December 9, 9:10 p.m., 133 nautical miles west of Iceland. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Allied Combined Atlantic Fleet, 2nd Advance Squadron, flagship heavy cruiser USS Shropshire.

The bow crashed through the wind and waves of the North Atlantic, and the heavy cruiser of tens of thousands of tons moved forward at a high speed of 25 knots, followed by the sister ships of the Shropsshire, the Sussex, which also belonged to the London class, the Kent-class heavy cruisers Cumberland and Cornwall, and the two Soviet heavy cruisers Maxim. Gorky and Molotov of the Gorky class, as well as the British light cruiser Glasgow and 6 British destroyers.

Thirteen ships formed a single column and searched through the wind and waves of the North Atlantic, each with its radar turned on and searched the surrounding waters over and over again. All sonarmen pricked up their ears as well, listening carefully for any noise coming from underwater.

As the advance team of the main fleet, it is not their main task to engage the German, Italian, and French cruisers and destroyers, but their main task now is to find out whether there are still mine strikers and submarines lurking on the battlefield, and if so, to quickly drive them away, so as not to be attacked by spear torpedoes when the capital ships are in a confrontation.

"Sir!"

The captain of the USS Cumberland, who is also the chief of staff of the warband, Charles Murphy. Colonel Lee's shout rang in the ears of the commander of the brigade, Major General Burnett.

"The radar found the target, the distance was 35,000 yards, the number was more than 10, the azimuth was 128 degrees, and from the radar signal analysis, 7 of them were large ships."

Rear Admiral Burnett ordered: "Eject 2 'Walruses' and see if you can throw flares on the heads of the enemy ship formation." ”

The Walrus seaplane, standard on the Royal Navy's larger ships, is an old, slow, and easily shot down seaplane. But Britain, which had become scarce due to the long blockade by the Germans, did not have the financial resources to develop a replacement model, so it had to use the old "Walrus" instead.

In fact, stunt was replacing Germany as the number one enemy of the British Empire. At home, there is now nothing but pessimism, and the population lacks food above all to become hungry and cold in the coming winter, while many British people are beginning to run out of work - as more and more factories have to close due to lack of raw materials.

Due to the lack of raw materials, the production of weapons and equipment in Great Britain fell sharply from the spring of 42, and the quality was significantly inferior (this was due to the lack of non-ferrous metals, which caused a decrease in the quality of materials). To make matters worse, there was a huge shortage of fuel, as Britain's oil reserves were close to depletion due to the blockade and the Irish campaign, so most of the ships of the Home Fleet had to go to Canada, which was now almost the Canadian Navy!

At the same time, the Churchill authorities, who were a little ill and rushed to the hospital, turned their hopes for fuel to coal. Since the second half of 41, the British government has begun to build a relatively simple "hydrocracking" synthetic oil plant.

However, the synthetic oil produced in this way is of poor quality and cannot be supplied to the mechanized units of the Royal Air Force and Army. So at the moment it is only used for some of the Royal Navy ships that remain on the mainland, but even the amount of this low-quality fuel is still too small to meet the demand. As a result, the ships that remained on the mainland were stopped in the harbor for most of the time, and their morale continued to decline, almost becoming the German High Seas Fleet in 1918...... No, it's not that the Royal Navy is about to become the German Navy of 1918, but that the whole of Britain is about to become the Germany of 1918.

If this attempt to open up the Arctic Circle transport line fails, Major General Burnett is a little worried that the storm of revolution will sweep across the British Isles!

"Commander, the flare is dropping!" Charles. Colonel Lee's shout interrupted Major General Burnet's thoughts again, and he hurriedly raised his telescope in the direction of Colonel Lee's finger. Immediately, a huge hull shrouded in white light appeared in the camera, as if it were ...... A Bismarck-class battleship!

"A battleship!" Major General Burnett gasped, put down his binoculars and glanced at Colonel Lee, "It looks like a Bismarck!" ”

The air in the bridge of the heavy cruiser Shropshire suddenly became tense, and if it was really a Bismarck-class battleship, then this 10,000-ton heavy cruiser would be in danger.

The "boom, ......boom, boom, boom" sound of continuous shelling was heard, and it was the "Bismarck" class antiaircraft gun that was firing, and it was very accurate, and one "walrus" plane immediately turned into a fireball, and the other plane fled quickly in fright, and no more planes dropped flares.

"Report to the USS USS that enemy ship formations were found, more than 10 of them, 7 large ships, one of which is suspected to be a Bismarck-class battleship!" Unable to observe and send the formation under the guns of the enemy battleships, Rear Admiral Burnett had to report the uncertain situation to the Soviets.

……

"Commander, commissar...... Comrade, the 2nd advance team may have discovered the battleship formations of the Germans, possibly 7 battleships, including 1 Bismarck-class! ”

7 battleships, including 1 Bismarck!

Because of Vice Admiral Fraser's report, the already tense atmosphere in the bridge of the Soviet Union suddenly came to a light. Even Comrade Bulganin, who had always been calm and composed, took a heavy breath of his pipe, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

"If the Barbarossa class of the Germans and the Dunkirk class of the French are counted as cutting-edge warships / battle cruisers, then they should have 16 battleships / battle cruisers." Ingersoll frowned and analyzed, "In addition to this battleship/battle patrol formation, there should be 1-2 formations. ”

The Germans now have 2 Hindenburg, 2 Bismarck, 2 Barbarossa, and 1 Gneisenau (often referred to as the Barbarossa), the Italians have 4 Veneto, and the French have 3 Richelieu and 2 Dunkirk. There are 16 ships in total, but the French Richelieu is now unable to participate in the war, and Ingersoll has counted 1 more.

Because after the last "bombed gun" incident, the Richelieu has been staying in the shipyard, first to test the main gun, to find out the cause of the bombing (it was later found that the problem was in the shell), and then to dismantle one main turret (that is, the one that exploded), and install a three-link 406mm main turret for testing - this is the main gun prepared by the French for their new generation of battleship "Alsace" class.

After the Mediterranean campaign, the French restarted the "1938 Naval Plan" and began to continue the construction of 2 Xiafei-class aircraft carriers and 4 battleships USS Thas.

The No. 1 ship of the Xiafei class was 28% complete by June 1940, and the work continued after the signing of the peace treaty in France (the second ship did not have a keel). The 20,000-ton, 40-carrier aircraft carrier is now in service, but it has not joined the Combined European Fleet - not because the French are reluctant to contribute their only aircraft carrier (the Bain Ya was detained by the British to join the Free French Navy), but because they need this only carrier to test the twin carrier-based bomber BR.810 bombers.

One of the many sub-models of the BR.690 series of the BR.810 carrier-based bomber, if successful, it will probably be the first carrier-based twin-engine bomber to be put into practical use, which is considered a very important model. Therefore, Fokker, which has extensive experience in the construction of carrier-based aircraft, also participated in this project.

And the progress of the "Alsace" class battleships is much slower than that of the "Xiafei" class aircraft carriers. The design was not completed before June 1940, and it took another year to complete the entire design work, drawing on the experience and lessons of the "Richelieu" class. At the beginning of 42, the construction of ships No. 1, No. 2 (Normandy) and No. 3 (Frantier) of the "Alsace" class began one after another, and it was planned to be completed by the beginning of 1945.

The 3 406mm guns tested on the Richelieu are the main guns that the "Alsace" class will use, and according to the design, the "Alsace" class will have 3 3 406mm turrets, which is very powerful!

By the way, because France started the "Alsace" class, the Italian leader Mussolini was not to be outdone, and immediately came up with a long-prepared plan for the battleships of the "Duke Alexander" (Duke Alexander himself was Mussolini himself). This class of battleships is actually the UP-41 type battleship designed for the Soviet Union by the Italian company Ansardo, with a standard displacement of 42,700 tons, and also has 3 3 406mm main turrets, and the number is also 3, namely the Duke of Alexander, the Roman Emperor and the Duke of Cairo. According to the plan, these 3 battleships of the UP-41 type were also to be completed by the beginning of 1945.

However, these 6 super battleships with 406mm are still on the slipway at the moment, and they cannot threaten the Atlantic Combined Fleet of Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union at all.

"Even if they have 16 ships/cruisers, the advantage tonight is on our side!" U.S. Admiral Ingersoll told Bulganin, "Let the 2nd Advance Team avoid this enemy ship formation and continue to search the battlefield." Then concentrate the forces of the 1st and 2nd Sentai to destroy these 7 Nazi and fascist battleships! ”

……

"Marshal, the heavy patrol seems to have attracted the main force of the enemy! The enemy's advance formations bypassed the heavy patrols, and their main formations were moving closer to the heavy patrols. ”

At 9:30 a.m., 10 nautical miles south of the Combined European Fleet Heavy Cruise, on the battleship Hindenburg, Admiral Lütjans also received an update on the battlefield situation from the BV-138C reconnaissance aircraft.

"Good!" Admiral Lütjans smiled and nodded, "Order the Heavy Patrol to turn north, keep the speed at 20 knots, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Fleets follow, and we will follow behind the Heavy Patrol."

Now, get ready for a Jutland-style Armageddon! (To be continued.) )