Mitchell's tactics were barely recognized by Washington. Although the Army was still undecided to fight the middle or the west first, everyone's judgment was basically the same: if the German navy in the Caribbean had a 23-month vacuum period, the United States would be more sure to succeed in counterattack.

But this grasp was ruthlessly shattered by the reconnaissance telegram received on March 9: an emergency telegram was sent from the Bermuda Islands at 16 o'clock, and a German fleet appeared within the reconnaissance field of view, with at least 1 battleship, 1 large aircraft carrier, 2 medium aircraft carriers, 4 light aircraft carriers or escort aircraft carriers, 46 cruisers, 8 destroyers and a batch of S boats. When it was discovered, it was less than 700 kilometers away from the island and was coming at a speed of 22 knots.

The news immediately shocked Washington and the Atlantic Fleet.

At 19:00, with the emergency reading of reconnaissance aircraft films by intelligence analysts on the island, more information was confirmed: this battleship fully complies with the characteristics of the Lion battleship, one of the four light aircraft carriers meets the characteristics of the Giant-class aircraft carriers, and the other are basically consistent with the German Rhine-class escort aircraft carriers; the two medium-sized aircraft carriers look completely new, but in terms of technical characteristics, they are almost consistent with the new aircraft carriers of the Japanese Joint Fleet Fleet, and are also somewhat similar to the Feilong-class aircraft carrier during the Battle of Midway, and can basically be judged as a ship of the same class; but the large aircraft carrier seems to be converted from a large cruise ship and become a cargo halfway; as for the four cruisers, they look equally close to the new product

The insight and efforts of the US intelligence personnel this time are completely commendable. They have almost completely identified the composition of the German support fleet. Except for some details that cannot be truly recognized, it is very different from the facts.

The two medium-sized aircraft carriers were built by Germany, and are named Sicily and Apennines. They are all under the name of the Italian Navy. The Giant-class aircraft carrier is one of the two light aircraft carriers that the British compensates to the Italians. They were named Sardinia by the Italians. As for the other three Rhine-class, they look like escort aircraft carriers, but they are actually special warships Danube-class converted using the hull of the Rhine-class escort aircraft carrier!

The names of the three special warships were casually named d1943, d1944 and d1945 as usual, but under the name of "non-trivial" it is an epoch-making product rocket aircraft carrier, a newly built warship to verify the launch of ship-based missiles.

Although the cargo ship transformation into a rocket launch platform has the advantages of low cost and rapid transformation, it inevitably brings problems such as slow speed, harsh living conditions, cramped cabins, and low defense capabilities. When using v2\v2 missiles, these problems are not very serious. When the size of the V4 with a larger and higher requirements is on board, these problems will appear a bit troublesome, so we look for a new hull to build a rocket aircraft carrier.

Now there are many warships lying on the axial ship platform and enough tonnage are only three types of warships. The first is Yunlong modification, the second is Rhine-class, and the third is Will wheel. Yunlong modification is the main combat force. There is no essential difference between the Will wheel and the victory wheel originally used. The Free wheel is the most suitable. The Rhine-class modification is used for reconstruction.

The new Danube-class rocket carrier can carry a total of 16 V4 rockets with a range of more than 1,200 kilometers. Due to the immature vertical launch technology, it is used to deploy the front 4 and rear 4 inclined deployment. The front 4 launch tube outlet is just in the front lift position, and the rear 4 launch tube outlet is near the bridge. The rear lift and side lift are still retained for rocket loading and unloading. Among them, 8 rockets are located in the launch tube in advance and can be directly launched in the first round after receiving the order. The other 8 are reserved for ammunition; the most critical propellant for driving the rocket is dispersed and stored in the reinforced and thickened original aircraft carrier flight fuel silo.

The original hangar has become the basic space for missile storage and operation, but only one elevator is used for operation. Although eight other fighter jets were deployed on the deck to cover up, the entire ship was actually driven by the power of aviation but rocket combat. The eight additional fighter jets deployed were all the latest type of sea fangs, but due to deck adjustments, they could no longer take off normally on the deck, and could only be considered as providing backup aircraft for other aircraft carriers. In the original planning, these four sea fangs were replaced with vertical take-off and landing helicopters for anti-submarine, search and rescue, guidance and other tasks. However, due to the tight time, this batch of Danube-class was not at ease and could only be equipped with eight aircraft.

Due to the saving of more aviation facilities and the characteristics of missiles, the Danube-class has also introduced new air defense facilities: Sea Falls 3 air defense missiles.

Waterfall is a surface-to-air missile developed by Germany based on the V2 foundation. It is used for air defense operations. It finally evolved into the American Neki air defense missile in history, but now it has been born ahead of schedule. Waterfall 1 is a pure liquid fuel missile, Waterfall 2 is a solid fuel booster based on liquid fuel, and Waterfall 3 is a pure solid fuel missile.

The Sea Waterfall 3 type was improved on the basis of land-based waterfalls, making it possible to use air defense missiles for ships. Unlike the Neki missile, the waterfall did not develop into a heavy air defense missile after improvement, but a medium-sized missile with a volume that is significantly reduced compared with the original specifications, with a height of less than 5 meters, a bullet diameter of less than 7 meters, a maximum shooting height of 70,000 meters, and can deal with enemy aircraft within a range of 70 kilometers. The warhead was also compressed to a mere 120 kilograms, but the speed was amazing, with a fastest speed of nearly Mach 7, and it has a dual guide head of radio and infrared.

Each Danube-class has 3 4-unit sea waterfalls, and there are 12 bullet-ready bullets. However, in actual combat, bullet-ready bullets can only be used after exiting the battlefield.

The air defense missile, which is heavier than the waterfall, is the daughter of Rhine who was deployed earlier on the island of Azore. The thing fired more than 20,000 meters high, with a combat range of 150 kilometers, and a warhead of nearly 500 kilograms. After explosion in the air, it can break into more than 4,000 high-speed debris. Although it is not as flexible as the waterfall, it is the best weapon to deal with the heavy bomber formation. Such an air defense position has more than 20 places on the island of Azore. In addition, with three standard air defense towers, it completely builds a German aircraft carrier that never sinks on the Atlantic Ocean. So the last time Dulles was going to visit Portugal, Germany not only sent fighter jets to escort, but also let it pass over the Azore so that it could understand the seriousness of the problem. In fact, the Americans did not see it at all. The pilot was competing with the Ta152 pilot and did not pay more attention to it.

Unfortunately, Rhine's daughter had never opened her in actual combat except for dealing with the target aircraft. Instead, the Sea Waterfall 3 deployed on the Danube level was the first to win the lead and killed a b29 that came to reconnaissance with 4 volleys. It was precisely because of the b29 that was shot down that two other US reconnaissance aircraft were attracted. After shooting down one again, the US military finally had only one aircraft to complete rapid reconnaissance and take photos before fleeing.

Now the US military is focusing on the fleet size and analysis, and is not in the mood to study why three reconnaissance planes were shot down by two. The panicked pilots believed that they were missiles shot down by high-speed jets, which looked like small aircraft, while the observers and machine gunners were all on the sea, and they did not notice how friendly aircraft were shot down.

As for the largest aircraft carrier, the Americans did not make any mistakes. It was indeed converted by the large fast cruise ship Bremen, which had won the Blue Ribbon Award. The ship was sister ships with the sinking Europa, but the Bremen's life experience was much more difficult. In 1941, British spies set fire with a drunk and mentally ill crew member, destroying at least half of the internal equipment. The fire soared into the sky and could not be suppressed. In order to put out the fire as soon as possible, German crew members had reduced their losses near the port, but the German Navy has never given up on the idea of ​​converting it into an aircraft carrier. It was simply because the price was too high after calculation.

However, the unfair construction of a standard aircraft carrier does not mean that the construction of a comprehensive aircraft carrier is not cost-effective. The main structure of this cruise ship with a displacement of at least 50,000 tons is basically intact. In addition, the interior has been burned out, which saves a lot of dismantling work, and it only requires an additional salvage work. After Sperer's efforts, the Bremen finally saw the light of day again in 1945 and turned into a cheap comprehensive aircraft carrier. It looks huge. In fact, in addition to being able to carry two battalions of armored grenadiers and 24 tethered aircraft on the deck, the other combat capabilities are very weak.

However, this is just right for attacking islands like Bermuda.
Chapter completed!