PS: Thank you for the monthly ticket voted by the book friend "Brother Manwu", and ask for a recommendation vote ^_^ again

In this way, in less than half a year, the British Royal Navy lost a full 10 capital ships alone, and they were all irreparable permanent losses, such a rapid rate of loss, not to mention the British, even the United States, which has stronger shipbuilding capabilities, may not be able to bear it, and at this time, the British Admiralty received an urgent secret report from MI6 overseas personnel

"The 'Bismarck' and the 'Tirpitz' have been dispatched! They were sailing north, preparing to enter the Atlantic through the Danish Channel, accompanied by the heavy cruiser 'Prince Eugen')", the British Admiralty read the letter, bit his lower lip and fell silent, and only after a while gave the order to send the battlecruiser "Hood" and the battleship "Prince of Wales" to immediately sail to intercept the German fleet.

"Your Excellency, isn't that an 'old lady' and a 'little boy'?" , a rear admiral worried. The battlecruiser USS Hood has been in service for more than 20 years, although it has been refitted three times (one more than in history, mainly with enhanced horizontal armor and anti-aircraft firepower [all anti-aircraft machine guns have been replaced with small-caliber anti-aircraft guns, and the number has also increased from 16 to 32 guns. 】。 After all, the old hull is there, and some fundamental design flaws (Note 1) are difficult to make up, so it is no wonder that the rear admiral called her an "old lady". As for the battleship "Prince of Wales", due to the short service time. The crew had just completed their training and the commissioning of their weapons had just been completed, so it would not be an exaggeration to call him a "little boy," and the risk of having to face a fierce enemy stronger than his own in the first battle would undoubtedly increase further

The Minister of the Navy didn't know the problems of these two warships, and the British Royal Navy has always used the strong to attack the weak in history, and the strategy and tactics, and even the design ideas of the warships have also been formed around this point, but now they have to attack the strong with the weak, which is undoubtedly to use their own weaknesses to compete with the enemy's advantages, but where does he have any other choice?

Now the large fleet aircraft carriers of Britain have all been lost. And there were not many battleships left. Among them, the only one that can barely keep up with the speed of the German fleet is the latest "King George V class" battleship, this new type of battleship has only been completed in Britain so far, the first ship King George V was injured in many places in the Battle of Toulon Bay and is currently undergoing maintenance, and the only one that can be sent out immediately is the second "Prince of Wales". Plus the Hood, Britain's only battle cruiser at the moment. This is already all the capital ships sent by the British Royal Navy at once.

And as soon as the German fleet was allowed to pass through the Danish Strait. Britain's lifeline at sea is bound to be mortally threatened, unlike the threat of submarines, as soon as an enemy country's capital ship appears on the main route. The merchant ships of Britain and its allies could not pass at all, and not just the loss of some merchant ships, which was fatal enough for Britain, which relied on external imports for most of its resources. What's more, the British capital ships in this time and space suffered too great losses, and it was impossible to send capital ships to escort the merchant fleet as in history, only the escort fleet composed of light ships was anti-submarine, and once it encountered the German capital ships, there was basically only a dead end

Moreover, once they passed through the Danish Strait, the three German warships were "wide and leaping", as long as they used radar to avoid those large fleets that were stronger than themselves, they would be almost invincible, and you must know that the speed of these three warships was very fast. With the British Royal Navy's tradition of advocating offense, if there is an opportunity to extinguish the danger at the source, it will never wait passively, after all, the total number of light ships in the British Navy is still the first, and as long as the large German surface ships are prevented from entering the Atlantic, no matter how great the threat of submarine warfare is, it will not be fatal

However, the reason why the British Navy is in such a predicament is because there are too many capital ships lost in the previous series of battles, and the British Admiralty, who can't help but feel sad when he thinks of this, can only comfort the rear admiral, and at the same time comfort himself, "I hope that the 'old lady' is a fierce woman who can fight, and the little boy can grow up in battle." ”

In spite of this, reason prompted the British Admiralty Chancellor to give two other important orders, he demanded that the battleship King George V be immediately suspended for repair, and that the officers and men should immediately return to the ship ready for battle and await his orders at any time; The Duke of York, the third of the "King George V-class" battleships that was supposed to undergo a sea trial before entering service, entered service ahead of schedule and immediately resupplied according to the operational requirements, also waiting for his orders at any time; In addition, the battleship "Rodney", which is undergoing routine maintenance, is also required to suspend maintenance and prepare for war, the ship is the sister ship of the battleship Nelson that was sunk by China, with three 406mm caliber guns in three parts, and the defense is not inferior to the new King George V-class battleship, but the speed is too slow, so the German ship must be injured and affect the speed, and this old battleship can be useful.

In addition, the Minister of the Admiralty also managed to "squeeze" a number of cruisers and destroyers, and together with these three battleships formed a task force, in a sense, they were the main force that really annihilated the two German Bismarck-class battleships, and the role of the two previously sent was only to damage the German ships as much as possible to force them to return for repairs, so that the task force could intercept them on their way back.

However, the Admiral still wanted to keep the two capital ships as much as possible, so he specially ordered the two heavy cruisers and six destroyers operating in the vicinity to cooperate with them, so that the ratio of forces was 10:3, although the tonnage and firepower were still at a loss, but at least the hope of keeping the two capital ships and repelling the German fleet would be much greater

Note 1: On the one hand, because of the limitations of the design era, and on the other hand, because it was originally a battle cruiser, no matter how it was modified, the firepower and protection could not be compared with the real battleship, the Hood chose a 381mm caliber main gun that was not inferior to the battleship, so the defense power was naturally insufficient. Even the third modification that has been delayed in history has limited the strengthening of horizontal armor due to the increase in anti-aircraft artillery, and the average thickness has only increased to 50-100 mm, even in the face of the 381mm light bullets of the historical Bismarck-class battleships, and in the face of the new 381mm heavy bombs of the Bismarck-class battleships in this time and space, it is almost like paper paste (to be continued......