Chapter 923 Turning Point (2,6000 Votes Plus Additional Content)
"According to the plan, what is our army's next plan?"
"Build an artificial dock to allow a large number of trucks, heavy equipment, and supplies to land. Engineers also repaired two emergency airports at night to ensure that they can receive support from land-based aviation tomorrow..." After it was determined that the SEAL program would be launched, Marshal Rommel's boss His partner, General Gauss, returned from the Central Asian Basin to serve as Chief of Staff of the SEAL Group. A few months after taking over, Scherner was completely familiar with the situation of each unit and could command it freely. Gauss, who had landing experience, was sent to more important places to coordinate operations and formulate plans, and was promoted from lieutenant general to general - a rare arrangement for a chief of staff.
People familiar with the matter said that this was an order personally given by the head of state, who was very optimistic about the chief of staff. The imaginary enemy staff commanded by Paulus put forward many targeted anti-landing suggestions. Even Chief of the General Staff Zeitzler also participated in the war game with great interest. He commanded the Dieppe anti-landing campaign successfully and had relevant experience. and countermeasures were all absorbed. The progress of the war proved that the Icelandic defenders basically did not take any counterattack measures that exceeded the expectations of the German army, and even fell far short of expectations in many aspects. For example, Lieutenant General Bei scolded the Americans for their idiotic behavior - everyone knows that Asia How many landmines have been laid and how many fortifications have been built in Sol.
The only thing that was unexpected was that the US Army Aviation was very resolute and actually dared to carry out long-distance bombing in large formations without escort. However, it was the end of a strong effort.
"Isn't this step unnecessary?" Lieutenant General Bei said, "We have landed a lot of troops and initially controlled Reykjavik Port. We can transport supplies through normal channels..."
"I have two considerations: first, the enemy must also know that we will transport a large number of people through the dock. If concentrated bombing is likely to cause irreversible damage, it will seriously hinder the deployment of the landed troops; second, this is a rare There is an opportunity for actual combat training. Although we have built an artificial dock in the Mediterranean, it is just a drill after all. It is necessary to build it in front of the enemy in the North Atlantic. I think the headquarters will not mind us losing some supplies or equipment. "
Lieutenant General Bei was convinced and immediately reported the news to Machar, who nodded in agreement and suggested construction overnight.
The Japanese representatives who served as observers on the ship stared with wide eyes at the display of the latest German technology. Many people praised the Sibel landing craft and believed that although Japan was the first to develop a "flat nose and pointed tail" landing craft - the square bow pointed upwards The sharp stern is dragged behind to keep the boat balanced, so it can directly seize the beach. Its straight bow is a baffle. After seizing the beach, it can be lowered and used as a springboard for personnel and equipment to disembark. The Japanese troops did not even have shoes when they rushed ashore. wet.
However, the Japanese landing craft are too small and can only deal with defenders with insufficient defense power. Once the defenders have stronger firepower, the landing craft will be too weak. Moreover, small landing craft have poor seaworthiness and can only be towed by large ships and released near the landing point. Large landing craft like the German army that can drive directly from France to Iceland are extremely ideal.
In addition, the Japanese Marines originally had few and light tanks. On this basis, they developed special internal fire boats. However, in the face of the powerful anti-landing firepower and anti-armor capabilities of the United Kingdom and the United States, the survivability of the internal fire boats was worrying. Now the Japanese Navy has enough tanks and is in urgent need of them. A larger landing craft, and a landing craft that can carry tanks must be able to carry armored vehicles. They are not only envious of the German grenadiers who directly ride on armored vehicles to fight ashore. They are all experts, and they can immediately understand the advantages of taking an armored vehicle ashore - not only can it carry heavy equipment and supplies, and will not waste physical energy on the beach, but it also provides firepower with machine guns and even recoilless cannons, which is great for beachhead suppression and deep pursuit operations. There are benefits!
Regiment leader Ito Zhengichi recorded it solemnly: Large landing craft must be introduced for the naval landing battle, and more armored vehicles must be provided for the Marine Corps.
All of the above are understandable. The construction of an artificial dock was completely beyond their cognitive ability, so they concentrated on the side of the ship and looked at it with telescopes.
Although the German navy is not strong, its engineering construction capabilities are second to none in Europe. After receiving the requirements for the construction of artificial docks, experts from all walks of life really put a lot of thought into it. In this regard, Hoffman also used his time-traveling advantage to provide suggestions.
Historically, the British and Americans mainly used concrete caissons to build artificial docks during the Normandy invasion. These caissons were magnificent and large in scale. The small ones weighed more than 100 tons, and the large ones could reach more than 6,000 tons. They landed on the seabed at a depth of 5-6 meters, and then Connect them one by one in a similar way to building blocks, and finally build a complete breakwater and pier embankment. During the Normandy landings, the United Kingdom and the United States used millions of tons of concrete, steel, sea sand and other materials to build two artificial ports. They were first towed across the English Channel by tugboats, and then built one after another and stretched for several kilometers. Each port could hold up to Provide 6,000 tons of supplies to the army.
Germany does not need such a large transportation capacity. Germany only needs to support an army of 20,000 to 30,000 people and can provide 800 tons of supplies every day. Moreover, Iceland is too far away from the European continent. If a tugboat is used to tow such a huge caisson, regardless of the maritime risks, the battle will be almost over when it arrives. Therefore, the first requirement for building an artificial dock is that it can be moved autonomously and not be too slow.
The original idea put forward by Hoffman was to model the construction of offshore oil supply terminals in later generations. This idea impressed engineering experts and thought it was a genius idea, but there was no precedent and it would have to be developed from scratch, which would take as little as 1-2 years. In a few years, it may be a good equipment for developing offshore oil in the future, but now that it is too late, experts are preparing to use other methods.
Compared with the hard construction of Britain and the United States, the path chosen by Germany is very interesting. Instead of using troublesome and difficult-to-control caissons, it directly boarded the ship - using a disguised aircraft carrier (or transport aircraft carrier) developed based on the Stearman-class tanker.
Stearman is a large tanker built by Germany before the war, which can accommodate 23,000 tons of fuel. Germany built a small number of them at the beginning, but after obtaining Middle Eastern oil, this type of civilian tanker using diesel engines has gained a broad space for development. After the design drawings of the Will were approved, based on the technical parameters of Stearman, Germany designed a 25,000-ton European standard tanker - the Bremen class, with an overall length of more than 185 meters.
The United States once used large and fast tankers to build several large escort aircraft carriers - the Sangamon class. The Bremen class has a maximum speed of only 14 knots. It takes a lot of effort to convert it into an escort aircraft carrier. Germany is unwilling to spend this cost and only carried out the simplest transformation: using the flat main deck of a large tanker to directly set up a flight deck, or an over-the-top deck, at a height of more than 6 meters in the air - exactly the same routine as the transformation of coal carriers in the early years. The width and length of the deck are both larger than the hull (the width is more than 2 meters, and the length is more than 10 meters). The entire tanker seems to be wearing a huge hat, so it is jokingly called a capped tanker.
It is ugly, but some features of the capped tanker made Hoffman applaud:
The deck on the upper part of the tanker is made of 50mm thick steel plates, which can prevent horizontal attacks from 1,000-pound high-explosive bombs (it cannot stop armor-piercing bombs or dive attack aircraft). The steel plates and the pillars add nearly 4,000 tons of weight to the tanker at once, resulting in an increase in draft and a higher center of gravity. The engineers reduced the cargo hold fuel transportation volume by 5,000 tons, and the transportation space remained inside the hull.
Under the attention of everyone, the two capped tankers marked as B1 and B2 slowly drove to the place perpendicular to the shore, and the aircraft carrier B1 ran aground first.
"The ship has been stranded successfully. Water is injected!" With the captain's order, the sea valve of the B1 aircraft carrier was opened, and a large amount of seawater rushed into the watertight compartments. Then the tanker slowly sank at a speed visible to the naked eye, and most of the hull was immersed in mud and silt. In this way, the hull remained stable. Now, in addition to nearly 20,000 tons of fuel, the entire ship has also introduced tens of thousands of tons of seawater, and the chassis looks very solid.
B2 lined up behind B1 and began to move forward in a head-to-tail manner - this is a very critical step. The docking size of the two tankers is required to be controlled within 2 meters on the left and right, and within 30 centimeters on the top and bottom.
The left and right dimensions are more difficult to control, but the actual joint deviation is no more than 1 meter. The upper and lower joints are relatively well controlled. The goal can be achieved by injecting water to achieve a uniform sinking of the ship. In the end, the height difference of the joint is no more than 10 centimeters. Since B2 is located in a deeper sea area, it is reflected on the ship that B2 has a deeper draft. B1 only did not remove 70% of the hull, while B2 is nearly 75%.
At this time, most of the steps have been completed, and the last step is left - leveling. Because the ocean has a slope, the closer to the beach, the shallower it is. Therefore, the height of the stern of the two stranded tankers is lower than the bow, and the deck is tilted towards the sea. This is not difficult for German engineers. The steel plate laid on it is not a whole, but is made up of more than 1,000 steel plates of the same specification. The height can be adjusted within a certain range by relying on the support columns below. The engineer immediately calculated the size that needs to be adjusted for leveling. Taking the sea level height of the last steel plate as the standard height, the pillars connected to each other steel plate began to decrease according to the standard calculation number, and the shortening of the pillars was used to mitigate the impact of the sea slope, and finally formed a platform roughly balanced at sea level.
At dawn, a platform nearly 400 meters long and 30 meters wide connected to the beach appeared out of thin air on the sea, and everyone cheered for this masterpiece. The Japanese observation group was stunned. Can the ship be played like this?
Now as long as the freighter approaches, a steel bridge is built on this steel platform, and trucks can be used to load and unload materials. The entire platform can bear about 5,000 tons of material accumulation at the same time.
More importantly, this steel platform has a special function: the 400-meter-long platform can provide a runway for fighter jets to land urgently after being cleared. If the platform is expanded to 600 or even 800 meters, attack aircraft can take off and land urgently.