The Rise of the Third Reich

The U.S. Army Air Force's move to transfer a large number of P-51 fighter jets to the Caribbean cannot be concealed from the German General Staff. The situation statistics of the 1st Air Force of the Air Force were sent to the General Staff of Zossen on February 1. The conclusion can be drawn.

This chart uses colored curves and vertical lines to show the losses of various types of fighter aircraft and the confirmable results, the dispatch of aircraft, the increase or decrease in the number of enemy aircraft encountered, and the number of pilots lost. Through this picture, Hessmann and other top personnel in the German army can clearly understand the changes in the U.S. air force in the Caribbean battlefield.

"Obviously, we have successfully mobilized the American air force." Air Marshal Kesselring said at the General Staff Meeting on February 1. "From the statistical chart submitted by the 1st Air Force, from January 21 to Between January 31st, the losses of Fokker 636s used to attack the U.S. transport aircraft group skyrocketed. At the same time, the number of P-51 fighter jets shot down by us also skyrocketed, while the number of C-47 and other types of transport aircraft shot down increased significantly. Reduction. From this we can conclude that the Americans are moving a large number of P-51 fighters to the Caribbean."

"What about the situation in the direction of Newfoundland? Are there any new changes?" Hersman asked.

After replacing the Reaper 1B-2 cruise missile with a larger range (700 kilometers), the German Air Force resumed missile attacks on Boston, Philadelphia, New York and other places in late January. And this also means that the competition between the Me264 and the American interceptor aircraft has begun again - because of the existence of the Bv-138E long-range water radar early warning aircraft, interception has become very difficult, and it also requires the Americans to invest a lot of troops.

"There have been some changes," Redl said. "The Americans no longer dare to send out destroyers to patrol between Newfoundland and Bermuda. However, their P-61s and P-47s can still often get close to Me264, forcing them many times. Our Me264 fired missiles randomly and ran for its life."

The Me264 is a bomber that relies on high altitude and high speed to save lives. Once the missile is thrown away, it can easily fly at a top speed of 650-690 kilometers per hour, and can easily escape the pursuit of P-61 and P-47.

"They also have radar early warning aircraft." Hersman immediately understood what was going on. The earliest radar early warning aircraft in history was invented by Americans. He thought for a moment and then asked: "When can the Adolf Hitler and the Bernhard von Bülow be put into use?"

Adolf Hitler and Bernhard von Bülow are the No. 1 and No. 2 ships among the four large aircraft carriers built based on the hulls of the H41 battleships. This class of aircraft carrier will be named after a chancellor who made outstanding contributions in German history. The first ship is called "Adolf Hitler", so this class of aircraft carriers is also Adolf Hitler class, and the other three ships are named Bernhard von Bülow and Hohenlohe-Schillingsfess respectively. The Margrave and the Leo von Caprivi.

The standard displacement of this class of aircraft carrier is as high as 65,000 tons, surpassing Japan's Yamato-class battleships and the U.S. Montana-class battleships under construction. It is undoubtedly the largest combat ship in the world. The full row of this class of aircraft carrier is as high as 74,500 tons. It is simply a floating city floating on the sea.

In order to drive such a behemoth, German shipbuilding engineers installed 18 Wagner-type high-pressure heavy oil boilers and 6 Blohm-Voss steam turbines for this class of aircraft carrier, with a maximum power output of 240,000 horsepower and a maximum design speed. Section 29.

In addition, when designing the Adolf Hitler-class aircraft carrier, according to Hersmann's request, the designers also reserved space for nuclear power transformation of the aircraft carrier - as long as the marine nuclear power reactor is successfully developed, the Adolf Hitler-class aircraft carrier will be It can be transformed into a first-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier through transformation.

Of course, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers were too far away for the world of 1945. Therefore, the real highlight of the Adolf Hitler-class aircraft carrier is its special deck layout. This aircraft carrier adopts an angled deck layout.

Such a layout does not make much sense for the most common single-engine piston carrier-based aircraft, because the biggest role of the angled deck is to allow fighters that fail to land on the ship (without hooking the arresting cable) to go around. If the angled deck is not adopted, fighters that have completed landing will be placed in front of the landing area on the aircraft carrier deck. In this way, there is no possibility of a go-around, and the only option is to rely on the blocking net to block the aircraft that has not hooked the blocking rope.

However, for fighters with low landing speed and relatively light weight, intercepting them with blocking nets is not a problem. However, it is not reliable to use a net to block large and fast aircraft such as the Me262T carrier-based jet fighter and the Me410T twin-engine carrier-based fighter-bomber. Therefore, on an aircraft carrier without an angled deck, Landing is very dangerous, so a angled deck that can go around is needed.

Because the Adolf Hitler-class aircraft carrier carries the large Me262T and Me410T, and it also needs to prepare a maintenance site for the first fleet jet aircraft. Therefore, although this class of aircraft carrier has a standard displacement of 65,000 tons, the number of carrier-based aircraft it can carry is not many. Commonly used carrier-based aircraft can carry up to 80 aircraft (usually 72), and reserve aircraft can carry up to 18 aircraft.

In other words, two Adolf Hitler-class aircraft carriers can carry up to 160 Me262T carrier-based fighters!

"Marshal Reich, the two Adolf Hitler-class ships have now completed sea trials." Marshal Redel said, "We have been training carrier-based aircraft pilots since January this year. This work is a bit difficult."

A bit difficult means that many ace pilots who can fly jet carrier aircraft have been killed! Compared with flying a piston aircraft like the Fokker 636 to land on an aircraft carrier, flying a jet carrier-based aircraft is not the least bit more difficult.

"Will there be 130 pilots who can fly the Me262T before April 1?" Hersman certainly knows that jet carrier-based aircraft are difficult to fly, but to ensure the smooth implementation of the Fort Gotchi plan, jet carrier-based aircraft are a necessity. And the number of investments cannot be too small, at least 130 aircraft are needed.

"It's a bit difficult." Naval Air Forces Commander Air Force General Hubert Weiss replied.

"Then overcome the difficulties!" Hersman emphasized, "At least 130 pilots who can take off and land on the aircraft carrier must be trained, because we need them to clear the sky over Newfoundland."

Because Newfoundland is far away from the German-controlled Azores and Greenland. The former is more than 2,000 kilometers away, and the latter has a combat radius of 1e264 and Ju288, but it is basically out of reach of fighter jets. Therefore, we can only rely on carrier-based fighters to gain air superiority, and the Me262T is a trump card against American interceptors (P47, P61 and P38) - the Me262T does not have to fly over Newfoundland to fight, and the Me264 can be used to defeat the Americans. The interceptor aircraft was drawn out to fight.

Now most of the P-51s in Newfoundland may have been transferred away. If we can severely attack the P-47 fleet there, and there are hundreds of carrier-based Fokker 636s, the air superiority of Newfoundland will be Basically it was won.

"Okay, okay." Air Force General Hubert Weiss said, "There will definitely be more than 130 pilots available to participate in the battle."

"The Me410T must also be ready," Hessmann made another request. "There must be more than 130 Me410T that can board the aircraft carrier."

"No problem at all." Air Force General Hubert Weiss answered very simply this time.

The Me410T is just bigger, but its overall combat weight is about the same as the Me262T. It is not difficult to launch into the air with a hydraulic catapult, and the landing speed is not very fast, which is much easier to operate than the Me262T.

These 130 Me410Ts, like the Me262Ts, are also a key trump card in the Fort Gotchi plan - these aircraft are "aircraft carrier killers" that can carry the Hs293 series of remotely controlled guided bombs/missiles.

After the carrier-based aircraft of the European Combined Fleet seized air superiority over Newfoundland and began landing, the United States is likely to dispatch aircraft carriers to counterattack. The Me410T will be needed by then, so in the Fort Gottsch plan, a plan was prepared to replace the aircraft carriers midway. After seizing the air supremacy over Newfoundland Island, all the carrier-based aircraft on the two Adolf Hitler-class aircraft carriers would be replaced. The Me410T is used for anti-ship warfare.

"Where's the mine blockade?"

Hersman also asked about the preparations for mine warfare. The same method was used to deal with Trinidad. Before landing on Newfoundland, a mine blockade must be carried out to cut off the maritime traffic between Newfoundland and the North American continent. Prevent U.S. military reinforcements.

Submarine Command Commander Georg von Frederborg immediately took over the question: "The Submarine Command will concentrate more than 200 large ocean-going submarines, including more than 150 Type 21 U-boats, to ensure that Newfoundland can be effectively blockaded."

Hessman nodded: "Very good!" He stood up, held the table with both hands, and looked at the solemn German general in the room with his mouth tightened: "The first phase of the Fort Gotchi plan has now been successfully completed, and the United States People's attention has been successfully transferred to Trinidad. Now...I announce that the second phase of the Fort Gauchi plan has begun! We will land on the North American continent and gain a stronghold to contain the United States forever!"