Chapter 935 Bacterial Warfare 2

On November 1, 1944, the Tokyo Airfield (airport) located in Haneda Edogami-cho, Putian District, Tokyo, was heavily guarded by military police who appeared out of nowhere.

Tokyo Airfield is Japan's first state-owned civil aviation airport. It was opened in August 1931, covers an area of ​​53 hectares, and has a runway with a total length of 300 meters and a width of 15 meters when it was built.

However, starting from May 1943, this civil airport, which had been basically abandoned since the outbreak of the Pacific War, suddenly entered a large number of engineers belonging to the army and began to expand it on a large scale, and requisitioned hundreds of hectares of surrounding land. After several months of busy construction, by the end of October 1944, the expansion project was completed, and the scale of the airport was more than ten times larger than before. In addition, barbed wire was erected around it, and a military restricted area sign was hung, and a large group of military police patrolled around all day.

This former civil airport has now become a highly confidential military airport.

In the original terminal, now the Haneda base headquarters building, the most powerful ministers of the Empire of Japan, Prime Minister Hideki Tojo (who is also the Minister of the Army), Navy Minister Isoroku Yamamoto, Army General Staff Chief Sugiyama Gen, Navy Chief of Staff Nagano Osami and others. At this time, they all wore neat military uniforms, carried sabers, and stood in a hall on the second floor facing the airport runway, watching one huge four-engine long-range bomber after another roaring down the airport runway.

The 42 Me264 long-range bombers that were landing were flying 15,000 kilometers from Germany back to Japan.

The price of each of these Me264s purchased by the Japanese was as high as 1.5 million European marks. If the training costs of the crew, various modification costs, fuel when returning to Japan, and the costs of the parts and technicians carried randomly are added, the total price of each aircraft will be as high as 2 million European marks.

84 aircraft cost a total of 168 million European marks, which is equivalent to 285.6 million yen! It even exceeded the cost of a "Yamato" class battleship...

The treasure bought at a sky-high price, the Japanese headquarters naturally attached great importance to it. Large airports were built in Haneda near Tokyo and Oahu Island in the Hawaiian Islands for them to take off and land.

At the same time, Japanese aircraft manufacturers such as Mitsubishi, Nakajima, Kawasaki, and Kawanishi were ordered to form a research team to dismantle and study the two Me264s and the two Me262s that arrived at the same time (each costing 1 million European marks). If conditions permit, they will also be imitated.

In addition, the "Silver Reaper" suicide missile, which also cost a huge amount of money to get, is also the object of imitation by the Japanese military industry.

For this reason, Hasegawa Kiyoshi also asked Hessmann to carry two more "Silver Reapers" (one training bomb and one ordinary bomb) when he met with him on October 30 (Berlin time).

In addition to the two Me262 jet fighters and two "Silver Reapers", the 42 Me264 long-range bombers also brought back 250 Mercedes-Benz DB601F engines with a maximum output of 1,350 horsepower from Germany. Compared with the previous two big deals worth more than 100 million European marks, the value of 250 Mercedes-Benz DB601E engines is less than 10 million European marks, which is really a small business.

However, for the upcoming "Operation Z-1", the importance of this deal is no less than the purchase of Me264 and Silver Reaper.

Because these 250 "outdated engines" (outdated for the current German Air Force) turned out from the warehouse of the German Air Force are ready to be installed on the most advanced Type 3 "Flying Swallow" II fighter of the Japanese Army.

The Type 3 Flying Swallow fighter was copied from the He-100 fighter that Germany sold to Japan in the early years. Because there was the He-100 to copy, the research and development process was very smooth, and it was successfully mass-produced in early 1942.

However, this aircraft copied from Germany used a liquid-cooled engine (copycat DB601) that the Japanese aviation industry did not fully master, so the failure rate was very high, and the ground crew also found it difficult to maintain.

Therefore, the Type 3 Flying Swallow fighter was not favored by the Japanese Army Air Force since its birth, and its popularity was not comparable to that of the Type 4 Hayate fighter.

Therefore, after serving for a long time, not many air force units were using the Type 3 Flying Swallow. However, the fierce battles in the Pacific that began on September 24th made the Type 4 Hayate fighter, which was originally highly expected, a prototype - this is simply a fighter that is neither high nor low, it cannot beat the F4U at high altitude, and it cannot beat the F6F at medium and low altitude. If it is unfortunate enough to encounter the P51 and P47, which are also land-based aircraft, it will simply be a death.

In desperation, the leaders of the Japanese Army Air Force thought of the previously unpopular Type 3 "Flying Swallow" fighter. Although the performance of the "Flying Swallow" is not as good as the "Wind", fortunately, the "Flying Swallow" is easy to upgrade because the current performance of the "Flying Swallow" is based on the Ha-40 engine that copied the Mercedes-Benz DB601A engine. The Mercedes-Benz DB601 has been developed to the F type in Germany (in fact, the DB601 series was replaced by the DB605 series in early 1942). The appearance and weight of the DB601E and DB601A are not much different. As long as the Type 3 "Flying Swallow" is slightly improved, the original German DB601E engine can be installed.

The DB601E engine was originally designed for medium and high altitude combat. Therefore, after installing the DB601E engine, the maximum speed of the Type 3 "Flying Swallow" II can not only be greatly increased to 630 kilometers per hour, but also the medium and high altitude performance above 6,000 meters has been greatly improved. Although it certainly cannot beat the P51 and P47, it is enough to fight against the carrier-based F4U.

…

"With the three-type 'Flying Swallow' II fighters, there should be no problem in the medium and high altitudes of the Hawaiian Islands, right?" Tojo Hideki saw the last Me264 land safely, and then he exhaled lightly and began to ask about the situation of the three-type 'Flying Swallow' II fighters.

"Mr. Prime Minister, in the short term, the three-type 'Flying Swallow' II is enough to deal with the medium and high altitude air superiority operations in the Hawaiian Islands." The person who answered the question was Takeo Yasuda, the head of the Army Aviation Headquarters and the director of aviation. He said, "But the introduction of the Fw-190 high-altitude model or the imitation of the Me-262 jet fighter is the ultimate solution."

"You can introduce the Fw-190," Tojo nodded, "but you can only introduce the imitation as the main one."

The purchase of the Me264 and the "Silver Reaper" missile was a last resort. The two transactions together cost 288 million European marks, equivalent to 490 million yen!

Unless the German parliament can pass the Lend-Lease Act, Japan can't buy much expensive German high-end weapons. Fortunately, the purchase price of Me264 can be paid in installments, and it doesn't have to pay real money. Natural rubber and nickel ore, tin ore, and palm oil produced in the South Pacific can be used to make up the amount.

The expenses of purchasing the "Silver Reaper" must all be paid in gold, silver, and European marks. Because Rolls-Royce, one of the suppliers of the "Silver Reaper", does not accept any payment methods other than cash, and does not agree to credit.

"Is it difficult to imitate the Me262 and the Reaper missile?" Tojo Hideki asked.

"The Me262 is not easy to imitate," Yasuda Takeo replied, "The difficulty lies in the two high-thrust jet engines that can be used for 100 hours."

Historically, the jet engines used in the Me262 usually only work for more than ten hours (the initial prototype can work for 100 hours because it uses non-ferrous metals), but Germany is not short of non-ferrous metals at the moment, so it can produce jet engines that can theoretically work for 100 hours.

However, Japan and New Rome, which cooperated in the development of jet aircraft, did not have such technical capabilities. The engines they produced had insufficient thrust and even worse reliability, making them unusable.

"But it should not be difficult to imitate the Reaper missile." Takeo Yasuda said, "Because the Reaper missile is a disposable weapon, there is no need to use a jet engine with a lifespan of 100 hours. It is enough to be able to work for 10 minutes to 20 minutes. And it doesn't matter if the thrust is insufficient, two rocket booster engines can be installed externally."

Rocket engines are also disposable things, which can be used for a few minutes, so the manufacturing difficulty is lower than that of jet engines - of course, it also depends on what kind of rocket engine it is. The engine used for the V2 rocket is not easy to make at all, but Japan can still make a small-thrust rocket engine.

"Then we should imitate a batch of Death Missiles as soon as possible..." Tojo thought for a while, "Let's call it Sakura Missile! This missile should be as brilliant as cherry blossoms, making people unforgettable."

"Hai."

Tojo then asked Navy Minister Isoroku Yamamoto, "Mr. Yamamoto, when can the Navy's manned torpedoes be put into use?"

Japan's manned torpedoes were somewhat inspired by manned missiles. Someone proposed the idea in early 1943, and it was officially approved after the Battle of Panama. Now several 93-spear torpedoes have been modified and are being tested.

"The manned torpedo will definitely be finalized in early Showa 19," Isoroku Yamamoto replied, "We are currently preparing to train personnel, and it should be able to catch up with the decisive battle in the Hawaiian Islands!"

"That would be great!" Tojo said, "With Sakura missiles and manned torpedoes, the Hawaiian Islands will inevitably become the burial place of the US Pacific Fleet! Project Zhe-1 can now officially begin."