Soldiers were easily promoted during the war, especially those officers and sergeants who survived the war and survived. For example, at the beginning of the war, Staff Sergeant Yang Jingwen, who was the torpedo commander of submarine No. 221, has now been promoted to captain.
During this period, he only conducted a short-term officer training course. All this was simply unimaginable in peacetime.
As a member of the Navy's submarine force, Yang Jingwen has personally experienced the tremendous changes in the submarine force. Although he cannot understand the situation of the entire submarine force due to limitations in seniority and position, the number of submarines in his Nanyang Fleet has increased from only 28 before the war.
The fleet rapidly expanded to 132 ships. The consequence of such rapid expansion and development was that each fleet lacked experienced officers and crews. This is why officers and crews like them who had been well-trained before the war were able to quickly
One of the reasons for promotion.
Of course, military merit is also another important factor.
Yang Jingwen and a group of sailors were transferred from the Nanyang Fleet to the north and strengthened to the Beiyang Fleet.
This transfer is just a personnel transfer. Everyone starts from Guangzhou and takes a train to Qingdao, where the Beiyang Fleet is located, to report. In this era, the domestic railway network has been very developed. There are passenger trains running directly from Guangzhou to Qingdao. There is no need to get off the train and transfer after passing
After two days of long journey, the group arrived in Qingdao, which is the most important naval base of the Republic Navy in the north.
Due to the impact of the war, this port with very favorable natural conditions is now guarded by numerous forts and fortifications. There are nearly a hundred ships of various sizes parked in the wide harbor. Unlike the Nanyang Fleet, which is lined with giant ships, the Beiyang Fleet has only
There are two main battleships and six cruisers. Most of the ships are destroyers, frigates, torpedo boats, minesweepers and other light ships.
Unlike surface forces, submarines are generally placed in the submarine depot for maintenance or routine inspections when they are not performing tasks, so only a few submarines can occasionally be seen on the water.
As the focus of the war shifts from Southeast Asia to Japan, the strength of the Navy's Beiyang Fleet is strengthening, especially the submarine force. Now nearly one-third of the country's submarines are concentrated in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea.
"Welcome to the Beiyang Fleet!" Major General Cheng Keming is now the commander of the Beiyang Fleet's submarine force. "I taught some of you step by step, and now I want you to help me train the rookies who have just joined the submarine force.
!" As the old superior of Yang Jingwen and the others, Rear Admiral Cheng currently controls the Beiyang Fleet Submarine Command and is equipped with 124 submarines of various types. How to enable these weapons to exert their combat capabilities as quickly and effectively as possible is the biggest headache for him.
Yang Jingwen was re-appointed as the captain of the Beiyang Fleet submarine No. 432. At the submarine base in Qingdao Naval Port, he met his crew members. Surprisingly, one of these people was his former colleague when he was studying at the naval school.
classmate.
"Li Jiacheng?!" He was a little surprised when he saw the lieutenant officer and all the crew members lined up on the dock to welcome him.
"Welcome to lead us!" Li Jiacheng smiled, and then said loudly and seriously: "Sir, all the officers and soldiers of No. 432 salute you! There are 55 people on board, and the actual number is 54. Report completed!"
"Very good, everyone, get in the car, we are going to the shipyard!" Yang Jingwen ignored the person Li Jiacheng underreported during the count. That was when the veteran sailors on the boat were teasing the rookie trainee captains who had just joined the submarine force.
The tricks played.
"Sir, can't you cooperate?" Li Jiacheng followed him and got into the military jeep.
"Please come up with something new. I have been in the submarine force for five years and have replaced 6 submarines. I always keep doing the same thing. There is no novelty at all!" Yang Jingwen said with a smile.
Three trucks carried all the crew members to the outfitting dock of the Navy's Qingdao Shipyard. At the submarine dock of the shipyard, five new submarines that had completed sea trials were moored in the closed submarine dock and were ready to be handed over to the Navy.
take over.
It can be seen from the first number that this is a new type of No. 4 submarine. Its appearance looks like a huge torpedo. The upper deck is narrowed to a width of less than four meters, which makes the entire
The hull can achieve better overall streamlined shape.
Boat No. 432 is a new type of ocean-going attack submarine. Its displacement reaches 1,750 tons (above water)/2,620 tons (under water), which is almost as big as two previously equipped Type 1 or Type 2 submarines. Moreover, due to the installation of water
With the lower snorkel, it can run a speed of more than 23 knots underwater using its diesel engine as power, which is actually higher than its surface speed of 21 knots.
The earliest submarine underwater snorkel device was invented in 1933 by a Dutch naval officer named Weeks.
The main purpose of installing a snorkel device on a submarine is to improve the submarine's concealment when using a diesel engine to sail.
Because the submarine's underwater power source, the battery, has a limited capacity, when conducting long-distance voyage operations, it must often surface to use the diesel engine to sail and charge the battery. However, with the radar anti-submarine that can detect surfaced submarines,
With the emergence of the aviation force, submarines are easily discovered when they surface and sail, and their survival is threatened. When there is no snorkel, the submarine can only surface and enter through the water, and the exhaust device makes the diesel engine work. When the submarine dives, it enters through the water.
, the exhaust device is closed, and the submarine can only rely on the battery for propulsion.
The snorkel invented by Weeks is two high-strength steel pipes fixed on the bridge and the height is equivalent to the periscope. When the submarine dives to a depth less than the length of the metal, the two metal pipes exposed out of the water can serve as the submarine's diesel engine.
Provides air and exhausts exhaust gas. The metal pipe is inlet and the exhaust port is covered with a rubber
The tongue-shaped valve can prevent seawater from pouring into the snorkel when the wind and waves are strong and the water surface is higher than the snorkel. Like a periscope, the snorkel can be raised and lowered by a hydraulic device. In this way, the submarine can only use diesel to sail intelligently and charge the battery.
Expose the snorkel and hide the easily exposed hull underwater.
Since 1936, most submarines of the Dutch Navy have been equipped with this device. When the Dutch colonies in the East Indies fell in 1938, the Republic Navy captured several submarines equipped with snorkel devices in Java. In
After this, the Republic Navy began to study equipping its own submarines with such ventilation devices to improve the submarine's concealment and survivability.
While refitting existing submarines, the Republic Navy began to list underwater ventilation devices as mandatory equipment in newly designed submarines, and also installed periscope devices on them, making them stronger.
Slightly different from the previous Republican Navy submarines, the No. 4 submarine is only equipped with a 75mm/L50 deck gun that can be placed sideways in the outer hull. In addition, it is equipped with two 12.7mm machine guns in the front and rear of the bridge, which has a large surface firepower.
In order to weaken it, its main attack weapons are 8 torpedo tubes arranged 6 in the front and 2 in the rear.
"Three officers, Li Jiacheng, Wang Tao, and Gong Xinmin, and 16 other non-commissioned officers are veteran sailors who have served on submarines, while the remaining three officers and 32 sailors are all rookies who have just entered the submarine force. Oh my God!"
Yang Jingwen almost cried when he looked at the resumes of his subordinates.
He could only lead his subordinates to quickly invest in training to avoid being killed at the bottom of the sea due to operational errors. Wouldn't that be an unjust death? However, the war situation did not give him much time, and he would not be able to do anything but carry out the training.
After less than two months of boat training, he
On the third day after returning to the base, I received an order from the Fleet Submarine Command. Submarine No. 432 was assigned to the 12th Submarine Group. This ocean-going attack formation composed of nine submarines will head to the sea off Japan. The target is a force from
A Japanese transport formation set sail from the United States.
After a simple mobilization, all the crew members boarded the boat. Except for a few sailors on duty, no one saw them off at the dock. Submarine No. 432 began its first combat voyage.