Powerful suicide weapons!

Listening to Churchill's words, the ministers and senior generals in the Cabinet's wartime command had a sense of unreality. www.biquge.info This is the British Empire, the British Empire is fighting a "gentlemen's war", who has ever seen a gentleman who died with the enemy with a bag of explosives?

And...... The Germans also did not make too harsh demands. In secret negotiations, the Germans simply demanded that Princess Elizabeth find a husband surnamed Hohenzollern, that the British Empire join the European Customs Union at the same time, that the war could be ended by handing over gold-rich South Africa, and that Germany and Italy recognize the territory and sphere of influence they had already acquired.

If the home fleet is really defeated, what is there to accept on such peaceful terms? Do you want to fight for South Africa's gold?

This kind of compromiseism is something that everyone but Winston. Churchill. If it weren't Churchill who was prime minister, but someone else who would lead the empire. It is estimated that if this battle cannot be won at the moment, it will seek peace and admit defeat.

But the current Prime Minister is an uncompromising Churchill! And, as the British Empire sank deeper and deeper into the quagmire of war, and when it came time to be destroyed, the Empire's prime minister, Winston Churchill, gained more and more power.

As a result of the passage of the Defence Act, the British Prime Minister and Cabinet have been given almost dictatorial powers to expropriate any personnel, materials, and industrial and mining enterprises in the British territory in the name of maintaining public safety, defending the homeland, maintaining public order, or effectively conducting any war in which His Majesty may be involved!

Churchill, as Prime Minister, could intervene in any work he deemed useful for the war effort under the Act, and he could order the police to arrest any person he deemed dangerous, and he could expropriate land, factories and minerals at will, and mobilize funds and requisition personnel at will. Churchill also had full personnel power to promote any soldier or civil servant he deemed useful for winning the war.

Churchill now has more power than Hitler and Hersmann in Germany combined! In the whole world, probably only the Red Tsar in Moscow was more powerful than him.

And such a powerful British prime minister is a person who seems to have a common enmity with the German Empire, except for the false peace talks he approves, anyone who dares to put forward peace ideas will be ruthlessly suppressed by him.

Therefore, no one dares to dispute Churchill's proposal to pretend to develop suicide weapons.

"The suicide weapons that need to be developed now are mainly anti-ship weapons!" Churchill pondered, "We can't let the damn Germans go home, so we have to develop weapons that can deter the Germans, and I think manned torpedoes and rocket-propelled bombs are all possible...... We should make a lot of propaganda to convince the Germans that we are being armed with both weapons in large quantities! ”

Manned torpedoes and rocket-booster bombs? That's too cruel, isn't it? Several British ministers and high-ranking generals gasped. While wondering what the Germans would be frightened by these two weapons, news came to the news of another German fleet.

"Reconnaissance aircraft found 3 more German battleships!?" Churchill took a cigar and asked, "Is it the kind of light battlecruiser that is more than 20,000 tons?" ”

"It seems to be Bismarck, Tirpitz and Gneisenau."

Churchill asked, "What?" So what is with those two German aircraft carriers? ”

"It should be two heavy cruisers," replied a rear admiral of the Royal Navy who was on duty at the wartime cabinet command, "and the heavy cruisers and battleships of the Germans were so similar in appearance that they could only be identified by their size." But at sea, it is easy to misidentify because of the lack of references. ”

"So how can the reconnaissance aircraft be sure that they are 3 German battleships and not heavy cruisers?" Churchill asked with some strange feeling.

"Because they found the battleship Gneisenau, which had only three main gun turrets and was relatively easy to identify. Then using the battleship Gneisenor as a reference, it is possible to recognize the other two as battleships and not heavy cruisers. ”

"I see." Churchill nodded and ordered, "Then let the Home Fleet and the Coastal Air Defense Command deal with it, and it is best to sink the remaining German aircraft carrier and these three battleships!" ”

……

"How? Can you still take off and land planes? ”

"There's no problem now, maybe I'll have to fix it when I go back. Sir. ”

"Really? But it looks scary when it explodes! ”

"Yes, we were lucky that the bomb was not dropped, but hung on the plane and hit the deck together. Because the area of the nose of the aircraft was relatively large, and there was no piercing warhead, the penetration could not be compared with that of an armor-piercing bomb, and it did not penetrate the armored deck. Otherwise we're in big trouble......"

Helmut. Vice Admiral Heyer was standing on the blackened armored deck of the ship's "Seydlitz" at this time, talking to the ship's damage management captain.

The "Seydlitz" was unbelievably lucky, it was hit by an SBD dive bomber with a 1000-pound bomb, and it was not even a heavy hit. Although the steel plates where they were hit were dented and burned black, they were not broken through after all.

And when the plane hit, there were no crew and no planes on deck. Therefore, the explosion did not cause any casualties, but only damaged the radar on the aircraft carrier, and the shock wave also shattered the glass of the command tower, causing many people to suffer minor injuries. Helmut. Heyer's head was also cut by broken glass, and he bled a lot, and just after he was bandaged, he went down to the flight deck to check for damage.

Now that the fierce fighting in the air has ended, the results and loss statistics just reported show that the air raid launched by the "British and American planes" seems to have ended in a disastrous defeat. As many as 143 "British and American planes" were shot down, while the German side lost only 12 Fokker Zeros, and the loss of pilots was only 6. In addition, the "Seydlitz" was hit by a plane, and at most it was a "mid-break". "Admiral Hipper" was torpedoed and was fine. There was also a light cruiser with a 1,000-pound near-miss, and the USS Secter with two near-misses of 500 pounds, but none of them were very problematic.

But Helmut . Heyer, still frowning, returned to the bridge, where there was no glass and there was no wind leaking everywhere.

"Sir, we have received a telegram from the 'Bismarck', Admiral Lütjans orders us to enter the shore-based aircraft protection circle in Bergen as soon as possible."

Franz. Colonel Hinze reported to Heyer with a copy of the telegram he had just received. He smiled wryly and said, "In addition, the admiral ordered us not to launch air strikes on the Icelandic and American fleets. Permission to shoot down approaching American planes though! ”

It turned out that the Germans had not yet figured out whether there were any American planes in the group that had just attacked them. A number of pilots and lookout posts reported seeing British concentric circles on the fuselages of SBD and TBD aircraft, while others reported seeing American pentagrams.

Hayer immediately reported this information to the "Bismarck" as soon as the "Anglo-American attack aircraft group" retreated, and now he has finally received the relevant instructions.

"Alright, let's retreat to the southeast." Helmut. Heyer sighed, groaned and asked, "Didn't say you were going to cancel the combat operation, did you?" ”

"Nope." Colonel Hinze said, "I don't think the operation will be canceled because Gibraltar is being attacked." Even if the United States does enter the war, we will have to take Gibraltar and close the door to the Mediterranean! ”

"That's good!" Helmut. Haye nodded, "Send Fakker 99 to scout while retreating." If the SBD and TBD that attacked us just now did not take off from the Faroe Islands, nor American planes. Then they must have taken off from a British aircraft carrier! We've got to find them and sink them. ”

……

"What a loss!"

On the Ark Royal, Somerville was squeezing the loss statistics report handed to him by Colonel Scott.

90 SBDs and TBDs were sent out, only 41 came back, and a full 49 aircraft were lost!

"It's worth it!" Colonel Scott said, "We have sunk one German aircraft carrier, and as long as we sink another one, they will not be able to compete with us for sea supremacy until two new aircraft carriers of 30,000 tons are put into service." ”

Colonel Scott was not only referring to Germany, but also to Italy and France. Germany, Italy and France had already surpassed Britain in terms of the number and quality of battleships, but neither Italy nor France now had aircraft carriers, and only Germany had two. If Britain could sink these two aircraft carriers, then the fleets of Germany, Italy and France would not be able to leave the protection of shore-based aviation for the time being.

"But it's still too dangerous to risk four aircraft carriers." Somerville shook his head, "We have lost 49 planes now, and we don't need 4 aircraft carriers. Concentrate the planes on the Ark Royal and the Dreadnought, then let the Victory and Indomitable retreat. ”

On the four aircraft carriers of the C fleet, there were originally 150 regular aircraft, and another 30 reserve aircraft. Previously, the Ark Royal lost a "Sea Spitfire", and now it has lost another 49 commonly used aircraft, leaving only 100 commonly used aircraft. These 100 aircraft are fully capable of boarding the Ark Royal and the Dreadnought.

This arrangement could have avoided the losses of the Victory and Indomitable in the subsequent operations, but there was also a disadvantage, that is, it took nearly 2 hours to concentrate the aircraft.

Since the Catalina seaplane, which the Americans sent to monitor the German aircraft carrier, was shot down by the Germans, and the Faroe Islands were being bombed indiscriminately by German planes sent by Bergen, it was temporarily impossible to launch a second wave of attacks, and there was no way to send reconnaissance planes. Thus, after Somerville spent more than an hour to complete the concentration of aircraft, the C fleet had already lost the exact location of the German aircraft carriers. (To be continued.) )