New World War II Eagle Strikes the Sky

The next day, the reconnaissance plane sent LeMay's aerial photos of Brest after their bombing.According to the interpretation, the bombs they dropped did cover the target area, but the effect was far from satisfactory.The photos show that the most important target, the submarine cavern, is simply not something that ordinary bombs can chew on.I am afraid that only giant bombs can shake it. A bomb of this level cannot be accommodated in ordinary magazines, and the B-17 cannot carry it. Before the B-29 came out, only the British Lancaster bomber could be used.In addition, there is no precise guidance technology yet. If you want the giant bomb to hit accurately, you must let the bomber enter at a low altitude, so that the threat of anti-aircraft guns to the bomber will be greatly increased.Letting the hulking but not-so-sturdy Lancaster in at low altitude in broad daylight would have been suicide.

It seems that it is hopeless to count on the combat effectiveness of German submarines by attacking the cave.To contain them, it may be necessary to attack some supporting factories far away in Germany.But with the current strength of the Eighth Air Force, it is difficult to complete such a task.In order to strengthen the strength of the Eighth Air Force, there must be sufficient logistical support, and if there is sufficient logistical support, it must be able to break the blockade of German submarines.In this way, the strategic bombing of submarines entered a strange circle.Therefore, at least for now, it is definitely hopeless to rely on strategic bombing to solve the problem of submarines.

Because of this, although yesterday's battle proved that Li Mei's new tactics were extremely successful, seeing the aerial photos after the bombing today, Li Mei could hardly even eat.If the problem of submarines cannot be solved, large-scale strategic bombing is impossible, and the various tactics that Li Mei has devoted all her efforts to research will become useless dragon-slaying techniques.This hit him really too big.In fact, it was Li Mei's suggestion to make the German submarine base a key target.

But Li Mei is not so easy to hit.The man who came from an ordinary working-class family without any military academies and no military background and who would eventually become Commander in Chief of the U.S. Strategic Air Force, a guy who prided himself on his ruthlessness was not so vulnerable.In fact, Li Mei almost got rid of the influence of negative emotions in just a few minutes, pulled Ron who hadn't finished his meal, and plunged into the combat research room.

"Since we can't destroy them in their nests, we can only go to sea to trouble them."

"You mean we go to sea to bomb submarines?" Even Li Mei, who has always been famous for her boldness and whimsy, was stunned. "Attacking moving targets is not the strong point of four-shot bombers."

"It's not about how many submarines are really sunk, but about making them unable to attack targets at will." Ron said, "I once stayed on a submarine for a while, and I heard a captain talk about submarine operations. Some of the guys in the Navy are on good terms, and they talked to me about the Germans' use of subs as well..."

According to Ron, the time and speed of a submarine submerged underwater are very limited.A submarine relies on batteries to sail at the highest speed (usually only a dozen knots, comparable to a merchant ship) underwater, and it will run out of power in an hour or two at most.Therefore, the large-scale maneuvering of the submarine mainly depends on sailing on the sea surface.Moreover, a lone submarine has no way to deal with the merchant fleet with escort ships. They must rely on wolves to fight.That is to say, after a submarine discovers the merchant fleet, it uses radio to report its composition, course and other relevant information.The German Admiralty commanded the submarines in front of the merchant fleet to gather at a certain point where the merchant fleet was about to pass.It tends to be evening when merchant ships pass this point.Under the cover of night, the wolves surfaced to launch a torpedo attack on the transport fleet. (In this way, the sonar specially used to detect underwater targets will be useless, and because the submarine is relatively low, looking from the tall escort ships and merchant ships, the submarine painted in dark blue will completely blend into the darkness Against the background of the ocean, finding them is like finding a black cat in an unlit coal bunker on a dark night. On the contrary, from the low position of the submarine, the tall warship , Merchant ships will undoubtedly be revealed against a relatively bright sky background. What, turn on the searchlights? Isn’t this exposing your own position? In the dark sea, actively exposing yourself to the eyes of enemy ships, you are looking for death! By the way, this book When the protagonist crossed the Surigao Strait at night in the third quarter, many readers regretted that they did not encounter enemy ships here. In fact, there is nothing wrong with encountering them. Akira, I can't see them when I meet Ri himself.)

"Well, listening to you, I think if we can send a large number of long-range patrol aircraft, we can force the German subs to submerge in a large area. Make them unable to maneuver quickly. The wolves are concentrated in the key areas." Li Mei showed joy, but he immediately frowned again:

"But if you look at the chart, from here to here, there is a large area where the shore-based aviation cannot fly, but it must pass through the merchant fleet. The Germans can still kill us here. It may be a good idea to send an aircraft carrier escort."

"Is it too expensive to use an aircraft carrier to escort?" Ron said, "Now, there are only two aircraft carriers in the entire Pacific Ocean. Let an aircraft carrier do this? It's too extravagant. Are those guys in the Pacific going crazy?" Actually, he wasn't I don't know the final solution, but if all the solutions come from him, people will not be regarded as monsters.Anyway, Li Mei is a very smart person. If you inspire him, he will definitely be able to find a way by himself.

"So, how about a seaplane carrier?"

"I heard that the sea conditions in the Atlantic Ocean are very bad. Most of the time, the wind and waves are very strong, and the seaplane cannot take off at all in many cases."

"What about the small aircraft carrier?"

"Small aircraft carriers are actually not cheap. The number of aircraft on board is small, and the anti-strike capability is poor. General Spruance said that building such a thing is not as good as building a large fleet aircraft carrier. It is like the small Japanese auxiliary ship modification Those small aircraft carriers that came out have never played a decent role in a naval battle." Ron looked disapproving, but when he was speaking, he deliberately said "a small aircraft carrier that was converted from an auxiliary ship by the small Japanese" very heavy.

"Oh, that's it," Li Mei was very disappointed. He shook his head, grabbed the coffee cup in front of him, and drank it vigorously. This grassroots officer doesn't know what elegance is at all.Suddenly, his eyes widened, and the big eyes almost jumped out of the eye sockets. His Adam's apple vibrated violently, and with a violent cough, a mouthful of coffee gushed out like a volcanic eruption. , sprayed so much that Ron, who was sitting across from him, sprayed all over his head and face.

"Cough, cough...you just...cough, cough..." Li Mei coughed violently, clutching her clothes tightly with her left hand, staring straight at him, "Cough, cough...you just now Said...cough, cough...Ri himself..."

Ron hurriedly supported him, reaching out to pat him on the back.

"Are you okay?" Ron asked concerned.

"It's okay, it's okay." Li Mei, who choked on coffee and coughed for a long time, finally recovered. He squeezed Ron's shoulders tightly with both hands, so much that Ron felt pain.He stared at Ron with piercing eyes, "Ron, just now you said that Ri himself converted an auxiliary ship into a small aircraft carrier? Ri himself is so cute!" He completely ignored Ron's reaction and said in one breath down:

"What Ri himself can do, we can do the same! We can also use auxiliary ships to transform into light aircraft carriers. Anyway, we only need to use it to anti-submarine. It doesn't need to participate in fierce battles at all. What defense, armor, everything can be given up We still have so many merchant ships, we can also convert them into this kind of dedicated anti-submarine aircraft carrier. Is that okay, Ron?"

"Speed ​​may be a problem. The speed of the merchant ship is too low, and the deck wind is not strong enough, which will affect the take-off and landing of the aircraft. However, we are different from Ri himself. We have catapults and do not completely rely on the deck wind. I think this plan should be feasible. "

"Haha!" Li Mei let go of the hands holding Ron's shoulders. He clenched his fists, raised them to the sky, and shouted, "Long live!"

Then, he lowered his head again, and said to Ron: "I just thought of it, we can also specially build a type of anti-submarine escort aircraft carrier according to the standard of merchant ships. We will produce dozens or hundreds of them like flowing water like producing jeeps. This kind of thing is here...the end of the wolf pack is here!"

Ron stood aside, looking at the cheering Li Mei, he couldn't help but be extremely surprised.Li Mei's plans are indeed the tactics used by the Americans to defeat the wolves in history.Of course, the self from later generations knows these tricks.But now I just gave him a hint, and he can come up with so many tricks in such a short period of time.It seems that there is really no shortage of talented people in this world.Even if you are a time traveler, you don't necessarily have the capital to be proud of the world.

Li Mei always did what he said, and immediately started drafting the report, leaving Ron aside.Fortunately, Ron knew this guy's reputation as a "lunatic" a long time ago, so he didn't care about it.

Now, Ron's investigation in the UK should also be over, he has seen everything that needs to be seen, and experienced everything that needs to be experienced.Now, he should go back too.

Maybe it was because of a predestined relationship with a "lunatic" or something like that, as soon as he returned to China, he met another lunatic.

This madman is called Greg Pointon.A rather odd ace who had been on Chennault's Flying Tigers.