"Churchill, is this what you want to see? You're pushing the Royal Navy into hell. "John. Cronin. The wartime admiral Tovey muttered to himself.

The 55-year-old general is in the prime of a fleet commander, and he is physically strong, agile and energetic, as well as rich in experience and experience.

Twenty-four years ago, Tovey participated in the Battle of Jutland as a destroyer captain, and showed excellent quality and command ability in the battle, and his career began with a career that was first sent to the Naval Academy for further study, and then steadily climbed through the ranks of the squadron commander, where he was taught by several of the Royal Navy's top generals, and worked hard and fulfilled his duties for many years, and finally stood out from many competitors and ascended to the throne of Commander of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet. At least in the eyes of outsiders.

In the past, this position was the lifelong dream of all Royal Navy officers, and to be able to ascend to this position at this age, in addition to having strong connections, you must also have outstanding performance that surpasses others, which is the best proof of personal ability. More importantly, only generals who have served as commanders of the three major fleets have the qualifications to ascend to the higher ranks of the navy, and eventually enter the core leadership of the navy, grasp the direction of the development of the navy, and go down in the history of the Royal Navy.

However, when Tovey received the letter of appointment from the Lord of the Admiralty, he did not feel the slightest excitement or pride. He knew very well that he, the commander, had picked it up.

The strong competitors have either sunk to the bottom of the sea, or they already have heavy responsibilities, and the rest are old and sick and unable to serve, and he is actually the last candidate in the ranking table. Last week he was deputy commander of Cunningham's Mediterranean Fleet, but this week he became the enviable commander-in-chief of the Royal Navy's home fleet, with no scrutiny but a simple signature from Churchill, which seemed to Tovey to be a farce.

Relative to serving as commander-in-chief of the home fleet. Tovey actually prefers to squat in Egypt to bask in the sun, and the commander of the home fleet is no longer a sweet potato that everyone is fighting for, but a hot potato that has just been baked. But Tovey had no choice at all, he could only accept the appointment honestly, otherwise he would have to be sent to a military tribunal, and in times of war, there was no reason to talk about it.

The British home fleet is now only a name, the huge fleet that once made the world tremble, the first battle of Dunkirk was brutally broken by the Germans. The British battlefleet, once a great battlefleet, is now reduced to two old ships that were launched before the First World War. The battle cruiser, which was regarded as the pride of the navy, was completely wiped out in that battle.

In the months following the war, there were several naval battles on the scale of the British and Germans, but luck was always on the side of the Germans, and each battle ended with the British navy being reduced to a feather of sand. For example, the Battle of the Faroe Islands, in which the British Navy sank four cruisers at once, which is unprecedented in the history of British Royal Navy warfare. The Orion, which sank in that naval battle, was once Tovey's ship. Less than two weeks after the transfer of the destroyer detachment from the Mediterranean to the mainland, it turned into a pile of wreckage on the bottom of the sea under the fire of the German Navy. Tovey was able to name every officer and most of the ship's crew, and the sinking of the ship frustrated him for a long time.

Due to the madness of submarines, aircraft, as well as surface ships of the German Navy. The Royal Navy's Atlantic and Home Fleets have been bleeding unabated, losing a few or even a dozen destroyers every week for a variety of reasons, including mines, air strikes, submarines, and German raid ships. Accidents caused by fatigue caused by long-term continuous work and the decline in the quality of novice sailors also occupy a certain share, and accidents such as landing, grounding, and collision, which have not occurred once in the British Royal Navy for several years, will occur one after another. In the past half month, the number of destroyers damaged due to human causes has reached 22.

Because of **, so in the eyes of British civilians, the Royal Navy is still strong and invincible, which is an important psychological pillar for the government to still maintain the normal order of social life, and they make people believe that as long as the British Royal Navy is still there, Britain will not be invaded. But as a senior admiral of the Royal Navy, Tovey has long known that the current British Royal Navy is actually on the verge of collapse.

Destroyers and light cruisers struggled on various routes across the Atlantic, and the navy had to ensure that three convoy formations could reach the port every day if Britain was to keep things running. On the important Atlantic route, about 20 to 30 convoys shuttled between the two continents every day, and the crews were not only brave the wind and rain to cut the waves, but also suffered from the German Navy submarines and attack ships.

In each port, there are still similar groups of ships being formed. Each escort formation needs to be guarded by four to six escort ships. The Germans have proved that British ocean-going escort gunboats and ocean-going armed fishing boats are simply not capable of protecting the safety of the fleet, they cannot even protect their own safety, and for German submarines and large raiders, these escort gunboats can only be regarded as a small snack before the appetizer.

The British Navy can only put most of the regular destroyers into escort missions, the oldest of these destroyers can be traced back to the middle of World War I, both speed and firepower have long been overwhelmed, and although the cutting-edge destroyers have the latest deep-bomb equipment, but lack detection means. Due to the lack of numbers, in the end each ship regiment was only able to obtain two or even one destroyers, and in the end when attacked by German submarines, these destroyers behaved disappointingly, and were almost helpless in the face of German submarines attacking in groups from several directions. In the Atlantic, transport ships were sent to the bottom of the sea by German ships, often with one or two unlucky destroyers.

In the past few months, the number of destroyers in the Royal Navy has dropped rapidly from 183 at the beginning of the war to a pathetic 46, a full three-quarter loss, and most of the remaining destroyers are minesweepers.

And the huge cruiser fleet has become a thing of the past, two types of ten-class 38 light cruisers, it seems that the number is huge, but these warships are scattered in addition to the three fleets of the Royal Navy, and the maritime defense of the colonies of the British Empire is also taken into account. Due to their weak defense and firepower, these light cruisers suffered heavy losses in escort escorts and previous combat missions. Since the beginning of the war, seventeen light cruisers have sunk to the bottom of the sea or lost their combat effectiveness, five have been slightly damaged and are awaiting repair, and two of the remaining light cruisers are still pure air defense cruisers, and their combat effectiveness is almost negligible.

What made Tovey feel embarrassed was that Churchill still had to play tricks at such a time, launching a surprise attack on the French warships anchored in British ports, and as a result, he did not capture any French ships. It also took in the few remaining elites of the Royal Navy's home fleet.

The detachment of light cruisers parked in Portsmouth suffered an unwarranted disaster, the four unsuspecting Linsen-class light cruisers were smashed to pieces by the main guns of the French battleships, this class was completely wiped out in one night, and at the same time there were two Southampton-class light cruisers, which were being replenished in the harbor, the Southampton and Newcastle light cruisers were heavily damaged, and finally due to the shallow water, the hull was sunk on the bottom of the sea, and the navy was preparing for salvage work, but due to the lack of equipment and supplies. It's hard to complete for a while. Tovey himself joked that if the immediate operation failed, the salvage work might have to be left to the Germans.

Now Tovey has in his hands the last strike force put together by the British Royal Navy, and it is also the last bit of essence of the three fleets. Tovey looked at the list of ships compiled by the fleet. I can't help but have a desolate feeling of wanting to cry without tears.

The last remaining battleship of the Home Fleet, the Queen Elizabeth, commissioned in 1915 and once the pride of the Royal Navy, was one of the first capital ships to use all-oil boilers and 15-inch guns. HMS Queen Elizabeth became a star and was appointed as the flagship of the Royal Navy's Ocean Fleet.

Her sister ships all took part in the magnificent Battle of Jutland, showing great defensive and offensive power in the fierce battle line bombardment. However, she happened to be refitted at the slipway and failed to make it in time for the big battle. At the Battle of Dunkirk, her sister ship was sunk in a German Army's heavy artillery and bomber torpedo attacks, and she was being refitted at the slipway to make it to the battle. In a sense, this is a ship of luck with strange luck.

In the end, the Queen Elizabeth was not able to complete the refit completely, and due to the tight time, after the Battle of Dunkirk, the Navy ordered the follow-up refit work to be stopped and completed as soon as possible. At that time, the battleship had completed the reinforcement of horizontal armor and the replacement of new boilers, and was preparing for the construction of a new type of bridge, but it had to dismantle and build a general bridge, and reinstall the old equipment that had been dismantled and replaced.

The Queen Elizabeth finally returned to the fleet in mid-July, but by this time she had become the only battleship in the home fleet, and if she wanted to assemble a battleship detachment, she could only hope that the George V class would be launched into service soon.

Lined up with the Queen Elizabeth were three Kent-class heavy cruisers. At the beginning of the war, the British Royal Navy had a mighty five-class eighteen heavy cruisers, and now only these three are in good condition and can be dispatched, and the rest have been sunk in previous naval battles, sunk captured prisoners, and a number of damaged ones are still to be repaired.

Originally, the Mediterranean Fleet also had a London-class heavy cruiser, but due to the unsuccessful attack on the French fleet, the French were annoyed. Now that the French naval fleet is cruising along the coast of North Africa, it has forced back the Mediterranean Fleet, which had been transferred back to its homeland, and it seems that the Mediterranean Fleet will not be able to get out of the Strait of Gibraltar until the French are relieved.

In the end, the home fleet was able to get its hands on only one battleship, three heavy cruisers, and seven light cruisers, as well as four J-type destroyers and the latest four N destroyers, which were new because these destroyers had just been launched for less than three weeks, and had not even conducted several sea trials, and the sailors on them were newer than the ships, and the average age was only 17 years old.

Nineteen warships, with a complete range of warships, powerful firepower, and extraordinary strength, are maritime forces that cannot be ignored everywhere, and can already surpass the entire naval strength of some small countries in terms of scale. But looking back and comparing it with the original Royal Navy's home fleet, people have a sense of sadness in the twilight of the heroes who are full of yellow leaves, the former empire on which the sun never sets, the world's first navy, will fall to such a point, people can't help but sigh that the world is impermanent, there is no city that does not fall, and there is no eternal dynasty.

Tovey didn't have time to make a statement, his task was to take this last fleet, break through the German interception, reach the Strait of Dover, strike hard at the anchorage of the German landing fleet, and then cross the channel to the western ports of England for resupply, and if the first attack worked well, he considered turning his head and doing it again.

As for whether the German Navy will be encountered, Tovey does not speculate at all, because it is inevitable, the British Royal Navy has its own intelligence system, although the intelligence network in Europe has been seriously damaged, but there are still some personnel who have survived and can obtain sporadic intelligence. The main fleet of the German Navy had already left the ports of its homeland and had entered the North Sea in terms of time. The naval command judged that part of it should be to enter the Atlantic Ocean to continue the sabotage war, while the other part should enter the strait to escort the landing operation.

Churchill believed that relying on this existing fleet of the British Royal Navy, it should be possible to break through the defensive line of the German Navy. The German Navy also suffered a lot of damage in several battles, and it was impossible to maintain its original combat effectiveness, and the British Royal Navy was well-trained and experienced in command, and even if it could not defeat the enemy, at least it could retreat in its entirety. This operation of the British Royal Navy also carried the meaning of declaring its existence, letting the Germans know that their British Royal Navy was not defeated, and the German Navy could not do whatever it wanted in the Channel. Churchill tried to use this method to undermine the confidence of the Germans, to shake the Germans, and perhaps to delay the landing.

Nineteen warships, launching a strike on the port is enough, but fighting a naval battle, Tovey is a little bottomless in his heart.

Tovey stood on the seafaring bridge of the heavy cruiser Kent and looked to the side, only to find himself seemingly forgetting about a battleship, or rather subconsciously trying to ignore it. In Tovey's eyes, less than five hundred meters from the port side of the Kent, a strange-looking battleship was struggling to keep up with the formation, and the swell from the bow almost reached the deck.

The shallow water heavy gunboat Dark, a flat-bottomed ship with 15-inch guns, was in dire need of heavy artillery support off the coast of Dover, and the Royal Navy decided to move it from Portsmouth Harbour to Dover, and ordered it to join the home fleet there.

"Those who don't know think that she is about to sink, and she can't do this anymore, we will be killed by this burden." Tovey turned his face to the captain in exasperation.

"Signal the Dark Realm to choose its own course, advise her to sail along the British coastline, we're going to speed up, damn twelve."

"The radar room reported that enemy planes were spotted, numbering fifty and at a distance of seven thousand meters, flying towards us!" The co-captain suddenly shouted loudly.

"Pull the alarm and prepare for air defense operations." Tovey had long anticipated this situation, and the fleet had maintained a tight air defense formation since it entered the strait.

"Well, now let's see if the miracle that Churchill said really exists." Tovey walked to the side of the bridge and peered into the air with a telescope. (To be continued, please search, the novel is better and updated faster!)