides were all presented to us.

Looking at the compiled military exercise data, Li Che shook his head with a sigh. Just reading the text was enough to excite him. Not participating in the largest naval exercise this year was indeed a mistake.

How could I have missed something like this?

Although it's partly because he just had a baby this year... he doesn't need to take care of his own son, so it's all just an excuse in the end.

However, when he opened the detailed report on the naval exercises, his brow furrowed slightly.

A 700-ton destroyer dominated a military exercise?

Where did this kid come from, driving such a big truck everywhere?

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P.S.: This situation seems to be going to continue for another day. It's awful.

Chapter 368 "Elementary School Student Forces Himself on Older Sister"

"So, the Navy wants to keep the final results of this Rim of the Pacific Exercise from being released, right?"

The day after the Rim of the Pacific Exercise ended, Cheng Biguang, who had just taken over the position of Minister of the Navy of the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy from Sa Dingming, made a special trip to visit the Crown Prince. Nowadays, people in the Tang court say that there are two Ministers of the Navy: one is the official Minister of the Navy, and the other is the shadow minister, namely the Crown Prince.

The outcome of this RIMPAC exercise left Cheng Biguang with mixed feelings, so much so that he had to urgently seek out the Navy's "shadow minister" to discuss the matter.

Faced with the Crown Prince's question, Cheng Biguang could only nod with a wry smile: "I believe Your Highness can see from the complete military exercise records that our participating fleet's main warships actually played a crucial role during the day. As for the fact that our main warships were deployed during the night battle and were besieged by light ships... that was completely an accident!"

Your Highness, as you know, the news media loves sensational headlines. If the results of the military exercise spread, Parliament and even the public will think that a 700-ton boat can sink a 3-ton warship. This will affect the navy's future funding...

Li Che shook his head: "Don't worry too much about the funding issue. The newspapers say it's a naval holiday now. Since it's a naval holiday, why would we need so much funding for shipbuilding? The navy will only need to spend money on aircraft carriers and cruisers. Stop complaining about being poor. An entire battleship squadron of four capital ships was taken down by destroyers that are only 700 tons or so. That's what the navy needs to reflect on!"

Li Che was not so easily fooled by Cheng Biguang. Despite how seriously Cheng Biguang was exaggerating the situation, Li Che, who had gained ample experience in this matter in another world, would not easily believe the words of these veterans. What could the parliament's doubts about the large ships be, even if the parliament had doubts about the results of this military exercise?

In the next decade or so, apart from the retirement of old ships that have reached the end of their service life and can be replaced by treaty battleships that are within the performance and tonnage range allowed by the treaty, the navy will not be able to start construction on any capital ships. Therefore, Cheng Biguang's "alarmism" cannot be said to be completely unfounded. At the very least, it can be considered as calling the T-80 of the Gorky plant a T-80 of Leningrad.

If only Leningrad had had its T-80s back then... (humorous)

Cheng Biguang looked troubled. He had thought that since the Crown Prince had a strong interest in and in-depth understanding of the navy, he would definitely consider the navy as one of his own. He thought that by coming to inform the Crown Prince first, the problems exposed in this military exercise could be covered up to some extent, so that the navy could solve them internally.

In fact, the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy did not participate in the RIMPAC exercise on an exaggerated scale like the Colombian Navy. The Tang Dynasty Royal Navy only had two battleship squadrons and a number of destroyer and cruiser squadrons participating in the RIMPAC exercise, totaling no more than 8 battleships and 8 cruisers.

Yes, that's very much like the 88 Fleet.

The above eight battles and eight patrols organized confrontation exercises in the South China Sea with the background of the attack and defense of the islands in Southeast Asia. In the navy's prediction of a future maritime conflict between China and Colombia, both sides will rely on Borneo and New Guinea respectively, and use a series of islands and sea areas in the South Pacific region as the battlefield.

The background of this military exercise is that after the large-scale fleet battle between the two sides, the main forces of both sides' fleets suffered relatively serious damage. Therefore, in the subsequent continuous struggle for control of the sea, the number of main warships that both sides can use is relatively limited, and the confrontation between large surface combat ships is maintained at a medium scale.

Therefore, this RIMPAC exercise mainly tests the ability of frontline naval commanders to coordinate operations with a large number of light combat vessels and large and medium-sized surface combat vessels under such circumstances.

During the daytime simulated combat, the Red team, playing the role of the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty, took advantage of its superior speed and maneuverability of its capital ships compared to the Blue team, playing the role of the Colombian Navy. It decisively relied on a forced march of 23 knots for more than 8 hours starting from dawn to get its own capital ship fleet to the battlefield ahead of the Blue team's battleship fleet, which was playing the role of the Colombian Navy.

At this moment, in the waters surrounding the island to be contested, the Blue team only had two cruisers and a few destroyers. Facing four battleships, they naturally had no good options. So, without hesitation, the Blue team's destroyers and cruisers immediately withdrew from the battlefield at maximum speed. Subsequently, with the "artillery support" of the four battleships, the command determined that the Red team's ground forces, who were currently fighting each other on the island, had successfully driven the Blue team's ground forces into the woods. The Red team then occupied the crucial port and airfield.

When the Blue Army's main fleet arrived in the afternoon, the Blue Army and the Red Army's battleships engaged in several probing contacts and firefights. At this time, although the four battleships on the Blue Army's side had stronger firepower and protection according to the simulation provided by the directorate, their advantage in firepower and protection was far from the suppressive power that super battleships like the Longyuan had over traditional super dreadnoughts.

Therefore, in the afternoon's battle, the Blues did not gain any advantage, while the Reds' use of their four battleships during the day was quite perfect, although it seemed there was no intense fighting and no significant results were achieved...

However, the four battleships of the Red Army have fulfilled their function of seizing control of the sea without fail. They drove away enemy light combat vessels entrenched in the target sea area, controlled the sea area, and prevented enemy capital ships from entering. It can be said that the four capital ships fully proved in the daytime confrontation that only capital ships can accomplish such a task at present.

However, the situation is completely different in nighttime battles. According to the operational regulations of the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy and most navies of that era, large surface ships should actively avoid complex night battles.

After all, everyone knows that in this era, the darkness is the best camouflage for the weak. Light combat ships that are inconspicuous during the day can get close enough at night to use torpedoes to overwhelm opponents that are much larger and have much stronger firepower.

The commander of the Red Team did indeed withdraw the battleships from the area in time, but at night the Blue Team organized a large number of troops to launch a counterattack. The destroyers and cruisers that were deployed like waves quickly made the Red Team's troops left in the waters around the target island feel stretched thin.

Especially during the chaotic nighttime battles, a Red force flotilla consisting of two cruisers and six destroyers mistakenly identified a Blue force fleet preparing to launch a surprise attack on island facilities as friendly forces. The Red fleet then signaled for information while approaching the Blue forces. When they were within 5 kilometers and finally realized through searchlights that something was amiss—the flags on the opposing side seemed different—a barrage of enemy fire erupted.