The Rise of the Third Reich

The Army Military Advisory Group sent by the General Staff of the German Wehrmacht is now also on the front line in Hawaii. This was specially requested by Lieutenant General Paulus, the head of the advisory group. He hoped to personally participate in a large-scale landing operation launched by the Japanese army. Although the German Wehrmacht was far superior to their Japanese friends in many aspects, the German army was far inferior to the Japanese army in terms of amphibious landing operations.

Therefore, Lieutenant General Paulus brought his advisory group to steal troops this time. If he could learn the true skills of fighting a landing battle from the Japanese, he would have the opportunity to serve as the Chief of Staff on the Western Front when he returns to Germany. Participated in commanding the landing in England. This is a shortcut to the rank of general and general!

It is hard to say whether Lieutenant General Paulus has learned any skills in these days, but it has indeed opened his eyes. In the Japanese Army, he saw a weapon that no other armies in the world had - aircraft carriers!

It turns out that the Japanese Army has aircraft carriers!

After seeing such awesome weapons, Lieutenant General Paulus no longer dared to say that the Japanese Army's equipment was poor. No matter how awesome the German Army's equipment was, it still didn't have an aircraft carrier. Moreover, the Japanese Army has not only one aircraft carrier, but two aircraft carriers, one is the "Shenshu Maru" with a standard displacement of 8,000 tons, and the other is the "Akitsu Maru" with a standard displacement of 11,800 tons. If there is a naval battle, the German Wehrmacht Army will definitely not be a match for the Japanese Army!

After studying these two Japanese Army aircraft carriers, Paulus also made a special report to Marshal Hersmann, suggesting that the German Army also develop and equip the same Army aircraft carriers!

Of course, Paulus made such a suggestion not to compare with the Japanese Army, but to see the military value of this kind of army aircraft carrier.

In fact, the so-called Army aircraft carrier is not a laughable toy, but an amphibious landing ship with a through-deck. In addition to carrying 8-12 carrier-based aircraft, it can also carry 27 large-engine B-type large landing craft, and can carry more than 2,000 landing troops. It also has 12 75mm artillery, which can be used for anti-aircraft shooting. or support landing troops.

Such an army aircraft carrier can even conduct a small-scale landing battle independently without the support of naval ships. If the German Army can possess 10-20 such aircraft carriers, it can send 20,000-40,000 soldiers to the British coast at one time, and at the same time, it can also use the artillery and aircraft on the ship to directly attack targets on the shore - this means command Senior officers conducting landing operations can directly issue orders for the use of aircraft and artillery on the Army aircraft carrier, without having to go through complicated procedures to request support from the Navy and Air Force.

Now Lieutenant General Paulus is standing on the island of the USS Akitsu Maru, watching the densely packed large-engine boats on the sea, dragging white spray, rushing onto the beach of Kauai.

In Paulus' view, these large-engine boats were also weapons and equipment needed by the German Army. This 9.5-ton landing craft could carry 70 fully armed Japanese soldiers. When fully loaded, it can still sail at a speed of 8 knots. Moreover, the bow design of this large engine boat is also very unique. It is a whole steel plate that can be lowered. When the bow of the boat is closed, the steel plate can protect the soldiers inside the boat, and when the steel plate is lowered, it becomes a gangway, and the soldiers can step on it to rush to the enemy's beach. In addition, according to the design, the large engine boat can also carry an 11-ton light tank - which is obviously a little small for the German Army, but it is enough for Japan, which does not have any medium and heavy armored vehicles. .

In this landing operation, Taiwan's mixed brigade carried several Type 95 light tanks. At this moment, together with the landing officers and soldiers, they rushed to the beach of Kauai. About a small group of Japanese soldiers are now following behind several Type 95 light tanks, carrying the Japanese's unique ultra-long rifles and advancing in depth.

In the sky, more than a dozen Japanese Army Type 1 fighter jets were hovering at low altitudes, attacking targets on the ground with bombs and machine guns they carried.

Lieutenant General Paulus put down the telescope, turned to look at Lieutenant Ribbentrop who was playing with a camera, and asked: "How is it? Is everything captured?"

"Yes, they were all photographed," Rudolf von Ribbentrop replied. He originally thought he would teach Japanese soldiers how to use the Panzerfaust anti-tank grenade launcher, but unexpectedly he became a "military reporter" because he could play with cameras and cameras and had good skills.

"Very good!" Paulus nodded and smiled, "This is very valuable information... You must keep them well, and when we return to Japan, we will send them to Germany immediately."

"Yes, General."

…

While the aircraft carriers of the Japanese Army were busy, the eight aircraft carriers of the Japanese Navy, which had been fighting hard for days, retreated into the open sea to join a transport fleet that had just arrived from the Japanese mainland.

After several days of continuous operations, these eight aircraft carriers have consumed too much fuel and ammunition, and now must be replenished before they can continue to operate.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the carrier-based aircraft pilots on the aircraft carrier rarely took a break to relax. Most of them were fast asleep in the cabin, replenishing their excessive physical strength these days.

However, direct-cover pilots like Hersman Jr. had no way to be lazy. They still had to fly the Zero fighter into the sky, hovering over the Japanese fleet, and be ready to fight approaching American aircraft at any time.

There was nothing unusual in the sky, and Hersman Jr. did not believe that the U.S. military on Oahu would have enough power to send fighter planes to bomb the Japanese aircraft carrier at this time. As for the U.S. aircraft carriers, most of them should still be on their way from the waters near Saipan, and most of them are now near Wake Island.

Feeling a little bored, little Hessmann turned his gaze to the sea. Suddenly, a very familiar battleship appeared in his sight - a small cannon carried on a huge hull of 20,000 tons. Isn't this the German "Wilhelm II" class (P-class) armored ship? Although the Japanese rising sun flag was hung and the paint was changed to Japanese style, little Hersman still recognized it at a glance.

Such a useless armored ship was actually sent to Hawaii? When little Hersman was wondering, a very strange-looking "seaplane" was suddenly ejected into the sky, and then flew in the direction of little Hersman.

Little Hersman was immediately attracted by this aircraft, because this aircraft was so weird, with a long and slender fuselage, thick and short wings, and a thick and short pontoon hanging under each wing. . But the strangest thing is a liquid-cooled engine installed at the rear (it is mounted on the tail of the "aircraft").

After flying in the direction of little Hersman for a while, the "plane" suddenly began to dive toward the sea, almost plunging into the water. Just when little Hersman thought the "plane" was in an accident, the "plane" had already begun to fly levelly against the sea. It flew quickly towards the nearby aircraft carrier Akagi, passed over the aircraft carrier's flight deck, and finally stopped steadily on the sea less than 5,000 meters away from the aircraft carrier.

"Nagyun-kun, what do you think of this weapon? How should it be used?"

At this moment, on the bridge of the Akagi aircraft carrier, Combined Fleet Chief of Staff Matoi Ugaki was pointing at the training V3 manned flying bomb on the water and asked Nagumo Chuichi.

"This... how far can this person fly with a flying bomb?" Nagumo Chuichi asked with a face full of surprise.

Of course he has seen the value of this V3 human flying bomb! The bomb just passed over the Akagi at a speed of at least 550 kilometers per hour! Moreover, this flying bomb has short wings, a slender body, and a fast flying speed. It should be difficult to be hit by anti-aircraft guns. If it were not a training bomb, but a live bomb filled with 800 kilograms of explosives, it would only take one hit to severely damage the Akagi, right? If 100 were used, the eight aircraft carriers of the First Mobile Fleet would probably have to account for their losses.

"According to the German design, the V3 human-operated missile can fly up to 30 kilometers." Ugaki replied. "However, we made some simple improvements to it and increased the capacity of the fuel tank so that it can fly more than 200 kilometers."

"200 kilometers... that can almost be used as an airplane!" Nagumo Chuichi took a breath, "If there are 100 such flying bombs, we should be sure to win the Battle of Hawaii, right?"

"100?" Ugaki Matoi looked back at Nagumo and said with a smile, "This kind of missile is not easy to fly. I'm afraid we won't be able to get 100 pilots who can fly V3."

"So how many people can fly V3 now?" Nanyun asked quickly.

"Not counting the German instructors, there are now a total of 10 V3 commando members. They are all elite students recruited from the Navy's flight school. They have all completed all courses."

Ugaki Matoi spoke with some emotion in his voice. He had completed all the pilot courses and was a student of the standard courses established before the outbreak of the war. These were the elites who could enter the front-line aviation units and serve, but now they have become disposable items.

"They are all elite students? I don't know if it's worth it?" Nagumo Chuichi frowned. The battles in the past few days have caused the combined fleet to lose many outstanding carrier-based aircraft pilots. Nagumo Tadashi felt heartbroken just thinking about it. Nowadays, elite pilot students are required to fly this kind of V3 missile. This is really a waste...

"Whether it's worth it depends on this battle!" Ugaki Matoi said with a smile, "Commander Yamamoto is going to hand over this German 'missile cruiser' and the 10 V3 missiles on it to the First Mobile Fleet! Nagumo Jun, please use them well!”