Li Ming only laughed at the Italians' "sour fox" move when he learned about it, the historical background is often artificially impossible to change, and since it is difficult to implement the forcible capture of the French fleet, he realistically focused his attention on the frontal battlefield. As Germany's peace proposal was rejected by the British, the German army began to actively deploy troops, and a large number of air force aviation units were stationed at airports in northern France and Belgium. It was obvious - to break the resistance of the British ** by air raids, and force them to compromise with Germany. At the same time, the German Navy, which had been relatively dormant in the French campaign, was given a new mission, and in addition to continuing to expand the scale of the submarine blockade, the surface assault warfare that had been interrupted for several months was also resumed.

On July 17, the German-class armored ship "Graf. The Admiral Spee left the Wilhelmshaven and hid in the Norwegian fjords for several days before passing through the Danish Strait into the North Sea in heavy fog. On 26 July, the surface assault fleet consisting of the fast battleship Gneisenau and the heavy cruiser Hipper.= was also ready to leave Kiel Military Port. With the "Scharnhorst", "Lützov" and "Admiral Scheer" all in a state of repair, and the "Bismarck" and "Tirpitz" not yet in service, this was already the strongest combination that the German Navy could send out. Feng. Finkenstein assumed command of the fleet.

With the current strategic situation of the whole of Germany, Adolf. Hitler's absence from the scene to see off the fleet was entirely expected by Zhang Hainuo, who preferred to go on such a low-key expedition rather than with the fanfare of the Air Force's bombing of Britain. Although the transfer of the Hood largely weakened the strength of the Home Fleet in the north, the German fleet was still not strong enough to compete head-on with the remaining British ships. On this issue, the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Marshal Raeder, is as sober as Zhang Hainuo (.2.) awareness. According to the predetermined plan, the two warships were to avoid the British fleet and enter the Atlantic Sea

British shipping lines, and finally went directly to German-occupied ports in southern France

In the drizzle, Li Ming boarded the "Gneisenau" under the watchful eyes of a group of admirals, and his command flag was immediately raised on the mast of the battleship. Untying the cable and retracting the anchor, the crew's movements were orderly, but the atmosphere in the entire harbor seemed a little dignified. With a whistle, the "Admiral Hipper" and the "Gneisenau" sailed out of the harbor one after the other, and a new journey began.

"Your Excellency the Admiral. To protect your clothes from rain. Please go inside and rest! ”。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。

Hearing this, standing on the open-air bridge and looking at the sea, Zhang Hainuo turned his head, and standing behind him at this moment was the current captain of the "Gneisenau" Sascha. Feng. Brigadier General Albrecht, who was promoted from Colonel to Brigadier General for his dedication to this post during the Norwegian campaign, was his second collaboration with Zhang Hainuo.

Regarding Albrecht's more polite words than before, Li Ming smiled indifferently: "It's okay. I just like to taste the sea so calmly! I'd rather stay here than the cloudy air in the conference room。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。

"Conference room? They had just cleaned it in the morning, and no one was smoking in it! Albrecht looked naïve at first. But think about it. He roughly understood what Zhang Hainuo meant. Not so long ago, the admiral's appointment as head of the Navy in the High Command was talked about by the admirals, but the climate there was not suitable for purely military people. When he returned in disgrace, the entire navy was overwhelmed.

Li Ming obviously didn't want to mention those disappointing things, so he took the initiative to turn the topic to the warship: "I heard that you have made minor modifications to the battleship in the past two months? ”

"Yes, Your Excellency the Admiral!" Brigadier General Albrecht replied very politely: "In view of the experience of a series of military operations during the Norwegian campaign, we proposed to the naval command for the addition of radio detection equipment and received approval. In addition, with the assistance of engineers, we have installed 4 quadruple 20-meter guns at the rear of the ship to strengthen the air defense capability at close range! ”

"Oh! That's nice! Zhang Hainuo naturally glanced back. It was only impossible to find the newly added machine guns through the many secondary guns and anti-aircraft guns on the side of the ship, but before boarding the ship, he noticed that there were more antennas on the ship's mast than before, which helped to improve the modernization level of the battleship, but the chance of damage due to a single piece in battle also increased accordingly.

The brigadier general went on to add: "We also carried out a complete overhaul of the main power system during this time, and the situation is somewhat worrying! ”

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Li Ming nodded calmly, "I have heard this from General Haye, the reason why the steam turbine was chosen for the construction of this class of battleship in the first place was to obtain enough sailing, but this power system is not as stable as we imagined!" However, no warship in the world is perfect, and every warship of our opponent has flaws of one kind or another, so we don't need to be pessimistic about it! If there is an irreparable glitch in the battle, it can only be said that the god of victory favors our enemies too much! ”

Albrecht said with relief: "You are right, if the god of victory decides to abandon us, then a seemingly innocuous cannonball will kill us. Instead of worrying about this, let's think about how we can use it to our advantage! This time, I am sure that we will give the British another taste of the iron fist of the German Navy! ”

"Although General Zirig and the Scharnhorst cannot accompany them this time, General, we still have the best ocean-going assault formation in the world, and we have enviable navigation, defense and firepower, which should be the greatest source of confidence for our officers and sailors!"

When Li Ming said this, his eyes stayed on the "Admiral Hippel" sailing in front of the formation, this heavy cruiser is not very famous in history, but when it comes to another battleship of the same class, the "Prinz Eugen", everyone knows and knows it. In fact, apart from the strengthening of part of the anti-aircraft firepower and radio equipment, the "Prinz Eugen" is not much different from the other two ships of this class, and of course, good luck is also an "alternative" in history.

The fate of the "Admiral Hippel" was neither too good nor too bad in history, it was able to participate in the Norwegian campaign at least and break through the Atlantic several times, but the Battle of Barents became the end of its war career, and due to the lack of steel and the shift in strategic focus, the wounded heavy cruiser remained idle until it sank in the military port of Kiel in the final year of the war.

"Our sailors are not only confident, but also very hungry for another victory!" Brigadier Albrecht was already very confident personally, and although the delay in the production of large-caliber naval guns prevented his battleship from having the opportunity to equip the originally designed triple 380-meter gun, this did not prevent the Gneisenau from becoming the sharpest sword in the Atlantic.

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In the dimly lit submarine cabin, a Navy non-commissioned officer wearing headphones faces a strange-looking instrument, sometimes listening intently, sometimes reporting to the Navy major next to the periscope in a low or moderate voice.

"Major, 029 azimuth hear the high propeller! There should be more than one warship...... Oh, shit! ”

The non-commissioned officer suddenly took off his headphones, with an unusually painful expression, and after several seconds rubbed his ears and said: "They are attacking one of our submarines with deep bombs!" ”

"I've seen those damn Brits, three destroyers, about 500 away, they shouldn't have seen us yet!" Lehman was still focused on the periscope, and his body involuntarily moved slowly with the periscope.

A full 40 minutes have passed since the original British fleet, and Lehman's submarine is constantly changing its position, but instead of finding a suitable opportunity to attack, it has twice been attacked by British destroyers who have been escorted by them! By this time, however, the German ace captain had already discerned the composition of the British fleet: the Royal Navy's unique heavy battlecruiser "Hood" led three light and heavy cruisers in an advance formation, and this high formation was the first to pass in front of Lehman and had already left the range of -98; This was followed by battleship formations comparable in firepower to the entire German main fleet - the "Queen Elizabeth", "Malaya" and "George V".

Needless to say, the two Queen Elizabeth-class battleships were the most powerful warships on the planet when they were commissioned, and the configuration of eight 15-inch guns was also comparable to that of the German core battleship "Bismarck", and the new battleship "George V", which was almost in service at the same time as the Bismarck, was equipped with a large number of advanced equipment, including a new radar rangefinder and an automated air defense system. The biggest appearance feature of this warship with a full load displacement of 45,000 tons is its two quadruple and one twin 14-inch main gun configuration, in terms of the number of guns and performance, it is not far behind the "Bismarck", and the heavy armor also gives it the ability to retreat in the fierce battle, and the only weakness seems to be that the run-in time between the crews is still short. But with the "Bismarck" in front, the British don't seem to care about this.

At this time, the British core battleship formation was within the range of submarine attacks, but to Lehman's helplessness, there were more British destroyers escorted than expected - when the war broke out. The British Navy has a much larger number of ships of all types, except submarines, and more than 200 destroyers are 10 times more than the opponent! Despite the loss of many destroyers in the Battle of the Atlantic, the Battle of Norway, and the Dunkirk Retreat, Britain's terrible shipbuilding capabilities continued to make up for those losses, and Britain even acquired 50 old destroyers from the United States when the battle of Britain was decided.

Therefore, in the use of such light multi-purpose ships, the Royal Navy will not be at all overstretched like its German counterpart! Although a significant number of these destroyers were built in the 30s and before, they are outdated in size and performance, but they have been equipped with advanced sonar, small radar, and a large number of specialized armaments. They are still competent in anti-aircraft and anti-submarine operations!