20demayo Chapter 588 3th Fleet
Chapter 588 3th Fleet
588 Third Fleet
Soon, Ye Qingshan saw the only big ship among the warships.
A battleship. This battleship is the largest and stands out among all the warships.
It was hard not to attract Ye Qingshan's attention.
Ye Qingshan pointed at the battleship on the ship not far away and asked Wang Chuying beside him: "Is that our Tianshu battleship?"
Ye Qingshan had seen this battleship before in the photo sent by Ning Yongchen.
I recognized it at this time.
According to the new naming guidelines for the fleet warships formulated by Ye Qingshan at the beginning.
The battleships were named after constellations, starting with the Big Dipper.
This battleship was the first battleship that Ye Qingshan bought from the Americans.
So it was named "Tianshu".
"Yes, Commander."
Ye Qingshan gradually approached this huge ship with a displacement of more than 20,000 tons.
However, Ye Qingshan, who had seen tens of thousands of tons of destroyers and 80,000 tons of aircraft carriers in later generations, was looking at this battleship with a displacement of more than 20,000 tons.
Some were just calm, but not as excited as fleet officers like Wang Chuying.
In fact, in Ye Qingshan's heart, he looked down upon these antiques.
Because this battleship is a Florida-class battleship built by the Americans during World War I more than 20 years ago.
They have been in service for nearly thirty years.
Originally, the US Navy was planning to retire it and use it as a training ship.
Finally, it was bought by Ye Qingshan.
Of course Ye Qingshan also wanted to buy brand new battleships from the United States, but unfortunately they did not allow it.
That thing is not something Ye Qingshan can buy just because he has money now.
Not only that, the US Pacific Fleet is currently being rebuilt, and all the new battleships built by their shipyards are being supplied to the Pacific Fleet.
Also, the policies formulated by the top leaders do not allow the new battleships to be easily sold to others.
There was no other way, Ye Qingshan could only buy these antiques from thirty years ago.
Fortunately, Ye Qingshan has his own shipyard, and after Ye Qingshan bought this Florida-class battleship.
It was driven into the shipyard and underwent modification for half a year.
Not only was a new steam turbine replaced, but the power system was also upgraded.
More importantly, the shipyard modified the battleship according to Ye Qingshan’s requirements.
Ye Qingshan’s request was very simple, which was to dismantle the large-caliber guns on this battleship.
Ye Qingshan knew very well that the era of cannons and big ships in the next naval battle was over.
This battleship, built during World War I, is equipped with large-caliber artillery that are completely useless.
Staying on it is of little use in naval battles except for taking up space on the battleship.
Only a few main guns were retained, and the others were dismantled, with the vacated space used to install torpedo tubes and anti-aircraft guns.
According to Ye Qingshan's positioning, the battleship's attack in the future will mainly be based on torpedoes.
Torpedo attacks were the mainstream naval attack method during World War II, except for carrier-based aircraft.
Adding anti-aircraft guns is also to enhance the survivability of this battleship.
This will also improve his survival rate if he encounters an attack by enemy carrier-based aircraft in future naval battles.
In addition to this battleship, there are eight small ships parked in other berths around it.
Seeing Ye Qingshan's gaze, he moved away from the Tianshu and looked at the other eight destroyers.
Wang Chuying next to him also immediately introduced to Ye Qingshan: "Commander, the other eight destroyers are 'Zhuojun', 'Jianye', 'Gusu'..."
When naming the destroyer, Ye Qingshan used ancient Chinese place names.
These eight destroyers have a displacement of only more than 1,000 tons and are just small fishing boats next to the Tianshu.
Their predecessors were the American Weeks-class destroyers, which were also built more than 20 years ago.
As the US military has better destroyers, these old destroyers will either be relegated to the second line and become transport ships.
Otherwise, they will be handed over to other countries by the Americans.
More than a year ago, the American military retired more than 30 of these destroyers at one time.
More than 20 of them were handed over to the British and converted into patrol ships to strengthen the British Royal Navy's near-shore patrol capabilities and guard against the German Navy.
However, eight of them were intercepted by Ye Qingshan.
Then, they also underwent half a year of modification in the shipyard.
The modification plan is to replace the power system, enhance maneuverability, install new torpedo tubes, and enhance attack power.
To this end, Ye Qingshan spent hundreds of millions of US dollars on these warships.
Therefore, these warships, which the US military believes should be completely eliminated, actually have good combat capabilities.
Outsiders don’t know this.
"Let's go aboard!"
After watching for a while, Ye Qingshan boarded the largest battleship, the Tianshu.
Looking at the battleship that has been repainted for more than 30 years, there is no trace of rust.
Ye Qingshan knew that this battleship was well maintained by Wang Chuying and his team.
"Yes, it is well maintained."
Ye Qingshan nodded with satisfaction.
This was actually Ye Qingshan's first time seeing his own fleet, so he naturally had a critical attitude.
After all, Ye Qingshan spent so much financial and human resources to build this fleet.
On the warship, there were fleet officers and soldiers standing at this time. When they saw Ye Qingshan coming up, they all saluted in unison.
"Hello, sir!"
Everyone shouted in unison.
The sound was deafening.
"Well, the spirit is good."
The captain of this battleship is Wang Chuying, who is also one of the first officers sent by Ye Qingshan to the US Navy for training.
At the same time, Ye Qingshan was also on the ship and saw many white crew members.
These were all retired U.S. Navy officers and soldiers hired by Ye Qingshan.
Of the 1,200 people on board, 1,000 were officers and soldiers of Ye Qingshan's fleet, and the other 200 were retired U.S. military officers and veterans hired by Ye Qingshan.
They all served as instructors, teaching the fleet recruits under Wang Chuying how to operate this battleship.
After nearly a year of training, Wang Chuying and his colleagues are now able to use this battleship proficiently.
At the same time, Ye Qingshan's fleet was externally registered under the name of the Allied Pacific Theater.
Even the designation was 'Allied Pacific Theater Escort Fleet, Third Fleet'.
Even the military uniforms that Wang Chuying and others were wearing at this time were from the United States, except that they did not have military ranks on them.
There is no way, because Ye Qingshan is on someone else's territory and is laying eggs by borrowing someone else's chicken.
These superficial efforts still require compromise.
Moreover, Ye Qingshan's fleet has a certain degree of autonomy.
However, according to the agreement reached between Ye Qingshan and the old American military, they also need to accept the command of the Allied Pacific Theater Command during wartime.
Participate in combat operations against the Japanese naval fleet.
At the beginning, it was because the old American military felt that they could get such an escort formation for free without spending any money.
I think it’s a good deal.
Only then did he agree to Ye Qingshan's proposal to use his own funds to support the Allied forces and form a fleet.
They are not really kind-hearted in supporting Ye Qingshan's naval construction.