The Rise of the Third Reich

"5,000? That many?" Kennedy was startled by William Leahy's report. Although he has no experience in fighting in the military, he has gained a lot of military knowledge for the election these days. Of course he knows what so many fighter planes mean?

"Actually," Leahy's brows furrowed tightly, looking very worried, "the number of fighter planes that the Germans can put into the Guyana-Caribbean battlefield exceeds this number. Because they also have many aircraft carriers that can carry about 2,000 fighter planes. "Carrier-based aircraft."

"That's 7,000..." Kennedy's eyes swept over several generals in military uniforms in the conference room. "How many aircraft have we deployed in Trinidad?"

"There are about 4,000 Army, Navy, and Marine Corps aircraft on Trinidad," answered General Arnold, commander of Army Aviation. "There are also more in Venezuela, the Leeward Islands, the Windward Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Panama Islands. About 6,000 fighter planes. In addition, we have about 1,500 fighter planes on the battlefield in northern Brazil, 1,300 aircraft in the Panama Canal Zone, and a total of no less than 1,200 aircraft on other Pirates of the Caribbean islands."

General Arnold reported a series of numbers, and Kennedy did a little mental calculation, "About 14,000? It doesn't seem like enough."

Of course, 14,000 is twice as large as 7,000, but Kennedy also knows that his forces are scattered, and the performance of the fighters and the quality of the pilots are not as good as those of his opponents.

"We also plan to increase the number of troops on the Caribbean front." Ernest King assured Kennedy, "And we also have a large number of aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft that can be reinforced at any time."

In the last Battle of Bermuda, the U.S. battleship force almost suffered a disaster. However, the aircraft carrier did not suffer much loss (a lot of carrier-based aircraft were lost), and in the three months of October, November and December, many fleet aircraft carriers and escort aircraft carriers were put into service. The current lineup of US aircraft carriers It can be said to be unprecedentedly powerful.

The loss of carrier-based aircraft pilots has also been made up in the past three months, returning to more than 4,000 (referring to captains). Although the large number of newbies added to the Naval Air Force are not satisfactory in terms of technical level and combat experience, the number is still sufficient.

The Naval Air Force also adjusted the composition of the carrier-based aircraft force based on the experience of the Bermuda Campaign. SBD and TBF series carrier-based aircraft were largely eliminated, leaving only the TBM/TBF-3W carrier-based radar warning aircraft equipped with AN/APS-20 radar as the eyes and ears of the fleet. The ones that will be installed on the ship are fighters/fighter-bombers such as F4U and F6F. At the same time, the work of carrier-based F7F is also going all out. If everything goes well, a carrier-based F7F will appear in the second half of 2045.

The development process of the two-seat version (war bomber version) of the land-based F7F "Tiger Cat" fighter jet is faster. It made its first flight in early December and achieved success. Trial production should be possible in the first quarter of 2045, by which time the US aircraft carrier force will have a truly powerful attack power.

In addition, the U.S. Army Air Force also has a very strange heavy fighter that is about to enter service. The development code name of this aircraft is XP-82. It was developed by North American Airlines on the basis of the P-51. This aircraft is very creative. North American Airlines proposed to connect the two P-51 fuselages together through a rectangular center wing section and horizontal tail, and The outer wing sections of the P-51 were retained to form a twin-fuselage monster.

Because it is "assembled" from two P-51s, this aircraft has greater ultimate range, speed and heavy firepower than the P-51. In the original plan of the U.S. Army Air Forces, the P-82 would undertake long-range escort missions and cover the B-29s in bombing Japanese targets in Southeast Asia.

However, although the current situation is completely different from what was expected, the U.S. Army Air Force is still pleasantly surprised to find that the P-82 is their continued "heavy long-range fighter-bomber". Its range, speed, firepower and bomb load all exceed The P-61 was originally developed as a night fighter. It can completely undertake the task of attacking German long-range bombers and surface fleets during the day. Therefore, this imaginative aircraft received a huge amount of orders in the last two months of 1944, and was also included in the top priority list for production.

After introducing the development plan of the new fighter aircraft, General Arnold assured Kennedy: "As long as the carrier-based version of the F7F 'Tiger Cat' fighter jet and the P-82 'Twin Mustang' fighter jets are put into service in large numbers, the security of the East Coast of the United States and the Caribbean will be We will have enough protection. We will be able to intercept German long-range bombers and surface fleets to ensure that missiles will not fall on the heads of the American people.”

"But the development process of aircraft is very long, right?" Kennedy frowned and asked, "What should we do before these two new aircraft are completed and equipped with a large number of troops?"

"We should defend the Caribbean Sea with all our strength," William Leahy took over the topic, "while continuing to promote the disintegration of the new Asbanian Federation through large-scale bombing and ground attacks... This is the best solution considered by the Joint Chiefs of Staff."

The President's chief of staff responded to Kennedy's question with a little helplessness, because the door to the "humiliating peace" had been temporarily closed due to Roosevelt's death and the November election.

Therefore, as the president's military staff, the Joint Chiefs of Staff can only make plans to fight on. However, judging from the current situation, the situation seems to be better than imagined.

The Germans also showed some signs of weakness. Perhaps the more than five years of war had also made these "blond supermen" feel strenuous, right?

"The key is to defend the Caribbean, right?" Kennedy didn't have much hope of dismantling the new Asbanian federation - where the Germans were mobilizing the Russian Air Expeditionary Force! It is said that hundreds more Fw190 fighter jets will be added, and the loss rate in the next thousand-plane bombing may exceed 20%.

Several generals in military uniforms exchanged glances with each other and nodded in unison.

"Yes! The key is the Caribbean Sea!"

"We will definitely defend there!"

…

When Kennedy returned to Washington, D.C., Reichsmarschall Hessmann, the Chief of General Staff of the German Empire, had just arrived in the ice-covered Petrograd with his personal secretary Natalie and chief aide Colonel Heinz Brandt.

This time he "visited secretly" Petrograd, so Queen Olga did not hold a grand welcome ceremony for him, so he was able to observe the true face of the Russian Empire under the Queen's rule.

The capital of the Russian Empire seems to have recovered some of its strength compared to 1943, but it still shows signs of depression everywhere.

Supplies in the city remain very tight, with few shops open. In the low temperature of minus 20 degrees, Hersman saw many elderly men and women wearing fur hats or turbans lining up in front of the few open shops on Nevsky Prospekt. Long queue - that's supposed to be the food supply selling brown bread, margarine and milk.

In addition to people queuing up to buy food, there are also many men and women walking to work wearing thick cotton coats and braving the Russian wind and snow on Nevsky Prospekt.

Prince Yusupov, who was greeted at the airport, told Hersman: There are very few buses in Petrograd (there are few in the whole of Russia), and the fares are too expensive compared to wages. Most people are willing to walk a little longer to go to work.

However, Hersman felt that even if the Russians were willing to spend money to ride in a car, there might not be enough cars for them in Petrograd, because there are really few vehicles on the road, and most of them are produced in Germany and France. There is not a single Russian car - the Russian automobile industry almost does not exist now. The Soviet Union's years of accumulation and development were destroyed in the war. The Volga Automobile City, which was built at a huge cost, turned into ruins, and most of the engineers and workers went there. to Siberia and Central Asia. But even if they don't leave, the factory won't be demolished and nothing will be produced now. Because most of the factories that support automobile factories have been destroyed.

The Soviet industrial system was not inherited by the Russian Empire, but collapsed because of the war!

Factories established under the planned economic system relying on state instructions are also very dependent on this large and comprehensive industrial system - factory managers have no idea how to find markets, materials, and technology.

Therefore, except for some arsenals, shipyards, oil fields and mines that were actually taken over by the German military industry department, and the vodka distillery that must not be stopped in Russia, there are almost no industrial enterprises in normal operation in the Soviet Union. .

However, the Russian Empress and her government, who cherish their current status, do not dare to use "shock therapy" to push a large number of unsustainable state-owned enterprises to the market at once.

The Russian Empire now follows the Soviet management system, relying on the government's limited financial resources to barely maintain the operations of those enterprises. In order to allow most adult Russian urban residents to have a place to receive a meager salary-but the salary they receive is not the ruble that will soon depreciate, but the more reassuring European mark.

And for ordinary Russians, there are opportunities to make more money. There are now two ways to "get rich" in front of Russians. One is to work in Western Europe - this requires some skills or the ability to speak some German and French; the other is to join the Russian Expeditionary Force and serve as cannon fodder for the Germans to attack the United States.