Chapter 783

It's not that Yamamoto believed in the Yamato battleship still under construction, but that he lost confidence in the tactics of relying on the Japanese naval air force to compete for battlefield advantage. Originally, Yamamoto was a general who strongly supported the development of naval aviation. Relying on this support, he agreed to the battle of Pearl Harbor, won the battle of Wake Island and the battle of Marshall Islands, forced the US Army away from the Philippines, and sank many British warships in Malacca. This made him more confident in his theory and the superiority of Japanese naval aviation.

However, the successive attacks made him have to re-examine his trust. After all, the short time when the naval air force was Invincible is gone forever. The current war situation has proved time and again that the Japanese Naval Air Force has lost its original glory.

In the first battle of lovely island, the troops were exhausted. As a result, Yamamoto had to give up his plan to defeat the US Navy. This made Japan give up the chance of decisive battle for the first time, and also made the Japanese Navy end its invincible war history.

Then, in the second battle of lovely island, the Japanese Naval Air Force fell into a technical disadvantage. The myth of the invincibility of the Zero fighter was broken by the improved P-40 fighter of the US Navy. Because of its bad relations with Germany, the US also obtained the first-hand Zero fighter information from Germany. As a result, in the second battle of lovely island, Japan was forced to lose because of the huge loss of its air force.

This time, Japan lost the aircraft carrier "Longyu" in the decisive battle of Midway Island, which once again proved the decline of Japanese naval aviation. Yamamoto finally came up with another tactical idea. He felt that naval aviation was increasingly unable to sustain the need for attack, and Japan had to come up with more lethal tactics in the next battle.

So he was influenced by the commander of the battleship, who had always been the majority in the Japanese Navy, and began to believe that the more mature tactics of battleship decisive battle, which was also more advantageous to Japan, could be used.

His idea is very simple: since the naval air force is no longer able to maintain its own advantages, it is enough to single-minded entangle with the US Navy's carrier based aircraft, while the task of attack is to be carried out by the Japanese Navy's battleships with certain advantages in quality and quantity, The super cannon and heavy armor of the new battleship Yamato and changmen were used to rush into the US fleet and destroy the US fleet.

It has to be said that this idea is actually a tactic that the Japanese Navy has only been to in another time and space. It can be said that this tactic is actually in line with Japan's national conditions at some times. When the Japanese Navy is at a dead end, the use of this tactic is not entirely fanciful and groundless.

Of course, Yamamoto 56's idea is essentially different from that of the Japanese high-level during the great naval battle in Lette bay at the end of World War II in another time and space. In another time and space, the Japanese Navy used the carrier based aircraft as bait, while Yamamoto 56's core idea was to use the carrier based aircraft to cover the battleships for fleet decisive battle.

This set of tactics is a bit like that in the cold war period in the 1970s and 1980s, when the Soviet Navy used the only carrier based aircraft on the Kuznetsov aircraft carrier to destroy the air supremacy of the United States and cover other warships with long-range anti-ship missiles. However, this set of tactics is not advanced operational thinking, but a compromise made by the limitations of the weapons in hand.

On the other hand, Yamamoto's battleship Yamamoto really saw the reason for the decisive battle. This epoch-making super battleship had the world's first strength in terms of armor thickness and artillery caliber. Relying on this battleship which was enough to defeat the opponent was more reassuring than relying on those carrier based aircraft troops who had lost several times, Isn't it?

At the same time as the Japanese Navy retreated to Wake Island and Marshall Islands, the German carrier fleet had been sailing in the North Atlantic for a week. The purpose of this huge fleet going to sea is to cut off the supply line between Iceland and the United States.

Lutjans is watching the fighters released by his carrier fleet take off from the deck. Except for one German aircraft carrier, the Bismarck, which is being repaired in France, all the remaining four aircraft carriers are on the scene. Now there are three aircraft carriers in the fleet, and six carrier based fighters are flying at one go, which is not difficult at all.

"Long live the Fuehrer! Report to the general, the first batch of 18 planes responsible for investigation and patrol have been sent out. According to the message from the destroyers outside, no suspicious targets have been found in the nearby waters. " An officer stood behind lutjans, saluted him at attention and reported: "the guard helicopter on the empire is taking off, and the guard helicopter on the Zeppelin is ready to take off."

"Order the entire fleet to stay alert. This route will encounter enemy aircraft taking off from Greenland. Be careful not to enter the radius of land-based aircraft." Lutjans put down his telescope and ordered to the officer behind him, "what's the news about the attack on the sub fleet?"

The officer opened the notebook, looked at it, and said, "except for the report telegram sent on time, there is no news coming. They are keeping radio silence, and according to their fixed route, they may collide with the British naval sub fleet on patrol. "

The largest aircraft carrier formation under the command of lutjans was four. Now there is another battleship in Germany. It is obviously not suitable for lutjans to hand over the whole fleet. Therefore, the aircraft carrier tirbitz and the battleship marshal Reidel formed the first fleet, which attacked the US transportation line as a guerrilla fleet more than 100 nautical miles away.

The commander of this sub fleet is lieutenant general Linderman, a 45 year old middle-aged general. Like lutjans, he came from the traditional gunboat faction of the Navy, and also has a bright future with his promotion. Because of his outstanding performance and tenacity in the battle of the English channel, he was promoted to lieutenant general in the Navy. He was originally a gunboat commander, but now he became an aircraft carrier commander with lutjans. It is precisely because he was first a gunboat commander and then an aircraft carrier commander, this time he was appointed as a sub fleet commander, responsible for commanding the German attack fleet. The mission plan of the navy of the Third Reich this time is as follows: the attack fleet attacks and disturbs the American transport ships, lures the British main fleet to come to support, and then attracts the other side to get out of the cover of land-based air forces, and uses the main fleet composed of three aircraft carriers ambushed in the open sea to annihilate the opponent, so as to achieve the purpose of heavy damage to the British army. It can be seen that the tactics of the German army are almost the same as those of Yamamoto, except that the aircraft carrier fleet is used by the German army and the battleship fleet is used by Japan“ Order the modified fw-190 fighter to mount torpedoes and the Stuka dive bomber to mount aerial bombs and stand by in the hangar. " Lutjans is different from Yamamoto. The German Navy has never been responsible for seizing the islands from the beginning to the end. To put it bluntly, the German Navy is still a guerrilla force at sea, but its scale is a little large. There is no need to undertake offensive tasks, but simply to be responsible for destroying and annihilating the enemy's effective forces. This is the operational purpose of the German Navy, which is almost the purpose of all German military operations today. So is the army, the air force, and the Navy. It's just that the goal is simply to eliminate the opponent's living forces. Whether defensive or offensive, it's nothing more than a means to achieve the goal. Happily than the Japanese Navy, the performance of the fw-190 fighter equipped with air-cooled engines is better than that of the Zero fighter. After continuous improvement, the speed of this fighter is 100 kilometers faster than that of the Zero fighter. Moreover, the war damage of German pilots is much smaller than that of Japan. These advantages enabled the German army to firmly control the air supremacy in the Atlantic Ocean. In addition to some troubles caused by the British secret weapons over Iceland, the German naval air force was no one in the Atlantic Ocean. As far as the quality of pilots is concerned, German pilots are much more powerful than Japanese pilots, at least under the command of lutjans, including Gunter? There are too many German pilots, including laer, to count their trumps or even super trumps. How powerful are these pilots? Almost with less than 300 aircraft, the entire Polish air force can be annihilated. It is reasonable to say that such a powerful German Navy carrier based aircraft force should have trapped Iceland in its infancy for a long time. However, the geographical location of Iceland makes the German fleet feel like a dog with a hedgehog. As long as the transport ships from Canada make a detour to the north, they can always travel under the protection of Greenland Field Airport, which makes the German naval forces have no good way. Similar to today's, the German Navy has been harassing the transport supply line for many times. Each time, the German army took advantage of it, but it failed to achieve its strategic effect. After all, the fleet needs a lot of fuel to set sail. Coming back empty handed again and again makes the German navy have no ambition to fight. After all, the large regiments on the eastern front need not a lot of oil. Therefore, in order to raise oil, naval surface vessels have not appeared in the North Atlantic for two months. This is the frustration of lutjans and the frustration of the navy of a continental country such as Germany“ Wait. " After giving the order to stand by, lutjans looked to the sea in the distance. He did not know whether the Royal Navy would appear as he wished this time, or how many prey he could find this time. All he can do now is wait patiently.