"We are facing the most powerful navy in the world. They are well-equipped and experienced, and Jericho, Thomas and others are also excellent naval generals. Therefore, every warship must be ready to withstand attacks and survive the attack. The British navy's aircraft carrier should have been mentioned in the telegram to your country, right? Therefore, the Independence must consider preparing for air strikes." After a brief politeness, Earl Spee began to get to the point.

In the earl's view, the US and German fleets rely on high-speed and sufficient aviation reconnaissance. As long as the situation is not particularly bad, they can completely avoid the large fleet's naval gun attack. Even if the British attack with the most elite Queen Elizabeth-class battleship, then the eight fast battleships in the Allied Navy can guarantee that they can withdraw from the battle at least when the situation is wrong. Under the cover of the Allied Fleet, the American fleet, which was originally in the rear, will naturally not face the British naval guns.

Therefore, for the US Navy, the biggest threat lies in the British aircraft carrier. According to the German Navy's estimates, Britain can send nearly 100 attack aircraft to launch air strikes on the German fleet under extreme circumstances. Even when the US aircraft carrier is tightly fortified, it is difficult to guarantee that there will be no fish that escapes the net. The Allied fast battleships are not very worried. After all, the British's torpedo power is relatively small, and it is okay to use defense to resist hard. As for bombs, it doesn't matter. Just don't shoot important and fragile equipment such as rangefinders in seconds. But the situation of the US aircraft carrier is different. Earl Spee knows very well that the hard defense capabilities of the USS Independent aircraft carrier are very limited!

Of course, you cannot expect that aircraft carriers without armored decks in this era can continue to maintain combat effectiveness after being caught in a bomb. The Germans' requirements are very simple, as long as the warships are not sunk. And after simple emergency repairs, they can keep up with the German rapid battleship retreat at a higher speed. That's right, it's retreat! In the eyes of the Germans, unless the situation is absolutely necessary, the German Navy is not ready to abandon the USS Independence aircraft carrier and more than 2,000 US Navy officers and soldiers on it. Because after all, this is the first time that the navy of both sides cooperates. If a name abandons a friendly army is left, how can the two sides trust each other in the Pacific in the future?

"It's a waste of time to release the exercise. It's already a little late today. If it's convenient, I want to see how you do damage." Earl Spey thought for a while and said.

"As you wish, Lord Earl." Sims said that, he took Earl Spey off the bridge and came to the wide flight deck. There were two elevators on the entire deck responsible for lifting the aircraft in the hangar, and there were two ammunition lifts near the side string, responsible for delivering ammunition to the aircraft installed on the deck.

"According to our combat regulations, unless absolutely necessary, all aircraft loading and refueling work will be carried out on the deck. In this way, even if our aircraft carrier is attacked and even some bombs and fuel explodes, most of the energy will be released into the air without causing too much damage to the hull." Sims then came to a huge lift. At this time, the huge lift had descended into the hangar and a huge hole appeared on the deck.

"The deck of the aircraft carrier is very fragile. We cannot guarantee that the deck will not be attacked in actual combat. Everyone should know what the so-called flight deck is. Just put some porous steel plates on an iron rack and then lay a layer of teak boards on it." Sims introduced, pointing at the US Navy officers and soldiers who were conducting deck restoration exercises.

A group of American naval officers and soldiers, with the help of a small tractor, sent a large number of prefabricated porous steel plates and wooden boards to the next to the lift well, and then laid the crossbars with the help of small lifting equipment, and then placed the steel plates on the crossbars and fixed them. Then, teak boards were laid on the deck. The Americans were even so careful that they even made the reserved tether holes. The hasty repaired decks were at least not a problem to take off and land fighters. The Americans' maintenance speed and results also made German naval officers and soldiers look at these colleagues from the United States for the first time. In addition to being well-trained, the Americans' standard components and damage pipe planning are also commendable.

"Of course, sometimes we have to consider some extreme situations, such as the bomb falling near the ammunition elevator. Of course, it is certain that the ammunition elevator will not be able to be taken." As he said, Sims couldn't help but smile and then said, "But we can guarantee that the damage caused by the bomb will not lead to excessively serious explosion. Because our ammunition lifting well is designed in two-stage design, from the ammunition warehouse to the main deck, and the ammunition will move horizontally for a distance, and then from the main deck to the flight deck." (The main deck of the aircraft carrier of the open hangar is generally the hangar deck, which is under the hull stress, and the so-called flight deck is actually a shelf. Although it has the name of the deck, it is not included in the hull stress structure.)

"This method of disposal seems to be similar to the dressing room of the main gun of the battleship, but the Americans did it more meticulously and safer." Su Xiong said on the side.

"Everyone, let's go to the hangar to take a look. After all, our flight deck is not armoured. Once the bomb falls, it will probably damage the hangar." Then, under the leadership of Sims, the group of people came to the hangar on the flight deck through the aircraft elevator.

After coming to the hangar, the first thing that caught my eye was the open next door on both sides of the wide hangar! It was said to be the next door, but in fact it was just a rolling gate, which could be easily retracted and stored. After opening, the two sides were completely ventilated except for the brackets, and the whistling sea breeze blew from both sides of the hangar, so that a German naval officer jokingly said that the wind speed in the hangar could reach level 5 wind at this time.

"In order to save preparation time, some of our planes are warmed up in the hangar, so they need sufficient ventilation. For this reason, most of our hangar structures are this simple open structure, except for the bow. Because we have to face the bad wind and waves in the North Sea, we don't want the bow to be directly broken by the waves. For this reason, we installed a closed bow and reinforced a section of the hull in front, which delayed us for half a month, plus hundreds of tons of weight." Sims said with a smile.
Chapter completed!