Tan Renhao did not know where the naval command got the German Navy's operational report, and at this time Scheer was hiding in a bay near Baergen, and the German Navy was also thinking about repairing the power systems on the three battleships, and then trying to get the fleet back to the German mainland. The "Far Eastern Fleet" basically lost its combat capability, and the three battleships were all seriously damaged, and even if they did not sink, it was difficult to restore their combat effectiveness, and most of the damage could not be repaired in the ports of the German mainland, especially the damaged turrets and damaged main guns, which could not be made by the Germans, and could only be sent back to the Reich's shipyards for repair. In other words, Tan Renhao didn't have to worry about the Germans landing on the British mainland first, the British Navy still had enough strength to block the English Channel, but the German Navy could only watch from the sidelines and be anxious.

"The Germans fought really bravely, and the 'Admiral Spee' held out for hours."

"But the result is still the same, Summerville has not lost its sea supremacy, and the British Navy still has enough strength."

"That's what we do." Tan Renhao looked at Hao Dongjue and Chang Jianxin, "The British home fleet returned to Aberdeen this morning, and the situation of those two 'avant-garde' is not much better, judging from the battle reports of the Germans, it is difficult for the British Navy to quickly repair the three 'avant-garde' class battleships, and they now only have eight old battleships." ”

"If there were only these eight battleships, our Third Task Force would be able to wipe them out." Chang Jianxin sneered, he didn't say much, five "new provincial capitals" had enough ability to take out eight battleships built before and after World War I, and even won a complete victory.

"Usual. I don't doubt your words. Hao found that he leaned over, "But there is no need for us to fight with the British." Kill 1,000 enemies and lose 800 yourself. This will not do us any good, and if we can, it would be best to take out these battleships with bombers. ”

Chang Jianxin shrugged his shoulders, he didn't want to lose anything, but if he let the bombers deal with the British battleships, I am afraid he would not have the opportunity to let the battleship's main guns play a powerful role in naval battles in the future.

"Dong Jue's words are not wrong, Lao Chang, don't be depressed. The Americans have built a few battleships, and they may be waiting for you to deal with them. Tan Renhao laughed, "The most important thing is that in these two naval battles, the British aircraft carriers did not move!" ”

"Night artillery battles, aircraft carriers are useless."

"It's not a matter of fighting at night." Tan Renhao shook his head. rejected Hao Mingjue's view. "The main thing is the climate, the four British aircraft carriers are all operating west of the Shetland Islands, the weather in the North Sea is very bad, the visibility is quite low, even in the daytime, it is difficult for the aircraft carrier to go on the ground bombers, otherwise, Satmoville will definitely use the aircraft carrier. Bomb Scheer during the day, not with battleships to intercept Scheer at night. ”

That is to say. There's a good chance we won't play? Hao found out and immediately became anxious.

"There's no way around it, according to the climate change in previous years, the bad weather in the North Sea will move south, and it's very difficult for us to have good weather before May." Tan Du Da circled the island of Great Britain on the nautical chart. "If the aircraft carrier stays in the Bay of Biscay, then it can also have bombers dispatched to strike the airfields on the British mainland, and as the bad weather moves south, our two aircraft carrier task forces are very north-south, and can only operate on this side of the Bay of Biscay, and they also have to closely monitor the weather changes and try to avoid rain clouds."

"So, the fleet can only carry out the right bombing missions?" This time, Hao Dongjue was a little unhappy.

"On the flip side, the British aircraft carriers must be in the north, and the situation on their side is much worse than ours, allowing Sarmoville to have to keep those aircraft carriers behind." Tan Shi Zhan glanced at Hao Dongjue, "The best place for the Marines to land on the British mainland should be in Caimu Bay, or near P. Tsmouth further east, so we must send a fleet into the English Channel." ”

"Only Task Force 3 and Task Force 6 will be able to enter the strait in rough sea conditions." Chang Zhixin nodded slightly, "However, the British Air Force will not let us get close to their homeland. ”

"That's the mission of Task Force 1 and Task Force 2." Tan Renhao inserted a few pins on the chart, "There are a lot of air bases in the south of the United Kingdom, but there are only a few main air bases. As the fleet approaches, we will send bombers to suppress the British Air Force, as well as heavy bombers deployed in Spain and the Luftwaffe to bomb British air bases at the same time. ”

"The Germans will help?" Hao found himself a little surprised, "We just fooled the German Navy, the Germans won't change their attitude so quickly, they are good enough if they don't make trouble, and they will help us?" ”

"This is just the statement of the naval command, as you said, if only the Germans did not cause trouble for us, then we should not pin our hopes on the Germans, perhaps, they would like to see us fail." Tan Renhao sighed, "The plan of the naval command does not think of seizing the forward base, but judging from the current situation, we must seize the forward base first, and use this battle to force the British fleet to take the initiative to find us for a decisive battle." If we can achieve this goal, then we have a chance to annihilate the British home fleet, and eventually the British will surrender on their own initiative, and we will not need to attack the British mainland directly at all. ”

"If the Germans don't help us, then we will have to seize the islands near the British."

"Channel Islands!" "The island to the north is about 80 kilometers from Cape Portland, and the island is large enough to accommodate our ground forces, and it is close to the Normandy region of France, so if we can seize this island, then we can use it as a base for attacking the British mainland." ”

"The British will certainly judge our intentions from this." Hao Dongjue immediately stood on the side of Chang Jianxin. "As soon as we attack Alderney, the British Navy will be dispatched, and we can fight the British head-on in the Channel."

Talking about the sea conditions, looking at the map and pondering, Alderney Island is indeed an ideal forward base, and at the southern end of the strait, the sea area is relatively wide, and the fleet artillery battle has enough range of maneuver. What's more, if the battlefield is moved a little south, maybe his aircraft carriers will come in handy.

"If we're going to attack this island, how do we deploy it?"

"Let the Second Fleet do the bait." At this time, Chang Jianxin had already considered a general battle plan, "First bomb and shell Alderney Island, and complete the preliminary fire preparations in a normal way." When the time comes, the British Navy will inevitably be dispatched. ”

"From the north of the Channel?" Tan Renhao frowned slightly, he felt that this was unlikely.

"Unless the British are confident that they will break through the Luftwaffe blockade, they will not come from this side of the Strait of Dover, but will bypass the island of Great Britain and enter from the west, so that the British Air Force can also provide air cover for the fleet, and their aircraft carriers can stay in the Celtic Sea, or the Irish Sea, where the sea conditions are slightly better."

It makes sense to recommend a new analysis, so that if the weather conditions at the time of the artillery battle are relatively good, British aircraft carriers can also play a role.

"Task Force 3 remained on the south side of the Cornwally Peninsula, near the exit of the Strait, primarily against the battleships of Samoville." "Task Force 1 and Task Force 2 remain in the Bay of Biscay, one to search for British fleet carriers, and the other to provide air defense cover for Task Force 3." In just a few hours, we have the possibility of victory. ”

"But Task Force 3 will also be in danger." Tan Renhao still feels that this is a bit risky.

"Don't forget, we have two other task forces." Chang recommended new but not worried at all. "As soon as the British Home Fleet is discovered, Task Force 6 can come within four hours and join us in Thermoville. In addition, Task Force 5 would certainly have to stay in the Bay of Biscay. When the time comes, it will also be possible to provide us with anti-aircraft cover. If you count the suppression of the British air base in the previous period. Then the number of bombers that Britain can dispatch should be quite limited, with three task forces. Cover of nine aircraft carriers, I don't need to worry about it at all. ”

"If the British can bomb Task Force 3, then we can bomb their battleships too!" Hao Dongjue's attitude is still so positive. "In addition, we have the Persian Imperial fleet behind us. If it really doesn't work, let the navy of the Polish Empire also come up and warm up. ”

"Don't just think about other people's help." Tan Renhao glanced at Hao Dongjue. "Well, it looks like that's all there is to it."

"So, who is going to tell Jiang Zhongmin?" Hao Dongjue shrugged his shoulders as he spoke.

"It's not your turn anyway." Tan Renhao has nothing to say to his brother-in-law. "Go back and get ready. We still lack sufficient intelligence, and it will take several days to deploy the campaign. I will contact Jiang Zhongmin later to determine the combat operation. ”

"That's okay, I hope Jiang Zhongmin won't pick a thorn at this time."

"Boss, when the time comes, you have to contact Gu Zhenyun, if the weather is bad. Then we won't be able to help with this fight. ”

Chang Jianxin laughed, and Tan Renhao still handed over this tricky matter to him.

The next day, that is, on 18 March, Tan Renhao personally went to the Second Fleet and negotiated with Jiang Zhongmin about the battle, and Jiang Zhongmin basically agreed with Tan Renhao's opinion, but insisted that the Second Task Force should bomb Alderney Island, while his Fifth Task Force would cover in the rear. Tan Renhao did not object. Anyway, the task force of the First Task Force is to ambush the British fleet aircraft carriers, and Jiang Zhongmin's request is not excessive.

After determining the specific combat operations, Tan Renhao did not report the relevant plans to the naval command, and now he is the commander-in-chief of the front, and the highest goal set by the naval command is to annihilate the British home fleet before landing on the British mainland. Tan Renhao's battle plan was precisely to serve these two goals, but he did not attack directly.

The intelligence gathering work was carried out through a variety of means, one was to send reconnaissance planes, the other was to arrange for the reconnaissance unit of the Marine Corps to land on this small island, which was only a few square kilometers in size, and in addition, Tan Renhao also obtained some information about Alderney Island through the Imperial European Legion. The most critical thing was not to collect intelligence on the islands, but on the British home fleet. This is not talking about the work of Renhao, but the work of the Imperial Intelligence Service.

On the 19th, the fleet reached about 200 nautical miles west of Brest, France, and about 300 nautical miles from the English Channel. Because the landing fleet was slower, the fleet slowed down to 16 knots here. Meanwhile, Task Force 3 and Task Force 6 continued northward, entering the English Channel this morning. The Second Task Force, which was responsible for covering the two battleship task forces and bombing Alderney, reached the southern waters of the Brittany Peninsula on the night of the 19th, and on the morning of the 20th, bombers were dispatched to bomb the island for the first time, sending a battle signal to the British.

On the afternoon of 20 July, the 1st Task Force maneuvered to the Atlantic waters west of the Celtic Sea, and according to the plan, the 1st Task Force would not take part in the attack on Alderney Island, nor would it provide cover for the battleship task force, and if the British fleet aircraft carriers were to participate in the war, they would have to deploy in the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea, or bypass the island of Ireland and reach the waters near the 1st Task Force. Tan Renhao's mission is to wait here for the British fleet aircraft carriers to appear.

Task Force 5 remained in the waters west of the strait, and they did not take part in combat operations at the front. If the weather improves, Task Force 5 will send bombers to attack air bases in the southern part of the British mainland, and fighter planes to cover the battleship task force. Its main task was to bomb the British home fleet and reduce the combat pressure of the battleship task force as much as possible. At that time, Task Force 2 will also perform similar combat missions.

The focus is still on the actions of Task Force 3 and Task Force 6. Task Force 6 shelled Alderney Island in the early hours of the 21st, and the whole shelling continued overnight, but the intensity of the shelling was not great. Task Force 3 did not take part in the bombardment, and Chang Zhixin has been in the southern waters of the strait, and has sent seaplanes to closely monitor the situation in the strait. The biggest problem is that the climate in the Channel is unpredictable, and the bad weather has crossed the British mainland, it is impossible for seaplanes to monitor all the seas, and it is still unknown whether they can successfully intercept the British home fleet.