In the British Admiralty in a bustling neighborhood, an important member of the wartime cabinet, Admiral Winston Churchill was shaving in the bathroom, when the phone on the desk suddenly rang, he saw himself in the mirror frowning, and had a faint bad feeling in his heart, so he hurriedly put down the razor and walked into the office with his pajamas. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

"I'm Winston...... What the? Are you sure? Norwegian Sea...... Well, wait for me for five minutes! ”

Putting down the receiver, Churchill froze in place for a few seconds, then looked out the window. In the early morning of London, the rivers, the streets, the buildings, the vehicles, the pedestrians, everything is hidden in the gray fog, but the city does not feel lifeless, the sound of horses' hooves, talking, car horns and the roar of ships on the Thames is everywhere.

"The current German navy is as powerful as the Spanish Armada 326 years ago, we can still win, we will win, this is God's test of the British Empire, win this great naval battle, Britain will usher in a new glorious era! Yes, a new era of glory! ”

Churchill muttered to himself as he quickly put on his trousers, combed his jet-black hair in a few seconds, removed his military hat and coat from the hanger, and hurried out of the room.

When Churchill arrived at the operational command room of the Naval Staff, the Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Stedi, and several other senior generals were already standing in front of the chart table with solemn expressions, and Lord Fisher, the First Sea Lord, arrived one step behind Churchill. At this moment, even people who don't know the inside story can sense something unusual from the scene and atmosphere here.

The British Navy cannot afford to be defeated again! Britain cannot afford to be defeated again!

"Let me tell you about the specifics first!" "At 6:12 a.m. we received a telegram from the cruiser 'Havac' escorting the reindeer sleigh convoy No. 5, which had met and engaged the German fleet in the waters of the southern Norwegian Sea, with at least one battleship and seven large torpedo boats equivalent to destroyers, and the commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Longman, had ordered the cargo ship to return to Narvik at full speed, and there was no other news so far. ”

Several admirals looked at the time in unison, and it was already 7 o'clock in the morning. As for the strength of an old protective cruiser like the "Hawak", the officers present were well aware that in the case of not being able to fight and run, unless the sea was foggy, it would have a chance to survive, but it was difficult to say about those British cargo ships that could only sail to twelve or thirteen knots when fully loaded.

Sterdy went on to analyze: "Before this, the German Navy's light ships other than submarines had never sailed to the Norwegian Sea thousands of nautical miles from the mainland, and this unusual behavior definitely meant that they were carrying out an important naval combat operation, and our spy officers also noticed that all the main warships of the German Navy were not at the base, and only some of them appeared on the Belgian coast, so where could the rest be?" ”

"What are their intentions in going north to the Norwegian Sea? It can't just be for our northern route, right? Lord Fisher kept his eyes on the chart table, and the staff officers had moved the German dreadnoughts, which had been placed in Kiel, Wilhelm, Bremen, Hamburg, and other positions, to the Belgian coast and to the Norwegian Sea, near the edge of the chart.

Sir Gamble, who was originally the commander of the battleship detachment in the home fleet and was transferred to the chief of operations of the British Naval Staff after the Second Battle of Flanders, analyzed sharply: "To deal with our reindeer sleigh fleet, a cruiser fleet is enough, and there is no need to use capital ships at all, and the same is true for cutting off our North Atlantic route." The reason why they used the main fleet, no matter what the tactical intentions were, had only one strategic goal, and that was to defeat our main fleet. ”

Churchill's gaze swept over the sea chart, and the focus of his gaze finally fell on Ireland.

"Just yesterday, our army raided a farmstead near the southern Irish city of Waterford, and found 850 Mauser G1898 rifles and 110,000 rounds of ammunition in the cellar, which is enough to equip two battalions, and I suspect that it will not be long before an independent uprising breaks out in Ireland, which the Germans certainly want to see."

Although he did not explicitly say that the Germans supported and manipulated the Irish independence movement behind the scenes, Churchill made a point of pointing out the models of the guns, and the implication was very clear.

After a pause, Churchill continued: "From the very beginning, the landing in Britain was a deliberate smokescreen by the Germans, whose real target was Ireland, and it would be easier to establish themselves there than anywhere else in the island of Britain if they agreed with the stubborn Irish. ”

Chief of Staff of the Navy, Stedi, took over: "It seems that the main German fleet will pass through the northern waterways of Britain to the waters of Ireland to escort their marines to land." ”

"How many Germans will land in Ireland?" Sir Gamble glared and said, "We have only a few thousand regular soldiers in Ireland. If the Germans really had no intention of invading Britain, we would simply send the remaining troops to Ireland urgently. ”

Stedi shook his head: "It's a pity that the brave 'Hawak' was unable to provide us with this critical information, so I am going to give instructions to the submarines deployed in the northern seas and the aviation units stationed in the Orkney Islands, so that they can carry out reconnaissance as soon as possible, hoping to grasp the situation before the German fleet breaks through into the Atlantic." ”

"What about the fleet?" Lord Fisher asked, "Shall we go north to meet the attack or wait for the right moment?" ”

Stedeton set his sights on Churchill, the Admiralty is the supreme command body of the British Navy, and the Admiralty Secretary is the supreme officer of the Admiralty, although he is a civilian official, he still has a very high voice and decision-making power in the military strategy and tactical deployment of the Navy, which is precisely what Field Marshal Tirpitz, who is known as the father of the German Navy, does not have.

Churchill propped his hands on the chart platform and held his head high, saying: "If the German Navy adopts the tactics of steady and steady fighting, it will be difficult for us to get a chance to turn the tide of the war in one fell swoop, and this will probably be the last adventure of the German Navy before the end of the war." In 1588, the Spanish Armada came to the English Channel; In 1805, the French and Spanish fleets assembled at Trafalgar. A great victory requires an opportunity of fate, and I believe that this is our opportunity, and we will be able to grasp it. ”

Chief of Staff Stedi responded: "This time our combat strength is weaker than that of our opponents, and the German fleet has traveled more than 1,000 nautical miles, and the condition of the ships is certainly not at the best level. ”

"This is true, but don't ignore the tactical prowess of this German fleet, especially the genius of the Hohenzollerns, whose cunning and daring stratagems that if we play our cards according to common sense, we will fall into his trap." Sir Gamble's remarks, which had the inherent implication of encouraging others and destroying his own prestige, were a fact that made the British admirals feel ashamed. The reason why the German Navy won successive victories was that the performance superiority of the ships was only one of the key factors, and if it lacked ingenious and unique tactical use, a victory alone would be enough to greatly damage the vitality of the German main fleet, and how could it have the strength to advance step by step in just three months, so that the British Navy fell into an unprecedented embarrassing situation.

"That's right, we can no longer have the slightest carelessness of the enemy, every deployment needs to be carefully considered, and we must weigh it repeatedly in the way of empathy." Chief of Staff Sterdy scanned the crowd as he spoke, and the next words showed his quick thinking skills: "The more we think that the main German fleet will pass through the Northern Waterways and enter the Atlantic, their real plan of action may be to ambush our Main Fleet in the Northern Waterways...... They might escort troop carriers to Ireland in battle cruiser formations, and then take advantage of the battle cruisers' high speed to rush back to their intended battlefield...... The two German armored cruisers that appeared in the Cape Verde Islands and the Azores after them may have been a cover to attract our attention, and the real deadly daggers were the 'uncle and nephew' who had disappeared for many days...... Therefore, my initial consideration was to assemble our main fleet in Scarpa Bay, where we would wait for reconnaissance intelligence from auxiliary ships and aviation, and this time we would have to find out the true movements of the German main fleet at any cost! ”

Once the established mode of thinking is broken, its divergence is likely to bring new troubles to people, and Churchill suddenly asked: "We all thought that the main German fleet went to the north, and the reason was only that one of our cruisers had discovered a German battleship and a group of German torpedo ships in the waters of the southern Norwegian Sea, and who knows if they were lurking somewhere in the North Sea, waiting for us to transfer the main fleet to the north and the coastal guard to Ireland to suppress the independent insurgents, Take advantage of the emptiness of our forces in south-eastern and southern Britain to stab the sword? Ladies and gentlemen, how far is the Belgian coast from us? It's only 65 nautical miles from Hebrügge to Dover! ”

Hearing this, almost everyone present gasped, they just felt that the chief of staff's countermeasure analysis was in place, and now it was time to transfer the main fleet to Scapa Bay and send additional marines to Ireland, if they really fell into the trap of the Germans and let the German naval infantry land on the coast of Britain, what awaits the British Empire will be a disaster more terrible than the Black Death!

After a moment of silence, Sterdy said in clear and fluent language: "We cannot be sure of the current position of the German fleet, but one thing is certain, sooner or later it will return to its home base." As long as the royal family and the cabinet are bold enough, we might as well be patient hunters, let the cunning fox go to the chicken coop and feast on it, and we will ambush it at the mouth of its hole, and give it a fatal blow when it returns. ”

The words fell, and the combat command room fell silent again. The expressions of the generals were mixed, and the Admiral Churchill frowned at first, and after a while, a sudden look of brightness suddenly appeared on his face, and then he turned his head to stare at Steddy, which made the Chief of Staff of the Navy feel uncomfortable, and he said confidently: "The whole world thinks that the British Navy is an unbending cavalry sword, and it will march forward bravely to defend the honor of the kingdom, and we will prove with our actions that this cavalry sword is not only sharp, but also resilient enough." We defeated our mighty Spanish Armada with privateers known as 'legal pirates', and we defeated the Franco-Spanish Combined Fleet with a nimble assault instead of battle formations, and now we will continue this glorious tradition and make our name forever remembered by the world with a great victory. ”

(End of chapter)