Chapter 159: Rearmament and War Preparations

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The navy recently brought Akado a piece of good news. The aircraft carrier had been successfully launched and was already undergoing trials, such as wind and wave resistance tests, in the North Sea. Germany’s elite naval pilots had completed their tasks ahead of schedule. On the carrier’s maiden voyage, they had already completed their first sea-based takeoffs and landings. It seemed they had been suppressed for long enough. Ever since the heroic scuttling in Great Britain, the German Navy had been waiting for its day to rise for far too long.

The Washington Naval Treaty had ultimately become a dead letter due to the actions of the Soviets. To counter the threat of the Soviet battleships, Japan began to build the Yamato-class super-battleships. Not to be outdone, the British directly purchased two Bismarck-class battleships from Germany and also began to build the second sister ship of the Hood-class battlecruisers.

The United States Navy also began its own battleship completion plan, and Italy was desperately building the new Vittorio Veneto-class battleships. Of course, Germany had also launched its own super naval main combat weapon: the aircraft carrier.

Germany’s Graf Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers, two in total, were launched almost simultaneously. The lead ship, with hull number 001, was named the Graf Zeppelin. The second ship, hull number 002, was named the Bismarck. They had a length of 275 meters and a beam of 44 meters.

The full-load displacement of both aircraft carriers was 28,000 tons, which could be considered a heavyweight among aircraft carriers in 1935. Moreover, both of these carriers used an enclosed flight deck and an enclosed hangar, which could ensure that the fighter planes were well-stored under the harsh weather conditions of the North Atlantic.

With a straight, massive flight deck, an island superstructure, and a single funnel integrated with the bridge, the German aircraft carrier’s design was infinitely close to the shape of later carriers. Except for the two elevators being located on the centerline of the flight deck, it could be said to be a standard future aircraft carrier.

The ship was not equipped with any large-caliber guns. It only had 12 Bofors anti-aircraft guns on both sides for air defense. The remaining space was all reserved for fuel and aircraft ammunition storage. However, due to a lack of armor protection, the ship made extensive use of watertight compartments for damage control, which increased its tonnage.

Both carriers were equipped with 35 navalized Fw-190D fighters with folding wings, 28 Stuka dive bombers with folding wings, 4 reconnaissance Fw-190 aircraft, and one spare aircraft of each type, for a total of 70 aircraft.

Compared to British aircraft carriers of the same period, the German carriers did not have any particularly boast-worthy advantages in terms of statistics. The British HMS Ark Royal, currently under construction, had a full-load displacement of only 20,000 tons but could carry 60 aircraft.

This was the negative consequence of the mass production of German carriers. In pursuit of shipbuilding speed, the German Navy had standardized many hull structures and parts. This resulted in many warships having to use civilian-standard equipment and parts, which wasted a lot of space and weight. This could be considered a compromise between quantity and quality.

The disadvantage of this compromise was a decrease in the carrier’s protective capabilities and average combat effectiveness. But the advantages were also obvious: from construction to launching and fitting out, and finally to being ready for sea combat, these two carriers took only a little over a year. Meanwhile, the British HMS Ark Royal, which had started construction at the same time, was still lying in a dry dock.

As soon as the two carriers were launched, the new German High Seas Fleet was immediately formed. Admiral Raeder personally commanded this fleet, which possessed 2 aircraft carriers, 4 cruisers, and 8 large ocean-going destroyers. As this fleet conducted its sea trials in the North Sea, Raeder felt as if he had rediscovered the days when the German High Seas Fleet’s presence blotted out the sun on the North Sea.

The hull sections for another two carriers, which were being built in segments, were immediately sent to the shipyards. The shipyard engineers proudly told the naval technical personnel that the German Navy could have two more identical aircraft carriers in less than ten months. At that time, the German Navy would become a formidable military force in the North Sea.

Akado personally commended the shipbuilding engineers and workers at the Kiel port, encouraging them to continue their efforts to produce various warships for the German Navy. The Deputy Commander of the Navy, Rear Admiral Dönitz, accompanied the Führer at the naval port in place of Raeder, who was at sea. In his plan submitted to Akado, he had systematically planned the future of the German Navy.

In the next three years, the German Navy would become a massive naval force with 6 aircraft carriers, 18 cruisers, 33 ocean-going destroyers, 60 other defensive and escort destroyers, and 170 submarines of various types. Once these warships were equipped, the navy would use submarine wolfpack tactics to tear apart Britain’s sea supply lines, and then, in a decisive fleet engagement, use carrier-based aircraft to completely destroy the British Royal Navy in one fell swoop.

This ambitious future naval development plan left Akado at a loss for whether to laugh or cry. If the navy were to be equipped with such a massive fleet, then the German army would have to conquer the world with wheelbarrows—and the air force would be even more pitiful, because wheelbarrows can’t fly.

In fact, in Akado’s plan, if Germany could have four aircraft carriers and a sufficient number of escort ships at the start of the war, it would be as if all the gods and buddhas were protecting Germany. It was quite possible that the war would break out within the next year, and at that time, the only ships the navy might have ready for immediate combat would be the two aircraft carriers on hand.

To be honest, it was really uncertain whether the navy’s surface forces could win. They might have to rely on German submarines to hold the long coastline, because the combat capability of the naval air arm had yet to be tested. This was a systematic project; it wasn’t as simple as just moving land-based aircraft onto a carrier.

Germany had developed special anti-ship aerial bombs for the naval Stuka, equipped with delayed-action fuses, but their actual effectiveness had not yet been tested. The Stuka could be considered a good design as a land-based dive bomber, but dive-bombing warships at sea was a dangerous and crazy move, so Akado didn’t expect the Stuka to have much combat effectiveness. Torpedoes, on the other hand, were to be dropped by the multi-functional Fw-190 fighters, which meant the naval fighter pilots had to be regularly trained on how to drop torpedoes to attack warships. As a result, the attack capability of the naval air arm against sea targets could only be estimated as average, and it was difficult to plan for the outcome in advance.

After the navy, it was time to look at the air force. After giving Dönitz his tasks for the submarine force training, Akado rushed to Ludwigshafen, which was an important production base for the IG Farben company.

Having rejected Krupp’s railway gun project, Akado urgently needed to find a weapon for his army that could keep pace, to deal with the fortress defense systems of France and the Soviet Union. If he didn’t have a suitable weapon, these fortresses could become insurmountable super-defensive lines for the German army.

When designing the “King of Cannons, Dora” hoax, Akado had thought of the strong fortresses on the Crimean Peninsula in the Soviet Union. The Germans had to use railway guns to barely capture that place. Now that the railway guns were gone, that place would undoubtedly become a graveyard for the German army.

Akado was not a complete military fanatic in his past life. If you talked to him about the T-34 tank or the battleship Bismarck, he could certainly chat with you for a day… But if you talked to him about the KwK 30 L/55 Ausf. A-f, he would definitely not be able to guess that it was the designation for a German 20mm cannon shell.

His understanding of weapons for attacking enemy fortresses was still stuck at the level of World War II railway guns and post-Gulf War bunker-busting weapons. It seemed unlikely that the German Air Force could develop bunker-busting weapons now, and Akado had already rejected the labor-intensive and costly railway guns. So he had to sit in his office and rack his brains to provide ideas for fortress warfare.

Finally, he and his technical advisors came up with two alternative solutions: one was to use heavy bombs to destroy these fortresses. Therefore, he ordered German designers to develop a 3-ton super aerial bomb for the future air force heavy bomber. The second was to use fire to deal with the enemy inside the fortresses. He planned to use the napalm of later generations to clear out the personnel inside.

After discussions with air force professionals, it was finally decided that it would be more prudent to prioritize the development of napalm. After all, Germany’s four-engine heavy strategic bomber was still in the secret test-flight stage. It would be a greater loss than gain to rush to develop a more immature special weapon for a still-immature weapon.

And recently, the leading German chemical company, IG Farben, based on a few clues provided by the Führer, had finally successfully developed a new type of incendiary bomb. This new weapon had been named “Napalm” by the Führer. This weapon used polystyrene and other raw materials plus gasoline for production, and its power could be described as enormous.

The solidified gasoline from an exploding napalm bomb that splashed onto a person was like lard paste, sticky and long-burning. If a person tried to pat it out with their hands, the fire would only grow larger. If they rolled on the ground to extinguish the fire, their whole body would be covered in flames. And once a person was on fire, others had to stay as far away as possible, because the victim’s desperate struggles could easily fling chunks of the burning oil onto bystanders, causing a secondary casualty effect.

A chemistry Ph.D. in the laboratory advised Akado, “From a humanitarian perspective, it is best to end the life of a burning victim with a gun, because for the victims of napalm, death can be said to be the greatest relief.”

The napalm developed by Germany also had white phosphorus added to it. After burning on the human skin, it would leave behind a large amount of highly toxic chemical substances, which would enter the bloodstream through the open wounds of the burn, causing blood poisoning in the victim. The burn surface would generally be purplish-red or bluish-black.

Another practical but dangerous effect of the incendiary gasoline bomb was that it would “rapidly consume the oxygen in the nearby air” and produce a large amount of carbon monoxide, causing asphyxiation in living creatures. This effect usually occurred when used in a bomb.

In fact, Germany had acquired a weapon of immense power. This weapon, combined with the Stuka dive bomber, could be said to be a nightmare for fixed targets. With this superweapon for attacking fortresses, Akado’s generals were full of confidence in breaking through the enemy’s fortress lines. Now, Germany had sharpened its knife and was ready to plunge it into its neighbors at any time.