Add Bookmark | Recommend this book | Back to the book page | My bookshelf | Mobile Reading

Free Web Novel,Novel online - All in oicq.net -> Historic -> 1855 American Tycoon

Text Chapter 629, Hunting Ground (2)

Previous page        Return to Catalog        Next page

    For the pq77 transport fleet, this was really an extremely terrifying night. An invisible enemy kept attacking them under the cover of night.  Every few dozen minutes, a transport ship was suddenly hit by a torpedo and exploded. The three destroyers tried their best and did not hear the sound of any submarine's unique propeller. They blindly turned on the active sonar, but still  Nothing was found.  At one point, the active sonar seemed to detect something, and the destroyer immediately swooped in and dropped a series of depth bombs. However, this was of no use, because dozens of minutes later, another transport ship was hit by a torpedo and sank.  .  At the beginning, when a ship was hit by a torpedo and the captain gave the order to abandon ship, nearby ships would deliberately slow down, turn on searchlights, and search for and rescue crew members who fell into the water.  However, soon, the ship that did so was also attacked by demons hiding in the night, and also sank in the explosion.  It was an extremely long night. Every once in a while, there would be explosions. Every once in a while, there would be orders to abandon ship. If the ship sank slower, lifeboats would be lowered into the sea. If it sank faster, lifeboats would be lowered into the sea.  , the sailors could only hold the lifebuoy and jump into the sea.  In this horrific night, pq77 lost four transport ships and nearly 30,000 tons of cargo.  If U-92 hadn't used up a lot of torpedoes in previous operations and now used up all the remaining torpedoes at once, PQ77's losses would definitely be more than that.   "Your Excellency, the situation we are facing now is very serious. The loss rate of our ships this month has far exceeded our shipbuilding rate, and even exceeded the sum of our shipbuilding rate and the United States' shipbuilding rate."  Lord Admiralty Churchill said to Prime Minister Asquith, "If this situation continues, we will lose the entire war." "Winston, this is indeed a huge danger, even more dangerous than the German Army.  "Big danger." Prime Minister Asquith said, "Do you have any suggestions about this?" "Your Excellency, I think we must use the convoy model to prohibit any merchant ships from acting alone."  In this month, according to our statistics, the loss probability of the transport ships in the escort formation is much lower than that of ordinary transport ships.  formation and provide them with enough escort warships, then our losses will be greatly reduced, at least, below our supplementary capabilities," Churchill replied.  "So Winston, do we have enough destroyers in the navy?" Asquithian asked.  "The number is far from enough. Even if our shipyards now shift their construction focus to the construction of destroyers, we will still not have enough destroyers in our hands for at least two months." Churchill replied, "But, Your Excellency,  We may have other ways to obtain destroyers. We can order destroyers from the United States, or simply lease U.S. Navy destroyers from the U.S. government. "This is indeed a possibility."  Something to think about," Asquith said after thinking about it.  Of course he knows that because the United States is now buying a lot of British bonds, it naturally cannot watch Britain collapse.  Moreover, the British people who are good at playing the balance of power in the European continent naturally know that the interests of the United States and the United Kingdom are completely consistent in opposing the emergence of overwhelming six powers in the European continent and opposing the unification of the European continent.  of.  "I will let the Americans discuss this matter." Asquithian said, "You must also speed up your actions. If necessary, remove some destroyers from the combat force and ensure the safety of shipping.  ""It is of course impossible to order ships without dealing with MacDonald.  McDonald has been waiting for this order for a long time.  So accompanied by Scrooge himself, Sir Woodgate, the British envoy, visited a shipyard owned by Macdonald.  "Sir, you see, what is being built here is the Sherlock-class fast merchant ship we just saw in the model room. Indeed, compared to ordinary merchant ships, its price is a little higher, and it can transport more goods at a time.  It is also a little less than an ordinary cargo ship, and the maintenance cost is also higher than that of an ordinary ship. Therefore, even taking into account its high characteristics, the advantage in the number of transportation brought by the cruising speed of 18 knots is only from economic considerations.  The economy of this kind of cargo ship is not very good. In fact, we originally designed it as a mid- to low-end passenger ship." Scrooge lied smoothly and then continued, "But Sir, in the future.  In today's environment, I feel that there is no better ship in the world than this ship that is more suitable for Britain's needs. You see, the cruising speed of this ship is 18 knots, and as far as I know, ordinary submarines.  The speed of the water surface is not as fast as his, so if the German submarine wants to ambush him, it willbecomes quite difficult.  In this way, the probability of loss of ships when crossing the Atlantic Ocean will be greatly reduced.  Moreover, because of its speed advantage, this kind of ship can transport more items per unit time.  This should also be a very important performance for today's British Empire.  If a large number of such ships are put into shipping, then why does Britain need to worry about unlimited submarine warfare?  " After hearing this, Sir Woodgaard nodded secretly in his heart. At the same time, in his heart, his hatred for the Americans, especially Macdonald, increased again. Sir Woodgaard had a problem with ships and so on.  He knew quite a bit about it, and he could certainly see that this kind of ship could not be modified from a mid- to low-end passenger ship. From the beginning, this ship was designed as a high-end cargo ship, and its economy was not outstanding.  The ship was obviously designed for this war, even for unrestricted submarine warfare. Without the German's unrestricted submarine warfare, this kind of ship would have no market competitiveness at all. However, the German's unrestricted submarine.  The war has turned this kind of ship into the most suitable product. Obviously, the McDonald's consortium has long been prepared for the Germans to launch unrestricted submarine warfare. In fact, there is even McDonald's black hand behind the Germans. After all, Mike  Downer's research on submarines is also world-renowned. As a British official, he also knows that the MacDonald Consortium has always had technical cooperation and business contacts with the Germans. He also knows this.  The development of a ship took so long that Macdonald had already been planning to smear the British money before the war. However, as an experienced diplomat, Woodgaard did not express these emotions.  He knows that this kind of thing is actually very common, and the British themselves will not be more merciful than MacDonald when they encounter such an opportunity. Moreover, the MacDonald Group has subscribed to a lot of British bonds, and if he wants them to provide such a big deal.  If they place orders, they will also subscribe for more British bonds, which shows that in a big way, the MacDonald Group is still on the side of the British Empire and is worthy of being an old friend of the British Empire. "Mr. MacDonald.  "How well built is this boat?" said Woodgaard.  Also, if I order in bulk, can the price be more favorable?  You know, the economy of this kind of ship is not good, and the price is much higher than that of ordinary cargo ships.  This doesn't make sense.  " "Ah, Sir, I believe you have never heard of such a sentence, right?  We have a saying in the United States that one dollar of money, one dollar of goods; ten dollars of money, five dollars of goods.  This means that the increase in performance is disproportionate to the increase in price.  In order to reach high, larger, more advanced, and of course more expensive power equipment must be used.  This is a hard cost that is difficult to reduce.  We can't help but make money.  However, I suddenly had an idea. If you are willing to discount the service life of this kind of ship, then we can reduce the price to a level similar to that of ordinary transport ships.  "Scrooge replied. "Isn't this just cutting corners?  "Woodgaard said, "If you do this, from an economic point of view, it will be less economical to buy this kind of ship.  " "No, no, no, Sir, there is something wrong with your algorithm.  " Scrooge shook his head to correct his misconception, "First of all, even such a high merchant ship cannot be without losses.  Do you really think that these ships can last until their design life in a war?  How is this possible?  In this case, an excessively long design life is inherently a waste of luxury.  Moreover, if we build such ships for long-term use, they will not be easy to dispose of after the war is over.  No?  On the contrary, if we shorten the service life in exchange for a drop in price, after the war, whether we resold them or sell them to other countries at a low price, the loss will be relatively small.  Therefore, I think my proposal is very reasonable.  Moreover, after these requirements are relaxed, the degree of construction will be greatly improved. Isn't this what you have been worried about?  " "Mr. MacDonald, what you said makes some sense.  "Woodgaard said, "So, according to your opinion, how much can the construction level be improved?  ¡± ¡°If the requirements on life span are relaxed, many components can be purchased from more sources and with higher output and cheaper components.  There are many more companies that can provide such parts than companies that can provide high-quality parts, so raw materials will not become a bottleneck in production, and many processes can also be simplified, so that the construction level of the entire ship can be improved.  It is one-third faster than ordinary ships. If you are willing to give up high speed, the construction time can be reduced to one-half of ordinary ships.  " Scrooge replied. Hearing this answer, Woodgard's eyes lit up. He knew that today, the construction speed of transport ships was of great significance to the war situation. However, he did not have the power to make an immediate decision, so he  Said to Scrooge: "Mr. Macdonald, this is a big deal and I need?Take some time to contact the country.  Can I give you an answer after three days?  "
Didn't finish reading? Add this book to your favoritesI'm a member and bookmarked this chapterCopy the address of this book and recommend it to your friends for pointsChapter error? Click here to report