Chapter 474: The Road to the Iron Curtain ()

The first is a hyena-class integrated destroyer: a standard displacement of 4,800 tons, with 4 twin 128mm high-level dual-purpose guns, 5 heavy torpedo tubes, depth charges and a phalanx, as well as 8 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns, the most important thing is that there is a helicopter platform in the tail, and there are 3 twin cruise missile launchers on the front deck, with a maximum speed of 37 knots, which can basically meet the basic functions of firepower, anti-submarine, escort, search and rescue, air defense, and minelaying in terms of comprehensive performance. Hoffman basically agrees with this development idea, and in the future, due to the inability to fight a war in the short term, the warship will be mainly comprehensive, and the only thing he thinks is that 4,800 tons may be too small, at least 5,500 tons.

However, at this time, the thinking of the design community had not been completely liberated, and although the tonnage of destroyers had been raised to the upper limit when dividing the standards of destroyers and cruisers, it was still difficult to understand the 5,000-ton destroyer, which was an out-and-out cruiser in wartime.

The second is the amplification of the hyena class, called the Black Stork class, with a standard displacement of 7,600 tons, and almost all aspects of armament are the increase or amplification of the hyena class, such as the artillery from 4 twin to triple, and the missile from 3 twin to 4 duplex...... It perfectly inherited the idea of the Third Reich to enlarge heavy cruisers into armored cruisers, and then enlarge into battleships. Hoffman was not satisfied with this and demanded a new over.

According to his advice, a few things are clear:

First, the new cruisers do not need torpedoes, and they do not carry out escort and search and rescue missions, which is not the job of cruisers;

secondly, the need to equip anti-aircraft missiles;

Third, the command and radar systems should be further upgraded, and they should be able to command a destroyer formation.

Fourth, the power system should be upgraded, and at the appropriate time atomic energy should be considered, and it should have a range of at least 6,000 nautical miles or more;

According to these requirements, the black stork level standard will be raised to more than 10,000 tons;

The third is a new type of missile destroyer: with a standard displacement of 2,800 tons, in addition to having silkworm missiles as offensive weapons, it has a poor level in air defense, anti-submarine, escort and other tasks, and does not have comprehensive capabilities. Hoffman believes that it is too wasteful to find missile destroyers alone, and believes that the number and tonnage of naval guns can be further reduced, and the standard of missile destroyers can be lowered to 2,000-2,400 tons of missile frigates.

In addition to these three designs, he also demanded that a large amphibious landing ship be designed as soon as possible.

In the past conventional operations, the troops completed the attack mission through a large number of Sibel landing craft, because this is a temporary warship, plus the Sibel-class landing craft is installed with a turret removed from the Sherman tank, and soon there is a new nickname - 4 knights (behind each Sibel is the soul of 4 Shermans), but the volume of Sibel is not large enough after all, in order to ensure the success rate of the war, the way to use multiple ships at the same time in wartime, the next war because it does not involve so many people, Therefore, Hoffman's idea was to develop a special-purpose amphibious assault landing ship.

This idea actually appeared on the original modified aircraft carrier Europa, which has air force on it, and can accommodate an armored grenadier battalion in the middle, but the displacement of more than 50,000 tons is too luxurious to put on an amphibious landing ship, and it is not the task of this warship to take off and land fixed-wing aircraft, so the latest proposed standard is to have a displacement of about 120,000 tons, which can accommodate 8-10 helicopters, and a battalion of troops.

Of course, in Hoffman's thoughts, in fact, amphibious landing ships can be built larger, such as 3-40,000 tons, which can take off fixed-wing aircraft and provide air support directly to the landing force, but since it is a new thing, he also has to be patient and wait for a little bit of maturity.

These types of warships constitute the main construction ideas of the German Navy in 1946-1952, and it is very difficult to conduct a Europe-wide bidding in this field of the Navy, the most significant point is that the model ship is not convincing, and the ship cannot be like an aircraft and a tank to build a prototype and a prototype to compete, so Britain, France, and Germany can only cover their heads and build their own targets, and then consider integration when the time is right. And this is the last window of time for Germany to catch up as much as possible in the past few years.

It took four hours for the huge parade to be completed, but the momentum and equipment displayed far exceeded everything that could be accommodated in these four hours. What's more, with the end of the Victory Ceremony, European heads of state also announced the official establishment of the European Union – the anniversary of which is July 15, Victory Day.

Because of Hoffmann's prestige and Germany's hegemony, coupled with Germany's own preponderance of votes, he was elected the first president of the European Union with nearly 93 votes, and 6 votes were cast for Petain, who was about to leave office but did not participate in the election of the EU leader at all.

Hoffmann only smiled at this: the 100 or 99 votes seemed too fake, and the reflection of Petain's 6 showed that the election was fair and just.

After the establishment of the European Union, the United States, Japan, Argentina, Egypt, and Iran became observer states of the European Union at the original invitation, and the United States and Japan, as world powers, undoubtedly had observer status, and Argentina, Egypt, and Iran, as important allies of Germany in South America, Africa, and the Middle East, also had observer status. Egypt and Iran are still vying for leadership in the Middle East, and Hoffman is happy to strike a balance between them, in which either of the Middle East oil depots is disadvantaged.

Britain wanted to invite Canada to become an observer, but it was unsuccessful, Germany did not agree, and even France and the United States did not agree, so they had to give up.

On July 22, when the heads of state dispersed with different thoughts, Hoffman received news about the return of the United States and Japan to Hawaii, and at the same time learned that Horiyoshi had gone to Hawaii with all the main forces of the Combined Fleet, and that some of the Hawaiian troops had withdrawn, and that he had taken advantage of the early withdrawal to receive an additional 20 Victory ships and 10 oil tankers from the United States.

"What a good business! Marshal Hori can literally squeeze oil out of a stone......"

Keitel, who reported the news, smiled: "The most important thing is not here, we think that the Japanese attack on Kamchatka is about to begin?"

"Using the troops retreating from Hawaii?"

Keitel shook his head: "No, with the troops drawn from Manchuria, the Hawaiian troops are not adapted to the cold climate...... Hori was very cunning, and only lightly armed troops were transferred from the Kwantung Army, and the heavy equipment was not moved at all, so the Eastern Russian troops in the direction of Manchuria thought that Japan was just an ordinary change of defense or retreat, and did not consider anything else. ”

"So how do you go about Kamchatka? It's impossible for the combined fleet to go ashore, right? ”

Yodel said: "Heavy equipment transferred from Hawaii!" Hawaiian troops only need to return to the mainland. ”

"What a good strategy to hide from the world, I hope Comrade Stalin can sleep well next month......" Hoffman nodded and smiled, "I don't care about this matter, if Japan needs a little old arms, we can help." ”

"What if Stalin was going to buy it?"

"Huh?" Hoffman closed his eyes and thought for a while, "Let Vlasov sell it to him, but the quantity and type will be reported to us......"

Keitel and Yodel looked at each other and thought, "The Führer's business is good......

(End of chapter)