What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 550 Wooden Ironclad Ship

Upon returning to Goose City, Tang Wen immediately rushed to Antarctica to continue preparing for the Sea Lion Project.

Although Antarctica is extremely cold, the port hotel maintains a comfortable temperature, and the icy and snowy environment absorbs most of the noise, creating a particularly quiet atmosphere.

When you need to think things through in the short term, this is a great place to calm down and organize your thoughts.

The first issue remains the "resurrection" of the Second Fleet in international waters.

In addition to reviving all the ships that fought the Iowa sisters in the last battle, Tang Wen also made some additions to match the style of Project Sea Lion.

It must be said that although it was called the "Second Fleet of the High Seas" last Christmas, the High Seas Fleet was actually a product of World War I. Bismarck and Scharnhorst were both products of Reich's creation.

Although the Hans developed a number of cutting-edge technologies in just a few years that opened the world's eyes, this certainly does not include the navy.

Whether it's tanks, rockets, or jet aircraft, their common characteristic is that they require less working time, are manufactured quickly, and therefore iterate even faster.

But the navy is different. The steel consumed by a single capital ship is enough to equip at least one tank division, and the maintenance costs are staggering.

Tanks and airplanes were upgraded every year, each model more powerful than the last; new technologies emerged every month.

Not to mention battleships, even many of the destroyers from World War I were continued to be upgraded and patched up by various navies until they were completely decommissioned.

Ten years after the interwar period, Hans was able to catch up on all the work he had missed on armored vehicles and aircraft, but he was really not up to par with the navy.

The rebuilt Hans navy had a surface tonnage of only 35 tons, while the old emperor's high seas fleet had a tonnage of 70 tons, showing the significant difference.

Tang Wen wasn't really interested in the old ships of the old High Seas Fleet, mainly because their speed was surprisingly slow, only a little over 20 knots, and even with boosts, it was difficult to reach 30 knots. They were practically meaningless except for the pyrotechnics.

However, a fleet that could land on the British mainland consisting of only a few ships, led by Bismarck, was too meager. Furthermore, the landing convoy was relatively slow. Therefore, he decided to divide the fleet into two groups:
Fast fleet and landing fleet.

The fast fleet is basically the same familiar faces from last year's Christmas expedition, but the number of destroyers has increased significantly, from just one destroyer, USS Carl, to six.

Although the Carl von Schoenberg is a Tier VI premium ship, it is a sister ship to the Tier VI Ernst Gaide-class German silver destroyers, and can be built with self-supplied materials for 75 silver coins per ship.

Tang Wen's original plan for the landing fleet was 50 landing ships/civilian vessels, as well as the complete revival of the old high seas fleet.

But soon after, he decided to abandon the High Seas Fleet:
Civilian ships are fine; they can be quickly assembled by simply salvaging resources without needing to be built. But warships are just too expensive.

The construction cost of a single V-class "King" battleship was only 56 silver coins, but the original High Seas Fleet had a total of 16 ships, which was equivalent to 896 million silver coins. The reconstruction cost of the entire High Seas Fleet was close to 2000 million silver coins.

This was extremely unprofitable for Tang Wen, and there was no hope of salvage.

When the High Seas Fleet was scuttled, the British and the Germans immediately began salvage operations. Most of the salvage work was subsequently dismantled, and what was not salvaged was just a small fraction, not enough to constitute a significant operation.

However, Tang Wen couldn't afford to maintain the official high seas fleet, so he came up with another idea:

Since the High Seas Fleet is only there to deliver food, why bother building proper steel battleships? Just churn out some counterfeit and substandard products and make do.

At his instruction, Tang Yi turned back the clock and began to study the "wooden ironclad warship".

That is, to make a large wooden model, cover it with a layer of steel sheet and then paint it, so that at least from a distance it will look absolutely real.

The primary targets of the forgery included 16 King König-class battleships, 10 Dörlinger-class battlecruisers (5 of which were intended to replace the original dreadnoughts in the High Seas Fleet), and a total of 80 destroyers, torpedo boats, and landing ships. For example, the 2.5-ton King König-class battleships were designed with an internal wooden structure and an outer sheet metal exterior, reducing the hull weight to only 1200 tons. Diesel engines and smoke generators were used to imitate steam boilers, bringing the total weight, including other equipment, to no more than 1900 tons.

The camouflage ship of the Dörlinger-class battlecruiser was only 1700 tons, and the other destroyers and other auxiliary warships were also extremely light.

The original 70-ton high seas fleet, after its number was increased to 106 ships, only had a total tonnage of 5.6 tons, just exceeding that of the Bismarck.

These wooden ironclad ships had two major flaws:
Because wood is lighter and has a shallower draft, battleships were almost entirely eliminated from the underwater section, becoming flat-bottomed boats that rocked terribly while sailing, and their draft made them easy to spot.
The turrets could only be faked, with only some anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft cannons being real.

However, this is not a problem for World of Warships. After being modified to have a nearly flat bottom, the speed actually exceeded 25 knots. The reason why it cannot go any further is simply because the power system is too weak and they are unwilling to strengthen it.

There is no need to worry about the strength of wooden structures; an ordinary wooden boat would probably be reduced to pieces long ago if it reached 25 knots. However, due to the mechanism, warships are immune to damage from waves.

Tang Wen's solution to the most critical issue of abnormal water intake was a high-speed smoke generator.

With just a few destroyers activating their high-speed smoke generators for cover, the outside world would be completely unable to detect anything unusual about the ships.

It's only 1500 kilometers from Greenland to Dalmatian, and even at a speed of 25 knots, it would only take 30 hours. Staying in that time shouldn't be a problem.

As for the turret, it doesn't matter. Although it lacks firepower, it has the crucial hydraulic catapult!
Moreover, this batch of wooden ironclad ships did not only launch grubs, but also some V1 missiles.

The V1 is described as a missile, but it actually retains an aircraft configuration and is powered by a rudimentary pulse engine. In essence, it is a large-scale cruise drone.

Hans even developed a manned version for it in the early days, but unfortunately the kamikaze spirit was far inferior to that of the Japanese and the project was eventually abandoned.

Tang Wen manufactured a manned version of the unmanned version, which is the usual manned structure, and then stuffed a small black box with a vacuum tube inside to make do.

This new version not only retains the cutting-edge technology but also avoids the accuracy issues of V1. It can be described as a passive carbon-based artificial intelligence guide, and can even perform tactical maneuvers.

The construction of all the wooden ironclad ships capable of carrying the new V1 was completed in less than a week. Because the port was too full, many of them were left in the dock and not yet launched.

At that time, a slow landing fleet consisting of 106 old High Seas Fleet warships and 50 landing ships will be formed, and the fast fleet will be positioned one after the other. This will be the largest naval battle since Jutland.

During the Battle of Jutland, the British deployed 151 ships and the Hans 99.

这一次登陆舰队战舰106艘、快速舰队1艘航母、4艘战列舰、2艘巡洋舰、6艘驱逐舰共119艘战舰。

According to Tang Wen's research, the British warships at this time included:
Two aircraft carriers: HMS Invincible and HMS Ark Royal;

Four Type 42 destroyers;
7 Type 22 corvettes;
Four Type 23 corvettes.

但是考虑到无敌号尚处于维修状态，以及带英的战备值班策略，大概能出动的只有1艘皇家方舟号航母、2艘42型驱逐舰、3~4艘22型护卫舰，23型也应该只有2艘。

All things considered, with Ying, they could muster a total of 9 warships.

Faced with such an exaggerated gap in strength on paper, Tang Wen seriously suspected that without using super-powerful weapons, the fast fleet alone could have held out all the way to the coastline.

Will the reward be reduced because the task is too easy?

(End of this chapter)