You read that right, there are ten aircraft carriers in the U.S.
Two-Ocean Fleet, but eight of them are temporary aircraft carriers converted from merchant ships.
Before entering the war, the United States, which was deeply aware of its shortage of ships, began to use various brains to think of ways.
But to build decent traditional warships such as battleships and cruisers, the construction cycle is too long and it is impossible to catch up.
Small ships can be built quickly, but their combat effectiveness is too weak, and they are really useless.
Everyone was forced out, and in this case, an idea was quickly forced out.
Some people have turned their heads to new warships such as aircraft carriers.
The biggest difference between aircraft carriers and traditional warships is that their combat effectiveness does not come from the artillery and torpedoes they are equipped with, but from the aircraft they carry.
In other words, as long as the aircraft carrier carries enough aircraft, it still has a considerable degree of combat effectiveness even if it does not even have a cannon.
In other words, as long as it is a ship that can take off and land aircraft, it can be used as an aircraft carrier.
Of course, it will definitely take a lot of time to build a new aircraft carrier, but if you use existing ships to modify them, it won't take much time.
After all, it is completely different from other warships, because its combat power comes from aircraft, so there is no need to consider its own weapons.
It usually places its planes far behind and does not need to go to the front line at all, so there is no need to consider any defense.
It doesn't even need a gun or a millimeter of armor.
It only needs a hangar and flight deck, plus some communication and command equipment, and it can participate in the war.
It is of course much simpler to transform existing civilian ships into such things than to transform them into traditional warships.
So the wealthy Americans directly selected 18 of their own civilian ships and sent them to major shipyards for modification.
These civilian ships are all large merchant ships in good condition, very young and fast.
As soon as the Yankees opened their minds, something like "escort aircraft carrier" was born more than 20 years in advance.
Well, now this kind of thing is not called "escort aircraft carrier", its official name is "temporary aircraft carrier", which means something like It is said that after the war, they have to change back to the merchant ship, which is probably similar to the nature of "government temporary workers".
The strength of the United States, the largest industrial country on earth, is undoubtedly revealed in this "temporary aircraft carrier" transformation plan.
It took them just over three months to transform 11 "temporary aircraft carriers" and they were officially completed before the official declaration of war.
By the beginning of May, after hurriedly completing a simple sea trial, he was officially enrolled in active service.
Three of them are used for daily escort on the Atlantic route, and the remaining eight are incorporated into the two-ocean fleet.
When the United States was retrofitting these ships, it found that the most suitable ships for retrofitting were high-speed oil tankers, as well as container cargo ships and ro-ro ships invented by China a few years ago.
Because their hull cabin structures are closer to aircraft carriers, these ships require only a few modifications.
With just a few changes, it can become a qualified "temporary aircraft carrier."
On the contrary, those high-speed cruise ships that were previously thought to be most suitable for modification are very troublesome and require major modifications to the entire hull cabin before they can be used.
The amount of engineering is much larger.
Therefore, the first 11 "temporary aircraft carriers" to be refitted were all high-speed tankers, container ships and ro-ro ships.
Later, the Yankees found that their imaginary plan was quite useful, and went on to select a group of merchant ships and convert them into temporary aircraft carriers.
Well, it is worth mentioning that 9 of these second batch of ships selected were Allied ships.
These were the unlucky ones who were detained after the United States turned its back.
However, these "temporary aircraft carriers" have a big flaw, that is, they are too slow compared to regular warships.
Even though they originally had the name of "high speed", their speed can only reach 1518 knots.
The so-called "high speed" is only compared with those ordinary merchant ships with a speed of 1112 knots.
Those high-speed cruise ships or passenger ships can reach more than 20 knots, but the reconstruction project is relatively large and has not been completed yet.
At least it cannot keep up with this battle now.
The displacement of these temporary aircraft carriers in the United States ranges from 15,000 to 30,000 tons, and they can carry between 50,100 aircraft.
The two regular Raider aircraft carriers, the Raider and the Kitty Hawk, have a displacement of 17,000 tons and a carrying capacity of 85 aircraft.
If you only look at the number of aircraft carried, these "temporary workers" are really not much worse than the regular army, or even more.
In this Battle of the Faroe Islands, these temporary aircraft carriers indeed played a huge role.
There were more than 240 German aircraft attacking this time, 110 of which were escort fighters.
Based on their actual combat experience, HNA's fighter planes are not equipped with large horizontal bombers, but only dive bombers and torpedo planes.
Originally, according to German intelligence, the United States only had two aircraft carriers, which could carry 100 fighter jets.
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A fleet of this size can definitely give the Yankees a serious blow.
But when they excitedly rushed to the sky above the US fleet, they were shocked to find that there were actually densely packed American fighter jets in front of them.
The Americans have at least 200 fighter jets in the sky, and fighter jets are still taking off on the sea.
The German pilots were dumbfounded.
This time, the kick hit the steel plate, but at this point, they had no choice but to get on.
"Damn it, how can the Yankees have ten aircraft carriers and submarines?
Are all the people blind?"
Major Fafnir, who was leading the German plane, looked at the sea and started cursing.
In fact, this really can't be blamed on the submarine's lack of foresight, because these eight temporary aircraft carriers were slow and were always dragged at the back of the fleet at the beginning.
Later, the United States strengthened its anti-submarine capabilities, and the submarines did not dare to get too close.
Coupled with the morning fog, looking at the ship from a distance, they thought it was an auxiliary ship such as an oil tanker.
Well, they were originally oil tankers, so they looked normal.
Shortly after the war in Jutland, "Baron Fafnir" finally changed his career and flew a real fighter jet as he wished.
After flying a fighter jet, his record began to skyrocket.
He now has 51 victories, but this time it seems a bit...
Trouble.
While reporting the latest situation to the Faroe Islands, he ordered the fighter jets to clear the area first.
At 9:36, fighter jets from both sides began to exchange fire.
Although American aircraft had a numerical advantage, they were in turn suppressed and beaten.
The German pilots were very nervous at first, but after the fight, they discovered that the other side was strong on the outside but weak on the inside.
Their confidence immediately soared, and the situation turned increasingly towards Germany.
There are several reasons for this situation.
The first is the quality of pilots.
German HNA pilots are basically veterans with actual combat experience.
Many of them are the backbone of the former Air Force and have thousands of hours of flying experience.
Participated in actual combat many times.
Not only are they rich in experience, but they have also learned many effective tactics.
However, American pilots have never experienced actual combat, and many of them are rookies with less than 300 hours of flying experience.
As for tactics and coordination, there is no discussion.
They are basically fighting on their own.
The second is the performance difference between fighter jets.
The performance of carrier-based aircraft in this era is inherently inferior to that of land-based aircraft of the same level.
And the F2C "Hawker 1" carrier-based fighter used by the United States is a metal and canvas-skinned biplane.
To be honest, if it were placed in the original time and space during the First World War, this kind of aircraft would not be lagging behind, but would be very advanced.
But when it comes to the higher level of aviation technology, it doesn't work.
The He33 used by Germany's Hainan Airlines is an all-metal monoplane.
This aircraft is the German version of the J-5 "Shrike" fighter.
They produced it themselves after introducing all the drawings from China.
The maximum flight speed of the F2C "Hawker 1" is 310 kilometers, and its weapons are two 7mm machine guns.
The maximum flight speed of the He33 has reached 360 kilometers, and its weapons are two 13mm machine guns.
Moreover, the He33 has a closed cockpit, and key parts are equipped with bulletproof steel plates.
Whether it's attack power, defense power or speed, the two are not on the same level.
The only place where American fighter jets have an advantage is probably in "dog fights".
But the Germans and British and French biplanes have fought countless battles on the Western Front, and they have already developed suitable tactics, so they won't fight with them at all.
Instead, he directly used his speed advantage to escape with one blow.
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If the quality of the personnel is not good, the performance of the aircraft is not good, and the tactics are not good, then there is nothing left to say.
The naval officers and soldiers below only saw their own fighter jets falling like dumplings.
They were clearly more than twice as many as the enemy, but they were chased away by Er Dezi's plane.
Within ten minutes, the U.S. air defense line was torn open, and the German attack aircraft group began to attack the U.S. fleet.
Although the U.S.
Navy has not fought in a war for more than ten years, it is still keeping up with the times.
Even though they are wealthy, they are not lagging behind at all in training.
After issuing the air raid warning, Lieutenant General Sims immediately ordered the fleet to change to a circular air defense array.
Large warships such as battleships and aircraft carriers were in the middle, and cruisers and destroyers were tightly surrounding the outside.
As soon as they saw that their own aircraft could not stop the German attack aircraft, the warships immediately opened up all firepower.
From 0.5-inch anti-aircraft machine guns to 5-inch anti-aircraft guns, anti-aircraft fire of various calibers started as if they were free.
Following the lessons learned from the Jutland Navy, navies of all countries are now strengthening air defense for their warships.
Naturally, the wealthy Americans will not fall behind.
Those anti-aircraft guns are not worth a few anyway, so just increase them as hard as you can.
The anti-aircraft firepower of this American fleet is now very dense, especially near the battleships that are the main force of the fleet.
Tracer ballistics of various calibers almost form an airtight fire net in the air.
The first two squadrons to attack, 24 dive bombers, crashed into the steel plate.
Their targets happened to be the two largest California-class battleships in the United States.
However, during the dive, 11 bombers were knocked down by anti-aircraft fire like water splashing, and only 13 bombers successfully dropped bombs.
Due to interference from anti-aircraft fire, only five 300-kilogram bombs hit the target, and another three near misses.
During the process of pulling up and breaking away, three more of these aircraft were shot down
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