Chapter 963 Deadly Battleship
"Sir, telegram from the European Combined Fleet Command: Operation 'Amazon Queen' begins now."
A fleet staff officer handed the telegram he had just received to Admiral Helmut Heyer on the aircraft carrier "Zeppelin". The latter is now the commander of the 1st Fleet under the European Combined Fleet, and also serves as the commander of the 10th Task Force.
The current European Combined Fleet has a total of 9 squadrons, of which the 9th Fleet is stationed in the Far East, with its headquarters in Cam Ranh Bay in the Japanese Kingdom of Vietnam (this country is a puppet state established by Japan after occupying French Indochina, and the ultimate goal is of course the merger of Japan and Vietnam); the 8th Fleet is stationed in the Indian Ocean, with its headquarters in Mumbai; the 7th Fleet is stationed in the Mediterranean, with its headquarters in Piraeus near Athens, Greece; the 6th Fleet is responsible for the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea, with its headquarters in Kiel, Germany; the 5th Fleet is responsible for the Gallic Sea, the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea, with its headquarters in Kiel, Germany; The 4th Fleet is responsible for the North Atlantic Ocean and the waters near Guyana, with its headquarters in Cayenne, Guyana; the 3rd Fleet is responsible for the South Atlantic Ocean and its headquarters is in Puyala, Cape Verde Islands; the 2nd Fleet and the 1st Fleet are the mobile forces of the European Combined Fleet, and are also the main forces. Large fleet aircraft carriers and main battleships are basically placed in these two fleets, of which the home port of the 2nd Fleet is in Brest, France, and the home port of the 1st Fleet is in Gibraltar, Spain.
However, if the European Community wants to launch an offensive in South America, it is not possible to place the home ports of the two mobile fleets in Europe. Gibraltar is more than 3,100 nautical miles away from the Caribbean Sea, and Brest is more than 3,300 nautical miles away. Even if the fleet runs at a high speed of 20 knots in a straight line, it will take several days for the fleet to rush to the war zone (the Atlantic battlefield is full of American submarines, and it is impossible to go in a straight line, so it actually takes longer time), which is very time-consuming.
Therefore, if the war is to be launched in the Caribbean, the home port of the mobile fleet must be moved to South America. However, there was no suitable place to establish a large fleet home port in Guyana under German control. Although the three strongholds of Cayenne, Paramaribo and Georgetown all had ports, these ports were all on the Atlantic coast, and there were no bays or wide rivers to anchor the large fleet.
Moreover, these three places were too close to Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago controlled by the United States, and were easily attacked by B-17 and B-24 at night. Therefore, Kesselring and Lütjens only deployed a 5th Fleet in Guyana with a patrol squadron, a torpedo squadron, a submarine squadron, shore-based aviation and shore artillery forces (now the European Community Navy has an independent submarine command, all submarines responsible for breaking commerce are directly under its jurisdiction, but submarines whose main tasks are anti-ship and reconnaissance are composed of submarine squadrons, which are under the jurisdiction of each command fleet).
Therefore, if Germany wants to make a big move in South America and the Caribbean, it must find a large home port for the main force of the European Combined Fleet (the 1st Fleet and the 2nd Fleet). The Port of Belém, located at the mouth of the Tocantins River in the Amazon River estuary, is probably the only suitable port.
Although the Port of Belem is not at the mouth of the Amazon River, it has always been a transit port for maritime trade in the Amazon River Basin. Agricultural products from the Amazon River Basin are exported to all parts of the world through this port. Therefore, the port facilities of the Port of Belem are relatively good. The total length of the docks in the port exceeds 1,500 meters, with 9 general cargo docks, 1 grain dock and 1 oil tanker dock. The maximum water depth of the port is 9.2 meters, which is enough to berth large surface ships.
In addition, the Port of Belem is an inland port. Outside the port is a very wide estuary of the Tocantins River (tens of kilometers wide), which is equivalent to a large bay, enough to "swallow" the entire European Combined Fleet. At the same time, as long as dozens of kilometers of anti-submarine nets are deployed at the mouth of the river, and then carefully patrolled by submarines and seaplanes, it is possible to avoid being attacked by American submarines.
Moreover, the distance between the Port of Belem and the Caribbean Sea is just right, about 1,000 nautical miles. For the American B-17 and B-24, the distance is far enough. For a fleet moving at a speed of 20 knots, even taking into account the anti-submarine route, it can reach the front line in 70-80 hours.
So taking Belem is the first step to attack the US mainland from the Caribbean Sea - even if it cannot reach the end, the strategic significance of taking Belem is unquestionable!
Therefore, after the German Wehrmacht General Staff was convinced that Japan and the United States would fight a decisive battle in the Hawaiian Islands, it immediately formulated the "Amazon Queen Operation" plan aimed at capturing Belem Port and controlling the Amazon River estuary area.
"Okay," Admiral Helmut Heyer took the telegram and read it, then ordered, "Give orders to the 10-4 Heavy Cruiser Squadron and the 10-9 Amphibious Assault Squadron, and the landing operation will begin now. At the same time, carrier-based aircraft are ready to attack!"
The operation to capture Belem was not easy, because Belem Port was a port shrunk inland, 100 kilometers away from the mouth of the Tocantins River. The 10-9th Amphibious Assault Group responsible for the landing and the 10-4th Heavy Cruiser Group responsible for covering the landing must risk going deep into the estuary, and they may be attacked by torpedo boats and mines. And the whole process is estimated to take several days or even a week!
During this process, it is hard to say whether the US Navy will rush out from the Caribbean Sea to interfere.
Therefore, the main force of the 10th Task Force must always be vigilant and prepare for a decisive battle at sea and in the air!
…
"Mr. President, our embassy in Brazil reported that a German fleet has entered the Tocantins River and is advancing towards the port of Belém. In addition, this morning, a German carrier-based aircraft dropped over the city of Belém. Hundreds of thousands of leaflets were issued.”
In the White House, in the cabinet meeting room, Secretary of State Cordell Hull was reporting to Roosevelt on the situation in Brazil.
"Do you know the contents of the flyer?" Roosevelt asked, taking a drag on his Camel cigarette.
"It's about the Republic of the Amazon. The Germans claim to be liberators and the purpose of the invasion is to return the land plundered by the whites to the Indians and Indo-Europeans. So they will support a party called the Amazon National Party in the Amazon River in northern Brazil Basin and Guyana to establish a state representing the interests of the Amazon nation. In addition, the Germans also promised to divide the land in the Amazon basin equally among the Indians and Indo-Europeans..."
Roosevelt took a few more drags from his cigarette and then looked at Admiral William Leahy. The latter smiled bitterly and said: "Mr. President, the main force of the navy is now near the Hawaiian Islands, and we cannot mobilize troops to support Brazil."
Although the U.S. Navy is very powerful, the current European navy is not a vegetarian. Whether it is battleships or large fleet aircraft carriers, they all lead the United States in quantity and quality.
Moreover, Europe's shipbuilding capabilities are not much worse than those of the United States. Currently, the three major "cheap ships" represented by the "Kesselring" class light aircraft carrier, the "Munich" class air defense cruiser and the 1936 D-type destroyer are accelerating mass production.
If the number of ships is to be combined, Europe will not suffer as much as Japan!
In addition, in the two decisive aspects of carrier-based aircraft and carrier-based aircraft pilots, there is almost no gap between Europeans and Americans.
The current main carrier-based fighter jets of the United States, the F4U and F6F, have no advantage over the European Fw-190T and Fokker Zero D.
There are now about 4,000 carrier-based aircraft pilots (captains) in the United States. They are the essence of the aviation force that has been carefully cultivated since the outbreak of the war.
It is estimated that there will be no less than 2,000 pilots in Europe who can fly carrier-based aircraft... This is only the number of German carrier-based aircraft pilots, excluding the unreliable British pilots, otherwise this number would be around 2,500.
Although there are not as many as the United States (the United States has a lot of fuel and no land battlefields, so it can get most of the best pilots flying single-engine aircraft on board), but Europe has Ju288 and various remote-controlled anti-ship glide bombs/missiles , the anti-ship means are much sharper than dive bombers and torpedo planes.
Therefore, without concentrating the main force of the navy, neither William Leahy nor Ernest King would dare to fight a decisive battle with the European Combined Fleet.
"Then we should at least ensure that the Germans are kept out of the Caribbean, right?" Roosevelt did not dare to raise too high demands now. After all, he only had so little time left in his presidential term. If he could ensure that Japan was defeated before leaving office, he would have done so. Satisfied. Therefore, in the direction of the Caribbean, defense is still the main focus.
"Yes, Mr. President." Ernest King replied, "Although Belem Port can station the Grand Fleet, its infrastructure is poor and it will take several months to build before it can become a stronghold for the decisive battle. In addition, Germany still needs time to solve the Soviet Union, so we believe that the final battle on the Caribbean-Atlantic battlefield will occur in 1945-1946.”
Roosevelt said to himself: Thank God, I will no longer be the president of the United States by then!
"Can we win?" Roosevelt asked.
"able!"
"Rely on what?"
"Battleships!" Ernest King said, "Rely on the 5 Montana-class battleships and 6 Iowa-class battleships under construction!"
"Oh?" Roosevelt put out his cigarette butt in a ceramic ashtray, "I thought the current navy was centered around aircraft carriers."
"Mr. President," Ernest King explained, "before the Battle of Christmas Island, most of the Navy thought so too. But during the Battle of Christmas Island, our fleet was positioned to allow the Japanese aircraft to come. As a result, dozens of ships that could be produced quickly were exchanged for hundreds of Japan's best pilots. The results of this battle showed that it was impossible to defeat a surface fleet with powerful anti-aircraft firepower simply by relying on aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft. , but will cause a large loss of valuable carrier-based aircraft pilots. Therefore, the Navy believes that the battleship is not obsolete. As long as it has sufficient air defense cover, it will still be a lethal threat that we will rely on in 1945-1946. 6 powerful Iowa-class battleships and 5 even more powerful Montana-class battleships defeated Germany!”