Chapter 80: Rushing Towards the Crisis (1)

After taking care of these things, Contini ignored the sales of scrap steel in the Far East and prepared to leave for the United States again. However, before leaving, he had to straighten out the domestic economic situation. In 1926, the United Group's losses unprecedentedly exceeded 3.4 billion lire, of which military and military-related expenses alone were as high as 1.4 billion lire. Don't look at Contini's minefields, tanks, oil guards, etc. It's a warship again, and it's such a arrogant situation of making movies. It's all made with money. Oil is being exported to Tripoli through the pipes, and the lira is also slipping out of the fingers on various occasions. Every telegram , behind every decision and every statement, endless money is turned into ashes and cannot produce economic effects.

However, the image points are still very high. All the financial groups, political circles, and business giants from various European countries look at the United Group with admiration. Now no one dares to regard the United Group as an ordinary business group. It is a standard with the country. The national policy group, coupled with the fact that the United Group took over the Dante and the Da Vinci in one fell swoop, shocked all observers. The United Group is not satisfied with the existing military rankings and plans to move forward. Squeeze out Greece?

But they soon realized that they were wrong. The United Group began to dismantle the Dante at the end of January, which relieved the French. They were most worried about the Italians saying they would retire, but actually continuing through the United Group. If you keep it, it will break the rules. Now it seems that the Italians have not been so blatant. It also shows that the Italian government is measured. As for the news that the Leonardo da Vinci may be sold to the Far East, everyone guesses that they are too lazy to pay attention.

The Dante was dismantled not to be transformed into a bath boat, but to be truly transformed into a transportation boat. Before leaving for the United States, Contini once again summoned the designers for lectures. Since the basic construction of the subordinate United Shipyard is in place, the transformation this time is planned to be carried out by the company, and personnel from the United Shipyard will be transferred to assist. In fact, Contini has clearly planned to buy a stake in Grand United Shipyard. The other party also has this intention, but the price is still a little lower. The other party thinks that it is strong and demands 600 million lire but is only willing to give 40% of the shares. The president has always wanted The controlling shareholder would rather give more lira than become a second shareholder, so this matter still needs to be discussed.

"This time we are going to change the Dante into a traffic boat. What kind of traffic boat? It can carry a rapid integrated force..." Contini said eloquently, and also showed the sketch he drew. With the help of the ugly above The designers seemed to understand the awkward gestures, but they understood the main technical parameters:

First, the tonnage will increase from the current 19,500 tons to 22,500 tons;

Second, all the naval guns including the bridge were dismantled, and a floating direct deck was built in the form of a bathtub ship, with a length of 174 meters and a width of 29 meters. However, this deck is different from the Ada, which has been armored. It is basically just one layer. Thin steel plates and wooden decks are added, and the aircraft are not stored in the hangar. Instead, they are mainly tethered in the open air, mainly fighter jets.

Third, the inner compartment was adjusted and hollowed out to deploy a large space to accommodate ground troops. Contini required that it could accommodate a mechanized force of about 300 people, have the ability to fight on the beach, and also required that it could carry medium-sized landing craft;

Fourth, the power cabin and boiler should be improved. The original steam turbine could only output 32,000 horsepower at full load, which could reach a speed of about 23 knots (it has now dropped to less than 22 knots). He requested to increase it to more than 45,000 horsepower. , can run at a speed of 27-28 knots.

If someone from time traveling came to the scene, they would be able to see through what this thing is. It is obviously an amphibious assault landing ship. It is just called a traffic boat, but if you insist on saying that a traffic boat is also quite suitable, isn't it a landing force? Transport boat? Who stipulates that traffic boats can only be dozens or hundreds of tons of goods? Therefore, the full name of the Dante from now on is the United Petroleum Integrated Maritime Supply Vehicle, which is a perfect match for the floating maritime airport.

Using the Dante to modify it does not meet the definition of a perfect amphibious assault ship. At least the side armor belts that originally belonged to the battleship are all wasted. However, the Dante is such a big frame and the hull is not bad. It would be too wasteful to completely disassemble it. , so Contini came up with such an improvement method. Of course, the necessary anti-aircraft firepower will still be available after the main gun is dismantled.

After listening to such a performance introduction, the designers quickly grasped the key point: the transformation of the flight deck and the layout of the side bridge are not difficult. The difficulty is how to rationally arrange the cabins below to carry out power without breaking through the scale of the hull. The cabin should be improved and upgraded, and the space for 300 people and corresponding equipment must be ensured to accommodate these 300 soldiers. These 300 soldiers are not purely infantry. They must be equipped with trucks, armored vehicles, tanks, motorcycles and light artillery, as well as supporting supplies, ammunition and Other logistics supplies and supporting facilities for at least 14-18 aircraft must be considered on the deck. These are all obstacles.

However, the time given by the president is quite ample. During the disassembly period, they are required to complete the improvement plan of the power cabin first, and then consider the layout of the superstructure and other cabins. The time is ample until at least the end of May. As for those that have been dismantled Contini has also made appropriate arrangements for the artillery. Tripoli and Benghazi currently lack shore defenses. These naval guns are just completely deployed, and a batch of them are also placed for Tobruk.

After the idea of ​​amphibious assault ship transformation came to an end, Contini convened a group economic work meeting: This year, there is no doubt that United Construction and Petroleum Guard are Class A companies, and even United Milan has climbed into Class B, because it won the third place last year, and the gap from the first place is only 4 points, which is very close. Who will be given the Class C this year? It was very unexpected that it was given to United Motorcycle.

Everyone was shocked when the results were announced. United Motorcycle not only launched new products, but also completed orders very well. It is a rare product that is in short supply, and its profits are top-notch among all companies. Except for institutions like Union Bank that collect money without doing anything, United Motorcycle has the best profits. Now if you can see motorcycles on the streets of Italy, they are almost all United Motorcycle brands. Observers say that Italy has two brands, one is called United Motorcycle and the other is called other brands. Even Fiat Motorcycle has been beaten back step by step and has almost no power to fight back. Such a good company, even if it is not Class A, it should not be Class C, right?

Outsiders felt it was unfair, but the management of United Motorcycles dared not say a word. They certainly knew where the problem lay. The president was angry about the endless failures of United Power sidecar motorcycles in North Africa!