Seven Seas Beacon Fire

Why is the Royal Navy of Victoria increasingly eager to mediate between the Tang Dynasty and Colombia? Because the number of Lexington-class battlecruisers that are gradually taking shape on the Colombian shipyards is even comparable to the total number of battlecruisers that the Royal Navy intends to retain; and because the battlecruisers being built on the Tang Empire's shipyards are terrifying monsters equipped with 420mm guns.

Only by signing treaties as soon as possible and having all countries dismantle and destroy warships that were not completed during the war, could the Royal Navy of Victoria maintain its advantage in this area by relying on its huge stockpile.

After all, besides the Royal Navy of Victoria, only the Tang Empire still possesses a considerable number of battlecruisers in the world. However, the battlecruisers in the Tang Empire's hands are obviously no match for those of the Victoria. Only four ships are equipped with 330mm guns, and the remaining old battlecruisers equipped with 280mm guns are speculated to be decommissioned soon. Thus, the battlecruisers in the Tang Empire's hands will be firmly outnumbered by the Royal Navy of Victoria in both quantity and quality.

As battlecruisers designed for these purposes, the Victorians are relatively optimistic about the future of the Admiral-class battlecruisers. Although both the Tang Empire and the Federation have a number of even larger monsters on their shipyards, none of them pose a fatal threat to the Admiral-class battlecruisers.

The Lexington-class battleships built by the Colombians were similar in tonnage to the Admiral-class. In terms of firepower, the eight 16-inch guns were indeed more powerful than the ten 15-inch guns. However, this was the era when the Royal Navy of Victoria possessed the world's most advanced armor-piercing shells. The performance of the green shells had been continuously improved since their inception, thanks to the refinement of factory production techniques.

The Royal Navy's spies in the Commonwealth successfully obtained many design plans for the Lexington-class battleships (don't ask why Britain would have spies in the Commonwealth at this time, it's perfectly normal), and these plans basically revealed a common characteristic: unparalleled high speed and surprisingly fragile armor protection.

The Royal Navy officers, who had experienced the Battle of Jutland, naturally scoffed at the armor layout on the Union Navy's Lexington-class battleships.

Back then, our battlecruisers, facing the Leitanian High Seas Fleet's main guns, which were at most 330mm in caliber and mostly only 305mm or 280mm, were able to have so many "fireworks" set off in a single battle.

Although subsequent investigations proved that many of these fireworks were largely due to the Royal Navy's poor ammunition management (failure to close fire doors) and staggering ammunition overloading (some warships were found to be carrying more than 30% more shells than the limit; anyone who has played War Thunder knows what happens when large amounts of ammunition are piled up haphazardly in a confined space), it was a consensus that in earlier years, the protection of battlecruisers was insufficient relative to the actual threats they faced in battle.

The Lexington-class battlecruisers were fast, but the armor thickness of the various designs was rather poor, which the Royal Navy of Victoria considered to be huge fireworks that could be easily set off by the Admiral-class battleships in battle.

In general, the Royal Navy of Victoria believed that their battlecruisers would either have an absolute numerical advantage or be better equipped with armor-piercing shells to counter future threats, so the Victorian navy was not at a disadvantage either way.

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Compared to the Victorians, the Colombians reacted rather calmly to the navy's latest defeat.

It's not that the Federal Navy doesn't care about this loss; no matter how strong Colombia's industrial capacity is, building a capital ship takes longer than giving birth. Losing three capital ships in one go is a real blow to the Federal Navy.

The fundamental reason for the Federal Navy's lukewarm response is that they have already lost.

Although the Federation Navy has not yet suffered fatal losses in terms of technical equipment alone, and its manpower has not been crippled, its morale and confidence have been severely damaged.

President Wilson went even further and handed over the armistice agreement with the Tang Empire, which the British Prime Minister had passed on to him through personal connections, directly to the Secretary of the Navy. Along with this armistice agreement, he also handed over the British Prime Minister's proposal to establish naval arms control negotiations after the war.

President Wilson's actions were much like a parent throwing a report card and a notice of expulsion from school in front of their child, and then saying, "Why don't you go find a factory job?"

As the Federal Navy Secretary Sims, although he had prepared many arguments to exonerate the Navy, he knew that these arguments would have no effect on the President at this moment; words were too pale and powerless.

No matter how eloquent you are, it's useless if you don't win on the battlefield.

"Your Excellency the President..."

“I’m exhausted. This damned war has drained us of too much energy. My stance is consistent with Prime Minister Lloyd George’s: it’s time to end this war.” He gestured with his finger to the documents he had tossed in front of Sims, “I think the Navy can now shift its main focus from the current war to the post-war situation. For example, do we have any weapons in our arsenal to counter the battleships our enemies have used this time?”

Because many heads of government in various countries are not from military backgrounds, many of them do not have a systematic and comprehensive understanding of weapons and equipment. In particular, members of the federal parliament have always liked to bring up the equipment of both sides in a fierce battle when discussing military issues, believing that if you win the battle, you can basically win the game. It can be said to be a paradise for battle chess enthusiasts.

Of course, the way to deal with these bureaucrats is also very simple: who doesn't know how to conduct exam-oriented education?

So even President Wilson, after seeing the records and reports about the Second Battle of the Bashi Channel, naturally asked from the perspective of a game of Go – do we have any weapons in our arsenal that can deal with this monster?

"Yes, the South Dakota-class battleships we are building will be larger in tonnage than this ship, and we will be equipped with a full 12 16-inch guns. Although our caliber is slightly smaller, we will have an absolute advantage in terms of projectile power."

"I recall the Navy also had a battlecruiser project equipped with 16-inch guns?"

“Yes, our initial plan is to name it the Lexington-class battlecruiser,” Sims said. “This is also a powerful…”

"Which of these two ships is meant to deal with that monster?" President Wilson waved his hand to indicate that he didn't want to hear any long technical explanations; all the President had on his mind was the game of Animal Chess!

This question was difficult for Sims to answer, as it was indeed a rather complex one. The South Dakota-class battleships and Lexington-class battlecruisers had completely different roles in the Federation Navy, and both types of warships could potentially encounter the Dragon Abyss in combat.

The Federal Navy had originally been determined to rebuild its vanguard fleet at all costs, but that determination had recently been severely challenged.

The “outstanding performance” of the Longyuan-class battleships has prompted the Federation Navy to re-examine its battleship fleet. Is the Lexington-class battlecruiser really as important as the South Dakota-class battleships for the Federation Navy?

Many believe that the Federal Navy will ultimately prioritize its battle fleet.

Making such a judgment does not mean that these people are particularly knowledgeable about the Federal Navy; it only means that these people are particularly knowledgeable about the Federal Congress.

"The South Dakota-class battleships directly confront Longyuan." Faced with the President's question, Sims could only answer truthfully.

"Then we should build more South Dakotas instead of wasting money on those battlecruisers that can't solve our problems!"

The debut of the Longyuan-class battleships brought a huge shock to the world, a fact that Sims was well aware of. However, he was even more aware that the powerful Longyuan-class battleships were essentially just 23-knot iron turtles. In the end, these ships increased the thickness of the entire fleet, not its height.

Although the Colombians currently do not possess a single battlecruiser of their own, the Federal Navy, which has repeatedly suffered from a lack of high-speed ships, is genuinely prepared to build a powerful vanguard fleet.

But it seems that the big boss is unwilling to spend a lot of money on this.

Sims tried his best to explain to the president using analogies that even a novice could understand—the Lexington-class battleships were carrying out completely different missions.

This battleship represents the Federation Navy's vision for a high-speed ship warfare mode that it hopes to adopt in the future, a vision that Sims himself calls "accelerated devaluation".

It's a very simple principle: a battlecruiser with 27 knots is a faster ship than a battlecruiser with 21 knots, so wouldn't a battlecruiser with 33 knots be an even faster ship than a battlecruiser with 27 knots?

In the Union Navy's vision, the future Lexington-class battleships would not need to seek engagements with enemy battlecruiser formations. They could rely on their maneuverability to bypass enemy battlecruisers and continue their reconnaissance missions. At most, they would only need to deal with the enemy's larger light cruisers.

Under such circumstances, even considering the future light cruisers with even larger gun calibers, the 178mm sloped armor belt of the Lexington-class battlecruisers was already quite reliable.

After some explanation, President Wilson had a general understanding of the operational concept for the Lexington-class battlecruisers, but this was clearly not the answer he wanted.

"Your Excellency, the Colombian Federation is not a declining Victorian Empire. We don't need to sign any naval arms control agreements with the Victorians. Just give us time, and we can build a sufficiently powerful force..."

“Your Excellency,” President Wilson shook his head and gestured to interrupt him, “I think we need thicker armor.”

Chapter 204 Each Has Its Own Reading Comprehension (3) The South Dakota-class capital ships are just great

President Wilson was well aware that the fundamental reason why Sims and the entire Union Navy were so eager to rebuild the fast fleet was that, in this era, a fast fleet was essential for a great power's navy if it wanted to possess a strong maritime offensive capability.

This is similar to cavalry in warfare during the era of cold weapons. This expensive military force represented powerful offensive and assault capabilities. Whether in the East or the West, a powerful dynasty at its peak would inevitably have a strong cavalry force, and when a dynasty began to decline, its cavalry force would be the first to be affected.

Battlecruisers were the naval cavalry of this era. Only by rebuilding a powerful and fast fleet could the Federation Navy regain the opportunity to launch large-scale offensives at sea in the future.

Although Sims himself realized that the war might be forced to end soon, even if a ceasefire were to be reached in the future, the Federation Navy should still have this capability. Having a sword in hand and having a sword but not using it are two different things.

Over the past year, hasn't the Federal Navy suffered enough setbacks in maritime combat due to its lack of high-speed ships?

However, there are indeed some differences between the naval leadership and the United States government leadership in terms of summarizing experiences.

The experience gained by the Colombian federal leadership from the Second Battle of the Bashi Channel was vastly different from that gained by the federal naval leadership.

President Wilson and other high-ranking officials in Washington, D.C., were filled with anxiety about the future of the Navy's main battleships in armor-piercing missile warfare. The results of the Nevada-class battleships' engagement with the Tang Empire's Longyuan-class battleships showed that even the Navy's best-protected standard battleships were still unable to penetrate or defend against the enemy's new warships, which was really worrying.

The current battle in Borneo is destined to end in defeat. President Wilson believes that the main task of the Federal Navy in the future is to retain Yingzhou, which has already been captured. Moreover, he believes that the newly established Tang Empire, whether from the perspective of the prestige of the central empire or from the perspective of surpassing the Ming Empire of the past, will definitely seek to reclaim Yingzhou in the future.

Therefore, in the future, the situation of maritime offense and defense between the Tang Dynasty and Colombia will actually change. The Federal Navy will have to start to consider how to defend, while the Tang Empire will continue to choose how to strengthen its offensive capabilities.

Given that the overall naval strategy is shifting towards defense in the future, battleships with thicker armor and more main guns are clearly more suitable than battlecruisers.

Of course, there was another, somewhat embarrassing reason, for President Wilson’s preference for the South Dakota-class battleships: he learned from some of his staff that the battleships built by the Union Navy were generally world-class, but the battlecruisers they built were barely even second-rate.

The main reason for this is that the battlecruisers built by the Federation Navy were poorly protected. During the Battle of the Sulu Sea, the vast majority of the Navy's battlecruisers were lost in a single battle. While there were certainly tactical errors, the main reason was that the Federation Navy's strategic cruisers were too fragile and could be destroyed with a single hit by the enemy.

It's important to know that the first generation of battlecruisers of the Federation Navy had only 5-6 inches of side armor, and the armor of the super-dreadnought battlecruisers built later was only seven inches.

Leaving aside the early 12-inch gun battlecruisers of the Royal Navy with their six-inch armor, the Victorians at least increased the armor of their super-dreadnought battlecruisers to nine inches. Furthermore, British battlecruisers had a high freeboard, theoretically possessing the potential to install even thicker armor (at worst, the freeboard could be reduced to a level comparable to that of the Leithrian battlecruisers). The Victorians only equipped their super-dreadnought battlecruisers with nine inches of armor because they wanted to save money and felt that nine inches was sufficient. (This reason sounds simple, but in reality, considering the early-exploding shells of the Victorians at that time, nine inches was indeed enough.)

The Colombians gave their battlecruisers seven inches of armor because that was the maximum they could give.

For high-speed warships like battlecruisers that require high-powered propulsion systems, it's not as simple as just stuffing boilers into the engine room. Even someone who drives a civilian car knows that the importance of the gearbox is no less than that of the engine. And Colombia's manufacturing industry, which is large in scale but whose manufacturing technology is not yet fully developed, is still unable to provide reliable reduction gears for large warships.

This meant that the Federation Navy's high-powered propulsion units had to use electric drive to match their power output. Electric drive seemed like a novel technology, and it also allowed warships to reverse much faster than those with mechanical transmissions. However, electric drive meant that warships needed to add a large motor room in addition to the steam turbines and boilers. Therefore, for a given level of technology and a similar total output power, an electric drive propulsion unit would need to be much longer than a mechanical drive propulsion unit.

This has resulted in the Federation Navy's battlecruisers having very long legs, but the extended length of the core area has caused headaches for the warship designers. The Federation Navy has high requirements for the speed and seaworthiness of its warships, and with such a huge protective area, the armor would have to be as thin as the Sophie.

In fact, the limitation of the armored area made it difficult to upgrade the armor. The Colombians also suffered from this problem with their tanks decades later. The Abrams, as one of the third-generation tanks of various countries, was probably the only tank that could put the vast majority of its shells in the rear compartment. The trade-off was that the turret was too wide, with a large armored area and weight. Therefore, in the subsequent upgrade process, after the turret was barely upgraded, there was simply no extra weight to increase the protection of the hull. This directly resulted in the Abrams having a perpetually poor armored hull before the SPV3, with its 350KE armor being ridiculed even by a mango.

Due to limitations in power, the performance of the battlecruisers developed by the Colombians was somewhat unsatisfactory. However, for battleships, which only needed to run at 21 knots, the requirements for the transmission system were not so high. The Colombians themselves were able to solve the traditional problems. The new South Dakota-class battleships increased the speed to 23 knots, which was actually aimed at the speed of the new generation of traditional battleships of other countries. 60,000 horsepower was enough to solve the problem, and the length of the citadel could be effectively controlled. Both the protection and firepower were quite considerable.

Therefore, in President Wilson's eyes, what need was there for battlecruisers? A great power navy still needed armor-piercing missiles for combat!

If we can't break through their defenses and can't defend against them, then we're bound to lose, right?

Seeing Sims's displeasure, President Wilson knew the principle of giving a slap followed by a sweet treat. He cleared his throat and asked, "I heard that our British allies have mounted an 18-inch naval gun on their ship?"

Sims paused for a moment, then nodded, probably surprised that the President, despite his busy schedule, still knew about these technological equipment updates.

Of course, this is actually quite normal. After all, these days, the navy's big ships and heavy artillery are the most advanced weapons and equipment. It's like in another world, after we took off with two sixth-generation fighter jets, regardless of whether Trump understands what a sixth-generation fighter jet is, he should know that such a thing has come out.

“The Victorians mounted an 18-inch gun on a shallow-draft heavy gunboat,” Sims said. “This was originally intended by the Victorians for ground support during their operation to land on the Leitanian mainland in the North Sea. However, the ship was not used after the defeat of Leitania. In the past few months, the Royal Victorian Navy has conducted several bombardment tests on this ship. As allies, we hoped that the Victorians could share some data with us, but the Victorians refused.”

“18-inch guns…” President Wilson said, “If we develop such 18-inch guns in the future, then I think we might be able to replace the original triple gun turrets with two larger caliber twin turrets, just like the Colorado-class battleships did with the previous Tennessee-class battleships, and equip the future South Dakota-class battleships with 18-inch guns?”

Sims blushed immediately upon hearing the President's remarks. Of course! The size and weight of the triple 16-inch turret were not much different from the twin 18-inch turret. In fact, the Colorado-class battleships were originally intended to use twin 16-inch turrets, but the development of the 16-inch guns was delayed, so the Victorian 15-inch turrets were used instead.

Is Your Excellency the President preparing to give the Navy the green light to develop larger caliber artillery?

At this point, a difficult problem arose for Sims. Sims could see that the President wanted to make a deal with him through this method, so that the Navy would not focus too much on these battlecruisers and would focus more on battleships. The South Dakota-class battleships had the potential to be equipped with 18-inch guns in the future. Could the Lexington-class battlecruisers do that?

For any naval officer, the allure of large-caliber artillery is absolute. Now, Sims was faced with the difficult choice between speed and large caliber. After a moment's hesitation, he made his decision—the large cannon was more tempting!

"Your Excellency, although we don't yet have 18-inch guns, we have made significant progress in the research and development and manufacturing of large-caliber naval guns, from overcoming some minor setbacks in the production of 14-inch naval guns to independently developing 16-inch naval guns. We are confident that we will be able to produce high-performance 18-inch naval guns as soon as possible." Sims immediately expressed his determination to President Wilson, although he was indeed somewhat apprehensive as he said these words.

After all, those were just some "minor setbacks in the production process of the 14-inch naval gun." To put it bluntly, the manufacturing level of the large-caliber naval guns of the Federal Navy at that time was really too poor. The final pass rate of more than 100 gun blanks was actually in the single digits. It was only because the Colombian Federation was so wealthy that it was willing to produce hundreds of gun barrels and select the qualified ones for use on warships. If it were any other country, the deployment of 14-inch naval guns would have to be postponed. How could a normal country afford such waste?

Now that the Colombians have received a lot of technical support from the Victorians during the war, their development level of large-caliber naval guns has indeed improved significantly. However, developing an 18-inch naval gun is still a serious challenge for the Colombians. Sims doesn't know when he can produce an 18-inch naval gun, but now that the leadership has opened a door, he has to take advantage of it immediately.

After all, that's what the Secretary of the Navy is supposed to do.

President Wilson waved his hand: "These are problems for later. Our current problem is that our navy has suffered another defeat. Even if we do our best to shorten the maintenance time of those Leitanian battleships and get them to the front lines, I'm afraid we won't be able to gain an advantage against the enemy's two formidable Dragon Abyss-class battleships. After all, the current progress of our South Dakota-class battleships..."

“There are emergency solutions,” Sims said. “Our Colorado-class battleships were originally designed to be equipped with 16-inch guns. The adoption of the Victorian 15-inch guns is purely an emergency measure. We might be able to replace the 15-inch guns of the Lexington-class battlecruisers with the 16-inch guns of the Lexington-class battlecruisers during the repair process. Some of the 16-inch turrets of the Lexington-class battlecruisers have already been produced. These twin-mounted turrets can be used on the Colorado-class battleships.”

"Can this kind of makeshift weapon really defeat the enemy's Longyuan-class battleships?" President Wilson shook his head. "If I remember correctly, the Colorado-class battleships have the same armor as the Nevada-class battleships, right?"

Damn it! Which of your advisors knows so much about the Navy?

Sims gritted his teeth: "The Nevada-class battleships sank after being attacked by several waves of enemy warships."

"Then let me ask you, can the Colorado-class battleship, after this modification, defeat the Longyuan?"

Can they win? Absolutely not! Sims knew very well that the Colorado-class battleships, with a displacement of just over 30,000 tons, were no match for the Longyuan-class battleships, whose displacement was likely over 40,000 tons. The extra 10,000 tons of the Longyuan-class battleships were nothing to them.

Seeing the hesitation on Sims's face, President Wilson waved his hand again: "The Navy doesn't need to think about how to confront the enemy head-on anymore. What we need to consider now is how to send supplies up to our lads on the island and evacuate them from the island, given our disadvantage in terms of surface warships."

The Victorians have begun trying to facilitate peace talks between us and the Tang Empire. The more people we withdraw from Borneo, the more bargaining power we gain!

So, what operational plans does the navy still have available? I'm hoping for something more realistic.

Chapter 205 The Washington Express

"Is the higher-ups really sure we should use this method to deliver supplies to the army?"

On board the destroyer USS Aaron Ward, Lieutenant Commander Spruance frowned as he faced his ship, his expression like that of an old father who had seen his daughter dressed up as a rebellious teenager.

The deck of the destroyer was piled high with standard oil drums. These drums were not filled with fuel, but with various supplies to be delivered to the besieged army. Theoretically, these drums should contain all kinds of food, medicine and even ammunition.

Now, these oil drums are like ticks, covering the entire destroyer. Even the gun emplacements and torpedo areas are piled with them. Apart from some machine guns and 12-pounder cannons mounted on the bridge and mast, the destroyer has no other firepower. If you were to encounter an enemy warship at sea looking like this, the consequences would be obvious.

Moreover, at this moment, the entire dock is filled with destroyers and cruisers like these. Ships like the Omaha-class cruisers have 152mm guns mounted on their sides that they can use. Once a destroyer is filled with these oil drums, it is essentially disarmed.

As for why these destroyers and cruisers are dressed up like this now...

"Besides our fast ships, how else can we get supplies up there for those army idiots?"

Clearly, the engineers responsible for securing these unsightly oil drums to the destroyer were also full of dissatisfaction. These naval engineers certainly didn't want their beautiful warships to look like this, and in their view, all of this was due to the army's incompetence in frontline operations.

Not only has Borneo dragged on for so long without being conquered, but it has also been pushed back and left in such a sorry state, truly making the Federation of Colombia lose all face.

The Navy blames the Army for its current setbacks, just as the Army blames the Navy for its defeats.

Shifting blame is something everyone has mastered without being taught throughout history.

Currently, the Federal Navy has temporarily lost the ability to compete with the Tang army for control of the sea in the Western Pacific. The battleships that the Federal Navy still has combat power are all on high alert to defend Yingzhou. The Colombians are genuinely worried that the Tang Empire will take advantage of this time to launch a military expedition across the sea.

Although the Colombian military leadership was well aware that the Tang army, if it had any sense, would not easily launch such a large-scale amphibious crossing operation, they were always afraid of the worst-case scenario. What if the other side really went all out? With the Colombian army's current strength in Yingzhou, it wasn't that they couldn't hold Yingzhou... but they were somewhat worried. After all, these Yingzhou people had betrayed them once before, so who knew if they would do it again?

Therefore, the task of transporting supplies to the Colombian military in Borneo has now been handed over to these fast sea trains that can travel at speeds exceeding 30 knots. This is also the most feasible solution that the Federal Navy has come up with at this stage: to seal all the supplies in these oil drums and dump them off the coast near the northern part of Borneo.

These oil drums were loaded with buoyancy in mind, so they won't sink after being thrown into the sea, but will float. The Colombian military on Borneo will then send small boats to collect them and tow them ashore.

This saves time on unloading at the port, maximizing efficiency. As far as the navy is concerned, I've already delivered the goods; whether the army can retrieve them is not my problem.

After all, the operational plan formulated by the Navy Department still had to consider preserving the navy's strength as much as possible. Although the cruisers and destroyers Columbias were plentiful and well-stocked, they could not be sent out indiscriminately. By adopting this method of replenishment, at least the warships could be restored to combat capability after the cargo was jettisoned in an emergency.

However, no captain enjoys performing this task. First, any captain of a naval warship would certainly prefer to be the captain of a combat vessel rather than a transport ship. Second, even from the perspective of the safety of their own ship, even if the oil drums were designed for emergency jettisoning when they were secured, and the mooring lines could be cut to push the oil drums into the sea, it would still take at least several minutes.

In those few minutes, enemy shells might already be hitting us. Especially considering that for safety reasons, all transport missions are scheduled to take place after nightfall, and if we happen to collide at night, the two sides will be very close to each other. If we encounter the enemy, we can launch an almost one-way firepower attack within a few minutes. What's the point of fighting then?

Not to mention who knows what's inside those oil drums. If they're filled with compressed rations, I might consider them as an add-on armor, but what if they happen to be filled with ammunition?

However, no matter how much dissatisfaction he had, obeying orders was a soldier's duty, and Spruance had to grit his teeth and carry out the mission despite his great dissatisfaction.

The new transportation method of the Colombians quickly attracted the attention of the Tang army. After all, it was rather strange that the Colombian transport ships could hardly be caught at sea during the day. However, during the day, Colombian warships, including a large number of destroyers and cruisers, could always be found at sea returning to Yingzhou from Borneo. With a little investigation, the clues could be found.

When Li Che learned of this situation, he couldn't help but find it amusing. He hadn't expected that the Colombians would use the methods of his old adversaries from another world. Thinking of how the Colombians called the Japanese transport method used in the Guadalcanal naval battle "Tokyo Express," Li Che jokingly suggested that the navy call the Colombians' transport method "Washington Express."