At the end of the French campaign, the Germans were already preparing for a possible fire between the British and French navies.

And when the British envoy and even the British prime minister personally came to persuade Darlan to make a choice, the preparations of the German side were also quietly carried out behind the scenes

On 3 June, when the French declared Paris an undefended city, the German troops, who were advancing at high speed on the front line, received an order: to occupy the French airfield, and after capturing the French planes, they should repair and maintain them as much as they could for other purposes.

At the same time, the personnel of the prisoner of war management office on the German front, who were also instructed by their superiors, to give "special treatment" to the pilots of the captured French Air Force. The day after the armistice was signed between Germany and France, Darlang, who was in Dakar, North Africa, received a gift from the Germans.

The German side decided to transfer sixty fighters and corresponding pilots to the French Navy stationed in North Africa.

The pilots and planes were captured by the Germans, and the pilots were French pilots captured during the French campaign. All they had to do was sign a pledge that they would not fight the Germans again and join the French Navy in order to be released.

As for the planes transferred to the French, for the capture of the Germans on French territory and the harvest of the broken fleet in the Atlantic. Most of them were MB152 and P40 fighters, as well as a small number of bombers.

The fleet has been transferred to Darrang, in North Africa, although it is unknown. What the White Germans did with a sudden gift, but he would never object to the build-up of the Navy.

The German envoy who dealt with Darlan bluntly warned Darlan that the gift was for the protection of the French navy, as the British could launch a sneak attack on the French fleet at any time. For Hannah, the defeat of the French navy by the British was a result she would like to see, but she did not want the British to win too easily. So he took the initiative to release 60 French pilots and send a batch of planes to improve the air power of the French in North Africa. Before the surrender of France. Since almost all of the air force was transferred to the home war, the French air force in North Africa was almost empty at this time, and after obtaining these planes and pilots, at least the French navy was at least able to resist the surprise attack of the British warship.

Darlan was unimpressed by the Germans' "warnings", believing that it was just a trick played by the Germans to drive a wedge between Britain and France, but he accepted the planes and flights that were sent to his door. And all these planes were arranged near the port. Only a very small number of these returned French pilots were allowed to continue to fly for safety reasons, and most of them were temporarily detained for review.

After the surrender of France, the remaining French air force also fell apart, and some pilots were lured by the British to leave France for Britain to participate in the Free French Air Force organized in Britain by the fallen Renault government. Some of the pilots fled to North Africa to join Darlang. The planes, which were handed over by the captured pilots of the Germans Tongguò, are now largely flown by these pilots.

In the historical operation of the catapult, the British Navy launched the operation on July 3, less than half a month after the surrender of France. But this location. Since the Royal Navy had been almost completely wiped out by the Germans before the Battle of France, it could not have been as domineering as it has been in history. The weak British Navy, for the sake of future interests and in order to win over the French Navy to join it, had to carry out persuasion operations against the French Navy more patiently.

Negotiations continued until July 10, when the British ran out of patience. Seeing that Darlang was inexhaustible, Churchill finally made a killing move at this time and decided to launch the long-planned catapult operation. In one fell swoop, the French Navy was able to eliminate the troubles.

On Churchill's orders, Cunningham, the defeated general of the Battle of Bergen, ended the review. He became the Supreme Commander of the British Fleet to carry out this order.

The operation against the French Navy, code-named Operation Catapult, was as it was historically called.

After deliberation, the Royal Navy set the date for the attack on the French Navy on 25 July, a full 22 days later than in history.

The main reason for this delay is that the Royal Navy is waiting for the launch of the second aircraft carrier into service.

Armored aircraft carrier USS Dreadnought. He was the second ship of the Tejas class aircraft carrier, which was historically completed in November 1940. As for this face, due to the influence of the Norwegian naval battle, the British accelerated his construction after January 1940. By July 1940, the aircraft carrier was nearing completion.

When Churchill decided to launch Operation Catapult. The completion rate of this aircraft carrier has reached 98 percent, and according to the construction schedule, it will not be completed until September, but Churchill no longer wants to wait, before the French surrender, he issued an order to speed up the progress of the ship, and the final "finishing works" will be completed first, and then directly order the navy to receive the ship and prepare for battle.

Unlike in history, when the British Navy was blocked outside the French Navy's harbor and repeatedly issued ultimatums asking the other side if they were willing to join and did not agree to fight again, this time the British Navy's actions in the "catapult" operation were extremely obscene.

From the very beginning, the Royal Navy did not intend to give the French another chance. Both Cunningham and Churchill are ready to replicate the Oslo miracle one more time. Directly use the night to launch a torpedo machine sneak attack, destroying the French Navy in the harbor.

In order for the aircraft carrier Dreadnought to be commissioned as soon as possible, from June, its construction mother, Harlan. The British workers at the Wolf shipyard began to work in three consecutive shifts day and night.

In Harran. Next to the Wolf shipyard, there is a bar called the Black Forest, where the workers of the shipyard come here every day after work for a drink.

After the start of the war in Europe, as Britain entered the wartime economy, the supply of goods on the market began to be rationed, and the things that could be sold in shops and bars began to become less and less.

After February 1940, as the Royal Navy was almost wiped out in three naval battles, the British overseas supply chain was almost cut off by the German Navy, so that a large number of shops and bars in Britain were forced to close due to lack of goods.

But this bar, called the Black Forest, is an exception.

The owner of the bar, Fleck, is an immigrant from the Netherlands, who is good at dancing with long sleeves, and always has various means to get all kinds of scarce materials in the market to resell, so the bar can still be opened today, but the price of alcohol or food sold is several times higher than before the war.

Old Wood was a senior welder at Wolfe Shipyard. On July 10, he worked for eleven hours in one breath and finally completed the final welding task. After seven o'clock in the evening, Old Wood walked out of the shipyard gate exhausted and habitually came to the Black Forest pub.

Seeing Old Wood walk into the bar, Fleck, the owner, yelled, "Hey. Old man, I haven't seen you in two weeks, and it looks like you're tired! ”

As he spoke, Fleck took a Dutch gin from the counter and poured one for Old Wood.

"I asked you for this cup."

"From the Netherlands?"

Old Wood glanced at the bottle, said nothing, picked up the full gin and drank it down. Having a drink after work is a common practice in the UK.

Old Wood and Fleck were well acquainted, and he knew that he was Dutch, having emigrated to England ten years ago. Opened this bar. Fleck has some connections in the Netherlands and has a boat of his own. After the outbreak of the war, he used his ship to carry out some shady smuggling activities between the Netherlands and the British, and smuggled many sought-after goods into the black market for resale. Although it was illegal in times of war, Old Wood knew about it, but he would not have been too bitter to report it.

Although Fleck was a smuggler and profiteer, he was also a patriot, not long ago during the Battle of Dunkirk. He used his boat to bring back a boatload of British soldiers from the shores of Dunkirk, for which he was officially rewarded.

"Why haven't I seen you all this time? Other people in the shipyard rarely come over these half months. ”

Old Wood complained, "Overtime. Working overtime, working overtime, eating and sleeping in the shipyard, I was almost exhausted. ”

As a senior welder, Lao Wu earns a lot of money, and the shipyard treats senior technicians like him very well. Even during the war, Old Wood's family had an upper-middle standard of living among the British, so they had "spare money" to have a drink in the pub.

Fleck asked with concern, "Or the flat-topped boat?" Fearful? ”

"Hmmm! It's that guy. ”

Fleck asked with concern, "Do you have to work overtime tomorrow?" ”

Old Wood said: "No, you can rest for a few days, and you are frantically going back to work these days." In order to allow the Navy to receive this ship as soon as possible, the work that should be done is almost done today. ”

Old Wood drank his wine, licked his lips, nodded in satisfaction, and said to Fleck, "This wine is good, two more glasses." ”

Fleck smiled: "There is a fee for refills, two shillings for a glass!" ”

Old Wood exclaimed, "It's so expensive! ”

"There is no way, this year's brewing industry is basically over, and it has been repurposed for other purposes. I got this wine from the Netherlands, and it's not easy to walk on this road, you know. ”

Fleck poured a full bottle of wine for the other party and said, "But you and I have been friends for many years, this wine, buy one get one free, charge you a cost price." ”

"A fool would believe you."

Old Wood snorted, picked up his glass and drank it again, and the two continued to talk while drinking. At this time, the number of customers in the bar gradually increased, and most of them were shipyard workers. In the past half month, due to the long-term continuous overtime work of the shipyard, the workers have eaten and lived in the factory, so that the business of this bar, which mainly customers of the shipyard workers, has been much colder.

Four days ago, however, business at the Black Forest pub had suddenly picked up, and a group of officers from the Royal Navy had frequented the area. Fleck, who has a keen sense of smell, quickly detected an abnormality in it.

Old Wood drank two-thirds of the bottle of gin on an empty stomach, and the strength of the wine quickly came up. Seduced by Fleck, he began to talk about what he had been doing in the past few days.

"That ship, in fact, is not fully completed, but the Navy is in a hurry to get it. I guess there will be any action in the near future, and after a while, he will drive back to work. ”

"Oh! I guess it's to escort the fleet, now the Atlantic Ocean is full of German submarines, and supplies are getting tighter"

Fleck gestured to the drink that the waiter next to him brought to a table, then shook his head.

"Margarine, margarine, and margarine are mostly this kind of man-made stuff in my store right now, what a fucking bastard, this damn war really has no end."

Old Wood shook his head and said, "It shouldn't be for the ship." Those who receive warships today, there is a vice admiral Oh, this is classified, I can't say more. ”

Old Wood burped, realizing that he seemed to have said something he couldn't say, and urgently shut his mouth.

Fleck smiled. Then he took out a bottle of wine from under the counter and smiled at him:

"Twenty years of Scotch whisky! Would you like to try it, a pound a cup! ”

"Bastard, why don't you rob it?"

"Joke, count me on you!"

Half an hour later, drunken Old Wood was helped by the waiter, put into a called taxi and sent home.

The bar owner then entrusted the business to his subordinates and flagged a taxi himself.

Like Lady Marigie, who was with Vivien Leigh. Fleck's other identity was also a spy for the German Gestapo, and he had been in hiding in England for more than a decade.

Twenty-four hours later, this precious piece of information about the aircraft carrier Dreadnought, sent by Feleck, was placed on Führer Hitler's desk. Based on information from other sources, Hannah has confirmed that the British Navy will take action against the French Navy in the near future.

On July 20, when the Royal Navy received the incompletely completed aircraft carrier Dreadnought ahead of schedule, it was ready to prepare for an attack on the French Navy. The German Atlantic Raiding Fleet, stationed in Oslo, also made a large number of sorties on this day. Departure into the Norwegian Sea.

In this sortie, the German Navy planned to send two aircraft carriers, two battleships, plus six air defense cruisers into the Atlantic to fight. During the French campaign in May, the main ships of the German Navy basically returned to port for maintenance after the Battle of Dunkirk. After more than a month of maintenance and repair, both personnel and ships are in the best condition.

In this sortie, the German navy continued to take the waterway between the Faroe Islands and Iceland. After the Third Battle of the Norwegian Sea, the German Navy took advantage of the victory to conquer the Faroe Islands, where a naval aviation base was established in recent months. This provided a better springboard into the Atlantic Ocean, and no longer had to take a detour through the Danish Channel.

During the refurbishment, the German Navy also received a batch of carrier-based fighter-bombers of the FW190T type, which were used to replace the older JU87 bombers. Originally, Hannah wanted to replace all the fighters and bombing on all aircraft carriers with FW190s, except for torpedo planes. However, since the FW190 is a new product, its flight envelope is very different from the HE112, for the sake of conservative thinking, as well as the problem of pilot adaptability, for the time being, the JU87 Stuka bomber in the fleet will be replaced.

Historically, the FW190 did not officially equip the Luftwaffe until June 1941, but in this era, due to the more support received by Tanck in the development of the air-cooled engine fighter, and the early foundation of the FW90, this fighter was finally equipped with the troops nearly a year earlier than the same period in history.

According to the combat plan formulated by the German Navy, this huge German fleet will enter the Atlantic Ocean in the name of "breaking diplomatic relations." But in fact, it was a few preparations.

According to the plan, the attack fleet will take the waterway between the Faroe Islands and Iceland into the Atlantic, and then its next move will depend on the choice of the British Navy.

If the British Navy insisted on carrying out Operation Catapult, attack the French Navy anchored in North Africa. The attacking fleet would follow and intercept the French Navy on its way back to England, sinking it on the way back to England.

If the British abandon their plan of action to attack the French fleet and enter the Atlantic to escort the British ships in the Atlantic, then the attacking fleet will fight a long-range aircraft carrier duel with them in the Atlantic. Relying on the advantage of having the soul of the ship to find the enemy first, the British fleet that dared to attack was wiped out in one battle in the Atlantic.

If the British Navy refuses to go to war and does not carry out the plan of a surprise attack on the French Navy, then the German Navy will once again engage in a diplomatic break-up operation in the Atlantic. After the end of the Third Norwegian Naval War, the German surface fleet, which was in poor condition at the time, broke diplomatic relations in the Atlantic, which lasted less than 20 days, and the British Isles' overseas material imports shrank by 70% that month. If it hadn't been for the forced insertion of the U.S. Navy later, the British would almost have been unable to hold on.

This sortie will be a repeat of the glory of the previous diplomatic break, and it is also a test, and Hannah also wants to use this trip to test the reaction of the Americans. 1940 was an election year in the United States, and Cactus Garner violated the tradition that the president of the United States could only be re-elected twice, and was preparing to run for a third re-election. There has been a lot of criticism in the United States about this.

Although Republican backers also demand that the United States participate in the war in Europe, the question of who will preside over it is a big question, and infighting exists in any country. The last time the U.S. Navy brazenly went down to conduct the entire course for the British fleet, which had already caused an uproar in the United States, Hannah also wanted to test the reaction of the U.S. Navy when the German surface fleet entered the Atlantic Ocean again.

In the last month. In Southeast Asia, the introduction of Japanese influence into the Malay Peninsula by the British has caused the United States to be wary of Japan in East Asia again. In the past two years, with the success of Li Huamei's undercover work in Japan, with her help, the strength of the Japanese Navy has recovered extremely quickly, and because of its "correct development direction", this year with the launch of several capital ships, it has become the biggest threat to the US Navy in the western Pacific.

After 1940. Two-thirds of the U.S. Navy's capital ships are located on the Atlantic side, and even the two newly launched North Carolina-class battleships are also deployed in the Atlantic. One of the consequences of this was a serious decline in the strength of the Pacific Fleet. And with the high-profile appearance of the battleship Yamato, the addition of three new aircraft carriers to the Japanese Navy, and the sale of four battleships to the British, the US Navy is now simply unable to suppress the Japanese Navy in the Western Pacific.

Last month, the Japanese Navy's Army and Air Force made a high-profile entry into Southeast Asia, when its fleet passed through the Philippine coast. The US Army, Navy, and Air Force stationed in the Philippines watched the Japanese march by with complete trepidation. When the news of his entry into the port of Singapore is transmitted back to the United States. It has caused an uproar in the United States.

At this juncture, Republicans in the United States jumped out and took out the US loans to Japan in the past few years to criticize Ghana's foreign policy, claiming that it was the Ghanaian president's foreign policy toward Japan that "fattened" the Japanese navy and turned it into the biggest enemy of US interests in Asia. Make Ghana so good that it is not a wolf.

If you can take care of the Atlantic, you can't take care of the Pacific Ocean, and if you want both, it is often very likely that both sides will not be able to grasp it.

In such a situation, does Cactus Ghana still have the courage to be in the absence of naval strength. It is very interesting to open another front in the Atlantic Ocean and play a two-ocean battle.

Although this terrible American warplane is powerful, it will take time to unleash. Judging from the current strength of the US Navy, it is difficult for them to support operations in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans for the time being.

Because of the infiltration of Japanese forces in Southeast Asia, it has caused a great wave in the United States. At present, there are also strange voices in the United States about the direction of US strategic expansion. Compared to the terrifying strength of the Old World, which was joined by the Soviet Union and Germany, Southeast Asia is clearly a soft persimmon.

At present, the Republican government in the United States, which is playing against the Democratic president of Ghana, is opposing such a radical adventurous act of Cactus Ghana, believing that its foreign policy is a huge military speculative adventure -- it wants both Asia and the old European continent, and its ambitions are too great and there are too many enemies, and it is really not worth it.

The world war is a game of chess, which affects the whole body,

Cactus Garner used to openly support Britain and sell four battleships to the British, whose main ships were wiped out, and the consequence was that the strength of the U.S. Navy declined in a short period of time.

The British, who cleverly lured the Japanese into the Malay Peninsula, "complicated" the problems of Southeast Asia in order to profit from them in the future. But one of the costs has been that Americans have to focus a considerable part of their efforts on Asia.

Both the British and the Americans need time, and even the powerful industrial hegemon of the United States, it will take time to turn the huge domestic productive forces into weapons.

After the end of the French campaign, whether or not the British launched Operation "Catapult", Hannah would drive the German Navy to carry out more fierce disruptive operations in the Atlantic, tightening the noose that had been put on the throat of the British.

The best way to prevent the Americans from getting involved in the war in Europe is to kick the British out of the war first. The months after the end of the French campaign were the weakest time for the British, and this was the best and last chance to kick the British out. (To be continued......)

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