The Rotterdam shipyard in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, is one of the four shipyards in the Netherlands that have the ability to build large surface ships of more than 30,000 tons.
When the German Reich Minister of Defense, Reich Field Marshal Hersmann, arrived at the large shipyard on April 1, 1942, it was a busy scene.
The tall chimney was filled with black smoke, and soot dust was everywhere.
A dozen large and small slipways lined up are busy, all of which are military and civilian ships under construction.
The most striking of these is undoubtedly the hull of a huge 30,000-ton battleship.
"Imperial Marshal, the hull of this Ethic-class battlecruiser is very well built, better than our own" Amid the sound of clanging bangs, Admiral Canaris, the head of the German Navy's Armaments Bureau, who arrived a few days early, was the original head of the secret service, and at the end of 41 was sent to the Navy by Hersmann to take charge of the armament manufacturing business, and gave Hersmann a thumbs up to introduce the hull of the battlecruiser that would be owned by the German Navy.
"With a standard displacement of 2.85 million tons, 250 on the main armor belt and turret frontal armor, 300 on the front and sides of the conning tower, and double armor decks, 100 and 30 respectively, are enough to protect the fire of any heavy cruiser," said Admiral Canaris.
The main guns were also powerful enough to sink even three heavy cruisers at once, and its anti-aircraft firepower was strong enough, 12 128 high-purpose guns, 28 40 Bofors high-level guns, plus 32 13-machine guns.
Even if they encounter a siege of twenty or thirty aircraft at sea, they can be safe and sound.
But the most satisfying thing is its power system, 180,000 horsepower, which is larger than our Bismarck-class and Hindenburg-class, and the power system used by the H41 is exactly the same, which can make this battlecruiser run to 34 knots, almost as fast as a destroyer I guarantee that no battleship and battlecruiser of another country in the world can catch up with it. ” The H41 type was improved on the basis of the H39 type of the "Hindenburg" class, and the four H-class battleships that were successively added after the end of the Western Front campaign were all H41 type battleships.
If the H39 battleship is the transition from a "broken ship" to a "decisive battleship", then the H41 is a real decisive battleship.
By the time Germany began to design the H39 on the basis of the H41, it had already won the Western Front.
Moreover, Germany's shore-based aviation also showed strong anti-ship capabilities, changing the balance of strength between the British and German navies.
The 79 and Fokker Zero cooperate with submarines to break the relationship, which is much better than using surface ships.
Therefore, the German ship engineers finally gave up the idea of "breaking diplomatic relations" and positioned the H41 as a decisive battleship.
At the same time, starting from helping the Netherlands design the Ethai Lake class, German hull engineers also abandoned the outdated concept of "dome armor protection" and concentrated the armor tonnage on key parts such as the sideboard, deck, turret, command tower, and underwater mine protection area.
In addition, the main gun of the H41 was upgraded on the basis of the H39, the caliber was increased from 406 to 420, and the number was still 8.
As a result, it truly has the strength to compete with the American super battleships "Iowa" and "Montana" classes under construction.
However, the Ethzo-class battlecruisers, which contributed a lot of technology, new power systems, and new armor protection design ideas to the H41 battleships, will never be built.
Because Germany no longer needs to break the ship, the problem of breaking the diplomatic relationship is now a "small target" for the United States to consider.
"You can convert three Ethne-See-class ships into aircraft carriers," Hersmann said to Admiral Vilnafurkes after touring the Ethic-Lake-class hull, which has been built and ready to be launched, "and there needs to be an F-thick flight deck armor belt that can accommodate 30 aircraft."
How long will it take to finish" The F1, a low- and medium-altitude model by Fokker, is now in mass production and will soon be able to replace the existing Fokker Zero. 2.
It was also finalized at the beginning of April and will be put into production soon.
According to the plan of the German naval aviation, for the German Navy carriers, carrier-based aircraft will consist of high-altitude fighters, low-altitude fighters and dive bombers.
While the Germans were developing the HS293 Glide-by-wire bomb, they certainly could expect the enemy to use the same methods to attack German surface ships.
After all, a wire-controlled glide bomb is not a high-tech thing, and with the capabilities of Britain and the United States in the field of electronics, it should be able to be copied very quickly.
However, before the United States succeeded in copying the HS293 wire-controlled glide bomb and equipping it with its troops, with a small number of 108S fleet, Germany could still dominate the Atlantic.
For Germany, the next few months will be a period of valuable strategic opportunity, and once this period of strategic opportunity has passed, a naval war with the United States is inevitable.
According to intelligence, the construction of the US "Essex" class aircraft carrier is progressing very quickly, and the first ship, the USS Essex, will be completed and put into service before the end of 1942, and 78 more will be commissioned in 1943.
And in addition to the "Essex" class, there is also a 110,000-ton "Independence" class light fleet aircraft carrier that will soon be dumplings.
It is said that the U.S.
Navy Department placed an order for 20 ships in one go at the beginning of 1942, and the first ship will be completed in 1942.
"Sixteen months at most," Admiral Canaris assured Hersman, "will be completed before the autumn equinox of 1943." ” "Give you a maximum of 12 months."
Hersman patted Admiral Canaris on the shoulder and said with great certainty, "It must be completed by the end of April 1943, because we will need aircraft carriers very much." ” After negotiating with Admiral Canaris to speed up the conversion of the aircraft carrier, Hersmann and the head of the German Naval Armaments Department traveled to The Hague 20 kilometers away in a Maybach car.
Although The Hague is not the capital of the Netherlands, it has always been the political center of the Netherlands, with many government agencies, embassies and international organizations based in The Hague.
Queen Wilhelmina and Princess Juliana of the Netherlands also often gather in The Hague.
Today, Hersmann is in The Hague to meet with Princess Juliana of the Netherlands and Dirkgill, President of the Council of Ministers, to discuss the issue of "protecting" Dutch Guiana.
"Prince, Your Royal Highness Princess, I have seen the hulls of all three battlecruisers, they are very good, we can buy them."
In a conference room at the Royal Palace in The Hague, Hersmann first met Prince Bernhard and Princess Juliana.
Both were undoubtedly pro-Germans, in fact they were Germans at all, so Hersmann spoke to them in German.
"That's great, we can save a lot of money."
Princess Juliana looked very happy.
Not only because of the sale of 3 expensive battle cruisers, but also the solution of the headache of the Dutch East Indies problem, where is South Africa in the Dutch East Indies, there are gold mines in South Africa, and there are also Boer compatriots, a real "colony".
The Dutch East Indies did not colonize a few peoples at all, and the inhabitants there were either indigenous or Chinese.
"With South Africa, you Netherlands will still be short of money," Hirschman laughed, "there is 40 percent of the world's gold, and the British Empire's wallet is supported by South African gold." ” "All the Dutch Germans would be grateful to Germany, and the Dutch Germans and the German Germans were originally one family."
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Juliana smiled and said, "I think Congress will soon approve the bill to join the European Mark Zone, and once the war is over, we will join the European Community." ” The Dutch and Belgian Flemish are actually the Dutch, in fact, they are both Germanic branches, and there is a tradition of pro-German, especially the upper echelons of the Netherlands have married three generations of queens who have married German princes, and later Queen Beatrix also married a Nazi prince But it was one thing to be pro-German, and quite another to fight side by side with Germany.
Although neither the Queen nor the government of the Netherlands objected to the fact that Dutch citizens joined the German army in their personal capacity, there were many such people, and domestic factories were encouraged to accept German military orders.
However, they have been reluctant to relent, not because they are unwilling to join, but because they are unwilling to join before the end of the war.
Because joining the European Community means sharing a common destiny with Germany, it means joining the war Hersmann was fully aware of the Dutchman's desire to go to war, shrugged his shoulders and said with a smile: "There is no problem, the European Community welcomes the Netherlands at any time."
However, in order for us Europeans to win the war, we need some convenience from the Netherlands. ” "Convenient," the Dutch princess smiled, "as long as we don't go to war, it's easy to say anything." ” "No, of course not."
Hersman shook his head, "We don't need the Netherlands to go to war, we just need the Netherlands to give us a springboard to the Americas." ” "Springboard" Juliana was stunned and looked back at her husband.
Prince Haenbet had understood Hersmann's request, and he said to his wife: "My dear, what the Imperial Marshal wants is Dutch Guiana. ” t1706231537: