The Third Reich: The Return of the King

Chapter 884

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Fuso battleship is an old ship before World War I. Compared with the main battleships of various countries in the world, this battleship is of course outdated.

However, for the Japanese army, they have no natural enemies in the Far East. The only country around them that threatens them is the Celestial Empire, which is now being rubbed on the ground by them. The

Celestial Empire’s navy is quite weak. Not to mention battleships, there are not even a few cruisers, and they are all old cruisers with relatively small tonnage and poor performance. Therefore, for the Japanese army, old ships like the Fuso-class battleships are definitely the overlords in the Far East, and they will naturally not be easily retired.

What’s more, the early development of the Japanese navy was really saved by Tianhuang, who took the lead in saving money and scraped it out from the gaps between his teeth. Of course, they were reluctant to waste such a little property. After all, in the era when aircraft carriers were the main battleships, battleships did not need to fight with enemy battleships on the battlefield!

As long as there is no direct confrontation between battleships, the shortcomings of old battleships such as the Fuso class are not so obvious. As long as they can keep up with the pace of the fleet, and then slightly modify them, and add more anti-aircraft firepower to the battleships, they can act as sword guards around aircraft carriers, specifically protecting aircraft carriers from the threat of enemy air attacks and surface harassment!

The Japanese army’s combat thinking is generally correct, and they are different from the German army.

When the Third Reich was developing its navy, the domestic battleships had long been divided up by the Allies, so they had no choice but to redesign and build new battleships to serve.

As the victors of World War I, countries like Foot Basin, the British Empire and Eagle Sauce did not have to start from scratch like the Third Reich and spend huge sums of money to build a brand new battleship. They only needed to invest some money to develop new battleships, and then upgrade the existing battleships!

This is not only common in this time and space, but also a common practice of navies in various countries in history.

Historically, due to the restrictions of the Washington Naval Treaty, the navies of various countries ushered in a naval holiday after World War I. They did not build battleships and aircraft carriers on a large scale for a long time, but instead transformed and upgraded the existing old battleships.

So when World War II broke out, many of the navies of various countries were battleships that had been in service during World War I, such as the Elizabeth-class battleships of the British Empire, and the Fuso-class and Kongo-class battleships of the Japanese Army.

These battleships may not be able to serve as main battleships to fight naval battles, but it is no problem to be the second-level main battleships to do some dirty work.

The battleship Fuso next to the Soryu aircraft carrier did such hard work. Before the expedition, more than 20 20mm single-barrel anti-aircraft guns were temporarily installed in its midship. The four corners of the battleship were also modified in the shipyard, and 4 twin 37mm anti-aircraft guns were installed.

Together with the other secondary guns on the battleship, if you count it down, there are at least 65 anti-aircraft guns on the battleship Fuso!

Such fierce anti-aircraft firepower naturally makes the battleship Fuso more powerful. Coupled with its not outstanding naval combat capabilities, Fuso was specially assigned to the aircraft carrier to serve as the escort of the Soryu!

When the fight started, the Soryu was counting on the Fuso to help it resist the bombing of enemy aircraft!

As a result, the battle had just started, and the Dragon itself had no problem, but the Fuso, the sword-carrying guard, had been shot and fell to the ground!

The German army was different from the Japanese army. When they attacked the Japanese fleet, they did not rush straight towards the enemy’s aircraft carriers. Instead, they chose to attack the targets with the most intense enemy anti-aircraft firepower and the greatest threat to them!

For the German army, this Japanese fleet was already in their pockets. If there was no accident, they basically could not escape.

So the German army was not in a hurry to solve the Japanese aircraft carriers. Anyway, they had plenty of time, and the other party could not escape from their palms. Even if they could not solve it once, they could come a few more times. If it didn’t work once, they would come twice, and if it didn’t work twice, they would come three times…

If they ran a few more times, they would be able to see the Dragon King!

Therefore, the German army was not in a hurry at all.

On the contrary, they cared about their casualties. After all, this place was relatively close to the enemy’s fleet. Once shot down, the pilots would either sacrifice directly or parachute. If they sacrificed directly, it would be okay. The key was that after parachuting, they would most likely be captured by the Japanese army.

After being bombed so fiercely by the German army, didn’t the Japanese soldiers hate the German planes?

In this case, if their pilots were captured by them, there was no need to say what would happen.

Therefore, in order to reduce casualties as much as possible, the German army’s primary goal was to weaken the enemy’s anti-aircraft firepower, kill the enemy’s battleships and cruisers equipped with a large number of anti-aircraft guns, and make the enemy lose their ability to resist, so that their fighters could deal with them at a lower risk!

When the Germans began their air raid, the Fuso immediately opened up the firepower gap with other warships as soon as more than 60 anti-aircraft guns opened fire.

Although this battleship looked quite old, such fierce anti-aircraft firepower still attracted the attention of the Germans. Therefore, like the other four battleships, the Fuso was listed as the first target to be attacked, and it was taken care of by eight German aircraft!

These eight aircraft were divided into two parts, one of which was four dive bombers, who were responsible for cutting in at high speed from different angles, attacking targets on the enemy’s deck, and directly attacking the enemy’s anti-aircraft firepower.

The other four fighters were four torpedo planes. They were responsible for launching attacks from the water surface, flying at a very low altitude over the sea, and then throwing four torpedoes at a distance of less than 500 meters from the Fuso, using torpedoes to attack the Fuso battleship below the waterline!

For any battleship, a torpedo is a deadly weapon. A large battleship of tens of thousands of tons may not be able to withstand the attack of a torpedo. If you are unlucky, you may be sunk by being hit by a torpedo. Therefore, using torpedoes to solve the target and sink the enemy ship is the most effective and fastest way.

The soldiers on the Fuso battleship were attracted by the huge momentum created by the dive bombers, and their attention was almost entirely focused on the threat in the air, but they ignored the four torpedo planes that were quietly approaching from the sea!

As a result, the four torpedo planes approached the target without hindrance and fired four torpedoes!