"This is what that new German aircraft carrier looks like?" Cunningham took the picture and asked his chief of staff, Spruance, with a frown. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

"It's that strangely shaped aircraft carrier, I heard that it was changed from the French Dunkirk, but I didn't expect it to be changed to such a look." Spruance pondered for a while and said, "After repeated reconnaissance, the reconnaissance plane confirmed that it was the ship's and the Richelieu as the core of the sub-fleet that carried out the task of breaking diplomatic relations, not the main German fleet, at least the reconnaissance did not find anything." ”

Cunningham sighed and stopped talking, everyone next to him knew why he sighed: the British Empire, the former hegemon of the four seas, has now been reduced to the point that it can't even control the route at its doorstep, and a few years ago they were in high spirits to encircle and suppress the Bismarck, and now it is nothing more than adding one more aircraft carrier, but the entire route is cut off.

A staff officer asked suspiciously: "Sir, since you have found out, why didn't the army air force use heavy bombers to bomb it?" I can understand that shore-based attack aircraft can't reach it, can't it be 4 rounds of heavy bombardment? ”

"200 planes were dispatched to bomb once, but this guy can run 27 knots, horizontal bombers are useless at high altitudes, and if they reach low altitudes, the enemy's carrier-based aircraft and anti-aircraft fire are very ferocious......"

This reckless bombing cost the Army Air at least 19 bombers, and taking advantage of the overhaul, the Richelieu underwent a moderate modification in Italy, in addition to updating the radar, focusing on the reinforcement of anti-aircraft fire, the Richelieu ship's gun fire was concentrated on the foredeck, and the layout of the rear deck was almost a platform was very conducive to the strengthening of anti-aircraft fire. The German workers dismantled the three triple 152mm high-level dual-purpose guns, the six twin 100mm anti-aircraft guns and all the anti-aircraft machine guns on the rear deck. Instead of 12 128mm twin-mounted electric anti-aircraft turrets that are the same as the German anti-aircraft towers, 48 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns and 8 phalanx are additional, the density of fire is outrageous.

The Richelieu with the proximity fuse is very effective, especially when Rulin's 128mm anti-aircraft gun erupts in full force, it is simply a metal storm, a B-17 or B-29 will be finished as long as it is hit by 1 shot, and if the bomb height is lower, the Richelieu and the Phalanx on Dunkirk will start to go crazy. The raid hit only a 500-pound high-explosive bomb on the Richelieu, which was a drizzle for the thick-skinned battleship, and the Dunkirk was hit by only two near-misses, but the combined efforts of the two ships, together with the destroyers and fighters on the side, shot down a total of 13 heavy bombers, and the other 6 bombers struggled to return to base, but were forced to scrap due to too much damage.

Faced with an ineffective bombing with a 10% loss rate, the Army was reluctant to attempt such a futile offensive.

After studying the photographs for half a day, Cunningham asked, "What's the use of this strange deck?" ”

"There are two opinions among experts, one is that setting up an angled deck in this way is conducive to speeding up the release of carrier-based aircraft - it can be released at the same time as both decks; The other believes that such a layout is conducive to enhancing the combat capability of the aircraft carrier, and after scrapping one another, there is another that can work. ”

"Similar to my idea, we can also conduct 1-2 warship tests like this, although the Germans always do some strange things, but I have to admit that some of their goods are still good, such as those water reconnaissance and ship reconnaissance, and we are not at the same level at all." Cunningham's complaints, mean, hit the nail on the head, the U.S. Navy's current use of seagulls or kingfishers were all in service before the 40s, slow, clumsy, and can only be used as anti-submarine aircraft. Isn't that what SBD should do?

"The water reconnaissance has been eyebrowed, Curtiss has developed the SC-1 water reconnaissance aircraft, with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers and a maximum speed of more than 500 kilometers / h, almost as fast as the F4F, and the Navy has impatiently placed an order for 500 aircraft, which is expected to be put into service in batches next spring, as for the ship reconnaissance ...... It is said that the tender is still being tendered, after all, the enemy has not been launched for long. "Speaking of the ship's detective Spruance, he is full of shame, at first the F4F could not catch up with the AR-372, and after changing the F6F, he could not catch up with the enemy's AR-352, which made the fleet extremely annoyed, and the hot feeling was more painful than a slap in the face.

"As for this new look of aircraft carrier, I personally don't think we will follow suit in the short term, first, its specific value is not known now, not every innovation will bring good results; Second, time does not allow us to do this, the Germans can take a battleship and slowly change it, but the Essex class is mass-produced, how can we stop and renovate? If you have this time, you might as well start a few more ......"

Cunningham was persuaded by Spruance, the key is that now the British are poor and short-sighted, everything has to rely on the Americans, Roosevelt said that East Churchill did not dare to go west, but he clearly remembered that soon after he took office, the two countries swore that they would fight the Azores, and as a result, nearly half a year has passed, not only the plan to attack the Azores is far away, but even the Anglo-Canadian route is in danger, and at this time, there are accidents in Bermuda and the Falkland Islands, which is really dizzying. Although he theoretically commands all the aircraft carriers of the British and American fleets, he still has to listen to the Americans in major policies, not to mention this feeling of aggrievedness. So even if the Brave, which flew the flag of the British Empire, joined the formation this time, Cunningham refused to transfer the flagship to the Brave, and still guarded the much smaller Unicorn, this time the reason given was that the other party was a new ship, and the run-in was not yet mature, as for the actual thoughts, who can say?

"Sir, the fleet is basically complete, and it will set sail on November 3rd, and Admiral Ingersoll's artillery formation will start one day earlier than ours. This joint staff meeting has assigned us two tasks: to destroy the enemy's broken fleet, to restore the Anglo-Canadian route, to hold back the enemy's main fleet and prevent it from reinforcing the Falkland Islands, and to annihilate it if there is an opportunity. ”

"Which of these two tasks is more important?"

"Equally important."

"It can't be!" Cunningham shook his head, "I can give a counter-example now, if the main force of the German fleet moves south quickly at this time, will we go to restore navigation or go to intercept?" ”

"Volley!"

"Then the disruption of the Anglo-Canadian route is still inevitable, do you want me to divide some of my forces to fight the enemy and break the fleet?"

Spruanston was speechless, it was impossible to divide the troops, and now the main fleet did not have a significant advantage over the main fleet of the Axis, and he was afraid that he would not be able to eat and walk around if he divided the troops, but he knew what the real intentions of the Joint Staff Committee, especially Admiral King, were-the latter was not enthusiastic about resuming the Anglo-Canadian route at all, and if it were not for the president's death order, Admiral King would not care about the life or death of the fat man. But this cannot be said in front of Cunningham, and the Navy is also "politically correct".

He had no choice but to explain: "The Joint Chiefs of Staff has assigned us six escort aircraft carriers, and we hope that we can effectively play their role." ”

"Do you have a good idea?"

"The initial plan is to use these 6 escort aircraft carriers as bait, and then prepare to eat the enemy's small fleet, if the main German fleet comes to the rescue, we will fight with the main force; If you don't come, it's acceptable to eat 1 aircraft carrier plus 1 cutting-edge battleship. Spruance hesitated for a long time, and finally said, "Take 10,000 steps back and say, even if you lose both with the Germans, there will be two more aircraft carriers in service next month, and the Franklin in January, and the cost of fighting is greater than that of the Germans." ”

Cunningham and a group of British staff officers were speechless, but they had to admit that this was the truth, and now the American tyrants were using the method of attrition to fight the Germans -- they, as the parties concerned, had personally been to Bermuda, and they knew too well what the true meaning of the so-called "Bermuda victory" was.

"Then we have to take a little risk and get close to about 1,500 kilometers from the Azores." Cunningham stopped in front of the chart, "The enemy will not make up his mind to fight this battle with us without entering the Azorean threat circle." ”

"I think so." Spruance nodded, "Now the German main fleet is very cunning, hiding in the Azores air defense protection circle and not coming out, there is no way to stare dryly, you have to take a little risk, but you can't get closer." ”

At the same time when the British and American fleets were in full swing to prepare to leave the port to meet the battle, Machar's fleet had completed all kinds of materials, equipment and personnel replenishment in advance, and the folding wing BF-219C had a good effect in this operation, winning the unanimous approval of the fleet, and the entire replacement was realized, and each aircraft carrier increased by 6-8 carrier-based aircraft, and the AR-352 also won numerous praises, the fleet introduced 12 aircraft again, and the entire Axis fleet reached 18, and the original water reconnaissance freed up part of its energy to undertake anti-submarine tasks. The Ju-198 was well received on the Dunkirk, and the carrier-based pilots also thought it was a good aircraft after targeted acclimatization training on the Azores, especially for its functions of dive bombing and torpedo attack.

The cautious Machar did not dare to adopt all of them, and still adopted the policy of running in small steps, only allowing all the attack aircraft on the Aquila to complete the rearmament. The modified Aquila aircraft carrier has all foldable wings on the carrier-based aircraft, and the final aircraft carrying capacity becomes a combination of 4 AR-352s, 28 BF-219s and 32 JU-198s (plus 8 spare aircraft). If this operation proves that the Ju-198 can take on the heavy lift, he will recommend a complete overhaul in the country.

This is one of the three proposals put forward by the fleet, the first of the other two proposals is about carrier-based fighters, the pilots reflect that the F6F seems to be becoming more and more difficult to deal with, and urgently requires the country to provide newer and better fighters, Machar believes that the BF-219 that continues to be tinkered with can no longer bear the heavy responsibility, there must be a new carrier-based fighter, he knows that the Ministry of Armaments has not yet decided whether the next generation of carrier-based aircraft will be modified by purple electric or Gale Moddy, but he believes that no matter which one is stronger than BF-219, who is good and who is bad, Isn't it okay to go on the ship first to verify it?

Another suggestion was about cross-platform long-range warfare, and based on the practice of the Dunkirk, he had a new insight. (To be continued.) )