After three months of long-distance battle in the Atlantic Ocean, the mighty Sino-German fleet returned to Germany. Marshal Redell personally rushed to Kiel and welcomed the arrival of the fleet at the dock.
Because of the unprecedented record in the Atlantic Ocean between February and April, which brought great confidence to the entire German people, Hitler ordered the selection of more than 200 "combat heroes" in the fleet, and received the opportunity on the streets of Berlin.
Hundreds of thousands of people welcomed each other. The imperial propaganda department led by Dr. Goebbels spared no effort, and exaggerated the achievements made by the navy in the radio and newspapers. It seemed that the powerful naval fleet of British and American imperialism overnight
All the Germans destroyed Hou's.
The head of empire, who now rarely appears in public, personally met these "naval heroes" at the Prime Minister's Office and enthusiastically awarded medals to some of the crew members.
The victory of the surface ship force finally allowed Marshal Redell to breathe a sigh of relief. Before the head of state's celebration dinner, the commander-in-chief of the naval proposed to the head of state to restore the aviation that had been stopped by Hermann Goring.
When the ship was built, Hitler, who was in high spirits, readily agreed to Raidel's request.
Things are not as easy as expected. Marshal Gore, who failed in the British air battle, was jealous of the Red Navy's record and proposed that due to insufficient production of armored steel, if two aviation warships are preferred, then four "Hindenburg-class" battleships will be built.
The construction project had to be stopped.
The Air Marshal was stuttering the Imperial Navy again.
"Germany's steel production has reached 31 million tons per year, which is not very low. Why can't even squeeze out the hundreds of thousands of tons of steel needed to build four warships every year?" In the Imperial Navy Department, General Sa Shijun, General Sa Shijun
It's a bit strange.
"That's right, Germany lacks various raw materials for producing high-quality alloy steel such as tungsten, manganese, nickel, etc., and its production of armored steel and high-quality marine structural steel is very limited. The Germans are unwilling to make do with it like the Japanese, so they are always here every year.
It seems that steel production is not low, but in fact only one-tenth of the steel production capacity can be used for military production. Moreover, the German Army's armored vehicles and other equipment have been used for a large part, and hundreds of thousands of tons are allocated to the Navy every year.
High-quality steel is given priority to ensure the construction of submarines. You know. The steel used to build submarines is the most consuming material." Fang Minghao explained to him.
"No wonder you have always said that the Germans vigorously develop submarine forces is a big mistake. It turns out that this aspect is referring to." Sa Shijun smiled. Fang Minghao has always been negative about the Germans' full efforts to build submarines and obtained it.
His record was disdainful.
“Yes, they used too much raw material to build submarines. If they were used for the construction of surface ship forces, the Germans have been able to build a huge surface fleet, including six aviation warships,
It is enough to compete with the British without having to stay under the water all day like a mouse." Fang Minghao said: "The submarine force has its special function. But it can never replace the role of surface ships, and it will never be able to obtain at sea.
control, this is the most important thing.”
"The President has also said that our submarine force has more than 400 ships, not less than the Germans." Sa Shijun smiled. "But our submarine force only accounts for 10% of the total tonnage of the surface ship force.
At about fifteen, the Germans actually made them larger than the surface ship troops.”
"Yes, with the development of anti-submarine technology, it is difficult for submarines to pose a threat to warships equipped with new sonar radar systems. The detectors equipped by our destroyers can detect submarines stationary within three nautical miles, with the technology
The progress of the department will expand this distance. If torpedoes are still used, it will be difficult for the submarine to get within the effective range." Fang Minghao said.
"How is the performance of the 'Hindenburg-class' battleship that the German Navy stopped building?" Sa Shijun asked.
"Very good. The displacement is about 61,500 tons and equipped with 12 403mm main guns. In fact, it is the German "Bismar-class" and our "Five Mountains" amplification, and its protection is quite strong. What do you want to ask?"
Ming Hao was a little surprised that the battleship was a useless character. This has become a consensus in the Republican Navy.
"Maybe the president will allow us to equip such battleships." Sa Shijun smiled and said, "When the Navy was building the 'Five Mountains', the president opposed the opposition and supported the Navy's plan. We equip the battleships, the United States
People will follow closely, which will have a great interference with their aviation warship equipment. For example, after the "Five Mountains" service, the British started construction of three avant-garde battleships. The Americans will also "Yi'a"
The construction plan for the Hua-class increased from four to six, but they were canceling the construction plan for the six Montana-class battleships. If we support the Germans to complete the four Hindenburg-class battleships, we can imagine
, the Americans will surely pick up new battleship construction plans, which will cause great interference to their aviation warship equipment."
"It makes sense. We can test the attitude of the German Navy first!" Fang Minghao nodded and said.
The "Hindenburg-class" battleship is part of the German Navy's huge "Six-Year Shipbuilding Plan" chaired by Marshal Redell. After completing the design of the "Bismar-class" battleship, the Imperial Navy began to conduct a new class of
The battleship has begun redesign work. The design standard is to have a displacement of 61,000 tons/73,000 tons, a speed of 30 knots, and is equipped with 4 triple-mounted 15.9-inch main turrets. The protection force requires its side armor to withstand the attack of 450 kg TNT-charged torpedoes.
Horizontal armor can withstand 250 kilograms of bombs.
The Imperial Navy's new-class battleships were planned to build six, and then four new battleships codenamed h,j,k,l were built in the summer of 1939 at Bromforth in Hamburg and Via Bremen.
Ser, Kiel's German and Wilhelmshaven Empire shipyards were built respectively.
By the winter of 1940, the construction of four "H"-class battleships was very smooth. Due to repeated failures in surface fleet operations, Hitler turned his attention to the East and began to prepare for a war against the Soviet Union, and Germany was unable to produce enough.
For high-quality steel, Hitler ordered the suspension of construction of all naval surface ships.
Now the construction of these four hulls has been completed. Eighty percent of the "super battleships" have been quietly abandoned in the dock, leaving only some guards, and the entire construction project has been stopped.
The negotiations with the German Navy were progressing quite smoothly. Marshal Redell was not willing to let several powerful main battleships be abandoned. He proposed that the Republican Navy exchanged two to three main battleships with the rare metals that Germany needed.
The plan is quite interesting.
If so, the Imperial industrial sector could exponentially increase the output of high-quality steel, and the German Navy should be able to complete the remaining surface ship construction plans as planned.
Lin Shuo and Hitler quickly approved such an exchange plan. The total cost of the "H" class battleships built by the two Germans was 620 million imperial marks, which was almost twice the cost of the "Bismar-class" built before the war.
China provides Germany with about 10,000 tons of rare strategic metals such as tungsten, chromium, and nickel. The settlement price is based on the supply prices provided by the Spanish and Portuguese.
Comrade Mussolini also took advantage of the situation. After the situation in Africa stabilized, the oil production in Libya increased to about 5.5 million tons per year. Italians can now provide Germany with about 2.5 million tons of crude oil every year, but the Italian leaders demanded
The unit price of oil was raised to 15% higher than that of the Romanians. After bargaining, the Germans finally agreed to import Italian crude oil at a price of 8% higher than that of the Romanian crude oil.
But Hitler also ordered that the price of armored steel provided to the Italians be increased by about 10%.
The Allies led by Republican China are also intrigued by each other, like the British and American alliance, and in the name of cooperation, they fight for interests.