The Rise of the Third Reich

"Mr. President, General Short, Governor of Hawaii and Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Hawaii, reported that the Japanese landing force invaded Pearl Harbor on the afternoon of January 3, Hawaii time...

Mr. President, Admiral Nimitz, Commander of the Pacific Fleet, reported that the sinking of a Japanese Nagato-class battleship was confirmed. In addition, the 80,000-ton Japanese battleship also suffered heavy damage. "

White House, Oval Office. U.S. President Roosevelt listened to the report from Army Chief of Staff Marshall and Chief of Naval Operations Stark with a gloomy face.

The Battle of Hawaii is not over yet, but the outcome is already clear. America lost! And the loss was very ugly!

Not only was the Hawaiian Islands about to fall, but the Pacific Fleet had also suffered its heaviest blow. Ten battleships including the USS Pennsylvania, USS California, USS Maryland, USS Oklahoma, USS Tennessee, USS West Virginia, USS Arizona, USS Nevada, USS Colorado and USS North Carolina were lost, as well as the aircraft carrier USS Hornet.

In addition, more than 800 Army and Navy aircraft were lost, and more than 45,000 Army and Marine Corps officers and soldiers, as well as more than 90,000 white-skinned American civilians, were trapped on Oahu and other Hawaiian islands. .

"This is truly a complete fiasco!" President Roosevelt sighed. "And... this is just the beginning of a series of failures, right?"

Stark and Marshall looked at each other and nodded in unison. The United States' "failure list" already has a long list. After Hawaii and the Pacific Fleet, there are the Philippines, the Far East Fleet, Guam, Wake Island, Midway Islands, the Gilbert Islands, the Aleutian Islands and so on.

In addition, the British fortresses in Malaya, North Borneo, Burma and Singapore were also on the list of failures.

The Japanese fleet and army have already begun to attack the above-mentioned areas, and the resistance of the British and American allies will be crushed sooner or later with the complete loss of sea control. Except for the Singapore Fortress, I am afraid that all areas will be lost before April 1942, and then the Dutch East Indies will change hands. The Singapore Fortress will most likely be captured by the Japanese army within 6 months, and then Japan and Germany will join forces in the Indian Ocean. At the same time, Japan will also march towards Australia, turning itself into a true intercontinental country...

"Besides, there's nothing we can do now except reinforce Australia, can we?" Roosevelt looked at Secretary of Naval Operations Stark and Army Chief of Staff Marshall.

"President, we can still use submarines and camouflaged attack ships to deal with the Japanese." Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Stark said.

"So how many results did our submarines achieve in December?" Roosevelt asked.

"It was determined that 10 Japanese transport ships and 2 Japanese light warships were sunk... a total of approximately 20,000 tons of ships with a displacement of 10,000 tons."

Seeing the disappointment on Roosevelt's face, Admiral Stark immediately said: "Mr. President, the British have achieved much better results than us. In December, they sank 31 Japanese transport ships and 4 Japanese light warships. The total tonnage of the sinking is estimated to be over 75,000 tons.”

What Stark said was actually an exaggerated "certain result." According to statistics from the Japanese Army and Navy, the total tonnage of the ships sunk or damaged by submarines and camouflaged raiders in December was less than 75,000 tons. Among them, 18 ships were sunk by submarines and camouflaged raiders, with a displacement of less than 45,000 tons.

In addition, 26 Japanese ships were injured, most of which were minor injuries. One or several high-tech torpedoes produced in the United States were inserted into the hull of the ship. This torpedo was developed by the U.S. Naval Ordnance Bureau at a huge cost. The MK14 torpedo uses the world's most advanced magnetic fuse. In theory, it does not need to hit the hull. As long as it passes near the target, it can be detonated by the target's magnetic field, thereby blowing up the enemy ship. But the result of actual use is that Japanese ship repair yards collected more than a hundred such torpedoes from injured Japanese ships between January and March 1942 alone...

According to subsequent statistical surveys, 52 U.S. submarines launched a total of 160 MK14 torpedoes in December 1941, and the results were only the sinking of 2 Japanese freighters (and 26 ships returned home with torpedoes) and 1 A Soviet freighter (accidentally hit, later lost $1 million), with a displacement of less than 7,000 tons.

However, the 22 submarines and 5 camouflaged attack ships deployed by the British east of the Strait of Malacca have achieved good results. Now the British Empire is too poor to afford high-tech torpedoes, so it can only use low-tech and backward torpedoes to attack.

This low-tech white-headed torpedo is an antique developed during World War I. It explodes if it hits, and it doesn't explode if it doesn't. In less than a month, these low-tech torpedoes sank a total of 9 Japanese cargo ships and 2 Japanese light warships.

In addition, five British camouflaged attack ships sank five Japanese merchant ships, including a passenger ship full of Japanese expatriates evacuating from Hong Kong, causing more than 600 Japanese civilians to drown. This incident also triggered tensions between Japan and the East Asian continent - because the attacking British camouflaged assault ship flew the flag of a country in the East Asian continent in violation of international law when it opened fire.

"That is, up to 100,000 tons a month..." President Roosevelt was still dissatisfied with the exaggerated results because he knew the navy. He shook his head and said, "Our and British submarines will soon have to be redeployed. By then, they will have to spend a lot of time traveling, and combat efficiency will be significantly reduced."

The United States currently has 103 submarines in the Pacific Theater (of which 52 are active in the Western Pacific), and the British Eastern Fleet has 50 submarines (of which 22 are active in the South China Sea, Taiwan Strait and East China Sea), for a total of 155 submarines. There are a lot of them, but where these submarines attack directly determines their combat efficiency.

If these submarines are based in Singapore and the Philippines, the time spent on the road will be very short. More than 40% of submarines may be in combat waters for a long time.

However, if the submarine base is moved to Australia, then they will have to spend a lot of time sailing thousands of nautical miles in order to travel between the base and the battlefield. Moreover, the redeployment of 155 submarines cannot be done just by talking, because Australia is just a large rural area farming and herding sheep. Although the British have built naval bases and ports there, the British have limited supplies stored there. It is impossible to support the stationing of a large fleet. Even supporting more than a hundred submarine operations is difficult, and a large amount of equipment and ammunition must be supplemented.

In addition, the distance from Australia to the target sea area (Japan’s main shipping route) is too far, and the closest one is more than 3,000 nautical miles. Those small and medium-sized submarines with a displacement of less than 1,000 tons, such as the R-class and S-class, are basically unable to reach Japan's main routes without the support of a submarine mothership.

Therefore, after the current batch of U.S. submarines operating in the Pacific return to new bases in Australia or the United States, the threat from U.S. submarines to Japanese transport ships will be greatly reduced.

Seeing that Roosevelt was a little dissatisfied, Stark quickly said: "Mr. President, we are building large ocean-going submarines of more than 1,500 tons, and they will be in large numbers before the end of this year.

In addition, we can also use part of the light cruisers for breaking engagements, and we can even consider transforming some of the Cleveland-class light cruisers under construction into fast aircraft carriers, and then use them to form a two-ship formation with Cleveland-class light cruisers for breaking engagements. "

"Use aircraft carriers to break diplomatic relations?" Roosevelt frowned, "The Germans seem to have already tried it, but the effect was not satisfactory."

"President, the fact that the Germans are not doing well does not mean that we are not doing well. The Germans are too stingy and only take out one aircraft carrier at a time." Stark said, "And we have the most powerful shipbuilding capabilities in the world, so we can take out The Department of Naval Operations hopes to use the hull of the Cleveland-class light cruiser to build 10 light fast aircraft carriers, and at the same time increase the number of Cleveland-class light cruisers to be built from 15 to 20, so that it can form 10 three-ship breakup formations.”

A light aircraft carrier built on the hull of a Cleveland-class light cruiser cannot be compared to an escort aircraft carrier built on the hull of a merchant ship. The light aircraft carrier built with a cruiser hull has the same protection and power system as the Cleveland-class light cruiser. The top speed can still reach more than 31 knots, and it can completely make a fuss deep behind enemy lines.

Moreover, Admiral Stark also asked for 10 ships instead of 1 or 2! If they were built and then penetrated deep into the Western Pacific, Emperor Hirohito would be crushed by them.

"10?" Roosevelt shook his head, "Too few... Since we can't have a decisive battle with the Japanese for the time being, we should first set a small goal of breaking the war and build 20 war-breaking aircraft carriers. The Cleveland class also built 40 ships each. In addition, the construction of Iowa-class and Montana-class battleships and Essex-class aircraft carriers must be accelerated.”

After speaking, Roosevelt looked at General Marshall, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. The Navy is preparing to fight guerrillas, so how is the U.S. Army preparing to fight Japan?

"Mr. President, have you ever heard of a physicist named Ernest Lawrence?"

"Lawrence?" Roosevelt was stunned by Marshall's question. "I think I've heard of him. He is..."

"The winner of the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics, he is now a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, engaged in research on transuranic elements. His laboratory discovered a very strange but temporarily unexplained element between October and December 1940. Physics phenomenon. However, in the second half of last year, Professor Lawrence’s student Dr. Seaborg successfully explained this phenomenon using Einstein’s formula of relativity. Professor Lawrence and Dr. Seaborg called this phenomenon nuclear fission.”