"Führer, General Machar sent a telegram that the fleet had lost in the Battle of Bermuda, and he felt very sorry......"

"Defeat?" Hoffman was nervous, "How many warships have you lost?" Where is the fleet currently? ”

"The warships were not lost, some battleships ate bombs, but the damage was not serious, the aircraft carrier formation was basically safe, the aircraft losses were not too great, and the only heavy losses were the marines who accompanied the fleet to attack. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 After receiving Machar's telegram, Field Marshal Dönitz, the First Deputy Commander of the Navy, did not dare to slack off, and immediately met with Hoffmann and gave a detailed report on the operation.

During the day, after the second wave of troops of the 82nd Airborne Division was blocked by carrier-based aircraft, the US Army Aviation quickly adjusted its operational focus and focused its attack force on the German fleet, and on Bermuda, the troops of the 82nd Airborne Division launched an encirclement and suppression of the German troops. Lieutenant Commander Baker barely held out until the evening under the attack of five times his own American troops, and by the time the Marines boarded the destroyers to retreat, there were only 297 men left including the wounded, almost a fraction of the total number at the time of the battle, and the loss rate was close to 80%. Not only was the Baker battle group forced to abandon the bodies of their comrades, but even most of the former British and American officers and men in Bermuda who had been taken prisoner could not be taken with them - only more than 50 captured American pilots were forcibly taken away.

The situation of the 82nd Airborne Division is not much better, they suffered more heavy casualties in the two-day and one-night battle, under the triple fire of the German ground, air, and ships, the first batch of more than 3,000 paratroopers who landed on the island only survived more than 600, and the second group of more than 3,000 people who landed on the island only survived more than 1,600, plus the pilot casualties (captured), almost 4,500 people were caught in front and back, and the loss was four times that of the German army. In particular, when the 82nd Airborne Division stormed the remnants of the German army on the island after nightfall, it did not expect the German warships to arrive suddenly, and suffered heavy losses under the cover of naval artillery fire, and was forced to abandon the attack and retreat to the south.

If Machar had been able to deploy three more Marine Battalions at this time, Ridgway and the 82nd Airborne Division would not have been able to escape the annihilation of the entire army, but unfortunately the fleet would have only been accompanied by three Marine Battalions, and Lieutenant Colonel Baker would not have been able to get sailors ashore to participate in the battle -- once the US planes attacked in a big way at dawn, they would not have lost the marines, but the warships. The two sides disengaged in the early hours of the morning, the Germans hastily disappeared into the night, and Mashal reported the entire battle to Berlin after the fleet was transferred.

After listening to the report, Hoffman's face was cloudy and thoughtful, and he asked Dönitz half a day later: "What do you think of this battle?" ”

"Strategically correct, General Machar succeeded in mobilizing the main forces of the enemy fleet, delaying the pace of the enemy's attack on the Falklands, buying time for our reinforcements to rush to the Falklands, but made a big mistake in tactics, and of course, the blame cannot be put on him alone."

Machar's mistake was obvious, and even if Dönitz wanted to defend it, he had to admit frankly that his mistake was that:

First of all, three battalions of marines should not be hastily stationed on Bermuda, attacking and capturing the defenders of Bermuda was already a situation in which the Germans had won a complete victory, and Machar's self-confidence was inflated, and the strategy of trying to attract the American attack by stationing on the island and creating an opportunity for the fleet to annihilate the enemy was very risky.

Second, after encountering the attack of the US paratroopers, Machar one-sidedly believed in the combat effectiveness of his own troops, refused to send a fleet or planes to cover the Marine Corps, and did not organize a retreat in time that night, but instead let them complete the task of annihilating the US troops, as a result, the Marine Corps' offensive was contained due to the opponent's air superiority, but fortunately, the Marine Corps' combat effectiveness was amazing, and the situation of losing both sides was barely maintained through the night attack.

In the end, in the face of the test moment of the strong man's broken wrist, Machar did not decisively abandon the Marine Corps and fled, but was forced to send carrier-based aircraft and fleets to cover, trying to continue to raise the bet that had been suppressed, which he himself did not realize and others including Dönitz in Berlin saw very clearly - fortunately, the American fleet did not arrive at the scene, the heavy bombers used by the US Army Aviation had poor sea attack capabilities, and the German carrier-based aircraft were just in time to attack the paratroopers and transport planes. If one of these two things fails, Machar will have to lose at least a few warships and even more troops.

During this period, he also rejected Ozawa's correct advice twice - Mashal was honest in this and refused to say anything without concealment.

Hoffmann sighed, of course he knew the problems of the German naval commanders: compared with their Japanese counterparts, the senior naval officers, including Machar, were inferior at first, and did not dare to touch the main forces of the British and American fleets, unless they were shipwrecked, such as the one that rushed into the Azores from the North Sea; Later, he was arrogant, won several battles, and after taking advantage of it, he began to be hot-headed, thinking that the British and American navies were nothing more than that, and then he suffered a blow to the head, such as the defeat in the Battle of Bermuda, and quickly slipped to inferiority - Martial now suggested that the fleet should be brought back to Italy to rest and avoid confrontation with Britain and America.

In the final analysis, this is the result of a fault line in the development stage of the navy after World War I, and neither the operational concept, technical equipment, nor command system can keep up with the times, and the only thing that can be used is probably the submarine force, and the style of wanting to win and being afraid of losing occupies a dominant position. Hoffman could provide them with better equipment, more warships, and the opportunity to learn about the Combined Fleet up close, but it was clear that he would not be able to significantly improve the command of senior generals overnight.

Marchar and Kranke were already rare and good admirals in the navy, and Hoffman bet that it would have been even worse if it had been Kumetz who had led the troops. In the final analysis, although a navy has been built that is not weak, it is still fighting with a broken mentality. This mentality played well in the Falklands, Brazil, and Guyana directions in the early stage, but when it came to the vicinity of Bermuda, it could not withstand the bayonet to see the truth.

"You can't rest, as soon as the fleet rests, Britain and the United States will go straight to the Falklands, how can they fight with the strength there?" Hoffman pondered for a moment and then said, "Let him go to the Azores to reorganize, redeploy the 3 Marine Battalions and go south again, they can not fight the Americans, but they must entangle the opponent's main fleet, and the enemy cannot easily go to the Falklands." Now is the critical moment for the upheavals of the South American countries to move closer to the axis, and no matter what, we must defend the Falklands and preserve our prestige there. For every point we hold the enemy in South America, the Azores will be safe, and the Western Front will be consolidated. ”

Dönitz nodded, he still understood this.

"It's the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division fighting the Marines?"

"Yes, the commander is Matthew Ridgway, who according to the telegram is also in command on the front line." Dönitz added, "The Marines bravely attacked with a disadvantaged number of troops, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy, destroying at least 4,000 enemy troops, and Machar believed that the Marines were good and could not erase their merits, and that heavy losses were his personal command responsibility." ”

Hoffman thought to himself: Of course, the 82nd Airborne Division and Ridgway are not ordinary people, it seems that Roosevelt is really in a hurry this time, and he has used all his housekeeping skills, and the US military can be regarded as playing with his life when he lands on such a small island.

"The entire Baker battle group was brought back to China, and all the participants in the battle were issued armbands of the Battle of Bermuda, and the surviving officers and men of the Marine Corps were promoted to one level regardless of their rank, and awarded the Medal of Honor according to their performance, with them as the backbone, and then transferred personnel from the army to form a new Marine brigade, called the Bermuda Brigade, to commemorate the battle." "This time it happened more than 1,000 kilometers away from the continental United States, and like the Panama campaign, it was a great shock to the United States, and no matter what the outcome, at least we showed strength to the Americans, and it was a great success," Hoffman said. Judging from the overall situation and the exchange ratio, not only did we not lose, but also achieved significant success, and it is unfair to the Marines that they cannot return home with the hat of defeat after a bloody battle. ”

Dönitz nodded in understanding: the Führer had set the tone for the battle, and with this attitude everything would be easy, and he immediately interceded for Machar, to which Hoffman replied: "I hope he can learn from this and consider the problem more carefully and comprehensively, I will not hold on to specific problems, you and I are not saints, and we have made mistakes, so just take it as a warning." As for the next stage, let the Broken Friendship Fleet be dispatched to cut off the Anglo-Canadian route, and let those escort aircraft carriers taste the power of the Broken Friendship Aircraft Carriers. If the main force of the enemy comes, you can fight them again, I hope this time it doesn't disappoint me! ”

The broken fleet in Hoffman's mouth refers to the detachment composed of the Dunkirk aircraft carrier, which was renovated and put into service half a month ago, and the battleship Richelieu, which was repaired just two days ago.

Unlike ordinary aircraft carriers, the Dunkirk after the completion of the transformation is completely a product that is ahead of its time, and it is not an exaggeration to even describe it as shocking. Initially, it was rebuilt into an aviation warship, but during the specific construction process, it was found that the muzzle storm had too much impact on the take-off and landing of the aircraft, and finally all the naval guns were dismantled to become a straight-through aircraft carrier, but unlike ordinary aircraft carriers, the flight deck was straight-through, but the hangar was not, because if the hull structure was completely remodeled, it was better to rebuild a new warship, so it was simply removed and flattened, and the original location where the main gun ammunition and turret were stored became an armor-covered fuel and ammunition depot.

The empty aft half of the Dunkirk was converted into a hangar, but small and single-storey, accommodating only 24 aircraft (partially folded) and six spare, with an additional side lift for conveyance, and the remaining 24 standing aircraft moored on decks at the aft deck and the starboard protrusion.

In terms of appearance, the Dunkirk is a standard post-World War II aircraft carrier, with a straight main deck, a port bevel, and a starboard protrusion for balancing and compensation and for some aircraft mooring, but its internal structure is still very different from that of modern aircraft carriers, the most prominent being its superior armor and defense capabilities. (To be continued.) )