Empire Conquest

Chapter 475 - 471: Everyone Has Their Strengths

To free up the slipway, four small carriers were docked beside the fitting-out pier.

According to the plan, after the first batch of four was completed, the construction of small carriers would be transferred to smaller shipyards, while Puzhou Shipyard would still build the second batch of four hulls. If a third batch were to be constructed or a newly designed signal was required, it would be built by other shipyards.

The dock was bustling, with hundreds of workers busy at work, accompanied by a group of Navy officers and soldiers.

When Zhao Yu arrived, Bai Zhizhan had just alighted from the vehicle, and the accompanying shipyard PR manager had gone ahead to find several key foremen and the supervisor.

Unlike in peacetime, the wartime supervisor was a full-time position and not the warship’s first captain.

This arrangement mainly aimed to improve construction efficiency.

Typically, a new warship’s first captain would often come from the same rank or from the same model’s other warships, possibly a major department officer.

Under normal circumstances, the first captain would take up the post about half a month before the warship was completed.

Upon seeing Zhao Yu, Bai Zhizhan immediately noticed that he had more white hair.

"You really are anxious."

"I came early to get a look, to avoid worrying too much."

Zhao Yu sighed and nodded to the approaching supervisor and several foremen as a greeting.

Since Zhao Yu had been actively pushing for the construction of small carriers, he knew almost all the people in charge, and they recognized him.

Then, Bai Zhizhan asked about some points of particular concern, such as the progress of the construction.

Just as Zhao Yu had mentioned in the telegram, the construction was going smoothly, all within the plan, and it would definitely be delivered on time.

Because the Navy had increased investment and offered high bonuses, the workers were very motivated, and most were voluntarily working overtime.

As for performance, there was no need to worry.

During the design, Zhao Yu had faced opposition but decided to use launchers, even if it meant making some sacrifices, such as the valuable space at the front of the ship.

It was precisely because of this that this type of small carrier, with a standard displacement of less than 15,000 tons, could carry and use all the active ship-borne aircraft of the Imperial Navy.

However, it had prominent drawbacks.

Firstly, the number of aircraft it could carry was small; the hangar could only hold just over 30 aircraft, and with those tied down on the flight deck, it would not exceed 50.

Since the flight deck was not wide enough, it was impossible, unlike fleet carriers and large carriers, to tie down aircraft on the sides of the deck without hindering normal takeoff and landing operations. Consequently, in actual combat, it was necessary to avoid tying down aircraft on the flight deck as much as possible.

In fact, towards the later stages of the war, the Imperial Navy clearly stipulated that small carriers should not have aircraft tied down on the flight deck before entering the battlefield.

The reason was that tying down aircraft significantly reduced aerial operation efficiency, and in the event of an emergency, it could lead to being caught off guard.

In practice, captains of small carriers rarely tied down aircraft on the flight decks.

This was greatly related to the operational use of small carriers.

Aside from escorting, most of the time, small carriers provided support for ground troops, requiring frequent aircraft takeoffs and landings, and each sortie involved only a few aircraft. This determined that small carriers valued continuous operational capabilities, over the ability to dispatch a large number of aircraft explosively.

Another drawback was that the limited height of the hangar restricted the expansion capabilities and made it impossible to operate the large ship-borne aircraft that appeared in the later stages of the war.

This was an unsolvable problem.

Due to tonnage restrictions, the need to improve battlefield survivability and maintain a sufficient speed and adequate numSimon en ber of aircraft, even the number of High-altitude Guns was specified, designers could only try to save weight and space elsewhere, such as setting the hangar height based on the existing aircraft.

As a result, during the later stages of the war, many small carriers could only carry fighters and were unable to operate the larger bombers and torpedo bombers.

Of course, this problem hadn’t surfaced yet.

The last drawback was the weak self-sustainability.

Although at the time of design, Zhao Yu had given up on endurance to increase the load of aviation gasoline and ammunition for enhanced continued combat capabilities, due to tonnage restrictions, the small carriers’ continued combat capabilities were still very poor, with aviation fuel and ammunition loads less than half that of the larger carriers.

Given the combat intensity when attacking Sai Island, they would probably need resupply every three days.

If they operated near the landing areas and were with the landing fleet, the difficulty of resupply operations on the front lines would not be too great.

It should be noted that the Imperial Navy had always been enhancing its capabilities for offshore resupply.

Soon after the outbreak of the great war, the Imperial Navy had recognized the importance of supply ships and had immediately begun to develop fast supply ships based on fleet tankers, which later came to be known as integrated supply ships or combat support ships, with the first batch having been delivered to the Navy at the beginning of the year.

Because training had not been completed in time, they hadn’t made it to the eleventh Special Mixed Fleet’s expedition to the Southwest Fan Flame Ocean.

In the future, with fast supply ships and numerous fleet tankers, there would no longer be concerns about support in expeditionary operations.

Subsequently, Bai Zhizhan and Zhao Yu boarded a small carrier.

Actually, the direct impression was much clearer.

Simply put, it was like a proportionally scaled-down fleet carrier.

Because it was smaller, there were many irreparable flaws, thus limiting the actual combat value of the small carriers.

According to Zhao Yu, don’t expect to win fleet decisive battles with small carriers, with a deployment capacity only sixty percent that of a fleet carrier and less than forty percent of larger carriers. When considering other factors, their combat power was only a third of that of large carriers.

In Bai Zhizhan’s eyes, these four small carriers were exceptionally important.

As for why they were important, only Bai Zhizhan knew.

Although the factory was very enthusiastic, the Puzhou factory manager Yang Hanlin had personally arranged a welcome dinner after learning that Bai Zhizhan had arrived early, but Zhao Yu was clearly not giving the factory manager much face.

Actually, Bai Zhizhan also didn’t want to attend any welcome dinner.

He came to Puzhou a few days early primarily to get a clear picture of the construction status of the four small carriers and to meet with Zhao Yu to discuss recent matters.

To say the least, Bai Zhizhan trusted Zhao Yu the most.

This trust, unlike the kind built on jointly facing life and death on the battlefield, was based on a shared vision.

This was why, each time he returned from an expedition, Bai Zhizhan’s first thought was always to seek out Zhao Yu, because it was only with Zhao Yu that he could obtain the latest information.

Furthermore, after the Eight Pillars, Zhao Yu was an Hereditary Count of the Empire and the Chief Engineer of the Navy.

That is to say, Zhao Yu could access a lot of insider information that others, including military figures like Li Yunxiang and Lian Xusheng, couldn’t.

The mere position of Chief Engineer allowed Zhao Yu access to top-secret materials that many generals were not privy to.

Moreover, Zhao Yu’s perspective on matters was different from that of a military person.

After all, he wasn’t a soldier, hadn’t undergone military training, and naturally wasn’t bound by military constraints.

In Bai Zhizhan’s words, every meeting with Zhao Yu brought unexpected gains, all of immense value.

This time was no different.

Thinking of the upcoming large-scale strategic attack on East Ocean, Bai Zhizhan felt uneasy in his heart and was even more eager to understand Zhao Yu’s views.