In the high-class cabin of the battleship "Hesse", Natsuki held a picture frame in his hand and stared at the photograph intently, which was a group photo of him with Charlotte and his three daughters. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Throughout the ages, how many heroes have indulged in the gentle countryside and given up their ambitions. For more than ten years, the political situation in Ireland has been stabilized, the economy has gradually been on the right track, Xia Shu is happy to be the shopkeeper, spending more than half of his time with his family, watching the little princesses come to the world one by one, watching them from toddler to running happily in the garden, from babbling to singing beautiful songs with the music he plays, it is full of happiness.

On this expedition, Natsuki missed his wife and daughter, and he was reluctant to give up, but since his lifetime, he has never stopped exploring the meaning of life, and becoming a good husband and father is certainly his goal, but it is not the whole of his life. In the past ten years, he has dreamed of Jutland countless times, to the battlefield where steel roars, blood and fire collide, and he dreams that he rides the wind and waves, marches bravely, lets the banner of victory fly high, and makes immortal legends live on forever...... Every time I wake up from such a dream, the desire to conquer glory quietly increases, and when these desires accumulate to a certain extent, there is a fire burning in my heart.

Hearing a knock on the door, Natsuki put the frame back on the table.

A major officer on board the incoming ship, who reported: "The sentry found an object suspected to be the periscope of a submarine in the nearby sea, which disappeared in a blink of an eye, and Colonel Messer feared that it was an enemy submarine, so that our whereabouts would be exposed." ”

Natsuki didn't look surprised or worried, and he ordered lightly: "Order all ships to strengthen anti-submarine alert, if they find any trace of the enemy, just expel them, and there is no need to chase them down." ”

"Yes, sir...... No, I'm sorry, Your Majesty! "The Major made a small mistake in his title, so much so that he was red-faced and embarrassed.

Natsuki naturally didn't blame the other party for such an innocuous flaw, he was relieved: "The time I served in the German Navy was perhaps the most fulfilling and proud of my life, and I feel very honored to be able to return to you again and fight side by side with you, so ...... There's nothing wrong with you calling me sir, and I feel very comfortable. ”

The Major was relieved, and Natsuki then asked him about his readiness for the live-fire drill.

The "Hesse" and its accompanying ships repaired damaged equipment, replenished ammunition, and equipped with sufficient personnel in the port of Brest, and it can be said that everything is complete, and if there is anything missing, it is the confidence to defeat the opponent and the domineering spirit to win victory. Without these two points, the soldiers' fighting faith will not be as sufficient as in the past, and their morale will be easily depressed when the war is unfavorable, and it will be difficult for them to burst out with the courage to die and survive. Therefore, Natsuki specifically asked the fleet to conduct a targetless live-fire drill during the voyage.

"It's ready to go." The major replied in the affirmative.

"Then tell the Colonel that I will be on to the bridge in half an hour, making sure that everything is ready." Natsuki commanded with a serious face.

The Major puffed out his chest: "Yes, sir! ”

Half an hour later, Natsuki arrived at the battle bridge on time. Under his gaze, the Hesse's massive main turret turned, with two pairs of front main turrets pointing to the left and right sides, as well as two pairs of rear main turrets.

With an order from the firing command room, eight 16-inch heavy guns instantly fired in unison, the shells pierced the sky, and fell into the open sea with a rolling roar, and the white water column rose up, which could be clearly seen with the naked eye.

Twenty-nine seconds later, all the main guns let out a roar for the second time, and the air waves sprayed from the muzzles were so powerful that they actually rushed out of four semicircular concaves on the surface of the sea near the side, and the blazing muzzle flames instantly bloomed with a light comparable to the scorching sun.

The thunderous sound of artillery still lingered in his ears, and Natsuki, who was inspecting the shelling in the battle bridge, commented in an approving tone: "Good, very good! Well-trained, well-prepared, and promising! ”

After the two rounds of live firing of the "Hesse," the cruisers and destroyers accompanying it also launched their own live firing according to the unified order.

After finishing the live-fire exercise, Natsuki brought the captain Colonel Messel and others to the combat conference room, and the staff officers had already made a miniature sand table according to Natsuki's requirements.

Unlike the land battlefield, which includes mountains and rivers, the traditional naval battle basically belongs to the two-dimensional mode, the officers study the operation on the nautical chart, and the Naval Academy also trains the academy according to this model, this habit has been continued, and Natsuki benefited from the advanced cognition of later generations, from the very beginning, the naval battle was regarded as a three-dimensional battlefield where the sky, the sea surface, and the water complemented each other, and before each battle, the assistants must be asked to figure out the geographical and hydrological conditions of the fleet's activity area, and the miniature sand table is undoubtedly the most intuitive embodiment of the current technical means.

The Azores archipelago has a total of nine large and small islands, two-thirds of which have been occupied by US and British troops, and only San Miguel, Santa Maria, and Formigas in the southeast are still controlled by Allied troops. Among the three islands, São Miguel is the largest, most populated, and has the second largest port in the Azores, Ponta Delgada, is the last bastion heavily defended by the Allied army, Admiral Beinke's capital ships are mostly gathered here, and Santa Maria Island is located south of São Miguel Island, 100 kilometers away from the south coast of São Miguel, with an area of less than 100 square kilometers, there is a small harbor on the island, and the German army built an airfield and coastal defense fortress after entering the island, which is regarded as "the southernmost sentry post" in the defense system of the Azores”。 If the U.S. and British forces occupied the island, they would form a north-south flank attack on the Allied forces on São Miguel Island, and the deployment of naval and air forces here would further strangle the Allied sea supply lines and push the defenders of São Miguel Island into a corner.

Formigas is located 60 kilometers southeast of San Miguel and 39 kilometers northeast of Santa Maria, it is just a palm-sized reef, the only artificial structure is the navigation lighthouse left by the Portuguese, the Germans had earlier deployed sentries here, set up radio stations, laid mines, after the Battle of San Miguel, the United States and Britain twice sent task forces to land on the island by boat, captured German sentries, destroyed communication facilities, and the German army reoccupied it twice, This makes Formigas the only island in the Azores that has been repeatedly contested by both sides, during which the two sides lost as many as 11 ships in the waters around the island.

From the port of Brest to the sea area of Sao Miguel, the whole journey was 2,000 nautical miles, and Bernke led the main fleet of the Central Powers from European waters to the Azores, the whole journey took only four days, while the reinforcement fleet led by Natsuki only sailed westward at a speed of 14 knots, and if there was no accident, it would take six days to complete this voyage.

"Yesterday I received a telegram in my private capacity, and General Beinke must have understood my intentions, as can be seen from his reply. Now, let's do a rehearsal around the Battle of the Azores, Colonel, you and your officers play the blue side, and I play the red side. ”

In Western military exercises, the red side usually represents an imaginary enemy, while the blue side represents its own side. Under Natsuki's orders, Colonel Messer was a little surprised and puzzled, but he still brought his two staff officers into the deduction role, while Natsuki fought alone, and the three Irish naval officers he brought with him, together with the special liaison officers sent by the German Navy, played the role of referees, responsible for the calculation of data and battle damage in the process of wargames.

The blue side forces are completely in accordance with the actual situation of the allies in the Azores, and under the request of Natsuki, the red side forces are deployed in the weakest situation of the current speculation of the enemy's forces, including reinforcements from both sides, the ratio of the number of non-aircraft carrier capital ships is 13 to 9, the number of aircraft carriers is 4 to 6, the total number of ships is 120 to 74, the number of fighters is 700 to 440, and the combat strength is 110,000 to 53,000. There is no doubt that the overall strength of the US and British forces in the Azores has a significant advantage, and the reason why they did not launch a strong attack on Sao Miguel Island is that the combat operations in the early stage, especially the Battle of San Miguel, have greatly damaged their fleet, and Tessel and Floris have not yet recovered their ship repair capabilities, and many damaged ships have to return to North America for repairs, and they are also facing the dilemma of a lack of rear admirals, so the main fleet is waiting for an opportunity in the Texel Sea. In the near future, high-speed ships and submarines have been used to break the sea supply lines of the Allied forces, with the intention of holding back the opponent until they can be sure of attacking again.

At the beginning of the war games, Natsuki started to write about the small island of Formigas, and after attracting the opponent's attention to this side, he concentrated his land-based aviation forces to bomb the German airfield on San Miguel Island, and on the other hand, he used the main fleet to bypass San Miguel and launch a fierce artillery bombardment on Santa Maria Island, inducing the blue side to put the aircraft carrier formation hidden in the southeast sea into battle, and then hit a backhand blow, at the cost of three capital ships and three aircraft carriers, severely damaged the aircraft carrier formation of the Central Powers, making it temporarily incapacitated. Next, the red side dispatched a landing fleet, ready to take Santa Maria Island with the support of the main fleet, and the blue side immediately dispatched a battle patrol formation to intercept the red landing fleet, and the battle fleet responded in the rear, and the two sides broke out in the sea area west of San Miguel, although the red side suffered large losses, but also sank and heavily damaged nearly half of the main ships of the blue side, forcing the blue side to take the initiative to retreat, and then the red side took Santa Maria Island after a week of landing battles, and ordered some of the damaged warships to sail to the island of Formigas, so that it ran aground on the island and reef. A special sea fortress was built by deploying lightning nets around the perimeter, and submarines were deployed nearby. As a result, the US and British troops formed a three-sided encirclement of São Miguel Island, and the garrison on the island was attacked by air raids during the day and shelled at night, and the situation deteriorated day by day, and the result was that San Miguel was abandoned to break through on its own initiative, and the loss of troops and equipment in the entire campaign amounted to more than 70 percent, and the absolute strength of the US and British troops was much higher than that of the Central Powers, but they won the battle and cleared the obstacles to Europe.

During a short break, the second round of weapon deduction swapped roles, and Natsuki commanded the blue side with inferior troops. Colonel Messer first copied Natsuki's tactics and sent light ships to attack Formigash Island, and ordered land-based aviation units to attack São Miguel Island at any cost, weakening the island's air force. While responding to the battle, Natsuki mobilized the aircraft carrier formation and attacked the port of Herosmo in Texel at dawn, striking the opponent by surprise. Fearing the enemy's tricks, the Red side did not send its main fleet in pursuit, but only 24 hours later, the Blue side seized the time when the sky was just dawning, and once again dispatched carrier-based aircraft to attack Angra Sangra de Herosmo and some of the air bases on the island of Texel. The two attacks made four capital ships of the US and British fleets temporarily unable to fight, and the number of capital ships of the two sides was basically the same, and the red side did not dare to attack San Miguel or Santa Maria easily. Natsuki waited until the rain came, sent the main force to Tessell, and forced the main fleet of the red side to meet it with long-range artillery bombardment, and after the fleet engagement began, he ordered the dreadnoughts and old-fashioned war cruisers in the fleet to retreat, and logically led the fleet to retreat in the direction of São Miguel Island, inducing the other party to come in pursuit, and then adjusted the formation while retreating, and suddenly turned around, seized a favorable position, concentrated firepower to attack one wing of the red fleet, and left as soon as he succeeded, and won a small victory neatly.

The war games should not have ended here, but Natsuki stopped and said to Colonel Merser: "This lucky victory will probably buy us three months to six months, during which time the enemy should be much more honest, and I will build as many airfields as possible on Sao Miguel Island, draw as many aviation units as possible from Europe, constantly attack the enemy's airfields, consume the enemy's planes, until we completely control the air here, and then weaken the enemy's forces and morale with daily bombing." It may sound simple, but the point is that we have to bring thousands of tons of equipment from Europe and make sure that our transports are not sunk by enemy submarines and warships on the way, which is not an easy job. ”

(End of chapter)