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In times of war, even if one side tries to keep it secret, the opponent learns and uses new tactics beyond imagination: any new weapon that appears on the battlefield will quickly be used for reference, and if it can be obtained, it will be directly imitated. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

At first, the United States did not care much about the German Navy's beveled aircraft carriers, thinking that it was completely superfluous -- wouldn't it be nice to build a few more aircraft with this spare time? However, after in-depth study, it was discovered that the beveled aircraft carrier is of great significance, especially now that the United States not only lacks high-quality carrier-based aircraft pilots, but also has begun to have a shortage of high-quality naval officers and men, and an oblique aircraft carrier does not need to increase its manpower, but its combat effectiveness can be effectively enhanced.

This is not the most important judgment, through the actual combat attack of the German army, everyone is more aware of the defensive value of the oblique aircraft carrier in combat: a bomb in the core area of the deck of the straight-through aircraft carrier will cause the combat effectiveness to be paralyzed, but the oblique aircraft carrier must theoretically strike at the junction of the two deck runways, otherwise it will need to strike at the two positions separately to completely paralyze the opponent's take-off and landing capabilities.

The requirements for accuracy at the strike junction are too high, and two strikes increase the difficulty of the attack, so the actual combat significance of the oblique aircraft carrier can be quickly drawn -- one aircraft carrier can almost get the anti-strike capability of two aircraft carriers.

The Naval Shipbuilding Committee had intended to make design changes and build a new build on the Midway class, but Turner thought it was too slow - he didn't know how long it would take to revise the design before the work began, and he suggested that the design should be revised on the basis of the existing unfinished Essex class, without the need for a new hull. If the transformation is successful and verified in actual combat, the subsequent Essex class construction can refer to the standard version of the transformation.

Admiral Kim supported this point of view and demanded that at least one beveled aircraft carrier be successfully renovated by March 1945, and as for the hull, the designers could choose at will, but there were hard constraints on the budget -- the cost of a single increase could not exceed $15 million, otherwise it would be of little significance.

In 1944, the U.S. Naval Shipbuilding Committee put forward the shipbuilding requirements for the construction of 60 improved Oakland-class light cruisers, 48 Casablanca, and 120 Fletcher-class ships (all the Fletcher-class ships did not exceed 200 in history), and they were ready to be used with the Essex-class, which built two ships per month.

Now considering the loss of Nimitz and the possible future needs, the shipbuilding committee gritted its teeth and added 12 air defense cruisers and 12 Casablanca construction needs, in order to balance the budget and the current number of destroyers is acceptable, and the demand for destroyer escort after the cessation of British aid, 36 Fletcher-class ships were reduced, so that the shipbuilding budget in 1944 tended to be balanced as a whole.

The second thing the U.S. Navy learned was Ozawa's cross-platform mobilization tactics, in which Nimitz first released a group of attack planes attached to his ship, and used the vacated deck to accommodate the fighters transferred from the transport fleet to escort them, which was very similar to the cross-platform tactics. It's just that the U.S. Navy does not have an oblique aircraft carrier and lacks high-quality carrier-based aircraft pilots, so his current tactical use is still relatively rudimentary and primitive. Nimitz thought very clearly, if these two escort aircraft carriers were dispatched to the main fleet as before, the devil knows what would be left after they passed through the submarine blockade zone.

The German Navy was also not weak in learning.

Crank, who was accompanied by a Rhine-class escort aircraft carrier, also learned from the US military to use escort aircraft carriers and fleet aircraft carriers together, and equipped two fighters in one go: Do-412 is good at interception, which is used for fleet air defense and direct cover; The BF-319 has more comprehensive capabilities at medium and low altitudes, so it will be dispatched to serve as an escort to accompany the flight.

In contrast, the Combined Fleet, due to the absence of escort aircraft carriers to accompany the operation, and the Japanese Navy's greater emphasis on multi-purpose functions, more use of the Bf-319 instead of the Do-412 to carry out carrier-based missions, the latter gradually developed into a naval land-based air defense fighter, of course, the carrier-based capability was retained - to facilitate the transition of land-based pilots to carrier-based aircraft pilots in the shortest possible time.

As Turner had estimated, Cranke did initially have the idea of striking the U.S. convoy of transports, but he gave up on the trade-offs – the opportunity cost was too high. Not only that, but considering the current shortage of carrier-based aircraft, he asked the air forces in Rio and São Paulo to transfer Do-412s to cover the aircraft carrier formation. The tactics were the same as Horiyoshi's routine in the naval battle in the South Pacific, in which the fighters rushed to the skies over the fleet with auxiliary fuel tanks, regardless of returning, and parachuted out of fuel and were rescued by destroyers.

If it was the previous navy, the air force probably didn't bother to pay attention to it, but now the German Navy is the air force in the navy, so it naturally can't turn a deaf ear to the relevant requests for help, and finally 36 Do-412s are dispatched to carry out combat missions.

Frank had fewer attack planes in his hands than Nimitz, so he released all the attack planes 25 minutes earlier than the American military.

He left 48 direct cover aircraft to the fleet, plus nearly 20 aircraft in reserve (3 large aircraft carriers + 2 Rhein-class) of each ship, and 36 aircraft supported by the Air Force, the total number of aircraft retained as a whole is exactly over 100 (excluding 24 reconnaissance aircraft).

After the group flew away, Cracock thought twice about having all the reconnaissance planes take off and monitor the surrounding seas, telling them to land in Rio if their side was unfavorable—he had a hunch that it would be a fierce battle.

At 10:07 a.m., the two planes staggered through the air, separated by more than 100 kilometers from each other, and no one found their opponents. The U.S. strike group of 260 planes was divided into three distinct waves, which were slightly slower, and were nearly 500 kilometers away from the German fleet when they staggered; The German 182 strike formations were divided into 2 waves, which were slightly faster, and at the time of the rendezvous, they were still more than 300 kilometers away from the Nimitz fleet.

As the minutes passed, Admiral King in the conference room was so nervous that he would later announce that he would simply adjourn the meeting and rush to the headquarters of the Joint Chiefs of Staff with Turner to study the latest enemy situation.

At 10:38, more than 140 kilometers away from the US fleet, the radar room told Nimitz: "Sir, the Germans are coming, and the number is about 200......

Hearing this figure, Nimitz sighed, but at the same time breathed a sigh of relief: the Germans did not come up with additional aircraft carriers, which is slightly better. Now the problem is that there are too many losses in the fleet auxiliary warships, and he does not know what to do.

"Sir, the front line has received the enemy!" Turner told Admiral King, "There were quite a few enemy planes, and Nimitz gave the death order: if you can't win bravely, prepare to sink with honor!" ”

"He? Alas! Admiral King's heart was heaving and painful, "Tell him, you must come back alive, I still have aircraft carriers here, but the United States can no longer afford to lose a good commander." ”

At 10:54, the fighters of the United States and Germany fought, and the Do-412 and Bf-319, F4U, and F6F were wrying and entangled in the air, and from time to time various debris and wreckage fell into the sea......

Taking advantage of the gap opened by the fighters, the German attack group immediately dispersed and launched an attack under the anti-aircraft fire of the US ships rushing below.

In order to reduce losses, the Germans also routinely used the most common onion-peeling tactic. At 11:07, the two Casablanca-class aircraft carriers were hit by 4 and 5 400-kilogram aerial bombs respectively and began to sink, and the group was also shot down by heavy artillery fire with 7 Ju-198s. The loss of fighters on the other side is greater, and the performance of the US fighters has been greatly improved after the replacement of F4U, plus the pilots of this batch of operations are the only remaining veterans of the United States and Britain, so the battle losses of the two sides are very close, the German army lost 8 Do-412, 12 Bf-319, and the US army lost 13 F4U and 19 F6F, and the exchange ratio between the two sides is slightly higher than 2:3, which is much lower than the previous battle loss ratio of 1:3 and 1:4.

At 11:18, taking advantage of the gap between the dive bombers and the fierce battle between the fighters of both sides, 24 Ju-198s pounced at low altitude and released torpedoes. The consequences of the loss of a large number of escort aircraft carriers and cruisers by the U.S. forces last night are now beginning to show, and the cruisers that should have served as the backbone of the defense are not strong enough, at 11:21, the fourth and last Cleveland-class light cruiser of the fleet was hit by 2 torpedoes and sank, and at the same moment, another 2 Oakland-class air defense cruisers ate bombs. One was hit by 4 and sunk on the spot, and the other ate 3 and was paralyzed on the water.

At 11:28, the last 38 German attack planes that did not drop bombs launched a joint attack, aerial bombs and torpedoes were ordered to greet the four core warships of the US army, which was hit by torpedoes yesterday, and the Hancock, which had a maximum speed of only 26 knots, was hit by three bombs in a row, and the main deck quickly burst into flames, and the bombs that penetrated the deck blew up the hangar into a mess of ruins; Faced with the situation that the four torpedoes pounced on the Franklin together, the Wisconsin Star rushed up for close protection, and used its huge body to block two torpedoes for the flagship, but it was blown open by two large openings, more than 6,000 tons of water entered, and it was stopped by 13 degrees of rolling.

The captain did not dare to inject more water after reversing more than 2,000 tons of water, because now the entire warship has nearly 10,000 tons of water intake after yesterday's lightning strike, and the waterline has sunk by more than 3 meters. If you forcibly restore your balance, I'm afraid that the foredeck will be buried in the sea.

"Sir, the enemy plane has completed the attack and retreated, do you want to see the telegram?"

Seeing Turner's heavy face, Admiral Kim trembled and didn't dare to pick it up, and finally sighed: "You can tell me later, let me have a mental preparation first......

Looking at Admiral King's state, Turner sighed and quietly instructed the adjutant to organize doctors and ambulance vehicles to arrive at the scene, and in case of accidents, he could be sent to the hospital immediately.

Soon after the German attack group retreated, Cranke also ushered in the American attack wave, looking at the overwhelming American planes, he told Smith with a stern face: "Tell all the officers and men of the ship to wear life jackets, maybe we will go to soak in the sea today." Everyone has to stay strong, the Führer has prepared a large number of new aircraft carriers on the mainland, and we have the opportunity to compete with the Americans again! ”