Under normal circumstances, the research and development of weapons and equipment is always linked to the imaginary enemy, and the Third Reich, which had relatively limited resources and financial resources, was no exception.

The new weapons under development mentioned by Hersmann at the armaments conference today, including tanks No. 5 and No. 6, the "final case" of the two piston fighters, and the "practical case" of the turbojet fighter, were all used against the ultimate imaginary enemy of the Third Reich - the United States of America!

Hersman never had any plans to divide the world with the United States and fight a Cold War. Because he knew the strength and potential of the United States, even the German Empire, which ruled most of Europe and controlled the crude oil producing areas of the Middle East, did not have the grasp of defeating the United States, which controlled the resources of the entire Americas, in the Cold War. Not to mention, there would be a Soviet coalition to the east of Germany that would join forces with the United States.

Therefore, after the Geneva Peace Conference, the Great General Staff led by Hersman began to secretly formulate a "Terminator Plan" to defeat the United States and march into the Americas.

And Hirschman now asks the armaments department to step up the research and development of various new weapons, which are ready to be used in the "Terminator Project"!

Of course, these weapons mentioned above are not all the new weapons needed for Project Terminator, and they are not even the most critical parts.

"General Witzel." After confirming that the development of a new tank, the ultimate piston fighter, and the jet was on schedule, Hersman called on the head of the Naval Armaments Bureau, Carl Brown. The name of General Witzel.

"Is the design of the ultimate battleship ready?" Hersman asked.

The "Ultimate Battleship Program" is an additional part of the Navy's "Z" program, and the development work began long before the start of construction of the H-class, and is internally codenamed "H41 Program". The implication was to start construction in 1941, and it was planned to start construction of 2-4 ships at the same time, and all of them were commissioned in 1944.

The idea of using the "ultimate battleship" to fight the United States may be wrong in the Pacific theater, and the two "Yamato Hotel" built by Japan in history have been called "the three major red deer of Japan in the second century."

But the situation in the Atlantic theater is completely different from the Pacific theater. The Pacific theater of operations is not only very wide, but also in a region of low sea conditions and low latitudes -- although there are strong winds and waves in the Pacific Ocean from time to time, it cannot be compared with the harsh climate of the Atlantic, especially the North Atlantic.

And the North Atlantic battlefield is not only a harsh climate, but it is also a high-latitude area, and part of the battlefield is still in the Arctic Circle! For example, the Norwegian Sea and the Danish Channel are two important battlefields in the Arctic Circle, where the phenomenon of "polar day" and "polar night" exists. Every year from September 23 to March 21, the North Pole is at the Polar Night – night for half the year!

In the vicinity of the Arctic Circle, the polar night and polar day phenomena, although not so extreme, also have long nights and short days for half the year. And taking into account the harsh climate in the North Atlantic, aircraft carriers are of little use in the North Atlantic theater near the Arctic Circle during this half-polar night period.

When aircraft carriers are useless, battleships will naturally come in handy. Therefore, Hersman's "Terminator Project" is to use the six-month Arctic polar night phenomenon to occupy Iceland, Greenland, and threaten the northeastern region of Canada.

And to achieve this goal, it is necessary to have the "ultimate battleship" that can suppress the American battleship force led by the "Iowa"-class battleships!

Of course, such a "ultimate battleship" is actually about to be launched, and it is the "Yamato Hotel", one of the three major red deer in Japan in the 20th century. This ultimate battleship with a standard displacement of 64,000 tons, a full load displacement of 72,808 tons, and 9 460mm/45 caliber guns is definitely not a "red deer" as long as it is used in the right place.

If we could get two Japanese "Yamato" class ships to the North Atlantic theater in the winter of 1942 at the beginning of the polar night in the Arctic Circle.

Then with 2 "Yamato", 2 "Hindenburg" (H class), 2 "Bismarck" class, 2 "Richelieu" class and 3 "Veneto" class together, it was enough to hang all the British and American battleships.

If the decisive battle in the North Atlantic can be won, then Iceland and Greenland will definitely be won. And theoretically, there is also the possibility of landing in northeastern Canada, so that the most elite northeastern coastal zone of the United States can be deterred by long-range four-engine heavy bombers!

Moreover, the defeat of the battleship forces of the Anglo-American Navy in the North Atlantic would also have earned Germany a great reputation. It is very likely that the pro-German forces in the South American countries will take the opportunity to take power and then lead the whole country to the side of Germany.

In this way, Germany could open a "third battlefield" against the United States in South America, thus depriving the United States of South American markets and resource supplies, and at the same time being in a passive position of being attacked on three sides (northeast, south, and west).

In the end, it may not be possible to land on American soil - the industrial power and population of the United States are obvious, and it is possible to mobilize more than 10 million troops and arm them with good weapons in times of crisis. But as long as South America is separated from the sphere of influence of the United States, the United States will be greatly weakened, and there will be no chance for Germany to compete for supremacy.

However, it is uncertain whether the Japanese will send the two "Yamato hotels" to fight in the North Atlantic. Therefore, in July 1940, Hersmann still had to go all out to promote Germany's own "ultimate battleship" program.

"Marshal, the design of the Navy's 'H41 scheme' has been completed." Cal. General Witzel took a file bag out of his briefcase and handed it to the adjutant to Hersman.

"The H41 programme is an improvement on the H39 programme," he said. The H41 class will have an unladen displacement of 67,000 tons, for which we have expanded four extra-large slipways to accommodate the construction of the H41 class.

In addition, the H41 class will also change the previous philosophy of high speed, so the maximum speed will be only 28 knots. This will allow more tonnage to be spent on artillery and protection. Therefore, the H41 class will be equipped with 8 420mm guns, and the armor protection will be much better than that of the H39 class. ”

Germany's previous battleships were influenced by the idea of "breaking the engagement" and pursued too much power, so the power system occupied too much tonnage. And the H41 class will be a battleship for the ultimate decisive battle at sea, which does not need a high speed of more than 30 knots, and a maximum speed of 28 knots is enough.

"That's good," Hersman nodded, "to push it as soon as possible." ”

However, the use of Germany's own "ultimate battleship" is actually the second-best solution in the "Ultimate Plan", and the optimal solution is to use the Japanese "Yamato Hotel".

To this end, Hersman also developed a plan for "aircraft carriers for warships". It is planned to send four converted cruise carriers, the "Europa", "Potsdam", "Gneisenau" (planned to be renamed "Alsace") and "Bremen", to the Pacific Ocean to assist in the war (with fighters and all personnel), in exchange for Japan sending two "Yamato" class ships to the Atlantic to help.

"By the way, when will the refit of the four 'Blue Ribbon aircraft carriers' be completed?" Hersmann asked about the so-called "Blue Ribbon Aircraft Carrier", which is the code name given by the German military to the project of converting large cruise ships into aircraft carriers.

Because two of the several fast cruise ships used for refit, the "Bremen" and the "Europa", won the Blue Ribbon Award for the Cruise Racing Award. The aircraft carrier converted with this high-speed cruise ship will retain the original power system, so the speed is very fast.

In addition, their volume is also very huge, the displacement before the modification is 4-50,000 tons, and after the modification is completed, they can carry more carrier-based aircraft. If a variety of carrying methods are mixed, it is completely possible to carry 60-70 carrier-based aircraft.

So after the modification is completed, these "Blue Ribbon aircraft carriers" can fight with the main fleet. Historically, Japan's two aircraft carriers, Hayabusa and Flying Eagle, were converted from passenger ships, while the German Navy's "Blue Ribbon Aircraft Carrier" was much larger than the Hayabusa and Flying Eagle, and the power system was also more powerful.

However, because the "Blue Ribbon Aircraft Carrier" does not carry the aircraft in the hangar and therefore cannot exert its maximum power in the North Atlantic, it is most appropriate to send them to the Pacific Theater or the Indian Ocean Theater.

On the Atlantic side, the German Naval Armament Agency plans to start construction of four more Zeppelin-class ships (according to the previous Plan Z), two of which will be built in the shipyard of the German-recaptured city of Danzig, which will be completed by 1943.

"Your Excellency, the refit plan of the four 'Blue Ribbon aircraft carriers' has been completed, and the superstructures of the four cruise ships have been dismantled." Cal. "The remainder of the conversion will be carried out by shipyards in Belgium and the Netherlands. It will certainly be delivered to the Navy in 1941. ”

The Netherlands and Belgium were industrial powers before World War II, and Belgian steel and Dutch shipbuilding could also be lined up in Europe. In the Netherlands alone, there are four shipyards that can undertake the refit of the "Blue Ribbon Aircraft Carrier". However, two of these shipyards had recently taken over the construction of battle cruisers (the Netherlands had started construction of two battle cruisers with the help of Germany), so the German Naval Armaments Agency handed over the other two "Blue Ribbon aircraft carriers" to the Belgian shipyard for refit.

In addition, in Saint-Nazaire, near the Atlantic Ocean, there is a slipway that could be used to build the 80,000-ton ship - where the French built the cruise ship "Normandy". However, Saint-Nazaire was on the Atlantic coast, and the shipping route to the German mainland was blocked by the English Channel. It was also relatively vulnerable to attacks by British fleets and aircraft, so the German Naval Armament Bureau did not dare to hand over the construction of large warships to France, but still awarded contracts for large tankers and fast troop carriers.

In short, it is necessary to make use of the industries of the EU countries as much as possible now, so that they can compete with the United States on the other side of the ocean in the future. (To be continued.) )