The Rise of the Third Reich

Sunset, blue sea, blue sky.

The Atlantic Ocean at dusk in summer is particularly calm and peaceful, and you can hardly feel the atmosphere of war at all.

Four Fokker 636 fighter jets suddenly passed through the sunset, and the roar of their motors broke the peace. The four pilots in the cabin all widened their eyes and carefully searched the sky below their right side.

suddenly.

Countless tiny, almost invisible black dots appeared between the sea and the sky. They moved at extremely fast speeds, from far to near, from small to large. In just a few minutes, they changed from small black dots to black dots. It has become a fighter plane of different sizes!

"Captain, 3 o'clock direction! Enemy planes were spotted at 3 o'clock direction! The number... there are hundreds of them!"

The voice of wingman pilot Sergeant Hoffman came from the earphones of Prince Egmund Lipp-Wiesenfeld, commander of the 2nd Fighter Squadron on the aircraft carrier Prussia. In fact, without his reminding, Prince Lipp Weisenfeld had already discovered the overwhelming swarm of American bombers coming.

In fact, the 4-plane formation led by Prince Lip-Wiesenfeld was not the first to detect the enemy plane's arrival. The first to notice the enemy plane's arrival was a Bv138D seaplane performing a radar warning mission in the air. The aircraft equipped with S-band radar discovered the huge incoming aircraft group 10 minutes ago, and then reported the discovery to the "Zeppelin" aircraft carrier responsible for commanding all EC fighters in the air.

The flight control station of the "Zeppelin" aircraft carrier immediately dispatched four Fokker 636s to conduct close reconnaissance.

"No twin-engine planes were found." Prince Lipp Weisenfeld scanned the sky with a very sharp look. "Have you seen the planes on both sides?"

"I did not see it."

"not found."

"They are all single-shot, mostly F4U and F6F. There is no threat."

It turns out that the team led by Prince Lip Weisenfeld came to find the F7F. In this sea battle in the Bermuda Islands, what surprised the Germans the most was this kind of double-engine bombardment with amazing speed and bomb load. .

Therefore, on the night of September 5th, the aviation staff officer of the 21st Task Force Hersman Jr. formulated a combat plan to use the "Zeppelin" flight console to uniformly deploy air combat forces and block the US double-engine war bombers at all levels.

In this plan, four Bv138Ds will hover around the German fleet to provide aerial radar warning. After discovering the enemy aircraft group, four Fokker 636s will be dispatched for close reconnaissance.

After determining that the invading enemy aircraft is a "double-engine combat bomber", the "Zeppelin" flight console will immediately mobilize 7 Fw190 squadrons to conduct multi-level interception operations - the Fw190 was selected to perform the interception mission, taking into account the F7F As a dual-engine heavy battle, the maneuverability is not good. There is no need for the ultra-high maneuverability Fokker 636. Just let the Fw190 mount aviation rockets and then use high-altitude dive tactics to deal with it.

"Rudolf, it's not the F7F that's attacking." On the Zeppelin, the flight commander Major DeWolf von der Leyen said to Little Hersmann, who was sitting with him at the flight control, after receiving the report, " But there are a lot of them, maybe hundreds of them, so give up on the Seidlitz and the Sekt..."

Little Hersmann thought for a while, shook his head and said: "It's not enough. Now we can only protect the Zeppelin, Hindenburg, Gneisenau, Wilhelm II, Bismarck and Tirpitz."

"The two Prussian-class ships don't need to be protected?" Major Delaine was startled.

Young Hessmann shook his head and said: "We don't have enough troops. There are only 8 squadrons of Fokker 636s. It is safer to use 6 to guard the Zeppelin, Hindenburg, Gneisenau and Wilhelm II." ... These six ships cannot be in trouble." He paused, "As for the two Prussian-class ships, we can just leave it to fate. Anyway, we can win the war without them. In the worst case, we will use the Kesselring class."

Major Delaine nodded. He also knew that many cheap "Kesselrings" were being outfitted now - this type of ship between fleet aircraft carriers and escort aircraft carriers can be regarded as an economical aircraft carrier.

The maximum speed of 26 knots is enough to meet the needs of a fleet decisive battle, and the number of 48 carrier-based aircraft is not too few. Although the armor is insufficient and there is no bulletproof armored flight deck, the hull structure is still strong, as long as it does not take too many hits. The bomb is not easy to sink even if the damage control is successful.

Moreover, this kind of aircraft carrier using diesel engines and wooden decks is very easy to produce. It can be mass-produced to compete with the American Essex-class aircraft carriers, and it will not hurt if it sinks a little.

Seeing that Major Delaine did not raise any objections, Little Hersman added: "As for the remaining two squadrons, they can conduct an assault and then disperse to fight. This way, we can shoot down more enemy planes."

"Okay," Major Delaine nodded, "just report this combat plan to Lieutenant General Bei."

…

"Admiral, the air battle has begun!"

After hearing the staff report, Admiral Hoffman in the command tower of the guided missile battleship Gneisenau just turned his head and glanced at the scene of hundreds of fighter planes strangled together in the dusk in the distance. Then, as if this air battle did not exist, he continued to study the upcoming fleet decisive battle with the staff of the 20th Task Force.

Like Hersman Jr., Admiral Leifman does not care about losing a few aircraft carriers or sinking a few battleships. As long as there are no problems with the two missile ships, the decisive battle will be safe.

In Hoffman's view, the 80 television-guided remote-controlled missiles carried by the Gneisenau and Wilhelm II were enough to wipe out all nine American super battleships!

In fact, the era of battleships dominating the oceans has ended with the emergence of guided missile ships. The Hindenburg class, the Iowa class, the legendary Montana class, and the Japanese Yamato and Yamato Kai are all targets in front of the Reaper series of anti-ship missiles. Moreover, it was a target as big as a small mountain, so it was too easy to hit.

The problem before Hoffman now is how to get his battleship (including missile ship) formation to come within 35,000 meters of the American battleship formation.

"Sir, Hawkeye 8 reported that a group of unidentified aircraft was sighted in the northwest, 130 nautical miles away from the Gneisenno, with a number of more than 100 and an altitude of 4,000."

At this moment, the fleet staff once again reported information about the approach of the American attack aircraft group.

This should be a new twin-engine fighter-bomber!

"Oh? We still have 30 minutes to arrive," Hoffman smiled, "I've managed the time pretty well..."

Boom boom boom!

A burst of fierce gunfire interrupted Hoffman's words. It turned out that four American F4Us broke through the blockage of the Fokker 636 and rushed into the Gneisenau's anti-aircraft fire network. They immediately attracted a barrage of 128mm artillery shells and Bombardment by 40mm shells. Two of them were blown up on the spot, and the other two dropped 500-pound aerial bombs. However, these two bombs were not very accurate. They both fell into the sea water and exploded two water columns tens of meters high.

Admiral Hoffman raised his head and glanced at the two F4Us that had fled under the attack of anti-aircraft artillery fire. As soon as he turned his mind back to the naval battle that was about to begin, the staff report sounded again.

"Sir, Hawkeye 10 reports that the U.S. Grand Fleet has divided its forces."

"What's the distance?" Hoffman asked.

"Less than 90 nautical miles, we can engage in battle in about two hours."

Hoffman raised his wrist and looked at the time. It was now 4:20 pm, and the battleship battle time was probably around 6:30 pm.

Rumble...

A loud noise suddenly came, and Admiral Leifman quickly turned his head to look, only to see thick blue-black smoke rising from the battleship "Hindenburg" sailing in front of the Gneisenau.

…

"Sir, good news, a Hindenburg-class was hit by a bomb!"

The conning tower of the "Iowa" class battleship suddenly burst into cheers.

The "Hindenburg" class is the most powerful battleship in the German Navy, and it is also the backbone of the German fleet that will fight with itself, and there is only one!

The decisive battle of the surface fleet has not yet begun. This only Hindenburg-class ship has been hit by a bomb. Even if it is only slightly injured, it has added some weight to the victory of the United States.

However, Admiral Halsey did not show much joy, but asked: "Have you found the German William II class?"

"No."

"No?" The fleet aviation staff's answer surprised Halsey, "How could it be?"

"What does the Kraut have?"

"There are seven battleships, including one Hindenburg-class, one Bismarck-class, three Veneto-class, one Provence-class, and an unknown battleship."

"An unknown battleship?" Halsey suddenly became nervous, "Is it bigger than the Hindenburg class?"

The U.S. intelligence agency has long known about the existence of the H41 battleship. Counting the days, this class of battleship will be put into service...

"It's not that big, with a displacement of about 30,000 tons and only four main guns." The staff officer replied, "And this battleship has dozens of torpedo launch tubes installed on both sides of the deck."

"What? Dozens of torpedo tubes?" Halsey was a little confused now. "Is this a heavy-torpedo battleship?"

"It's possible!" Major General Callahan said, "Maybe..."

"What is it?" Halsey asked quickly when he saw the panic expression suddenly appear on his chief of staff's face.

"Maybe a remotely-controlled missile?"

"Dozens of missiles?" Halsey rolled his eyes. Isn't this thing too cruel?

"General, do we still want to fight?" Major General Callahan hesitated.

"Fight!" Halsey thought for a long time and patted the table. "As long as you control the distance, there's nothing to fear. And it's getting dark now. Unless the Germans have radar-guided missiles, victory will definitely belong to the United States!"