As mentioned earlier, due to the influence of geography, ethnicity, and the surrounding environment, the German navy did not have an advantage, and did not have any effective combat base in the North Atlantic. This has also become a shackle around the neck of the German Navy, although for hundreds of years, several generations of German naval builders have been full of ambition, all strive to make Germany a maritime power, and in the last World War almost have the ability to challenge Britain, the traditional maritime power in Europe, but since the defeat of the "Battle of Jutland", the German Navy has been in a slump, and it is difficult to recover the glory of the past.

The severe economic crisis after World War I made it impossible for Germany to guarantee the normal development of the Sixth Army, and it was even more difficult for Germany to invest a large amount of money in the navy. The warships in the plan also stayed on the design drawings, and with the progress of technology, the design scheme was changed again and again, but the real start of construction of new warships was still a matter of the 17th year of the Tang calendar. At this time, almost all the warships of the German Navy that survived the last war were decommissioned, dismantled, destroyed, sunk, and those that could be preserved could only be used as training ships. At this time, the number of warships, especially capital ships, owned by the German Navy, was still far from the upper limit stipulated in the treaty!

The decline of the German Navy to this point is not only a national sorrow, but also a fact that no one can change. During World War I, the Sixth Army could expand rapidly and almost immediately put newly recruited soldiers into the front-line battlefield, but on the ocean battlefield, not only did it take a lot of time, financial resources, and material resources to build warships, and it took longer to train the officers and men of the fleet, but it was also necessary to form a perfect tactical system and have an excellent officer corps, which was not for several generations. At least decades of accumulation can't be done. In terms of the resources, manpower, financial resources, and decades of investment required by the Navy, the German Navy did not have any of them!

These deficiencies could limit the German Navy's development, but they could not restrain the ambitions of the Germans. As a people with a long tradition, as a country united after the test of iron and blood, the tenacity and fighting spirit of the Germans are commendable. And this is the excellent quality of the German Navy. No matter how difficult the conditions were, the German Navy continued to spread its mind and forge ahead towards its ideal highest goal.

At the outbreak of the war, the size of the German Navy was only about 30% of that of the British Navy (calculated according to the total tonnage of the warships), which also included a large number of submarines, in fact, the size of the surface warships of the German Navy was probably less than 20% of the British Navy.

It was obvious that the lack of sea supremacy caused a geographical problem for Germany, and submarines could only disrupt sea routes, but could not serve as a blockade. It was precisely because of the lack of naval supremacy that the German navy could not completely blockade Britain and France. It is not even possible to prevent the United States from supplying strategic supplies to Russia by sea.

Other than that. Germany had to deploy a large number of ground forces, aviation in the areas of control, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway. In order to defend against the British Deng 6 operation, this greatly restrained the German army's investment in the western frontal battlefield, and also restrained the German attack on France. In any case, the Germans had already suffered the loss of absolute naval dominance, and after the outbreak of war, they tried to concentrate all the forces they could concentrate to speed up the development of the navy.

After World War I, the German Navy built the "Deutschland" class pocket battleships first with limited strength. This was the first type of capital ship that Germany began to build after World War I, because its main gun caliber exceeded the scope of cruisers stipulated in the treaty, and its displacement was only more than 10,000 tons. Hence the name "pocket battleship". Because the design of the ship was extremely special, and its design ideas were not accepted by other naval powers, no country followed suit to build such pocket battleships, and Germany only built three.

More than a decade later, after surviving the economic crisis, Germany was now seriously behind in its own navy, and immediately proposed to build new capital ships. At that time, it was impossible to catch up with Britain, a traditional European maritime power, and Germany did not have that strength. Therefore, when Germany built the capital ships of Xindi, it clearly set another major opponent, the French "Dunkirk" class battleships, as its opponents, and asked the new capital ships to overwhelm the capital ships of this secondary opponent. But the reality is that Germany had no way to build battleships at that time, and during World War I, German battlecruisers performed very well, because the German Navy built a new kind of battleship after reducing some of the performance requirements, which is the origin of the "Scharnhorst" class battlecruisers. There are only two warships of this class, namely "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau", equipped with 28o mm guns (the actual caliber is 283 mm, and later when the Tang Imperial Navy developed 28o mm main guns for cruisers, it borrowed some of the technology of this kind of artillery from the German Navy) 9 guns (three triple turrets), with a displacement of 26ooo tons (the actual construction is a standard displacement of 35ooo tons, and 38ooo tons when fully loaded), The armored defense of the battleship was comprehensively strengthened (at that time, Germany introduced the technology of high-strength armored steel from the Tang Empire, which made the defense level of its battleships far superior to that of British and French battleships with the same thickness), almost to the level of battleships, and comprehensively surpassed the pocket battleships of the "German" class. It was the first real capital ship built by the German Navy before the explosion of the Great War. Later, the German Navy had planned to replace the "Scharnhorst" class with a 38o mm main gun, which was finally canceled for some reason.

The "Scharnhorst" class battlecruiser (which can be called a battleship except for the caliber of the main guns) is a very good capital ship, but this does not meet the needs of the German Navy, mainly because the main gun caliber of the battleship is too small to deal with the capital ships of Britain and France. Therefore, while the "Scharnhorst" class battlecruisers were still being built, the German Navy made a request to acquire a completely new type of battleship, which was the "Bismarck" class battleships.

The battleships of the "Bismarck" class can be called quite successful in design, and their level is fully at the level of other naval powers. The competence of German engineers was truly commendable, having mastered advanced design ideas after only passing the design of two battleships, which were not official. If the "Bismarck" was born in the Tang Empire, maybe the Tang Empire would have built more than a dozen in one go, but this was the battleship of the German Navy, and as a result, by the time the war broke out, there were only two under construction. And all was done during the war. These two ships were "Bismarck" and "Tirpitz", and the valuable shipbuilding capabilities of the German Navy were used in the construction of submarines and successor warships, and there was no longer the ability to build new "Bismarck" class battleships.

The displacement of the battleships of this class reached more than 40,000 tons, and the full load displacement was about 50,000 tons (the displacement of the two battleships was not exactly the same, the "Tirpitz" was much larger than the "Bismarck"), adopted a wide hull design, and installed 12 high-pressure boilers. 3 steam turbines, the maximum 3o knots (which was already the standard for battleships at that time), because the German Navy did not seek ocean-going combat capabilities, so the ground cruising ability of this class of battleships was not excellent (compared to the battleships of the Tang Imperial Navy). The Bismarck class used four twin 38o mm guns (the barrel was 48 times the caliber compared to the 45 caliber of the main guns of battleships of other countries at that time). Because of the use of high-strength armor steel, the armor thickness of the "Bismarck" class is not much different from that of the "Scharnhorst" class, but the defense capability is better, the weight of the armor of the whole ship reaches 175oo tons (excluding the rotating part of the turret), and the design is required to be able to defend against armor-piercing shells on British capital ships, and the anti-torpedo structure must withstand the attack of 25o kg of TnT explosives (in fact. can withstand the attack of 3oo kg of high explosives).

Judging by these designs. When the "Bismarck" entered service in 22 years, it could be considered the most powerful battleship in the North Atlantic at that time. This also makes it a thorn in the side of the British earth, a thorn in the flesh. It became the ace of the German Navy. As a result, from 22 to 24, the German Navy left these two battleships in the Baltic Sea and did not send them on combat missions at all, in addition, two battle cruisers of the "Scharnhorst" class, three pocket battleships of the "Deutschland" class did not leave the Baltic Sea.

This technology was the main force of the German Navy at that time, although the German Navy had a larger shipbuilding program, such as the "Zeppelin"-class aircraft carriers and the "H"-class battleships. Even the more advanced battleships have been designed, but none of them have been built, and they are all still in the plan.

The inaction of the German Navy also annoyed the Don Empire. The navy of the Persian Empire had to maintain the security of the sea routes from the Tang Empire to the Eastern Mediterranean, and also had to deal with the fleets of Italy, Spain and France in the Eastern Mediterranean. If the Tang Imperial Navy wanted to fight a decisive battle with the US Navy in the Pacific Ocean, it would not be able to divide forces in the Atlantic Ocean at all, and even part of the combat missions in the Indian Ocean would have to be handed over to the Persian Imperial Navy. Now, the Tang Empire is also strengthening its offensive forces on the battlefield of the Big 6. And the German Navy is swimming in the Baltic Sea, can this not make people angry and annoyed?

After the Tehran Conference, the Tang Empire promised to launch a strategic offensive on the Great 6 Battlefield to share the pressure of Germany on the Eastern Battlefield, and in return, the German Navy must do something in the North Atlantic, and the minimum requirement was not to let the British and French fleets go south and threaten the only stronghold of the Tang Empire in the South Atlantic - Cape Town. This is actually a quid pro quo between the two sides, and now that the Tang Empire has fulfilled its promise and is constantly strengthening its offensive forces against Russia, the German Navy must take practical actions to help the Tang Empire share the pressure.

In order to fulfill his promise, the commander of the German Navy, Raeder, also personally went to the Tang Empire to consult with the Tang Empire on the actions of the German Navy, and established a liaison department to determine the timing of the German Navy's sorties. It was after Raeder's visit to the Don Empire that the German Navy began to prepare for an active attack.

After months of preparation, the German Navy could not wait any longer. More and more intelligence shows that the United States is putting pressure on Britain and France, asking Britain and France to send their main fleet south as soon as possible to put pressure on the Tang Empire, so as to disperse the naval forces of the Tang Empire and provide assistance for the US offensive in the Pacific. And the most direct way is to attack Cape Town, so that the Tang Empire has to divide its forces in the South Atlantic. The Tang Empire had already threatened to abandon the offensive on the Great 6 battlefield, and asked the German Navy to attack as soon as possible to contain the main fleet of Britain and France. The Germans could no longer sit still, and Raeder and the Germans knew very well that if they watched from the sidelines, nothing good would come of them.

When Tan Renhao finished reading this extremely detailed battle plan drawn up by the German Navy, he also had to sigh with emotion. The German Navy collected all its possessions, and the result was only two battleships, two battlecruisers, three pocket battleships, and more than a dozen cruisers and more than a dozen destroyers. At this time, the British Navy had almost ten battleships in the North Atlantic, as well as four battlecruisers, dozens of cruisers, and hundreds of destroyers. Even if we do not take into account the French fleet (the French fleet has already been largely transferred to the Mediterranean), the small fleet of the German Navy is by no means an opponent of the British fleet, and this sortie is undoubtedly going to take the initiative to send it to death!

"What do you think?" Nie Renfeng's feelings are probably similar to Tan Renhao's.

"Headmaster, if I had to say anything, I could only pray that the German Navy would be able to hold back the British, and then return to the port of Kiel intact."

"At the very least, the German navy can scare the British into sending their main fleet to the South Atlantic easily by going around the North Sea, and that will have achieved its goal." Gan Yongxing's opinion is no exception, "If it can help us buy a few months, and wait until our new warship is launched in 25 years, then there is no need to worry about the British going south." ”

"Let's hope so, our main task now is to achieve victory in the Pacific, as long as we preserve the strength of the fleet, we can reinforce the South Atlantic theater." Nie Renfeng stood up, "Ren Hao, after this is done here, let's rush back to the fleet immediately, we can't miss you, the commander of the fleet." ”

Tan Renhao immediately got up to say goodbye, and he also wanted to return to the fleet as soon as possible.