"General Raeder, I don't know why you're interested in breaking diplomatic relations at sea? If I'm not mistaken, you've always been with Admiral Siperl in the Fast Fleet, right? You should have the most contact with the capital ship to engage in battle, not how to sneak up on the other side's merchant ships at sea, right? In a navy-owned clubhouse in Berlin, a lean lieutenant colonel looked at the admiral in front of him with some surprise.

"Lieutenant Commander Dönitz, it seems that there are some differences between us, some differences in concepts and understandings, and you use those warships or submarines cruising in the open sea as mere tools to attack merchant ships. And I think that in addition to striking the enemy's transportation lines, these warships and submarines are also tasked with attacking the enemy's scattered warships and weakening the opponent's overall combat power, if your fleet is a thief, then my fleet is a robber. Who's more destructive, I think it's clear. In fact, before the Great War, the Imperial Navy had thought of deploying a high-speed battleship formation to attack and weaken the British fleet, which was the Far East Fleet of Count Spee, but later due to the change of shape, this fleet was not suitable for breaking diplomatic relations and guerrillas, but was used for fleet decisive battles in the Mediterranean. Raeder was not angry at the disrespect in the other party's words, if you want to talk about the battle, this lieutenant commander with the title of sea wolf is much better than his own staff officer, after all, Raeder was only a staff officer at the beginning. Coupled with the importance of Admiral Siper, it has today's high position.

"Well, I don't know what the strategies of the top level are, tell me what is the purpose of you inviting me here today, I don't think it will be a boring afternoon with wine and refreshments, right? If that's the case. I prefer to be with my family. Dönitz said bluntly.

"Sue me, as a submarine commander, what are you most afraid of. What is most needed, and then I will help you solve these problems, by the way to fulfill my own ambitions, you know, the Navy is going to build new cruisers, and one of the members of the committee responsible for developing the relevant technical indicators and task requirements is me. And in the future, I may be transferred to the cruiser unit. I don't want people to call me a staff general. I need to have my own strategy system, and I need people to achieve it. There was a bit of self-deprecation in Raeder's words.

The German High Seas Fleet experienced too much in the First World War, but it also made many generals stand out. The commanders of the various detachments have an impressive record. Even quite a few captains of capital ships are eligible for promotion to the rank of general. The German Navy can arrange a lot of generals, but the first-line fleet can accommodate not many personnel, after all, the fleet is so large, the commanders of the original high seas fleet detachment are naturally given priority. And he was originally born as a staff officer. But the people who were hard-pulled to the cruiser unit by Scheer and Siperel were naturally questioned by many people! Don't look at the rank of major general. But many people are not interested in him, which is naturally a shame for Raeder, who is ambitious and wants to build a career!

There is a saying in Huaxia that how much capital you have to do a lot of business. As the commander of a cruiser detachment, Raeder could only focus on the cruiser first, and what could the cruiser do? It is nothing more than to provide cover for the main fleet, or to act independently to perform some low-intensity tasks. For the former, there is little room for him to play, and in the main battle, he only needs to be able to carry out the tasks assigned by the fleet commander. No matter how much you study it, it's just a matter of tactics. But if you can break away from the main fleet yourself. As an independent force, if you break up the war and fight at a low intensity, then you will have a lot of autonomy. There's more room for him to do it!

Raeder first carefully studied the Allied cruiser construction plan and the number of related warships collected by the naval intelligence department, and then read the war reports of the Allied fleet's overseas breakdown in the Great War, and based on these materials, he considered how to maximize the power of the weapons in his hands as a cruiser commander.

Raedel knew very well that even if he was a good person, the power he could have in the end was only a cruiser formation, with a maximum of three or four cruisers. And how many cruisers could the German Navy have? With a full 280,000 cruiser tonnage, the number of cruisers may end up at around 24! If it is a decisive battle of the fleet, throwing your own fleet into it may be a cannon fodder! It didn't take a few jumps and it was gone, and it was uncertain how much impact it would have on the battle situation, and Raeder didn't want to be cannon fodder. If you don't use it as cannon fodder, you can only choose to participate in low-intensity battles or break diplomatic relations. Therefore, the direction of his research is the use of cruisers in the future in breaking diplomatic relations and guerrilla warfare, and he gave this method of warfare a name called cruiser warfare!

In fact, after the defeat of Germany in World War I and the destruction of the High Seas Fleet in history, Raeder also studied the tactics of using cruisers to attack the opponent's lines of communication, and wrote a special thesis, and even obtained the qualification of a professor. In World War II, whether it was a pocket battleship, a heavy cruiser, or a capital ship like Scharnhorst, they all participated in the operation to break diplomatic relations on the sea, and achieved certain results. Later, with the collapse of the Bismarck in the Atlantic, the once very active cruiser broke the diplomatic battle and gradually disappeared. However, from a strategic point of view, Raeder's surface ship breakthrough operation involved a lot of energy from the opponent, providing a relatively good combat environment for the submarine, and it was also effective in the early stage of the war.

And on this plane, with the further development of the German Navy, although by mistake, Raeder continued to study the topic of maritime cruising warfare, but the connotation and combat purpose are completely different, if the historical cruising war mainly relies on the attack of high-speed warships on the sea transportation line, then the cruising war on this plane is more aggressive, and at the same time attacking the transport ship and attacking the opponent's auxiliary warships by the way! Let's say cruisers and destroyers. There is also a greater emphasis on system warfare, and in Raeder's plan, purpose-built cruisers, submarines, and shore-based long-range patrol aircraft will be used as a whole. In order to realize this plan, the first thing Raeder needs to do is to understand what his potential partner, the submarine, needs and what help he can provide! So, he found the wolf king Dönitz!

One might ask, is it necessary to break diplomatic relations in the current situation where the German Navy is unprecedentedly strong? The answer is yes, in the final analysis, there are three kinds of battles at sea, the fleet engagement, the destruction of the opponent's sea power, the breaking of the battle, and the organization of the opponent's use of the sea line of communication. Escort operations to ensure one's own use of sea lines of communication, even if it is as strong as the US imperialists when they were in the face of the Japanese Navy, submarine operations were also an indispensable link, and it is precisely because of the contribution of the submarine force that Japan clearly has the resource areas of Southeast Asia, but it is still facing a shortage of materials. Breaking the battle has a permanent existence, but the form may be different.

"Destroyers, seaplanes. Especially the latter, if there are even 2 seaplanes on the transport fleet all the time, then we can only dive into the water and give up tracking. And you know, the speed of a submarine in the water is not at all as good as that of a transport ship. In a few hours at most, we will lose the target. There was not even a chance to attack. Dönitz paused and continued: "As for the destroyer?" With the development of sonar technology, I believe that they will become more and more threatening to submarines, and now they mostly rely on naval guns and depth charges, but at the end of the war it is said that some submarines encountered a special weapon, which can fire several depth charges at once, and then form a cover in a certain sea area. Sometimes, if a large transport fleet can have 4 destroyers, then it will be difficult for our attack to be effective. ”

When their submarine is suspended on the bottom of the sea and the other party throws a depth charge near them, when the explosion shock wave from the sea water constantly knocks on the submarine hull, when some parts inside the submarine cannot withstand the huge water pressure and breaks, the fear and despair will definitely overwhelm people, and many people will be made insane. As for the fact that if it was really sunk by depth charges, the survival rate of which personnel could definitely be described as nine deaths! So for Raeder, who may be able to help him in the future, Dönitz is still very concerned!

"Another problem is to seek the enemy, in fact, we can find the prey half of our own experience and intelligence, and the other half is based on luck, the observation position of the submarine is very low, the range that can be seen is not large, plus our surface speed is not very fast, so the search range in a single submarine will be very small, if we can achieve information sharing through certain technical means, and have other people to provide us with the navigation of the ship, our efficiency will be much better." Dönitz thought for a moment and continued.

"The last issue is the issue of supplies. Shells, torpedoes and fuel are all needed, and submarines can be a big challenge if they want to intercept their opponents in a wider area of water, and sometimes they need to make detours to avoid the opponent's anti-submarine fleet. If we can be resupplied by submarines at sea, it will be of considerable help to us. After saying that, Dönitz looked at Raeder with some expectation, wondering what kind of surprise the future "commander of the cruiser detachment" could bring to him.

"It seems that there is a basis for cooperation between us, the cruisers of the High Seas Fleet can help you deal with those annoying auxiliary cruisers and destroyers, and at the same time the cruisers' carrier-based seaplanes can also provide you with maritime reconnaissance. If we can communicate by radio, then it is also possible to share information with each other, as for seaplanes? I think that if the cruiser can take off and land fighters, even if there are only a few, it will be enough to deal with the opposing seaplanes and anti-submarine patrol aircraft. Raeder thought for a moment and said.

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 and the book friend hukaikaka for the tip~~~, and the book friend njluyujiang for the monthly pass support ~~~. (To be continued......)