When the orange sunset sun shone on the wide deck of the battleship "Deutschland", the transport boats approached the side of the ship one after another, and the neatly dressed admirals boarded the battleship on the cranes, and then walked into the inner compartment of the battleship with serious expressions one by one. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

In the senior officers' conference room of the superbattleship, Admiral Paul Beinck, acting commander of the German High Seas Fleet, stood in front of the circular porthole with his hands behind his back, staring wistfully at the sparkling sea. The straight-line distance from Belmalit Naval Base in the north of Ireland to Tercel Island is 2,400 kilometers, and if you go at a cruising speed of about 18 knots, you can reach it in three days and three nights. A day and a half had passed since the surprise attack of the Azores by the American and British fleets, and Beinke and his flagship were in the vast ocean between Europe and the Azores. The two Count Tirpitz-class battlecruisers are regarded as the pinnacle of the German shipbuilding industry in the late 20s, and they are the same highly anticipated naval weapons as the German-class battleships, and the reason why the German General Staff and the Naval Staff deploy them in the Azores is to use their rapid maneuverability to contain the enemy in the event of a sudden attack by a strong enemy, and to buy enough time for the assembly and mobilization of the main forces of the High Seas Fleet. William August, the royal commander of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, understood the operational intent of the naval guerrilla, but failed to protect the two super cruisers in the battle, and the "Count Tirpitz" was lost the next day of the battle, and the damaged "Prince Heinrich" was unable to support itself, which made the high seas fleet break an arm before the battle, and then the tactical space was greatly limited.

Now that the tragedy has occurred, it is useless to hold accountable, and what Beinke has to do now is to get the most favorable possible situation before he fights the main American and British fleets. With two Earl Tirpitz class missing, the German Navy still has 12 first-class capital ships, 10 old capital ships and 10 aircraft carriers, if these forces can be concentrated, even if they fight head-on with the American and British fleets, there is still a certain chance of victory, but the truth is not as expected, two Bavaria-class battleships and most of the old dreadnoughts were used to blockade the British mainland and support the landing force attack, and three Confederate-class aircraft carriers were sent to escort troop carriers reinforcing the Azores, The rest are the forces that Bernke can put into battle, and they have not yet all gathered under the command of this admiral - three Mackensen-class battlecruisers and two Bavaria-class battlecruisers are still on the way, which means that Bernke can now see only five Deutschland-class battleships, three Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers, and two Ulster-class aircraft carriers of the Irish Navy.

Instead of tea or ashtrays, the oval tables in the senior officers' conference room are filled with large miniature sand tables that simulate the natural topography of the Azores and the surrounding seas, and the delicate models of ships are the size of fingernails, reflecting the posture of the warring parties. The Chief of Staff of the High Seas Fleet, Rear Admiral Rolf Lars (there was a clerical error in the previous two chapters, the Chief of Staff of the German Atlantic Fleet was written as Lars, all of which have now been corrected, apologies) stood at the conference table, his eyes fixed on the sand table, and he seemed to be pondering something very seriously.

The sound of footsteps coming from the passage of the ship's cabin drew closer, and Beinke and Rawls remained in their respective positions, and then the summoned generals and their staff adjutants took their seats. The oldest of these is the 60-year-old Admiral Eberhardt-Schimmert, commander of the 1st Carrier Formation of the High Seas Fleet, directly commanding three Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers, and two Ulster-class aircraft carriers of the Irish Navy are currently under his command. The youngest is Christian August, another prince of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, who is now 42 years old, a rear admiral, and another high-profile royal talent, who now serves as commander of the 1st Destroyer Detachment, overseeing the accompanying 20 German destroyers and the temporary Irish destroyers.

There were also three admirals present, namely Vice Admiral Hermann-Paul, commander of the 1st Battleship Detachment, and Alfred, commander of the reconnaissance detachment. - Vice Admiral Zarvechtel and Rear Admiral Rost Setwick, Commander of the Irish Task Force - A half-German Irish general who served in the German Navy for twelve years before becoming an Irish citizen, he gradually rose from a junior officer to a fleet commander, familiar with every warship and every position on the ship, and passed a rigorous carrier-based aircraft flight course, making him an all-round naval commander.

After everyone arrived, Beinke turned around and slowly walked to his position, his face returned to calm, but he couldn't hide the gloom in his eyes: "You have worked hard, the reason why you have gathered everyone here today is to use everyone's wisdom to discuss the next battle strategy." As everyone knows, our Atlantic detachment suffered an unexpected blow this morning, and the first operational plan could not be implemented, and I personally believe that the second operational plan is difficult to cope with the current situation, so it is very necessary to formulate a new operational plan in light of the current actual situation. ”

After Bernke sat down, Lars took a slender indicator stick and explained on the sand table: "As you know, the enemy launched a landing in the north of the island of Texel before dawn today, and from the many battle reports we have received, the enemy is attacking at all costs in order to gain a strategic foothold before we reach the Azores, but they did not choose several other islands with relatively weak defenses as a breakthrough, but directly attacked the island of Texel, which has the strongest garrison and fortifications, This was a surprise to me, and when I think about it, it shows how determined and prepared the enemy was, and how much more force they had put in than we expected. Now, we have to prepare for the worst, that by the time our fleet arrives in the Azores, the enemy's landing force has approached Angra do Heroísmo and has established a number of field airfields on the island, so that we will be in a position of equal strength against the enemy's main fleet, which is only half as large as the enemy's. ”

Speaking of this, Lars looked around at everyone, whether the generals present were old or young, calm or cautious, none of them showed a pessimistic look in their eyes, and the resolute character of the soldiers and the sense of honor rooted in their hearts were the greatest source of motivation for them to face difficulties.

After a pause, Lars continued: "About forty minutes ago, we got the good news, a piece that can be described as 'wonderful', that the bombers taking off from the 'Emperor Karl' and the 'Ottoman Sultan' successfully raided the enemy aircraft carrier formation, sank one large aircraft carrier, and damaged one large and one medium aircraft carrier, which means that the air power of the enemy fleet has been greatly weakened. Counting the 'Emperor' and 'Sultan', we will use seven aircraft carriers against the enemy's remaining aircraft carriers, and each of our aircraft carriers is fully manned, and the enemy has already lost a lot of aircraft and pilots in the battle, which is our biggest advantage at the moment! ”

Beinke continued: "It is for this reason that our General Lars has come up with a plan that surprises me very much - to rush to the Azores with our existing ships at full speed, to attack the enemy on his own initiative before the attack on the island of Texel is successful, and to use the superiority of aviation to crush the enemy in one fell swoop. I thought about it for a long time and felt that this plan was too risky, you must know that our German class has no speed advantage in front of the enemy's battle cruisers, once it is dragged by the enemy's battle cruisers and carrier-based aircraft, and is forced to engage the enemy's battleships head-on, how can five German class fight against the enemy's ten super battleships? ”

This statement seems to veto Lars's plan categorically, but if that were the case, there would be no need to bring it up at such a meeting.

"The cornerstone of this plan was the fact that dive bombers and torpedo bombers could be even more destructive to large warships than most people expected." Lars gave his lieutenant a look, and the officer quickly sent a hand-drawn copy to everyone present.

Giving the generals and their right-hand men two minutes to review the materials, Lars explained: "This is our own analysis chart, which compiles the data of the past 24 hours of naval and air battles...... For every 12 dive bombers we dispatched, 7-8 were able to drop bombs, and at least 2 of them hit their targets or inflicted close damage; For every 12 torpedo bombers dispatched, 3-5 were able to enter an effective attack position, and if one was lucky, one torpedo hit the target. We deprived a British Admiral-class battlecruiser of most of its combat effectiveness with 5 aviation armor-piercing shells and 2 aviation torpedoes, creating sufficient conditions for the sinking of the Count Tirpitz, which was provided by a Zeppelin-class aircraft carrier. In this way, even if it is not very smooth, a round of attack by five aircraft carriers can damage at least two enemy capital ships, and before the enemy battle patrol formation uses its speed to approach, we should have four or five rounds of carrier-based aircraft to attack, so how much combat power is left of the enemy battle patrol that can rush into our sight? Deal with the enemy's fast battlecruisers, use the same means against the remaining battleships, not to mention the fact that we can also get the support of land-based aviation in the Azores. ”

Lars's depiction aroused hope of victory, but Beinke, who had been thinking about it for a long time, poured cold water on everyone: "But the problem is that everything is only hypothetical, and no one can predict what will happen on the battlefield, and if there is a sudden big wind and waves at sea, and the aircraft carrier cannot take off and land planes normally, these beautiful assumptions will all come to naught." ”

(End of chapter)