Chapter 1078 Missile Battleship

On the same day that Ribbentrop Jr. arrived at Georgetown Island, preparing to fight against the American soldiers who might land there, Major Rudolf von Heinsberg-Hersmann rushed to the port of Brest to report for duty. Rudolf, who had just returned from Japan, had just been offered a promising position as the second aviation staff officer of the 2nd Fleet of the European Combined Fleet.

Generally speaking, the fleet staff of the navy is usually a graduate of the Naval Staff College (Navy University) and can only be appointed after having a considerable amount of experience in surface fleets and command agencies. However, the aviation staff is an exception, because the fleet aviation staff must have served as the captain of the carrier-based aviation team and must be proficient in aviation operations. Most of these officers are naval aviation officers who have not attended the naval academy.

Because the German naval aviation has always been regarded as a branch of the air force, pilots and naval aviation officers are mainly trained and cultivated by the air force. The advantage of this personnel arrangement is that the German Air Force, which has 18,000 first-line pilots (captains), can provide elite pilots for the naval aviation at any time. After several months of training at the Naval Aviation School in Kiel, 30%-40% of these elites from the Air Force can fly carrier-based aircraft on aircraft carriers. This ensures that the aircraft carriers of the European Community Joint Fleet can get enough and excellent carrier-based aircraft pilots, and will not encounter the dilemma of having aircraft carriers but no pilots like Japan.

But everything has its pros and cons. When the naval aviation and the air force are almost integrated, the officers of the naval aviation cannot be proficient in fleet staff business, and the officers from the navy, even if they have participated in the flight training organized by the naval aviation school, are far less proficient in air warfare than the carrier-based aircraft pilots from the air force.

Therefore, the fleet aviation staff responsible for communicating between the naval aviation and the navy has become a difficult position to do well. If this position is held by an officer from the navy, the carrier-based aircraft pilots below will regard him as an amateur (in fact, he is an amateur), and if an officer from the air force system is appointed, he is not proficient in naval warfare and fleet business.

Therefore, there has always been a problem of running-in between the German naval aviation and the navy. When the Air Force boss Field Marshal Kesselring took the position of commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Front, he took a muddy approach and appointed officers from the navy and naval aviation as the first and second aviation staff of the fleet respectively - in addition to the chief staff, the fleet staff of the European Combined Fleet and its subordinate fleets now have a deputy position, called the second staff.

Although Hessman was young and had never attended the Staff College (after all, the German Air Force's inheritance was not long enough, and the Staff College had not been open for a long time, so most of the Air Force and Naval Aviation staff had not attended the Air Force Staff College), but judging from his resume, he was really the best candidate for the fleet aviation staff.

Although Hessman was young, he was an old naval aviation who had personally experienced the two Hawaiian Islands and Panama Battles. He was also an ace pilot who won the Blue Max Medal, and served as the vice president of the Jet Flight School. He also participated in the officer training class of the Kiel Naval School and was very familiar with the Navy's rules and regulations.

However, the well-informed young Hessman, who had diplomas from the military academies of the three armed forces, saw a strange warship he had never seen before in the bay of Brest when he flew to Brest Port on a Ju52 transport plane to take office on August 20.

This is a warship!

Judging from its size and the caliber of its main guns, it must be a warship!

Its standard displacement must be more than 30,000 tons, and the caliber of its main guns is about 380mm. It seems to be a battleship with very strong combat power.

However, the number of main guns on this battleship is a bit strange. There are only two twin-mounted main gun turrets, one at the bow and one at the stern. And behind the bow main gun turret is a bridge that is a bit too large - as if to make room for the expansion of the bridge, the position that could have been used for a main gun turret was occupied.

As a result, a large ship of more than 30,000 tons only has four 380mm cannons. Isn't this a waste of tonnage?

And this is not the strangest thing. What little Hessman cannot understand is that on both sides of the ship's side decks, there are 10 large tubes with one end raised forward at an angle of about 45 degrees (towards the bow). From a distance, it looks a bit like a torpedo tube, but it is definitely not used to launch torpedoes - there is no need to tilt the launch tube upward to launch torpedoes, and torpedoes are not rocket launchers.

"Major General, what ship is this?" Little Hessman pointed to the strange-looking warship on the sea below and asked Major General Hans-Karl Meyer, the chief of staff of the 2nd Fleet who flew with him from Berlin.

"This is the Gneisenau missile battleship," said Major General Meyer, "the flagship of the 201st Missile Ship Group."

"Missile battleship? It turns out that the Gneisenau has been converted into a missile battleship..." Little Hessman took a breath. He has driven missiles. "Are those tubes full of missiles?"

"Yes, they are all Reaper II TV-controlled guided missiles." Major General Meyer held up two fingers, "A missile battleship has 20 missile launch tubes, which can launch 20 Reaper II missiles at a time."

The idea of ​​modifying missile battleships was proposed after the "Ice Sea Battle" in the North Atlantic in December 1942.

In that battleship fleet confrontation, the "Wilhelm II" class missile cruiser played a key role. This made the German Navy fully aware of the great role of remote-controlled missiles in naval warfare.

Moreover, because the Barbarossa battleship was easily sunk by the Soviet-class 406mm cannon in that naval battle, the German Navy also realized the fragility of the "Barbarossa" class, "Scharnhorst" class and "Dunkirk" class battleships with a standard displacement of around 30,000 tons.

So after the "Ice Sea Battle", including the second ship of the Barbarossa class, the second ship of the Scharnhorst class, the Gneisenau, and the two Dunkerque class ships, all started major renovation projects at the same time - according to the plan, they will be converted into "missile battleships" and "fleet command ships".

According to the German Navy's conception, these four "missile battleships" will each be equipped with 20 missile launchers (later converted into launch tubes) to launch remote-controlled guided missiles of the V series or the Reaper series. At the same time, they will also serve as flagships of the task force/battleship brigade.

In addition, the four "Wilhelm II" class missile cruisers (P class) also began to undergo major modifications in 1943. The two twin 280mm turrets and two twin 150mm turrets originally installed at the bow and stern were all removed and replaced with three triple 203mm turrets. Thus, it changed from an "armored ship" to a "heavy cruiser".

At the same time, the eight 533mm torpedo tubes and the missile launchers in the middle of the ship were removed and replaced with the same anti-ship missile firepower configuration as the "missile battleship" - also 20 "Reaper" 2 missile launch tubes!

After the modification plan of the "missile battleship" and "missile heavy cruiser" was completed. The European Community Navy will have 8 powerful "missile ships". If used in a concentrated manner, it can fire 160 2.5-ton Reaper II TV remote-controlled missiles at a time.

Theoretically, it is enough to destroy an entire enemy fleet! However, it can only destroy enemy fleets within 30,000 meters under good visibility.

While Germany is working hard to build "missile battleships" and "missile heavy cruisers", the T-class missile boat plan that was initially highly expected by Hessman failed.

This is because the use of jet engines is the Reaper I missile (like the Reaper II, it is improved from the Silver Reaper suicide missile) cannot be used on ships (the thrust and acceleration capabilities of jet engines are not as good as rocket engines). The HWK509 series rocket engine used by the Reaper II missile must use highly corrosive, highly toxic and highly explosive hydrogen peroxide as a propellant, so a special storage container and a method of refueling before launch must be used. Such a set of equipment is so large that it cannot be installed on a small ship of more than 1,000 tons. This is why the European Community Navy took out 8 large ships of 20,000 to 30,000 tons for "missile" modification.

In addition to the major modification of 4 missile battleships and 4 missile cruisers, the German Navy also launched a major modification project of the Deutschland-class armored ships 43 years later. 3 useless "Deutschland" class armored ships were converted into heavy cruisers, and 3 triple-mounted 280mm turrets were replaced with 3 triple-mounted 203mm turrets. At the same time, a more advanced double-acting two-stroke diesel engine (diesel engine on P-class ships) was installed, which increased the power to 110,000 horsepower and the maximum speed to 32.5 knots. However, the maximum range was reduced to 6,500 nautical miles/17 knots, the same as the Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser.

After this series of ship modifications, the German Navy had a total of 10 heavy cruisers of 3 levels in August 1944. If we add the 10 heavy cruisers of the French Navy (3 of which are the newly built "Saint Louis" class) and the 1 heavy cruiser of Spain (Canarias class), the current European Community Joint Fleet has a total of 21 heavy cruisers. Although not as many as the United States, the combat effectiveness is much stronger than that of the American heavy cruisers - the 4 "Wilhelm II" class missile cruisers alone have the power to sink several American battleships!

"Rudolf," when the plane landed at the naval airport near the dock of Brest Port, Rear Admiral Meyer said to little Hersman with some expectation, "If we want to form the 20th Task Force, we will all board the Gneisenau. At that time, you will have the opportunity to experience the battleship formation decisive battle in person, that is the real sea war!"