"God bless my king, God bless Britain, we have finally found the traces of those damned German pirates!"

The Admiralty building in the heart of London was a scene of cheering, with all the British officers talking and laughing as if to vent all the repression and anguish they had suffered in the past few days. Since the outbreak of the war, no one in the house has shown any relaxed smiles: first German planes sank dozens of British first-line warships in Scapa Bay, and then German naval forces launched a simultaneous attack on British maritime shipping in both the North Sea and the North Atlantic. In just half a month, the total tonnage of the British merchant ships that were poisoned reached 580,000 tons. And even at the peak of Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917, the total number of sunks in half a month was only 430,000 tons!

For Britain, an island nation that relies heavily on the sea, the heavy loss of the transport fleet caused an unprecedented shock almost instantly. The government urgently announced the implementation of a full rationing system: almost all supplies, including coal, cloth, meat and poultry, grain and oil, could only be purchased in stores with tickets. In just one week, the British people's table has shrunk from a dazzling array of sumptuous richness to a simple and crude one. Even milk for babies is in short supply due to shortages; Helpless, British mothers could only cook gruel from oats and other things, and feed them little by little to the children's howls and cries.

Feeling the tremendous impact and damage of the war on their lives, the hearts of the British people suddenly welled up with humiliation and anger that wanted to erupt out. It is true that they were under the call of Chamberlain, like the chancellor, and determined to use their will and strength to stop the expansion of the insatiable Hitler; But this does not mean that they will henceforth become machines, silently enduring the great pain that has happened to themselves and their country.

Since the beginning of the war, the news from various theaters has become worse and worse: the German Army has been overwhelmed on the Polish battlefield, after all, the Central European wilderness has no direct relationship with Britain, but it is the Royal Navy, which has been crisscrossing the seas for 350 years and has countless glorious histories, has also been beaten to the ground by the Germans, and even the most basic sea shipping lines are about to be unable to defend!

"Where is the Royal Navy, which defeated the Armada, Napoleon, and Wilhelm II?" "The glory of Britain was ruined in the hands of the navy." "Sir Nelson will crawl out of his grave in anger!" …… As bad news continued to arrive, headlines such as these continued to appear in British newspapers and magazines. Except for a few official media, almost all public opinion media are strongly denouncing the British Navy.

The indignant British people could not understand why the British Navy, which was ranked first in the world before the war, had been so badly struck in just a dozen days that it was difficult to maintain even the sea lines of transportation - and the opponent was the German Navy, which they had been ignoring. Remember that the German fleet was wiped out 20 years ago, and the corpses of its elite main force are still lying in the icy waters of Scapa Bay. It was not until four years earlier, in 1935, that the Germans officially freed themselves from the shackles of the Treaty of Versailles and gained the right to develop their fleets on an equal footing with other major powers. If you look at the tonnage of the fleet, the size of the German navy on the eve of the war was less than 30% of that of Britain, and it belonged to the type that should be directly crushed. But now the roles of both sides have dropped one by one, and the poor worm who was pressed to the ground and kicked it turned out to be the British Navy with an absolute lineup advantage!

Faced with this jaw-dropping absurdity, the embarrassed British people naturally vented all their anger on the navy. In their opinion, it is only possible that the incompetence of the Navy has reached the point of no return, which will lead to such a painful defeat in the face of a weak enemy today! Every morning, the staff of the Admiralty building could always find a large number of stones thrown into the fence; Even the security police turned a blind eye to this, joining the public in expressing their strong dissatisfaction with the navy.

However, the British people seem to have forgotten that throughout the 20s and 30s after the end of the war, the modernization of the Navy was seen as an obstacle to economic recovery, and none other than themselves.

For more than half a month, the entire British Navy since Churchill has spent this endless condemnation and condemnation. And in addition to the people, the government cabinet also has a lot of complaints about the poor performance of the navy: War Secretary Leslie? Berisha, and Air Force Secretary Kingsley? Sir Wood, at a government meeting on 21 September, complained to Chamberlain that the massive loss of transport vessels had seriously affected the production of weapons and the mobilization and preparedness of the army and air forces. Rao is Churchill, who has always been known for his tough style, can only be humiliated and silent in front of the gloomy faces of the two senior officers at this moment. After all, no matter how you look at it, the British Navy could not find any excuse to justify itself in the face of the German fleet, which was far inferior to its own formation!

However, now, this headache-inducing and difficult battle situation has finally ushered in the opportunity to negate Tailai. The telegram from the submarine Taku clearly pointed out to the entire British Navy the enemy's position, which was less than 400 nautical miles northwest of the Azores. Although the submarine did not get a full view of the German fleet due to the fact that it was night, the mere fact that there was at least one aircraft carrier in the fleet was enough for the British Navy to rush to destroy her!

"The closest to the Azores now is the G Fleet under the command of Commodore Harwood. The fleet had two heavy cruisers in Exeter and York, and two Leander-class light cruisers, and its strength was enough to destroy the German pocket battleships. If the radius is enlarged to 1,000 nautical miles, there are still five search fleets at your disposal: the weakest of them have a lineup comparable to that of the G fleet, with the H and F fleets having the Prestige Cruiser and the Fury aircraft carriers, respectively. Even if the main forces of the German fleet were all assembled, we would still have an absolute numerical superiority. "First Sea Lord Dudley? Pound pointed the pencil in his hand on the chart, and said in a fierce tone, "Find them, catch up with them, and sink them!" Great Britain will never allow these robbers to continue to act recklessly on her sea routes, and we will turn this sea area into a graveyard for the German fleet. ”

"Your Excellency Admiral, if the enemy encountered by the Taku submarine is really the main force of the German fleet, then it will still be difficult for us to carry out the next operation smoothly." 54-year-old Vice Admiral John? Tovey frowned, the only person in the room who wasn't overjoyed by the revelation of the German fleet's whereabouts. He took a deep breath and said, "According to the battlefield intelligence we obtained on September 3, the German fleet with five aircraft carriers as the core has a total of 3 K-class heavy cruisers and 12 Z-class destroyers. If you add armored ships, then this force is hardly something that any of our detachments can contend with. So, what should one of our detachments do when they discover the Germans? ”

Hearing Tovey's words, all the officers in the conference hall were stunned. They suddenly found themselves ignoring an extremely important question, that is, what tactical means should be used to achieve the goal of annihilating the German fleet.

Prior to this, since only German pocket cruisers had been found in the North Atlantic, all other German surface ships, including aircraft carriers, were nowhere to be seen; In order to expand the search area, the British Navy split the home fleet into more than a dozen search fleets and scattered them all over the ocean. Although this reduced the scope of activities of the German pocket battle cruisers, it also caused a significant decline in the combat effectiveness of individual fleets. In the face of the German pocket war cruisers with single-ship safaris, this kind of search fleet can barely cope; However, when the main German fleet also appeared in the North Atlantic, these weak British squadrons fell into an embarrassing dilemma.

If the British Navy had chosen to preserve its strength in the event of an encounter with the main German fleet, the British Navy would have lost its control over the position of the German fleet. At this time, the British Navy had not yet popularized radar on warships, and it was completely blind when it entered the night: in these ten hours, who knew which direction the target it was tracked during the day had turned?

And if they chose to attack, the British detachment would be in danger of attacking the strong with weak. The Swordfish, which had flown over the German air fleet on 3 September, had made a complete report to the Admiralty Headquarters on all the things it had detected: the German fleet had a powerful escort force that could not be matched by ordinary British detachments.

Although in many cases, pilots may not be accurate in what they see with the naked eye from thousands of meters away, and it is not uncommon for them to misidentify the type of battleship, but the British have full confidence in the identification of German battleships. Because the difference in appearance between the German warships of all classes was too obvious. The Bismarck-class battleships had 3 triple main guns, the Deutschland-class had 2 quadruples, the K-class heavy cruisers had 2 triplets, and the Z-class superdrive had 4 twins. Just counting the number of turrets can put most of the German ships in the right seats!

"At this point in the day, there is no way back. Only by fighting hard can the Royal Navy regain its honor and create a chance for Great Britain to win the war. Admiral Pound spoke slowly, and a solemn and solemn look gradually appeared on his old face, "If the German fleet cannot be destroyed, the entire British sea transportation line will face the threat of collapse, and this consequence is impossible for Britain to bear in any case!" Even if it comes to sacrifice, we will not hesitate to do it. 350 years ago, Britain dared to challenge the world's most powerful armada; Today, I believe that the Anglo-Saxon nation still has this fearless courage. (To be continued.) )