Chapter 1174 Gao Qibao Project——End

The U.S. Army Air Force's move to transfer a large number of P-51 fighters to the Caribbean Sea could not be concealed from the German General Staff. This conclusion can be drawn from the situation statistics of the 1st Air Force sent to the General Staff in Zossen on February 1.

This chart uses colored curves and vertical lines to show the losses of various types of fighters, as well as the confirmed results, the deployment of aircraft, the increase or decrease in the number of enemy aircraft encountered, and the number of pilots lost. Through this picture, Hessman and other top German personnel can clearly understand the changes in the U.S. military's air force in the Caribbean battlefield.

"It is obvious that we have successfully mobilized the American air force." Air Marshal Kesselring said at the General Staff meeting on February 1, "From the statistical chart submitted by the 1st Air Force, the losses of Fokker 636 used to attack the US transport aircraft group rose sharply between January 21 and January 31, and the number of P-51 fighters shot down by us also rose sharply, while the number of transport aircraft such as C-47 shot down was greatly reduced. From this we can conclude that the Americans are transferring a large number of P-51 fighters to the Caribbean."

"What about the situation in the direction of Newfoundland? Are there any new changes?" Hersman asked.

After replacing the Reaper 1B-2 cruise missiles with a longer range (700 kilometers), the German Air Force resumed missile attacks on Boston, Philadelphia, New York and other places in late January. This also means that the competition between Me264 and American interceptors has started again-because of the existence of the Bv-138E long-range water radar early warning aircraft, interception has become very difficult, and the Americans also need to invest a lot of manpower.

"There are some changes," Raeder said, "The Americans don't dare to send destroyers to patrol between Newfoundland and Bermuda. However, their P-61 and P-47 can still get close to the Me264 frequently, and many times our Me264 has been forced to randomly launch missiles and run away."

The Me264 is a bomber that relies on high altitude and high speed to save its life. Once it throws missiles, it can easily fly at a top speed of 650-690 kilometers per hour, which can easily escape the pursuit of P-61 and P-47.

"They also have radar early warning aircraft." Hersman immediately understood what was going on. The earliest radar early warning aircraft in history was invented by the Americans. He thought for a while and asked again: "When will the Adolf Hitler and Bernhard von Bülow be put into use?"

The Adolf Hitler and Bernhard von Bülow are the No. 1 and No. 2 ships among the four large aircraft carriers built on the hull of the H41 battleship. This class of aircraft carriers will be named after the prime ministers who have made outstanding contributions in German history. The first ship is called "Adolf Hitler", so this class of aircraft carriers is also Adolf Hitler class, and the other three are named Bernhard von Bülow, Margrave of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst and Leo von Caprivi.

The standard displacement of this class of aircraft carriers is as high as 65,000 tons, which exceeds the Japanese Yamato-class battleships and the American Montana-class battleships under construction. It is undoubtedly the largest combat ship in the world. The full displacement of this class of aircraft carriers is as high as 74,500 tons, which is simply a floating city floating on the sea.

In order to drive such a behemoth, German shipbuilding engineers installed 18 Wagner-type high-pressure heavy oil boilers and 6 Blohm & Voss-type steam turbines for this class of aircraft carriers, with a maximum power output of up to 240,000 horsepower and a designed maximum speed of 29 knots.

In addition, when designing the Adolf Hitler-class aircraft carrier, according to Hessmann's requirements, the designers also reserved space for nuclear power transformation for the aircraft carrier - as long as the marine nuclear power reactor is successfully developed, the Adolf Hitler-class aircraft carrier can be transformed into a first-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier through transformation.

Of course, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers are too far away for the world in 1945. So the real highlight of the Adolf Hitler-class aircraft carrier is its special deck layout. This aircraft carrier adopts an angled deck layout.

Such a layout does not make much sense for the most common single-engine piston carrier-based aircraft, because the biggest function of the angled deck is to allow a fighter that fails to land once (does not hook the arresting cable) to take off again. If the angled deck is not adopted, the fighter that has completed the landing will be placed in front of the landing area of ​​the aircraft carrier deck. In this way, there is no possibility of a go-around, and the aircraft that has not hooked the arresting cable can only be blocked by the arresting net.

However, for fighters with low landing speed and relatively light weight, interception with an arresting net is not a problem. However, it is not very reliable to use a net to block large and fast-landing aircraft such as Me262T carrier-based jet fighters and Me410T twin-engine carrier-based fighter-bombers, so it is very dangerous to land on an aircraft carrier without an angled deck, so an angled deck that can take off is needed.

Because the Adolf Hitler-class aircraft carrier carries large Me2410Ts, and it is also necessary to prepare a maintenance site for the first fleet jet aircraft. Therefore, although this class of aircraft carriers has a standard displacement of 65,000 tons, the number of carrier-based aircraft that can be carried is not large. The commonly used carrier-based aircraft can carry a maximum of 80 (usually 72) and a maximum of 18 reserve aircraft.

In other words, two Adolf Hitler-class aircraft carriers can carry a maximum of 160 Me262T carrier-based fighters!

"Marshal Reich, the two Adolf Hitler-class ships have now completed sea trials." Marshal Redel said, "We have been training carrier-based aircraft pilots since January this year. This work is a bit difficult."

A bit difficult means that many ace pilots who can fly jet carrier aircraft have been killed! Compared with flying a piston aircraft like the Fokker 636 to land on an aircraft carrier, flying a jet carrier-based aircraft is not the least bit more difficult.

"Will there be 130 pilots who can fly the Me262T before April 1?" Hersman certainly knows that jet carrier-based aircraft are difficult to fly, but to ensure the smooth implementation of the Fort Gotchi plan, jet carrier-based aircraft are a necessity. And the number of investments cannot be too small, at least 130 aircraft are needed.

"It's a bit difficult." Naval Air Forces Commander Air Force General Hubert Weiss replied.

"Then overcome the difficulties!" Hersman emphasized, "At least 130 pilots who can take off and land on the aircraft carrier must be trained, because we need them to clear the sky over Newfoundland."

Because Newfoundland is far away from the German-controlled Azores and Greenland. The former is more than 2,000 kilometers away, and the latter has a combat radius of 1264 and Ju288, but it is basically out of reach of fighter jets. Therefore, we can only rely on carrier-based fighters to gain air superiority, and the Me262T is a trump card against American interceptors (P47, P61 and P38) - the Me262T does not have to fly over Newfoundland to fight, and the Me264 can be used to defeat the Americans. The interceptor aircraft was drawn out to fight.

Now most of the P-51s in Newfoundland may have been transferred away. If we can severely attack the P-47 fleet there, and there are hundreds of carrier-based Fokker 636s, the air superiority of Newfoundland will be Basically it was won.

"Okay, okay." Air Force General Hubert Weiss said, "There will definitely be more than 130 pilots available to participate in the battle."

"The Me410T must also be prepared," Hessmann made another request. "There must be more than 130 Me410T that can board the aircraft carrier."

"No problem at all." Air Force General Hubert Weiss answered very simply this time.

The Me410T is just bigger, but its overall combat weight is about the same as the Me262T. It is not difficult to launch into the air with a hydraulic catapult, and the landing speed is not very fast, which is much easier to operate than the Me262T.

These 130 Me410Ts, like the Me262Ts, are also a key trump card in the Fort Gotchi plan - these aircraft are "aircraft carrier killers" that can carry the Hs293 series of remotely controlled guided bombs/missiles.

After the carrier-based aircraft of the European Combined Fleet seized air superiority over Newfoundland and began landing, the United States is likely to dispatch aircraft carriers to counterattack. The Me410T will be needed by then, so in the Fort Gottsch plan, a plan was prepared to replace the aircraft carriers midway. After seizing the air supremacy over Newfoundland Island, all the carrier-based aircraft on the two Adolf Hitler-class aircraft carriers would be replaced. The Me410T is used for anti-ship warfare.

"Where's the mine blockade?"

Hersman also asked about the preparations for mine warfare. The same method was used to deal with Trinidad. Before landing on Newfoundland, a mine blockade must be carried out to cut off the maritime traffic between Newfoundland and the North American continent. Prevent U.S. military reinforcements.

Submarine Command Commander Georg von Frederborg immediately took over the question: "The Submarine Command will concentrate more than 200 large ocean-going submarines, including more than 150 Type 21 U-boats, to ensure that Newfoundland can be effectively blockaded."

Hessman nodded: "Very good!" He stood up, held the table with both hands, and looked at the solemn German general in the room with his mouth tightened: "The first phase of the Fort Gotchi plan has now been successfully completed, and the United States People's attention has been successfully transferred to Trinidad. Now... I announce that the second phase of the Fort Gotchi plan has begun! We will land on the North American continent and gain a stronghold to contain the United States forever!"