Chapter 640: Successful Landing
“This isn’t the Japanese’s style! I think it must be the work of that small German fleet in Australia!” Nimitz complained to General Spruance beside him, staring at the report in his hand. “The method of destroying the transport lines is very similar to the wolf packs in the Atlantic. I’ll bet it’s Dönitz’s men!”
Spruance had already read the report. He sighed helplessly before saying, “The people from the State Department say that German diplomats have flatly denied that their submarines are attacking American transport ships in the Pacific, and they demand that we present evidence before speaking.”
“Evidence? I’ve had 150,000 tons of transport ships and fishing boats sunk in the last ten days! What more evidence do they need? The merchant ships we’ve lost in these ten days are more than the total tonnage of all the supply ships we’ve lost since the war with Japan began! If the Japanese had this capability, why didn’t they use it before?” Even the usually well-mannered Nimitz couldn’t help but curse after seeing the purely standard official rhetoric of the German diplomats. It seemed that being a diplomat was not a job for everyone. At least if someone talked nonsense to a soldier’s face, he could greet them with a fist. A diplomat could not.
General Spruance pointed to the sea chart and said to Nimitz, “Let’s focus on how to deal with the Japanese soldiers on Kauai. According to reports from our patrol boats, the enemy is using submarines to supply the island. It seems our plan to starve them out was a bit too optimistic.”
“The Japanese Combined Fleet has now retreated to the home islands for rest and refit. The source of this intelligence is very reliable, so I have decided to let the fleet head south to attack the Japanese maritime supply lines near the port of Darwin!” Nimitz stopped his pointless ranting and said to General Spruance, “In any case, the Japanese fleet can’t just fly back to the waters near Oahu. We have a huge time window we can exploit!”
“You mean, send the entire fleet south?” Spruance asked with a frown. He was worried that his fleet would be trapped by the Japanese in the island-filled region of Southeast Asia and forced into a decisive battle with no chance of winning. If the Japanese Navy were to succeed, the U.S. Pacific Fleet would be annihilated once again. Even with the world’s most powerful industrial capacity, the United States could not withstand such massive consumption.
Moreover, the American fleet would be heading south nearly a month after the Japanese fleet had left. By now, the Japanese fleet should have recovered and be ready for combat again. If the American fleet were to make a long-range raid on Darwin, it would be the one that was exhausted, and the situation would once again be unfavorable for the U.S. Navy. So Spruance spoke again: “Admiral, our fleet hasn’t had any rest either. Under these circumstances… isn’t a hasty offensive a bit unwise?”
Nimitz nodded and then shared his thoughts: “We’ve already dismantled most of the naval port in Hawaii, and most of the remaining fuel has been consumed. We will now lead the fleet south for a sneak attack, gain some advantage, and then withdraw, leaving the Hawaiian Islands to the Japanese!”
The core of this plan was to trade land for the enemy’s elite forces, to use the advantage of strategic space to annihilate the enemy’s effective strength as much as possible, to consume Japan’s war potential, and to make a high-stakes gamble to win back the maritime initiative faster.
“I’ll take the Hornet and the Ranger south, while you and the Yorktown and the rest of the fleet stay at Pearl Harbor… wouldn’t that be more prudent?” Spruance’s suggestion was a bit better than Nimitz’s. After all, losing Pearl Harbor would have a great impact on the United States, and a future American counter-offensive without Pearl Harbor would be anything but easy.
“Are you confident you can get back before that fellow Yamamoto comes charging back?” Nimitz asked, looking at his old friend, the preeminent carrier commander, General Spruance. If Patton was the best fighting general in the U.S. Army, then Spruance was probably the most capable brawler in the U.S. Navy.
“When the Germans were dealing with the Royal Navy, they set a very good example for us. They proved with facts that it is possible to gain an advantage in a naval battle relying solely on aircraft carriers!” As one of the few carrier fleet commanders in the U.S. Navy, Spruance had specially studied the rise of the German Navy. He could be said to be the American who best understood the recent history of the German Navy.
When he saw how the German Navy cleverly used radar and carriers to form a technological advantage, maneuvering against the Royal Navy in the narrow North Sea and achieving a decisive victory, it was as if he saw a ray of light, a ray of light that illuminated the future direction of the U.S. Navy fleet, shining into his mind.
The radar advantage the Germans had, the U.S. Navy now had against the Japanese Navy! American carriers could definitely maneuver against the Japanese battleships in the vast Pacific Ocean! Spruance was determined not to let Lütjens have all the glory; he was determined to become the world’s foremost expert in aircraft carrier command.
“I believe it’s possible! Admiral. The German Navy has examples of this kind of combat victory. I have carefully studied the methods they used in battle. It’s simply attacking during the day and retreating at night. As long as we strictly avoid the risks of carrier night battles, we can achieve victory at sea!” Spruance finally said firmly to Nimitz.
“Carriers… are really a useful weapon. But why? Is it really impossible for carriers to conduct night battles?” Nimitz asked General Spruance beside him with some regret.
“Is it really impossible for carriers to conduct night battles?” On the other side of the world, Lütjens, who could now be called the world’s number one carrier command expert, was asking the same question. Beside him, a German naval technical expert was anxiously watching the flight deck outside the bridge.
How to get a plane to take off from a carrier at night was a question well worth considering. If this shortcoming could be overcome, allowing carriers to conduct night battles, then this weapon would be the undisputed king of naval warfare. No ship could shake its dominant position. On that day, the damn battleships would be driven from the stage of history, becoming souvenirs docked in harbors!
Countless methods were developed. For example, erecting tall poles around the carrier deck and installing lighting equipment at the top to illuminate the entire deck, providing a safe takeoff and landing environment. But lighting up so brightly in the dark of night would definitely risk being discovered by the enemy and used as a target. Harming oneself before the enemy was not a good method.
However, another good method was thought of by the Führer, Akado. Or rather, Akado had borrowed from the crystallization of technology from his past life’s American carriers and had easily thought of a simple way for planes to take off and land safely at night. By installing a set of different colored lights at a certain point at the end of the carrier’s deck, a plane could land safely on a pitch-black deck.
The principle was simply to rely on blocking the light to provide the pilot with reference information. It was just that often, without a spark of inspiration, people could be stumped by such a simple problem for more than a decade. And on Germany’s new aircraft carrier, the Prussia, this set of lights had been installed, and it was currently undergoing night landing experiments for its carrier-based aircraft.
Given the time this carrier had been in service with its night landing equipment, the Germans had, in fact, already experimented with the difficult problem of night fighter takeoffs and landings. But the fighter being tested this time was a bit different. It could be said to be a new weapon that was strictly confidential to both the German Navy and the entire German Air Force.
The reason the German Navy had not yet opened the curtain on carrier night battles was that while night takeoffs and landings were a technical challenge, what was even more troublesome was how to get the carrier-based aircraft to find their targets on the dark sea.
Now, this technology had been solved by German scientists. After unremitting efforts, they had finally managed to shrink the advanced equipment of radar to a size that could be fitted into an airplane. After such a long period of evolution, the size of German radar could now be fitted into a twin-engine aircraft, giving it the ability to find targets at night.
And so, this led to today’s highly anticipated maritime experiment, and to the conversation between Lütjens and the technical expert beside him. As long as this experiment was successful, the German Navy would possess an aircraft capable of carrying out maritime strike missions at night, and the carrier fleet could truly conduct night attack operations at sea!
To take off and land on a carrier, Germany had redesigned a twin-engine aircraft. This plane was much smaller than a normal twin-engine bomber, and its wings could be folded. It had a very high flight speed and could be used as an early warning and reconnaissance aircraft during the day. Most importantly, it could carry torpedoes and bombs to attack enemy warships.
To accommodate this new radar-equipped aircraft, the carrier Prussia had even reduced its complement of Fw-190 naval fighters by 10, making room for 7 of these new “Owl” multi-purpose aircraft. At the same time, two models of this aircraft would be produced in the future: the Owl A for the Air Force as a night interceptor, and the Owl B for the Navy as a night multi-purpose aircraft.
“Nighthawk 1, radar shows you are approaching the carrier, you are approaching the carrier’s position! Confirm light angle, confirm light angle!” an air traffic controller on the side was repeatedly confirming the plane’s position with a walkie-talkie. This was the first time in human history that a dedicated night fighter was taking off and landing on an aircraft carrier.
“This is Nighthawk 1! This is Nighthawk 1!” the pilot’s voice came through clearly. “I see the landing indicator lights! I am adjusting my angle! I am adjusting my angle!”
Soon, a dark shadow swooped down onto the carrier’s runway. The German Navy’s night fighter landing experiment had been a complete success!
Published: 2025-09-13T02:50:03.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2026-02-04T19:00:41.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c640-landing-138783276
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