Iron Cross

"It's a pity that there's not much time left." Tsukahara Jishizo shook his head slightly. "It's beyond my expectation that Zuikaku can be repaired and installed with catapults within the specified time. If all five aircraft carriers are equipped with catapults, let alone whether Germany has so many catapults for us to use, the construction period alone may take half a year. Moreover, we didn't bring too many pilots this time. After the losses in the early combat, all the reserve pilots have been replaced and it's not full. Who will fly the aircraft if we keep them?"

"Ah..." Kusaka Ryunosuke could only shake his head and sigh: Compared with Germany, Japan has a huge gap in the number of pilots. Germany's naval aviation started only a few months ago, and all personnel were drawn from the Air Force. Now it has established a team of about 800 pilots, and more than 100 pilots have the ability to board ships stably. The naval aviation pilots trained by Japan for many years before the war have been repeatedly lost, and so far they can only maintain a low standard of about 300 people. Before the departure of the combined fleet this time, a group of base pilots were recruited to make up for the number of aircraft carrier pilots. No one denies the elite of Japanese carrier-based pilots, but the number is an absolute weakness.

Although the current overall and reserve scale of German pilots cannot be compared with that of the United States, they have also established a team of more than 1,000 aces (more than 5 shot down or similar results) and nearly 10,000 pilots (including crew members, many of whom were trained after Hoffman served as the Air Force Commander). The scale ranks second in the world, and the overall quality level ranks first in the world. In fact, since Germany does not have heavy bombers and there are not many naval aircraft, after excluding related establishment, the number of German pilots exceeds that of the United States. Recently, the senior officials of the mobile fleet, the three people who stayed in Germany, and Richthofen have been communicating together all day. During the conversation, the aviation staff officer Genda Minoru complacently talked about the plan to expand the number of pilots by 8 times, and also mentioned that Hori Teikichi is preparing to establish at least twice the number of pilots that the aircraft carrier can accommodate for carrier-based aircraft.

But when Richthofen spoke, everyone was dumbfounded: the German head of state was very dissatisfied with the current size of the air force, and ordered the chief of staff of the air force, General Jeschonnek, to personally take charge of the training work, and strive to expand the pilot team by calling back top pilots to train students in turn. He also ambitiously proposed to establish an air force with an annual output of 50,000 aircraft, 20,000 pilots, and 4,000 aces by the end of 1943. In addition, Italy was to achieve an annual output of 60,000 aircraft, with a total number of pilots exceeding 25,000. At the same time, the number of pilots in the naval aviation was to exceed 2,000. Japan's so-called 8-fold expansion plan was simply a drop in the bucket in front of Germany. Another issue that is far behind is the organization and composition of Japanese pilots: Japan does not have an independent air force, and the aircraft belong to the army and navy respectively. Not only are the training methods different, but even the models of aircraft they fly are completely different. At least the basic training of German pilots is consistent, and the aircraft they use are also roughly similar - the He-218 and Bf-219 with the carrier hook removed are new models that the air force has vigorously adopted, which provides a very reliable source for the supplement of naval aviation pilots. At the order of the head of state, the air force units with rich experience in sea attacks, including the JG5 wing stationed in Norway, the pilots stationed on the Atlantic coast of France, Sicily, Italy, and the Mediterranean (now the attack mission in the Mediterranean direction has been greatly reduced) have gradually changed their organization to the naval aviation - this is also the reason why no one thinks that the expansion of the German naval aviation to 2,000 people is bragging. In Japan, it is harder than climbing to the sky for the navy to get a pilot from the army.

Seeing that Kusaka Ryunosuke's face turned bad, Tsukahara patted his shoulder and comforted him: "Don't think too much, Commander Hori Teikichi has considered this comprehensively. He has ordered another set of catapults from Germany. Germany promised to work overtime to complete the delivery before the end of February. He plans to take it back to the country to install it by himself. At the same time, we have obtained relevant drawings from Germany, and we can imitate it in the future. The so-called learning and progress are all achieved bit by bit. It is unrealistic to expect to reach the sky in one step. Why did Commander Hori Teikichi sell battleships and then buy so many engines? It is because we know that our technology and manufacturing level are still quite different from Germany. In order not to affect subsequent operations, we must buy them."

There is a sentence that Tsukahara did not say: Hori Teikichi has already said that if Japan's domestic engines cannot reach the quality of Germany, he will continue to find ways to buy German products.

While the two were discussing the subsequent development of carrier-based aviation, Japanese and German pilots who took off from four aircraft carriers had divided into two attack waves and were approaching Mombasa. This was the first time that German naval aviation pilots actually took off from an aircraft carrier and went into battle. Everyone was excited. Although their ability to take off and land was not as good as that of Japanese pilots, their familiarity with aircraft models far exceeded that of their Japanese counterparts. In addition, the pilots who were involved in the battle this time were all top talents selected from various levels, especially the fighter pilots, many of whom were old hands from the Condor Legion and had experienced the Spanish War. As soon as they met, they relied on the flexible Bf-219 to tangle with enemy aircraft and quickly achieved one victory after another.

In addition, Japanese fighter pilots including the cleaning trio also rushed forward, each finding their target and fighting. On one side was an attacking team consisting of more than 70 cutting-edge fighters, and on the other side was a defensive team consisting of 50 or so old aircraft of various types. On one side were the fighter pilots who were well prepared, experienced, and capable, and on the other side were rookie pilots who were hastily prepared, inexperienced, and had very low abilities. The result is predictable. If it was like hunting turkeys, one Hurricane, Tomahawk, and F4F fighters after another were beaten down from the air by Japanese and German pilots. The whole process was as easy and pleasant as hunting turkeys.

When the news came that "a large aircraft carrier was found, suspected to be the British Furious... 3 small warships and 4 transport ships", Admiral Richthofen, who was in charge of the command tower of the Shokaku and commanded the entire air battle with the assistance of Japanese senior advisers such as Ozawa and Genda Minoru, stood up excitedly. Even Tsukahara Jishizo and Kusaka Ryunosuke, who had been talking in a relaxed and calm tone, turned their heads in astonishment: "There is also an aircraft carrier?"

"The torpedo machine is responsible for sinking the aircraft carrier and other ships immediately!" Richthofen gave the order decisively. Just as he said this, the second wave of Japanese torpedo king Murata Shigeharu, who was in charge of the team, had led the Ju-98 formation to launch an attack.

But before him, a dive bomber had discovered this tempting target and rushed down to attack, which made him so angry that he cursed "Asshole! Asshole!" in his headset.

According to the original plan, the fighters were responsible for dealing with and restraining the enemy aircraft during the attack, the He-218 was responsible for dealing with the coastal air defense firepower and the enemy's airports and warehouses, and the Ju-98 carrying torpedoes was responsible for dealing with the possible navy in the port. But man proposes, God disposes. No one expected that the British and American fighter units that came to fight were so weak. In just a few minutes, they were all shot down by Japanese and German pilots. The fighters with nothing to do immediately played the role of ground attack, and the ground air defense firepower was in a mess - this took the job of the dive bombers, so the He-218 in turn took the job of the Ju-98.

Although the speed of the Ju-98 driven by the torpedo team now far exceeded the original Type 97 carrier-based attack, the problem was that the He-218 flew faster than the Ju-98. Not only did it greatly exceed the old Type 99 carrier-based bomber, but even the original Zero fighter was no match. Therefore, the British and American ships, which were anchored in the harbor and had just received an air defense warning and had not even started to speed up, became the top target, and the slow, large, and valuable aircraft carrier, the Furious, was obviously the most attractive target - what was more terrible was that the carrier-based attack aircraft on this aircraft carrier played the role of a transport team, and the fighter squadron had been completely killed. Apart from the only anti-aircraft firepower on the warship, they could not find any means of counterattack.

Murata Shigeharu saw with his own eyes that 6 bombs hit the Furious, including at least one 500-kilogram bomb, which had achieved the goal from the perspective of paralyzing combat effectiveness - anyway, he had no carrier-based aircraft to take off, but at this point, the torpedo team could not go back empty-handed. He lowered the altitude and fired the torpedoes regardless of the consequences of excessive firepower, and the three German torpedo planes following him had to throw torpedoes at this target.

Poor Fury was hit by 8 bombs and 3 torpedoes in 3 minutes. Not to mention a cruiser-converted aircraft carrier, even a King George V-class battleship would have to kneel here. Soon the aircraft carrier sank rapidly and died. As a result, the water depth was not enough, and the top of the deck was still exposed, blocking the main channel.

The remaining attack aircraft had nothing to do, so they had to throw torpedoes at the transport planes and small warships anchored in the port. Even so, the He-218 took the credit - the transport ship that had just arrived from Madagascar to deliver gasoline to Mombasa became the second victim. A 250-kilogram bomb penetrated the deck and fell into the cargo hold and exploded, detonating the gasoline accumulated inside and causing a huge explosion. All the pilots looked at each other in bewilderment. Did it hit the ammunition depot? But this is obviously a transport ship!

Eisenhower, hiding in the air-raid shelter, stared blankly at the planes painted with Rising Sun Maru and Iron Cross flying over Mombasa. The news reported from all sides almost made him grit his teeth: all the fighter planes were shot down, the shore defense system was destroyed, the airport was bombed to pieces, and seven warships or transport ships including the Furious were sunk...Now these planes began to attack other valuable targets, including radar stations, warehouses, and oil depots. Some fighter planes even went deep into the port and indiscriminately strafed the ground troops with machine guns.