Oct. 26, 3:10 p.m.

Atlantic, flagship of the 1st Task Force of the United States and British Combined Fleet, USS Liberty.

Commander of the First Task Force of the Combined U.S.-British Fleet, William Brown. Admiral Halsey was now standing on the platform on the second level of the USS Liberty, frowning as he observed the Navy crews training on deck. These young people's movements are too rusty, probably they have been on this aircraft carrier for less than 1 month in total, right? Joining the Navy is only 6 months at most...... I really want to find a chance to train these people well, instead of rushing to send them to battle! And this aircraft carrier, which doesn't even look like it's getting painted, should also have a good sea trial.

It took less than 11 months for the guys at the Bethlehem Steel shipyard to turn a 20,000-ton luxury cruise ship into the 23,000-ton aircraft carrier USS Liberty. Although this speed can be called a miracle, there are many shoddy workmanship, quality and design layout problems behind this miracle. And this aircraft carrier was stuffed to the Atlantic Fleet without even the most basic sea tests! Ernest. Admiral Kim didn't know where to find a new vote, plus the pilots transferred from the Pacific Fleet and a group of officers and non-commissioned officers finally started the aircraft carrier, and then let himself go out to fight the Germans! There is nothing more irresponsible in the world than this, simply joking with this precious aircraft carrier and the lives of more than 1600 Americans!

What made Halsey even more angry was that the commander of the US-British Combined Fleet, Ernest Brown. Admiral King, as well as Admiral Leahy, the chief of naval operations of the United States, also vetoed his correct suggestion of "defending the ship and containing the enemy" and had to rush him from the Norfolk base to the Atlantic Ocean to fight the Germans.

"Admiral, telegram from the Norfolk base." The voice of Rear Admiral Welch, Chief of Staff of the Fleet, dragged Halsey out of his thoughts.

"Found the Germans?"

The American side had long received information that the combined German-Italian fleet had left Gibraltar for sorties. It's almost time to get to the vicinity of Bermuda in the past two days. Bermuda was the gateway to attack the east coast of the United States, and almost all of the top brass of the U.S. Navy believed that the Germans would take Bermuda first. Then head south to the Caribbean. Connecting with Japanese-controlled Panama and finally using the Central American Corridor as a base to send Germany's powerful army to the American continent.

However, on the question of how to defend the east coast of the United States, the top brass of the US Navy has two different opinions. U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Leahy and Commander of the Atlantic Fleet (and Commander of the Combined Anglo-American Fleet) Ernest Brown. Admiral King and his wife believed that the defense of the US mainland should begin with the defense of Bermuda, and that only by keeping this "gateway," which is only more than 900 kilometers away from the east coast of the United States, could the German fascists be kept out of North America. And. Defending Bermuda would also protect the continental United States from Luftwaffe bombers.

However, the first-line generals of the US Navy, represented by Halsey and Stroance, did not approve of placing the decisive battlefield around Bermuda. The reason is that the combined fleet of Germany and Italy is much stronger than the combined fleet of Britain and the United States! According to reliable intelligence, Germany now has at least four Frederick the Great-class heavy aircraft carriers, as well as five or six medium-sized aircraft carriers with a tonnage of 25,000 to 18,000 tons. In addition, there are several large light aircraft carriers of 10,000 tons. The entire German High Seas Fleet could deploy up to 850 carrier-based aircraft on the battlefield near Bermuda.

The Anglo-American combined fleet now has only one Liberty-class (Liberty) converted from merchant ships, two British Glorious-class (Indomitable and Dreadnought), as well as four medium and large aircraft carriers such as the British Ark Royal, in addition to several light aircraft carriers that cannot carry many aircraft at all, with a total of more than 300 carrier-based aircraft, less than one-third of the Germans!

As for the comparison of the strength of the battleships, the British and American sides were even more at a disadvantage. Germany and Italy now have a total of 7 super-battleships with an unladen displacement of more than 40,000 tons. On the British and American side, only one Colorado and one King George V in the Atlantic were somewhat combat-ready, and the rest of the battleships were all outdated. It did nothing other than to add to the ranks of the German and Italian battleships. Thus, the commander of the Atlantic Fleet of the US Navy, Ernest . After an exchange of views with Admiral Cunningham, commander of the British-Canadian Grand Fleet (the other side of the Anglo-American Combined Fleet), Admiral King decided to avoid a confrontation between the British and American battleships and the German-Italian battleship forces, and instead pinned his hopes for the defense of Bermuda on the planes.

In early September, the British and American naval top brass drew up an extremely complex plan for joint operations. The key to this battle plan was twofold: first, to defend Bermuda, using the islands as bait to attract the German-Italian fleet and deplete the strength of the German-Italian fleet; The second is to lay all the aircraft carriers that the British and US navies can concentrate on in a certain sea area west of the Bermuda Islands, and wait for the German and Italian fleets to launch a surprise attack on the Bermuda Islands with all their might. For the sake of absolute secrecy about the raid plan, only the top echelons of the Anglo-American Navy and a very small number of people, such as Halsey (1st Task Force) and Phillips (British Admiral, Commander of the 2nd Task Force), who commanded the raid fleet, knew the full details of the entire plan. Now, even Vice Admiral Kimmmel, who was ordered to defend Bermuda, did not know that the main forces of the British and American navies were now lurking in the Atlantic Ocean 300 to 400 nautical miles west of Bermuda.

"Yes, Admiral, the secret telegram at the Norfolk base." Major General Welch handed a telegram to Halsey. At present, the entire First Task Force is in strict radio silence, and can only passively receive telegrams, but cannot actively send telegrams. Moreover, the Anglo-American Naval Joint Command in Norfolk had specially used a new cipher code to communicate with the 1st and 2nd Task Forces, which had no chance of being deciphered by the Germans.

"The Germans are 400 nautical miles east of Bermuda, and the Norfolk base says Lieutenant General Kimmel has ordered Bermuda to send shore-based planes to attack them." As he spoke, Welch marked the exact location of the German fleet on the chart table.

Halsey also walked to the chart table at this time, stared at it for a while, shook his head and said: "It's too far, it's a little too early for Kimmel to send planes now, and the range of our SBD Dreadnought dive bombers and TBD ravaging torpedo bombers is not enough." ”

Welch smiled and pointed to the wall clock, "It's 3:15 p.m. Admiral." At most, it will be dark for another three and a half hours. ”

Halsey looked up and sure enough, it was already 3:15 p.m. He had been on the platform outside for more than three hours. It's kind of incredible.

"Admiral, Norfolk has another telegram." Welch then took another telegram from the communications staff officer, glanced at it a few times, and handed it to Halsey. "By order of Admiral King and Admiral Cunningham, our 1st Task Force advanced 100 nautical miles southwest of Bermuda. It must be in place by 3 a.m. tomorrow and be ready to dispatch carrier-based aircraft! Furthermore. Radio silence remains in place until 3:30 a.m. tomorrow. ”

"Well, since the orders are all down, let's carry them out." Halsey shook his head slightly. He wasn't much sure about tomorrow's showdown. Although the Navy has just gotten a very good fighter F4U Corsair. This fighter has a Pratt & Whitney R2800 star engine that can produce up to 2,000 horsepower! It can make the F4U fighter have a speed of 650 kilometers per hour and a range of 1,600 kilometers, and its performance is comparable to the latest model of the German FW-190. However, this kind of fighter, like the USS Liberty, is a bit of a premature baby

The flagship of the combined German-Italian fleet, the heavy aircraft carrier Frederick the Great.

Kengoro Liver and Hannah. Leich boarded the aircraft carrier around 4:30 p.m. on a speedboat marked with the Mark of Frederick the Great. Although he had long observed the world's largest aircraft carrier of this class from a not too far distance, when he actually boarded this warship with an unladen displacement of up to 50,000 tons. I was still stunned by its atmosphere and delicacy. A 50,000-ton warship can be built so well, and every detail is perfect. It's like a Swiss watch, not a floating steel city.

Kengoro and Hannah were invited by Commander-in-Chief Raeder to a German dinner aboard the Frederick the Great, along with Italian Admiral Paolo Anderson. Lefel, two Italian admirals, as well as one Russian admiral.

The venue for the dinner was in the ultra-luxurious officer's quarters of the Frederick the Great, and the food was also very rich, with a good taste of German pickled pork knuckle, uncooked steak, a lot of creamy seafood soup, and the most rare thing was some yellowed green vegetables, which were probably sent to the ship when they left Gibraltar. In addition, a few more bottles of German Heinkel champagne were served. A gramophone placed in the corner of the officer's room was still playing light music, and the atmosphere was very relaxed and pleasant, and there was no smell of gunpowder at all.

Probably due to the time difference caused by the journey to the west, dinner started early at 5 p.m. Everyone sat in their pre-arranged seats, chatting and laughing with each other in a casual whisper. The topic is nothing more than the ongoing world war, and the Italians and Russians are full of sweet words, complimenting the Germans, as if they had planted the swastika flag on the roof of the White House.

"Mr. Liverpay." After listening to the compliments for a while, Raeder suddenly called out the name of Kengoro Hetofu.

"Your Excellency Marshal," Kengoro Liver Fu hurriedly put down the pig's hand in his hand, elegantly wiped his mouth with a white silk handkerchief, stood up and bowed slightly at Raeder, "What do you command?" ”

"The battle to decide the fate of your Great Japanese Empire will begin after dawn tomorrow." Raeder smiled and got straight to the point, saying, "I have ordered Admiral Lysteyan to command seven battleships, one aircraft carrier, three heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and fifteen destroyers to attack Bermuda overnight. ”

Speaking of this, he probably wanted to test the Japanese naval elite in front of him, and asked, "Mr. Hefu, can you guess the intention of this move?" ”

Kengoro Goro's eyes rolled, and the situation map of the Battle of Bermuda suddenly appeared in his mind, and after some deduction, he quickly understood Raeder's true purpose. Liver Fu looked at Marshal Raeder with a surprised expression, and said in a lost voice: "Your Excellency wants to use 7 world-class super battleships as bait to lure out the aircraft carriers of the United States and Britain!" This kind of handwriting is really admirable! ”

"Not bad." Raeder smiled and nodded, with an appreciative look in his eyes, "You guessed right, this naval battle between us and the Americans is using bait against each other. Lead your opponent to the bait. The bait of the Americans is Bermuda, and mine is the best 7 battleships in the world! As he spoke, he nodded slightly. Laughing: "But bait alone is not enough. There must be a killer feature! ”

"Your Excellency the Marshal understands." Liver Fu's expression had become extremely solemn, "The 785 of my kamikaze special attack team (there are 20 special attack team commanders who have survived enough have also joined the ranks of sending them to death) can fly and attack at any time!" And every member of the special attack team will die with the United States ** ship with the greatest determination! ”

Raeder smiled and raised his glass, "Then I will represent the Third Reich." On behalf of the great German Führer, I wish the kamikaze warriors 'long luck in arms' (these four words are spoken in stiff Japanese). ”

Of course, the martial arts of those kamikaze members will not last long, but Liver Fu will not go to the same German marshal who is above the top to care about this. They held such a dinner party for themselves. I also learned a sentence of Japanese, which is really big enough. I guess the kamikaze crew who stayed on the missile cruiser should have been given a good dinner, right?

Liver Fu raised the wine glass in front of him and drank it all. Then he snapped a straight one. I just wanted to say something beautiful when I opened my mouth. I saw a German naval lieutenant push open the door of the officer's quarters and hurried over to Raeder and whispered something. The marshal, who was still proud of the spring breeze just now, actually showed a solemn look, nodded slightly at the four ** officers present, and said: "The radar has found that about 300 US planes are flying towards us, and all the German ** officers please return to their respective posts." Prepare for battle.

Field Marshal Leffel, Admiral Karlov. Liver Fu Nakasa, please follow me to Frederick the Great's ship island to watch the battle. Please do not worry about safety, we in the German naval aviation are sure not to allow American aircraft to approach. ”

When Kengoro followed Raeder into the spacious combat command center of the Frederick the Great for the first time, on the flight deck outside, two FW-190C fighters had already taken off, and the elevator on the flight deck also lifted one fighter after another from the fully enclosed hangar to the armored deck, and in a short time, thirty-eight FW-190Cs took off from the Frederick the Great. At the same time, the other three "Great"-class aircraft carriers of the German-Italian combined fleet, the Charlemagne, Wilhelm the Great, and the Otto the Great, each had 38 FW-190Cs on board, and the other six medium aircraft carriers each released 20 FW-190C fighters. A total of 272 of the best fighters of this era, under the radar command of surface ships, roared towards the American fleet that was still 60 kilometers away.

However, what happened next was a little unexpected, according to the news sent back by the fighter pilots in front of them on the radio, the air raids that day were all fighters, there were about 120 P-39s, about 100 P-38s, and about 80 F4 fighters of the US Navy, but not a single bomber! These Yankees came all the way to play air combat with German pilots.

Since the American planes did not try to approach the German fleet, which had long been in a position of air defense formation on the sea, the entire air battle was simply carried out at a visual distance of Liver Fu and others, and he and Field Marshal Lefehr, Admiral Karlov and others only learned some about the situation of the air battle through the report of the fleet's communications staff The fierce battle lasted for about an hour, and finally Marshal Raeder announced in a high-pitched voice that the victory in the air battle belonged to Germany! According to him, more than 180 American planes were shot down, the rest fled, while the German aircraft suffered losses of only a mere 21.

However, when the Frederick the Great began to retract the plane, Kengoro Hitofu was surprised to find that only 28 FW-190C fighters had returned. That is, 10 FW-190Cs were shot down in the air battle just now, and if you take this "Emperor" class aircraft carrier as a unit, the loss rate is as high as 26%. It is clear that this time the Germans must have suffered a loss, they hid their losses, and the Americans already had fighters that could fight the FW-190!

"It seems unlikely that the Germans will end the history of the United States of America in 6 months! In this way, Japan's national glory will not last long. When he left the aircraft carrier Frederick the Great and boarded the speedboat, he didn't know what was going on in his heart, and suddenly he began to feel a sense of loss. If the United States and Germany were to a draw, the fate of Japan's demise would be ironclad! And what about the North Korean spy who has been lurking in the enemy camp for more than ten years? Where should Japan go after its demise?

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