Chapter 847: A Unique Name

“A telegram from Grand Admiral Raeder. He requests that the Führer name the two newly commissioned aircraft carriers,” the officer said, stating his purpose after announcing the launch of the two carriers. The naming of Germany’s carriers had always been handled by Akado alone. He had simply taken some of the names of battleships that had appeared in German history and had used them as a model, and had muddled through to this day in this way.

The navy’s experiments with taking off twin-engine fighter-bombers had almost been completed. This also gave the German Naval Air Arm the ability to conduct combat operations with aircraft taking off and landing at night. Although this combat capability could only be considered a supplementary means that was better than nothing, in this era, it was already a black technology of leapfrog development.

The German naval twin-engine fighter-bomber was a multi-purpose aircraft developed from the German twin-engine night fighter. In fact, it was an aircraft modified from the Ju-88. This plane had lost to the current German medium bomber, the Do-217, in the competition for the German medium bomber contract, and had ultimately been given limited production as a multi-purpose aircraft.

At the beginning of its design, the performance of this plane was completely superior to the Do-217. In the end, it was abandoned by the German army due to its bomb load problem. But the Führer saw a future for this plane and gave special permission for its continued production. In the end, the air force ordered a batch to be used as high-speed reconnaissance planes, and then the navy ordered another batch to be used as medium-range patrol planes.

After the start of the war, British bombers had frequently attempted to bomb important German rear-area targets, and had even, at certain times, attempted to bomb Berlin. This had put pressure on the German Air Force’s air defense, especially at night when they could not take off to intercept the enemy, which had made Kesselring and Dick, who were in charge of homeland airspace security, lose sleep. They were in urgent need of a flying weapon that could operate at night to solve the trouble of being unable to stop enemy night bombing.

Although the Battle of Britain had ended quickly, and the collapse of the British Navy had made it possible for the Germans to land in Britain, and the battle for the British homeland had finally come to an end, the air defense pressure on the German homeland had instantly disappeared, and the night air combat weakness that had been a thorn in the air force’s side was no longer so obvious.

But the meticulous Germans had not given up their plan to strengthen their homeland’s air defense. They were still looking for a way to carry out the mission of driving away enemy bomber units at night. In the end, an improvement in a piece of equipment had allowed them to find a suitable weapon.

With the continuous development of German radar, a miniaturized radar was finally born at the German company Siemens. This small radar was originally designed for the air-search of U-boats. After some improvement, this even smaller radar system could be completely installed on weapons with limited size and payload, such as airplanes.

To install this not-so-small radar system, a traditional single-engine, single-seat fighter was definitely not an option. In order to make room in the nose for the radar antenna and to accommodate the radar operator, the German Air Force had in the end chosen to use a twin-engine medium aircraft to carry the radar system and to make it into a night fighter.

Because the size of the Do-217 had reached the limit for a twin-engine bomber, its flight performance was not as good as the faster and better Ju-88. In the end, in the experiments, the improved Ju-88 had completed its flight tests very well, and its size was more in line with the navy’s requirements.

And so, a Ju-88 twin-engine aircraft, which had originally only been a multi-purpose plane, became the German night fighter. Overnight, its production was ordered to be expanded by 100 times. The German Air Force and Navy had respectively ordered 1,100 and 780 of the night-fighter variants of this aircraft from the Junkers company. Of course, this was just the order at the time. The subsequent additional orders were even larger. Due to the problem of air combat over the Romanian oil fields, Germany had expanded its demand for night fighters.

It was precisely because of the night fighters, and also the night fighter-bombers, that had begun to enter service in large numbers, that the German Navy had begun to experiment with the naval variant of this aircraft on its carriers. In order to take off from the deck of a carrier, the Junkers company had greatly reduced the weight of the plane, strengthened its landing gear, and installed a large arrestor hook. The wings were shortened, a better engine was used, and the wings were even modified into a folding structure. In the end, this plane had been modified to the point where it could be considered a different aircraft altogether.

After a series of modifications, the naval variant of the Ju-88, the Ju-88Y, had finally successfully taken off and landed on a carrier. The German Navy, for the first time, possessed the ability to fight at night—although this combat capability was very limited, it still had the potential to attack an enemy fleet at night.

Unfortunately, the Ju-88 was not a plane that was tailor-made for a carrier. The modified Ju-88Y, although its appearance had been greatly changed, was still not a perfect choice for a naval aircraft at its core. Therefore, the combat capability of a carrier equipped with the Ju-88Y had plummeted. It could only serve as a protective umbrella and a source of reassurance for the fleet at night and could barely participate in daytime combat.

Due to the size and weight limitations of the carrier’s elevators, these naval night fighter-bombers could only be parked on the carrier’s deck. If more than ten were parked on the rear of the deck, the remaining length would not be sufficient for them to take off. So, if a carrier was equipped with this type of aircraft, it could only store a small number of Fw-190 fighters in its internal hangar, and these planes could not be launched for combat in a short period of time.

In addition, although the performance of the Ju-88Y was not bad, it was too wasteful to use it for daytime air combat and bombing, and it was also easy to be shot down by the enemy due to its average performance. Therefore, the carriers equipped with this type of aircraft did not participate in daytime combat. The German Navy had finally obtained a night combat capability, but it had not undergone a fundamental change. The progress of technology, in the beginning, is often not as wonderful as imagined. This is a hurdle that cannot be overcome in real life.

When Nokia had first launched a touch-screen phone, due to the limitations of science and technology, it had just missed out on using a capacitive screen. The consequence of having to use a resistive screen was a failure in user experience. Not long after, Apple had launched a phone with a capacitive screen, and in one fell swoop, had overthrown the Nokia phone dynasty. And the German Navy was now at such an awkward tipping point. The size of the radar was getting smaller and smaller. Once it could be used as a component for missile guidance, only then would the carrier fleet, in the future, truly obtain a night combat capability by relying on missile destroyers. Only after jet fighters equipped with radar were deployed on carriers would the carriers themselves possess a night combat capability. And all of this was not yet possible in early 1939.

Now the German Navy had launched two more aircraft carriers, expanding the number of its carriers to seven. This was undoubtedly bad news for Britain and the United States. In the Atlantic, the Anglo-American navies had only one main carrier, the Ark Royal, which was clearly a bit strained to deal with the German Navy. Although the German Navy had recently seemed to be hunkering down in its ports with no intention of coming out to make trouble, who could guarantee that this pivotal force would not suddenly lash out in the next second?

Germany’s plan to form a Mediterranean fleet had touched on the fundamental interests of the Italian Navy, and Turkey was also unwilling to have Germany deploy a powerful fleet on its doorstep. It was for this reason that Mussolini had always held a negative attitude towards a German Mediterranean fleet. So the carrier that Germany had just finished repairing had been on standby near the Strait of Gibraltar all along and had not entered the Mediterranean to participate in combat at all.

The current German Mediterranean fleet only had two cruisers and five destroyers. Apart from clearing a few mines laid by the British, it had no independent combat capability at all. Because of this matter, Akado was even a little angry. He was already getting annoyed by the current situation of the Axis powers pulling each other’s legs. So much so that he was increasingly inclined towards the radical idea of taking out an ally to make an example of them.

Therefore, these two German carriers could not be put into the Mediterranean for the time being, nor was there enough fuel for them to go hunting in the Atlantic. The only possibility was to be stationed in a British naval port as another deterrent force, to deter the Royal Navy, which would not be taking any action in the short term.

To put it simply, these two carriers were actually two ships with no use in the short term. Akado’s helplessness was that even though he knew the United States would not attack for the time being, and Britain had no ability to counter-attack, he still had to continue to manage that Atlantic Wall to prevent the embarrassing situation of a two-front war from appearing again.

“Does the navy have any suggestions?” Akado asked, after thinking of these helpless matters and finally letting out a sigh. “Didn’t Raeder give a few candidate ship names?”

“Uh…” The naval officer was momentarily stunned by Akado’s question. Hadn’t the naming of the naval carriers always been done by the Führer personally? Who would dare to make a suggestion at a time like this? That would be a way of seeking death. If you were to casually usurp the Führer’s authority, what would you be trying to do? How would you answer if the SS were to ask that question?

“Alright! Wait a moment, let me think. Since there are no suggestions, I’ll just think of one casually… let’s call it… let’s call it the Blücher!” Akado said. “I hope this new aircraft carrier can, like Marshal Blücher, bring glory and victory to the great German nation!”

“That’s a very good name, my Führer!” The naval officer’s eyes lit up after hearing this name, and he nodded in agreement. “Then what about the other warship? What should it be called?”

Akado thought for a moment and then once again spoke slowly, “The second aircraft carrier, I will name it, the… Erlong (Evil Dragon). I hope this warship, like a giant dragon, will destroy our opponents and safeguard the security of the Empire’s waters!” He had originally wanted to call it the Prinz Eugen, but considering Turkey’s feelings, he had given up on that name and had temporarily thought of this strange one.

And so, in the entire German naval fleet, the aircraft carrier with the most unconventional name was born. Because its name was completely out of step with the other sister ships of the Graf Zeppelin class, it became an interesting entry point for the study of the German Navy by later generations.

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