Soldiers during the war can easily be promoted, especially those officers and sergeants who survived the war.For example, Staff Sergeant Yang Jingwen, who was the captain of the No. 221 submarine torpedo at the beginning of the war, has now been promoted to the position of captain. During this period, he only conducted a short-term officer training course, which is unimaginable in peacetime.
As a member of the submarine force of the Navy, Yang Jingwen has personally experienced tremendous changes in the submarine force. Although he cannot understand the situation of the entire submarine force due to the limitations of qualifications and positions, the number of submarines in his Nanyang fleet has rapidly expanded from 28 before the war to 132,The consequence of such rapid expansion and development is that each fleet lacks experienced officers and sailors, which is one of the reasons why such officers and sailors who have received good training before the war can be promoted rapidly.
Of course, war achievements are 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 reports to Qingdao, where the Beiyang Fleet is located, by train.In this era, the domestic railway network has been very developed. There is a passenger train from Guangzhou to Qingdao, which does not need to get off and transfer. After a two-day long journey, a group of people arrived in Qingdao, which is the most important naval base of the Republic Navy in the north.
Due to the influence of the war, this harbor with excellent natural conditions is now surrounded by numerous forts and fortifications, and nearly 100 ships of different sizes are berthed in the broad harbor.Unlike the Nanyang Fleet, which is full of huge ships, the Beiyang Fleet has only two main battleships and six cruisers, most of which are destroyers, frigates, torpedo boats, mine sweepers and other light ships.
Unlike surface troops, submarines are generally put in the submarine hangar for maintenance or routine overhaul when not performing tasks, so only a few submarines can be seen occasionally on the surface.
As the focus of the war shifted from Nanyang to Japan, the strength of the Beiyang Fleet of the Navy was strengthening, especially the submarine force. Today, nearly one third of domestic submarines are concentrated in the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea.
"Welcome to the Beiyang Fleet!" Major General Cheng Keming is now the commander of the submarine force of the Beiyang Fleet,Major General Cheng now has 124 submarines of all types in the submarine headquarters of the Beiyang Fleet. How to make these weapons effectively exert their combat capabilities as soon as possible is the most troublesome thing for him.
Yang Jingwen was reappointed as the captain of No. 432 submarine of the Beiyang Fleet. At the submarine base of Qingdao Military Port, he met his sailors. Surprisingly, one of them was a classmate who had studied in the naval school.
"Li Jiacheng?!" He was surprised to see that the lieutenant officer with all the sailors lined up on the dock to welcome him.
"Welcome to lead us!" Li Jiacheng smiled, and then said in a straight face: "Report to the officer, all the officers and men of No. 432 salute you! The number of personnel on the boat is 55, and the actual number is 54. The report is over!"
"Very good, everyone get on the bus, we are going to the shipyard!" Yang Jingwen ignored the one who was underreported by Li Jiacheng when he reported the number, which was a trick played by the old sailors on the boat when they were playing tricks on the novices who had just entered the submarine army to practice as captain.
"Sir, can't you cooperate?" Li Jiacheng followed him and got on the military jeep.
"Please give me something new. I have been in the submarine force for five years and changed six submarines. I always do this, and I have no sense of novelty!" Yang Jingwen said with a smile.
Three trucks carrying all the sailors drove to the outfitting wharf of Qingdao Naval Shipyard. At the submarine wharf of the shipyard, five new submarines that had completed the sea test were moored at the closed submarine wharf, ready to be handed over to the Navy.
From the first figures, it can be seen that this is a new type of No. 4 submarine. Its appearance looks like a huge torpedo. The upper deck is narrowed to less than four meters in width, so that the whole boat can get a better overall streamline.
No. 432 is a new type of ocean attack submarine. Its displacement has reached 1750 tons (above water)/2620 tons (below water), which is almost as big as two previously equipped Type 1 or Type 2 submarines. Moreover, due to the installation of underwater vent pipes, it can run more than 23 knots of speed under water with diesel engine power, but is higher than its surface speed of 21 knots.
The earliest submarine underwater vent pipe device was invented in 1933 by a Dutch naval officer named Wicks.
The main purpose of installing the vent pipe device on the submarine is to improve the concealment of the submarine when sailing with diesel engine.
Because the capacity of the underwater power energy battery of the submarine is limited, when carrying out long-distance navigation operations, it is necessary to often surface to use diesel engines to navigate and charge the battery.However, with the emergence of radar anti submarine airmen that can detect submarines emerging from the water, submarines are easy to be found and their survival is threatened if they want to sail out of the water.When there is no vent pipe, the submarine only has to surface and rely on the water intake and exhaust devices to make the diesel engine work.When the submarine dives, the intake and exhaust devices on the water are closed, and the submarine can only rely on batteries for propulsion.
The vent pipe invented by Weeks is two high-strength steel pipes fixed on the bridge, whose height is equivalent to that of the periscope. When the depth of the submarine diving is less than the length of the metal, the two metal pipes exposed from the water can provide air and exhaust gases for the diesel engine of the submarine.There is a tongue shaped valve made of rubber on the air inlet and outlet of the metal pipe, which can prevent seawater from pouring into the vent pipe when the wind wave is heavy and the water surface is higher than the vent pipe.Like periscope, vent pipe can be lifted and lowered by hydraulic device.In this way, the submarine can only expose the vent pipe and hide the easily exposed hull underwater when it uses diesel engine to navigate intelligently and charge the battery.
Since 1936, most submarines of the Netherlands Navy have been equipped with such devices.When the Dutch colony in the East Indies fell in 1938, the Republic Navy seized several submarines equipped with snorkels in Java.After that, the Navy of the Republic Navy began to research on equipping its submarines with such ventilation devices to improve the concealment and survivability of submarines.