On the ninth day of the siege, the anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns of the fortress of Gibraltar had completely lost their role in blocking the German air force, and the airfield in front of the fortress became potholed and completely unusable, and the only use was probably to provide some cover for the Axis troops who came to attack, and from the eleventh day, the planes of the aircraft carriers of the H fleet began to sortie, but this was not good news, which meant that the H fleet had felt that the fortress was in danger. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

The Italian fleet stopped near Parma and seemed to be waiting for something, maybe the loss of the fortress, maybe the initiative of the H fleet, who knows. But with this fleet in sight, the H fleet is no longer able to move.

Mitchell's mind was already a little confused, and his ability to judge rapidly was rapidly reduced by the lack of sleep for a long time. He felt his eyelids protest constantly, and he really needed to rest.

"Your Excellency, General! Your Excellency General!! A non-commissioned officer walked in, and he called for a while to bring Mitchell back to his senses, and he looked at the non-commissioned officer and said, "Is there something wrong?" Is it the enemy army that has begun to attack? ”

The non-commissioned officer hurriedly said, "No, Your Excellency General, it's reinforcements!" London is sending reinforcements!! ”

When Mitchell heard the reinforcements, he was suddenly clever, and he hurriedly took the telegram, only to see that it said that London would send a main fleet to support him in the near future, and asked him to hold on to the end.

Mitchell laughed and said, "Great! That's great!! Reinforcements are coming, reinforcements are coming!! After saying that, he collapsed on the chair next to him, and the non-commissioned officer hurriedly hugged him, only to find that he was snoring slowly and fell asleep. The non-commissioned officer smiled slightly, called in a few soldiers to help put Mitchell on the bed, saluted him, and turned to leave.

In England, a huge fleet set off in the dark, and Churchill watched from the harbor as the fleet slowly disappeared into the night, puffing on his pipe and praying in his heart.

Outside the military port, there was a special submarine that could only fit one person, and slowly lowered its periscope.

-- Berlin

"Führer, emergency!" Erich Raeder walked into Hitler's office and said, "My Führer, I have just received the news that the British army has been dispatched!" It was the main forces, five battleships alone were dispatched, and another six aircraft carriers. ”

When Britain started the war, its naval strength was tied for the first place with the United States, including 4 large ships, 12 battleships, 2 light aircraft carriers, and 3 battle cruisers.

But after the start of the war, Britain immediately increased the construction of aircraft carriers, firstly, because the construction time of battleships is too long, and it is too expensive, and secondly, it is also for escort considerations, the escort range of aircraft carriers is much wider than that of battleships, first of all, the large fleet aircraft carriers that were already under construction: Brilliance, Victory, Dreadworthy, and Indomitable were built in turn, and they were equipped with many escort aircraft carriers and light aircraft carriers converted from merchant ships, oil tankers or scrapped warships, and once again used old ships such as the Hundred-Eyed Giant, which had been ready to be lost, At this time, there were more than a dozen aircraft carriers, large and small, not including the already sunken Brave and Glorious, so Britain's dispatch of six aircraft carriers was actually not much at all.

Hitler heard the joy and said, "If you say this, the British have taken the bait?" What kind of ships are they? ”

Raeder nodded and said, "It's not clear exactly what kind of ship it is, because they set off in the dark, our intelligence officers can't see clearly, but judging from the silhouette, there are so many large ships." ”

Hitler nodded and said, "Well, then go according to the plan, and I'll get Goering to do your job." Where is our ship now? ”

Raeder walked over to the map, took his baton and said, "Here!" Probably tonight we will reach the port of Brest. It's ready over there. ”

Hitler waved his arms for joy and said, "The time is just right, this must be God blessing something, so what should we hesitate about, let's fight!" ”

Raeder stood straight and saluted, saying, "The Navy will definitely work a miracle for the Führer." ”

Raeder returned to the Admiralty as fast as he could, and one after another orders were transmitted along the airwaves, and the two huge ships that had just stopped to replenish set sail again, this time, they were no longer two sisters, but a large fleet.

On the other side of the sea, a large fleet of dozens of ships, large and small, was marching in the night, and its flagship was the battleship Nelson, the commander of Admiral John Tovey.

John Tovey was nearly sixty years old at this time, he was born in a military family, he was tough and tenacious, he commanded the Mediterranean Fleet at the beginning of the war and received a lot of merit in the battle against the Italian Navy, although the mission was to rescue the Strait of Gibraltar and the H Fleet, but he intuitively felt that the Axis must have other plots, so he tried his best to dispatch five battleships, George V, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, Nelson, and the Revenge, and dispatched two large aircraft carriers, the Victory and the Dreadsome. The light aircraft carrier Unicorn, the Athletic God and the Hundred-Eyed Giant, two old modified aircraft carriers, as well as nearly 20 destroyers heavy and light, as well as troop carriers and cargo ships.

John Tovey's idea was simple, since the Axis powers might have a conspiracy, then use absolute strength to defeat the conspiracy! If the Germans send their main navy, then they can just send them into the water, and then they can use the aircraft carrier to transfer and continue to support the direction of Gibraltar.

"Your Excellency, it will be dawn soon, we have now crossed the Celtic Sea, and we are about to enter the Cantabrian Sea, so go and rest quickly." John Tovey's lieutenant said to him.

John Tovey shook his head and said, "I always have a bad feeling when I send a reconnaissance plane to patrol within a hundred nautical miles around us as soon as it gets daybreak. ”

Johann Tovey's fleet was less than twenty knots in order to take care of the slower ships, and their specific route was to circumnavigate the waters around France and Spain in an arc in order to avoid possible danger and to minimize possible interference from German land navigation.

After dawn, the reconnaissance plane patrolled around, but did not find any suspicious ships, John Tovey couldn't help but feel a little strange, is it really too sensitive?

None of the reconnaissance planes found it, let alone the radar, at this time the British ship radar could only detect a distance of more than 20 kilometers, but when it reached that position, it was almost ready to open fire.

On 27 April, John Tovey's fleet crossed the Cantabrian Sea and was about to reach the waters off Portugal.

John Tovey touched his chin and thought suspiciously, "Is it really that I am suspicious, and the Axis powers never thought of facing themselves on the sea?" ”

At night, the fleet began to turn to the east, preparing to reach the Strait of Gibraltar diagonally.

Because there is no intelligence support, yes, the British fleet has not received the information that the German-French combined fleet has been attacking for a long time, and what John Tovey does not know is that the German Admiralty judged that no matter what the route of the British fleet was, the ultimate goal was the Strait of Gibraltar, so it only needed to monitor the waters around Portugal and Spain to find each other, although Dönitz was a submarine faction, and he used submarines to sink more than two million tons of materials since the start of the war, but he knew better that submarines could win the battle, In history, Hitler believed that the surface fleet was not worth keeping after the defeat in the Battle of the Barents Sea, and demanded the dismantling of all fleets, but it was Dönitz who persuaded Hitler to keep the fleet, at this time, he was naturally willing to work for the overall interests of the navy, of course, he also received a guarantee from Raeder that he would no longer attack the submariners.

At this time, there were more than 300 German submarines, including more than 100 Seawolf submarines, and Dönitz sent hundreds of submarines to ambush in the vast sea area west of Portugal and Spain, waiting for the appearance of the British fleet, and most of them were wave submarines.

John Tovey's vigilance only hurt him, and the endless aerial surveillance caused Dönitz's submarine forces to discover the existence of Johann Tovey's fleet early, and Dönitz immediately passed the news to the commander of the mixed fleet, Admiral Gonther Lütjans, whose flagship was the Bismarck. Lütjans, who was a member of the navy during the First World War, was looking forward to leading the German Navy to glory, and when he got the information from Dönitz, he immediately asked Dönitz to slowly shrink the submarine, and he wanted to decide the outcome of the war!

At 7:42 a.m. on 27 April, John Tovey's reconnaissance plane suddenly discovered that a huge fleet had appeared in the northwest less than 90 nautical miles away from the fleet, and there were flags of Vichy France and Nazi Germany in the fleet. ”

Many people think that the German Navy did not have a single aircraft in World War II, which is both true and wrong, the German Navy does not have aircraft carriers and a large number of carrier-based aircraft, but Goering is still extremely "generous" to leave the Navy a small number of seaplanes and long-range reconnaissance aircraft, but these planes can really only be reconnoitred, and the fish they carry may only be useful when encountering lone merchant ships.

On the other side, Goering, who was having breakfast, couldn't help but smile when he heard the news that the navy asked for air force support, he took a bite of bread and said, "Don't worry, our air force is not a slave of the navy, let's wait for the British plane to come and then call outside to join the war." ”

Opposite him was a Chinese, who listened to Goering's words, smiled slightly and said, "Marshal Goering, in addition to asking me to give you a gift, our host has another sentence for me to help convey to you." ”

Goering wiped his hands and said, "Jiang is too polite, you said that if you don't agree with this word, you have to change the character of giving gifts, you come to me for breakfast every day this week, my wife is about to have an opinion, say, what are you saying?" ”

Chen Nan smiled slightly and said, "Our host said that if the sea battle is won, everything will be fine, and if it fails, the navy will definitely put the blame on you, and then the problem of the Zeppelin will probably no longer be able to be stopped." ”

Goering was stunned for a moment, he looked at Chen Nan, and touched his beard with a serious expression, Jiang Cheng was not surprised that he could know the news of the naval battle, after all, Dönitz and his relationship with the German upper echelons knew it, and the meaning of Jiang Cheng's words made him constantly savor, yes, if the naval battle is won, then it means that the navy has no planes, if it fails, then the navy will definitely shirk the responsibility, and their own air force support will definitely become the direction they shirk, and the Führer will agree to the construction of the Zeppelin, After all, Germany now has no aircraft carriers among the major countries.

After Goering figured it out, he laughed and said, "Look at Jiang, it's worthy of being my good friend, so let's do it, you can pick three of my paintings at home, take whatever you want, I still have some things, so I won't entertain you." ”

Chen Nan immediately stood up and bowed and said, "Thank you for your hospitality, on behalf of my host, thank you for your generosity." ”

Goering nodded with satisfaction and left, Chen Nan looked at Goering's back, snorted softly, and then began to pick out the painting under the leadership of the guards.

John Tovey also got the news that there was a large fleet near him at this time, and he let out a long breath, he should have come, and he looked at the photo of the reconnaissance plane, and his face suddenly did not look good.

"Looking at the photos, the other side seems to have four main battleships, which are very strong." John Tovey thought for a while and said, "But the German Navy has a weakness, that is, there are no aircraft carriers, order the aircraft carriers of the Athletic God and the Unicorn to make a tentative attack, order the George V, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, and the Nelson to come out to form a formation, and the rest of the heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers are grouped into seven pairs according to Plan C, of which the first and third squads are preparing to attack with us, and the Revenge leads the other ships to break through to Gibraltar, and the Victory, Dreadnought, Athletic, The Unicorn stays fifteen nautical miles away from us and provides support at sea! ”

The fleet was immediately divided into three regiments, and it took almost an hour to complete the whole formation, by which time the distance between the two armies had been reduced to sixty nautical miles, and the first British air raid began.

The German fleet was more than 200 kilometers away from land at this time, and the maximum range of the air force aircraft Baizu that came to support was only 810 kilometers, which made the aircraft stay in the air for a short time, let alone take the initiative to attack the British Navy, and the German army did not have an aircraft specially designed for naval warfare, and the pilots had little experience in throwing torpedoes, so although Goering was determined to help, it was only to protect the safety of the mixed fleet.