After reading Marshal Lütjens's order, Major General Meyer took a step back and stood behind Admiral Hoffmann and Lieutenant General Bell, the commander of the 2nd Fleet.

Admiral Hoffman glanced at the entire war room, frowned his golden eyebrows, and said, "The time to determine the fate of Europe is coming soon. If we can sink more than six enemy super battleships in the next battle, then the United States will taste the shame we tasted in 1919. And before the fleet leaves the port and the 20th and 21st Task Forces are formed, I would like to hear all of you."

No one spoke or raised his hand.

Admiral Hoffman couldn't help but frown, looking even more majestic. He turned his attention to Hessman, the youngest man in the room and the only naval aviation officer. As an air force and naval officer, Hessman's promotion speed was normal, but among a group of naval officers who had at least entered middle age, he was indeed a bit too young.

"Major Hessman," Admiral Hoffman called the first name of Hessman Jr. "Ask you a question, how much effort does the Americans have to do to blow up the Zeppelin, the Prussian and the Bohemia?"

"Ah?" Little Hessman was startled and did not answer General Hoffman's question, "Admiral, do you want to use three large fleet aircraft carriers as bait?"

If a little major in the Japanese Navy dared not ask a question to the general in this way, of course, if that major like Hessman, had an emperor as his godfather (godfather), it might be an exception, but in Germany, which is used to being straightforward, there is nothing wrong with that.

"There is no final decision yet," Hoffman replied, "I want to hear your opinion now... After all, you are the only one among us who has really seen a large armored aircraft carrier sunk."

Until now, the German Navy has lost cruise modified aircraft carriers, escort aircraft carriers, amphibious assault ships, and light aircraft carriers of the "Keseling" class, but has never lost large armored aircraft carriers such as Zeppelin and Prussian class. So no one knows how resistant to large armored aircraft carriers are?

Little Hessman has such a story. He has witnessed the war sinking of three Japanese fleet aircraft carriers and also personally experienced the war sinking of the Dafeng armored aircraft carrier, so he is very experienced.

"Tell me how the Dafeng fights." Hoffman continued.

"Admiral," Little Hessman thought for a while and replied, "The armored deck of the Dafeng actually withstood the test. On that day, the US fleet was far away from the Dafeng, so the bombs sent could not take off at full blasts. The bombs dropped were all 500 pounds, and this kind of bomb could not sink the armored deck of the Dafeng. However, two bombs still penetrated the flight deck outside the armored deck, but did not cause much loss. At the same time, there were also four TB torpedo bombers dropping the aircraft carrier, causing a fire.

Perhaps because the inextinguishable fire exposed the location of the Dafeng and attracted nearby American submarines. At the same time, the Dafeng suffered multiple damages due to torpedoes, flooded a boiler compartment, and ruptured steam pipelines, causing a significant slowdown. It was unable to escape the tracking of American submarines, so it was ambushed by several American submarines on the evening of July 14..."

The things that Hessman said were all in the reports he submitted himself. General Hoffman looked at them many times. It was precisely because of reading these reports that he recruited Hessman to his fleet as the Second Aviation Staff. A major who had personally experienced the naval and air war and the aircraft carrier war on the best Japanese armored aircraft carriers. He had few in Germany. There were also two majors with the same naval aviation on the Akagi and Kaga aircraft carriers. Now they have become the Second Aviation Staff of the 1st and 3rd Fleets.

"If there were no attacks from American submarines," Hoffman asked, "can the Big Phoenix escape?"

"Yes." Hessmann replied.

"But Kaga and Akagi did not encounter American submarines."

"They cannot be compared with the Big Phoenix," said Little Hessman. "I have been on both aircraft carriers and have been on the Akagi for a long time. Although they are also known as "not sinking aircraft carriers", they only laid a layer of armored decks that are not too thick during the modification, and their internal structure has not changed much. Moreover, the design of these two aircraft carriers is very outdated, and they are modified with half of the built battleships and battle cruisers. There are many unreasonable aspects in the internal structure. In addition, they are both too old and the ships are nearly 20 years old."

Hoffman thought for a while and asked again: "So do you think Zeppelin, Prussia and Bohemia can withstand the same degree of air strike?"

"It's certainly possible," said Hessman Jr. with great certainty, "because our three aircraft carriers and the ships escorted it have stronger air defense firepower, and our carrier-based aircraft are also more powerful, neither the Folk 636 nor the 190t, which is comparable to the Zero fighter."

"What if we consider the US shore-based aircraft?" Hoffman asked the last question.

"Admiral, based on the information we have at present, the US shore-based aircraft does not have strong anti-ship capabilities." Hessman said, "In the Battle of Midway, the shore-based aircraft used by the Americans to attack the Japanese fleet were mainly P47 fighter bombers. This aircraft is too strong for Japan's Zero aircraft, and its high-altitude performance is too good, and it is difficult to shoot down. However, it is definitely not an opponent of the Folk 636. The firepower, fighting and performance in medium and high altitudes are all higher than p47, but it is not as good as p47 at extremely high altitudes."

"Admiral," Lieutenant Colonel Schuman, the first aviation staff member of the 2nd Fleet, interrupted, "As far as we know, the anti-ship capabilities of the US shore-based aircraft are mediocre. Both their medium and heavy bombers cannot dive bombs, and there is no truly useful remote-controlled missiles. The available aircraft are nothing but the sbd, tb, 4u and 6 shore-based models of the Navy, as well as the Army's P47 and P51. None of these aircraft have the performance of our Folk 636."

The Folk 636 (called "Sea Rage" in the UK) is a "ultimate ship battle" developed by Britain and Germany that concentrates all the experience and technology of the piston carrier-based fighter jets. Its performance is much stronger than the 190t that is just used to be on the ship (only at extremely high altitudes, 190t can defeat the Folk 636), and can overwhelm p51b/ at medium and low altitudes, not to mention other models.

Admiral Hoffman nodded and said to Major General Mayer: "Tell everyone what you think now."

...

"Admiral, look there."

On the battleship "Iahua", Lieutenant General Callahan, Chief of Staff of the 31st Fleet and Chief of Staff of the 31st Fleet, pointed to the four slender fuselages in the sky and the huge engine, and said to Admiral Halsey: "That's the Marine Corps' seven-cat-style."

"7...it is finally in service." Halsey quickly raised his telescope and carefully looked at the fighter of the 7 "Tiger Cat" type fighter that formed a 4-aircraft formation in the air. This model of fighter has officially launched research and development since June 30, 1941. However, the progress of research and development has been greatly delayed due to the priority of the 6 project. It was not until the 6 was put into mass production that the 7, the dual-hair model, received enough R&D resources, which was already the third quarter of 1943.

However, in the second quarter of 1944, the development process was once greatly delayed, became the killer weapon and life-saving straw for the US military.

It turned out that after the German Navy aviation unit equipped the Folk 636, the United States' 6 and 4u suddenly became targets of being beaten. Moreover, in a few battles, the US military also found that the Folk 636 had very fierce firepower, with 4 20mm cannons. Even a sturdy aircraft like SBD would be easily shot down when it encountered a Folk 636.

In this case, the US military naturally seeks fighter jets with better performance to fight against the Folk 636 and the jet me262, which is even more troublesome to Americans. Moreover, after losing Britain's technical support, the United States has encountered a lot of difficulties in the development of liquid-cooled engines and jet engines. In the short term, not only will it not be able to build jets, but it will also be a bit unstoppable to further improve the performance of the p51.

So the United States could only pin its hopes on the field of air-cooled engines that they are good at. The 7 "Tiger Cat" fighter jet (actually fighter bombers) that have installed two high-power air-cooled engines and have entered the trial equipment stage have become the killer weapon and life-saving straw of the US military.

Therefore, starting from the second half of 1944, the speed of the 7-1 type equipment unit (the first 7-1 type was equipped with the Marine Corps in April 1944) suddenly accelerated. In addition to the Marine Corps, the US Navy's shore-based aviation units also began to change their squads in large quantities since May 1944, which can only be considered a "trial" 7-1 fighter jet.

Moreover, this new dual-engine fighter bomber was deployed on Trinidad in July 1944, becoming a killer weapon in the "God of Liberty" operation!

"How many 7s can be put into combat now?" Halsey looked at the 4 7s above 4,000 meters and surpassed the other 4 4u at an extremely fast speed. He put down his telescope and asked Callahan beside him.

Before Lieutenant General Callahan could answer, a fleet staff officer ran into the commander's tower of the battleship "Iahua" and handed over a telegram.
Chapter completed!