The Rise of the Third Reich

The Great Air Battle of Newfoundland that took place on April 8, 1945 (the actual battle location was not over Newfoundland, but just a short distance away) is generally regarded by later historians as the beginning of the European coalition's landing in North America.

Moreover, the result of this battle that took place in the sky was undoubtedly a disastrous defeat for the Allied forces and a complete victory for the Allied forces.

However, on the evening of April 8, U.S. time, when Secretary of War Wallace and Presidential Chief of Staff William Leahy reported the latest war situation to President Truman in the newly built White House bunker, they mentioned the just-concluded air battle over Newfoundland. It became a draw.

"Mr. President, although our losses are relatively large, 95 F7Fs, 67 P-47s and 87 Skys have not returned. However, we still successfully prevented the Germans from launching missiles towards the big cities on the east coast..."

"Henry, we lost 249 fighter planes! In just one air battle, we lost 249 fighter planes!" Truman was obviously frightened by the loss number, and interrupted Wallace loudly, "How many planes did we dispatch in total? Why did we lose so much?”

Wallace glanced at the livid William Leahy. Admiral Leahy said in a hoarse voice: "Mr. President, we dispatched a total of 525 fighter jets..."

"Losing nearly half?" Truman trembled and stared at General Leahy.

Leahy continued: "The losses were so great because we encountered more than 100 German Me262s and almost the same number of Fokkers."

"Me262...isn't this a jet aircraft?" Truman cast a panicked gaze behind his small round glasses, "How could such an aircraft fly near Newfoundland? Their range is not..."

Because of the technical information provided by the British, Truman knew that the reason why jet aircraft had a short range was due to the high fuel consumption of jet engines. But now Me262 has appeared near Newfoundland! The distance between there and the German base, the Azores Islands, is more than 2,000 kilometers. How could it be within the combat radius of the Me262? Have the Germans made any major breakthroughs in jet engine technology?

"It's probably a carrier-based aircraft," Admiral Leahy said.

"Carrier-based aircraft?" Truman's face became more gloomy, "Jet carrier-based aircraft? The Germans have already put jet aircraft on the aircraft carrier?"

William Leahy nodded: "This is the most reasonable explanation... The Naval Operations Department estimates that the two German 60,000-ton aircraft carriers discovered previously are equipped with jet aircraft."

Truman breathed a sigh of relief: "Only two aircraft carriers can carry it?"

"It should be..." William Leahy's answer was not very sure either.

It is no small matter that several aircraft carriers can carry jet aircraft. The current defense deployment of the United States in the Caribbean and eastern Canada is based on the fact that German jet fighters cannot reach the skies above the theater.

If this premise changes, it is hard to say whether the defenses of the Caribbean and eastern Canada can still be relied upon. Especially the aviation force in eastern Canada is already relatively weak, and now that it has lost so many fighter planes, it is really a bit scary...

"Mr. President," Wallace still looked optimistic, "the German Me262 is a very large aircraft, similar to the F7F. Even if such an aircraft is not a jet, it is difficult to get on an aircraft carrier, and it cannot be accommodated on an ordinary-sized aircraft carrier. , must be a super aircraft carrier. So the Germans have at most 2 aircraft carriers that can accommodate Me262. The more than 100 Me262s that appeared near Newfoundland today should be all the carrier-based Me262s they can get."

Truman just sighed softly, "It's not easy to deal with more than 100 Me262s..."

"President, the German jets are not that scary." Wallace told Truman, "They just have a greater performance advantage at very high altitudes. As long as our aircraft avoid very high altitudes, we are not afraid of them."

What he said makes sense. The Me262 is indeed not that scary. This aircraft is just part of the German Air Force/Naval Aviation combat system!

Due to the emergence of primitive early warning aircraft, the air forces of Germany (European Community) and the United States (Allied Forces) are now developing into a systematic system, and both have established systems with early warning aircraft as the command center. Therefore, the result of the air battle on April 8 was not only the power of Germany's Me262T, but also the result of Germany's more complete air combat system and higher command level.

And the United States is not very bad in this regard. If today's opponent is not Germany but Japan, it can definitely defeat it one-sidedly!

"Admiral Arnold has personally rushed to Montreal to investigate the reasons for the failure of the Newfoundland Air Battle." William Leahy said, "He believes that except for the emergence of the carrier-based Me262, our air commanders have not made good use of it. The command and early warning capabilities of the F-13 are also an important reason. He also believes that as long as we can make full use of the detection capabilities of early warning aircraft and ground and surface radar systems, it is entirely possible to detect the German Me262 fleet in advance and guide fighter jets to avoid it. …After all, there are only more than 100 of them.”

After all, General Arnold was the man who led the U.S. Army Air Forces in fierce battles with powerful enemies for several years, and he indeed had real abilities. After seeing the report sent by Lieutenant General Harmon via telegraph, I knew where the problem lay and also thought of some countermeasures.

At the same time, in the Joint Intelligence Command Center within the General Staff Headquarters in Zossen, Germany, Imperial Marshal Hersmann was also analyzing the battle report on the "Newfoundland Island Air Battle" that had just been received with the leaders of the navy, air force, and naval aviation.

There were two battle reports. One was sent by the aircraft carrier "Adolf Hitler" and was written by little Hersman. One was sent from the Porto Heroes air base in the Azores and was written by Major General Moldes.

According to Hersman Jr.'s report, during the air battle over Newfoundland on April 8, German naval aviation carrier-based aircraft shot down a total of about 250 American/British (Canadian) shore-based fighters. Its own losses were only 15 Fokker e2e262Ts that crashed due to malfunctions and landing accidents. Only 5 Me262Ts were actually shot down by enemy aircraft in combat.

The reason why the exchange ratio between the two sides is so disparate is not entirely due to the excellent performance of the Me262T, but to the credit of the air combat command system with the two airborne early warning aircraft, Bv138E and Me264H, as the core. This allowed for real coordination between the Germans' more than 270 fighters and more than 300 bombers, just like fighting on land. Therefore, he was able to defeat more with less and shot down enemy planes that were almost equal to his own number.

In Moulders' report, it was highlighted that the American fighter planes also had quite strong command. This is easy to see. Although the Americans lost the battle, their fighter planes advanced and retreated. In an orderly manner, they were able to pursue German aircraft groups beyond visual range. They were obviously commanded by early warning aircraft. It was only due to command errors and failure to anticipate the emergence of Me262T that it suffered such a serious setback.

Therefore, Molders predicted that the command of the US military aviation should be improved soon. In the next air battle on Newfoundland, Germany will not be able to achieve an excessively disparate exchange ratio.

"When is the next time?" Hersman asked. Of course, the air battle over Newfoundland cannot be fought just once. It must be fought at least four or five times before it is possible to exhaust all the American fighter planes in eastern Canada.

"Tomorrow morning," Redl said, "The 301st and 302nd aircraft carrier groups of the 3rd Fleet will join the 20th Task Force tonight. They have 4 Kesselring-class aircraft carriers. By then, the 20th Task Force will gather 12 aircraft carrier, it will also have an additional 96 Fokker 636 fighter jets.”

Kesselring added: "It is expected that our Me264 can successfully launch missiles this time. This time we will launch the latest model of the Reaper 1D long-range air-launched cruise missile. The range of this missile will be increased to 700 kilometers. Combat The internal weight will be reduced accordingly, and the speed will also drop to about 600 kilometers/hour.”

Hessman nodded. He didn't care if the Reaper missile could kill a few Americans, but the attack was still necessary. Otherwise, it would be impossible to contain the American fighter planes on the east coast.

So he issued an order to study long-range air-launched cruise missiles a few months ago. Now the improvements have been completed (this is a very easy improvement), and there are also the first batch of live ammunition.

"What about the attack on Bermuda?" Hersman asked. "Is it still necessary?"

The attack on Bermuda was a feint, also intended to weaken U.S. air power in the North Atlantic. According to the "Grand Triangle Plan" of feinting to attack the Bermuda Islands, more than 20 German aircraft carriers will concentrate more than 1,000 fighter planes to carry out indiscriminate bombing of the Bermuda Islands, completely destroying the US aviation force and US military airports there. To this end, we are also preparing to deploy the 10th Task Force (the main force of the 1st Fleet) with 8 Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers to cooperate with the 20th Task Force to attack together. However, this "grand triangle plan" is only an alternative plan. It may not actually be implemented.

"There is no need, and neither the Navy nor the Air Force has deemed it necessary," Redl said. "Because the exchange ratio for air engagements off Newfoundland is so ideal, we should continue to operate off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador." Engage U.S. aviation to achieve the goal of completely wearing down the enemy.”