Machar believes that the initial test of ultra-long-range warfare on the Dunkirk is very successful, and it is completely necessary to further promote the use, the hull and deck of the Dunkirk are still too small, and he suddenly remembered that there are still two huge H-class battleships on the mainland, and the hull is semi-finished, although they are very low in completion, and it is quite troublesome to transform, but if the transformation is successful, the platform used by the 60,000-ton armored aircraft carrier is far more suitable than the Dunkirk, and he optimistically estimates that the deck of this class of aircraft carriers can reach 280-290 meters. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

In his vision, this 60,000-ton aircraft carrier will become a huge floating aviation base, in order to speed up the construction, as long as the installation of power plant and a strong enough deck, the speed requirements are no different from normal warships, but the endurance does not need to be very far. The ships are stocked with sufficient supplies and ammunition, the hangar itself does not have to be large, the point is that it can accommodate large heavy-duty attack aircraft for take-off and landing. He knew that the Ministry of Armaments was researching and improving on the basis of the JU-198, and once the 2,500 hp BMW901 was successfully installed, a modification of the JU-198 could perfectly replace the joint attack aircraft to carry special mines and successfully take off and land on deck.

At that time, the deployment of such an aviation base built by a giant aircraft carrier at a distance of 1,000-1,200 kilometers in the west and north of the Azores will be equivalent to radiating the Azores strike radius to more than 2,500 kilometers at once, and even bombing the east coast of the United States or Canada will not be an unattainable thing at that time.

Hoffman, who received the telegram, was so impressed by Marshall's "genius" innovation that he asked Speer: "Are those two H-class still worth building?" How do I remember that they were dismantled a lot? ”

"The overall completion is about 13-19%, which is part of the demolition, but you didn't dismantle them after you ordered the re-construction of the Navy last year, and it is estimated that there will be 10% of the completion left." Speer frowned and said, "Now we have the ability and resources to complete this crazy supercarrier according to General Machar's suggestion, the problem is too long, I am optimistic that it will take at least 30 months, and we have started so many new Yunlong and Dafeng aircraft carriers in our homeland, and we are ready to start construction of the Axis class at the beginning of next year, plus Italy still has several warships to change, and there is no extra energy to deal with this kind of supercarrier, unless other ones are cut down." ”

"Let the empty designer make a design, the 60,000-ton aircraft carrier may really be needed in the future." Hoffman immediately thought of the American Midway class, although the United States has now completely stopped the construction of this class, but Hoffman did not know, he can only consider the most unfavorable situation, "But I will not rush into the construction of this kind of giant before the end of 1944." ”

"As you wish, Führer." Speer breathed a sigh of relief: 1944 may have been victorious, and then there will naturally be no need for this kind of labor, money, you must know that in addition to the 60,000-ton supercarrier, the Führer has also arranged four super-submarines of more than 9,000 tons of production tasks, that guy is also troublesome, the designers have said that the current domestic production equipment is completely unable to support, and it is recommended to reduce the tonnage - 7200-7500 tons is a more appropriate number, and today is a suitable opportunity.

Sure enough, Hoffman understood and agreed to reduce the number slightly, but the number remained the same, still four—much to Speer's relief.

"When will the second carrier be completed?"

"It is expected to enter service in late December."

The second modified beveled aircraft carrier was the Ise, After the transformation of the total tonnage of more than 35,000 tons, the size is slightly larger than the Dunkirk, in view of the Dunkirk renovation experience, at the beginning of the preparation of a complete dismantling of all naval guns, so there is no detour, the transformation of the Ise main flight deck length of 228 meters, the bevel part of 160 meters, but the ship is relatively large, the German side of the boiler after partial maintenance and replacement can only make the maximum speed of 26 knots, is expected to carry common aircraft include: 8 AR-352, 30 BF-219 and 38 Ju-198 (hangar storage 36), spare aircraft 12. The data of the ship Hyuga of the same class is similar to it, but the completion will not be until late January, and the earliest time it will be put into use is February.

"Can the overhauled Scharnhorst be completed at the same time?"

"It's a little late by 2 weeks, but the Ise still needs to be tested, and the timing of the delivery of troops on both sides should be basically the same, and it will not delay the formation of the second breaking fleet."

Hoffman nodded and expressed his satisfaction: "In January next year, we will arrange for them to go from the Suez Canal to Madagascar and then to Argentina, preparing to provide the third wave of support to the Falklands, and by the way, cut off the South African route." ”

"Not going to the North Atlantic?" Speer was a little surprised.

Hoffman shook his head: "Although there is no evidence, I have a gut feeling that Roosevelt will not easily give up his attempt to retake the Falklands, and we must invest more forces." It would be very disadvantageous for us to be at war in the South Atlantic, but it would be at least 10,000 kilometers away from the United States compared to Bermuda or the Caribbean, and far enough away that the United States would not have such a significant advantage, and it would also cut off the South Atlantic-Indian-South Pacific route. ”

Speer immediately understood: The United States does not only have one way to transport warships and supplies to Australia, as long as the Americans are willing, they can completely start from the east coast, first go to Brazil to resupply once, and then go to South Africa to resupply once, and then they can reach Australia close to the edge of the southern Indian Ocean, so that although the journey will be nearly 30,000 kilometers, there are not many places that can really threaten the American fleet.

Another hidden danger that Hoffman did not say was that the Americans continued to increase their troops in South Africa, preparing to attack their own layout in Africa from both land and sea; although the European countries are now grabbing colonies in Africa very fiercely, if the Americans really get mad, he bets that none of these European continental countries can stop them, but if the Falklands are the nail, the Americans, who are worried about their logistics line being cut off, will not launch such a risky counteroffensive -- without sufficient logistics support, the Americans will not even be able to easily pick them up with the Hungarians!

"The Führer has called back, he is very interested in your idea of building a floating aviation base, but at present, the construction of domestic aircraft carriers is constantly queuing, and your proposal will not have a chance to be implemented until at least a year, and now he is more concerned about how to fight another battle with the British and American fleets in the future, and it is not good for us to delay time." Cranke turned his head and asked Marshall.

"Don't worry, the Americans will definitely come, the submarine has set up a cordon far off the east coast, once the enemy fleet makes a large-scale trip, it will report the news, and now it depends on whether the other side is coming with more or less troops. The Anglo-Canadian route is the last lifeline of the British Empire, and if it is cut off for a month, its normal domestic life and production order will be affected; cut off for 2 months, and its military operations will be affected; Cut off for 3 months, it is estimated that there will be a state of emergency, and I think that the American fleet may be killed at any time, and they are estimated to be replenishing military supplies. "There is also a possibility that the Americans abandoned Churchill, or only used strategic airlift to hang the breath of the British Empire......"

Everyone shook their heads, although 1,000 planes can transport 10,000 tons of supplies a day, but the plane itself will consume some fuel on the return journey, and the net input is only 5,000-6,000 tons at most. Although Roosevelt repeatedly promised to supply Britain with 1 million tons of refined oil products per month, this target was never achieved, and the highest record was only 680,000 tons, an average of about 500,000 tons per month.

In order to meet the needs of the army, Britain was forced by the situation, and had already launched a number of rounds of fuel-saving measures, almost all private cars could not get fuel, even taxis began to limit the scale and running time, many inland waterway transport ships had to be changed to coal-fired boilers, and the country also urgently built 4 coal-to-liquid facilities, which can provide an additional 5-80,000 tons of gasoline and other by-products per month, plus the support provided by the United States, a stable consumption of about 45-500,000 tons a month, and the excess part all went into the reserve. It is used to cope with the days when foreign aid imports are cut off, but it can only last for 4-5 months.

At present, even if the United States and Britain intend to resume strategic bombing, it will basically not be possible, because a single bombing sortie of 1,000 planes will consume 10,000 tons of gasoline, which is absolutely a luxury for Great Britain. Even though technical experts say that the output rate of coal-to-liquid can be expanded to 15-200,000 tons within six months, it is an indisputable fact that the crude oil problem has replaced the food problem as Britain's biggest enemy.

"Sir, I've got a battle plan in mind." Ozawa respectfully reported, "The initial idea is to use the Broken Fleet to exert continuous pressure to force the enemy's main fleet to seek to engage our ......."

"Bait for the destruction of the fleet?" Mashal raised his eyebrows, interested.

"Yes, the enemy should hate my broken fleet, and I have sent heavy bombers every day for the past two days to spy and reconnoitre, and my strategy is divided into two steps: the first step is to use the broken fleet to introduce the enemy into the area where we need to fight, and first use long-range tactics to weaken the enemy's army and drag it into the night; The second step is to use the superior submarine forces of our army to launch an attack on the enemy and further weaken its strength; In the third step, the main fleet will engage in a general decisive battle with the weakened enemy, striving to defeat the opponent in one fell swoop. ”

"This strategy is a bit like your country's nine-stage invitation strategy?"

"The commander clearly sees that the basic idea is relatively close, and the enemy must solve the problem of breaking diplomatic relations, and it is also the biggest advantage that we can wait for the enemy to take the bait."

Macharnin thought calmly for a while, and felt that Ozawa's idea was feasible, the current Axis fleet is slightly inferior to the opponent in terms of strength, and to defeat the opponent while not being able to fight a lose-lose situation, it must rely on other aspects to make up for it, and it is a good idea to invite the attack in sections, he nodded: "I personally agree in principle, summarize the plan and report it to Berlin, and then the fleet will refine the plan, and let the submarines, Azores, naval aviation and even the air force cooperate with us." (To be continued.) )