Kiel military port.

The sound of the military music of "March to England" reverberated over the entire military port.

The surface ships in Kiel Harbour are all covered with signal flags, and it looks as if they are covered in colorful flags from beginning to end. The moment the flagship Bismarck sounded the whistle, the salute sounded, and Bismarck's iron anchor was pulled out of the sea with the rumbling cannon.

Countless onlookers on the shore waved their hats and cheered loudly to see the fleet off the harbor.

In the crowd, there were quite a few submariners, and one of them a group of submarine officers gathered in front of the military house next to the pier, drinking and watching the fleet leave the port.

The officer at the head of the group still had a fixing plate on his arm, which was the "medal" left to him by the recent brawl at the Kiel Military Club. Because of the bandage hanging from his right arm, his battle medal was changed to his left upper arm, and the gold medal showed that his submarine had sunk 400,000 tons of Allied ships - originally it was stipulated that 500,000 tons could wear gold, but later the German Navy found that most of the captains had almost reached the upper limit of the number of combat cruises when they sank 400,000 tons, and according to Lin Youde's personnel rotation rules, they had to be transferred to land to serve as submarine instructors and other duties, so the Navy changed the gold medal to 400,000 tons to be awarded.

The captain with the gold medal also had only three combat cruises left, and he made a bet with several captains who also had gold medals on who would be able to make another silver medal (100,000 sunks) before the end of his combat career. But this plan was disrupted by that brawl, and almost all four captains who had bet on it were hung up and could not go to sea.

So now when the captain looks at the surface ship unit that is going to sea, the smile on his face is full of sarcasm.

"Such a high-profile voyage, I don't know how many tons of oil were burned at once, and if there is no result in the end, hum, now they may not even have the face to fight with us."

"When the time comes, we will put up a sign at the entrance of the officers' club: surface ship units and dogs are not allowed, hahahaha."

The submariners all laughed, and at this time the sling man scolded sharply: "You have to respect the brother troops, maybe they can come back this time." It's a comrade, and you can't make such a joke. ”

He paused and added: "Of course, if they want to fight again, we will accompany them, and if they don't fight, we are still comrades." ”

There are not a few surface ship officers who were sent to the hospital last time, and the submarine officers are too idle to patrol the sea, and they basically take pleasure in exercising their muscles ♂, and now the supplies brought by the German submarine are all high-calorie supplies made up by Lin Youde, so although the submarine officers are short, they are all very strong, just like the dwarves in fantasy novels.

"I directly unloaded the chin of a surface ship Kaizi with an uppercut," the sling man said triumphantly, "He wants a fiancée or something, and after I repair this punch, the girl will definitely not want him, what a poor fellow." ”

As the words fell, the submariners let out rough laughter.

The death rate of the submarine force is actually not low, and the veterans are all tough guys who have brushed shoulders with death many times, and generally tough guys will be more rude, especially tough guys with low cultural level.

In this way, in full view, the flotilla consisting of the battleship Bismarck as the flagship, two battlecruisers and three pocket battleships left the Kiel military port.

In fact, the Eye of Odin had long been instructed to turn a blind eye to the enemy's intelligence transmission, so the information was transmitted to the British Admiralty very smoothly.

**

"It's a trap no matter how you look at it." Charlotte shook her head, "It doesn't make sense to send out the fleet now. Even if it is to appease the surface ship forces that have not been fighting, it is unreasonable. ”

"Why do you think it doesn't make sense to send out the fleet now?" Churchill asked meaningfully, "Do you think the end of the war is a foregone conclusion?" ”

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, if you were in Lin Youde's position, would you send a fleet? Knowing that your own navy is a fragile egg compared to the enemy's navy, would you use this egg to throw stones? And in a situation where the superiority of the battlefield can be grasped without the need for a fleet sortie? ”

"Perhaps they were trying to break into the Mediterranean," Churchill said, "and Gibraltar had been blown up, the runway was littered with rubble, the machinery on the harbor had been smashed to pieces, and more than half of its functions as a military port had been paralyzed, and the enemy was probably intending to take advantage of the opportunity to break into the Mediterranean." ”

"Would they be so stupid?" Charlotte said, turning her head to look at the deputy commander of the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Fleet, who was sitting on the flagship.

The deputy commander immediately said: "Our Task Force 58 is patrolling the Atlantic, and it has fifteen fleet aircraft carriers, twenty-seven escort carriers, and seven high-speed battleships, which is enough to destroy any hostile naval unit that dares to set foot in the Atlantic." ”

(That's right, this is also called the Golden Destroyer Fleet, and the other time and space wiped out almost the entire Japanese Navy)

"Very well, let the 58th task force go north at once." Charlotte ordered loudly.

That's when Churchill said, "No! No! Miss President. ”

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, this is not ......"

"The Royal Navy can cope with this." Churchill said categorically, "Miss President, this may be the last chance for the Royal Navy to preserve its glory." ”

Churchill's words made several Royal Admirals present have sentimental expressions on their faces, and they all knew that after this great war, I am afraid that the Royal Navy will no longer be able to maintain such a large fleet as it is now.

In fact, after the end of the last war, the Royal Navy was already very struggling, and the speed of warship renewal was not as fast as that of the United States of America on the other side of the sea.

If this continues, if this war is stopped like this, the Royal Navy may not only be unable to catch up with the US Navy, but will also be distanced by the German Navy with a technological gap.

The fleet that once roamed the seven seas may never be able to regain its glory.

Charlotte stared at Churchill and shook her head after a moment: "It's not that I don't understand your feelings, but it's very incomprehensible to play with feelings in war." However, without the Luftwaffe intervening, the Royal Navy probably still has a way to deal with this German fleet, and I will send you a personal favor, Your Excellency. Task Force 58 will be on standby in the Atlantic, with the Royal Navy taking on the German fleet, and if you are defeated, we will intervene to prevent the Germans from entering the Atlantic. ”

"Thank you very much for your understanding." Churchill couldn't help but pout after saying this, the dignified British Empire is now mixed up to the point where it has to get the permission of the United States of America to fight one-on-one with the enemy, and any old British gentleman probably can't stand it.

**

Lancelot? Lieutenant Colonel Holland was drinking black tea on the bridge of his flagship Prestige, when the herald suddenly entered the bridge and reported loudly: "Call from the Admiralty! ”

"Read."

"The German battleship Bismarck, the Scharnhorst, the battlecruiser Gneisenau, the Deutschland, the Grafsby, the pocket battleship Admiral Schell, a total of six battleships, escorted by 11 destroyers, have left the Skagerrak Strait and are heading for the Danish Strait. The telegram orders your unit to immediately end its existing mission and advance towards the Danish Strait, along which all Royal Navy ships will join your unit, under your unified command, and must annihilate the German forces in the Danish Strait. ”

Lancelot? Vice Admiral Holland frowned, his fleet was now on escort duty, only the Prestige had six heavy guns, and the remaining two cruisers only had eight-inch guns and torpedoes available, and it would be very difficult to deal with the string of German battleships mentioned in the telegram just now.

But the Royal Navy's tradition of fighting when the enemy is seen is deeply ingrained.

The so-called century-old navy actually refers to this naval tradition. In World War II, in another time and space, the Netherlands was no longer one of the great powers, and neither the navy nor the army could be compared with the contemporary powers. However, the small colonial fleet of the Dutch Navy showed unparalleled bravery in the face of the powerful Japanese Navy, which is the embodiment of the Dutch Navy's 200-year naval tradition.

At that time, the commander of the Dutch Navy's colonial fleet was sitting on the light cruiser Druith, and when the Allied High Command of the Dutch East Indies decided to retreat generally, the Dutch Navy Karel? Rear Admiral Dorman decided to lead the fleet to stay behind and fight to the last moment with the officers and men of the army who could not retreat away.

In the absence of air support, Karel led a weak fleet and fought fiercely for a whole day with the heavy cruisers of the Japanese Fifth Squadron and the light cruisers and destroyers of the Fourth and Second Mine Squadrons, forcing the Japanese convoy to change its plans frequently. In the end, Karel ordered the flagship "Druid", which had run out of ammunition, to launch a decisive assault on the Myoko, shouting that he would sink Yoshino Oh no Myoko, and die honorably in battle.

This is the naval tradition of the old naval powers, their naval goal is to protect the colonies, the so-called enemy must fight the fundamental reason is that if you do not fight, the colonies will be lost, and the colonists and land forces on the colonies will suffer, and they must use their bodies to block the enemy's fleet no matter what.

This is a naval tradition that few in the navies of emerging countries have. The weak Dutch fleet would be able to maneuver and fight flexibly when it was abandoned by the general headquarters, and the powerful Japanese fleet would be jumped; In contrast, the Japanese naval fleet rarely had this kind of initiative, and after the Nagumo air raid on Pearl Harbor, after two rounds of bombing, it resolutely decided to run away, despite the fact that a bunch of pilots thought that the damage was not enough to demand the bombing of the third wave.

Later, at Midway, when Nagumo was sure that the US military had aircraft carriers, his carrier-based aircraft had only been replaced by one-third of the ammunition, and two-thirds of the torpedo planes were carrying torpedoes, and the Zero Combat used to escort the ship was not ready, but more than a dozen of the Zero Battles used for direct cover by the fleet were almost full, and there was no problem with following the attack aircraft fleet to escort the ship, but Nanyun changed the ammunition back according to the dogmatic requirements, and the covering Zero Battle was ready, and the result was unlucky.

After changing the admirals of the old colonial countries, they already rushed up with red eyes when they saw the enemy's fleet, and they ****** how quickly they did it. You must know that when the British admiral was in the Indian Ocean, under such a huge disparity in power, he still wanted to use the torpedo planes of Fleet A to carry out a night attack on the mobile unit of Nagumo, that kind of high fighting spirit and the initiative of the commander compared to the Japanese Navy I don't know where it is stronger - by the way, the U.S. Navy also inherited the tradition of the Royal Navy back then, and the U.S. Navy, which had not yet been formed during the Revolutionary War, was actually much more dazzling than the Continental Army, which could only hug the thighs of the French father, a small sailing ship with 18 guns, I dare to go to the coast of England to make a time, but I can't do it. Later, the French Navy also paid tribute to the American plundering ships with the same courtesy as the navies of the great powers, which was the first glorious moment of the American Navy.

And now, too, Holland's belief that he must fight when he sees the enemy burns in his mind, and the blood of the Royal Navy, which has been handed down from Nelson's time, boils in his veins.

"Come on, hang the Z battle flag, give orders to all ships, England requires everyone to fulfill their duties."