The Rise of the Third Reich

A coal-burning European Solidarity cargo ship (a bulk carrier modeled after the American Liberty Ship) arrived at the Palembang pier on the shores of Musi, which was experiencing its worst moment since the beginning of the Japanese colonial era. The once busy port has now become deserted, with only Japanese soldiers wearing yellow-green military uniforms on the pier, carrying long rifles with bayonets in their hands, patrolling back and forth menacingly. It gives people the feeling of facing a formidable enemy.

Several powerful Taisho 14th-year-old 105mm anti-aircraft guns were placed in a corner of the pier, surrounded by sandbags, forming an anti-aircraft gun position. Several Japanese army soldiers, also wearing khaki military uniforms, were surrounding it. Anti-aircraft artillery is conducting routine training. The muzzle of the anti-aircraft gun swayed and changed direction in response to the commands.

Next to the anti-aircraft gun position are several shipyards built by the Dutch. They are not too big and can only repair small boats of a few thousand tons. They cannot even fit in the European Solidarity ship, which has a displacement of only more than 10,000 tons. However, none of these small docks was empty, and in each dock there was a freighter damaged by mines.

Because the water depth of the Malacca Strait is too shallow, it is the best place to lay bottom mines. Moreover, it is a water transportation hub connecting Europe and East Asia, and it is also an oil transportation channel for the Palembang Oilfield, which has a huge annual output. Therefore, since 1942, when Japan entered the Dutch East Indies, the British and American navies have laid a large number of mines in this area, including sunken magnetic mines and floating anchor mines. I don’t know how many mines were laid?

The Japanese Navy has also deployed many minesweepers, submarine destroyers, ad hoc cruisers, second-class destroyers in Malacca, as well as some patrol aircraft with anti-submarine and mine-sweeping functions, including the "East China Sea" anti-submarine aircraft equipped with magnetic detectors. Patrol aircraft.

However, compared with the efforts of Britain and the United States to break diplomatic ties, the Japanese Navy's investment in anti-submarine and mine clearance is too little.

After all, the investment to prevent thieves must be many times greater than to commit thieves!

For example, to lay mines, sometimes you don’t even need to dispatch submarines or aircraft. A camouflaged mine-laying ship with the flag of a neutral country or an European Community country can do it. Unless every foreign cargo ship traveling through the Strait of Malacca is carefully searched, Japan will There is simply no way to eliminate the activities of camouflaged minelayers.

Strict searches not only waste time, but also easily cause unnecessary friction (in war years, supplies are scarce and smuggling is the most profitable time. Who of those sailors who venture out to sea will be completely clean?), leaving many European crew members The Malacca route is repulsive, dangerous and unprofitable.

Another reason why European sailors are reluctant to come to the Strait of Malacca is that this shallow strait will be blocked by mines every now and then, and no one knows when it will be reopened. Therefore, merchant ships coming from the Indian Ocean or preparing to sail to the Indian Ocean can only wait endlessly in the port.

However, for Lieutenant Colonel Knoppmann, the reserve navy of the "Valsburg Mountain", which has just entered the port and flies the flag of the neutral Netherlands, but actually belongs to the European Joint Transport Command, traveling to and from the Malacca Strait is just for him. Just contribute your own strength to win the war for the German motherland.

This old German man with a round face, a tendency to blink his eyes, and was short and fat was an old German navy man who had participated in the last world war. However, he was not a militarist. In fact, he turned anti-war at the end of the last world war. During the sailors' uprising in Kiel Port, he not only sympathized with the sailors, but also provided them with a lot of help.

As a result, he was expelled from the navy immediately after the end of the world war and was not called up again during the era when the German navy began to expand. It was not until Germany defeated Britain in 1943 that he was recalled to the Navy and served as the captain of a freighter running the Eastern Route.

At that time, he had completely changed his anti-war stance, from an early anti-Nazi and supporter of the Social Democratic Party to a glorious Nazi party member... Such a change in stance is very common in Germany. Now Germany is about to win, and the ideal society of National Socialism seems to be right in front of us. Everything is so beautiful, which also proves the correctness of Chancellor Hitler and Marshal Hessmann.

The "Walsburg Mountain" has docked at the pier, the gangway has been lowered, and several Japanese wearing yellow-green tropical military uniforms walked up quickly.

The leader was a captain in his thirties, with an unshaven face and a very arrogant expression. Although the Netherlands ceded the Dutch East Indies without a fight, in the eyes of most Japanese, this small European country that had long declined was also a defeat at the hands of the Japanese Empire.

"Who is the captain? We need to board the ship for inspection!"

A Japanese sergeant who was probably doing business in the Dutch East Indies before the war asked the Indian sailors on the ship loudly in blunt Dutch. Although the ship was flying the Dutch flag, the captain, first mate, second mate, chief engineer and other major crew members They were all German, but most of the sailors were recruited from India. They could barely understand English, but absolutely no Dutch.

Knopman had been to Malacca more than once and knew the temper of the Japanese very well. At this time, he had a serious face, put on a red sleeve with a Nazi swastika on his sleeve, walked quickly to the deck, stood at attention when he saw the Japanese, and then raised his right arm: "Hi! Hitler!"

It turns out to be a Nazi!

All the Japanese immediately put away their arrogant expressions, stood at attention and saluted Knopman.

Then Knopmann handed over his ID, the identification document of the "Valsburgh Mountain", and the ship inspection exemption order issued by the Japanese Navy's Southwest Fleet.

The ship was loaded with electromagnetic minesweeping equipment produced in Germany, which the Japanese ordered in March - before March 1944, the Americans had basically never used magnetic mines, so the Japanese were unprepared. After encountering trouble, they asked Germany for help and ordered a large number of electromagnetic minesweeping tools and diesel generators to power the electromagnetic minesweeping tools.

Starting from April, various mine clearance equipment accounted for a certain proportion in the cargo list shipped to the Strait of Malacca and Yangon, Myanmar.

Incidentally, Rangoon, the capital of Japanese Burma, was a relatively safe port for Eurasian trade. After Japan occupied Myanmar, it also forced allied prisoners of war to build a Thai-Burmese railway, connecting Yangon and the Thai capital Bangkok. However, the transportation capacity of the Thai-Burmese railway is limited, except for the oil produced in Myanmar (Yenanqiang Oilfield) and important Apart from minerals, only products such as aircraft engines, radars and high-quality aviation fuel (beginning in 1944, Germany began to export small quantities of high-octane aviation gasoline and aviation kerosene to Japan that Japan could not produce) can take the Yangon route. .

However, even the Yangon route is not absolutely safe, because the route from Bangkok to the Japanese mainland is also full of various mines and submarines laid by the Americans.

Therefore, various mine clearance equipment and light escort destroyers are what the Japanese navy needs most at present.

The former is easier to provide. Now American submarines are laying mines everywhere near the Atlantic coastline of Europe and North Africa (German submarines are doing the same thing), so electromagnetic minesweepers have been mass-produced.

However, the latter cannot be provided immediately if desired, because US submarines do not have a great impact on the European Community economy, and Germany and France do not have enough naval officers and soldiers available.

In addition, the U.S. Navy has not completely lost its control of the Atlantic Ocean. From time to time, it can send surface ships and even aircraft carriers to break up the relationship. Therefore, there is no way for a 1,000-1,500-ton light escort destroyer to complete the Atlantic escort mission. In 1936, the D-type destroyer was the cheap multifunctional destroyer most needed by the European Community Navy.

Therefore, apart from the United Kingdom, which has a "Hunter" class light escort destroyer, no other country in the European Community has developed such a thing.

However, the Japanese themselves developed a model with a standard displacement of 1,260 tons and a maximum speed of 27.3 knots in the second half of 1943. It can be used for anti-submarine escort and fleet combat (it has four 610mm torpedo launch tubes). "Matsu" class D destroyer - the Japanese Navy divides destroyers into four types according to different functions: A, B, C and D. Among them, type D is similar to an escort destroyer. Currently, there is only one type of "Matsu" class. The first ship "Matsu" was launched in April It was just completed on the 28th.

While building the "Matsu" class on its own, the Japanese Navy is also discussing deals with German and French shipbuilders to order large quantities of the "Matsu" class.

Because the German and French shipyards required that the power combination of the heavy oil-fired boiler + steam turbine used in the "Song" class be changed to a diesel engine (the production of steam turbines is more difficult and more expensive than diesel engines), the design modification was not completed until early May. The first batch of 5 "Matsu-class modified" destroyers to start construction (according to the contract, starting from June, 8 ships will start construction every month), the keels will be laid one after another before the end of June, and according to the plan, they will be laid within 5 months All finished.

It is expected that starting from 1945, Japan's anti-submarine and mine clearance operations difficulties in the Nanyang Islands will be greatly improved...if Japan has not withdrawn from the war by then.

But now, starting from the Strait of Malacca and heading east, it is a sea full of dangers for the ships of the Axis powers.

The elderly German captain Knoppmann just wants to unload the cargo on the ship earlier and leave here.

Just when he was about to ask the Japanese officers who boarded the ship for inspection when unloading would begin, a piercing air raid siren suddenly sounded on the pier of Palembang.

"What's going on?" he asked loudly in Dutch amidst the whine of the siren.

"It's an exercise!" the Japanese sergeant replied with a smile, "It must be an air defense exercise. Air defense exercises are often held here."