The Rise of the Third Reich

"Deploying the Ju188 night attack from the Georgetown Island base? Is it enough?"

Hirschman asked, looking at Redl. The Georgetown Island base is 2,500 kilometers away from the Atlantic Ocean southeast of the Bermuda Islands where the war is currently taking place. Not only does it exceed the combat radius of the Ju188, it even exceeds the maximum combat range.

"It's enough," Kesselin said. "The maximum speed of the Soviet class is 28 knots, which is 51.8 kilometers/hour. If it sails southwest for 4-5 hours at this speed, the Ju188's combat range is enough. And there are three Soviet-class cruisers tracking that one to provide navigation, and those Ju188s will not deviate from the course.”

"Enough range?" Hersman asked. "Is it a one-way flight?"

Kesselring nodded, "After completing the attack, let the plane make an emergency landing at sea, and let the tracking USS Vienna, Diguet Trojan and Cologne rescue the pilot. There are still 30 aircraft that can fly at the Georgetown Island base. The Ju188E-2 torpedo bomber can carry 60 torpedoes and can also conduct night attacks. Even if it cannot sink the Soviet class, it can be severely damaged and slowed down. As long as it can be slowed down significantly, it will be finished. "

Hersman looked at Redel, and the Navy Commander nodded and said: "The 12 Type 21 U-boats belonging to the 2nd Submarine Group are operating in the Atlantic waters northeast of the Leeward and Windward Islands. As long as this Soviet-class battleship When the speed drops to about 10 knots, it won’t be able to run away.”

Because this Soviet-class battleship escaped after the fleet was disbanded, there are not many destroyer escorts around it. Now the American maritime front is also stretched too long. There is still fighting in the Hawaiian Islands, and there is still a sea in the southeastern Pacific. This fleet is containing three German aircraft carrier task forces. There is also a fleet near Guyana and a large aircraft carrier fleet near the Bermuda Islands. These fleets need destroyer protection. Therefore, Halsey's main fleet did not bring many destroyers, and now it was divided into many parts. Therefore, the number of destroyers used to protect several fleeing battleships was not large.

If one of the battleships is besieged by a Type 21 U-boat after being wounded, it will basically be a dead end.

"That's it!" Hessman thought for a while and added, "The safety of the Ju188 pilots must be guaranteed. We will soon attack the Caribbean Sea, and may even land on the North American continent. Then there will be extremely fierce In air combat, every pilot is valuable."

"Ludwig, don't worry, there will be no problem." Kesselin said, "Because the Ju188 is a very sturdy tactical bomber, and the Ju188E-2 is a naval aviation model, and the need for forced landing at sea has been fully considered. "

The Ju188 is different from the Ju288 and the Me264, which rely on high-altitude and high-speed breakthroughs. The Ju188 is an aircraft that can carry out dive bombing and torpedo bombing. Its main combat area is medium and low altitudes. Therefore, it is built very solidly, with an empty weight of 9.9 tons, which is heavier than Japan's "Flying Dragon" (8.9 tons) and "Galaxy" (7.2 tons), so it is naturally strong enough.

The Me264, a long-range four-shot heavy bomber, has an empty weight of only 20 tons (too heavy and it will not fly high or fast), and it does not have a dive bombing function (this shows that the body structure is not strong enough). If it is to be used on the sea It is easier to fall apart during an emergency landing. This is why Kesselring chose the Ju188 instead of the Me264 with a longer range (the combat radius is not enough even if it takes off from the Cayenne base).

…

"Sir, the air strike plan is ready."

About 550 nautical miles east of the Bermuda Islands, little Hersman walked into the command tower of the "Zeppelin" and brought a newly formulated air attack plan. However, this plan is not to be implemented immediately, because it is already 5:50 pm Bermuda time. The sea was dark, which was not a good time to launch aircraft for air strikes. It was not that aircraft carrier-based aircraft did not have the ability to launch operations at night, but it was very dangerous to perform dive bombing missions at night, and there were no torpedo bombers on the German aircraft carriers.

So what Hersman Jr. now submits to Major General Christianson, Chief of Staff of the 21st Task Force, is the air attack plan for the next day.

"Oh, we want to carry 30 Fw190TEs and 48 Fokker 636s on the Zeppelin?" Christiansen looked at the plan.

"Yes, sir." Little Hersman said, "The Fw190TE is a two-seat bomber, and its bomb delivery accuracy is much higher than that of the Fw190T and Fokker 636. The Fokker 636's performance in air combat is also much better than the Fw190T. Therefore. We should focus on Fw190TE and Fokker 636 for air strikes. If we dispatch 30 Fw190TE and 24 Fokker 636, we should be able to severely damage the Soviet-class battleships in one attack."

"Very good, let's do that." Christiansen looked at the sky outside the command tower. It was not particularly dark. It was completely possible to carry out several takeoffs and landings, and all the fighter planes ready to attack in the early morning of tomorrow were deployed to the "Zeppelin" "On board.

Then, the Zeppelin aircraft carrier will break away from the main force of Task Force 21 under the protection of more than a dozen cruisers and destroyers, venture to the northwest under the cover of night, and will dispatch carrier-based aircraft in the early morning of September 7.

…

Just when the Germans began to turn their attention to annihilating several Soviet-class and USS Washington battleships that fled the battlefield, the fighting between the two sides continued on the battlefield nearly 600 nautical miles away from the Bermuda Islands.

However, the number of ships participating in the battle has decreased significantly. Except for the outdated Provence, all the battleships on the European Community fleet have disappeared. On the American side, there are three super battleships on the battlefield, the Iowa, the Missouri, and the Wisconsin, which have almost completely lost their combat effectiveness.

In addition to the battleship Provence, the European Community fleet also includes three heavy cruisers: Deutschland, Graf Spee, and Admiral Scheer, the light cruiser Glorious, and the Mogador and Volta 10 destroyers including the USS, Kleber, Utopia, Terrible, Formidable, Audacious, Lomalin, Victory, and Eagle.

On the American side, there are three lightning strike formations with the three treaty heavy cruisers New Orleans, Tuscaloosa, and Houston as the core. In addition to one heavy cruiser, each lightning strike formation also has 10 greys. Dely class (this American heavy torpedo ship was produced in large numbers due to the large number of destroyer torpedo operations in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans), the Benham class (a copy of the Gridley class) or the Sommers class (Gridley class) An evolved version of the Ridley-class destroyer.

In addition, there are several Cleveland-class light cruisers and a dozen Fletcher-class destroyers escorting the three Iowa-class ships that have basically lost their combat effectiveness.

The battle at this time was centered around three Iowa-level weapons. The 15 ships of the European Community Combined Fleet were obviously unwilling to let go of the three severely damaged Iowa-class ships. They formed a horizontal formation under the leadership of the Provence, trailing behind the three Iowa-class ships, and did not dare to rely on them. too close. Because the stern turret of the Missouri among the three Iowa-class ships can still be used - the fire area on the stern of the Missouri was mainly near the power cabin. After water was injected into a power cabin section, the stern fire was extinguished. Therefore, The stern turret was not affected by the fire. The stern turrets of the Iowa and Wisconsin both lost combat effectiveness due to water injection in the ammunition depot or turret failure (the turret failed to rotate due to a missile hitting the nearby stern deck).

So Halsey asked the Missouri, whose stern was obviously sinking, to stay behind and use three 406mm cannons to intimidate the opponent. It was just a threat, because the Missouri's fire control radar malfunctioned when it was attacked by missiles, and the sinking of the ship's stern also affected the accuracy of shooting, so it was difficult to hit distant targets.

But even in the face of three 406mm cannons that failed to hit, the battleship Provence, which was relatively thinly armored, still did not dare to get close.

However, Halsey, who was riding on the Cleveland-class light cruiser USS Little Rock, did not dare to let 15 European Community ships follow him all the way - he also wanted to drive these three disabled super battleships back to the United States for overhaul. !

Therefore, when it was getting dark, the three American lightning strike formations, under Halsey's order, turned their ships around and launched a counterattack against the 15 European Community ships that were following them.

The counterattack of the three American lightning strike formations seemed to have achieved some results, at least blocking the pursuers. The two sides started a fierce battle on the sea less than 20 nautical miles away from the Little Rock where Halsey was riding. Water columns and fireballs rose from time to time on the sea. The heavy cruisers and battleships of both sides fired cannonballs at each other, and the destroyers fired torpedoes at each other. From time to time, a ship was hit and turned into a ball of burning metal on the sea.

The losses and results were constantly reported to Halsey. The situation seemed to be good. The torpedoes launched by the American destroyers hit several enemy destroyers, and one torpedo seemed to hit the Breton-class battleship ( Provence)!

Of course, the U.S. side was not without losses. Three treaty heavy cruisers including the New Orleans, Tuscaloosa, and Houston were all hit by their opponents' shells. Among them, the Tuscaloosa was also hit by a 340mm battleship main gun. The shell hit and a fire broke out.

However, these losses seem to be worth it, at least the sea area where the battle is taking place is getting farther and farther away from the three Iowa-class battleships.

Halsey breathed a sigh of relief, turned to Chief of Staff Callahan and said, "Dennis, it seems that our three battleships have a chance to escape."

Before he finished speaking, a staff officer exclaimed: "Sir! The submarine has been discovered! The sonar has discovered the submarine!"