bookpower Chapter 870
Chapter 870
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“The first wave of air strikes was already returning. According to their reports, the enemy seemed to be completely unprepared. After they completed the attack, the enemy thought of firing back. However, by that time, they had already dropped their bombs and successfully gained altitude, so the enemy’s anti-aircraft firepower did not pose a threat to them!”
At 9:21 am on December 21, 12 attack aircraft took off from the aircraft carrier Friedrich der Grosse and completed the first attack on the Japanese army.
This exploratory attack did not sink any warship of the Combined Fleet, but it caused great damage to the enemy fleet.
In addition to the Kaga aircraft carrier, Chuichi Nagumo’s flagship, which was hit by two bombs and blew a large hole in the deck, several other aircraft carriers of the Combined Fleet were also attacked.
The rear deck of the aircraft carrier Shokaku was hit by a 500-kilogram heavy bomb.
Fortunately, this bomb penetrated the deck and destroyed a large number of fighter planes under the hangar, and affected the power compartment of the aircraft carrier Shokaku, causing the sailing speed to drop sharply.
The
Japanese performed very poorly after the attack.
They did not seem to expect to be attacked by the German army near the American continent.
The Germans were attacked, so the fleet’s defense was very lax, and they failed to detect the incoming German aircraft in the first place.
What was even more shocking was their damage control department.
After the two aircraft carriers of the fleet were attacked, their damage control department not only failed to put out the fire on the ship caused by the explosion in the first place, but due to improper operation, they failed to close other compartments in time, causing the fire on the ship to get out of control and spread everywhere, causing the aircraft carrier that could have been rescued to eventually lose its combat effectiveness due to severe internal fires.
Although there are five aircraft carriers in the United States, they lost the combat effectiveness of two aircraft carriers at once due to minor injuries and improper operation in the first wave of attacks, which made them lose their advantage in the following battles!
The German army currently has only four aircraft carriers in service. In addition to the two Midway-class aircraft carriers in the hands of Nimitz, there are also two Forrestal-class aircraft carriers. class aircraft carrier, but the latter is not in the hands of Nimitz, but in the hands of Lütjens of the Northern Fleet.
Compared with Nimitz, Lütjens’s task is more difficult, so Dönitz gave them two aircraft carriers with larger tonnage and more advanced performance as a priority!
If he had only two aircraft carriers in his hands, Nimitz would not have to waste so much time in the Atlantic to try his luck. He could have gone straight to the Bermuda Islands, attacked the enemy directly, attracted the enemy’s fleet to come and then launched a decisive battle!
Since their enemy is most likely the Combined Fleet of the Foot Basin, and the Combined Fleet of the Foot Basin has five aircraft carriers, although the tonnage of the Foot Basin’s aircraft carriers is smaller than that of the German aircraft carriers, and the number of aircraft that can be carried is less, but the number of the opponent is large enough!
Five aircraft carriers against their own two aircraft carriers, in fact, the Japanese army still occupies Advantage, after all, with five aircraft carriers, their efficiency in taking off and landing fighters is much higher!
If the warships in the Combined Fleet are counted, the Japanese advantage will be even greater!
Although the Japanese Combined Fleet can only be regarded as the third largest in the world, its overall strength is not as good as that of the German and American navies, but Nimitz does not have so many warships in his hands. His fleet is just a squadron, which may only be about one-third of the strength of the entire German army.
With one-third of the troops against the entire Combined Fleet, Nimitz is of course at a disadvantage!
However, in Nimitz’s view, although his Southern Fleet is not as good as the Japanese on paper, the main combat power of both sides in this naval battle is the aircraft carrier, and the other warships will most likely be in a state of watching the show, so if you want to compete, just compete the combat effectiveness of the aircraft carriers of both sides!
In terms of aircraft carriers, the Japanese army has an advantage in quantity, and the German army has an advantage in quality.
Therefore, if one or two of the aircraft carriers can be killed at the beginning of the war and the gap in quantity between the two sides is narrowed, the battle will be stable!
It is naturally very difficult to kill the enemy’s tightly guarded aircraft carrier. After all, after the naval war between the German and British navies, countries all over the world have realized that aircraft carriers are the main force of the current navy!
Therefore, all countries have begun to develop aircraft carriers frantically. Those with aircraft carriers are frantically building aircraft carriers while treating existing aircraft carriers as treasures and formulating various new tactics around aircraft carriers.
Countries without aircraft carriers have tried every means to buy aircraft carriers or design drawings so that they can have their own aircraft carriers as soon as possible.
In this case, it is too difficult to attack the aircraft carriers that are the core of the opponent!
Since the aircraft carriers of various countries are at the core of the fleet, in this case, the German army cannot use battleships and other surface warships to launch an attack from the sea.
Because in that case, the enemy will be discovered by the enemy’s outer warships from a long distance. Once the enemy discovers the German attack, it will immediately be on guard. In this case, it is basically impossible to attack their aircraft carriers!
This situation has caused the situation of battleships in various countries to become very embarrassing.
Because the combat distance of aircraft carriers is too far, and battleships can only rely on artillery to complete the attack, so they have basically made no achievements in the era of aircraft carriers.
The Yamato and Musashi battleships that were built with great effort in World War II were basically useless.
After wasting a lot of resources, they became a mascot.
It is better to use the funds spent on these two giant ships to develop more aircraft carriers.
After all, aircraft carriers are more useful!
If surface warships cannot be used, there are only two ways to attack the enemy’s aircraft carriers.
The first way is to quietly approach the target underwater by submarines and then complete the attack.
The second way is to use the carrier-based aircraft on the aircraft carrier to approach the target at high speed from the air and then launch an attack from the air.
Of these two methods, the first one is basically difficult to do, because nuclear-powered submarines have not yet appeared, and ordinary submarines have limited time to sail underwater and are very slow, which makes it difficult for them to sneak such a long distance and approach the enemy’s aircraft carriers.
Moreover, submarines have relatively simple means of underwater detection. Although sonar can detect targets, it cannot determine which one is an aircraft carrier. If they want to attack, they must surface and use a periscope to confirm!
And once the submarines surface, they themselves are at great risk of being exposed to the enemy’s field of vision!
Once the submarines are exposed, there is no need to think about the outcome. A large group of cruisers and destroyers will immediately rush up and throw depth charges desperately, sending them to the bottom of the sea!
Therefore, submarines can also be ruled out. Therefore, Nimitz summed up the biggest threat to aircraft carriers, that is, enemy aircraft carriers!
And now, he has proved his theory with actual actions!