The Rise of the Third Reich

"God, they're coming in..."

On the platform outside the bridge of the aircraft carrier Akagi, little Hersmann, who served as a liaison officer and observer of the German naval aviation, held his telescope and opened his mouth. Because he has discovered that there are only forty or fifty Zero-52 fighter jets left in the air that can still fight. The remaining Zeros were either shot down in the battle, or landed on the aircraft carrier after running out of ammunition.

There were still more than a hundred P51s, F6Fs and F4Us fighting against these dozens of Zero-52s (American aircraft also lost a lot, and some flew to El Salvador because they were running out of fuel). And at this moment, the sky in the northeast was once again filled with black spots, just like the dragon knight in mythology, making a buzzing and piercing sound, hanging deadly bombs, suddenly appearing from the intersection of the sea and the sky.

The Zero planes that were engaged in air combat discovered these new crises. They abandoned their opponents and pounced desperately on the swarms of American aircraft. What they wanted was not to shoot down the enemy planes, but to force some of the dive bombers and torpedo bombers to lose them. Bomb torpedo.

However, their desperate attack was not completely successful. Not many SBDs and TBFs were targeted by these Zero aircraft. Instead, many Zero fighters were shot down by the oncoming F6F and F4U.

Hersman, who is very familiar with the performance of the Japanese version of the Zero, knows that the Zero is a good dogfighting aircraft, but it is not an excellent interceptor. It is most afraid of facing an opponent with heavy firepower.

While little Hersman was praying for the Japanese pilots on the downed Zero fighters, the four (one side) twin-mounted 128mm anti-aircraft guns on the guided-missile cruiser Kaiser Friedrich III opened fire first - - Because of Hessmann's requirements, German naval ships generally focus on anti-aircraft firepower. The ship-borne heavy anti-aircraft gun system is the Type 40 128mm anti-aircraft gun developed by Rheinmetall in 1937.

However, Germany's development progress of radio proximity fuzes did not meet Hessmann's requirements. Therefore, until the surrender of the British mainland, Germany's 128mm heavy anti-aircraft guns did not use radio proximity fuzes (at present, the development of radio proximity fuzes has been completed. Production is being organized, but the troops have not yet been equipped). Therefore, the shells fired by the 128mm anti-aircraft gun of the Kaiser Friedrich III today did not pose much threat to the US military fleet, and their only function was to scatter them.

After a burst of violent but inaccurate artillery shell explosions, the dense group of US military attack aircraft in the sky dispersed. The dispersed US aircraft began to circle around the Japanese fleet on the water. The SBD dive bombers among them dropped to an altitude of 3000-4000 meters, which is the altitude where dive bombing is launched, while the TBF torpedo bombers continued to descend to ultra-low altitudes.

At this time, the Japanese ships on the water also raised their 127mm and 100mm heavy anti-aircraft guns and began to fire shells into the air. In Hersman's view, the 100mm anti-aircraft gun with a small number of equipment is probably the best anti-aircraft gun in Japan. It has automatic loading and rotation and pitching systems, and the diameter is very large, reaching 65 times, so it has a pretty good Shooting height and range. However, this excellent anti-aircraft gun is not the main force among Japanese ship-borne anti-aircraft guns.

There are two types of ship-borne anti-aircraft artillery systems that are now regarded as the main force. One is the Type 89 40-caliber 127mm gun; the other is the Type 96 25mm machine gun. The Japanese Navy does not have the 40mm, 37mm and 20mm anti-aircraft gun systems that are most common in European and American navies.

Among them, the performance of the Type 89 heavy anti-aircraft gun is quite satisfactory, that is, the rate of fire is relatively low, and the range and height of fire are not very large, but it can be handled. As for the Type 96 25mm cannon, its performance is not too bad, but it is loaded with a magazine and has a relatively slow rate of fire. But it's enough to drive away torpedo planes.

But little Hersman knew that Japan's ship-based air defense system could not withstand the attack of US aircraft. This is because the anti-aircraft artillery systems of Japanese surface ships include anti-aircraft guns for long-range and high-altitude operations, and machine guns for short-range and low-altitude operations, but they prefer mid-range and medium-caliber 40mm or 37mm anti-aircraft artillery systems.

Without 40mm or 37mm anti-aircraft guns, Japanese surface ships would be unable to fight against dive bombers that had broken through the zero-type defenses and heavy anti-aircraft gun defenses.

This weakness has been raised by German naval observers and advisors stationed in Japan. The Japanese navy and army actually knew this problem existed. After the outbreak of the Pacific War, they also seized Bofors anti-aircraft guns from the British and American troops, and then started the copycat project. However, until early 1943, the Japanese had not produced a copycat 40mm anti-aircraft gun, let alone installed it on a battleship.

The problem of not having a 40mm anti-aircraft gun seemed to be of little importance to the Japanese navy and land leaders, so they did not provide technical assistance to Germany - after all, the so-called assistance came at a high price.

This oversight finally turned into a big mistake during the Battle of Panama in March 1943.

At 6:10 pm on March 17, the first attack in the dusk was 38 SBD dive bombers. From an altitude of about 3,300 meters, they roared into the airspace filled with smoke clouds generated by the explosion of anti-aircraft artillery shells. Most of them passed through unscathed, and only two aircraft were hit by shell fragments and fell.

The 40mm guns (only available on German ships), 25mm guns, 20mm guns (only available on German ships) and anti-aircraft machine guns of various calibers on all the ships on the water immediately began to rain down bullets, and a burst of metal suddenly blew over the sea. Rain of bullets.

However, such a dense rain of bullets only looks scary, and its actual effect is almost zero. At 6:12, 12 SBD dive bombers were divided into two teams and began to launch a high-angle dive attack on the aircraft carrier Hiryu, the flagship of the 2nd Air Force!

"Oops!" Everyone in the bridge of the Akagi trembled. Little Hersman, who was standing on the platform outside the bridge, closed his eyes because he knew that it was impossible for 12 SBDs to drop bombs continuously. All failed. The level of American pilots is not that high.

"Boom boom boom boom..."

Four loud noises were heard in succession. When little Hersman opened his eyes again, thick smoke and fire were already coming from the flagship of the 2nd Air Warfare Commander Rear Admiral Yamaguchi Tawen, the Hiryu!

Four 1,000-pound high-explosive bombs hit this aircraft carrier with a standard displacement of 17,900 tons! One bomb was hit in the forward elevator and the bow flight deck each, and two bombs were hit in the midship flight deck. One of the bombs that hit the midship flight deck successfully penetrated into the hangar and detonated, shattering the pieces stored in the hangar. The backup aircraft also ignited the fuel in the aircraft's fuel tanks (these aircraft were scheduled to fly soon as planned), causing a fire.

"Oh my god, they blew up the Flying Dragon!" Little Hersman was petrified by the scene where the aircraft carrier seemed to be hit by a bomb and burst into flames, and he couldn't help shouting.

Before he could finish his shout, misfortune once again befell the Ssangyong's sister ship, the Soryu. The same 12 SBDs launched a charge despite the rain of bullets fired from 25mm machine guns and various anti-aircraft machine guns. As a result, three 1,000-pound bombs hit the flight deck of the aircraft carrier. One of them landed right near the 11 Zero fighter jets that had just landed and were refueling and refueling, causing a series of explosions and fires.

Less than 2 minutes later, SBDs from two squadrons once again flew over the aircraft carriers Canglong and Feilong, which were almost submerged in fire, and launched the second wave of assault!

This time, the Soryu was hit by five 1,000-pound bombs. One of them penetrated directly near the boiler room and exploded, while the other penetrated into the hangar and exploded. The violent shock and fire caused the aircraft carrier to instantly lose all power. It became a floating fire coffin.

The Feilong also had bad luck. Four bombs landed on the front, middle and rear of the aircraft carrier's flight deck, blasting four large holes. The violent explosion also affected the aircraft carrier's power system, causing the Feilong to lose its Most of the power was lost, and the fire spread throughout the ship.

Witnessing the entire process of two aircraft carriers being destroyed by American dive bombers on the Akagi aircraft carrier, Commander Ozawa and his staff of Japan's First Mobile Fleet were all stunned.

Although they all know that using Japan's national strength to fight against the United States, it is impossible to always seize the initiative in the Pacific. But the victory after victory made them think that the day when Japan lost the initiative was still very far away. As a result, this day suddenly appeared in front of everyone!

"Torpedo machine!"

Someone yelled loudly, which immediately woke up Ozawa and others as if they were in a dream. It turns out that 12 TBF torpedo bombers have targeted the aircraft carrier Akagi!

It turned out that the American torpedo planes in the air were originally going to hit Feilong and Soryu, but the Americans found that the two Soryu-class ships had been burned into balls of fire, and they would probably be abandoned by the Japanese. Therefore, the target of the attack became the nearby Akagi, Kaga, and the battleship Kongo that escorted them!

"The Akagi and the Kaga must be saved!" Ozawa Jisaburo almost yelled and gave the order.

Compared with Hiryu and Soryu, the value of Akagi and Kaga, two aircraft carriers modified from battlecruiser and battleship hulls, is much higher. The huge hull with a full load of more than 40,000 tons gives them a lot of room for modification and upgrade, and the flight deck is more than 30 meters longer than the Soryu class. As long as they are willing to invest money in modifications, Akagi and Kaga can become "unsinkable aircraft carriers" like the Taiho class, and will play a huge role in future naval battles.

If the Akagi and Kaga are allowed to follow the footsteps of the "Double Dragon", then Jisaburo Ozawa will undoubtedly be the number one sinner of the Japanese Navy!