Empire Conquest

Chapter 632 - 628: A Huge Gap

Within the assault formation, there were 6 "Nanzhu Sea" class vessels, along with 12 ten-thousand-ton cruisers and at least 20 large destroyers.

All of these were newly built warships constructed after the outbreak of the great war.

Although out of habit, people still used the term "heavy cruiser," the fact was that the warships built after the outbreak of the war were no longer heavy cruisers.

The reason was quite simple.

The concept of "heavy cruiser" itself originated from two naval arms treaties, specifically referring to cruisers equipped with 8-inch main guns. In contrast, light cruisers were equipped with 6-inch main guns. As for other specifications like tonnage, there was no special distinction between the two types of cruisers.

After the treaties were voided, the concept of heavy cruisers ceased to exist.

Precisely for this reason, those built after the treaties were voided were generally referred to as post-treaty types.

The main difference was tonnage. All post-treaty warships addressed the issues of treaty warships by increasing displacement.

With roughly equal technological standards, the only way to compensate for the defects in warship performance was to increase tonnage.

To put it simply, the post-treaty heavy cruisers were just a size larger.

Of course, there was also a clear distinction in their use.

Although the Liangxia Navy never lacked anti-air warships and even specially constructed a batch of long-range cruisers with a focus on anti-air capabilities, all large warships emphasized their anti-air combat ability and without exception fortified their anti-air firepower, becoming genuine anti-air warships.

This was particularly evident on heavy cruisers.

Even though the standard displacement rose to 15,000 tons, the main guns equipped on the Liangxia Navy’s heavy cruisers were still the 200mm naval guns developed and put into production before the war. They did not adopt larger caliber main guns, nor did they use longer gun barrels, and they even refrained from improvements aimed at increasing the rate of fire.

The primary role of those nine 200mm naval guns was actually to provide artillery support for the Marine Corps.

Clearly, the Newland Navy wasn’t so singular in focus.

For instance, on the 17,000-ton class cruisers currently in design, the Newland Navy proposed equipping stronger main guns than the Mk15 type 55 caliber 8-inch naval guns and was inclined towards increasing the caliber of the main guns, rather than universally using longer gun barrels, and improving the firing mechanisms to increase range and rate of fire.

Without a doubt, adopting larger caliber main guns would inevitably come at a greater cost.

The key, however, was the number.

Just three Special Mixed Fleets had a total of 12 state-of-the-art heavy cruisers, while the Newland Navy didn’t even have that many new heavy cruisers altogether!

The "Oregon" class had only completed its design, and the "Des Moines" class had just a technical framework.

Even the "Baltimore" class had merely a few units!

What’s more, beyond heavy cruisers, the Liangxia Navy also possessed even more powerful large cruisers, with 12 of them already delivered.

As for the large cruisers of the Newland Navy, not only were they not completed, but there were also just 4 in total.

Actually, the disparity in numbers was also reflected in other warships, such as large destroyers more suitable for open sea operations.

In the last great war, destroyers were still considered small vessels and were known as "torpedo attack ships," a type of fast warship that treated torpedoes as their main armament.

In nature, they were similar to today’s torpedo fast boats.

For quite a lengthy period, torpedoes were regarded by numerous second-rate navies as a weapon to challenge and defeat first-rate navies.

The most representative was the Locke Navy.

Sadly, the harsh reality proved that the domination of the seas was not determined by one or a few advanced weapons, nor could a handful of advanced weapons change the rules of naval warfare.

It wasn’t until the latter stages of the last great war that destroyers took on anti-submarine duties and gained the attention of the Navy.

However, due to the limitations of anti-submarine technology and submarine tactics, destroyers continued to be considered auxiliary warships and did not become the main force of the fleet during the last great war.

The most obvious indicator of this was their tonnage.

Most destroyers hovered around 1000 tons, and reaching 1500 tons was quite remarkable.

Even after the onset of the great war, the development of destroyers advanced very slowly. This was not only due to the impact of "naval holidays" but was also closely related to their intended use.

Simply put, there was no need for upsizing.

It wasn’t until this war broke out that destroyers began their path to becoming larger.

The Newland Navy was the first to upscale its destroyers.

Interestingly, the continuous increase in the tonnage of Newland destroyers, or rather the construction of large destroyers, was not to enhance their anti-air or anti-submarine capabilities, but to keep pace with the Special Mixed Fleet so as not to become its weak link.

The key factors were cruising speed and endurance.

Making destroyers larger was solely to load more fuel and to install a more powerful propulsion system after the increase in tonnage.

Of course, a secondary benefit that came with this was that the destroyers acquired more comprehensive combat capabilities.

This laid the foundation for them to become versatile players on the sea in the future.

The newest destroyers of the Newland Navy had a standard displacement of over 3000 tons, almost twice the size of those built before the war.

With the increased tonnage, not only could they be equipped with more dual-purpose high-angle guns, but also with more high-altitude guns.

Interestingly, these large destroyers did not strengthen their torpedo combat capabilities, nor their anti-submarine capabilities in order to protect carriers.

Of course, this was related to the traditional tactics of the Newland Navy.

The navy that paid the least attention to torpedoes in the world was probably the Newland Navy.

Not to mention before the war, even as the war entered its fourth year, most of the Newland Navy’s warships were still using the heavy torpedoes developed before the war.

The torpedoes used by Newland submarines were actually produced using technology imported from the Tiaoman Empire.

It seemed that as long as problems could be solved with big guns or bombs, the fleet commanders of the Newland Navy would not consider utilizing torpedoes.

As for anti-submarine warfare, as long as there were enough escort warships, it wasn’t a concern.

But no one dared to underestimate the anti-submarine combat strength of Newland destroyers.

To date, in terms of anti-submarine operational efficiency, the destroyers of the Newland Navy far surpassed the destroyers of other navies.

The key is that the Newland Navy was the first to equip active sonar!

The value of such anti-submarine equipment would be best articulated by the captains and sailors of the Newland submarines that once went out to sea and never returned.

Just in the first few months of this year, the loss rate of Newland submarines had increased nearly tenfold compared to the same period last year!

Of course, the biggest difference was still in numbers.

Though not many in absolute numbers and not built particularly rapidly, the relative tonnage of destroyers constructed by the Newland Navy during the great war was about one and a half times that of the Newland Federation Navy, almost equivalent to the sum of the Newland and Bulan Royal Navies!

It was precisely because of this that the Newland Navy was able to equip all Special Mixed Fleets with sufficient large destroyers.

Of course, the construction of escort destroyers did not reduce the number of large destroyers being built.

All these factors reflected the enormous gap between the industrial strengths of the two sides, especially in the heavy industry sector directly affecting and determining the scale of navies.

The key was that the Liangxia Empire had not yet undertaken a full war mobilization.

If the Liangxia Empire undertook full war mobilization, even by the standards of the Newland Federation, industrial production scale could increase by thirty percent.

Facing such an opponent, was there still hope for victory?

Spur was quite moved by these thoughts until a staff officer hurriedly arrived on the open-air corridor, snapping him back to reality.