After reading the order of Marshal Lütjans, Rear Admiral Mayer took a step back and stood behind the commanders of the 2nd Fleet, Admiral Hoffmann and Vice Admiral Bey. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Admiral Hoffman glanced at the entire war room, furrowed his golden eyebrows, and said: "The moment is coming to decide the fate of Europe, and if we can sink more than 6 enemy super battleships in the next battle, then the United States will taste the shame we tasted in 1919." And before the fleet leaves the port and the 20th and 21st task forces are formed, I want to hear from all of you. ”

No one spoke or raised their hands.

Admiral Hoffman couldn't help frowning even more majesticly, and he turned his gaze directly to Little Hersman, the youngest man in the room and the only officer of naval aviation. As an officer in the Air Force and the Navy, Hersman Jr.'s rate of promotion is normal, but among a group of naval officers who are at least middle-aged, he is indeed a little too young.

"Major Hersmann," Admiral Hoffman was the first to call Hersmann Jr., "I ask you a question, how much effort did it take for the Americans to blow up the Zeppelin, Prussia, and Bohemia?" ”

"Huh?" Little Hersman was taken aback and did not answer Admiral Hoffman's question, "Admiral, you want to use three large fleet carriers as bait?" ”

If in the Japanese Navy, a little Shaosa would not dare to ask such a question to the admiral - of course, if that Shaosa had an emperor as his godfather (godfather) like Little Hesmann, it would have been an exception - but in Germany, which was accustomed to going straight, it was nothing.

"No final decision yet," Hoffman replied, "now I would like to hear your opinion...... After all, you're the only one among us who has actually seen a large armored aircraft carrier sunk. ”

Until the war, the German Navy has lost cruise converted aircraft carriers, escort aircraft carriers, amphibious assault ships, and light aircraft carriers of the "Kesselring" class, but it has never lost large armored aircraft carriers such as the Zeppelin-class and Prussia-class. So no one knows how resistant a large armored aircraft carrier is?

And little Hersman has exactly such an experience, he has personally witnessed the sinking of three Japanese fleet aircraft carriers, and he has also personally experienced the sinking of the armored aircraft carrier Taiho, so he is very experienced.

"Let's talk about how the Dafeng sank." Hoffman then asked.

"Admiral," Hesman Jr. thought for a moment and replied, "the armored deck of the Dafeng has actually withstood the test, and the U.S. fleet was far away from the Dafeng that day, so the bombers sent out could not take off with full ammunition, and the bombs dropped were all 500-pound level, and this kind of bomb could not sink the armored deck of the Dafeng." However, 2 bombs still penetrated the flight deck beyond the armored deck, but did not cause much damage. At the same time, 4 aviation torpedoes dropped by TBF torpedo bombers hit the aircraft carrier, causing a fire.

Probably because the fire, which was difficult to extinguish, exposed the location of the Taiho and attracted nearby American submarines. At the same time, the Taiho was decelerated sharply due to torpedo damage caused by water ingress in many places, a boiler room was flooded, and steam pipes were ruptured. Unable to escape the tracking of American submarines, he was ambushed by several American submarines on the evening of July 14......"

What Hersman Jr. said was in his own report, and Admiral Hoffman read it many times. It was precisely because of these reports that he recruited Hirschmann Jr. to his fleet as a staff officer of the Second Air -- a major who had personally experienced naval and air battles and the sinking of aircraft carriers on the best armored aircraft carriers of the Japanese, and who was one of the few in the German army. There are also two naval aviation lieutenants who had the same experience on the aircraft carriers Akagi and Kaga, and now they are also serving as second aviation staff officers of the 1st and 3rd fleets.

"If there is no attack from American submarines," Hoffman asked, "will the Taiho escape?" ”

"Yes." Hersman Jr. replied.

"But the Kaga and Akagi did not encounter American submarines."

"They can't be compared to the Great Phoenix." "I've been on both aircraft carriers and spent a long time on the Akagi. Although they are also known as 'unsinkable aircraft carriers', they are only modified with a layer of armor deck that is not too thick, and their internal structure has not changed. Moreover, the design of these two aircraft carriers is very outdated, and they were converted from half-built battleships and battlecruisers, and there are many irrationalities in the internal structure. In addition, they are all too old, and the ships are nearly 20 years old. ”

Hoffmann thought for a moment and asked, "So do you think the Zeppelin, Prussia, and Bohemia will be able to withstand the same level of air attack?" ”

"Absolutely." Hersman Jr. said with great certainty, "Because our three aircraft carriers and the ships escorting them have more powerful anti-aircraft firepower, and our carrier-based aircraft are also more powerful, neither the Fokker 636 nor the Fw190T can be compared with the Zero fighter." ”

"And what if you take into account American shore-based aircraft?" Hoffman asked one last question.

"Admiral, judging from the information we have so far, the US shore-based aircraft do not have a strong anti-ship capability." "In the Battle of Midway, the shore-based aircraft used by the Americans to attack the Japanese fleet were mainly P47 fighter-bombers," Hersman Jr. said. This aircraft was too strong for the Japanese Zero, and the high-altitude performance was too good to shoot down. However, it is definitely not an opponent of the Fokker 636, which surpasses the P47 in firepower, fighting and performance in medium and high altitudes, but is inferior to the P47 at extremely high altitudes. ”

"Admiral," Lieutenant Colonel Schumann, First Aviation Staff Officer of the 2nd Fleet, interjected at this time, "as far as we know, the anti-ship capabilities of American shore-based aircraft are mediocre. Neither their medium nor heavy bombers were capable of dive-dropping, nor did they have any really useful remote-guided bombs. The only aircraft available are the shore-based versions of the Navy's SBD, TBF, F4U and F6F, and the Army's P47 and P51. None of these aircraft are comparable in performance to our Fokker 636. ”

Fokker 636 (called "Sea Fury" in the UK) is a concentration of all the experience and technology of Britain and Germany in the field of piston carrier-based fighters to develop the "ultimate ship battle", the performance is much stronger than the Fw190T on board (only at extremely high altitudes, Fw190T can defeat Fokker 636), at low and medium altitudes can overwhelm P51B/C, not to mention other models.

Admiral Hoffman nodded and said to Major General Mayer, "Now tell everyone what you think." ”

……

"Admiral, look there."

On the battleship "Iowa," Vice Admiral Callaghan, chief of staff of the US 3rd Fleet and chief of staff of the 31st Task Force, pointed to four biplanes with slender fuselages and huge engines in the sky and said to Admiral Halsey: "That's the Marine Corps' F7F Tiger Cat." ”

“F7F…… It is finally in service. Halsey hurriedly raised his telescope and carefully looked at the F7F "Tiger Cat" fighter in the air forming a four-plane formation - this type of fighter began to be formally developed on June 30, 1941, but the progress of research and development was greatly delayed because of the priority of the F6F project, and it was not until the F6F was put into mass production that the Twin-engine F7F received sufficient research and development resources, and it was already the third quarter of 1943.

However, in the second quarter of 1944, the F7F, which had been greatly delayed in the development process, became a killer and lifesaver for the US military.

It turned out that after the German naval aviation was equipped with the Fokker 636, the American F6F and F4U suddenly became the targets of the hanging. Moreover, in a few encounters, the US military also found that the firepower of the Fokker 636 was very fierce, with four 20mm cannons, and even a strong aircraft like the SBD would be easily shot down on the Fokker 636.

In this case, the U.S. military naturally wants to seek a fighter with better performance to fight against the Fokker 636 and the jet Me262, which is even more a headache for the Americans. Moreover, after losing the technical support of the United Kingdom, the United States encountered a lot of problems in the development of liquid-cooled engines and jet engines, and not only could not build jet aircraft in the short term, but even further improved the performance of the P51.

As a result, the United States can only pin its hopes on the field of air-cooled engines, which they are good at. The F7F "Tiger Cat" fighter (in fact, it is also a fighter-bomber) with two high-power air-cooled engines installed and has also entered the trial equipment stage has become a killer and life-saving straw for the US military.

So from the second half of '44, the speed of equipping troops with the F7F-1 type (the first F7F-1 type was equipped with the Marine Corps in April '44) accelerated sharply. In addition to the Marine Corps, the shore-based aviation units of the US Navy have also begun to be reequipped with a large number of F7F-1 fighters since May 44.

Moreover, this new twin-engine fighter-bomber was deployed to Trinidad in July 44 and became a killer weapon in the "God of Liberty" operation!

"How many F7Fs can be put into operation now?" After Halsey watched the four F7Fs overtake the other four F4Us at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters at a great speed, he put down the binoculars and asked Callahan beside him.

Before Vice Admiral Callahan could reply, a fleet staff officer ran into the command tower of the battleship "Iowa" and handed over a copy of the telegram.

"Sir," Callahan, glancing at the telegram, said at once, "the departure of the German Grand Fleet at Brest and Gibraltar!" ”