On the afternoon of May 31, 1916, a sea battle condensing the essence and hard work of the British Imperial Navy and the Second German Imperial Navy broke out in the North Sea of the Atlantic Ocean. In the future, this second large-scale naval battle in human history (after the Great Battle of Leyte Bay) and the largest battleship duel, in the name of "Jytland Battle", became one of the most dazzling chapters in naval history. Become the most iconic battle and the pinnacle of the era of great guns.
From Jutland to Okinawa: the end of the battleship era
In the more than two decades after the Great Battle of Jutland, the naval powers of all countries in the world used the big guns as the core of naval construction, and its ultimate representative was displacement. The Japanese Navy’s "Yamato" class battleship with a capacity of 70,500 tons.
However, the so-called prosperity and decline. Although the development and progress of a series of related technologies such as ultra-high-pressure and high-temperature boilers, fire control radars, key protection, heavy bombs, welded armor, lightning protection systems, and inclined armor, greatly improved the combat effectiveness and survivability of battleships, making the 1940s The age-standard battleships far surpassed those "predecessors" who participated in the Jutland naval battles. However, on the morning of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the emerging naval aviation forces opposed the large ships established by the Jutland naval battle. The cannon policy’s core position in the field of sea power has challenged! Finally, at 14:20 on April 7, 1945, as the strongest battleship in the Second World War, the "Yamato", was sunk by the U.S. naval aviation during the Okinawa naval battle, the ship’s giant artillery was officially announced. The end of the era!
According to records, the martyrdom of the "Yamato" when it sank produced a cloud column nearly 6,100 meters high, making it clear to the Japanese residents 193 kilometers away. However, in its short life, the Yamato’s 460mm main gun had only fired at one target, that is, on October 25, 1944, off the island of Samar in the Philippines, attacking a ship that did not An important U.S. Navy escort aircraft carrier, and most naval warfare history researchers do not believe that the Yamato really hit its target. The ending of the super battleship built by the Japanese militarists exhausted their national strength can be described as quite dark and humorous, but it also shows that the era of the great artillery of the big ship is "helpless."
On September 15, 2015, Trump, then a presidential candidate, boarded the "Iowa" battleship in San Pedro and gave a campaign speech. This move was once interpreted by those interested in that he wanted to resume the ocean cruise of the U.S. Navy battleships. Although the news turned out to be untrue, people traditionally regarded battleships as a representative artifact of national strength. This shows that
has more rivet steamed steel: "Multi-turret religion" subculture
At the end of the 20th century, as the Iowa-class battleships of the U.S. Navy were successively retired, sealed, and delisted after the Gulf War, the era of great artillery ships officially entered. history.
However, outside of the military field, the steel battleship that represents the era of the artillery cannon has become the "idol" and "belief" in the hearts of countless military fans, forming a unique military subculture with a steampunk color. They regarded having multiple turrets, large-caliber main guns, and huge war machines (including warships but not limited to warships) as "man's romance", and believed that it represented the ultimate pursuit of attack and defense power of mankind in the mechanical age. . Among Chinese military fans, a "multi-turret cult" with the slogan "multi-rivet steamed steel (gang)" has been formed! These military fans also like to call themselves "multi-turret gods". What
needs to explain is that the multi-turret sect originated from a forum where military enthusiasts gathered. Its slogan "Multi-Riveting Steam Gang" refers to multiple turrets, riveted armor, steam power, and rigid suspension. "——The love and admiration of multi-turret tanks. Later, many versions such as air force version and battleship version were derived. Later, because of the large number of naval enthusiasts, they came from behind, and even the slogan was changed to "multi-rivet steamed steel" by its influence. And with the words "multiple riveting and steaming steel, great ship cannon", to show his identity as "multi-turret gods". A passage from a senior "multi-turret god congregation" may best explain their psychological incentive to pursue this military subculture: the development of modern technology at
is more and more beyond human daily experience. Devices are becoming more and more difficult to understand. Why can a small magic chip achieve so many functions? We can see the movement of the force arm, the ejection of steam, the reciprocation of the spring; but we simply cannot imagine, How electrons rush in the quantum tunnel with a width of only tens of nanometers, we rely on millions of years of human instinct to fight against the progress of science and technology. As a result, some of us have chosen to reminisce about the more brilliant, simpler and understandable era technology. The huge machinery reciprocated, and the turrets pointed towards nine o'clock in the scream of the electric motors. All of them, put it! Hundreds of billions of turrets, hundreds of billions of stars!
In China, which lacks the history and tradition of the giant cannon, there are so many "multi-turret gods" supporters, so the culture of worship and obsession with the giant cannon in Europe, America and Japan is even more prosperous. Cultural products are also more prosperous. After all, the battleship Missouri, which has been decommissioned and sealed and turned into a museum, has also appeared on the big screen many times: it became the battleship between American heroes and terrorists in "Dark Dragon (Battleship Blood)"; In "Super Battleship", he personally went to battle against the aliens who invaded the earth, showing the majestic appearance of "the sword is not old".
During the campaign, the current U.S. President Trump boarded the battleship Iowa and gave a campaign speech. The result was interpreted as "resuming the ocean cruise of the U.S. Navy battleship", which attracted artillery enthusiasts and multi-turret enthusiasts. Be eager to try, use your imagination, and explore feasible transformation plans for battleships in the new era. Although the incident proved to be a "news oolong" in the end, it also showed the military fans' love and obsession with the cannon giant ship.
Of course, even the most experienced "multi-turret gods" admit that, in the face of the prosperity of guided weapons in the modern and near future battlefield conditions, multi-turret armaments such as cannon giant ships will not reappear. On the battlefield.
Therefore, artillery giant ship enthusiasts and multi-turretists cast their vision of imagination to a more distant future-the space age. They believe that the battlefield of the old multi-turret vehicles—the cannon giants is a two-dimensional sea. The process of three-dimensional warfare has just begun, but humans are still confined to a limited height on the surface of the earth, so guided weapons have become popular. When mankind moves further into deep space, towards true three-dimensional space, and enters the era of cosmic navigation, multi-turret vehicles will be able to break through the tonnage limit, possessing attack power and defensive power beyond current imagination, and the giant artillery ships will surely become heavy. Back to the battlefield, that is, "hundreds of billions of turrets, hundreds of billions of stars!"
Therefore, in Europe, America and Japan, the space version of the giant cannon becomes a necessary element in the literary works and derivatives of space science fiction. However, it is worth mentioning that, with the exception of the science fiction animation "Space Battleship Yamato", which is considered to have a strong Japanese right-wing color, most of the large ship guns in space science fiction works are based on the three-dimensional environment of the space battlefield, although they retain The basic attributes of multi-turrets, cannons, and giant ships are completely different from those of the giant cannons of the old age.
Next, we will introduce those battleship fantasy about the space age! One of the main battleships of the Empire fleet in the
game "Warhammer 40K": Retribution battleship. In the background story of this sci-fi game, the battleships of the Empire Fleet are divided into the Nemesis-class fleet carrier, the Victory-class battleship, the Holy Grail-class battlecruiser, the Emperor-class battleship and the Nemesis-class battleship. Among them, the Nemesis-class battleship has become the most dependent and reliable combat power of the Imperial Army with its high speed and powerful firepower.
Galaxy Gothic epic: the battleship
in "Warhammer 40K" "Warhammer 40K" is a game developed by a British game company. A series of board game chess games that were released in 1987, has since derived many cultural products such as video games, animation, film and television, and even influenced Blizzard’s famous game "StarCraft."
"Warhammer 40K" takes the Gothic-style sci-fi and magical galaxy as the stage, where humans, orcs, chaos, zerg and other forces entangle and fight. In the world of Warhammer 40K, the human empire has a navy that is relatively large in number and organization although it is slightly backward in technology. The Imperial Navy is responsible for planetary defense, protection and escort of imperial ship routes, transport of imperial defense forces, and the destruction of enemy ships (in fleet operations) and planets (in orbital bombing or extermination operations) and other tasks. Its style is very similar to the European naval powers of the First World War.
The fleet of the Imperial Navy is composed of a variety of ships, which can be roughly divided into three levels: battleships and cruisers (including giant cruisers, cruisers and light cruisers) and escort ships (such as frigates and destroyers). Among them, the battleship is equipped with a large number of weapons andThe shield, usually used as the flagship of the fleet or the admiral’s seat, is also a symbol of the strength of the Imperial Navy. Most settings believe that the length of the battleship should be between 6 and 8 kilometers. The battleship crew can reach three million people, most of which are the armed forces of the Imperial Navy (can be understood as the Marine Corps), used to counter enemy boarding raids. Even more people can be deployed when resources permit. The Emperor-class battleships are known for their extremely large number of attack aircraft, the Punishment-class battleships are characterized by a large number of side gunfire and a large number of torpedo tubes, and the Victory-class battleships are known for their powerful main guns.
The battleships of the Imperial Navy use macro guns (electromagnetic guns) as their main guns. The barrel of the macro cannon is 500 meters long, using electromagnetic propulsion, which can accelerate the cannonball to more than 1,000 kilometers per second. But compared with the energy weapon of the speed of light, this speed is still very slow. Therefore, a macro artillery shell may take about half an hour or more to fly before hitting its target. And it may be the imitation or love of the Gothic style and the World War I background in the setting, the imperial navy's macro artillery still uses manual loading. At the same time, the macro artillery is also equipped with an inertial buffer and an anti-gravity field generator. The former is to counteract the reaction force when firing, and the latter is to reduce the relative weight of the shell to obtain a higher initial velocity. The Empire-class star destroyer in the
series of film and television works "Star Wars". This is also one of the most impressive ships in the Star Wars series. It first appeared in "Star Wars IV: First Light" and is the representative ship of the Galactic Empire Star Fleet. A typical Imperial-class star destroyer is 1,600 meters long, equipped with turbo lasers, ion cannons, and towed beam projectors. It is also equipped with multiple titanium fighters and a large number of ground military forces. Another main weapon of the
battleship is the light spear (laser cannon). ). The light spear is a giant energy weapon, capable of launching a continuous jet of energy at a long distance, making a large mouth on the enemy capital ship, or directly cutting a light ship with an unexpanded shield in half. . Light spears are basically placed in giant turrets around the hull to deal with enemies coming from all directions.
is actually more suitable for space warfare than macro artillery, which has a relatively slow initial velocity. But considering that there are various magical forces in the world of "Warhammer 40K", it is indeed necessary for the macro cannon to physically eliminate the enemy's kinetic energy weapons.
The super IP of the movie industry: Star Destroyer
in "Star Wars" As everyone knows, the "Star Wars" series of films are classic space science fiction films by the famous director George Lucas, which have repeatedly set box office records and spawned countless Cultural derivatives.
Although this series mainly tells the story of Jedi warriors armed with lightsabers and using force against the Galactic Empire, the huge space star destroyer is also the highlight of the film. The Imperial Class Star Destroyer (ISD) has outstanding performance as a heavy weapon platform, performing planetary attacks, planetary defense, anti-ship operations, and acting as a light ship mothership. In the setting, a fleet composed of star destroyers is always more effective than a task force composed of multiple warships. Therefore, the Star Destroyer is considered to be the iconic warship of the Imperial fleet. Its appearance in a galaxy indicates that the empire is extremely concerned about the affairs here. In the setting, the Empire-class Star Destroyer is 1.6 kilometers long and has at least 37,000 crew members. This does not count as the Imperial Stormtrooper of a division (Division) it carries, about 9,700 people. The
Empire-class star destroyer is extremely dense in firepower, and is the most typical space age multi-turret warship. The specific Empire class star destroyer is divided into ISD1 type and ISD2 type. The ISD1 has six twin heavy-duty turbocharged laser gun turrets and two twin heavy-duty ion gun turrets arranged on both sides of the tower bridge; two quadruple heavy-duty turbochargers are arranged on both sides of the battleship. Pressure laser cannon turret. In addition, 60 turbocharged laser cannons and 60 plasma cannons are scattered all over the centerline of the hull and every corner of the superstructure. The ISD2 type has 8 8-heavy turbocharged laser cannon turrets arranged on both sides of the ship's superstructure, as well as 36 turbocharged laser arrays and 20 plasma cannons arranged throughout the side and the superstructure.
However, although the size of the Star Destroyer is far beyond that of a battleship in reality, it is only a cruiser in the setting. Its size is obviously insignificant compared to the ship of the villain Darth Vader, the Super Star Destroyer Executor.Witch.
Executive-class Executive Super Star Destroyer (or Dreadnought), 19,000 meters long, with 25 heavy-duty turbocharged laser gun arrays (250), 25 medium-sized turbocharged laser gun arrays (250) , 25 heavy plasma cannon arrays (250), and more than 5000 small laser cannons and plasma cannons.
The executor-class superstar destroyer (or dreadnought) in "Star Wars", 19,000 meters long, with 25 heavy-duty turbocharged laser cannon arrays (250), 25 medium-sized turbocharged laser cannons Array (250 doors), 25 heavy plasma cannon arrays (250 doors), and more than 5000 small laser cannons and plasma cannons
Space historical opera: "Line up shot"
"Legend of Galaxy Heroes" is a lot A masterpiece on Japanese space themes familiar to Chinese readers. The phrase "Our journey is the sea of stars" that is popular in the Chinese Internet community is actually derived from the protagonist Reinhardt in the novel: "My journey is the sea of stars!"
The famous Japanese novelist Yoshiki Tanaka In this novel, by describing the rise of Reinhard von Royankram, the upstart of the Galactic Empire, and his lifelong rival, Allied Marshal Yang Weili, it shows readers a scene of "general tens of millions , A magnificent space history opera of hundreds of thousands of warships.
However, for this work, many readers also expressed their "despair" of Yoshiki Tanaka's mathematical ability and his use of two-dimensional "queue to shoot" tactics to fight three-dimensional space warfare. There is even a saying that "Legend of the Galaxy Heroes" is actually nothing more than a mixed novel of European court and Chinese history dressed in a space age.
Although "a thousand people have a thousand Hamlet",
