On the same day that Ribbentrop Jr. arrived on Georgetown Island to prepare for a possible landing of American GIs there, Rudolph . Feng. Major Heinsberg-Hersmann was on his way to report to the port of Brest - Rudolph, who had returned from Japan, had just been offered a promising position as the 2nd Air Staff Officer of the 2nd Fleet of the Combined European Fleet. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Generally speaking, the Navy's fleet staff officers are generally graduates of the Naval Staff College (Naval University) and have considerable experience working in surface fleets and command organs. However, the aviation staff officer is an exception, because the fleet aviation staff officer must have served as the captain of the carrier-based aviation unit and must be proficient in aviation operations. And most of such officers are naval aviation officers who have not attended a serious naval academy.

Because German naval aviation has always been regarded as a branch of the air force, pilots and naval aviation officers are mainly trained by the air force. The advantage of this staffing arrangement is that the Luftwaffe, with its 18,000 front-line pilots (captains), is ready to provide elite pilots for naval aviation. And after a few months of training at the Naval Aviation School in Port Kiel, 30%-40% of these elites from the Air Force will be able to fly carrier-based aircraft on aircraft carriers. This ensures that the aircraft carriers of the European Community Joint Fleet can get enough and good carrier-based pilots, and they will not be in the dilemma of having aircraft carriers but no pilots, as is the case with Japan.

However, there are pros and cons to everything; when naval aviation and the air force are almost integrated, it is impossible for officers of the navy to be proficient in fleet staff business, and officers with serious naval backgrounds, even if they have participated in flight training organized by the naval aviation school, are far less proficient in aviation warfare than carrier-based aircraft pilots from the air force.

As a result, the Fleet Aviation Staff Officer, who is responsible for communicating between the Navy and the Navy, has become a difficult position to do well. If this position is held by an officer from the navy, the following carrier-based aircraft pilots will regard him as a layman (in fact, a layman), and if it is held by an officer from the air force system, he is not proficient in naval warfare and fleet business.

As a result, the German navy and navy have always had the problem of running in, and when Marshal Kesselring, the air force boss, became commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Front, he adopted a method of making peace with the mud, and officers from the navy and naval aviation respectively served as the first and second aviation staff officers of the fleets -- in addition to the chief staff officer, the fleet staff officers of the European Combined Fleet and its subordinate detachments now have deputy posts, called second staff officers.

Although Hesmann Jr. is young and has not attended the Staff College (after all, the Luftwaffe's heritage is not long enough, and the Staff College has not been open for a long time, so most of the staff officers of the Air Force and the Navy have not attended the Air Force Staff College), but judging from his resume, he is really the best candidate to serve as a staff officer of the fleet aviation.

Don't look at the young age of Hersman, but he is a veteran of the Navy who has personally experienced the two naval battles of the Hawaiian Islands and the Panama naval battle, and he is still an ace pilot who has won the Blue Max Medal, and he is also the vice president of the official jet flight school, and he has also participated in the officer training class of the naval school in Port Kiel, so he still knows the rules and regulations of the Navy very well.

However, when the well-informed little Hersman, who had a diploma from the Navy, Army and Air Force Military Academy, flew to the port of Brest on August 20 on a Ju52 transport plane to take up his post, he saw a strange warship in the bay of the port of Brest that he had never seen before.

It's a battleship!

Judging by the size and caliber of the main gun, it must be a battleship!

With a standard displacement of more than 30,000 tons and a caliber of about 380mm for its main guns, it seems that it should have been a very powerful battleship.

However, the number of main guns of this battleship was strangely small, with only two twin main gun turrets, one in the bow and one in the stern. Behind the bow main gun turret was a large and somewhat excessive bridge - as if to make room for the expansion of the bridge, occupying what could have been a main gun turret.

As a result, a large ship of more than 30,000 tons has only 4 380mm cannons, which is too wasteful of tonnage, right?

And this is not the strangest thing, the most incomprehensible thing for the little Hersman is that on each side of the large ship is a row of 10 large pipes with one end raised forward at an angle of about 45 degrees (in the direction of the bow). From a distance, it looks a bit like a torpedo tube, but it's certainly not used to launch torpedoes - you don't need to tilt the tube upwards to launch a torpedo, and a torpedo is not a rocket launcher.

"Major General, this is ...... What ship? Pointing to the strangely shaped battleship in the sea below, Hersmann Jr. asked Hans-Karl, chief of staff of the 2nd Fleet, who had flown with him from Berlin. Major General Mayer.

"This is the missile battleship Gneisenau," said Rear Admiral Mayer, "the flagship of the 201st missile ship group." ”

"Missile battleships? It turns out that the Gneisenau has been converted into a missile battleship...... "Little Hersman took a breath, he had piloted missiles. "Those tubes are full of missiles?"

"That's right, it's all Bleach 2 TV remote control guidance missiles." Rear Admiral Mayer held out two fingers, "A missile battleship has 20 missile launch tubes, and it is capable of launching 20 Reaper-2 missiles at a time. ”

The idea of converting missile battleships was proposed after the "Battle of the Ice Sea" in the North Atlantic in December 1942.

In that battleship fleet showdown, the "Wilhelm II" class missile cruisers played a key role. Thus, the German Navy fully realized the huge role of remote-controlled missiles in naval warfare.

Moreover, because the battleship Barbarossa was easily sunk by Soviet-class 406mm cannons in that naval battle, it also made the German Navy aware of the vulnerability of battleships with a standard displacement of around 30,000 tons, such as the "Barbarossa", "Scharnhorst" and "Dunkirk" classes.

As a result, after the "Battle of the Ice Sea," the second ship of the Barbarossa-class, the second ship of the Barbarossa-class, the second ship of the Scharnhorst-class, the Gneisenau, and the two Dunkirk-class ships began to be overhauled at the same time -- according to the plan, they would be converted into "missile battleships" and "fleet command ships."

According to the German Navy's vision, the four "missile battleships" would each be based on 20 missile launchers (later converted into launch tubes) to launch remotely controlled missiles of the V series or the Reaper series. At the same time, they will also serve as the flagships of task forces/battleship groups.

In addition, four Wilhelm II-class missile cruisers (P-class) were also overhauled from 1943. The two twin 280mm turrets and the two twin 150mm turrets, which had been installed in the bow and stern, were all removed and replaced with three triple 203mm turrets. Thus from an "armored ship" to a "heavy cruiser".

At the same time, the eight 533mm torpedo tubes and the missile launchers in the amidships were dismantled and replaced with the same anti-ship missile firepower configuration as the "missile battleship" -- also 20 "Reaper" 2 missile launch tubes!

After the completion of the program of refit of "missile battleship" and "missile heavy cruiser". The EC Navy will have eight powerful "missile ships" that, if used intensively, can fire 160 2.5-ton Reaper-2 remote-controlled TV missiles in a salvo.

Theoretically enough to destroy an entire enemy fleet! However, the enemy fleet within 30,000 meters can only be destroyed with good visibility.

While Germany was striving to build "missile battleships" and "missile heavy cruisers", the T-class missile boat program, which was initially pinned on by Hersmann, failed to do so.

This is due to the fact that the use of jet engines is that Reaper 1 missiles (which, like Reaper 2, are improved from the Silver Reaper suicide missiles), cannot be used on ships (jet engines are inferior to rocket engines in terms of thrust and acceleration). The rocket engine of the HWK509 series used in the Reaper 2 missile must use highly corrosive, highly toxic and highly explosive hydrogen peroxide as propellant, so it must use special preservation containers and the method of refueling before launch. Such a set of equipment is so large that it simply cannot be installed on a small ship of more than 1,000 tons -- this is also the reason why the European Community Navy has taken out eight large ships of 20,000 tons or 30,000 tons for "missile" modification.

In addition to the overhaul of 4 missile battleships and 4 missile cruisers, the German Navy also launched a major overhaul of the Deutschland-class armored ships after 43 years, 3 chicken-like "Deutschland"-class armored ships were converted into heavy cruisers, and 3 triple 280mm turrets were replaced with 3 triple 203mm turrets. At the same time, it was also replaced with a more advanced dual-action two-stroke diesel engine (the diesel engine on the P-class), which increased the power to 110,000 horsepower and the maximum speed to 32.5 knots, but the maximum range was reduced to 6,500 nautical miles per 17 knots, the same as the Admiral-class heavy cruisers.

As a result of this series of refits, the German Navy had a total of 10 heavy cruisers of three classes in August 1944. If we add to this the 10 heavy cruisers of the French Navy (3 of which are of the newly built "St. Louis" class) and the Spanish 1 heavy cruiser (Canarias class), the current Combined Fleet of the European Communities has a total of 21 heavy cruisers. Although it is inferior to the United States in terms of numbers, its combat effectiveness is much stronger than that of the Americans' heavy cruisers -- those four "William II" class missile cruisers alone have the power to sink several American battleships!

"Rudolph," said Rear Admiral Mayer, with some anticipation, to Hersmann Jr. as the plane landed at the naval airfield near the port of Brest, "and if we are to form Task Force 20, we will all be on board the Gneisenau." When the time comes, you will have the opportunity to experience the decisive battle of the battleship formation, which is the real war at sea! ”