As Hersmann walked briskly into the conference room of the new Wehrmacht Navy headquarters in Port Kiel (originally in Wilhelmshaven, but the place had been bombed at night and had been moved to Port Kiel), a room full of German admirals stood up respectfully to greet him. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

After the end of the campaign on the Western Front, Hersmann's prestige in the German Army was established. Although he was not the commander-in-chief of the Western Front, Hersman led the entire campaign on the Western Front, from the formulation of the plan to the pre-war preparations. Later, when the war began, he was acting chief of the General Staff and was the de facto supreme commander of the Wehrmacht.

However, the German Navy was not convinced by him at that time, and Marshal Hersmann was also a field marshal no matter how he could fight, so why should he point fingers at the Navy? Do you know how to drive a boat? Can you tell the difference between the east and the west at sea?

But now, a bunch of awesome German admirals are really convinced! The god of war is the god of war, commanding the Italian Navy, a third-rate commodity that actually drove the British Royal Navy out of the Mediterranean, and sank 4 battleships and 1 aircraft carrier. Although the Italian Navy also lost 1 battleship and 2 aircraft carriers, at first glance it seems that the losses are about the same. But the German admirals who are meeting here today are all experts, and of course they know how high the Mediterranean campaign commanded by Hersmann was.

The two aircraft carriers lost by the Italians are nothing more than "cruise ship renovation", not "blue ribbon cruises", but ordinary cruise ships of more than 20,000 tons. This kind of cargo is everywhere in the ports of the European Union countries and does not have much value. As for the sunken battleship "Count Cavour", it is an old ship before the First World War. Although it has undergone a major change, the foundation is too poor and the value is very limited.

And the four battleships lost by the British included the "Rodney", which was one of the seven battleships in the world! It is also one of the two giant ships in the hands of the British Royal Navy that can threaten the "Bismarck" class.

After the loss of the "Rodney", the British were left with only one "Nelson" with a feared 16-inch gun, while the German Navy had two "Bismarck" class. Moreover, in the Mediterranean Campaign, German naval aviation and the Italian air force cooperated to show strong anti-ship capabilities. It has proved that the theory of "controlling the sea by air" is fully applicable to the main fleet in the operational state.

So this battle in the Mediterranean has already shown the German Navy the way to victory! Therefore, the German admirals who are meeting at the naval headquarters today are all gearing up, eager to immediately command the fleet to fight the British Royal Navy.

"Your Excellency, what did Admiral Darlang say?"

At the beginning of the meeting, the commander-in-chief of the German navy, Raeder, asked about Darlan's statement that Marshal Pétain had agreed in principle to follow Germany, but that the French army after the defeat had shown some signs of militarization. The military commanders under the orders of the government will not necessarily obey, and the French navy is still very strong, and it is normal to disobey Germany.

Therefore, the attitude of the commander-in-chief of the French navy, Darlan, to a large extent, determined whether the French navy could sincerely follow Germany.

"He wants us to take Gibraltar first!" Hersman sneered and said, "I have already promised him a deputy head of the European Community, but he still refuses to let go, it seems that he is still not convinced!" ”

The reason for the dissatisfaction was that Britain had not yet been finally defeated, and in this case, the position of the German boss was unstable. After all, what Germany has achieved now has also been achieved by the French Emperor Napoleon in history.

"Marshal," said Raeder after a moment's thought, "the British Navy will never watch Gibraltar be taken to us." Because once the German, Italian and French navies meet, the British mainland may not be protected. Britain fought in the Strait of Gibraltar rather than in the English Channel. So the battle for Gibraltar is sure to be fierce! ”

If the final decisive battle were to be fought in the English Channel, it would be the German, Italian and French fleets beating the British home fleet. It will probably take place in the spring or summer of 1942, when the Italian Roma, the German Hindenburg, Ludendorff, Barbarossa (O-class), and Schlieffen (O-class), as well as two Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers, will join active service. The navies of Germany, Italy and France will have an overwhelming superiority, and the British home fleet will be completely annihilated near the English Channel!

So now blocking the Strait of Gibraltar has become an inevitable choice for Britain.

"I have mobilized the 'Gustav' and 'Dora' guns, 16 K5 train guns, 6 'Karl' mortars and 4 'Big Bertha' howitzers," Hersman said. In terms of firepower, it was enough to destroy the British forts on the Gibraltar Peninsula. ”

Raeder shook his head and said: "We have all studied how to destroy the fortress of Gibraltar (this is the exam question of the German Naval Academy), of course the fortress can be destroyed with super-caliber artillery, but the problem is that the British fleet will come from the sea to destroy our artillery positions. ”

The choice of these cannons was of course targeted, the terrain of Gibraltar was dangerous, the British had been operating for many years, and the location of the fort was carefully chosen. It must be destroyed by combining train guns with oversized mortars and super-caliber howitzers.

Moreover, the position of these cannons is exquisite, the K5 guns, the 'Gustav' guns and the 'Dora' guns are all train guns, and they cannot be arranged in places without railways. They bombarded the batteries of the 6-inch guns deployed on the western side of the Gibraltar Rock Front, as well as the fortifications on the windmill platform on the northern section of the Gibraltar Rock Peak.

After the destruction of these fortifications and batteries, the Germans were able to storm the northernmost part of the Windmill Plateau. Then those mortars and howitzers with a closer range can be moved to the foot of the Wind Mill Plateau, and use the shield of the Wind Mill Terrace to evade the fire of the four British batteries between the Wind Mill Terrace and the Europa Terrace, and destroy them with 420mm and 600mm shells at the same time.

Therefore, the best position for the deployment of the K5, 'Gustav' and 'Dora' guns was on the railway between Algeciris and Tarifa in the western part of the Gibraltar peninsula - the approximate location was in this area, and the railway was not necessarily paved in the original way, but some temporary railways could be laid. However, it is not possible to move further north, because the north is mountainous and it is difficult to lay railways.

This area is close to the Strait of Gibraltar, so it is not much to worry about during the day when the weather is good, but at night and the weather when the planes cannot be dispatched, the British battleships coming from the direction of the Atlantic are a huge problem.

Although the caliber of this train gun is very large, it is not an armored battery after all, it is unprotected, and the rate of fire is super slow, so it cannot beat the battleship at all.

"Marshal Raeder," said Hersman, smiling, "is why I came to the port of Kiel. He looked at Raeder, "Can the High Seas Fleet be dispatched now?" ”

"High Seas Fleet?"

Raeder and the commander of the High Seas Fleet, Rolf. Admiral Kars glanced at each other.

Admiral Kars immediately asked: "Marshal, what is the goal of the sortie of the High Seas Fleet?" ”

"Attack Shetland Islands!" Hersman said.

"What? Shetland Islands? Admiral Kars was taken aback.

He had thought that Hersmann wanted the High Seas Fleet to break through into the Atlantic Ocean from the Norwegian Sea and the Danish Strait. I didn't expect Hersman to propose to occupy Shetland Islands!

This is no longer a break of diplomatic relations, but a direct severance of diplomatic relations!

"Marshal, the Shetland Islands are simply impossible to capture." Admiral Kars shook his head, "It's only more than 200 kilometers from Scotland, just over 100 kilometers from Scapa Bay, and only more than 300 kilometers from the Faroe Islands, another important stronghold of the British army. And the northern part of Scotland, Scarpa Bay, Shetland Islands and the Faroe Islands have now formed a defensive whole, and the deployment of shore-based aircraft is likely to exceed 1,000! ”

The Shetland Islands were part of the chain of islands blocking the German fleet's breakthrough into the Atlantic, and the British had been operating there for almost two years, and of course could not be easily breached.

Hersman nodded and said slowly: "But Norway will join our side in the near future, Prime Minister Quisling is our man, he already controls the parliament and the army." They have built several large airports in Bergen and Stavanger, where at least 500 aircraft can be deployed. It's only three or four hundred kilometers from Shetland Islands, which is just the right distance for both our FW-190 and the Fokker Zero. ”

Hersman was no longer a "liar", having fought in the Mediterranean, he was already an expert in air and sea warfare, so he knew how to fight the British in Shetland Islands.

In fact, it doesn't matter whether or not Shetland Islands can be captured in the end. As long as the main force of the British Home Fleet could be drawn from the vicinity of Gibraltar to the vicinity of Shetland, and at the same time the constant fighting over the North Sea could consume a large number of excellent British pilots, it would be considered a victory.

And with the current strength of the Luftwaffe and naval aviation, it is not difficult to do this. On the one hand, the high and low combination of FW-190 and Fokker Zero can exert great power; On the other hand, since the beginning of the war, Germany's air power has been superior, so the losses are not large, but a large number of ace pilots have been trained, while the British have lost at least 1,500 old pilots because of the two huge losses in the French and Mediterranean theaters, and the number of ace pilots cannot be compared with Germany at all.

Therefore, in the event of a war of attrition in the air, Germany would certainly be able to gain an advantage in the exchange ratio. Choosing to wage a war of attrition over the North Sea would allow both sides to have no particularly big advantage in rescuing parachuting pilots, so that Britain's final losses would be far greater than those of Germany. (To be continued.) )