Chapter 484: Slap in the Face (End)

"In addition to the aircraft carriers that can basically be completed this year, we also have two Yunlong Kais and two Dafeng Kais to start construction." Speer said viciously, "Since he likes to brag so much, I might as well add two more Yunlong Kais. Let’s see what the Americans do.”

Hoffman knew that the Ministry of Armament had always had doubts about the start of the third and fourth Yunlong modifications this year, believing that it would slow down the construction of the warships in front. However, with the victory of the Panama Battle, it seemed that Speer's mood was also heightened. stand up.

"I'm not crazy. Really... something different has happened in the past two months." Speer explained. "British and American bombings have been greatly reduced, even close to non-existent. The only place that is often still bombed is Azores, but there is no industry in that tiny place, and domestic industrial production capacity has been maintained quite well. In addition, with the influx of Spanish and Portuguese shipbuilding workers, the number of engineers and shipyard workers we need to deploy in Italy has also decreased accordingly. The return from the army is faster than expected, which is conducive to ensuring the construction of domestic warships, so it is okay to start construction of two more Yunlong modifications. Anyway, there are no other capital ship construction plans.”

Raeder had differences with the Führer on the shipbuilding plan. The old marshal hoped to start construction of another battleship or 1-2 Hipper-class heavy cruisers to supplement battle losses. Hoffman believed that it was completely unnecessary and insisted on the construction of aircraft carriers. Absolute priority, at most add some anti-aircraft cruisers and destroyers.

"A total of 6 new aircraft carriers were started in the mainland in 1943, two of which were the relatively powerful Taiho Kai (the No. 1 and No. 2 ships of the Yunlong Kai have already started construction, and the construction of the No. 1 Taiho Kai is planned to start in May). As for the In 1944, with the gradual improvement of Italy's slipway and shipbuilding capacity, I think it is also feasible to start construction of 4 more Yunlong models in Italy and mainland China. Maybe there will be a chance to start construction of another Dafeng model, so that there will be 9 aircraft carriers started in a year. ——Excluding Japan, can the Americans build 36 ships? Of course, they have to use escort aircraft carriers to make up the number. I have nothing to say.”

Hoffman was convinced, with a satisfied smile on his face: "Very good, let's do it this year, 6 ships this year, and strive to start construction of 9 more ships next year. The navy is the top priority in the future. As long as the British and American sea power blockade can be broken, Even if the Americans can mobilize 20 million troops, we are still rock solid in Europe."

This is certainly not a boast by Hoffman. He has thought carefully and had in-depth exchanges with Yoder and other major staff generals. The conclusion he reached is relatively consistent: as long as the British and American navies are not allowed to gain absolute sea control, the size of the U.S. Army will not be able to grow any larger. It's just a display - the United States and the European continent are not bordering each other. To send the army, it must land for combat, and the landing limit will not exceed 300,000 people at a time. As long as they partially offset the naval superiority of Britain and the United States, these 300,000 people would put no pressure on the Third Reich. Moreover, Britain and the United States will never risk launching a 300,000-level landing campaign before gaining absolute control of the sea.

Hoffman was very confident about this: Historically, Britain and the United States waited until Germany had a massive retreat on the Eastern Front and fully controlled the Atlantic sea power, and then did not dare to launch the Normandy landing campaign until June 1944. Now Germany's strategic situation is worse than I don’t know how much stronger it is in history, and the possible large-scale landing campaign between Britain and the United States is probably far away. If we really want to talk about landing, I am afraid that restarting the "Sea Lion Project" at this stage is more reliable than the Normandy landing.

But one thing neither of them expected was that even though Speer made the boldest assumption, he still didn't expect that the United States was determined to start building 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers within a year. In addition to starting construction of two Essex-class ships every month, the U.S. Navy General Commission has also arranged the construction of 12 additional Independence-class (or Currituck-class) aircraft carriers. In this way, the number of escort aircraft carriers is not considered too much or too little. 36 ships!

This number exceeded Speer's knowledge and Hoffmann's historical experience, and only depended on the severely changed balance of naval power. In fact, after the two major battles of the Azores and Panama, the overall pattern of the world's navies has undergone drastic changes. Hoffman has not yet clearly and completely realized this, but the Americans feel the pain: currently, it is measured by tonnage. Ranking, the United States is still first, but Japan has surpassed the United Kingdom to become second, followed by Italy (fourth) and Germany (fifth).

Although Japan lost 4 aircraft carriers at Midway, and then lost 2 battleships in Panama, Britain had lost all its aircraft carriers by April 1943, and only the pitiful two George V-class and 2-class battleships were left. Queen Elizabeth class, the effective tonnage has dropped sharply. Now the tonnage gap between Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom has been greatly narrowed. Although the United States has lost more battleships than the United Kingdom, it has made up for these losses with its terrifying shipbuilding strength. If Britain hadn't supported the scene with a fleet of cruisers, auxiliary cruisers and destroyers, it would have been almost at the bottom among the five countries in terms of total tonnage of battleships over 10,000 tons!

If ranked in terms of battleship combat effectiveness, Japan can basically rank first, vaguely surpassing the United States.

Japan currently has four aircraft carriers, two large and two small (not counting Bolzano), overwhelming the two major aircraft carriers of the United States (Saratoga and Essex); in terms of battleships, Japan still has two Yamato-class battleships. , 1 Nagato-class and 3 Kongo-class battleship formations, the United States has 2 Iowa-class ships (the second ship New Jersey has just been commissioned and has not completed sea trials), one New Mexico-class (USS New Mexico), and 2 South Dakotas class and 1 North Carolina class, the USS California (Tennessee class), and the USS West Virginia (Colorado class) are still being renovated and will be completed in June-July. The United States has the advantage in terms of battleships, but the gap is very small - compared to Pearl After the Battle of Hong Kong, the gap was small; in the field of heavy cruisers, the United States no longer had a single heavy cruiser, but Japan still maintained a scale of more than 10, which greatly overwhelmed the United States.

However, Japan's window of advantage is very weak. After the Essex and Independence classes continue to serve in early May, the tonnage advantage of the aircraft carrier will basically disappear. If the quality of carrier-based aircraft pilots is taken into account, Japan still has an overall advantage.

Germany can overwhelm Britain and occupy third place in the battle of battleships. In terms of aircraft carrier comparison, Germany now has Skyhawk, and Britain only has Unicorn. The former has slightly stronger combat power than the latter, but considering that Germany also has Zeppelin. In terms of maintenance and renovation of aircraft carriers, the two Vengeance-class ships under construction in the UK will not enter service until 1944, and their strength has steadily surpassed the UK. In terms of battleship comparison, Germany now has two ships, Tirpitz and Richelieu. The battleship, Strasbourg and two Scharnhorst-class battlecruisers, Britain has two George V-class and two Elizabeth-class battleships. They are not as good as Germany in terms of quantity and combat effectiveness, even if the unfinished equipment on the slipway is taken into account. The Empire will be ready for service in a few months, while the Lion class will also have to wait until 1944. In terms of heavy cruisers, Britain is also slightly behind Germany. Only in the fields of light cruisers, auxiliary cruisers and destroyers, Britain still has huge accumulation.

Based on these factors, even if the ranking of naval combat power does not take into account command ability and the quality of officers and soldiers, the short-term (3-6 months) should be Japan, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy, and the medium-term (6-12 months) should be the United States. Japan, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, the Axis actually has some naval superiority. It's just that the British and American navies have been accumulating power for a long time, and other countries, including the Axis, have not yet realized this.

"I will prepare supplies and ships as soon as possible." Speer asked, "When will they return to Italy? It will take me 15-20 days."

"Keitel didn't mention this just now. Horikichi originally said he would return to China on April 15, but now it's long past time." Hoffman immediately called Dargos, "Ask Marshal Keitel what's going on with the fleet now." When will I return to Italy? What are the follow-up arrangements?”

Half an hour later, Dargos walked in and whispered a few words quietly into the head of state's ear. After a few words, Hoffman's face became very strange and wonderful.

"What's going on?" Speer keenly caught this unusual emotional change.

"Horikoshi's main fleet will return to the Azores at the end of the month, and then try to set off eastward from Italy around May 15."

"That's enough time. The Battle of Madagascar should also be over, so we can go back to Japan together."

"This is not the key. The key is that the aircraft carrier group led by Tsukahara is not with them. Now no one can contact the mobile fleet. It seems that radio silence has been implemented."

"Radio silence? What does he want to do?" Speer was also shocked.

"I'm not sure. Horikichi gave me a reference - it's possible to bomb the east coast of the United States! The specific target is unknown, but I think it's New York, Washington, Norfolk Naval Base, or Philadelphia, Boston and other places. , there are actually not many goals to choose from.”

"Really?" Speer's face suddenly became rich, and finally he couldn't help laughing, "I hope they can bomb New York and drop bombs on the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center or the Brooklyn Bridge. , on the Manhattan Bridge, Roosevelt’s expression must have been wonderful.”

"I almost forgot, you turned out to be an architect." Hoffman also laughed, "Send them a telegram and tell them the most worthwhile landmarks and suggestions from a professional perspective. If you can The photos are even more perfect.”

Speer's body leaned forward slightly: "Aren't you afraid of completely angering the Americans?"

"When they dropped the bombs on the Ruhr, Berlin, and Frankfurt, they had already completely angered me! This was just the most insignificant revenge of the German people! Any bomb, even just one, is worse than piles of condemnations and protests. "Abuse must be effective." Hoffman said with a stern expression, "Bismarck said that to solve major contemporary problems, we must rely on iron and blood. Although this sentence has passed more than 80 years, it still applies today!"