The morning light is faint, the winter snow is flying, and the city of London is white in the morning, adding a bit of bright and dazzling color to the modern beauty. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Churchill lit a cigar and savored the aroma of fine tobacco in the mist; The smell of nicotine and burning tar quickly spread through the room, making his nerves even more refreshed by the stimulus. Looking at the stack of papers on the desk in front of him that had just been processed by himself, Churchill smiled at the corners of his mouth, compared to a few months ago, there were too many tricky things that could make him scratch his scalp.

Since last November, when all British merchant ships and escort ships sailing in the Atlantic changed flags, the gloom that hung over the Royal Navy and the whole of Britain began to dissipate rapidly. The total tonnage loss of the UK's merchant ships was as high as 610,000 tons in October, plummeted to 140,000 tons in November, and fell again to only 110,000 tons in December. Although the North Atlantic was a stormy winter in the last two months, and submarine hunting was much more difficult than in normal season, the effectiveness of Churchill's proposal to change the flag was also vividly demonstrated by the rapidly improving damage figures.

According to first-line information from the Navy and civilian shipping, German submarine attacks on convoys sailing under the American flag have ceased to exist. The super-torpedo, which could blow up a 10,000-ton merchant ship with just one piece, never appeared in the convoy again, and the British sailors finally gained a dream-like safety in the trembling of their lives hanging by a thread.

Although the Germans knew that most of these ships were disguised by British ships, they did not dare to carry out indiscriminate attacks. The tragedy of the explosion of the cruise ship Athena on September 3 is still pricking the nerves of every American, and if there is another similar incident that provokes the United States to arouse the public and completely abandon its isolation policy, it will definitely be a small loss for Germany, and it is very likely that the tragedy of 1918 will be repeated!

After the castration of the primary function of German submarines as an offensive weapon, British maritime shipping was stabilized.

At present, all the losses of British merchant ships come only from the special mines dropped by German aircraft near British ports, and the forced halt of merchant ships by surface attack ships; The former mainly occurred on the east coast of England near the German mainland, and did not have an impact on the western ports of Liverpool and Southampton, while the latter's attacks were also limited to fast merchant ships sailing alone and weak merchant ships that lacked escort ships at all, and the results were far less than the direct situation of fighting ships on sight in the early days of the war.

Although the means were not so glamorous, and it could even be said that the glory and face of the Royal Navy in the world for 300 years were lost, Churchill's trick really contained the fierce offensive of the German Navy, and gave the British Empire, which had been in an atmosphere of peace and paralysis for a long time, and whose armaments and national defense had been in ruins, a precious respite that could definitely be called a thousand gold.

As First Admiralty in charge of personnel organization and logistics, Churchill has been feeling the changes brought about by the stability of maritime shipping since mid-November last year. The Navy's recruitment was apparently made easier by the drastic reduction in death notices, and tens of thousands of young men were soon incorporated into the Navy's reserve list and began their initial assault training. And the most important thing is the recovery of the shipbuilding industry. As transport ships brought steel and other supplies from around the world to the British mainland, Britain's major shipyards also rejuvenated and began to desperately build the combat ships they desperately needed for the Royal Navy.

Currently, the British have a total of 6 battleships under construction. Except for the Queen Elizabeth, which was a large-scale refit, the remaining five ships were all new "George V" class that began construction in Britain in early 1937. After two and a half to three years of construction, the first two sister ships were launched before the outbreak of war, and the last three were more than 90 percent complete and could be slipped off the slipway by April 1940. Some time ago, the construction of these warships was scarce due to the sinking of a large number of transport ships, and the construction speed was forced to slow down, but now that the transportation lines are stable, Churchill can also concentrate enough resources to ensure the production of these capital ships.

According to the British Navy's projections, by the end of 1940, the rejuvenated Queen Elizabeth and the brand-new George V would be able to complete the work and officially join the ranks of the main force of the fleet. And if the current good maritime shipping pattern can continue, then the next four ships of the same class of the George V class can be completed and commissioned in 1941. Although they were completely unable to stand up to the German Bismarck-class on their own, and even barely able to deal with the Italian Caraccino-class built in the first half of the 30s, they were able to provide some relief to the British Navy, which was currently overstretched by its capital ship lineup.

Now thinking about the size of the British Home Fleet, Churchill is full of tears: compared to the Grand Fleet commanded by Jericho in 1914, the five capital ships now commanded by Sir Charles Forbes are only one of the sub-fleets!

In addition to these six promising battleships, the British Navy is expected to acquire four large ships in the near future, which they also started construction in 1937. Because aircraft carriers are much less difficult to build than battleships, these offshore platforms with a standard displacement of 23,000 tons have been launched at this time, except for the "Indomitable", which has a slightly slower construction period, and the first ship, the Guanghui, is expected to be completed and commissioned in May 1940.

Although this newly designed armored aircraft carrier is not as good as the Ark Royal, which started construction earlier, in terms of aircraft capacity and deck length, they can have excellent "attack force survivability" in the face of external attacks, and have an unparalleled advantage over the latter in high-intensity and sustained combat. Their participation can also greatly improve the current weak carrier-based aviation combat power of the Royal Navy, so that the Royal Navy can regain the confidence to compete with the German aircraft carrier formation.

Although the other auxiliary ships have never been raised by their own mothers, and have always been on the periphery in the eyes of the navy's top brass, because the British Navy is currently too short of ships, Churchill also paid considerable attention to the construction of these ships. According to the current construction of various ships, Britain is expected to get 7~8 light cruisers and 15~20 destroyers in 1940. These ships were all in 1937~1938, after the end of the "London Naval Treaty", Britain felt the rapid maritime expansion of the United States, Japan, Germany, Italy and other countries, and dug three feet into the ground to find the funds for building ships.

For Britain, a world empire that has long lost its economic foundation as support, even ultra-cheap warships with a construction cost of only 40% of the United States and 50%~60% of Germany's construction cost are also powerless, and can only maintain their naval ranking in the oncoming rapids. In fact, if it were not for this cost advantage, Britain would have taken a back seat in the new round of naval competition that broke out in 1936, and went to join forces with France, Italy, and Japan!

To be sure, Britain had built a considerable number of new warships in the first two years of the competition, but it was clear that this addition would not be enough to defeat the Germans on the other side of the North Sea. Therefore, all the expectations of the British Navy in a few years are pinned on more than 50 first-line ships that have just started construction, including four Lion-class battleships.

Although Churchill also felt that it was a bit unrealistic to invest so much manpower and material resources in these warships that were bound to be commissioned in 2~5 years, what if that day really came and the British Navy had no new ships available? What's more, the firepower of the German battleships has far exceeded all the capital ships in service and under construction in the UK, and it is absolutely necessary to build a Lion-class that can match it!

Despite the enormous task of shipbuilding, and the stumbling of the transition from laid-back to hectic, Churchill was optimistic. As long as the British machine can be powered by enough external energy, then even if it has been idle for many years, it can be warmed up for a period of time to operate at full speed. The Anglo-Saxons, who were born seafaring, have experienced countless hardships and dangers, but they have never given up and retreated; It won't be long before the country's 46 million people can come together efficiently and wield the power of war far beyond peacetime.

On the whole, the current war situation in Britain is undoubtedly much more relaxed than it was in early October. The whole country is in the stage of recovering strength, and the huge wound caused by the surprise attack on Scapa Bay has also begun the process of hemostasis and scabbing. Churchill, however, had a vague concern in his heart.

According to what he had learned over the years, the German Führer was definitely a man of brilliant genius who once toyed with the whole of Europe to applause. How could he sit back and watch Britain use Li Daitao's stiff way to slowly heal from his injuries? Will he exploit Britain's weakness elsewhere: the Low Countries just across the Strait from Britain, the Norwegian ports with flank access to the North Atlantic, or Ireland, desperate for complete independence?

"At least Norway should be able to rule it out." Churchill looked up at the calendar on the wall and muttered to himself. Today is January 16th, and according to the plan he promoted, the British Navy will depart from the port in three days to land in north-central Norway with the army and air forces. As long as Germany did not prepare in advance, a few days of blank time for its own army was enough to gain a foothold in Norway. Churchill had full confidence in this operation: in order to pursue speed, Britain would leave France alone this time, and the Germans would definitely be left behind! (To be continued.) )