Aircraft carriers in World War II were actually divided into several different grades. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

The first gear is large fleet aircraft carriers, such as the Essex class of the United States, the Zeppelin class of Germany, the Radiance class of the United Kingdom, the Xianghe class and the Daho class of Japan, and so on.

The second tier is the aircraft carriers of light fleets, such as Germany's Seydlitz class, Japan's Xiangfeng-class, Ryu-phoenix class, and so on, as well as the US president's "small target" -- 20 light aircraft carriers converted from the hulls of Cleveland-class light cruisers.

The third gear is aircraft carriers converted from large cruise ships, such as several "Blue Ribbon aircraft carriers" in Germany, "Eagle" and "Divine Eagle" in Italy, and Eagle, Cloud Eagle and Chong Eagle in Japan.

The above three grades of aircraft carriers are relatively expensive products, which can not only carry a large number of aircraft, but also because of their relatively fast speed, they can follow the actions of the main fleet and participate in the decisive battle of the fleet.

And under these three grades, there is also a kind of "escort aircraft carrier" that is not very valuable. The so-called escort aircraft carrier cannot be interpreted literally, as long as it is an escort aircraft carrier. For example, the US imperialists are now using four large aircraft carriers to do escort errands in the Pacific Ocean.

The real escort aircraft carrier usually refers to the "three small and one none" aircraft carrier with small tonnage, small hangar, small horsepower and no armor.

This kind of "diao silk aircraft carrier" does not have a sturdy warship hull, and usually uses cheap civilian hulls to make up the number, and it is very easy to sink when attacked by enemy ships and enemy aircraft. In addition, the "Diao silk aircraft carrier" does not have a huge tonnage, usually around 10,000, the hangar, of course, is also very small, and the deck is definitely wooden.

Finally, the "Diao Silk Aircraft Carrier" does not have the professional heavy oil boilers and steam turbines of warships and luxury cruise ships, and certainly does not have the huge horsepower marine diesel engines. Under normal circumstances, an aircraft carrier of more than 10,000 tons is given an 8,000 horsepower or 8,500 horsepower broken diesel engine, which can run at a maximum speed of 15 or 6 knots.

Such a "Diao silk aircraft carrier" has to be armored without armor, without speed, without tonnage, and the cost of a bargain is of course very low. If you are too lazy to build, you can find an 8,000-ton or 10,000-ton merchant ship, tear down the superstructure, and lay a wooden flight deck.

For Britain and Germany now, the aircraft carriers of the first and second gears are relatively lacking, and the third-grade cruise ship refit aircraft carriers are not very valuable, and as for the fourth-grade "first-class silk aircraft carriers", eight out of ten can still be easily taken out. Even if it didn't, it would take a few months to find some 10,000-ton merchant ships.

However, aircraft carriers are easy to obtain, but carrier-based aircraft pilots are difficult to train. Therefore, Britain and Germany will not have enough to eat now, and they will not have nothing to do to build dozens of 100 escort aircraft carriers to play, even if the escort aircraft carriers that have been built (there are many in Britain and Germany now), they will often be idle because there are not enough pilots - the carrier-based aircraft pilots on the silk aircraft carrier are not the first silk, they are all elites trained with blood! Therefore, in history, the United States built more than 100 escort aircraft carriers and was not a tyrant at all, but it was the real tyrant who equipped dozens of escort aircraft carriers with carrier-based pilots.

The current commander of the home fleet, Cunningham, has several idle "** silk aircraft carriers" in his hands, and he doesn't know when he will be able to match the pilots. Since the United States temporarily stopped the delivery of Lend-Lease supplies, the training of British pilots in recent months has also become sloppy. As a shore-based pilot, you can still make do with it, but you can't get on an aircraft carrier, either you fall on the deck or get lost at sea. The scope of activity of British aircraft carriers is the North Atlantic, the North Sea, and the Norwegian Sea, which have complex climates and sea conditions, and it is easy for accidents to occur without strict training. Moreover, the Royal Navy could not pull away the elite of the Royal Air Force, and there were bloody battles between the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe and the German Naval Aviation every day.

So this time, Cunningham simply put together three 10,000-ton escort carriers without aircraft and two cruise converted aircraft carriers, the Aquitania and the Burengallia, into a decoy aircraft carrier formation -- Fleet B, with Vice Admiral Somerville as the commander.

After receiving Cunningham's order to "strike eastward to within 150 nautical miles east of the Faroe Islands (a carefully calculated position that is located exactly outside the combat radius of the Bergen-based FW-190)," the five aircraft carriers began to sail eastward under the escort of the heavy cruisers USS Suffolk and HMS Fullrobis, as well as 5 light cruisers and 10 destroyers.

And this very eye-catching B fleet of 5 aircraft carriers sailed in the North Atlantic Ocean west of the Faroe Islands not long before it was spotted by FW-200C, which was patrolling in this area.

……

"General, Condor 052 has discovered 5 aircraft carriers, 2 of which are large aircraft carriers, and the other 3 are 10,000-ton light aircraft carriers, located in F5 waters."

"There are 2 large aircraft carriers? Is it Emeracy? "Gunther. Lütjans stood up and walked over to the charts hanging on the wall of the fleet commander's room.

"I don't know, but at least one is not the Tejas class, and the reconnaissance aircraft reports that one of the 2 large aircraft carriers is particularly huge, with a displacement of more than 50,000 tons, which should have been converted with a cruise ship." Erich. Lieutenant General Bey suggested, "Commander, it is better to let Vice Admiral Heyer's aircraft carrier and Bergen's air force attack." ”

The 3 10,000-ton aircraft carriers are obviously escort aircraft carriers, and neither Lütjans nor Bei will take it seriously. However, 2 large aircraft carriers are definitely a target of some value, even if it is not the Glorious class, it must be rebuilt with a large cruise ship. So Erich. Lieutenant General Bey wanted to get Helmut. The five aircraft carriers under Heyer's command dispatched carrier-based aircraft, along with shore-based aircraft from Bergen.

"The British aren't that gullible, and they're in F5 waters...... It's not far from the north of Scotland," Gunther. "There will be a lot of P51s coming out to help, and the FW-190 can't reach the F5 waters." ”

The era of the Fokker Zero's dominance in Europe is over, and both the Spitfire equipped with the "Grayback" 60 engine and the American P51 (there is no model with the "Grayback" 60) can deal with the Fokker Zero. If the P51 is equipped with the superior performance of the "Grayback Falcon" 60 engine, it will not be something that the Fokker Zero can deal with, and the FW-190 must be used to cooperate with the Fokker Zero.

Erich. Bey thought for a moment and said, "Then let Bergen's P.108S heavy bombers be dispatched and use HS293V3 to deal with these British aircraft carriers." ”

The 60 P.108S heavy bombers, commanded by Major Mussolini, were specially modified to drop HS293V3 bombs. Each aircraft can carry up to 5 HS293V3 bombs (and 5 ordinary CP-500 bombs) for accurate bombing from an altitude of 6500-10000 meters. Moreover, the range of the P.108S is also large enough, with a maximum range of more than 4000 km, and a combat radius of 1500 km with 5 HS293V3 bombs on board. Enough to cover the sea from Bergen to the sea near Iceland.

If these 60 P.108S attack at the same time, 300 HS293V3 bombs can be dropped at once! Although it is only a 500-kilogram high-explosive bomb, it is precision-guided, and if an aircraft carrier is subjected to dozens of bombs, no matter how strong an aircraft carrier is, it will definitely be blown up and sunk.

"No, don't move P.108s just yet." Gunther. Lutyans thought for a while, shook his head, and said, "The first battle of these 60 P.108s must be used against 4 Radiance-class ships...... They are the real workhorses. ”

After dropping 300 HS293V3 bombs at one time, this kind of black technology weapon will have to be exposed, and maybe Britain will pick up 1 or 2 that didn't explode. If you want to use it in the future, there will be no unexpected effect. So Gunther. Lütjans wanted the first battle of the HS293V3 bomb to achieve a big enough result.

"Then we ......" Erich. Bey looked at Gunther. Lütjans also had a hard time for a while.

"We ignore them," Gunther said. "We continued our advance towards the Faroe Islands, setting up the planned artillery bombardment after dark, using the cannons of the Hindenburg, Ludendorff, Barbarossa and Schlieffen to bombard the ports and airfields of the Faroe Islands." ”

……

"It's getting dark."

On the battleship "King George V", Admiral Cunningham walked to the side of the command tower, looked at the sunset outside the window, frowned and muttered.

On the long afternoon of March 25, 1942 (it was the polar day of the Arctic, so the daylight hours were long), Cunningham waited for news that Fleet B had been bombed. If the bombing had happened, it would have been a fierce battle. With a total of 108 F4Fs on board the Aquitania and Brenlia, and at least 200 P51s from the Coast Air Force to assist the attack, the German fleet is sure to deal heavy damage to the attacking German fleet.

The current P51 has not yet installed the "Grayback Falcon" 60 engine, so the performance at medium and high altitudes is not good, if it encounters the combination of FW190 and Fokker Zero, it will still suffer, but against Fokker Zero alone, it can achieve better results.

So according to Cunningham's plan, Fleet B would stop outside the combat radius of the shore-based FW-190 based in Bergen, but Cunningham did not think that Coolingville's Fleet B would be unscathed, and the loss of 2-3 aircraft carriers was still expected!

And the German High Seas Fleet, which successfully "dealt a heavy blow" to the British aircraft carrier force, should also be relieved to boldly go north to break through the Danish Strait. In this way, the British Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force have a chance to annihilate the main forces of the German High Seas Fleet after they leave the cover circle of German shore-based aircraft, or at least inflict heavy damage!

"They're still heading towards the Faroe Islands?" Cunningham asked, turning around.

"Yes, Admiral." A staff officer replied. "They are still moving towards the Faroe Islands...... If nothing else, this evening, the German fleet will be in running formation. ”

"Shelling?" Cunningham shook his head and said to himself, "It can't be the capture of the Faroe Islands...... The Germans must have made a feint! Their goal must be to break into the Atlantic! (To be continued.) )