20demayo Chapter 631 F4F Wildcat
Chapter 631 F4F Wildcat
F4F Wildcat Fighter 631, F4F Wildcat
One day of exercise preparation time is actually very important for both Ye Qingshan’s expeditionary fleet and the US military.
It was all very hasty.
But this can also better test the combat effectiveness of a fleet.
The day passed quickly.
At eight o'clock in the morning on the 27th, one hour before the exercise was to begin.
Ye Qingshan arrived at the Guanmo sea area on the Tianshu and boarded a US battleship.
At this time, there were more than a dozen senior American generals including Frank on this American battleship.
When Ye Qingshan looked over, they were all senior American generals with the ranks of colonel, brigadier general, and major general.
Generals at the lieutenant general level are indeed not suitable to participate.
"Ye, this is Major General Field, the leader of our military observation group this time."
Frank brought Ye Qingshan to a middle-aged major general with blue eyes and a beard, and introduced the other party's identity to Ye Qingshan.
"Hello, General Field."
"Hello, General Ye."
The two shook hands in a friendly manner.
Ye Qingshan had actually received Frank's message in advance and knew that he could not participate in today's military observation group.
Instead, he selected a major general in the U.S. Pacific Fleet who had a good relationship with both Frank and Bulwer.
It was this Major General Field who was responsible for leading the military observation group.
They are called an observation group, but in fact they are just referees.
They have the final say on which of the two fleets participating in the exercise will be the ultimate winner.
Even Ye Qingshan was not a member of this observation group.
However, it is essentially unreasonable for such a referee to be composed entirely of American military generals.
But Ye Qingshan had no choice.
After all, today's exercise is an exercise competition between the expeditionary fleet and a US fleet.
In fact, in essence, the expeditionary fleet just wants to gain the recognition of the top brass of the US Pacific Fleet through this exercise.
This changed the status of their fleet from an escort fleet to a combat fleet.
The two sides are nominally allies.
But allies with unequal strength can never be truly equal.
Ye Qingshan knew this from the beginning to the end.
Ye Qingshan was also powerless to change it.
He just needs his fleet officers to work hard and perform well in today's exercises.
"Ye, look.
That's where the target ship is."
Ye Qingshan looked in the direction Frank pointed through the telescope.
We discovered that in the southeast and southwest directions, about 20 to 30 kilometers away, there were three target ships sailing slowly.
"An hour later, the aircraft carrier fleets of both sides of the exercise will attack from two directions at the same time.
Launch attacks on target ships in these two sea areas.
The side that can end the attack in the shortest time and with more accurate bombing will be the winner.
Ye, are your people ready?"
Frank also looked at Ye Qingshan nervously.
What happened this time was actually beyond Frank's expectations.
He also didn't expect that his old rival, Major General Bulwer, would actually request such an exercise competition.
But at that time, Frank had already been framed by the other party in the meeting.
You have no choice but to agree.
But if Ye Qingshan's fleet lost, then all his original plans would be ruined.
Ye Qingshan’s expeditionary fleet should not expect to be cut off from Frank’s command and fight together with them.
Of course, this is not the most important thing.
Frank is not yet at the point where he absolutely needs Ye Qingshan's expedition fleet.
The main thing is that Frank doesn't want to lose to his old rival Bulwer.
"We'll see."
Faced with Frank's questioning, Ye Qingshan knew that it was useless to say more.
Not long after, two aircraft carrier fleets gradually appeared in the east and west directions, separated by a distance of thirty or forty kilometers.
No longer approach the target ship area.
The battleship of the observation group was located in the sea area between the target ship and the two aircraft carrier fleets conducting the exercise.
Ye Qingshan's expeditionary fleet has three destroyers, namely Zhuojun, Changping and Chencang.
The US military has three new destroyers.
There are significant differences in the performance of the two sides' warships.
After all, the three destroyers on Ye Qingshan's side, even after being modified, cannot conceal the fact that they are old ships from more than 20 years ago.
The three destroyers of the US military were basically launched in the past five years.
Originally, the US Fleet Command had taken this into consideration before the exercise and tried to make up for the performance differences between the two sides' warships.
It is unlikely to allocate three new warships to Ye Qingshan's fleet.
Finally, they decided to allow the three destroyers of Ye Qingshan’s fleet to carry an extra torpedo.
At the same time, let them set off twenty minutes earlier after the exercise begins.
In response, Ye Qingshan did not refuse.
On the one hand, Ye Qingshan felt that this compensation was reasonable.
After all, although Ye Qingshan has confidence in his fleet soldiers, he also has to fight for their legitimate rights and interests.
We cannot expect our fleet soldiers to perform better than the US military in exercises while driving outdated warships.
That's a bit too harsh.
On the other hand, Ye Qingshan had no choice but to agree.
The US Major General Bulwer who led the team in the exercise also felt that his victory would be unfair.
As for carrier-based aircraft, the gap between the two sides is not that big.
After discussion, the top US military officials decided that the carrier-based aircraft used in this exercise would be their newly equipped F4F Wildcat fighter jets.
After all, this carrier-based aircraft will be the main carrier-based aircraft of their fleet in the future.
Ye Qingshan’s fleet pilots want to fight together with them.
You must be able to use this new type of carrier-based fighter skillfully.
Fortunately, the carrier-based aircraft at Ye Qingshan Fleet Base had been replaced with F4F Wildcats half a year ago.
Therefore, the pilots of Ye Qingshan’s fleet can fly F4F Wildcats.
Of course, the Wildcat fighters of Ye Qingshan’s fleet are the original models.
More than half a year ago, Ye Qingshan spent money to purchase it from Grumman.
However, it was only half a year ago that the US fleet was officially equipped with the F4F Wildcat fighter.
Therefore, the Wildcat fighter jets flown by US military pilots are a more mature version.
Fortunately, the US military also has a lot of the initial versions of Wildcat fighters used by Ye Qingshan’s fleet pilots.
It’s no problem to get thirty of them together.
In the end, it was decided to have the carrier-based pilots of both sides use the initial version of the Wildcat fighter as the exercise aircraft.
Each Wildcat fighter carried two 45-kilogram bombs to carry out bombing attack missions.
Soon, it was nine o'clock in the morning.
"It's time to start!"
After Field, the leader of the observation group, looked at his watch and gave the order.
An American officer on the battleship immediately picked up the walkie-talkie and gave the order to start the exercise.
“The exercise begins!
All pilots, aboard immediately."