The Rise of the Third Reich

Chapter 1189 Landing in North America 5

The Great Battle of Newfoundland on April 8, 1945 (the actual battle site was not over Newfoundland, but was close) is generally regarded by later historians as the beginning of the European Allied Forces landing in North America.

Moreover, the result of this battle in the sky was undoubtedly a disastrous defeat for the Allied forces and a great victory for the Allied forces.

However, on the evening of April 8, US time, when Secretary of War Wallace and Chief of Staff William Leahy reported the latest battle situation to President Truman in the newly built White House bunker, they described the just-concluded Great Battle of Newfoundland as a draw.

"Mr. President, although we suffered heavy losses, with 95 F7Fs, 67 P-47s and 87 Skys that have not returned yet, we still managed to prevent the Germans from launching missiles at major cities on the East Coast..."

"Henry, we lost 249 fighters! In just one air battle, we lost 249 fighters!" Truman was obviously frightened by the loss figures and interrupted Wallace loudly, "How many planes did we dispatch in total? Why did we lose so many?"

Wallace glanced at William Leahy, whose face was livid. Admiral Leahy said in a hoarse voice: "Mr. President, we dispatched a total of 525 fighters..."

"Lost nearly half?" Truman trembled and stared at Admiral Leahy.

Leahy went on to say, "The loss was so great because we encountered more than 100 German Me262s and an almost equal number of Fokkers."

"Me262... isn't this a jet plane?" Truman looked panicked from behind his small round glasses, "How could such a plane fly near Newfoundland? Their range is not..."

Because of the technical data provided by the British, Truman knew that the reason why the range of jet planes was not large was because the jet engines consumed a lot of fuel. But now the Me262 appeared near Newfoundland! The distance from there to the German base in the Azores was more than 2,000 kilometers, so how could it be within the combat radius of the Me262? Did the Germans make another major breakthrough in jet engine technology?

"It's probably a carrier-based aircraft," said Admiral Leahy.

"Carrier-based aircraft?" Truman's face became even gloomier. "Jet carrier-based aircraft? The Germans have already put jet aircraft on aircraft carriers?"

William Leahy nodded: "This is the most reasonable explanation... The Naval Operations Department estimates that the two German 60,000-ton aircraft carriers discovered before are equipped with jet aircraft."

Truman breathed a sigh of relief: "Only two aircraft carriers can carry them?"

"It should be..." William Leahy's answer was not very certain.

It is not a trivial matter to have a few aircraft carriers that can carry jet aircraft. The current US defense deployment in the Caribbean and eastern Canada is based on the fact that German jet fighters cannot reach the airspace above the war zone.

If this premise changes, it is hard to say whether the defense of the Caribbean and eastern Canada can still be reliable. Especially since the air force in eastern Canada was weak to begin with, and now that so many fighter planes have been lost, it is really frightening...

"Mr. President," Wallace still seemed optimistic, "The German Me262 is a very large aircraft, similar to the F7F. Even if such an aircraft is not a jet, it is difficult to get on an aircraft carrier. Ordinary-sized aircraft carriers cannot accommodate it at all. It must be a super aircraft carrier. Therefore, the Germans have at most two aircraft carriers that can accommodate Me262. The more than 100 Me262s that appeared near Newfoundland today should be all the carrier-based Me262s they can get."

Truman just sighed softly, "More than 100 Me262s are not easy to deal with..."

"President, the German jets are not that scary." Wallace told Truman, "They just have a greater performance advantage at extremely high altitudes. As long as our aircraft avoid extremely high altitudes, we are not afraid of them."

What he said makes some sense. The Me262 is indeed not that scary. This aircraft is just part of the German Air Force/Navy Aviation combat system!

Due to the emergence of the original early warning aircraft, the air forces of Germany (EC) and the United States (Allied Forces) are now developing towards systematization, and both have established systems with early warning aircraft as the command center. Therefore, the result of the air battle on April 8 is not only how powerful Germany's Me262T is, but also the result of Germany's more complete air combat system and higher command level.

And the United States is not bad in this regard. If today's opponent is not Germany but Japan, it can definitely be one-sided!

"Admiral Arnold has personally rushed to Montreal to investigate the reasons for the failure of the Newfoundland Air Battle." William Leahy said, "He believes that in addition to the emergence of the carrier-based Me262, our air commanders did not make good use of the command and early warning capabilities of the F-13 is also an important reason. He also believes that as long as we can make full use of the reconnaissance capabilities of early warning aircraft and ground and surface radar systems, it is entirely possible to detect the German Me262 fleet in advance and guide fighters to evade... After all, there are only more than 100 of them."

After all, General Arnold was the man who led the U.S. Army Air Forces in fierce battles with powerful enemies for several years, and he indeed had real abilities. After seeing the report sent by Lieutenant General Harmon via telegraph, I knew where the problem lay and also thought of some countermeasures.

At the same time, in the Joint Intelligence Command Center within the General Staff Headquarters in Zossen, Germany, Imperial Marshal Hersmann was also analyzing the battle report on the "Newfoundland Island Air Battle" that had just been received with the leaders of the navy, air force, and naval aviation.

There were two battle reports. One was sent by the aircraft carrier "Adolf Hitler" and was written by little Hersman. One was sent from the Porto Heroes air base in the Azores and was written by Major General Moldes.

According to Hersman Jr.'s report, during the air battle over Newfoundland on April 8, German naval aviation carrier-based aircraft shot down a total of about 250 American/British (Canadian) shore-based fighters. Its own losses were only 15 Fokker 2262Ts that crashed due to malfunctions and landing accidents. Only 5 Me262Ts were actually shot down by enemy aircraft in combat.

The reason why the exchange ratio between the two sides is so disparate is not entirely due to the excellent performance of the Me262T, but to the credit of the air combat command system with the two airborne early warning aircraft, Bv138E and Me264H, as the core. This allowed for real coordination between the Germans' more than 270 fighters and more than 300 bombers, just like fighting on land. Therefore, he was able to defeat more with less and shot down almost as many enemy planes as himself.

In Moulders' report, it focused on the fact that the American fighter planes also had quite strong command. This is easy to see. Although the Americans lost the battle, their fighter planes advanced and retreated. In an orderly manner, they were able to pursue German aircraft groups beyond visual range. They were obviously commanded by early warning aircraft. It was only due to command errors and failure to anticipate the emergence of Me262T that it suffered such a serious setback.

Therefore, Molders predicted that the command of the US military aviation should be improved soon. In the next air battle on Newfoundland, Germany will not be able to achieve an excessively disparate exchange ratio.

"When is the next time?" Hersman asked. Of course, the great air battle over Newfoundland cannot be fought just once. It must be fought at least four or five times before it is possible to exhaust all the American fighter planes in eastern Canada.

"Tomorrow morning," Redl said, "The 301st and 302nd aircraft carrier groups of the 3rd Fleet will join the 20th Task Force tonight. They have 4 Kesselring-class aircraft carriers. By then, the 20th Task Force will gather 12 aircraft carrier, it will also have an additional 96 Fokker 636 fighter jets.”

Kesselring added: "It is expected that our Me264 can successfully launch missiles this time. This time we will launch the latest model of the Reaper 1D long-range air-launched cruise missile. The range of this missile will be increased to 700 kilometers. Combat The internal weight will be reduced accordingly, and the speed will also drop to about 600 km/h.”

Hessman nodded. He didn't care if the Reaper missile could kill a few Americans, but the attack was still necessary. Otherwise, it would be impossible to contain the American fighter planes on the east coast.

So he issued an order to study long-range air-launched cruise missiles a few months ago. Now the improvements have been completed (this is a very easy improvement), and there are also the first batch of live ammunition.

"What about the attack on Bermuda?" Hersman asked. "Is it still necessary?"

The attack on Bermuda was a feint, also intended to weaken U.S. air power in the North Atlantic. According to the "Grand Triangle Plan" of feinting to attack the Bermuda Islands, more than 20 German aircraft carriers will concentrate more than 1,000 fighter planes to carry out indiscriminate bombing of the Bermuda Islands, completely destroying the US aviation force and US military airports there. To this end, we are also preparing to deploy the 10th Task Force (the main force of the 1st Fleet) with 8 Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers to cooperate with the 20th Task Force to attack together. However, this "grand triangle plan" is only an alternative plan. It may not actually be implemented.

"There is no need, and neither the Navy nor the Air Force has deemed it necessary," Redl said. "Because the exchange ratio for air engagements off Newfoundland is so ideal, we should continue to operate off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador." Engage U.S. aviation to achieve the goal of completely wearing down the enemy."

Chapter 1189/1262
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