The Third Reich in Desperation

In other words, although Lütjens's first mixed fleet only included two Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers.But they already have the naval aviation strength no less than all the aircraft carriers in Cunningham's hands.

And Cunningham will not be stupid to give up the advantage of the Royal Navy's artillery battle, and put all the aircraft carriers in the vanguard fleet, so that the aircraft carriers will follow the vanguard fleet to play forward at the risk of being close.

Even if he is as cautious as Raeder, he dares to bet at this time that the British naval commander will not put even an aircraft carrier in the vanguard fleet.Instead, they made full use of the artillery advantages of the British warships, let the vanguard fleet rush into the German vanguard fleet regardless of their efforts, and strangled the weak warships and aircraft carriers of the First Squadron of the High Seas Fleet.

In this way, Lütjens actually doesn't need to worry about his opponent dispatching a stronger aircraft carrier than him.

Besides... Looking at the water ahead from the bridge, the two cutting-edge large battleships that have been renamed the "Spleen Bismarck" and "Scharnhorst" battleships, Raeder's heart, just More down-to-earth.

There are only three new German battleships in total.One is in Lütjens's First Mixed Fleet, and the other two have just entered Raeder's Second Mixed Fleet not long ago.

A long time ago, Reinhardt promised Raeder that he would add three new super battleships to his navy to meet Raeder's demand for giant ships with cannons, and further guarantee the melee capability of the High Seas Fleet, so that the enemy would not be able to Close, the High Seas Fleet can only sit and wait.

However, of the three promised battleships, only one was delivered to Raeder.The other two ships have not been seen for a long time.

Not to mention seeing its traces, Raedel didn't even inquire about the manufacturing plan.

Given Raeder's high status, coupled with the fact that there are very few shipyards in Germany that can manufacture battleships, it is a breeze for him to find out where battleships are being manufactured or are about to be manufactured.

However, Raeder has never found out.Because there is no manufacturing plan for these two battleships at all!

However, there is no plan to manufacture battleships for Germany, which does not mean that Germany will not produce battleships.

In Germany, there were 3 battleships, which were produced for the USSR.Moreover, as the Soviet Union deliberately leaked information to divert the attention of Britain and France, it is no longer a secret that Germany built battleships for the Soviet Union.

In addition, Germany has delivered an experimental and defective battleship "Peter the Great" manufactured for the purpose of accumulating experience, "generously" to the hands of the Soviets.After that, no one doubted that Germany would privately embezzle the battleships of the Soviet Union.

However, among the three traded battleships, how could Reinhardt be willing to give the two mature battleships of excellent quality to the Soviets.

Yes, the two new battleships under Raeder's command had two Soviet-style names not long ago: the battleship "Mentor Lenin" and the battleship "Leader Stalin".But now, they have secretly joined the Second Mixed Fleet of the German High Seas Fleet, becoming a secret force of the German Navy that the British and even the Soviets did not know.

With the secret force of these two super battleships in their data, plus the captured Polish warships, Danish warships, and Norwegian friendly warships, even if they were approached by the British fleet, Raeder would have the guts to touch them. (The Belgian battleships are all small frigates, arranged at the end of the second mixed fleet as part of the cannon fodder squadron)

Raeder smiled, holding a telegram just received from Lütjens in his hand, turned around and announced loudly to the combat staff around him: "The war has begun...but soon, it will be It will end!"

Waving the telegram in his hand, Raeder raised his arms and shouted: "The First Fleet has entered the war first. Now, we will go around to their side according to the plan, cut off the retreat of the British vanguard fleet, and break the support of the British rear fleet!"

"Long live the Third Reich! Long live Reinhardt!" Raeder took the lead in shouting the slogan.

"Long live the Third Reich! Long live Reinhardt!...Long live the Third Reich! Long live Reinhardt!" Countless slogans sounded one after another, becoming louder and louder in this area. On the restless sea, there was another violent wave...

Text Chapter 383 Become more active

"Hey, No. 1, where do you think the German fleet will appear?" A pilot in the British No. [-] reconnaissance plane asked on the communication channel.

They have been flying and patrolling according to the target route for more than 10 minutes, but they haven't even found a trace of the German High Seas Fleet.If you fly for 10 minutes, you will not encounter the German High Seas Fleet. If you switch to the slower warships of the Royal Navy, if you want to encounter the German High Seas Fleet, you will have to wait longer.

"I don't think the Germans will show up anymore." The pilot of another No. 2 reconnaissance plane chatted with his partner in the communication channel: "The German fleet is inferior to ours in every aspect. The Royal Navy. The Germans may not get news of our large-scale attack this time. And once they know that the Royal Navy is gathering heavy troops to encircle them, they will probably flee back to the port to hide."

On the sea, there are only these two reconnaissance planes.Because the First Squadron of the British Home Fleet does not have an aircraft carrier, they are all surface fighters that take off from battleships.How many seaplanes can be carried on a battleship, and it is not an aircraft carrier. It is already very good to be able to carry two.

"Eh?" No. [-] had just finished speaking to encourage morale, and suddenly found something unusual from the distant sea: "What is that?"

"No. [-], did you find anything?" The pilot of the No. [-] reconnaissance plane asked suspiciously through the communication channel.

However, before number two could answer him, he had already answered this question with his own eyes.

At the end of the line of sight, countless surging small black dots slowly rise from the distant sea surface... After a while, there are more and more black dots, bigger and bigger, covering the sky and covering the sky, densely coming.

"Enemy plane?!" The two British pilots cried out in unison.

From the beginning, they ignored the possibility of this happening.Based on the internal experience of the British Royal Navy, usually in naval battles, reconnaissance opportunities are often dispatched to find enemy warships first.Because the plane moves faster, the speed of the battleship is quite slow. When the enemy and our fleets are at the same distance, the planes sent out for reconnaissance can often find the enemy warship one step ahead of the battleship.

But this time, the German High Seas Fleet did not follow the conventional naval battle process, and put warships into the front line as the main force of naval battles.From the very beginning, Lütjens, who commanded the First Fleet, pinned the outcome of the duel on the aircraft carrier fighters.

Because it is no longer relying on battleships sailing on the sea, but fighter planes flying in the air, Lütjens' combat range has expanded from the range of the battleship's artillery to the flight radius of the battleship.

The expansion of the combat radius also means a change in the combat method.The First Mixed Fleet of the High Seas Fleet, which has changed its combat methods, naturally will not place warships within the range that British reconnaissance planes can quickly search.

"We are going in the wrong direction! We must turn around and warn the fleet..." The pilot of the British No. 2 reconnaissance plane prepared to turn the plane, and reminded his comrades in the communication channel: "Leave now, leave now... …”

Unfortunately, just as the two British reconnaissance planes had completed their turn, a burst of intense flames flew from behind.Their plane was also damaged to varying degrees in an instant.

Hearing the noise of the loss warning equipment in the cabin and the row of red lights that were blindingly lit, the hearts of the two British pilots sank to the bottom of the cold water immediately, and they lost the calmness of the relaxed chat before.

Two minutes later, the two wrecked planes turned into two balls of fire, fell obliquely into the blue sea, and turned into two beams of black smoke...

Farther away, two huge Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers moved slowly in an inverted V-shaped escort formation.

.............

"Why did the reconnaissance plane suddenly lose contact?"

"Where is the German fleet? Without the report from the reconnaissance plane, there is no way to confirm it!"

On the Royal Ark, the flagship of the British fleet, a group of combat staff members were discussing anxiously.More than 20 minutes have passed. According to the deduction that has been repeatedly verified before, at this time, the reconnaissance plane should have confirmed the location of the German vanguard fleet long ago.

However, the result now is that not only did the reconnaissance planes fail to send back information, but they lost contact with the rear.

Without the report from the reconnaissance plane, relying only on the small reconnaissance ships and destroyers deployed on the periphery, even if the German fleet is discovered, it will lose the best time to prepare, and rush to fight at a very close distance.

It shouldn't be like this!Not to mention the anti-aircraft firepower of those German warships, it is impossible to accurately shoot down every batch of British reconnaissance planes. Even the reconnaissance ships on the periphery and the high-speed destroyers cruising the periphery should not be able to find the German fleet at all. Half a trace.It was as if their battleship had never approached at all.

The battleship ... did not come close ...

Repeatedly chewing on the first few intelligence words, Cunningham seemed to have discovered something, but also seemed to have nothing to do with it.

Shouldn't the Germans be determined to fight themselves?Why, apart from the first batch of reconnaissance planes discovering the outer high-speed patrol ships of the German fleet and confirming the existence of the German High Seas Fleet, there was no further discovery of their main force?

The discovery of the peripheral high-speed patrol ships of the German First Squadron was actually the luck of the British reconnaissance planes, who inadvertently avoided the German fighter planes.If they hadn't happened to dodge the jets released by the Zeppelin class carrier, it would have ended the same way as the jets that lost contact.

However, they did not bring back the most important piece of information because of this, that is, the German First Mixed Fleet has a strong carrier-based aircraft strength.

Today, with only a little information, Cunningham can only rely on his first discovery of the location of the German peripheral patrol ship, and rely on his own common sense to roughly calculate the location of the main force of the German vanguard fleet.After all, the reasoning is based on the discovered German peripheral training ships, so the range of locations inferred will naturally be very vague and wide, but it is better to have a direction than nothing.

"We can't go on aimlessly like this!" Cunningham clenched his fists and ordered through gritted teeth: "Let our first squadron move forward at a constant speed in the direction where the reconnaissance plane first spotted the German outer patrol ship, and our second squadron The fleet followed closely behind. Once you encounter or find the German fleet, immediately attack at full speed and quickly defeat them!"

If nothing is done to break the current stalemate, the pressure on the officers will continue to increase, which is not a good thing for subsequent operations.In order to alleviate the pressure brought by this silence, Cunningham had to change his strategy, actively search, and launch a charge against the German High Seas Fleet.

Chapter 384 The thoughtful Montgomery

On the Dunkirk beachhead, when Montgomery entered the hospital to visit the wounded, loud air raid sirens suddenly sounded one after another.

The wounded soldiers outside the hospital, hearing the air raid siren, all flocked to the hospital to take refuge.Subconsciously, people always feel that being in the building is at least safer than being exposed to the open space. The entire expeditionary force position soon heard loud and noisy abuse, and anti-aircraft guns and heavy machine guns rang out at the same time.

The me-109 fighter jets of the German army appeared first. These fighter jets fired repeatedly at the densely populated areas of the British and French allied forces.

After the fighter jets shot the anti-aircraft gun positions on the ground, they quickly flew across the area and headed for the next target.