"Let's inform the United States and the Soviet side...... Whether or not we can reduce our losses depends on their own ability......" The politician commanded as if there was frost on his face.

Less than an hour later, Zhukov got a telegram from Turkey, the contents of which really made him laugh and cry.

The Turkish call claimed that a large Axis navy had passed through the Turkish Straits, more than 10 battleships, and an "uncountable" number of warships accompanying it.

Such a vague announcement also made Zhukov feel powerless - the Soviet Union only had an old World War I-era battleship stuck in Sevastopol, how could it have any ability to resist?

If you count the fortress artillery, you can still fight a dozen. But the premise is that the German fleet with such a large size is only here to attack Sevastopol?

In addition, the Germans were not afraid of Soviet aviation attacking their fleet? Not afraid of fortress artillery?

Zhukov, who couldn't figure it out, handed the message to Vatutin, who also felt that what had happened was a little too strange and a little incredible.

In fact, what they didn't guess was the purpose of the Axis powers. But in fact, the Axis aims were superficial ones.

Wasting a large navy would undoubtedly be an unwise choice for Germany. Under the premise that the United States is completely unable to threaten the Atlantic, the use of the Navy into the Mediterranean to coordinate operations is an easy plan to execute.

In addition, the political significance of the launch of France is far greater than that of the military. As long as France is tempted once, it can be tempted a second time, and if it sends a fleet at sea, it is possible to send troops on land!

At the same time, there was another point, that is, the German Navy lacked the ability to command the Grand Fleet in combat. All the Axis admirals, including Lütjans, had commanded a "guerrilla fleet" of a few warships at most.

In order to solve the problem of insufficient command and mobilization capability, it has become the most important task to temper the troops' ability to move to the ocean and the fleet's ability to jointly command while the enemy has no time to separate.

There is no problem in using the superiority of equipment to let a German admiral like Lütjens carry out a hit-and-run attack, but it would be completely whimsical to let the German Navy make it clear that the carriages and horses are fighting the American fleet in the Pacific Ocean.

The German Navy did not have that kind of combat experience, nor did it have that kind of dispatch ability - so this time it was basically an ocean-going training exercise for Lütjens, an operation with a training nature.

One more point is that the German Navy actually has its own shortcoming! Compared with the joint command of a large fleet, the German Navy's anti-submarine warfare capability is no less of a headache.

Because the combat mission of the German Navy was originally to break the engagement, and they were saboteurs, they did not have the habit of learning defensive skills at all.

The destroyers originally built by Germany were all strong against sea and air, the technical level of anti-submarine warfare was poor, and the performance of weapons was even more difficult to put on the table.

Under these circumstances, the German Navy, after defeating the British, strengthened naval anti-submarine training, hired a large number of British anti-submarine destroyer commanders as its own instructors, and strengthened the anti-submarine capability of the naval escort fleet.

At the same time, many commanders of the German submarine forces were also promoted to captains of anti-submarine destroyers, with the aim of allowing them to reverse the combat thinking of submarines and take the initiative to complete anti-submarine operations.

But training is training after all, and there must be actual combat testing to know whether this kind of training is effective or not.

Therefore, finding a soft persimmon to pinch it and test its anti-submarine warfare capabilities has become a small goal for the German Navy in the short term!

Compared with the powerful and experienced US submarine forces, the Soviet fleet in the Black Sea, with its small number of submarines and backward technology, is definitely a good target for sparring partners.

In addition, the increasingly abundant supply of heavy oil has also strengthened the determination of the German navy's top brass to go to the Black Sea for actual combat training and testing.

The final and most intuitive purpose of this fleet is to attack Sevastopol and the Soviet fortress group on the Kerch Peninsula!

To be honest, the work of transporting the Gustav cannon was too hard, and this thing was really easy to use, but the time and effort spent laying the railroad tracks along the way made Army Group D big.

What's even more depressing is that that thing is a consumable, and if you shoot about 40 shells, the barrel will be scrapped and you can only replace it with a new one.

But Li Le didn't prepare a new barrel for this thing at all - after he crossed over, although he didn't have time to suspend the production and assembly of Gustav's cannon, he suspended all subsequent related production.

Therefore, Li Le intends to use aviation, as well as the fleet, to solve the thorny problem of the fortress of Sevastopol.

In order to overwhelm the fortified artillery, the Axis fleet assembled a total of 17 capital ships, armed with 72 380/381 mm guns, 10 356 mm guns, and several 330 mm and 320 mm guns.

This data overwhelmed the Soviet coastal defense artillery units in terms of quantity and quality - Sevastopol had only more than 100 coastal defense guns, of which only 8 305 mm guns and 18 280 mm guns could be counted as combat effectiveness.

Comparing the calibers, it is easy to conclude that the firepower of the fleet of the Axis powers is about ten times that of the Soviet army!

Without counting the air combat power, the Axis fleet would have completed the task by firing outside the range of the Soviet shore defense guns and destroying the fortress of Sevastopol little by little.

In order to cover this fleet, the Luftwaffe transferred more than half of Army Group D's fighter and bomber units to prepare to cover the Axis fleet that entered the Black Sea to fight.

Together with the accompanying 6 aircraft carriers, as well as more than 200 fighters of various types carried on the aircraft carrier, it can really be said to be foolproof.

You know, the Soviet Union deployed less than 500 air force planes in Sevastopol, or on the Kerch Peninsula.

Originally, there were more than 600 planes, but as the war progressed, almost all the experienced pilots had been transferred here, and more than 100 fighters had been withdrawn.

Under such circumstances, it was almost impossible to defeat the carrier-based aircraft of the German Navy by relying on the remaining combat aircraft and the remaining rookie pilots.

Calculated at this point, it became logical for the Führer to approve the entry of the Atlantic Fleet into the Black Sea to operate.

But Zhukov really couldn't understand why the German army was mobilizing at this time and letting such a huge fleet come to the Black Sea......