Dressed in a decent naval uniform and letting the warm sea breeze blow on your face, the cold wind from the Atlantic Ocean was completely unfelt in the Kiel military port, an important German naval base. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

With the Baltic Sea in the distance, an inland sea protected by Denmark and Norway, there is hardly a hint of war here.

In addition to the large warships that are being renovated in the docks of the military port, and the large ocean-going submarines that are being built overtime in the smaller docks next to them.

The scaffolding that was erected made the originally neat and classic German-style battleship in front of him look a little messy and dilapidated.

However, this is indeed a new warship, and compared to the warships of the British Navy that have been in the water for some years, every German warship seems to be very old.

For example, the famous battleship Bismarck is a new type of battleship that was just launched in 1940.

However, with the order of the Führer in June, this battleship, which had just been commissioned and was regarded as a major problem by the British Navy, was to be modernized again.

Looking at a brand-new battleship being built in the dock, but unable to fight for the four seas for the motherland, how can the officers and men of the surface ships of the Navy not be emaciated?

But the Führer's orders are now not something that a weak navy can disobey. What's more, the Führer also gave the Navy a great benefit: an aircraft carrier USS Zeppelin.

"How's the construction going?" Dressed in the marshal's gown, Raeder looked at the beautiful battleship Bismarck, the result of his life's work, and asked his adjutant.

With a smile on his face, the head of the shipyard who accompanied him replied for the adjutant: "Your Excellency Marshal, all the 37-mm anti-aircraft guns have been replaced, and the progress of the project has been completed by more than 50 percent. ”

The battleship Bismarck was originally armed with 37 mm caliber anti-aircraft guns, which were the product of the German Navy itself.

The performance of this anti-aircraft gun is so inferior that the data garbage is so bad that military weapons fans can't bear to look at it directly.

The reloading method it uses is still outdated manual single-shot reloading, with a low rate of fire and no continuous barrage at all.

When the battleship Bismarck was put into service, the air threat was actually not obvious, so the anti-aircraft weapons that the German army equipped with this battleship could not be compared with those perverted battleships in the latter part of World War II.

It is precisely because of the lack of attention to air defense weapons that the Navy has always used backward "37 mm caliber hand-pulled aircraft".

This nickname says that when the 37mm anti-aircraft gun is fired, the bolt is closed and the fire is fired in one go, and the gunner finally has a pull action with his hand, so it is widely circulated among military fans.

Bismarck, who used this weapon, was torpedoed by a torpedo to cut his "leg" short when the British Navy dispatched a not advanced swordfish torpedo attack aircraft, which eventually led to the final tragedy.

In June, Li Le demanded that the Bofors 40-mm anti-aircraft guns be used to replace the 37-mm single-shot anti-aircraft guns that Germany had originally equipped.

As a result, the density of anti-aircraft gun fire in the German Navy was more than doubled, and anti-aircraft machine guns were added to some positions where there were no anti-aircraft guns.

The anti-aircraft firepower of the converted battleship Bismarck was greatly enhanced, which was also an effort by Li Le to avoid his own battleship being attacked by the enemy air force.

Thanks to his efforts, in a month's time, the USS Zeppelin was 90% complete, and the battleship Tirpitz was nearing completion.

If it weren't for the temporary addition of more anti-aircraft weapons, all the 37 mm anti-aircraft guns were converted into 40 mm Bofors, Tirbitz would have been able to rush faster.

Similarly, the Scharnhorst, which is smaller and less refined, is already in the final stages of commissioning, and the dockyard that has been moved out will be refit for the Prinz Eugen.

The major refit of German surface ships is being carried out in an orderly manner, and when all surface ships are ready for combat, the strength in Raeder's hands should not be underestimated.

Once the configuration was completed, the German Navy had 2 new battleships, 1 aircraft carrier, and several cruisers - this was definitely a large naval fleet.

With this fleet, the Germans will be more sure to fight on the surface of the water! With the submarine force, the certainty of strangling the British sea transportation line is even greater.

"The new Bofors anti-aircraft gun is much stronger than the original anti-aircraft gun." The adjutants, who had tested the new artillery, were still very fond of this modification.

The rear part of the borough of the Bofors anti-aircraft gun is an upright wedge bolt, and the action of opening and closing the bolt is generally done automatically by the gun recoil, which increases the automation and the rate of fire of the gun.

The feeding mechanism, located above the breech, has three rows of fixed rails, each capable of accommodating one magazine. Empty magazines are automatically removed, allowing the loader to keep the gun firing as long as they keep changing magazines.

The main gunner only needs to press the firing pedal, and the loader is responsible for reloading the shells in a standing or sitting position on the side, and can maintain a rate of fire of more than 80 rounds per minute.

In comparison, the German Navy was originally equipped with 37 mm caliber anti-aircraft guns, and the rate of fire was less than 40 rounds per minute at most.

With such advanced weapons, the navy warships were strengthened and the modification work was carried out very quickly, which made Raeder very satisfied.

In a secret air base not far from the Kiel military port, the training of naval aviation is also in full swing.

40 new, specially modified ME-109 fighters and their pilots are adapting to take off on deck.

They sketch the outline of an aircraft carrier's deck on the ground and then train how to take off and land in this small space.

In fact, their training did not go well, at least the pilots believed that the landing gear design was too anti-human for the ME-109 fighter to take off and land on an aircraft carrier.

Pilots preferred another fighter, the FW-190, and in the same way, air-cooled engines were preferred over liquid-cooled engines in naval aviation.

Some pilots, after testing the improved Stuka bomber Navy version, decided that even the Stuka would be much easier to handle than the ME-109 in the process of landing on the carrier.

Thinking of this, Raeder couldn't help but feel a headache. He had already goering a little red because of this.

Raeder wanted the FW-190 fighter jet, converted into an aircraft carrier-based fighter, for use by Zeppelin and several aircraft carriers that followed.

However, the FW-190 fighter's strong combat effectiveness in the Battle of Britain and the longer range made Goering reluctant to give up the valuable production capacity of the FW-190 fighter.

Now the FW-190 is also the heart of the Air Force, and it is even more difficult for the Navy to get a piece of the pie. Therefore, Raeder also had to continue to endure the landing control of the ME-109 fighter and train the first German carrier-based aircraft pilots.

Although the ME-109 fighter was not suitable for the ship, the modification was completed and Raeder already had several aircraft in his hands that could be used for training.

So this group of German pilots was probably the most dangerous fighter pilots in the world -- they had to land on the narrow deck of an aircraft carrier in a plane that was very risky when landing.

Of course, there is also good news, that is, once they have formed combat effectiveness, they are much more powerful than the carrier-based aircraft on the aircraft carriers of the British Navy.

Compared to the biplane torpedo attack aircraft of the Swordfish, the Stuka bomber is clearly more modern.

In the 40s and 41s, the British Navy fighters also used the "Sea Fighter" on the monoplane, as well as two-seat fighters such as the Guanbi Swallow.

These aircraft are clearly no match for the German Navy's soon-to-be-formed ME-109T and Stuka C.

"Alas...... It would be nice if Goering could cede the production line for the FW-190 fighter. As if talking to himself, Raeder looked at the Bismarck battleship in the distance and sighed.

The Imperial Navy rose from scratch to its present glory, and the two new battleships gave him the confidence to cut off Britain's fragile maritime lifeline.

As long as his navy attacked with all his might, Britain would be instantly on the back foot, and then forced to choose to surrender.

"Let the Scharnhorst find an opportunity to go to sea first, and order General Lütjans to cooperate with the submarine as much as possible to destroy the enemy's convoy." Raeder commanded.

The Scharnhorst battlecruiser is a classic German raid ship design, as well as a classic big ship and small cannon design.

With a full load displacement of more than 37,000 tons, it uses three 283 mm guns, which gives Scharnhorst a maximum speed of up to 33 knots.

The basic tactics of German warships have evolved from fighting against the main British fleet in World War I to fighting and running guerrilla warfare today.

Under this tactic, all German battleships were equipped with high speed and thick armor. And a relatively economical and efficient small-caliber gun was adopted.

The Bismarck battleship used a 381 mm main gun, but its displacement was close to 50,000 tons. On the other hand, the Japanese Navy with small boats and cannons, and the Nagato battleship, which had a displacement similar to that of the Scharnhorst, was equipped with 410 mm guns.

The reason for this phenomenon was that the naval treaty between Great Britain and Germany restricted the normal development of the German navy.

In order to deceive British surveillance and reassure Britain about the development of the German Navy, the German Navy has always tried its best to show weakness to the enemy.

Under normal combat conditions, the caliber of the guns of German battleships of the same class was smaller than that of British ships, which made the British Navy feel very relieved to let the German Navy complete its shipbuilding plan.

But who would have thought that the day these battleships were built were not for a decisive battle with the British fleet?