The Rise of the Third Reich

After reading the order of Marshal Lütjens, Rear Admiral Meyer took a step back and stood behind the commanders of the 2nd Fleet, Admiral Hoffmann and Vice Admiral Bay.

Admiral Hoffman glanced at the entire war room, frowned his golden eyebrows, and said: "The moment to decide the fate of Europe is coming soon. If we can sink more than 6 ships in the next battle, of enemy super battleships, then the United States will experience the humiliation we experienced in 1919. And before the fleet leaves port and the 20th and 21st Task Forces are formed, I would like to hear your opinions. "

No one spoke or raised a hand.

Admiral Hoffman couldn't help frowning, looking even more majestic, and he cast his gaze directly on Little Hersman—he was the youngest person in the entire room and the only naval aviation officer. As an air force and naval aviation officer, Hersman Jr.'s promotion speed is normal, but among a group of naval officers who are at least middle-aged, he is indeed a bit too young.

"Major Hessmann," Admiral Hoffman was the first to name Little Hessmann, "I want to ask you a question, how much effort would the Americans have to spend to sink the Zeppelin, Prussia and Bohemia? Number?"

"Ah?" Little Hersman was startled and did not answer Admiral Hoffman's question. "Admiral, you want to use three large fleet aircraft carriers as bait?"

If in the Japanese Navy, a young major would not dare to ask the admiral such a question - of course, if that major, like little Hersman, has the emperor as his godfather, then there may be an exception. ——But in Germany, which is used to being straightforward, this is nothing.

"No final decision has been made yet," Hoffman replied. "Now I want to hear your opinion...After all, you are the only one among us who has actually seen a large armored aircraft carrier sunk."

Since the war started, the German Navy has lost aircraft carriers converted from cruise ships, escort aircraft carriers, amphibious assault ships, and "Kesselring" class light aircraft carriers, but it has never lost such aircraft carriers as the Zeppelin class or the Prussia class. large armored aircraft carrier. So no one knows how durable a large armored aircraft carrier is?

Young Hersman had exactly this experience. He had witnessed the sinking of three Japanese fleet aircraft carriers, and also experienced the sinking of the Taiho armored aircraft carrier, so he was very experienced.

"Tell me how the Dafeng sank in battle." Hoffman then asked.

"Admiral," little Hersman thought for a while and replied, "the armored deck of the Taiho actually withstood the test. The US fleet was far away from the Taiho that day, so the bombers dispatched could not take off with full bombs. , the bombs dropped were all 500-pound class, and this kind of aerial bomb was unable to sink the Taiho's armored deck. However, two bombs still penetrated the flight deck other than the armored deck, but did not cause much damage. .At the same time, four aviation torpedoes dropped by TBF torpedo bombers hit the aircraft carrier, causing a fire.

It may be that the difficult-to-quench fire exposed Taiho's position and attracted nearby American submarines. At the same time, Taiho suffered significant damage due to torpedo damage, water intrusion in many places, a boiler room being flooded, steam pipe rupture and other reasons, causing a significant slowdown. Unable to escape the tracking of U.S. submarines, they were ambushed by multiple U.S. submarines on the evening of July 14th..."

What little Hersman said was contained in the report he submitted, and Admiral Hoffman read it many times. It was precisely because of reading these reports that he recruited Hessman Jr. to his fleet as the second aviation staff officer - a man who had personally experienced sea and air battles and aircraft carrier sinkings on the Japanese best armored aircraft carrier. He is a major, not many in the German army. There are also two naval aviation lieutenants who had the same experience on the aircraft carriers Akagi and Kaga, and they are now the second aviation staff officers of the 1st Fleet and 3rd Fleet.

"If there had not been an attack by a U.S. submarine," Hoffman asked, "would the Taiho have escaped?"

"Yes." Hessman Jr. answered.

"But the Kaga and Akagi did not encounter American submarines."

"They cannot be compared with the Taiho." Young Hersman said, "I have been to both of these aircraft carriers and stayed on the Akagi for a long time. Although they are also known as 'unsinkable aircraft carriers,' But only a layer of armored deck that was not too thick was laid during the modification, and the internal structure did not change much. Moreover, the designs of these two aircraft carriers were very old, and they were modified from half-built battleships and battlecruisers. "There are many irrationalities in the internal structure. In addition, they are too old, and the ships are nearly 20 years old."

Hoffman thought for a while and then asked: "So do you think the Zeppelin, Prussia and Bohemia can withstand the same level of air attack?"

"Definitely," Hersman Jr. said with certainty, "because our three aircraft carriers and the ships escorting them have more powerful anti-aircraft firepower, and our carrier-based aircraft are also more powerful, whether it is a Fokker 636 or The Fw190T is not comparable to the Zero fighter.”

"What if we consider U.S. shore-based aircraft?" Hoffman asked the last question.

"Admiral, based on the intelligence we currently have, American shore-based aircraft do not have strong anti-ship capabilities." Little Hersman said, "During the Battle of Midway, the Americans used shore-based aircraft to attack the Japanese fleet. The aircraft are mainly P47 fighter-bombers. This aircraft is too sturdy for the Japanese Zero aircraft and its high-altitude performance is very difficult to shoot down. However, it is definitely not a match for the Fokker 636, which has firepower and combat capabilities. Its performance is worse than that of P47 in medium and high altitudes, but it is not as good as P47 in extremely high altitudes.”

"Admiral," Lieutenant Colonel Schumann, the first aviation staff officer of the 2nd Fleet, interjected at this time, "as far as we know, the anti-ship capabilities of U.S. shore-based aircraft are mediocre. Their medium and heavy bombers are not capable of dive bombing. There are no truly useful remote-controlled guided bombs. The available aircraft are just the shore-based models of the Navy's SBD, TBF, F4U and F6F, as well as the Army's P47 and P51. The performance of these aircraft is not as good as our Fokker. 636."

The Fokker 636 (called "Sea Fury" in the UK) is the "ultimate ship combat" developed by concentrating all the experience and technology of Britain and Germany in the field of piston carrier-based fighter jets. Its performance is better than the Fw190T that is just put on the ship. There are many more (only at very high altitudes, the Fw190T can defeat the Fokker 636), and it can overwhelm the P51B/C at medium and low altitudes, not to mention other models.

Admiral Hoffman nodded and said to Major General Mayer: "Now tell everyone what you think."

…

"Admiral, look over there."

On the battleship "Iowa", Lieutenant General Callahan, chief of staff of the U.S. 3rd Fleet and chief of staff of the 31st Task Force, pointed at four twin-engine aircraft with slender bodies and huge engines in the sky towards Halsey. The general said, "That's a Marine Corps F7F Tigercat."

"F7F...it's finally in service." Halsey quickly raised his telescope and carefully looked at the F7F "Tigercat" fighter jets that formed a 4-plane formation in the air - this type of fighter jet was formally established on June 30, 1941. It was developed, but the progress of the research and development was greatly delayed due to the priority status of the F6F project. It was not until the F6F was put into mass production that the twin-engine F7F received sufficient research and development resources, and by that time it was already the third quarter of 1943.

However, by the second quarter of 1944, the F7F, whose development process had been greatly delayed, became the US military's trump card and life-saving straw.

It turned out that after the German naval aviation was equipped with the Fokker 636, the American F6F and F4U suddenly became the target of being beaten. Moreover, in a few battles, the US military also discovered that the Fokker 636 has very fierce firepower. It has four 20mm cannons. Even a sturdy aircraft like the SBD will be easily shot down when it encounters the Fokker 636.

Under such circumstances, the U.S. military will naturally seek fighter aircraft with superior performance to combat the Fokker 636 and the Me262 jet, which is even more troublesome for Americans. Moreover, after losing technical support from the United Kingdom, the United States encountered a lot of problems in the development of liquid-cooled engines and jet engines. Not only was it unable to build a jet aircraft in the short term, it was also difficult to even further improve the performance of the P51. hanging.

So the United States can only pin its hopes on the air-cooled engine field that they are good at. The F7F "Tiger Cat" fighter (actually also a fighter-bomber), which is equipped with two high-power air-cooled engines and has entered the trial equipment stage, has become the US military's trump card and life-saving straw.

Therefore, starting from the second half of 1944, the speed at which the F7F-1 was equipped with troops (the first F7F-1 was equipped with the Marine Corps in April 1944) suddenly accelerated. In addition to the Marine Corps, the U.S. Navy's shore-based aviation units have also begun to re-equip a large number of F7F-1 fighters that can only be considered "trial models" since May 1944.

Moreover, this new type of twin-engine fighter-bomber was deployed to Trinidad in July 1944, becoming a trump card in Operation "God of Liberty"!

"How many F7Fs are available for combat now?" Halsey watched four F7Fs surpassing the other four F4Us at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters at an extremely fast speed. Then he put down the telescope and asked Callahan next to him.

Before Vice Admiral Callahan could answer, a fleet staff officer ran into the command tower of the battleship "Iowa" and handed over a copy of the telegram.

"Sir," Callahan glanced at the telegram and said immediately, "the German fleets in Brest and Gibraltar have begun to leave!"