It is not a simple task to choose a good air strike target. Because there are too few targets available for the Red Navy. The Red Navy has three German, Italian and Japanese axes. But among these three targets, Japan and Italy must be eliminated first, let’s not talk about the Japanese side. The Pacific Fleet of the Red Navy is as weak as a slack, and provoking the joint fleet is just to die. As for Italy, the Black Sea Fleet cannot leave the Black Sea, and the Northern Fleet is too far away, so it naturally has to be eliminated.

So in fact, the only targets that the Red Navy can attack is the German Navy. But there are many targets worth mentioning in the current German Navy except submarines? Besmer has been sunk, while Tirpitz is huddled in the fjords of Norway. Both ships Schánhorst and Gneisenau were injured by the Royal Air Force and are still under maintenance. Apart from these three large ships, Germany has only a few Hippel-class heavy cruisers left, but heavy cruisers are not enough. No matter how you look at it, you feel like you are killing chickens with a dragon-slaying sword.

In addition to the air strikes on German naval targets, it is not impossible to "No" and "Wrong" land targets, but the Air Force did a good job and did not need the help of the Red Navy at all. Moreover, even if you help, it would not be outstanding, and it can only be considered icing on the cake.

After some planning, Li Xiaofeng finally set two goals, the first was the German Navy's submarine base and related facilities, and the second was the Tirpitz mentioned earlier. Only these two goals can be considered sufficient.

However, it is not easy to attack these two targets. Let’s talk about submarine facilities first. In order to allow precious U-boats to survive the bombing of the Allies, the Germans spared no effort to build a large number of solid U-boat caverns. For example, the "Ebe 2" in Hamburg, "Fink 2" in North Sea 3" in Hurgland, and "Killian" in Kiel, "Conrad" and "Valentine" in Bremen, and "Bumblebee". Even after invading Norway, "Bruno", "Dora 1" and "Dora 2" were built using Norway's unique geographical conditions. These are submarine caverns within the range of attacks that the Red Sea can do. In Brest and Norion, Saint-Nazell, Germany also has submarine bases and caverns.

Also, please note that the Germans spared no effort to deal with these cave libraries, and their defense was quite considerable. Take the relatively small cave library in Hamburg, which can only accommodate three U-boats side by side, for example, its strength is crazy.

On March 8, 1945, the Royal Air Force dispatched more than 300 bombers to bomb the Hamburg Port Terminal area and dropped about 1,000 tons of bombs. Then at the end of March, the Royal Air Force dispatched 450 bombs to drop 2,200 tons of bombs, almost flattening the Horvaldes factory area, but the "Ebe River 2" cave library in the same area was basically unharmed.

The unwilling Britain made a comeback again on April 8. Once again, 400 bombers were dispatched to bomb the "Ebehe 2" cave warehouse, but what happened? It only shook the lifting steel door at the entrance of the Dongku shipyard, and the main structure of the cave warehouse was still intact. By the end of World War II, the "Ebehe 2" still stored four Type 21 submarines and two Type 7c submarines.

Please note that this is just the "Ebe 2" which is not large in scale, while the largest U-boat cave in Germany, "Fenk 2" is even more powerful. On April 9, 1945, 17 Lancasters from the Royal Air Force carried 15 high cabinets weighing up to five tons and two Grand Slams weighing up to ten tons, specifically for the "Fenk 2".

During this bombing, six of the 17 bombs hit Fink II. Although the top of the cave library was blown through, the overall structure of the cave library was still intact, and the shock wave only caused minor injuries to the submarines in the cave library!

You should know that this is a high cabinet and a Grand Slam bomb. Blasting Tirpitz is like playing, but it is somewhat hindered to deal with these sturdy hole warehouses. It can be seen that the Germans used construction materials so much.

For the Red Navy, if you want to bomb these sturdy caves, you cannot do worse than the Royal Air Force and the US Army Air. Either send hundreds of bombs to carpet flow, or you can use super heavy bombs to kill. But what makes the Red Navy depressed is that aircraft carriers do not have the above capabilities. Now the Red Navy can only deploy 5 aircraft carriers, and even if you add one, you can't get hundreds of bombs. Also, please note that the maximum load capacity of the RO-2 and RO-3 is limited and cannot carry five or ten tons of bombs. In other words, the Red Navy has insufficient ability to strike such extremely solid targets.

Otherwise, let’s not blow up the U-boat cave warehouse or deal with Tirpitz? But to be honest, Tirpitz is not easy to deal with!

It’s not that Tirpitz has strong air defense capabilities. As we all know, the air defense capabilities of German warships in World War II are jokes. What really makes Tirpitz difficult to deal with is that he hides in a unique geographical environment.

At this time, Tirpitz hid in the Fate Fjord 24 kilometers away from Trondheim, Norway. The water surface of this fjord is about 1.2 kilometers wide, with three breads sandwiched between the steep cliffs. Moreover, the anchor position of Tirpitz is directly below the cliffs to the north, with a large number of anti-aircraft guns and anti-air balloons arranged on and around the cliffs.

In fact, the "refueling operation" carried out by the Royal Air Force in January 1942 proved that it was difficult for Tirpitz to attack. In that operation, only two of the 16 bombers flew to the Norwegian coastline. After searching for a long time without finding traces of Tirpitz, they randomly searched for several ships to drop bombs and returned. After that, the unwilling Royal Air Force tried several more times, but the results were not ideal.

Some comrades may want to say that since horizontal bombing and dive bombing are not good, then get on torpedoes. Unfortunately, torpedoes are not good either, because there was a circle of anti-submarine networks and lightning protection networks near the Tirpitz. When the Royal Navy sent X-class pocket submarines to raid, it almost failed.

Li Xiaofeng knew very well that under the current circumstances, it was a fool to destroy Tirpitz through air strikes. Is there no way to solve the problem with Tirpitz? A certain immortal didn't think so. He still came up with two solutions, one was a technical solution and the other was a tactical solution.

Let’s talk about the technical solution first. This is also the one that Li Xiaofeng has been vigorously promoting since the 1930s, that is, missiles. Specifically, it is anti-ship cruise missiles. After entering 1941, the research and development speed of anti-ship missiles, which later called P1, suddenly accelerated. Moreover, due to the addition of the Air Force, the investment in the development of key electronic equipment has been greatly enhanced. By May 1942, the small diameter cone scanning radar had already produced the finished product. Although the reliability and volume were still large, it finally solved whether there was any problem. Anyway, it could be used.

It is not enough to have radar. Another major problem that plagues the Soviet missile industry was the engine. At that time, the research and development part came up with three sets of plans, one was to use the conventional layout of existing piston engines to attack, the other was to rocket engine solutions. The last set was jet power solutions.

The first of these three solutions is the jet power scheme, because the Soviet Union's metallurgy and precision machining capabilities are still too poor, so the jet power is really not enough, and the engine failure rate that is barely saved is extremely high.

Next, there are two plans left. The rocket engine plan is much better than the jet plan. At least through the development of rocket launchers, the Soviet Union still has certain technical reserves in this regard. General solid rocket engines and liquid rocket engines are OK. However, the ones to be used on missiles are not ordinary rocket engines. According to the design indicators, the p1 anti-ship missile requires a 500-kilogram armor-piercing warhead, and the range is not less than 30 kilometers. OK. The combined difficulty of these two items soars. Anyway, the existing rocket engines cannot meet the requirements. The thrust is seriously insufficient!

According to the normal R&D speed, it will take at least one year to solve the engine problem. But it is obvious that Li Xiaofeng can't wait for a year, and he wants to prove the power of the naval aviation force now.

So, the power of the rocket engine was also out, and it seemed that the existing piston engine could only be used to build a missile similar to a "small aircraft". However, there is a problem with this. In the layout of the existing piston engine, the nose must be occupied by the engine and the propeller. The missile seeker should be placed on the nose due to the field of vision, which inevitably leads to contradictions. Either the engine and the propeller are moved to the butt, or the seeker must be arranged on the belly of the aircraft.

The Soviet designer's choice was very simple, that is, put the engine at the tail, and this strange missile, which was later called Anti-Ship 1, was born. It seems that it can be used to drive champagne? It seems that Tirpitz is doomed?

Hehe, you are too happy too early. There is no problem with the tactical performance of the Anti-Ship No. 1, and it even exceeds the technical requirements. Its maximum range reaches 60 kilometers (piston engines are fuel-efficient), and its live-fire performance is also pretty good.

However, the Navy Air Force had no way to use it to attack Tirpitz. The reason is very simple, because it uses piston engines and aircraft-like layouts, and this kind of missile is very large, so it cannot be plugged into the bullet cabin and can only be plugged in. Among the existing attack aircraft of the Red Navy, none of them can hang it under the wings. As for the belly, because the ground height is lower, the huge propeller of the missile can directly judge this impossible.

Let's put it this way, the anti-ship No. 1 missile cannot be used. No attack aircraft and bombers equipped by the Red Army can carry it to safely take it out, even big guys like the Tu-3 and Pe-8 are not good.

It is obvious that using technical methods to solve the problem of Tirpitz's path is temporarily unworkable, which means that Li Xiaofeng only has the second path left, and he has tried to find a way from tactics. To put it bluntly, it is very simple to lure out the Tirpitz, which is huddled in the Norwegian fjord. As long as this guy reaches the ocean, sinking it will undoubtedly be much easier.

But this is not easy. Since the end of the Bersgian McGrady, the German Navy's main ships except submarines have been very low-key and will not go to sea to fight easily. Especially for symbolic giant ships like Tirpitz, they are even more cautious. If there is no attractive enough bait, Tirpitz will definitely not be dispatched.

So what kind of goal can arouse Tirpitz or Hitler's interest? In fact, there is an answer in history. At the end of June 1942, the PQ-17 formation sailing from the United States to the Soviet Union aroused Hitler's interest. This fleet with 34 merchant ships transporting a total of more than 200,000 tons of supplies immediately excited Xiaowang, and even ordered the precious Tirpitz to attack (turned back halfway).

The "achievements" of pq-17 made Li Xiaofeng see a possibility. If a fake target similar to pq-17 is virtually created, the Germans are likely to be fooled. Even if it is like history, Tirpitz returns to the Norwegian anchorage halfway. But as long as the product comes out, it will be much easier to fight.

Soon Li Xiaofeng formulated a "fishing" plan and asked him to hand it over to Kuznetsov and Sukhoi for detailed research, and asked the two to come up with a complete plan.

When Kuznetsov and Sukhoi received this mission, their faces were not very good-looking, because this plan was a bit whimsical and it was very risky to implement. The most important thing is, who can guarantee that the Germans will definitely dispatch the Tirpitz? According to the current naval battle trend in the Atlantic Ocean, it is easier for the Germans to play submarines and planes, and large battleships basically exist in fleets.

"Comrade Andre, how can this be done?" Sukhoi and Kuznetsov asked in unison.

Before a certain immortal could speak, Sukhoi shouted: "What if the enemy does not send out the Tirpitz?"

But Kuznetsov said, "What if the Germans see through it that it is a bait, and they won't be fooled?"

From the answers of these two people, we can see their different understanding of a certain immortal. Sukhoi is too familiar with a certain immortal. Since a certain immortal proposed a strategy of induced a snake out of the cave, this strategy will definitely be realized, and the Germans will definitely not be able to see through it. So he did not have Kuznetsov's concerns, and he was not worried that the Germans would not be fooled. What he was worried about was, what should he do if the Tirpitz didn't come out?

Li Xiaofeng raised his eyelids and said slowly: "kgb has already hinted through some channels that the German spy hidden among us. In June, the Type 36 anti-submarine frigate we built for the UK will be delivered uniformly..."

As soon as this sentence came out, Sukhoi and Kuznetsov's eyes immediately lit up because this bait was attractive enough to the Germans. As Britain introduced a large number of old-style destroyers from the United States through the loan leasing bill, it gradually began to improve the escort system, which had an impact on Germany's submarine tactics.

It is particularly worth mentioning that German submarines are constantly trying to strangle the Soviet Arctic Ocean route, but because of the excellent performance and complete escort system of the Type 36 anti-submarine frigate, coupled with the uninterrupted patrol of the Red Navy aviation, the lethality of German submarines on the Soviet Arctic Ocean route is really not worth mentioning, and instead they have lost many submarines.

If the Royal Navy also introduced Type 36 frigates, it would definitely not be a good thing for the Germans. If these frigates could be destroyed at one time, would it be worth a try?

Sukhoi and Kuznetsov believe that the Germans might really take risks. Moreover, because of the excellent anti-submarine performance of the Type 36 frigate, if the Germans really want to try their skills, they may not be the main force and may choose to let the large main ships come out in full swing. Can the Tirpitz continue to stay in Norway?

Li Xiaofeng seemed to think that the bait was not good enough. He continued: "KGB spread not only this news, but also said that two hundred tons of gold were carried on this batch of Type 36 frigates, which were specially used to pay advance payments to the United States for various war resources..."

hiss……

Sukhoi and Kuznetsov took a breath at that time. For the Germans, strangling Britain's maritime lifeline and defeating the Soviet Union as soon as possible were their core tasks. Once the Soviet Union purchased more war resources from the United States, the Soviet Union's industrial capabilities would inevitably produce more and more powerful weapons and equipment. So for the Germans, a risky naval battle can not only solve the British threat and severely damage the Soviet Union, but no matter how high the risk is, it is worth it!

Let me put it this way, the bait that Li Xiaofeng threw out really scratched the itch of the Germans, and the urinary nature of the moustache was absolutely unbearable. As expected, after the Gestapo obtained this information, the moustache immediately found Drell and consulted the navy's suggestions.

What advice does Drell have? He will definitely not choose to avoid the battle, because with the losses of the Pesme and the emergence of the submarine force, he put a lot of pressure on his shoulders. If he could not achieve excellent results, with Hitler's bad temper, he would probably order the dismantling of all the surface ships and let the navy go on land to be a cattle and horse.

For an old navy, Drell always believed that surface ships are the king, and although submarines can be used for a while, they have many shortcomings. Once the enemy is taken seriously and then targeted tactics are adopted and used in large-scale use of new anti-submarine weapons, the good days of submarines will soon end. According to his traditional thinking, if you want to win this war, the surface ship troops must become stronger.

But what made Dreyer depressed was that Hitler was an extreme person. The head of state decided that even the nine-headed dragon could not pull back, let alone his old arms and legs. So Dreyer was anxiously waiting for the opportunity to prove the role of surface ships, especially large ships.

And this time, Dreyer thought it was a good opportunity, and he said: "According to your intelligence, this transaction between the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom will directly endanger the survival of the empire, so it must be destroyed anyway."

After a moment of salvage, Dreyer looked at Hitler's face, and the beard seemed to agree with it. He continued to say: "But such an important transaction, whether it is Britain or the Soviet Union, there will be heavy troops to protect it. They are likely to dispatch large warships. For such a fleet, there are not many ways to submarine troops, and the enemy fleet routes are likely to intentionally avoid our air force, so if we want to destroy it, there is only one way, and our main battleship must be dispatched..." (To be continued...)

ps: Bow to thank Pig Xiaosha 2, Ma Shen**, hackers on the iceberg, southern wanderers and comrade Juventus!

301: Pull the snake out of the hole:
Chapter completed!