The Rise of the Third Reich

"Rudolf, this sword is for you!"

On the afternoon of March 17, in the hangar of the Akagi aircraft carrier, Shigeru Itani, who was about to fly a Comet carrier-based bomber, suddenly handed the katana in his hand to little Hersman who came to see him off.

Little Hersman took over Itaya's katana, which was a long sword with a beautiful scabbard - I really don't know how this thing was stuffed into the cockpit of the airplane?

"What's wrong? You didn't bring a machete on the plane?" Little Hersman asked strangely.

"Bringing a big knife on the plane... Haha, this is really a very stupid thing." Itaya Shigeru laughed, "Rudolf, you are right, I am flying a plane, why should I bring a knife? So today When I saw you, I gave you this knife. I will never carry a knife to heaven again.”

"So...can I bring a parachute?" Little Hersman said cautiously, "Even if you get shot down, it's normal. I've been shot down five times by the enemy."

It is said that little Hersman's driving skills are really not very good. He crashed three times in the European battlefield. In the Pacific battlefield, he continued to crash and lost two more Fw-190Ts. However, his fate was relatively high, and every time he crashed, there was a near miss.

"Baga!" Itaya Shigeru glared at the little Hessman who was talking randomly, "Isn't this a curse on me? I'm about to attack, so I might as well say something nice."

"Bring on a parachute, and the military will last forever. Is that okay? But, Itaya, the new American aircraft are really powerful, so be careful." Little Hersman still mentioned the parachute because he was very worried. My Japanese friend - he has fought against American F4Us and F6Fs in the North Pacific, and has also read many reports about the P51, knowing that these three types of aircraft are difficult to deal with, and his two crashes in the Pacific Ocean The machines are all made from F4U and F6F.

After hearing what Little Hersman said, Shigeru Itaya didn't take it too seriously. He had been with German pilots like Little Hersman for a long time, and he knew that the Germans were not good at talking, and they were all guys who said one thing and another.

"Okay." Itaya nodded, took the parachute from a deck crew member next to him, carried it on his body, and then said with a smile, "Rudolph, wait to hear our success report!"

After finishing speaking, he strode towards the Comet carrier-based blaster he was piloting. This is a dive bomber that can fly at 580 kilometers per hour, even faster than the Zero, and can easily break through the interception of US military fighter jets from an altitude of 6,000 meters.

However, this high speed also has side effects, that is, the speed during dive is faster and the accuracy of bomb delivery is reduced. Among the Japanese naval aviation, only experienced "veteran pilots" like Shigeru Itani can fly such an aircraft. It was also because of this reason that Shigeru Itani changed from a Zero Fighter pilot to a Comet pilot.

In the attack plan formulated by Mitsuo Fuchida based on the instructions of Osawa Jisaburo, among the 180 fighters that formed the first attack wave, there were 120 Comet shipboard blasters carrying 500 kilograms of armor-piercing bombs.

In 3 hours, they will bring a devastating disaster to the 19th U.S. Task Force!

…

"Hasn't the radar found it yet?"

Rear Admiral Smith of the U.S. Navy on the heavy cruiser USS Wichita seemed a little impatient to wait for death, and once again turned back to ask his chief of staff.

Captain Stannap Lin looked at the blue sky outside the bridge and the F6F fighter jets hovering in the sky, then shook his head and said, "Sir, maybe the Japanese don't plan to attack us anymore..."

Before he finished speaking, the phone rang. The staff officer picked up the phone and answered the call first, then his expression quickly changed.

"What's wrong?" Colonel Lin asked immediately after discovering the abnormality.

"They are coming... The radar has detected enemy aircraft, numbering more than 100, altitude 6,000, distance 100 (miles, equivalent to 160 kilometers)."

"Just in time! Order all the fighter jets to take off to intercept them!" Upon hearing the news, Major General Smith jumped up and immediately ordered all the fighter jets on the three Borgs to take off to fight.

As the German Ju288 and remotely controlled glide bombs replaced submarines as the main threat to American ships. Therefore, the main mission of U.S. escort aircraft carriers now is air defense rather than anti-submarine warfare, so the types of aircraft equipped are also different from those in history. Each Borg-class escort carrier has a squadron of F6Fs and a squadron of F4Us, a total of 24 fighters, and 4 backup aircraft.

In addition, although these Borg-class aircraft carriers are small, slow and incompetent, they have not cut corners on the catapults. They are all equipped with flywheel catapults - the current catapults have just developed into hydraulic catapults, both in the United States and the United Kingdom. This technology has been developed, but it has not yet become popular, and the Japanese aircraft carrier uses a gunpowder catapult, so there is no catapult available yet - it can eject 18 carrier-based aircraft into the sky in a very short time (the flywheel is Energy storage catapult, it will be temporarily unavailable when the energy storage is exhausted), plus the 18 F6Fs already in the sky, 72 F6Fs and F4Us were soon circling back and forth outside the formation of the 19th U.S. Task Force.

The commander-in-chief of the first attack wave is Major Takahashi Kazuichi from the Shokaku aircraft carrier. He is an "old man" who graduated from the 56th class of the Navy, two classes earlier than Shigeru Itani, so he is naturally an experienced elite. In the war over the past year or so, he has led the fleet into battle more than once. However, I have never encountered F6F and F4U. I have only seen photos of them and heard about these two difficult American aircraft from pilots on several light aircraft carriers undertaking escort missions.

After discovering that the fighters circling in the air to cover the US aircraft carrier were all F4U and F6F, Takahashi knew that today would be a tough fight.

He first gave the order to the squadron commanders of the six fighter squadrons under his command: "Sasai-kun, Shiga-kun, Shindo-kun, Fujita-kun, Tsukamoto-kun, Okama-kun, the American fighter jets are entrusted to you, please. !”

"Hai!"

"Onboard!"

A cheering response came from the airborne radio imported from Germany. Obviously, the six fighter squadron leaders are full of confidence.

Then Takahashi began to give orders to the 6 crit squadron captains (Takahashi himself was also a crit pilot), assigning 3 escort carriers, 1 heavy cruiser and 2 large light cruisers on the sea below. 6 squadrons of critical strike aircraft.

"Egusa-kun, Itaya-kun, Kobayashi-kun, Murata-kun, Ema-kun, Sanfuku-kun, follow me and charge, onboard!" Takahashi Kazuichi shouted one last time, and then controlled his Comet ship to attack The aircraft dived at full speed toward the U.S. ship formation below.

At the same time, 60 escorting Zero-52 fighter jets had already taken the lead in fighting the U.S. fighter jets in the sky. Although the pilots flying these Zero-52s were elites and had learned a lot about F4U and F6F before, everyone was still greatly surprised.

Lieutenant Chuichi Sasai, who has the nicknames "Military Chicken" (I don't know if he is gay) and "Japan's Richthofen", was a shore-based pilot of "Tainan Air" when the war started. He was in the Philippines and On the South Pacific battlefield, he shot down many F2A, P40 and F4F, and also shot down the US B-17. He is the ace of the Japanese naval aviation. However, today is the first time that I have fought as a carrier-based aircraft pilot.

And... it's very likely that he will get off to a bad start!

Because he encountered an American carrier-based aircraft that can turn in circles almost like the Zero 52, but Junichi Sasai is not afraid of turning in circles. He is an ace who has experienced hundreds of battles. Although this American F6F is faster than Zero Style 52 was faster, but Sasai quickly bit the opponent's tail with his superb aerial maneuvering skills.

But before Sasai could complete his aiming, the American aircraft, which was supposed to be characterized by its flexibility, suddenly began to dive at a large angle, as if it were an Fw-190T. Sasai followed it for more than ten seconds before he knew he couldn't catch up. The dive performance of that aircraft was not a little better than that of the Zero 52, and it was far away in the blink of an eye.

Just when Sasai wanted to find another American plane to shoot down, he suddenly found two streaks of fire flashing from the right side of his plane - an aircraft was firing at his plane from a high position.

Sasai knew something was wrong, and quickly flew the plane in an S-shaped maneuver, trying to avoid the opponent swooping down from high altitude. But after a moment's delay, a string of 20mm cannon shells struck the wing of the Zero 52 he was driving. The wing was immediately cut into two pieces. The aircraft could not maintain balance and rolled downwards.

"I'm going to become a god now!" Sasai was unwilling, but he didn't bring a parachute and only had a big knife beside him. It seemed that there was nothing he could do except wait for death. But just as the plane was falling rapidly, he saw a ball of fire rising on the sea. It was obviously the Comet blaster that made the contribution...

Just when Sasai Chuichi, who was driving a fighter jet, was shot down by an F4U that dived from high altitude, Shigeru Itani excitedly shouted long live.

Because the blaster squadron he led had just established a meritorious service and sank an American aircraft carrier!

Although the Zero fighter now meets its two mortal enemies, the F4U and F6F, it is no longer as sharp as it was when the war began. However, the "Comet" shipboard critical attack aircraft currently driven by Shigeru Itani is difficult to deal with. Because the "Comet" is so fast, if it attacks from a dive at an altitude of 6,000 meters, it can easily break through the obstruction of enemy aircraft and rush into the fleet's air defense firepower network. Although the dive speed is too fast, the accuracy of bomb delivery has dropped by more than half compared to the 99 ship explosion. But a hit rate of about 30% is still enough to deal the heaviest blow to the US fleet on the water!