At this moment, most of the main forces of the US Navy are concentrated on the west coast to confront the Pacific Fleet of the Ming Navy, and their main fleet wants to protect the security of the US mainland. But in order to provide as much support as possible to the European theater www.biquge.info, the U.S. Navy gritted its teeth and dispatched its fleet to escort the convoy.

In fact, at the moment it is the fleets of the British Navy and the German Navy that are the main force in the task of escorting the North Atlantic routes. There are not many cases where the U.S. Navy has personally served as a convoy, but this time the WS79 convoy was escorted by the U.S. Navy.

At this time, the Allied navies had suffered heavy losses after years of fierce battles with the powerful Ming navy. The Japanese navy, a naval power, was almost completely wiped out, and the remaining naval forces of the French were largely concentrated in the Mediterranean to defend their southern territories. The Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy, which had always been inactive, was besieged in Sevaskotopol, but its Baltic Fleet was unable to carry out long-distance ocean voyages due to the design concept of the warships, and could not take on the protection of the Atlantic route at all.

In the end, it was the British Navy and the German Navy that were responsible for the main escort mission. Of course, the navies of the Netherlands, Denmark and other countries, which are not very strong, are also joined by them. It's just that their strength is too weak to be mentioned.

While vigorously supporting the building of the submarine force, Zhang Cheng did not forget to provide the submarine force with various advanced tactics. In terms of the technical level of submarines of this era, the best way for them to attack a large convoy of transport ships is to attack in groups. To put it simply, it is a wolf pack tactic that has been tested by war in the history of modern time and space.

Gather as much submarine forces as possible in the shortest possible time to besiege the convoy, which can greatly disperse the strength of the escort fleet and obtain great results. Of course, the disadvantage of this tactic is also obvious, that is, it lacks the support of large surface ships and can only be in the position of passive sneak attack. In the face of an attack by an Allied convoy, there was no choice but to escape.

And if you escape, you will lose your plane. But there is no way to solve this situation for submarines. After all, in terms of the technological level of this era, they do not have submarine-launched anti-ship missiles and self-guided torpedoes to attack surface warships.

And this tactic can generally only be used at night when the light is not strong. After all, there is a high chance that the traces will be discovered during the day, which will bring disaster to your submarine. Especially if there are aircraft carriers among the escort warships. With the rapid progress of science and technology, airplanes are the biggest enemy of submarines.

In modern history, the German submarine force was ultimately defeated in the Atlantic naval battle, and the biggest reason was their lack of surface warship cooperation. If the Third Reich Navy at that time had a powerful surface fleet capable of effectively cooperating with submarine forces, it would have been difficult to say what the final course of the war would have been.

At 9:30 a.m. on 7 March, submarine No. 419, located in the northernmost part of the Fangrenxu submarine formation, sent a telegram "The Allied transport convoy has been discovered. ”

The submarine force of the Ming Navy in this era was not the German sea wolves. The submarine forces of the Ming Dynasty had ample support forces. The Ming Navy sent a large number of raid ships to cruise throughout the North Atlantic, and these warships would be arranged by the Admiralty to join the possible attack sequence after receiving the information.

The attack ships of the Ming Navy are generally warships with high speed and long range. When this kind of warship encounters the enemy, it is generally fought if it can be beaten, and it runs away if it can't be defeated. And because of its speed, few Allied warships were able to catch up. Of course, if there were aircraft carriers in the Allied escort formation, that would be a second story.

As the war progressed, the strength of the allies, who had repeatedly suffered losses at the hands of the Ming navy, had been weakened. Therefore, at this moment, even if it is only an escort aircraft carrier, it is rare to go out to cover the transport fleet. Because the number of aircraft carriers is not large, they need to be concentrated to deal with the challenge of the main fleet of the Ming Dynasty, so unless it is a very important fleet, such as the fleet that transports a large number of troops. Other convoys were rarely escorted by carriers.

In order to cope with the attack of the Ming navy, the allies built large air bases in Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and the islands of Ireland, and deployed a large number of fighter planes to constantly patrol the sea to provide support for the transport fleet.

However, this support will not cover the entire North Atlantic due to the range of the aircraft, and will still leave a large gap in the route of the transport fleet. The attacks of the Ming Navy basically took place in such vacant areas.

Although the Atlantic Fleet of the Ming Navy has been greatly strengthened, its strength is obviously not enough to fully challenge the entire Atlantic route. After all, at this time, the main forces of the Ming Navy were still gathering in the Pacific to confront the American fleet. In addition, the Mediterranean Fleet also has to divide part of its strength to blockade southern France and the Black Sea, so the strength of the Atlantic Fleet at this moment is not enough to fight a decisive battle with the entire European navy.

Therefore, the Atlantic Fleet did not send the main fleet north to block the route. In that case, the British fleet stationed in Scapa Bay and the German fleet stationed at Portsmouth would inevitably attack with all their forces to cut off the rear of the Atlantic Fleet and force it to fight a decisive battle. For the Atlantic Fleet of the Ming Navy, it is not yet the time for a decisive battle. Their attacks are still dominated by submarine forces and attack ships.

Immediately after receiving the telegram, Fang Renxu gave the order to attack, and the six submarines of his detachment began to turn and move quickly towards the front of the Allied transport fleet's route, preparing to set up positions in front of its route to ambush the transport fleet.

Large-scale fleets sail on the sea with their fixed routes, and as long as the target of their speed and course is obtained, the interception route can be easily calculated. Moreover, submarine forces are not surface warships, they must lurk around and attack, and cannot rush directly to fire like surface ships.

Today the sky over the North Atlantic Ocean is shrouded in dense clouds, and strong winds mixed with heavy rain are raging on the sea. The violent weather greatly affected the Allied convoys. Not only were their own seaplanes unable to take off for reconnaissance, but long-range planes from distant Iceland and Ireland were unable to come to their aid. That is, before the wind and rain stopped, they lost the protection of air power.

Under normal circumstances, if the Allied troops were fighting the Ming army, they would be happier when they lost their air cover due to the weather. Because they knew that when their air force could not fight, the air power of the Ming army could not be used. Compared with the powerful air power of the Ming army, the Allied forces preferred that it would be better for both sides not to participate in the war.

It's just that this law, which has been prevalent among the Allies for the last year or two, is bad news in the minds of the Allied transport fleets at this moment. Without the support of air power, they would have lost an eye and an ear, even a hand, in the perilous ocean. Once it encounters the attack of the Ming Navy, it will inevitably suffer heavy losses.

The WS79 formation had already sent a telegram to the British Navy requesting reinforcements, and the British Navy responded that they had sent a rescue fleet. But this does not mean that this transport fleet is safe, in fact, in such a vast sea, ships are basically measured in days. And in the fast-paced world of modern warfare, one day is enough time to end the battle.

The time soon came to noon, and after several hours of intense maneuvering, Fang Renxu's submarine detachment had already discharged a half-moon-shaped pocket in front of the WS79 fleet, waiting for the Americans to throw themselves into the net.

Although Zhang Cheng attaches great importance to the submarine force, in fact, the Ming Navy itself is strong and has dominated the world for hundreds of years. There is not much interest in submarines as a sneak attack weapon. And in the current technical conditions, the submarine is not yet able to show its real capabilities. Unless it's when technological breakthroughs and nuclear-powered and submarine-launched weapons appear.

Although the submarine force of the Ming Navy has made outstanding achievements, its number is actually not large. The vast majority of the Navy's production capacity is given to surface vessels. The number of submarines produced by it is only a few hundred. Of course, this so-called mere number is a huge number in other countries. It's just that in the huge Ming Navy, this is nothing.

And because of Zhang Cheng's support, the submarines of the Ming Navy are basically large ocean-going submarines. The displacement is very large, and even not inferior to the small destroyers of some countries. As for the small submarines and training submarines that are also capable of combat, there are not many of them, and none of them will be included in the official naval catalog.

The number of submarines is not large, plus there are too many rotations and places to take care of, reflecting that the battlefield is that at this moment, in this sea area, the only submarine force under the command of Fang Renxu can attack the WS79 fleet.

Six submarines were at a disadvantage in the face of a full fleet and a strong escort force. But it doesn't matter, the Ming naval force in this sea area is not only Fang Renxu's submarine force. The Ming Navy also had raid ships nearby.

The so-called assault ship is actually a warship capable of attacking slow transport ships with quick sorties. This is not a specific type of ship, but just a designation for all warships that perform such tasks. The Atlantic Fleet is not yet able to send all its forces north to fight a decisive battle with the navies of various countries. However, this did not prevent them from sending fast warships north to attack the Allied routes. (To be continued.) )