"The French Navy must fight a decisive battle against the enemy at all costs and with the utmost determination, and strive to inflict a annihilating blow on the US naval fleet -- Prime Minister, Minister of Defense, and Field Marshal Darlan of the Government of the French Republic. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info”

At the same time, 12 German Type 21 U-boats slaughtered the American fleet on the sea, with three wounded Iowa-class battleships as the core. A dozen nautical miles away, a makeshift formation consisting of one battleship, three heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, and eight destroyers (there were 10 destroyers at first, but two French destroyers were sunk by American torpedoes in previous operations) were engaged in a fierce battle with the U.S. Navy. Sur had just received a secret telegram from Paris.

Let. Saul was a very senior admiral in the French Navy, having been an admiral at the beginning of the World War in 1939.

His official position in the Combined European Fleet was Commander of the Brest Naval Base - the home port of the Combined European Fleet, Brest, was originally a "German leased territory", but after the recent meeting of the leaders of the European Community, Brest's sovereignty was formally returned to France, and the commander of the base was also appointed by the French Admiral.

As for how a French admiral, who served as the commander of the base, could board the battleship Provence and become the commander of a temporary combat formation, of course, the question of how to become the commander of a temporary combat formation is related to the rules of the combined fleet.

At present, the European Community has a joint fleet but not a joint navy, and the navies of all countries participating in the joint fleet maintain their own personnel systems, and only military orders and logistics are unified.

So all it took was an order from the French Admiralty that the commander of the battleship group (a French rear admiral), who was originally on the Provence, immediately fell ill and disembarked. Admiral Sur came up to take over.

And let. Sur was of course on a special mission to board the Provence - he was ordered by French Prime Minister Darlan to observe the effects of the "missile tactics" and to report the results of the engagement to Darlan as soon as possible.

Now the effect of the "missile tactics" has become clear, and the Germans have won completely! The sea power in the Atlantic Ocean already belonged to Europe, and the United States of America could only defend it by army and shore-based aircraft.

Therefore, Marshal Darlan, who was sitting in the Chancellery in Paris, immediately gave way. Sur gave the order - the American reservoir dogs must be beaten to show the valor of the French Navy!

Thinking of the honors that the French Navy will achieve, Jean is old, having lived through two world wars and the French Navy downturn. Admiral Sur couldn't contain his excitement.

"Sir! The radar found that the destroyers of the Americans attacked again! ”

A shout from the electronic officer of the Provence put Jean. Sur pulled back to reality. The current battle on the sea does not seem to be particularly beneficial to the heroic and invincible French navy.

Being and "let. Although there was not a single battleship among the three American lightning strike formations in which the Soul's formation exchanged fire, the number of heavy cruisers of the people was the same as that of the "Jean Formation. The Sur formations "are the same, all three, and the number of destroyers is greater than that of "Jean. The Sur formation "was much larger, amounting to 27 ships (at the beginning 30 ships, 3 were sunk), of which 20 were still thunder-strike destroyers with great firepower!"

And "let. The Provence, the main force of the "Sur formation", was too slow, which dragged down the Deutschland, the Count of Spee, and the Admiral Schell, which formed the shelling formation with it. Caused by the "let. The Souls "had a lot of artillery fire, but they couldn't close the distance between them and the American bombardment formation, consisting of three treaty heavy cruisers, the USS New Orleans, the USS Tuscaloosa, and the USS Houston."

Due to the distance, the accuracy of the shelling dropped significantly. Although all three American heavy cruisers were hit by a few shells, except for the Tuscaloosa, which was hit by a 340mm shell fired by the Provence, which was more seriously damaged, the other two heavy cruisers were only hit by a few 203mm shells, and they were not hit by the vital point. And their shells also hit the Provence several times, one of which landed on the deck of the seaplane of the Provence, breaking an Ar.196 to pieces and igniting a powder magazine (used by seaplane catapults).

At the same time, the American destroyers took turns to attack, trying to break through the blockade line consisting of the light cruiser Glory and eight French destroyers, and fire torpedoes at the Provence. As a result, it really broke through, allowing the Provence to hit a 533mm torpedo on the port side of the bow, causing the bow to sink and the speed to decrease, which also affected the shooting accuracy of the two main gun turrets in the bow of the Provence.

The French battleship, with a full load displacement of more than 27,000 tons, sank in the bow, caught fire amidships, and destroyed one of the main turrets (amidships' main turrets), which really looked a bit embarrassing.

Now the destroyers of the Americans have started a new round of charge, which is really frightening!

"The main guns of all ships, with the exception of the Provence, were aimed at the destroyers of the Americans! Don't let them get close! "Let's. Admiral Sur did not dare to let the American destroyers get any closer, and hurriedly ordered the cruisers and destroyers to block them with all their might.

But what happened next was a big surprise. Admiral Suhr's anticipation. Instead of rushing to the scarred Provence, the two dozen or so American destroyers that were charging under artillery fire pounced on the three German heavy cruisers behind the Provence, firing about 80 Mk15 torpedoes at a distance of about 9,000 meters -- several American heavy mine destroyers carried 16 Mk15 torpedoes, some of which had been fired in previous engagements, and now only about 80 Mk15 torpedoes remained, all of which were fired at the three German heavy cruisers. Although the torpedoes were fired at a relatively long distance, at a distance of 9000 meters, and at night when visibility was extremely poor, 2 Mk15 torpedoes hit the target. One of them hit the stern of the heavy cruiser "Deutschland", causing water to enter the power compartment. The other hit the bow of the Admiral Scheer, causing a large influx of seawater.

And in the process, the Americans also paid a lot of price, 3 destroyers were hit by the 203mm main guns of the "German" class cruisers (three of the German class are now converted into heavy cruisers), all of them caught fire, and their speed was greatly reduced, becoming live targets on the sea.

"Sir, the heavy cruiser Deutschland reports that the port side of the stern was torpedoed, the power compartment was flooded, and some power may be lost!"

"Sir, the bow of the Admiral Scheer heavy cruiser was torpedoed, a storage compartment was flooded, the bow sank, and the speed could drop by 5 knots."

"Damn it!" Let. After listening to the staff officer's report, beads of sweat already appeared on his forehead.

It is a shame that his fleet has battleships, and it is inextricable to fight with the heavy cruisers and destroyers of the Americans.

"Sir," the electronic officer of the Provence shouted again, "the radar has detected that the American destroyers are rapidly retreating!" ”

A quick retreat? Why? Is it a torpedo?

"And what about the three heavy cruisers of the Americans?" Let. Soulr asked.

"They seem to be continuing to fight us."

Let. Sur was stunned and stunned, the destroyer ran away, the heavy cruiser didn't run, what's going on? What exactly does Yankee mean?

……

"Admiral, the Little Rock can't hold on...... Please hurry up and board the lifeboat. ”

Just let. While Sur was stunned, U.S. Admiral Halsey was worried. His new flagship, the Light Cruiser USS Little Rock, is sinking again. Of course, it was the terrible Type 21 U-boat that sank it!

This Type 21 U-boat, which can sail at a high speed of 17.2 knots underwater, is no worse than the Reaper-2 anti-ship missile in combat efficiency when encountering enemy ships that they can catch up. Because the high underwater speed of the Type 21 U-boats made it difficult for the American destroyers to attack - they could not catch up with the Type 21 U-boats when they were too slow, and they were too fast to use sonar. Therefore, the best way for American ships to meet Type 21 U-boats is to rely on high-speed escape.

Halsey, however, was reluctant to carry the nearly 8,000 naval officers and men aboard the three Iowa-class battleships. These people are the best sailors in the US Navy, and if they can be fished out, they will definitely be able to support the operation of 10 light cruisers in a short period of time -- the slipways of the major shipyards in the United States are now full of light cruisers and destroyers waiting to be launched, waiting for the excellent officers and men of the Navy to operate them.

So Halsey did not decisively order a retreat after the first wave of attacks on the 12 German Type 21 U-boats, but ordered the light cruisers and destroyers that were not hit by torpedoes to hurry to the rescue.

As a result, the man was not rescued, and he put himself in it - in the second wave of attack launched by 12 Type 21 U-boats, almost all American light cruisers and destroyers that were salvaging people who had fallen into the water were hit by mines. Even the "Little Rock" on which Halsey was riding was no exception, and it was hit by four torpedoes in a row, three large holes were opened in the underwater part of the port side, and the sea water rushed in, which had already flooded the power compartment, although it maintained its balance by urgently pouring water into the starboard side. But this only delayed the sinking of the "Little Rock".

There must have been more than 10,000 U.S. Navy officers and sailors who have fallen into the water and will be overboard. The 3 lightning strike formations of the Sur formation, which fought hard, called for help.

But when Halsey got on a small lifeboat, he suddenly thought: once those 20 or so destroyers slow down to save people, will they once again become targets for those German submarines underwater?