The Rise of the Third Reich

"fire!"

In the North Atlantic shrouded in thick fog, eight blazing fireballs sprayed out from the starboard side of the light cruiser USS Richmond. Eight 152mm cannons continued to roar at the "Japanese battleship Mutsu" 11,000 meters away.

"Captain, it's useless. The 152mm main gun can't damage the battleship..."

"Boom boom..."

Before the first mate could finish his words, the starboard side of the Richmond seemed to be hit by something. The huge impact caused the light cruiser, with a standard displacement of more than 7,000 tons, to move several tens of centimeters to the left.

"Near miss!" the first mate of the Richmond screamed. "It fired very accurately. It must have a fire control radar. We are going to be finished now!"

The Omaha class is considered very strong among light cruisers, but the near miss of battleship shells over 400mm is no joke. A hole was made in the starboard hull of the Richmond on the spot, and a large amount of seawater poured in. The light cruiser Richmond suddenly tilted to starboard.

"Quickly, inject water to the port side to restore balance!" Major Clark yelled and ordered, "Get away quickly, get out of here... Damn it, how did the Japanese battleship reach the Atlantic Ocean! Why didn't anyone tell me about this? "

"Major, someone actually said this." The first mate of the Richmond said loudly to Major Clark while turning the helm.

"Who?" Major Clark asked.

"CBS!" said the first mate. "Major, didn't you listen to the radio?"

It turns out that in order to look more like it, the U.S. Navy Department released false news about the appearance of Japanese battleships in the Atlantic Ocean, and CBS naturally made a key report.

"CBS?" Major Clark rolled his eyelids, "Then quickly report to Lieutenant General Ingram. What CBS said is true. The Japanese battleship has really arrived in the Atlantic Ocean! The Japanese battleship Mutsu is heading towards My ship opens fire!"

The telegram sent by the light cruiser USS Richmond gave Lieutenant General Ingram a feeling of seeing a ghost. The so-called Japanese battleships sailed across the Atlantic to break diplomatic relations is pure nonsense. It is just an excuse that conforms to "procedural justice". How could it be true?

Just when everyone on board the South Dakota was extremely surprised, an orange-red flash suddenly emitted from the place shrouded in thick fog ahead, followed by a dull explosion. Apparently there was a big explosion on a ship, probably the ammunition depot exploded!

"Sir, we can't contact the Richmond!" Less than a minute later, the communications staff reported the bad news to Lieutenant General Ingram in a mournful tone.

The light cruiser USS Richmond was probably sunk! Everyone in the command tower of the South Dakota felt their hearts sink.

"We have lost the Richmond!" Lieutenant General Ingram's eyes turned red. "Damn it... the battleships are in a bombardment formation. We must let... let the Japanese know how powerful they are!"

"Sir, the opponent is probably not a Japanese battleship..." a staff officer of the Atlantic Fleet reminded. "Perhaps it was a German battleship impersonation."

Lieutenant General Ingram's face suddenly turned ugly. There was nothing scary about a Japanese battleship, but it would be terrible if a whole "Japanese fleet" came!

"Battleship formation, fight! The aircraft carrier formation heads north to avoid enemy ships." Lieutenant General Ingram gritted his teeth and said, "Give the British power again and ask them to disband the fleet!"

He can't escape now. If he wants to escape the more than 100 British merchant ships, even the ships and their cargo will be snatched away by the Germans!

A staff officer frowned and said: "Disband the fleet? Sir, if there are other enemy fleets nearby..."

Lieutenant General Ingram waved his hand: "If that happens, the fleet will have to be disbanded, and we are likely to encounter the European combined fleet flying the Japanese flag! In this way, we are likely to face a tough battle!"

…

"Sir, there are a lot of enemy ships, at least thirty, heading towards us. It's different from what the intelligence said..."

In the command tower of the battleship Ludendorff, which had just sunk the American light cruiser USS Richmond, Admiral Hubert Schmidt, commander of the 2nd Fleet of the European Combined Fleet, suddenly found that he was very likely to encounter the US Atlantic Fleet. The main force.

Since it is now wartime and the situation is not favorable to the United States, all aspects have become serious. The Atlantic Fleet released a lot of smoke before dispatching, saying that it was going to the Pacific to participate in the counterattack against Hawaii. It also put the entire Panama port area under martial law and mobilized a lot of army troops to board the ships at the Norfolk base to make it look like the real thing. .

The German General Staff did not dare to take it lightly after obtaining this information. Now is the critical moment to implement the "Springboard Plan". A team of rebel experts sent by the National Socialist Party International has entered Dutch Guiana and has also found A few high-class Creole (referring to mixed-race white) youths who had been educated in Germany were just facades, and they would soon be pulling the flag. Of course, the rebellion in Dutch Guiana cannot fail, but it is hard to say whether the German army can enter in time and turn Guyana into a reliable bridgehead after the rebellion succeeds.

After all, Americans have been promoting the Monroe Doctrine since more than a hundred years ago, describing the Americas as Americans' America and preventing European powers from getting involved. Now they will probably not watch Germany gain a foothold in South America.

In the risk assessment of the German Wehrmacht General Staff, the possibility of a military conflict between the United States and the United States due to Germany's implementation of the "Springboard Plan" is very high!

However, when the United States insisted on assisting Britain in opposing the cause of European unification, the German High Command still approved the implementation of the "Springboard Plan" in April or May 1942.

But just when the "Springboard Plan" was about to be completed, the main force of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet was heading to the Pacific via the Caribbean Sea and the Panama Canal. This made the German high command uneasy.

Therefore, on the one hand, the Germans notified Japan and asked them to strengthen the defense of the Hawaiian Islands; on the other hand, they divided the European Combined Fleet into two, with one part going to support "Operation Springboard" and the other part going to intercept the British and American convoys.

The battleships Ludendorff, Bismarck, Barbarossa, Richelieu, Jean Bart, Rome, Prinz Eugen, Algeria, Goricia, etc. The 2nd Fleet with cruisers as its core and the 2nd Air Fleet with the aircraft carriers Bremen and Europa as its core were sent to pretend to be Japan's break-up fleet.

…

"There are as many as thirty ships?" Admiral Hubert Schmidt hesitated, "Isn't it because the radar malfunctioned again?"

Since Germany captured intact multi-cavity magnetrons during the Mediterranean operations in 1941, German radar technology has made rapid progress in the past year or so. The brand-new "Ludendorff" battleship is equipped with Germany's latest and best FuMo281 sea-to-air search radar, and the radar's display screen has been replaced with the most advanced 15-inch PPI display.

In theory, radar-guided naval guns can be used to fire at night or in dense fog when visibility is extremely poor. However, there are still some problems with the reliability of these advanced radars, and they often malfunction during sea trials.

"Sir, we just used radar-guided artillery to sink the enemy ship." Captain Friedrich Carl Topp, the captain of the Ludendorff and chief of staff of the 2nd Fleet, reminded Admiral Schmidt, "These radars today It’s performing well and doesn’t look like it’s broken.”

"Okay, 30 ships is 30 ships... Now we also have 6 battleships and 3 heavy cruisers, don't be afraid of them!" Admiral Hubert Schmidt wiped his palms and ordered, "Set up a bombardment formation , the order is Prinz Eugen, Bismarck, Barbarossa, Richelieu, Jean Bart, Rome, Algeria, Goricia, Ludendorff, and the remaining light cruisers and destroyers are in single file. The column followed the artillery column on the right."

"The Ludendorff is at the end?" Colonel Top was stunned. "Sir, are we going to escape?"

"It's a pretense of escape!" Admiral Hubert Schmidt smiled. "After completing the formation, we turned 145 degrees and kept the speed at 25 knots. In addition, except for the Ludendorff, the other ships are not allowed to fire without my order."

…

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom..."

Four dazzling fireballs appeared in the eyepiece of Lieutenant General Ingram's telescope. At a glance, it was clear that the first-level cannon was firing.

"There are four 16-inch cannons at the stern of the ship." Vice Admiral Ingram put down his telescope and looked around. "Is it really a Nagato-class ship?"

"Maybe, but the morning fog has not cleared yet, so I can't see clearly... and the radar shows that there are at least 15 ships ahead."

"But there is only one battleship firing now, which means that the artillery of other ships cannot reach us. It should only be cruisers and destroyers."

"This is an opportunity to annihilate the Japanese and German battleships. We have 9 battleships and the opponent only has 1."

"But the opponent's speed is obviously faster than our formation."

"Just let the two South Dakota-class ships catch up. It's just a battleship and eight 16-inch cannons. They can't beat our 18 16-inch cannons."

The staff members talked about it and quickly reached an agreement. Vice Admiral Ingram thought for a while and nodded heavily, "It is indeed possible to fight. The enemy's fleet should not be very strong, otherwise there would be no need to retreat... But we cannot only rely on 2 South Dakota-class ships and let the remaining 7 The battleships also follow. Let them maintain a speed of 20 knots, and the two South Dakotas maintain a speed of 25 knots. This way they will not be too far behind, and we will not be thrown away by the battleship until the fog clears and we can see clearly. When the time comes, we will decide whether to pursue at full speed or retreat.”