Chapter 915: The Munich Class

The King Tiger tank was a monster of a new design. It was heavy, but its tracks were wider and its hull a bit longer. Overall, this tank was a more mature and reliable machine than the Tiger. Thanks to the continuous clear weather, the German armored divisions were advancing at a blistering pace, and the well-developed rail and road networks allowed the tanks rolling off the production lines in the rear to be rapidly transported to the front.

Germany had already transferred the production of the Panzer III chassis to places like Czechoslovakia. The industrial capacity there had been completely absorbed by Germany. The Czechs had always been a formidable industrial power, having produced all sorts of heavy weaponry, including tanks, so they took to producing this mature, large-scale piece of equipment with ease.

“All industry comes from Europe.” This saying meant that after the Industrial Revolution, the industrial progress of human civilization seemed to have developed and spread from Europe. And when speaking of industry, one had to mention its core product—the machine tool. If industrialization was Europe’s gift to the world, then “all machine tools come from Germany” was the highest praise for this precise race.

At some point, German-made machine tools had become synonymous with precision and advancement, representing the highest level of human achievement in the processing of precision instruments. In Germany, a nation that had turned tinkering with machinery into an art form, Akado had realized a revolution in industrial automation. It was not hard to imagine the power this revolution would unleash.

The King Tiger tank was a representative product born of this revolution. Through large-scale automated assembly lines, the mass production speed of the King Tiger had increased by a full six times compared to the Tiger. And due to cost-saving considerations, many of the parts were cut from steel plates with meticulous calculations, striving to minimize waste.

So, while the T-34, famous for its ease of production in another timeline, was struggling to expand its production scale, Germany’s ultimate tank, the King Tiger, had already created a production miracle in human history with its production speed.

By the time the 2,000th T-34 rolled off the Soviet tractor production line, adorned with a large red flower amidst applause, the King Tiger tank, born several months later in Germany, had already been mass-produced in a full 700 units. Krupp had even sworn at a company meeting that the tanks he produced would become the “standardized equipment of the European Army of the future,” a phrase he had brazenly plagiarized from the Führer himself.

To save steel, the planned production of the ninth aircraft carrier had been canceled. The shipyard, along with other port shipyards, was repurposed to simultaneously begin the construction of four heavy cruisers—Germany’s newest cruiser design, the “Munich class.” Two of these new cruisers had been launched not long ago, providing the German fleet with more comprehensive combat capabilities.

First, this warship was equipped with triple-barreled 203mm heavy guns. This was the German Navy’s first true anti-shipping vessel (not counting the captured British Grand Admiral Raeder). For the high-ranking officers of the German Navy, who had a fetish for big ships and big guns, it was the fulfillment of a long-held dream.

After trials, the German Navy had fallen in love with this “navy-specific warship,” which was packed with all sorts of high technology. The main reason for this was that this was actually the first time the German military had designed and built a warship specifically for the navy. The original destroyers and cruisers could only be considered enhanced versions of fast sea raiders, far inferior to true warships of the same class. And the navy’s carriers were also “temporary products” cobbled together with civilian technology, their performance only comparable to that of a large converted carrier.

This had meant that for a very long time, the German Navy had no decent warships to speak of, which had made the commanders of the surface fleet feel very embarrassed in front of their counterparts in the submarine force.

Although they had won the crucial Battle of the English Channel with a hodgepodge of cobbled-together equipment, which had given the German Navy a great sense of accomplishment, a normally developing navy, after making a leap forward with new tactical concepts, must ultimately walk the path of a truly strong military. It was precisely for this reason that the German Navy had poured a considerable amount of passion into this new shipbuilding plan.

And the newly launched cruiser München did not disappoint. As the most powerful cruiser in history, it became the pride of the German Navy. This warship had used various new technologies in its construction phase, and its combat effectiveness had reached an unprecedentedly powerful level. Even Grand Admiral Raeder, after sailing on this ship, felt that it should become the flagship of the entire fleet.

First, the Germans had used an automatic loader for the main guns on this warship, which gave its main guns an astonishing rate of fire. Under normal circumstances, any cruiser of any other country that encountered the München would be turned into a sieve by its dense fire.

Another technology was Germany’s newly developed naval 128mm large-caliber anti-aircraft gun. The reason they were in such a hurry to increase the caliber of their anti-aircraft guns was because Germany, after repeated trials and research, had developed a practical radio proximity fuze. As the most terrifying advanced anti-aircraft weapon of this era, the proximity fuze had allowed Germany to leap into another stage in the field of air defense.

Unfortunately, as Germany’s core air defense weapon, the 88mm cannon, due to the size of its shells, could not use the proximity fuze, which was still a high-tech product at this time. This had made the German air defense forces seem outdated overnight. So, in order to be equipped with this heaven-defying ammunition, the German Air Force’s ground air defense units and the navy’s shipboard anti-aircraft gun units had begun a large-scale re-equipment with large-caliber anti-aircraft guns.

In this respect, the navy had a certain priority in terms of equipment (the German homeland air force’s fighter air defense system was quite complete, so there was no urgent need to re-equip the ground air defense weapons for the time being). Therefore, the navy had been given priority in being equipped with the new 128mm anti-aircraft guns.

In addition, the 150mm main guns on the cruisers and some of the destroyers could also be used for anti-aircraft fire, so Germany’s radio proximity fuze ammunition had two calibers, 150mm and 128mm. After research, it was decided that the 150mm would be gradually phased out in the future, and eventually only the 128mm would be used as a large-caliber anti-aircraft gun.

This had created an interesting phenomenon: the German destroyers and cruisers, which had originally had the smallest main gun calibers, might, after a future refit, have an even smaller main gun caliber, only 128mm.

And the German weapon design experts were working hard to try and equip Germany’s most famous 88mm anti-aircraft gun with this radio proximity fuze, which would raise the entire German army’s air defense capability to a new level. Of course, all of this newest type of ammunition was produced within Germany, and even its transport and use were uniformly handled by the SS. At present, only a few of the navy’s warships could use this type of ammunition, which also ensured that the German army’s security work could be carried out without a single mistake.

Akado knew when the cruiser München was launched. The commissioning of this newest German cruiser did not bring him any new surprises. Because Akado, this transmigrator from a future era of flying missiles, still believed in his heart that building gunships was a very wasteful act. But the failure of the German anti-ship missile in its combat trials also made him no longer dare to easily risk the entire navy.

The appearance of the radio proximity fuze had greatly improved the German Navy’s air defense capability. This was a phased achievement that Akado was very pleased with, and it was precisely this achievement that had shown the proper value of a heavy cruiser armed with 128mm anti-aircraft guns—the air defense capability of this cruiser even surpassed that of three German anti-aircraft cruisers, while also having a terrifying shore bombardment and anti-shipping capability.

The long period of accumulating strength had finally paid off for this industrial powerhouse, Germany. After repeated demonstrations and experiments, and relying on Germany’s powerful industrial production capacity, weapons that had been unimaginable before had now become a reality. The German Navy was accumulating its own strength, preparing to one day dominate the world.

Of course, there were still countless things that were not as desired. For example, the “fleet in being” ban that restricted the navy from large-scale sorties. For example, in order to accommodate the army’s tank production plan, and also to accommodate the navy’s own heavy cruiser construction plan, the navy’s ninth aircraft carrier had been canceled. This had made many of the naval air arm faction’s officers heartbroken, among whom the carrier fleet commander, Admiral Lütjens, was a representative figure.

However, from the current situation, the navy’s development was still proceeding in an orderly manner, which was great news for all the naval generals. At the very least, they now had the München-class heavy cruisers, didn’t they?

So, standing on the bridge of the second ship of the München-class, the Frankfurt, although it was anchored in a military port and the ship was not moving at all, Grand Admiral Raeder of the German Navy still felt that he was becoming the commander-in-chief of the world’s number one navy. At this moment, he was a little smug. At least, the things he had dared to dream of in his life, and the things he had not, he had all achieved.

During his tenure, the German Navy had, in one fell swoop, defeated the British Royal Navy, completing the most important fateful battle since the founding of the German Navy. Now his fleet roamed the Atlantic. Even while docked in a military port, it had already become one of the most powerful maritime forces in the world.

So he, Raeder, was destined to go down in history, destined to become the greatest naval general in the history of the German Navy. So he was a little puffed up, feeling that the most correct decision he had made in his life was to submit to the Führer’s feet.

Thinking of this, he walked towards the door of the bridge with his hands behind his back and, as he walked, he said with a chuckle to the captain who was following behind him, “Work hard. There will always be a time for our navy to set sail.”

Advance chapters at Nightjar Reads · nightjarreads.com