On the same day that Ribbentrop Jr. arrived at Georgetown Island and was preparing to fight the possible landing of the American soldiers, Major Rudolph von Heinsberg-Hissman was rushing to Brest Port - Rudolph, who had returned from Japan, had just obtained a promising position as the Second Aviation Staff of the 2nd Fleet of the European Combined Fleet.

Generally speaking, the navy's fleet staff usually graduated from the Naval Staff Academy (Naval University) and have considerable experience in surface fleets and command agencies before they can take office. However, the aviation staff is an exception, because the fleet's aviation staff must be the captain of the carrier-based aviation fleet and must be proficient in aviation operations. Most of such officers are naval aviation officers who have not been to the naval academy.

Because the German Naval Air Force has always been regarded as a branch of the Air Force, pilots and naval officers are mainly trained by the Air Force. The advantage of this personnel arrangement is that the Luftwaffe, which has 18,000 front-line pilots (captains), can provide elite pilots for the Naval Air Force at any time. After several months of training at the Kielport Naval Air Force, 30%-40% of them can fly carrier-based aircraft aircraft on aircraft carriers. This ensures that the aircraft carriers of the EC Combined Fleet can get enough and excellent carrier-based aircraft pilots, and will not encounter the dilemma of having aircraft carriers but not pilots like Japan.

But everything has its pros and cons. When the Navy Aviation and the Air Force are almost integrated, HNA officers cannot be proficient in fleet staffing business. Even if the officers from the Navy have participated in flight training organized by the Navy Aviation School, their proficiency in aviation warfare is far less than that of carrier-based aircraft pilots from the Air Force.

Therefore, the fleet aviation staff responsible for communicating with HNA and the Navy has become a difficult position to do. If this position is held by an officer from the Navy, the carrier-based aircraft pilots will regard him as an amateur (actually an amateur), and if an officer from the Air Force system is taken as a role, he is not proficient in naval combat and fleet business.

Therefore, the German HNA and Navy had always had difficulties in running-in. When the air force tycoon Marshal Kesseling became the commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Front, he took a mixed method, and officers from the navy and naval aviation were appointed as the first and second aviation staff of the fleet. In addition to the chief staff, the European Joint Fleet and the fleet staff of each subordinate squadron are now equipped with deputy positions, called the Second Staff.

Although Hessmann was young and had never attended the Staff Academy (the inheritance of the Luftwaffe was not long enough, and the Staff Academy had not been opened for a long time, so most of the Air Force and HNA staff members had never attended the Staff Academy), but judging from his resume, he was really the best candidate for the fleet aviation staff.

Although Hessman is young, he is an old HNA who has experienced two naval battles in the Hawaiian Islands and the Panama naval battles. He has also won the Blue Max Medal, served as the vice principal of the Jet Flight School, and has also participated in the officer training class of the Keel Port Naval School. He is still very familiar with the navy's rules and regulations.

However, when he was a diploma from the Navy, Army and Air Force Academy and knowledgeable little Hessman flew to Brest Port on August 20, he saw a strange warship in the bay of Brest Port that he had never seen before.

This is a battleship!

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

Its standard displacement is definitely more than 30,000 tons, and the caliber of the main gun is about 380mm, which seems to be a battleship with very powerful combat power.

However, the number of main guns of this warship is a bit strange. There are only two double-mounted main gun turrets, one on the bow and stern. Behind the main gun turret on the bow is a large and slightly excessive bridge - as if to make room for the purpose of making room for expansion and occupying the position of a main gun turret.

As a result, a large ship with a capacity of more than 30,000 tons only has 4 380mm cannons. This is a waste of tonnage, right?

And this is not the strangest thing. What Little Hessman couldn't understand the most was that there were 10 large tubes raising one end on the side decks on both sides of the ship, which were placed forward at an angle of about 45 degrees (the bow direction). From a distance, it looked a bit like torpedo tubes, but it was definitely not used to launch torpedoes - there is no need to raise the tubes upward, and the torpedo is not a rocket launcher.

"Major General, what ship is this?" Little Hessman pointed to the strange-shaped battleship on the sea below and asked Major General Hans Carl Mayer, the chief of staff of the 2nd Fleet who was flying from Berlin with him.

"This is the USS Gneisenau missile battleship," said Major General Mayer, "the flagship of the 201st Missile Ship Team."

"Missile Battleship? It turns out that the Gneesenau has been changed to a missile battleship..." Little Hessman took a breath. He had driven the missile. "There are missiles in those pipes?"

"Yes, they are all remotely controlled missiles for the God of Death 2 TV." Major General Mayer stretched out his two fingers, "A missile battleship has 20 missile launchers, which can launch 20 God of Death 2 missiles at a time."

The idea of ​​a modified missile battleship was proposed after the "Ice Sea Battle" in the North Atlantic in December 1942.

In that battleship fleet duel, the "William II" class missile cruiser played a key role, thus allowing the German Navy to fully recognize the huge role of remote-controlled missiles in naval combat.

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

So after the "Fight of the Ice Sea", including the second ship of the Barbarossa class, the second ship of the Sharnehorst class, the second ship of the Gneesenau of the Sharne class and the two Dunkirk class, began major reforms 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 vision, these four "missile battleships" will each be used to launch remotely controlled missiles of the V series or the God of Death series based on 20 missile launchers (later changed to launch tubes). At the same time, they will also serve as the flagships of the task force/battleship brigade.

In addition, the four "William II" class missile cruisers (P-class) also underwent major changes since 1943. The two double 280mm turrets and two double 150mm turrets that were originally installed at the bow and stern were all removed and replaced with three triple 203mm turrets. Thus, they changed from "armored ship" to "heavy cruisers".

At the same time, the eight 533mm torpedo tubes and the missile launcher in the ship were removed and replaced with the same anti-ship missile firepower configuration as the "missile battleship" - it is also 20 "Death" 2 missile launchers!

After the modification plans of the "missile battleship" and "missile heavy cruiser" are completed, the EC Navy will have 8 powerful "missile ships". If used in a concentrated manner, it can fire 160 2.5-ton Death 2 remote-controlled missiles at a time.

In theory, it is enough to destroy an entire enemy fleet! However, it can only destroy an enemy fleet within 30,000 meters with good visibility.

While Germany was working hard to build "missile battleships" and "missile heavy cruiser", the T-class missile boat plan, which Hessman had high hopes for, was failed.

This is because the use of a jet engine is a type 1 missile (like the Death 2, which are improved by the silver Death Suicide missile) and cannot be used on ships (the thrust and acceleration capabilities of the jet engine are not as good as the rocket engine). The HWK509 series rocket engines used by the Death 2 missile must use highly corrosive, highly toxic and extremely explosive hydrogen peroxide as propellant, so special storage containers and fuel filling methods must be used before launch. Such a set of equipment is huge and cannot be installed on a small ship of more than 1,000 tons - this is also the reason why the European Community Navy has taken out 8 large ships of 20,000 tonnes for "missile modification".

In addition to the major modifications of 4 missile battleships and 4 missile cruisers, the German Navy also launched the major modification of the German-class armored ships 43 years later. The three useless "Germany"-class armored ships were converted into heavy cruisers, and three triple-mounted 280mm turrets were replaced with three 3-mounted 203mm turrets. At the same time, it was also equipped with a more advanced double-action two-stroke diesel engine (diesel engine on the P-class ship), which increased the power to 110,000 horsepower and the maximum speed reached 32.5 knots, but the maximum range was reduced, down to 6,500 nautical miles/17 knots, the same as Admiral Hippel's heavy cruiser.

After this series of ship modifications, the German Navy owned 10 heavy cruisers of three classes in August 1944. If we counted the 10 heavy cruisers of the French Navy (three of which were newly built "St. Louis" class), one heavy cruiser of Spain (Ganarias class), and the current European Community Combined Fleet has a total of 21 heavy cruisers. Although it is not as large as the United States, its combat effectiveness is much stronger than the American heavy cruisers - the four "William II" class missile cruisers alone have the power to sink several American battleships!
Chapter completed!