3 September 1939, 4pm UK time.

The air raid on Scapa Bay had come to an end, and almost all of the He-111, Ju.88 and He-115 had already dropped bombs and torpedoes.

The whole Scapa Gulf is now a sea of fire, and the British warships in it are either on fire or firing! The nearby oil depot was also burning, and smoke was rising to the sky.

An aerial exchange of fire also began, with all military airfields in the north of Scotland near Scarpa Bay. Anyone who had fighters, Spitfires, Hurricanes, the two-winged Glaucators, or Blenheim, was all rushing towards Scarpa Bay.

The first to arrive, of course, was the Spitfire of the 18th Fighter Squadron from Hall Walker Highland Airport.

In this world war, the first engagement between British and German aircraft took place between the Spitfire and the Fokker Zero.

Adolph. A four-finger formation led by Garland won the first stop, fighting three in four, taking advantage of the Zero's excellent low-altitude hovering performance and the tactical advantage of the four-finger formation, and easily shot down three Spitfires.

But the rapid climb of the other three Spitfires still impressed him with the performance of the British fighter.

"Lieutenant General, the British have a great fighter, not under the BF-109!" He used the intercom to report a false alarm to Lieutenant General Graeme, who was riding in an Fw-200C that had been shot several times, but it was fine. The formation led by Garland escorted him off the battlefield.

"Not under BF-109?" Lieutenant General Graham pondered and asked, "Why do you say that?" ”

"Because I've also flown the Fokker Zero against the BF-109 many times," said Adolf. "The BF-109 may not be as good as the British aircraft in its low- and medium-altitude hovering performance, and as for speed and climb, both are about the same." If the BF-109 was doggling that aircraft at low and medium altitudes, the BF-109 would have little advantage unless the pilots' skills were very different. ”

Adolph. Garland flew the BF-109 in Spain and was one of the first pilots to fly the Fokker Zero. And the person who flew the BF-109 against his Zero was also an ace pilot in the Naval Air Force, so when it came to the performance of the BF-109 and the Zero, Adolf . Garland is definitely an expert.

"So how does Zero compare to it? Is there an advantage? Graeme asked again.

"There's definitely an advantage in low-to-mid combat," said Adolf. Garland replied, "Zero is the ultimate in low-to-medium altitude and low-to-medium speed combat, and those who are faster than it are certainly not as agile as it, and those that can be compared to it in terms of agility are too slow." But the Zero is not good at high altitudes, its air-cooled engine performs very poorly at high altitudes, and that British plane uses liquid-cooled engines, and it has a lot of horsepower! ”

"I see!" Lieutenant General Graham thought for a moment, "The Zero and BF-109 must cooperate at high and low altitudes to ensure that the British plane is defeated!" ”

"Yes, that's it!" Adolph. "The BF-109 occupies a high-altitude position, and the Zero bombards that kind of aircraft up at medium and low altitudes...... If the British knew enough about the Zero, they would definitely climb to the top. ”

"Yes!" Lieutenant General Graeme nodded, "But the British couldn't figure out the Zero's performance so quickly. ”

He glanced again at the blazing bay and looked at the operations staff officer Franz Murphy beside him. Major Speer, "Have the losses and results been counted?" ”

"Preliminary statistics are out," said Franz. Major Speer said, "The torpedo fleet suffered heavy losses, 33 were definitely shot down, 9 were seriously damaged, and it is estimated that they will not be able to fly back to Germany, and now they are all going to Stavanger Airport in Norway." It looks like we're going to have to re-examine the tactics and performance of the torpedo machine......"

Norway is a neutral country, and the He-115s will be detained when they arrive there until the end of the war or until Norway joins the war, and the flight of the heavily damaged aircraft to Norway is also planned in advance.

"The He-111 did not suffer battle damage, but one of the aircraft broke down on the way back and made a forced landing at sea, leaving the crew members missing."

"Ju.88 is sure to have lost 4 aircraft, and 2 more are seriously damaged and are flying to Norway."

"Two Fokker Zeros were shot down, and it was the kind of British plane that did it, and the pilot parachuted."

Franz. Major Speer paused, and then said: "All the planes that fled to Norway are calculated according to the losses, and so far we have lost a total of 42 He-115s, 1 He-111, 6 Ju.88 and 2 Fokker Zeros. ”

A total of 51 aircraft were lost, accounting for about 13% of all aircraft in combat. The losses were not small, but the results were still very significant!

……

3 September 1939, 8:15pm UK time.

On Whitehall Street, the Admiralty, in the conference room, the choking smell of cigarettes and coffee floats. All the members of the British Empire's Cabinet, except for Churchill, the Lord of the Admiralty, gathered here. Everyone's face turned pale, for they had learned of the heavy damage caused by the air raid on Scapa Flow, and that the Second Sea Secretary had reported the heavy losses of the Home Fleet to the Ministers.

The aircraft carriers "Glory", "Fury" and "Brave" were badly damaged (not sunk) and completely incapacitated.

the battleship "Royal Oak" was sunk and the training ship "Iron Duke" was sunk; The battleships "Nelson" and "Rodney" were moderately damaged and needed major repairs to restore their full combat effectiveness.

The battlecruiser "Counterattack" was heavily damaged, and the rudder and power system were damaged.

The heavy cruisers "Kent" and "Berwick" were sunk; Heavy cruiser "Devonshire" was heavily damaged.

The light cruiser "Goddess of Dawn" sank.

The destroyer "Somalis" sank.

a total of 3 aircraft carriers were damaged; 2 battleships were sunk, 1 battlecruiser was heavily damaged, and 2 battleships were created; 2 heavy cruisers, 1 heavily damaged; 1 light cruiser and 1 destroyer.

This loss ...... It is not very big, after all, the three damaged aircraft carriers are still floating on the water, which can not be counted as a sunk, and one of the two battleships sunk is still a training ship.

But the loss is quite fatal! Because three of the Royal Navy's four fast carriers are largely scrapped - it takes about the same amount of time and effort to fix them as it does to build them.

That is, before the completion of the aircraft carrier "Tejour", Britain had only one aircraft carrier that could provide air cover for the fleet. And Germany has two!

This meant that Germany could send two broken fleets with aircraft carriers, while Britain could only send one fleet with aircraft carrier cover.

As for the pursuit of a fleet with aircraft carriers without cover from aircraft carriers...... Sounds a bit like suicide!

And what is even more lethal is that the efficiency of a broken fleet with aircraft carriers in striking merchant ships is definitely not comparable to that of a broken fleet without aircraft carriers. Because aircraft carriers can carry not only fighters, but also dive bombers and torpedo attack aircraft.

All eyes are on Neville. Chamberlain's dead face. Britain is in trouble, that's for sure.

Now it was time for a truly powerful figure to lead the British Empire out of its predicament. And Prime Minister Chamberlain seems to be a little weak......

Heavy footsteps sounded, and then the door to the conference room was slammed open, and a breath of fresh air rushed in, followed by Lord Winston, who was wrapped in gauze on his head. Churchill limped in with a cane.

He had just returned to London from Scapa Bay on a seaplane, and then he was heading straight for the Admiralty on Whitehall Street.

"Winston, we beat ......," Chamberlain said in a deep voice, looking at Churchill.

"No, Prime Minister, the war has just begun!" Churchill walked up to the Prime Minister and sat down in a chair reserved for the Lord of the Admiralty.

"We still have the capital to fight!" Churchill said solemnly, "Although the navy has suffered some losses, we are very strong, and these losses are nothing." We also have 4 aircraft carriers and 13 usable battleships and battlecruisers, and another five 'King' class and four 'Tejour' class fleet aircraft carriers under construction. And we also have two reliable allies, France and Poland, and Italy, a friend that we can win over. Of course, we can also fight for the Soviet ......"

"But how are we going to win them?" Chamberlain asked.

Anyone with a little diplomatic common sense knows that the Battle of Scapa Bay was not good for Britain to win over allies! If the Soviet Union and Italy had known the truth (and Britain would certainly not admit defeat), Stalin and Mussolini would certainly have sided with Germany.

"Fight back, of course!" Winston. Churchill had already had the means, "It is useless to just preach victory, the Germans will preach it too." So we have to use bombs and guns to tell the world who is the real winner! ”

"Is it to bomb Germany?" Chamberlain asked again.

"Yes!" Churchill thought for a moment, "The French also declared war?" ”

"Yes, in the afternoon."

"That's good," said Churchill, "we're going to launch night air raids on German cities!" This would force them to pump the Air Force back from the Eastern Front to the West. In addition, we must send the Mediterranean Fleet into the Black Sea, force Romania to cut off oil supplies to Germany, and ask Romania to allow planes to pass through their airspace to Poland. The Poles will soon launch a counterattack, and we must support them with all our might! The British and French armies must also act and put pressure on Germany's western borders! ”

Chamberlain was stunned, "Ask the French to attack Germany's Siegfried Line?" ”

Churchill nodded, "That's right, that's what France has to do now!" (To be continued.) )