Chapter 731: Naval Battle (1)
"It's really something to celebrate."
President Wilkie cheerfully took out a bottle of whiskey and two wine glasses from the office cabinet on the side.
I unscrewed the cap of the wine bottle and was about to pour the wine when the phone on my desk suddenly rang. "What's the good news again?" President Wilkie answered the phone. It was Lieutenant General Royal Ingersoll, commander of the Atlantic Fleet, who sounded panicked. "Mr. President, a German fleet arrived in R11 waters. One of our patrol ships was attacked and may have been sunk."
The R11 sea area is 500 kilometers away from the eastern coastline of the United States. Roosevelt was previously worried that the Germans would use flying bombs with a range of 1,200 kilometers to bomb the United States, and expanded the maritime defense circle to 1,500 kilometers away from the coastline. But the strange thing is that the German army has not seen the use of flying bombs until the war broke out. I don’t know whether the intelligence of the 1,200-kilometer range is wrong, or whether the German army feels that using this thing is not worth the gain. Therefore, the U.S. Navy has reduced its maritime defense circle to 500 kilometers away from the coastline, which can better prevent large-scale penetration of German submarines.
It is indeed to prevent "large scale", because up to now, the ghost submarine on the east coast of the United States is still wreaking havoc, driving the United States crazy and unable to catch it. Fortunately, the number of such super submarines of the German army is not enough. More, they can only prevent more U-boats from sneaking in and causing trouble.
And now a German fleet actually attacked the patrol ship on this line of defense? "Is it a German carrier-based aircraft?" If it is a carrier-based aircraft, the German fleet is probably still hundreds of kilometers away.
"No, Mr. President, they were attacked by German battleships. Their last report was that they saw at least three battleships!"
"At least three battleships?!" President Wilkie gasped. At least three battleships, and possibly more, and maybe accompanied by aircraft carriers. "What are the Germans doing?!" The Germans have never sent out a surface fleet of this size before. Could it be that they want to use their fleet to attack the United States?
The terrible thing is that the US Atlantic Fleet is in an embarrassing period at this time. Although the shipyards are desperately building various warships, warships of tens of thousands of tons are not ice aircraft carriers. One can be frozen in a few days.
"..." President Wilkie couldn't help but frowned when he thought of that disgusting ice aircraft carrier. After the failure of the ice aircraft carrier, he specially ordered people to arrest those naval engineers who had escaped from the UK who provided information about the ice aircraft carrier, and interrogated them severely to see if they were spies sent by the Germans specifically to entertain them. .
But it was obvious that they were indeed British naval engineers, and they had indeed made a miscalculation.
If it was in the Pacific, they might be able to unite with the Soviet navy to defeat the German navy in two against one; but in the Atlantic, it would be a bit uncertain. The opponent has at least three battleships alone. If we want to defeat them reliably, we must mobilize at least five or six battleships. But where can we gather so many battleships at once? !
Do you want to be a coward? !
President Wilkie shook his head and gave a brief but firm order. "Assemble all fleets and join the battle!"
Putting down the phone, Commander Arnold spoke. "Maybe the Germans are just hanging around the defense line." Maybe the German fleet will turn around and go back when our own fleet is assembled to set off.
But what if they are really here to cause trouble?
"Mr. President, our land-based fighters and bombers can also join the fight."
Naturally, the German fleet is not just here to hang out, they are here to compete with the American fleet.
To a certain extent, they were "forced" to see their own army siege cities and territories on Soviet soil; the air force bombed the United States at regular intervals; underwater submarines were racking up records along the east coast of the United States; and the most terrible thing It was the Pacific Fleet that attacked Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands not long ago and destroyed the entire island. And their Atlantic fleet could only watch helplessly as others made achievements and had nothing to do; the depressed naval officers and soldiers frantically submitted "letters of challenge" to the headquarters, and piles of "letters of challenge" flooded Redel's office like snowflakes. .
Redel asked Yannick for instructions one by one. Yannick thought for a long time and agreed to send a fleet to the east coast of the United States to compete with the American fleet.
To this end, they assembled four battleships, four aircraft carriers, and several battlecruisers, cruisers, and destroyers to form a huge fleet and headed for the east coast of the United States.
With the performance of the German carrier-based aircraft at this time, even if the U.S. military dispatches warships twice their size, it may not be able to damage it at all.
After breaking through the outer perimeter of the defensive circle, the German fleet deliberately slowed down and sailed slowly toward the U.S. coastline. "Let's see if these Americans dare to challenge us."
The fleet continued to move forward for more than two hours when a report came from the radar room. "A US military aircraft group was discovered 300 kilometers away. The number is temporarily unknown." 300 kilometers is the current limit detection range of the German naval radar. Only large aircraft groups can be detected at this distance. Detailed data such as whether they are bombers or fighter jets, their number, and their altitude cannot be detected. of.
"Take off fighter jets to intercept!" the fleet commander ordered calmly.
Watching the FW-190T carrier-based aircraft take off from the four aircraft carriers one after another, the fleet commander couldn't help but sigh. "Times are changing." In the past, the naval battles were a duel between big ships and big guns. The battleships of both sides lined up and poured fire on each other. It was spectacular. You could see with your own eyes that the other side's steel behemoth was hit by your own shells, and the fire started and sank.
But now, the situation of naval warfare has changed dramatically. Only ten years ago, who would have thought that carrier-based aircraft could hang hundreds of kilograms of bombs to attack enemy fleets hundreds of kilometers away?
The FW-190T carrier-based aircraft that took off formed a formation of 20 and flew in the direction of the enemy aircraft group. The German fleet took off 100 carrier-based aircraft in one go.
Fifteen minutes later, the FW-190T formation sent a message. "Report, it's the American P-40 fighters and B-25 bombers."
The commander of the German fleet raised his eyebrows slightly. Attacking the sea fleet with land-based fighters and bombers? Are these Americans crazy?
But what he didn't know was that it was Arnold's suggestion to send the B-25 bombers, because the US Air Force invented a new jump/bounce attack tactic. In this attack method, the B-25 needs to approach the enemy ship at a very low altitude and high speed over the water surface, and drop bombs (usually 227 kg bombs) when it is close to the appropriate distance. The bomb falls on the water surface like a skipping stone, bounces up, falls down again, and bounces up again until it hits the side of the ship and explodes. The hit rate of this tactic is much higher than that of horizontal bombing, but it is not without disadvantages. The bulky twin-engine bomber must be exposed to the enemy's anti-aircraft guns at low altitude.