The Rotterdam shipyard in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, is one of four shipyards in the Netherlands capable of building large surface warships of more than 30,000 tons - the small, peace-loving Netherlands actually has four shipyards that can build battleships! Europe's industrial prowess in the 1940s really can't be underestimated. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

When the German Reich Minister of Defense, Reich Field Marshal Hersmann, arrived at the large shipyard on April 1, 1942, it was a busy scene. The tall chimney was filled with black smoke, and soot dust was everywhere. A dozen large and small slipways lined up are busy, all of which are military and civilian ships under construction. The most striking of these is undoubtedly the hull of a huge 30,000-ton battleship.

"Imperial Marshal, the hull of this Ethic-class battlecruiser is very well built, better than our own!"

Amid the sound of clanging bangs, Admiral Canaris, the head of the German Naval Armaments Bureau (the original head of the secret service, who had been sent to the Navy by Hersmann at the end of '41) to give Hirschmann a thumbs up to the hull of the battlecruiser, which would be owned by the German Navy.

"With a standard displacement of 28,500 tons, the main armor belt and turret frontal armor are 250mm, the conning tower has 300mm frontal and side armor, and the double armor deck, which is 100mm and 30mm, respectively, is enough to protect the firepower of any heavy cruiser," said Admiral Canaris. And the 9 54.5x caliber 280mm guns are powerful enough to sink even three heavy cruisers at once! And its anti-aircraft firepower is also strong enough, 12 128mm high-level dual-purpose guns, 28 40mm Bofors high-level guns, plus 32 13mm machine guns. Even if they encounter a siege of twenty or thirty aircraft at sea, they can be safe and sound. But the most satisfying thing is its power system, 180,000 horsepower, which is larger than our Bismarck-class and Hindenburg-class, and the power system used by the H41 is exactly the same, which can make this battlecruiser run to 34 knots, almost as fast as a destroyer! I guarantee that none of the battleships and battlecruisers of other countries in the world can catch up with it. ”

The H41 was an improvement on the Hindenburg class (H39), and the four H-class battleships that were added one after another after the end of the Western Front campaign were all H41 battleships. If the H39 battleship is the transition from a "broken ship" to a "decisive battleship", then the H41 is a real decisive battleship.

By the time Germany began to design the H39 on the basis of the H41, it had already won the Western Front. Moreover, Germany's shore-based aviation also showed strong anti-ship capabilities, changing the balance of strength between the British and German navies. Moreover, the use of shore-based JU88, HE-115 (later changed to S.M.79) and Fokker Zero to cooperate with submarines to break up diplomatic relations is much better than the use of surface ships.

Therefore, the German ship engineers finally gave up the idea of "breaking diplomatic relations" and positioned the H41 as a decisive battleship.

At the same time, starting from helping the Netherlands design the Ethai Lake class, German hull engineers also abandoned the outdated concept of "dome armor protection" and concentrated the armor tonnage on key parts such as the sideboard, deck, turret, command tower, and underwater mine protection area.

In addition, the main gun of the H41 was upgraded on the basis of the H39, and the caliber was increased from 406mm to 420mm (the number was still 8). As a result, it truly has the strength to compete with the American super battleships "Iowa" and "Montana" classes under construction.

However, the Ethne-class battlecruisers, which contributed a lot of technology to the H41 battleships (new power systems and new armor protection design ideas), will never be built. Because Germany no longer needs to break up ships -- the issue of breaking diplomatic relations is now a "small target" for the United States to consider.

"You can convert three Ethne-See-class ships into aircraft carriers," said Hersmann, after visiting the Ethic-Lake-class hull, which has been built and ready to be launched. Admiral Furkes said, "There needs to be a fully enclosed hangar that can accommodate 30 FW-190Ts and 30 Fokker 100s, and it needs to be equipped with 40mm thick flight deck armor belts." How long does it take to complete? ”

The low- and medium-altitude version of the FW-190T (FW-190T-1), developed by Fokker on the basis of the FW-190, is now in mass production and will soon be able to replace the existing Fokker Zero. There is also a high-altitude model equipped with a turbocharger, called the FW-190T-2, which was also finalized in early April and will soon be in production.

According to the plan of the German naval aviation, for the German Navy carriers, carrier-based aircraft will consist of high-altitude fighters, low-altitude fighters and dive bombers. The high-altitude fighters would be used to repel the enemy's high-altitude bombers - while the Germans were developing the HS293 wire-controlled glide bomb, they certainly could expect the enemy to use the same methods to attack German surface ships.

After all, a wire-controlled glide bomb is not a high-tech thing, and with the capabilities of Britain and the United States in the field of electronics, it should be able to be copied very quickly.

However, before the United States succeeded in copying the HS293 wire-controlled glide bomb and equipping it with its troops, with a small fleet of P.108S, Germany could still dominate the Atlantic.

For Germany, the next few months will be a period of valuable strategic opportunity, and once this period of strategic opportunity has passed, a naval war with the United States is inevitable.

According to intelligence, the construction of the US "Essex" class aircraft carrier is progressing very quickly, and the first ship, the Essex, will be completed and put into service before the end of 1942, and there will be 7-8 more in service in 1943.

And in addition to the "Essex" class, there is also a 11,000-ton "Independence" class light fleet aircraft carrier will soon be dumplings. It is said that the U.S. Navy Department placed an order for 20 ships in one go at the beginning of 1942, and the first ship will be completed in 1942.

"Sixteen months at most," Admiral Canaris assured Hersman, "will be completed before the autumn equinox of 1943." ”

"Give you a maximum of 12 months." Hersman patted Admiral Canaris on the shoulder and said with great certainty, "It must be completed by the end of April 1943, because we will need aircraft carriers very much." ”

After negotiating with Admiral Canaris to speed up the conversion of the aircraft carrier, Hersmann and the head of the German Naval Armaments Department traveled to The Hague 20 kilometers away in a Maybach car. Although The Hague is not the capital of the Netherlands, it has always been the political center of the Netherlands, with many government agencies, embassies and international organizations based in The Hague. Queen Wilhelmina and Princess Juliana of the Netherlands also often gather in The Hague.

Today, Hersmann is in The Hague to meet with Princess Juliana of the Netherlands and the President of the Council of Ministers, Dirk. Gil met to discuss the issue of "protecting" Dutch Guiana.

"Prince, Your Royal Highness Princess, I have seen the hulls of all three battlecruisers, they are very good, we can buy them."

In a conference room at the Royal Palace in The Hague, Hersmann first met Prince Bernhard and Princess Juliana.

Both were undoubtedly pro-German...... In fact they were simply Germans, so Hersmann spoke to them in German.

"That's great, we can save a lot of money." Princess Juliana looked very happy. Not only because of the sale of 3 expensive battle cruisers, but also because of the solution of the headache of the Dutch East Indies - where is South Africa better in the Dutch East Indies? South Africa has gold mines, and there are fellow Boers, a real "colony". The Dutch East Indies did not colonize a few peoples at all, and the inhabitants there were either indigenous or Chinese.

"With South Africa, will you still be short of money in the Netherlands?" Hersman laughed, "40% of the world's gold is produced there, and the British Empire's wallet is supported by South African gold." ”

"All the Dutch Germans would be grateful to Germany, and the Dutch Germans and the German Germans were originally one family." Juliana laughed, "I think Congress will soon approve the bill to join the Euromark...... As soon as the war is over, we join the European Community. ”

The Dutch and Belgian Flemish (in fact, the Dutch) were actually Germanic branches, and there was a tradition of being pro-German, especially in the upper echelons of the Netherlands - three generations of queens married German princes, and later Queen Beatrix married a Nazi prince!

But it was one thing to be pro-German, and quite another to fight side by side with Germany. Although neither the Queen nor the Dutch government objected to Dutch citizens joining the German army in their personal capacity (there were many of them), they also encouraged domestic factories to accept German military orders. However, they have been reluctant to relent, not because they are unwilling to join, but because they are unwilling to join before the end of the war. Because joining the European Community means sharing the fate with Germany, it means joining the war!

Hersmann was fully aware of the Dutchman's desire to go to war, shrugged his shoulders and said with a smile: "There is no problem, the European Community welcomes the Netherlands at any time." But...... In order for us Europeans to win the war, we also need some convenience from the Netherlands. ”

"Convenient?" The Dutch princess smiled, "As long as we don't go to war, it's okay to say anything." ”

"No, of course not." Hersman shook his head, "We don't need the Netherlands to go to war, we just need the Netherlands to give us a springboard to the Americas." ”

"Springboard?" Juliana was stunned and looked back at her husband. Prince Haenbet had understood Hersmann's request, and he said to his wife: "My dear, what the Imperial Marshal wants is Dutch Guiana. (To be continued.) )