Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 178 The Decline of the Naval Gun Age

Of course, Wang Gensheng also understood that one cannot become fat in one bite; one must take it slowly.

Moreover, even if Wang Gensheng didn't seize these warships, most of them would either surrender and be sunk after the war ended, or they would end up being taken by the old man.

So Wang Gensheng could only hide it; there was nothing he could do. After all, this was the age of aviation, the age of bombers and fighter jets!
So for now, we can only hide it, after all, let alone a warship with a displacement of only a thousand tons.

After all, even the Yamato, which was hailed as the world's best battleship, could only be sunk when faced with bombing by carrier-based aircraft.

It's important to know that in the naval history of World War II, the Yamato battleship was like a legendary sea monster.

It was a masterpiece of the Japanese Navy during World War II, embodying the Japanese ambition to dominate the seas. With its superior firepower, heavy armor, and amazing internal facilities, it became one of the most powerful battleships in the world at the time.

However, even the most powerful weapons cannot defy the wheels of history. The Yamato's eventual sinking not only signified the decline of the Japanese navy but also marked the end of the era of battleships and heavy guns.

Although the era of battleships and heavy guns has ended, the development of missile technology, especially the emergence of anti-aircraft missiles, has brought about the era of large ships with multiple missiles. Therefore, it is not battleships that have declined, but only weapons like cannons.

The emergence of the Yamato battleship was largely due to the situation at the time. In the 1930s, the world was in chaos. Driven by militarism, the Japanese dreamed of expansion through force.

However, the Japanese navy knew that its newly established industrial nation was no match for the long-established industrial nation, the United States navy.

Therefore, in order to gain the upper hand in future naval battles, the Japanese decided to adopt a strategy of compensating for quantity with quality, concentrating a large amount of resources to build giant battleships, hoping to use the superior combat power of a single ship to fight against the powerful American fleet. Thus, the Yamato battleship came into being.

The luxury of the Yamato battleship was evident even in the living conditions of its sailors. While the Japanese army suffered from resource scarcity and the food for ordinary soldiers was poor, the Yamato presented a completely different picture.

The ship is equipped with many cooking rooms, cold storage, cooking tables and kitchen counters, and all kinds of electrical appliances, such as rice cookers, automatic mixers, rice washers, and tableware sterilizers, which can easily meet the needs of 2,500 people for three meals a day.

Ordinary sailors not only had plenty of staple food, but also enjoyed snacks and desserts such as bread and pudding. In the summer, the ship's ice cream machine could also help them cool off.

Officers enjoy even better treatment, with the option to choose between Japanese or Western lunches, and dinners as plentiful as those in a high-end Japanese restaurant. The ship also has a large cold storage facility with a capacity of over 200 cubic meters, capable of storing enough food to feed the nearly 3,000 crew members for three months. A bartender provides cigarettes, alcohol, and candy, ensuring the crew can enjoy a comfortable diet even at sea.

The accommodations were equally impressive. Ordinary soldiers' living quarters maintained a constant temperature year-round, and even when sailing in tropical waters, they could comfortably enjoy air conditioning. Each soldier had 3.2 square meters of living space, with spacious beds.

The officers' cabins were even more luxurious, resembling five-star hotel suites, with meeting rooms, offices, bedrooms, bathrooms, and private toilets, and pure wool carpets on the floors. Orderlies were always at their service. The ship also had recreational facilities such as a library and a concert hall, allowing officers and sailors to relax in their spare time. Because the Yamato initially served as the headquarters of the Combined Fleet, its cabins were exceptionally lavishly furnished.

The cabins were decorated in both Western and Japanese styles, completely modeled after the Imperial Hotel of Japan, so that the officers could stay comfortably at sea.

Therefore, the Yamato was jokingly called "Yamato Hotel" by its officers and soldiers. Its sister ship, the Musashi, which later entered service, was even more luxurious and was even called "Musashi Palace".

The Yamato's power was primarily manifested in its weaponry. Its main armament consisted of the Type 94 460mm guns (45-caliber), mounted in three triple turrets distributed along the bow and stern. This configuration allowed the Yamato to launch powerful attacks on targets from various directions during naval battles. Each main gun fired a shell weighing 1.5 tons, possessing immense destructive power and a maximum range of 42 kilometers. At a range of 20 to 30 kilometers, its shells could easily penetrate the main armor of most battleships in the world at the time, making it a true "weapon of mass destruction" in naval warfare.

In addition to its main guns, the Yamato was also equipped with a variety of secondary guns. For example, the Type 3 60-caliber triple 155mm secondary guns had a high rate of fire and a relatively long range. They were mainly used to deal with enemy destroyers and other small and medium-sized ships, and could also threaten enemy cruisers to some extent, providing the Yamato with relatively comprehensive firepower coverage.

In addition, the Type 89 40-caliber twin 127mm anti-aircraft gun and a large number of Type 96 25mm anti-aircraft machine guns formed the Yamato's anti-aircraft fire network to defend against enemy carrier-based aircraft attacks.

In terms of protection, the Yamato achieved the ultimate. Its main armor belt was protected by 410 mm steel armor, which was not only thick but also extremely strong, effectively withstanding enemy shell attacks.

The turret's frontal armor is 650 millimeters thick, making it like a solid fortress and providing reliable protection for the main gun and crew inside. The underwater sections of the hull are also specially designed to withstand the explosive equivalent of 400 kilograms of TNT, so even if hit by two or three torpedoes, it can still maintain basic combat capability.

The Yamato battleship's propulsion system was also impressive. Twelve Kanmoto-type Ro-class boilers provided 150,000 horsepower, driving four steam turbines and four propellers, enabling it to reach a maximum design speed of 27 knots.

For a battleship at that time, such a speed was quite good, allowing the Yamato to quickly adjust its position in naval battles, seize good opportunities, and quickly withdraw from the battlefield if the situation was unfavorable.

It's a pity that the Yamato has already sunk, otherwise Wang Gensheng would definitely have tried to seize the Yamato battleship.

However, it must be said that although Wang Gensheng did not board the Yamato battleship, the food on the current warship is quite good.

Perhaps it was to curry favor with Wang Gensheng or something else, when Wang Gensheng ordered the ship's cook to prepare a late-night snack for the frogman special forces soldiers to fill their stomachs.

They actually brought out steak! Putting aside the fact that it was a meal, Wang Gensheng was truly shocked by what he had to offer, especially since the Japanese had already been defeated.

However, living conditions were still not very good. Because of the heavy training load, Wang Gensheng and others were already lucky to have pork stew with vermicelli. This guy went straight for steak.

(End of this chapter)