The Rise of the Third Reich

On July 5, 1943, when the German Empire and the European Community began to face the situation of a protracted war on two fronts again, Hessmann's old friend Air Force Commander Marshal Albert von Kesselring was riding in a spacious and comfortable aircraft. The Fokker 42 took advantage of the darkness to fly across the vast Atlantic Ocean.

Marshal Kesselring didn't look very happy sitting on this plane. Apart from sleeping along the way, he was frowning and looking through a lot of documents and autographed letters that Hersman had given him.

Hersmann wrote a lot of words of thanks and comfort to him in the letter, and also explained to him the difficult situation currently facing Germany - the original opportunity to cede territory to the Soviet Union for peace, and then fully deal with the United States was completely ruined. . Negotiations with the Soviet Union ended at the end of June. At the same time, the Russian Empire officially returned to the historical stage of Europe and became an "active participant" in the European Community and Germany's most important ally... In short, Hersmann and Kesselring's old friend Empress Olga was now satisfied, but Germany was in big trouble.

It was for this reason that Hessmann made the decision to abandon operations in South America and the Caribbean and cancel the South American front.

As the commander-in-chief of the South American front, Marshal Kesselring naturally had no choice but to return without success.

However, he has not yet left Cayenne (located in Guyana, where the South American Front Headquarters is located). Hersman has already arranged a new position for him. It is still an important position, and he is the commander-in-chief of the newly established Atlantic Front!

Since the General Staff has direct jurisdiction over the Eastern Front battlefield (actually, the First Munitions Director Guderian is the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front), the current German Wehrmacht only has two "front-level" headquarters, the Atlantic Front and the Indian Front. .

The headquarters of the Indian Front was located in Delhi, the capital of the British Indian Empire, and the commander-in-chief was Marshal Halder. This front command unified the command of the British, Indian and German forces in India. At the same time, the Indian Squadron of the European Combined Fleet was also under the jurisdiction of this command. The Indian Ocean was also the area responsible for the Indian front. However, the main battlefield on the Indian front is on land, and there are only a small number of Australian-based US military (Canadian and British military) submarines and camouflaged assault ships operating at sea. Therefore, it is natural for a German field marshal to serve as the commander of the Indian front.

But the one that plays the main role on the Atlantic front should be the navy, right? Is it really appropriate for an Air Force Marshal with a background in the Army who knows nothing about the Navy to be the Commander-in-Chief of the Atlantic Front?

With such doubts, Marshal Kesselring met Marshal Hessmann, the Chief of General Staff, who came to Brest to greet him in person.

"Albert," Herschmann hugged Kesselring at the airport, "you must be very depressed in Cayenne, right?"

"It's okay," Kesselring smiled bitterly and followed Hessmann into the car. In the car, he said to Hessmann, "It's just that I accomplished nothing... But why did you arrange a job for me to command the navy?" ? I don’t have any experience in this area?”

Hessmann shook his head and smiled: "Albert, do you know? The Navy has just been embarrassed."

"Defeated?" Kesselin asked nervously.

"It can't be considered a defeat," Hessman sighed. "59 aircraft were lost, 23 of which were Ju288s. The result was the sinking of 3 aircraft carriers and several light ships."

"Three escort carriers?" Kesselring knew what was going on by looking at Hessmann's face.

"Yes, three worthless escort carriers!" Hersman said. "Because the bombs were too penetrating and exploded directly on the bottom of the ship, most of the crew members on the ship had a chance to escape."

The European Community, the winner of the sea-air battle that took place in the Denmark Strait on July 3, sank 2 Borg-class aircraft carriers and 1 Casablanca-class aircraft carrier, severely damaged the Soviet Union, and damaged the battleship Soviet Ukraine and the Russian Soviet The battleship, several light cruisers and destroyers were sunk or severely damaged.

The cost to the European Community was only 59 aircraft and more than 100 crew members. In addition, a reconnaissance submarine was missing (later confirmed to have been sunk. All crew members were killed).

But Hessmann was not satisfied with this record and exchange ratio, especially with the excessive loss of fighter planes.

There are two reasons for the heavy losses of fighter aircraft, especially the loss of 23 Ju288s.

One is that there is a problem with the cooperation between the navy, naval aviation (shore-based) and the air force, and they are fighting independently. The Air Force and Hainan Airlines dispatched the Ju288 fleet prematurely, but were caught red-handed by an American Spitfire (before the arrival of the Ju288 fleet, the U.S. fleet had already launched two waves of Spitfires), and 12 were shot down on the spot.

Another reason is that the weather over the Denmark Strait on July 3 was not very ideal and the visibility was poor. Therefore, the Ju288 lowered its altitude in order to accurately deliver the remote-controlled gliding bomb. As a result, the 127mm anti-aircraft gun on the surface ship used the radio-controlled close-range missile. The fuse-exploding shells were a good hit and 11 were shot down.

In addition to 23 expensive Ju288s, the losses of Fokker Zero D aircraft and Fokker 100 dive bombers were also considerable. In the battle that day, the German Navy also sent a carrier-based Fokker Zero D to cover the Fokker Zero D aircraft. Gram 100 (sent by the Second Air War).

But they encountered a strong opponent, the F6F, especially when the Fw-190T was chasing the one-time Spitfire attack at high altitudes. The Fokker Zero D fought hard with the F6F at mid- to low-altitudes and suffered considerable losses (the exchange ratio was about 1 :1).

The Fokker 100 dive bomber suffered heavy losses from the fierce anti-aircraft firepower of the U.S. surface fleet and F6F fighter jets.

Although this naval battle ended in victory for the German side, the problems exposed were very worrying.

"There must be a front-level headquarters in the Atlantic," Hersman said, "and this command cannot be located on a ship. Therefore, it is inappropriate for Marshal Lütjens, commander of the European Combined Fleet, to serve as the commander-in-chief of the front. ”

According to the standards of the German Wehrmacht, the European Combined Fleet is only an army-level unit. Units at the same level include the European Joint Transport Command, the European Joint Underwater Fleet Command, etc.

Moreover, according to convention, the commander of the European fleet must direct operations relatively close to the front line, so he cannot bear the overall responsibility.

"In addition, the surface fleet is not the absolute main force in Atlantic operations." Hersman continued, "The status of the surface fleet is the same as that of shore-based aviation, underwater fleet, transportation command, island garrison, Guyana garrison and African west coast garrison. it's the same.

These forces together constituted the Atlantic Front, so the commander who unified the Atlantic Front did not necessarily have a naval background. In my opinion, the commander-in-chief must be proficient in air combat and must have experience in fighting a war of attrition. Albert, you are the most suitable candidate. "

Letting a marshal with a background in the army and air force command the operations in the Atlantic Ocean would definitely be nonsense in the eyes of established naval powers such as Britain, the United States and Japan. But in Germany, which lacks naval talents, this is normal.

If it is just about fleet artillery battles and submarines breaking diplomatic relations, then the German Navy does have some talents. For example, Lütjens and Dönitz are both good.

But the current Atlantic War is definitely dominated by air power, and Germany also relies heavily on shore-based aviation. Whether it is the Ju288, He21e262 or the Me264, a long-range strategic bomber with a greater range than the Ju288, they currently only have shore-based versions and not carrier-based versions.

Moreover, the anti-ship missiles Hs293A and Hs293D secretly developed by Germany (they are missiles with rocket boosters, not gliding bombs, and Hs293D also has a TV guidance system that can be launched from a longer safe distance) have now reached the final stage. Testing phase. These two epoch-making weapons also need to be carried by shore-based bombers such as Ju288 and Do217.

Therefore, in future Atlantic operations, the role of shore-based aviation will be significantly greater than that of surface fleets - compared to the current missile technology, which has just begun, the fire coverage of ship-based missiles is too small to achieve long-distance strikes. At the same time, the bomb load of carrier-based aircraft is too small, and it cannot carry anti-ship missiles that often weigh more than one ton, and can only be carried by shore-based aircraft.

Whether Germany's shore-based aircraft belong to the air force or naval aviation, they are actually from the German Wehrmacht Air Force that was slowly created by Hessmann, Kesselring and others during the interwar period. Therefore, it is indeed very suitable for Kesselring to serve as commander of the Atlantic Front.

"Then... people from the navy won't have any objections, right?" Kesselin was silent for a while and expressed his worries.

Now the Army and Air Force (including Naval Aviation) of the German Wehrmacht are actually on the same line, and the top leaders of the Air Force are all transferred from the Army. However, the navy is its own system and has always maintained considerable independence.

"There will be no problem," Hessman said, shaking his head. "I have agreed with Marshal Redl that you two will take turns to be the commander of the Atlantic Front. You will work for half a year to smooth out the unified command system, and then Then replace Marshal Redl or Marshal Lutjens as commander, they will serve for half a year and then replace you."

This time Kesselring finally nodded, "This may still work, so what is the goal of the Atlantic Front?"

"Your specialty," Hessmann smiled, "is to fight a war of attrition! Use the least amount of oil resources to maintain the confrontation in the Atlantic...until we win on the Eastern Front. This is a hard battle! In the entire Wehrmacht, we can fight this After thinking about it, you are the only one who wants to fight."

Kesselring laughed, patted his chest and said, "Okay, the Atlantic front is left to me. As long as the navy listens to my command, the Americans will definitely suffer big losses in the Atlantic."