Moreover, although Goering had no leadership skills and poor character, he had always been very protective of others, and his status in the Nazi Party was extremely high, so he soon became a traitor as Wegener expected.
Provided unprecedented support to the Far East Fleet.
Although Raeder and other traditional naval admirals were extremely unhappy, they did not dare to fall out with Göring, a mustachioed best friend for many years. They could only sit back and watch as Wegener became the "Minister of the Air Force and Fleet Department of the Third Reich", while the German Navy's Far East Fleet
It was also renamed the First Fleet of the Luftwaffe.
But objectively speaking, although Wegener's defection to Göring was detrimental to his reputation, although the "First Fleet" was nominally merged into the Air Force, its independence was actually quite strong because it fought in the open sea. As for the Navy,
Although they were very angry about this, firstly they did not dare to offend Goering, who was determined to retaliate, and secondly most of the naval officers Wegener recruited into the Far East Fleet were
Being ostracized and discouraged, he was even forced to retire early like him, so even if he felt a little dissatisfied, he would not abandon his post and leave. Ordinary soldiers would definitely follow their commanders. As for the pilots of the carrier-based aircraft
Most of them were originally from the Air Force, so naturally there would be no resistance, so the First Fleet was not damaged by this storm.
After joining the Air Force, the First Fleet received so many benefits that even Wegener was surprised. First, the funding problem was completely solved. Through Goering's efforts, Mustache agreed to hand over all Germany's assets in the Far East.
Put it at the disposal of the First Fleet. Now that the war has intensified, it is too late to build ships. But as long as you have money, you can buy this shortcut.
Due to the continuous large loss of outstanding carrier-based aircraft pilots, the Japanese Navy will be difficult to make up for the shortfall in a short period of time. At the same time, with the repair of the two American aircraft carriers "Enterprise" and "Hornet" salvaged from Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Navy has
The total number of aircraft carriers has increased to a record 14, further widening the gap in qualified carrier-based aircraft pilots.
Under this circumstance, the Japanese Navy finally agreed to sell two slow-moving old aircraft carriers Akagi and Kaga to the Germans. On the one hand, it could obtain some funds and technology, and on the other hand, it could get rid of these two
This is a burden. In the future, the other 12 high-speed aircraft carriers (the maximum speed is basically more than 33 knots) can give full play to their mobility advantages.
Wegener is also very satisfied with this transaction. Because the positioning of the German aircraft carrier is to protect the two super battleships and send aircraft to chase and destroy the remaining enemies after victory. Therefore, the maximum speed of the aircraft carrier does not need to be too fast. The two aircraft carriers are 28 respectively.
Section 31
The maximum speed of knots is sufficient. Moreover, these two are heavy aircraft carriers. Although the design and hull are relatively old, the number of aircraft carried and the aircraft dispatch rate have obvious advantages over the Zeppelin and Strasser.
This is also what Wegener needed.
Later, Wegener deceived Goering and said that "the Air Force needs airports at sea" and asked him to fund the construction of an "Air Force Floating Airport". A similar design idea was adopted, that is, the speed was slow (but still around 31 knots) but it could carry aircraft.
Special heavy-duty aircraft carriers with good numbers and dispatch rates, although this is not in line with the development direction of aircraft carriers. But because Germany has the most powerful battleships and land-based air power in the world, they have
It still played a considerable role in the middle and late stages of World War II. It is particularly worth mentioning that the "Air Force Floating Airport" has relatively low performance requirements and is naturally relatively easy to build. Even in a country with a shipbuilding industry base like Germany, it is relatively easy to build.
Weak countries (compared to the United States, Britain, and Japan) can also build and produce in large quantities and quickly, which to a certain extent offsets the huge advantage of the United States and Britain's terrifying shipbuilding capabilities.
As for the pilots of the carrier-based aircraft, Wegener does not have to worry. The total number of pilots and flight students brought to China was greatly exceeded compared with the carrying capacity of the two aircraft carriers. Moreover, after joining Goering, Fatty Ge immediately left the Air Force.
No less than 500 experienced and outstanding pilots were transferred from China. The crew and ground staff used the channel which had not yet crossed the border with Germany.
Faced with the Soviet Union, they went to China to join the First Fleet. Although they still need several months of training to fully adapt to maritime operations, it is better to have someone than no one, and there are also many outstanding talents in this group of pilots who are interested in maritime aviation.
For example, Colonel Harlinghausen, Wegener believed that they could quickly complete the transition from land-based air force to carrier-based aviation [
As for carrier-based aircraft, since they are one of their own, Fatty Ge naturally immediately approved the mass production of the fw190 carrier-based fighter jets. However, because China requires the Germans to leave the country within a time limit in order to strictly maintain neutrality, they may turn against each other in the future.
In addition, the war is now in full swing, and China's aircraft, especially aluminum alloy, production capacity is still very limited, making it difficult to meet the needs of the fleet in a timely manner. Therefore, Wegener did not purchase from China as originally planned, but chose to allow Japanese companies to license production.
It's just that the engines produced in Japan cannot meet the requirements in terms of performance and quality, so the engines are still ordered from China. Although the performance of the Chinese aviation engines themselves is not as good as the German products, the matching turbochargers
But it is the best in the world, which can make up for this shortcoming to a large extent. Besides, even the engine itself is always better than Japanese products. After all, China
The aviation industry of China was brought up step by step by Germany, and there are still a large number of German experts and technicians working in China. Although the millions of Czech workers have had troubles, their quality is indeed excellent, and the quality of the parts they produce is world-class. And
Because Japan itself is already an industrial country, it must consider issues such as the employment of workers, but cannot learn these "evil ways" (of course this is not a bad thing)
But an industrial country is an industrial country after all. Even if Japan is just a primary industrial country where the people are still poor, it still has much stronger technological research and development capabilities than China. Although those alloy materials and processing techniques are difficult to imitate, there are merits in Chinese product design.
It was quickly adopted by Japanese engine experts, which somewhat improved the performance of Japanese aviation engines.
Design level. However, the real qualitative change in Japan's aero-engine level will have to wait until the Germans transfer those key materials and processes to it. It is impossible to quickly catch up with the world's advanced level by just relying on one's own research in this area. If possible,
, direct introduction is a shortcut, and this is what Japan did after the war in history (to be continued...)