Chapter 1,208 The Arrival of a New Era 2

Chapter 1208 The arrival of a new era 2

When he thought of this, the prince felt so excited! He has now at least found a feasible method that can severely damage the British Empire's Grand Fleet within a year! That's right, this battle will be launched at the end of 1913 at the latest! If the fight is good, Germany's overseas transportation lines will be truly smooth! Britons will never be able to return to Shetland!

Later, the prince calmed down his excitement and began to think about what if the plan changed? For example, what if the British fleet adds aircraft carriers, and what if British land-based aircraft appear over the battlefield? Regarding the former, the prince is not very worried, because historically British aircraft carriers have always been famous for carrying few aircraft... It was unrealistic to expect them to launch a large-scale aviation raid. As for the latter, if it is a large group of O-400 and FB27 bombers carrying these torpedoes and 500KG level bombs, then maybe the German fleet will be overwhelmed...

The best way is to fight within the combat radius of the British Air Force. Thinking of this, the prince drew a rough range on the North Sea chart based on the collected intelligence. This range was later called the North Sea Black Hole, which means It is said that except for large bombers like the V1500, twin-engine aircraft cannot reach combat sea areas when carrying anti-ship weapons.

However, it is indeed difficult for the British to enter and exit this area, because for the Royal Navy, which currently mainly hangs up and waits for violent troops, in this case, the probability of the British fleet entering and exiting the high seas is very low under normal circumstances. After all, even now Suppressed cruising is almost gone...

As the saying goes, don’t be afraid of ten thousand, just be afraid of the worst. Based on the principle of leniency when predicting the enemy, the prince needs to leave enough aviation power to deal with the British land-based bombers. Regarding the extent of the British aviation power, the prince has a relatively clear idea. understanding, so technically speaking, all interceptor aircraft must be equipped with at least three 12.7MM machine guns to be barely enough. Then there must be more than 3 hours of stay in the air, which requires the help of the auxiliary fuel tank. Then, this determines that the aircraft's engine must be powerful... So the prince asked his subordinates to draft a telegram asking how the reverse engineering of the Rolls-Royce V12 375-horsepower engine removed from the downed British bomber was done...

The number of fighter jets must be large. The prince needs to deploy at least 50 or more fighter jets to be responsible for additional interception. This number is unachievable for the current plan. There are about 100 fighter jets on the four aircraft carriers. Among them, there are The 30 aircraft in the hangar are being maintained or used as backup aircraft, and excluding the fighter units that provide cover for the attack fleet, the number is about 50. In other words, the remaining number of fighter aircraft is only 20... . This quantity is definitely not enough!

According to the current combat experience, for twin-engine bombers with advanced performance, it is impossible to use single-engine seaplanes to intercept. No matter how good the performance of the aircraft is, the addition of two pontoons will immediately turn it into a weight. Currently, only twin-engine seaplanes can effectively deal with twin-engine bombers.

The latter is too heavy, too bulky, and carries too little quantity.

"If possible, I hope that we can build another small aircraft carrier when we have spare capacity, specifically as a fighter aircraft carrier. A deck length of 160 meters is enough, and we don't plan to use it to take off attack aircraft anyway." The key problem is still the lack of flight launches. capabilities and the number of carrier aircraft, and the easiest way is to build another one. The prince has very few requirements for this additional aircraft carrier. It does not need to carry attack aircraft. Even the bomb and ammunition bays can be as small as possible, as long as it can accommodate more than 50 new J-3 fighter jets! The latter will be equipped with an engine of more than 350 horsepower, with a maximum flight speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour. Initially it will be equipped with three 12.7MM machine guns, and later it may consider replacing it with a newly developed 20MM machine gun.

An aircraft carrier dedicated to taking off fighter jets can provide at least a gap of about 30 fighter jets. The surplus of 50 fighter jets is enough to deter the British twin-engine bombers. After all, the firepower of these aircraft is stronger than that of ordinary J-1 aircraft. More than twice as much! (The latter is a 12.7MM machine gun and a 7.92MM machine gun.)

The basic air defense force is there. As for how to use these fighter jets, haha, the prince can only hope that these pilots are of higher quality and can perform better on the spot. In this era, there is no radar, no complete air defense command and decision-making system, and even radios are not available. Somewhere between reliable and unreliable. All you can hope for is to make those fighter pilots perform better.

"By the way, how is the air defense deployment in Wilhelmshaven?" The prince asked after writing his new operational draft for the High Seas Fleet.

"Thank you, Your Highness, the fighter wing from Bavaria has been deployed to the area around Wilhelmshaven. Eight 88MM anti-aircraft artillery batteries and six 40MM anti-aircraft artillery batteries have been arranged at the commanding heights near Wilhelmshaven. The peripheral security system has been established, and the Navy Department has guaranteed that there will be at least one airship patrolling the northwest direction of the port throughout the day. Ground observation posts have also been deployed. A radio monitoring department is being established. And air defense balloons will be deployed around the next 1." A Navy The military officer said.

"Very good, keep working hard. Aviation attacks are not too technically difficult for the British. In the future, it may not be safe in the port." The prince nodded and said.

And just as the prince expected, the British finally completed the issue of aerial torpedo dropping two weeks later. The method they used was very similar to the method used by the Japanese when they bombed Pearl Harbor in World War II. By adding a wooden The fins are used to reduce the depth of the torpedo when it enters the water. Outside the Firth of Forth, 18 British FB27 bombers attacked the target ship in a squadron-scale manner for the first time.

"At least, all five of our torpedoes successfully entered the water and were consistent with the theoretical range." Fleet Commander Jericho looked at the somewhat embarrassed naval aviation officer and said. That's right, none of these 5 torpedoes hit the target... The British who used a twin-engine aircraft to play lightning strikes for the first time had a somewhat long throw distance. They fired torpedoes from 1,400 meters away. During the same period, the Germans' requirement was within 800 meters. Moreover, the target selected was smaller, but after reducing the strike distance, the accuracy of subsequent lightning strikes was acceptable. As a result, this exercise only verified the feasibility of aviation lightning strikes, but did not strictly verify the specific power. (No warhead installed)

However, an aerial bomb attack before this was unusually successful. An aerial bomb modified from a 12-inch armor-piercing bullet was dropped from a height of 1,000 meters, and then hit the target by accident! The powerful kinetic energy directly penetrated the three decks of the target ship and almost exploded at the bottom of the ship. It only took one shot to cut the target ship in half...

"It's time to attack!" Churchill said after receiving the report.

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