Chapter 376 Aircraft Carrier
In the original time and space, German Navy Commander Raeder formulated an ambitious "Plan Z". It included 10 battleships, 3 battlecruisers, 4 aircraft carriers, 8 armored ships or heavy cruisers, 44 light cruisers, 68 destroyers, 90 torpedo boats, and 249 submarines. (Data often changes depending on the war situation)
As a result, the ambitious little mustache really approved this plan. In July 1939, the keel of the "H" class giant battleship with a displacement of up to 250,000 tons began to be laid, but in September, Germany blitzed Poland. Britain did not remain silent like it did when Czechoslovakia was annexed by Germany, but immediately declared war on Germany and sent an expeditionary force to the European continent. The little mustache had to order the suspension of Plan Z, and even the large ships under construction in the plan were all cancelled.
By the 42nd year of the war, the German Navy's large surface ships had long been few and far between. Some of the German Navy's senior officials, led by Raeder, had become pessimistic and disappointed with the war situation, and the ambitions of Plan Z gradually disappeared.
The Battle of the Barents Sea at the end of the year became the last straw that broke the camel's back. The "Admiral Hipper" and the "Lützow" were accused of cowardice by the mustache. He completely lost confidence in the German Navy's large surface ships, and even threatened to dismantle all surface ships and recycle them to make tanks, and dismissed Raeder from his position.
The soul of the German Navy left his stage in this way, and the German Navy's battle turned to underwater, but Dönitz's submarine warfare could not save Germany. With the defeat and surrender, the reconstruction of the German Navy came to an abrupt end again.
And now that the German army has completely occupied Iceland and established a military base on the island, Britain is now surrounded on three sides. The proud Royal Navy fleet has become a tortoise, and can only shrink in the port as a fleet, which is quite cowardly.
On the other hand, Germany not only launched warships in its own shipyards, but also gradually integrated the shipbuilding industries of various countries on the European continent. The German Navy Department even proposed a plan to build hundreds of new ships.
Yannick intervened and put the construction of aircraft carriers first.
Today, three aircraft carriers are about to be completed in German shipyards, and the four semi-finished aircraft carriers received when France surrendered have entered the trial stage.
In fact, France has several existing aircraft carriers, the most famous of which should be the "Bearn" aircraft carrier.
This is a big guy converted from the "Normandy" class battleship during World War I. Its full load displacement is 28,900 tons, which is close to the "Essex" class fleet aircraft carrier built in large quantities by the United States during World War II. However, it also retains many characteristics of early aircraft carriers. For example, the "Bearn" has a total of eight 155mm naval guns installed around the hull, 6 75mm and 8 37mm dual-purpose guns on both sides, and four torpedo launchers are retained on the bow. Such a large number of guns and torpedoes are enough to arm a light cruiser. It can be seen that the French thinking is still stuck in the era of giant ships and cannons, and the understanding of the new naval warfare model is not sufficient. The "Bearn" is more like an aircraft carrier cruiser than an aircraft carrier.
But even if Yannick does not dislike this kind of guy, it is impossible to recruit it.
Because when France implemented the "Fish" plan, the "Bearn" was one of the ships that transported the gold.
Because France surrendered to Germany, the "Bearn" that had transported the gold was homeless, and the captain declared his allegiance to Charles de Gaulle, which really disgusted Yannick.
In addition, France also has an aircraft carrier "Captain Teste", but it is a seaplane carrier that can only carry 26 seaplanes. Although the life story of this aircraft carrier is quite interesting (in order to prevent being captured by the Germans, the Captain Teste was sunk in Toulon Harbor in November 1942, but was salvaged by the Italians in May 1943 and handed over to Germany in September 1943. The Captain Teste eventually failed to escape the fate of being captured by the Germans. In August 1944, the Captain Teste was sunk by bombs dropped by the Allied air raid and was salvaged again in February 1945. Finally, the Captain Teste was dismantled and sold on May 15, 1950, ending an ordinary yet extraordinary life), but Yannick was not so hungry that he had no interest in such a weak aircraft carrier, so he left it to France.
In addition to the two aircraft carriers that Yannick did not plan to hand over to the Soviet Union, the German Navy will have 10 main aircraft carriers in the near future.
The Soviet ambassador came to urge several times, but each time he was sent away by Ribbentrop with various excuses. Yannick thought that when Ribbentrop's excuses were exhausted, the two sides would turn against each other.
In the future, building a modern aircraft carrier is a time-consuming and labor-intensive project. The USS Nimitz took seven years, the Russian Kuznetsov took nine years, and the French Charles de Gaulle took 11 years.
Moreover, the aircraft carrier cannot be put into battle immediately after the entire construction is completed. It still needs one or two years of sea trials.
Compared with modern aircraft carriers in later generations, the construction speed of aircraft carriers during World War II was extremely fast. For example, Japan built 25 aircraft carriers in less than 10 years. The fastest time for the United States was to build an aircraft carrier in only 10 days; it took only four years to build 150 aircraft carriers.
The main reason is that the technological content of aircraft carriers during World War II was quite low, probably less than one percent of modern aircraft carriers in later generations, so the construction speed was naturally very fast.
The aircraft carriers during World War II were so simple that they could even be built and modified on cargo ships. In addition, the carrier-based aircraft were also very "simple". Compared with the fourth and fifth generation advanced fighters in later generations, the propeller fighters during World War II were almost piston engines stuffed into the aircraft shell, and mechanical transmission mechanisms and a few simple instruments could take off.
Modern aircraft carriers are completely different. It is not just a platform for fighter takeoffs and landings, but a combat command center. It can be regarded as a sea fortress. It is a collection of a large number of advanced technologies. Compared with the aircraft carriers during World War II, it is completely different. Of course, its construction difficulty is also very high. Not to mention the complex avionics system, propulsion system, communication system, self-defense system, etc., just a deck is enough to make many countries today stay away. In addition to facing the harsh meteorological environment at sea, the deck of an aircraft carrier is more importantly to deal with the impact of carrier-based aircraft, the burning of ultra-high temperature tail flames, possible artillery attacks during wartime, etc. Therefore, it needs to be built with special deck steel. Looking at the world, only a few major military powers have the ability to manufacture deck steel.
Therefore, it can be simply understood that the difficulty of building an aircraft carrier is proportional to its combat effectiveness. If the aircraft carriers from the World War II era are confronted with modern aircraft carriers, no matter how many there are, they will not be enough.