As if seeing Fang Yan's puzzlement, Raeder briefly told him the reason for the incident. It turns out that with the approach of warm spring, the cold winter in Europe that occurs once in 50 years has finally come to an end. Hitler himself had long been extremely dissatisfied with the sit-down on the Western Front, and urgently needed to launch a land offensive before Britain and France completed the transformation of the war. After listening to the meteorological briefings from the front three days earlier and the readiness of the troops, he decisively ordered a full-scale attack in early May before the ground was completely dry.

"At present, the Supreme High Command has tentatively set a date for the offensive on May 5. Even if the adjustment will be made in this half a month, the difference between before and after will not exceed a week. Unlike last October, this time neither General Brauchitsch nor Halder opposed the Führer's orders, and soon we would have a real showdown with the French. ”

Raeder said calmly, but his expression revealed a bit of complexity, like expectation, like worry, and full of vicissitudes and compassion. As a veteran of the World War, Raeder knew all too well what it meant to wage a land war with France: more than 10 million soldiers fought to the death on hundreds of kilometers of battle until one side had shed its blood and collapsed.

Although Germany did not have the costly Eastern Front battlefield this time, and also unified the German community, and the certainty of victory on the Western Front was greatly improved, it would have been impossible to wash away the shame of the year without the sacrifice of more than 1.5 million people. Perhaps it is for the same reason that France has never really lit the war on the Rhine after declaring war - and the Parisian top brass also understands that once the two sides fight and form a deep enmity, it will only be a situation where the mountains and rivers are shattered and the river will never stop!

As a Navy soldier, Raeder didn't have the heart-wrenching experience of the Army, but the disastrous consequences of the death of an entire generation of young men spread across the country, leaving everyone with a heavy heart and difficult to recall. And at this time, in his lifetime, he had to witness a massacre unfolded. Raeder actually rejected and opposed Hitler's offensive order in his heart, but even the army had been subdued, so what reason did he, the commander of the navy, have to go beyond his authority and disobey Hitler's decision?

Due to the tight time for the start of the war, several capital aircraft carriers such as the Zeppelin could not be repaired, so General Keitel proposed that the Navy temporarily put idle carrier-based aviation under the command of the Supreme High Command in order to support the army units in the war on the Western Front. The Führer referred the matter to the Navy to weigh it up and asked to give him a definite answer by April 22. Jonas, you know this force best, do you think it's feasible? Raeder froze, and then spoke to Fang Yan with an inquiring face.

"Okay, so that's what I'm anxious to come back for." Fang Yan secretly scolded himself when he heard this. Seeing Ryder's somewhat expectant face, Fang Yan hesitated for a moment, and finally let his thoughts run quickly on this matter. Although Fang Yan's behavior of snubbing and suppressing the person in front of him was extremely unfair with unwarranted suspicion, Fang Yan still seriously lacked the foundation of power, and no matter what, he couldn't break his face with Raeder. What's more, this is still a major event related to the development of German HNA, and considering the future course of the war, Fang Yan does not think that he can give suggestions casually.

After thinking about it carefully, Fang Yan, who had become politically sensitive, smelled something different. Keitel's proposal to requisition carrier-based aviation to support land operations was an attack on the navy on Hitler's orders: if the navy really handed over this force in its entirety, it would be tantamount to acknowledging the leadership of the navy over the navy by Hitler's newly established crappy "supreme command" in 1938. In the future, no matter what Keitel commanded, he, the marshal, Raeder, had to obediently follow it. Not to mention how much sand Keitel would put into this team during this period, but by the time it finally returned to command, the team had already switched sides to the National Socialist Party.

And if Raeder hides this power, it will undoubtedly give people the truth. Keitel would accuse the Navy of being selfish and narrow-minded, completely ignoring the Führer's strategy, and even sitting back and watching the blood of his Army comrades on the battlefield and not doing anything. If Hitler had taken the opportunity to attack again, the situation of the Navy would have been even more dire. Thinking of this, Fang Yan suddenly found that he had to answer this question carefully, and it was very likely that Raeder had figured out the key to it, and this time he asked himself for a plan, and at the same time, he was also hiding a temptation for himself.

"From a purely tactical point of view, there is no obvious obstacle to the transfer of carrier-based aviation to land operations. And in some areas, they are even better than their counterparts in the Army. Fang Yan considered his sentences and tried his best to use an impartial and neutral technical point of view to discuss, "Carrier-based pilots can directly determine their own position through the angle of the sun and flight records without the help of ground references, and their control of the battlefield is much higher than that of army pilots; And bombing fixed pillboxes and fortifications is less difficult than attacking warships in motion, which has been tested in the training of our new pilots. Therefore, theoretically, aircraft carrier-based aircraft can be put into land combat. ”

"However, carrier-based aviation has its own hardware shortcomings. First of all, our Gotha fighter was designed for naval warfare at the beginning, and was optimized in the areas of landing gear, internal fuel reserves, take-off and landing distance, and wing folding, which inevitably sacrificed part of its air combat performance, so that it was difficult to compete with the army's latest BF109E-3 in frontal combat. It would be a very unwise choice if we were to throw this force into a war of attrition on the Western Front. Fang Yan Zhengse said.

Raeder nodded slowly, a look of solemnity creeping up his face. What he was most worried about was that the valuable carrier-based aircraft pilots would be thrown into the strangulation of the Western Front, and the elite that the Navy had accumulated with great difficulty in the past few years would be consumed in vain. And to add a new carrier-based pilot is not much higher than the resource and time consumption of training an ordinary land-based pilot. Not to mention anything else, it will take at least half a year of hard work just to successfully take off and land on a rocking and speeding aircraft carrier, not to mention that they must learn to determine their position in the vast ocean, which is the result of a large amount of fuel and countless scrapped engines!

"Jonas, can you get the High Command to abandon this plan?" Raeder's eyes looked directly at Fang Yan, and his voice had already fluctuated slightly. Fang Yan was silent for a long time, then slowly shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, Your Excellency Marshal, I can't solve this trouble. As you said, at the moment the Navy combines the old and new forces, and there are more than 600 crews in a state of no ship. It is impossible for the High Command to remain indifferent to such a force, which numbered a quarter of the total number of army aviation, and it would be in vain for me to give even more reasons. So I think all we can do now is to minimize the attrition of this force on the Western Front. ”

Seeing that Raeder clearly showed a look of disappointment and frustration, Fang Yan briefly stated his remedial thoughts: "First of all, we should state to the Supreme Command that this carrier-based aviation force is only temporarily unusable, so it will be lent to the army for emergencies. Once several aircraft carriers have been repaired, the planes and pilots should be returned to the Navy immediately so that the fleet can carry out the next move. ”

"Secondly, we also need to control the number of lineups that support the army. At this time, the young crews who are in the basic training period cannot move, and the old birds who are responsible for teaching them cannot leave their duties, so that at least our follow-up forces can be preserved, so that the big tree of carrier-based aviation will not be injured to its roots because of the impact of this storm. Finally, we should also strive to secure a relatively easy second-line mission for carrier-based aviation; The battle to fight for the life of the British and French air forces in front of the real charge was left to the stronger army aviation. Fang Yan said unhurriedly.

Hearing this, Raeder finally found some acceptable comfort. These are all quite feasible proposals put forward by the other side, and if they can be realized, it will not be a hellish difficulty for the carrier-based aircraft unit to go around the Western Front. Fang Yan, who noticed the change in Raeder's mood, smiled slightly and said, "Your Excellency Marshal, in fact, letting the carrier-based aviation go to the Western Front to fight once is not all a bad thing for this unit. ”

In the other party's surprised and stunned eyes, Fang Yan whispered leisurely: "Because our aircraft carrier is not only the Seagod Halberd that wins the ocean, but also a sword of judgment that dominates the land from the sea. Now that the British Navy has only the last bit of strength left, how long will they be able to hold out under the strangulation of our troops? It will not be long before Germany will carry on the great conquest of England in the wake of the Duke of Mandy, when our aircraft carriers will also be engaged with enemy land forces, and this time will be a valuable experience for the future. ”

Raeder's heart shook, and the words of the young man in front of him were like thunderbolts that slammed into his heart, making his whole person feel like he was baptized by lightning, full of a deafening and penetrating feeling. All he was thinking about was how to let the navy escape the quagmire of war on the Western Front, but the other side had already seen the future cross-sea landing from this step, and its insight was so far-reaching that it was indeed not comparable to any admiral in the navy.

Over the past decade or so, this young man has also created too many revolutionary ideas and achievements, and his dazzling light has long made Raeder, the heir of Tirpitz, sigh at himself. Each time, Raeder sighed in his heart, what a perfect thing it would be if this young man did not have the imprint of the National Socialist Party and Hitler?