Time Slip Reiwa Japan

063 - Their Sea/Our Sea - 3

The German Eastern Expeditionary Fleet arrived in China, crawling with caution. Upon confirming their arrival, the American TF 21 safely docked in the Frontier Republic with ease. As the world witnessed that it did not escalate into armed conflict, a sense of relief washed over both the United States and Germany for their rationality.

. . .

Germany

Since none of the cargo ships were lost, the German government decided to promote domestically the excellence of Germany's maritime power to showcase it to the world. The Kriegsmarine also claimed to have gained various insights from this large-scale expeditionary fleet or fleet operation. However, they were aware of the problems.

One was the lack of aviation operational capabilities in the German navy.

Since the Eastern Expeditionary Fleet set sail, American aircraft constantly made contact and reported their positions via radio. The existence of aircraft demonstrated their overwhelming patrol capabilities in the vast open seas. It was a serious threat to the Kriegsmarine. It wasn't a problem specifically related to the expeditionary mission. It was unlikely that the Kriegsmarine would face such extensive expeditionary missions frequently. However, in future wars envisioned with Britain and France, the threat of aircraft patrol capabilities would also be present in the mission of commerce destruction. While submarines could hide underwater, large conspicuous ships were at high risk of being immediately targeted by aircraft. The Kriegsmarine found themselves in a predicament.

That being said, it wasn't as if the Kriegsmarine had no aviation operational capabilities at sea. The first German aircraft carrier, the Graf Zeppelin, had already entered the stage of public trials, and the construction of the second carrier, Peter Strasser, had reached the stage of fitting out. The Kriegsmarine was on the verge of acquiring an aircraft carrier.

Additionally, based on the E-Fleet Plan, the construction of four 20.000-ton aircraft carriers, simpler than the Graf Zeppelin-class, to serve as air defense escort carriers, *1 was also planned. The development of carrier-based aircraft was progressing well.

However, the issue lay with those carrier-based aircraft. At this point, the planned fighter aircraft for carrier operations was an improved version of the Bf 109. In terms of performance, it was not inferior when compared to the carrier-based aircraft of Britain and France. However, there was a significant problem. Due to the need for lightweight carrier-based aircraft and the acceptance that the primary task would be fleet air defense, their range was extremely short, around 400 km. With such limitations, it was unrealistic to expect them to be deployed forward from a commerce destruction task force, including aircraft carriers, to repel approaching enemy aircraft and conceal the position of the fleet. Therefore, the Kriegsmarine decided to request aircraft manufacturers to develop carrier-based fighter aircraft capable of long-range flight. *2

The second issue was the budget consumed by this expedition.

A battleship had circumnavigated the world. The operational costs had greatly depleted the budget of the peacetime German navy. Additionally, the stockpile of fuel had significantly decreased, making it difficult to conduct training exercises by taking ships out to sea. There was a concern that the readiness of the German surface naval forces would decline in the coming year.

Although the expedition to the East was ordered by the German government, the replenishment of budget and fuel was promised. However, the reality was that fuel shortages were occurring throughout Germany due to high demand, and it was uncertain when a satisfactory amount of fuel would be allocated. As a result, some high-ranking officials in the Kriegsmarine lamented, "The German Navy has lost the future in exchange for honor."