The Rise of the Third Reich

News of the air attack on Bermuda airports and the discovery of the German fleet passing the Bermuda-Nova Scotia blockade by F-13 ultra-long-range reconnaissance aircraft quickly shocked Washington.

There was a strong smell of coffee and cigarettes floating in the White House cabinet meeting room. The President of the United States, who had just sent off the visiting Mussolini, held an emergency military meeting overnight to discuss countermeasures. Senior generals and key cabinet ministers gathered together. Vice President Wallace and representatives of Truman and Dewey, who were running for president, also appeared here.

"Gentlemen," Roosevelt said, taking a drag on his Camel cigarette—he had been banned from smoking since his stroke, but today seemed to be an exception—with a sickly flush on his face. "What do you think the Krauts want to do? And how can we stop it?"

"Mr. President," Presidential Chief of Staff William Leahy replied, "the Joint Chiefs of Staff have concluded that the German fleet that broke through the Bermuda-Nova Scotia blockade was probably coming to attack our east coast... The German fleet is likely to launch long-range missiles at large cities on the east coast."

"But the East Coast is huge!" Roosevelt puffed out smoke and said, "Can we ensure that all places are adequately defended?"

"No." William Leahy shook his head regretfully. The coastline on the east coast of the United States is three to four thousand kilometers long. How is it possible that everything is tightly guarded? And it’s not like the Germans are coming for bombardment. They probably don’t even need to send bombers, they just need to launch missiles at sea 400-500 kilometers away from a certain place. "

"Can we send out planes for air strikes?" Roosevelt asked again.

"This...may be a little far away." William Leahy glanced at Admiral Ernest King, Chief of Naval Operations.

Admiral Jin said: "Given that the German fleet is likely to use the cover of darkness to assault 150 nautical miles (about 280 kilometers) and then quickly launch missiles, we want to bomb targets 800-1,000 kilometers away from the coastline. And the Germans The performance of the carrier-based aircraft is relatively superior. Our medium bombers, SBD dive bombers, and TBF torpedo bombers hardly pose a threat to the German fleet. The only effective ones are less than 200 F7Fs. Most of the F7Fs have been transferred. In Trinidad, only 2 squadrons of F7Fs are deployed at airports in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

In addition, the weather in the North Atlantic has been poor recently, with strong winds and waves and thick clouds in the sky, which is not conducive to bomber attacks. "

The Battle of Bermuda in September can be said to be a heavy blow to the United States! Not only did their battleship force suffer an almost devastating blow under the attack of German missiles, but even the powerful air power of the United States was powerless in the face of German naval aviation.

A large number of heavy and medium bombers lack the necessary anti-ship capabilities. However, professional anti-ship aircraft such as the SBD and TBF of the Naval Aviation and Marine Corps are outdated in front of the German Fokker 636, and it is difficult to survive. And the distance of 800-1000 kilometers is a little further for SBD and TBF.

The P47, P51, F4U and F6F, the four fighter jets that can serve as combat bombers, cannot carry bombs large enough to attack targets 800-1,000 kilometers away. Therefore, the only aircraft capable of attacking the German fleet approaching the east coast of the United States are actually a limited number of F7Fs.

To make matters worse, after the Battle of Bermuda, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff judged that the German attack target was Trinidad, so most of the F7Fs in service were transferred there, and only 2 squadrons with a total of 24 F7Fs were deployed. Placed on the island of Newfoundland and the peninsula of Nova Scotia. Of course, it is impossible for a mere 24 F7Fs to threaten the German fleet, which is escorted by at least 200 Fokker 636s (actually only 192).

"Where is the aircraft carrier? Where is our aircraft carrier?" Roosevelt asked.

The American battleship force suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Bermuda. All super battleships were sunk, but the aircraft carrier was not damaged - only the aircraft carrier was intact, and the losses of carrier-based pilots were still very heavy - and in September Two other Essex-class aircraft carriers were commissioned in late and early October (one of which was repaired), so the number of large fleet carriers owned by the U.S. Navy now reaches 11!

"The Enterprise and eight Essex-class ships are receiving carrier-based aircraft in Pensacola," Ernest King replied. "There are also two Essex-class ships and ten Independence-class ships in the Pacific. Escort and break-up missions.”

"Convoy and blockade?" Roosevelt thought for a moment and asked, "Is it aimed at Japan?"

"No, it's not." Ernest King and William Leahy looked at each other, both showing worried expressions.

Because the two of them reported to Roosevelt a few days ago about the situation of US aircraft carriers launching a blockade against Germany in the Pacific (Puerto Montt-Buenos Aires route) and escort missions.

"Mr. President," William Leahy reminded Roosevelt, "the current main mission of the Pacific Fleet, in addition to supporting operations in the Hawaiian Islands, is to fight against the German Navy in the southeastern Pacific to support our operations in Chile."

"Oh, I remembered it." Roosevelt smiled bitterly and shook his head. He originally had a great memory but became a little forgetful after the stroke.

Roosevelt asked again: "In other words, we have no way to deal with German warships preparing to launch missiles towards New York, Washington or Boston?"

"We can send B24s and B17s," Army Aviation Commander General Arnold said. "The range of P51s and P47s is also sufficient for escort. Moreover, according to the intelligence we have, the German missile ships do not have many ammunition on board. They can only launch at most at one time." Dozens of missiles will not cause much damage to big cities like New York, Washington and Boston..."

The judgment that "it will not cause too much damage" is based on the fact that Boston has been constantly under missile attacks these days. Since there are only 36 German Me264F missile bombers responsible for attacking Boston, the number of Reaper 2B missiles hitting Boston every day is only about 20. The result is only to "tear down" ten or eight houses, killing more than a dozen more. to dozens of Yankees. For a world war, this loss is indeed insignificant.

"Okay then." Roosevelt glanced around the people in the cabinet meeting room, and then nodded, "Let all the big cities on the east coast enter a state of emergency, and at the same time, try to exclude fighter planes from intercepting the enemy's fleet and missiles."

…

October 10th at 1am.

In the missile hangar of the USS Max, which was running wildly on the sea at a full speed of 26 knots, several missile soldiers slowly pushed a V1B cruise missile placed on a four-wheeled trolley onto the elevator. With the help of the hydraulic oil pump, the missile was slowly raised onto the deck. The howling deck wind blew. A missile soldier guarding the missile was shaken by the wind a few times, and he quickly grabbed the handle of the missile vehicle.

"Hans, be careful."

A sergeant yelled at the missile soldier who was almost knocked down by the wind, and then took the lead in pushing the missile truck towards a missile launcher on the bow flight deck. A V1B cruise missile with a pair of short wings and an even shorter tail has been placed on the missile launcher. There is a steel plate erected about ten meters directly behind the missile launcher. This is a baffle used to resist the missile tail flame. Behind the baffle, there are spare ammunition arranged in four rows, each row contains 10 bullets.

All the ammunition is placed on a special four-wheeled cart, and the four wheels of the cart are stuck in the bayonet on the flight deck. Behind each row of ammunition preparations are eight missile soldiers. This is a missile launch squad specially responsible for launching V1B cruise missiles.

Each Kesselring-class missile carrier has 16 such missile squads. The four missile squads share a hydraulic catapult launcher (modified with a catapult. The original Kesselring-class aircraft carrier has 2 catapults. , after the Kesselring-class aircraft carrier was converted into a missile aircraft carrier, the number doubled and became four hydraulic ejection launchers. These launchers can also use external booster rockets to launch missiles instead of hydraulic ejection). During the launch operation, four teams took turns to load the missiles onto the launcher and then launch them.

According to the training results, as long as two missile teams make no mistakes, they can launch 10 V1B cruise missiles from one launcher in one hour, while four launchers on a missile aircraft carrier can launch 10 V1B cruise missiles in one hour. It can project 40 V1B cruise missiles.

In addition, each missile launcher is also equipped with a fire-fighting team, with hoses and water cannons at the ready. They can not only extinguish fires caused by launch failures, but also spray water to cool down overheated launchers to ensure that launches can continue.

"Sir, the USS Max and the USS Anthony Fokker report that the missile launch operation has been completed and can be launched at any time."

On the bridge of the aircraft carrier Kesselring, the flagship of Task Force 23, the gunnery staff loudly reported to Major General Meyer the preparations for missile launches.

Mayer looked back at the navigation staff, who replied: "There are still about 10 nautical miles to point X and we will be there in 23 minutes."

Mayer looked at aviation staff officer Hersman Jr., who was using the phone to communicate with a Bv138E waterborne early warning aircraft in the sky. He put down the phone receiver and said to Major General Meyer: "Sir, there are no large enemy aircraft groups within 200 nautical miles around point X. The launch site is safe."

Major General Meyer breathed a sigh of relief. Although it was night now, it could not be ruled out that American night bombers also had the ability to deal with surface targets. If American planes launch high-intensity horizontal bombing like they did during the day, even if they cannot damage the aircraft carrier, it will seriously affect missile launch operations.

From now on, as long as there are no large numbers of American planes to disturb us for three and a half hours, New York City will be submerged in a rain of missiles!