"Weakness?" Churchill's eyes flashed, he needed a victory too much, he needed a great victory too much to perpetuate the myth of the British Empire's undefeated. Hearing Lieutenant General Holland say this, he seemed to see the future, as if he had already stood on the monument of winning the war.

"After repeated research and discussion, I have confirmed that the German High Seas Fleet, although powerful, has a fatal weakness. Lieutenant General Holland looked Churchill in the eye and said, "This is also a fatal weakness that has been proven after our crushing defeat two days ago." ”

"Tell me about it!" Churchill was already a little impatient, he was eager to know what this weakness in Holland's mouth was, and if it could be successfully exploited, whether it was really possible to defeat the German High Seas Fleet in one fell swoop.

"Germany's aircraft carriers can't fight at night!" Holland didn't sell off, but said his thoughts very simply: "I asked the technicians on the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, and they all said that taking off naval fighters at night when the wind is high and the waves are suicidal, and this is still under the condition that our army uses a large number of two-seat fighters and bombers! In order to pursue performance, the German fighters are all piloted by one person, so the possibility that they can fight at night is even lower!"

"Go on!" Churchill seemed to have something in mind, but he was not a professional naval fleet commander after all, so he was going to listen to Vice Admiral Holland's opinion.

"And we can note that in the last two days of the planned mission of the generator, the losses of our army at night were basically sunk by three things, the first was mines, the second was submarines, and the third was large bombers. Vice Admiral Holland stretched out three fingers and said, "This shows a problem, that is, their navy and air force fighters are the same as ours! There is no way to make a sortie at night! Or even if they are reluctantly sorted, they are not capable of attacking!"

"Except for aircraft carriers with super daytime attack capabilities, the German naval fleet is full of small ships that cannot be put on the table, as long as our fleet rushes into the opponent's aircraft carrier fleet, it only takes half an hour, and I am sure to sink all the German ships!" Vice Admiral Holland said confidently at the end.

Indeed, if any battleship of the British Navy was allowed to rush into the formation of German naval ships, those crispy aircraft carriers and escort fleets with obviously insufficient artillery caliber would be just a piece of cake under the guns of the battleships.

In the British Navy's weapons catalog, there happens to be a kind of battleship that is famous for assaulting and bullying small boats, that is, the battle cruisers of the British Royal Navy. And at this moment the battlecruisers on the British mainland were the Hood and the Prestige, and if you add cruisers and destroyers of similar speed, you can definitely sink all the German naval fleets in two hours.

"It's not unthinkable about this approach, but there is a congenital defect in the whole plan. One admiral seemed to scoff at the plan: "The aircraft carriers occupy a considerable distance, and if nothing else, they will definitely find our fleet at a distance of at least 150 nautical miles, even if it is not enough to attack, but this distance is enough to escape." The Navy dispatched warships to escape from each other, and this kind of thing is not once or twice. ”

"This time it's different, their attention is on the English Channel, and our fleet will be able to get closer to the enemy!" Vice Admiral Holland said categorically: "And we can lurk in the coastal waters of our army in batches and slowly approach the German fleet! No matter how many of their reconnaissance planes there are, it is impossible for them to get close to our coastline at the risk of being shot down!"

"In addition, the Hurricane fighters have recently accumulated a certain number, and it is still certain that 30 German reconnaissance planes will be dispatched to expel the German reconnaissance planes off the coast, right?" Lieutenant General Holland asked, looking at several generals of the Air Force.

"If it is just to expel the reconnaissance planes of the German Navy, it should still be possible to concentrate the forces. An air force general glanced at Churchill and saw that Churchill nodded, before he replied: "But once this mission is carried out, then the only 35 Hurricane fighters in our army can only be concentrated near the coastline, and then the air defense over the entire British sky will be equivalent to being undefended." ”

During the day, using the cover of land-based aviation to quietly approach the target, suddenly appear at night to accelerate towards the German fleet, and destroy the German naval fleet in the state of night artillery battles, which the Germans are not good at. This plan - it works!

Churchill came to this conclusion immediately after a short period of thought. As long as the big trouble at sea can be solved in one go, then the remaining Dunkirk will be very easy to manage, even if 200,000 army troops are lost in Dunkirk, with the navy as a barrier, the Germans will not be able to cross the strait for a while.

Only this time the navy must gamble on the most elite warships to fight to the death, and the outcome is unpredictable, once the victory can beat Germany back to its original shape, once it loses, it will let itself collapse. This is the legendary battle of the British Empire!

He thought of this, so he nodded and gave a final blow to today's emergency meeting: "In this way, arrange for the main force of the fleet to go south! Wait near the English Channel! Then look for an opportunity to fight with a fleet consisting of the Hood, the Prestige, and three cruisers and six destroyers!"

He paused and then continued to give an order: "In order to confuse Germany, we will continue to evacuate the Dunkirk troops in the next few days! As bait for the German high seas fleet! In addition, the air force will dispatch elite troops and concentrate Hurricane fighters to ensure absolute safety in the air on the day of the operation!"

"Yes!" everyone stood upright and responded to Churchill.

"How sure are you?" After the meeting, Churchill left Lieutenant General Holland, who provided the plan of action, to personally inquire about some details of the operation.

"If nothing else, there will be at least seventy percent of the certainty! As long as the German Navy takes the bait this time, it will not be able to escape!" Holland said confidently: "The German Navy's night combat capability, I have evaluated, and the firepower of the three cruisers is about the same! Even if you count the three so-called armored ships, they are not at all the opponents of the Prestige and the Hood!"

"What's more. Holland thought for a moment and added: "Once our fleet entangles the German aircraft carriers, the battleships that follow behind only need to catch up......"

"The battle of the fortunes of the nation is here!" said Churchill gloomily, looking very heroic, but it is a pity that the whole fortune of the country is gambling on a battle, which in itself is the sorrow of a strong man.

At the same time that Churchill decided to take a desperate gamble, a large number of German bombers were preparing sorties on the runway of the Luftwaffe Dutch airfield, a secret and important military base of the Luftwaffe.

"One-two-three! press! one-two-three! press!" The ground crew is installing high-explosive ammunition for the butcher bomber with special loading vehicles. One by one, 250-kilogram bombs were hung in the bomb bays of the butcher bombers, and the airfields were brightly lit with searchlights to illuminate the night loading operations.

On both sides of the runway of the airport, there were butcher bombers one after another under black pressure, and after several days of accumulation, these German strategic bombers that had bombed London had accumulated an astonishing number, and compared with the time they went to London, this time the German strategic bomber group had a huge scale of 80 planes.

"After taking off from the Netherlands, flying northwest, I understood. Not far away, several pilots were making final confirmations with the navigator and the ground commanders about the flight route, pointing to the route map and repeatedly confirming that it was not easy to take off at night to carry out a bombing mission.

"I don't know if this bombing mission will go smoothly. On the control tower of the airport, the person in charge of directing the bombing mission was still the commander-in-chief of the German bomber force, the deputy chief of the general staff of the Air Force, Dick. He asked his adjutant beside him as he stared at the combat target.

"General! The Führer said that there is a saying in ancient China about the art of war, which is called 'Fiction is real, and reality is virtual!' I think this sentence is too much, it is simply a military maxim. ”

The adjutant proudly pointed to the map and comforted Dick: "We have bombed Dunkirk for two days, so tonight they will also think that our strategic bomber group will fly to Dunkirk!

"Hopefully, this time, if we don't bomb London, we won't run into those fighter jets called Hurricanes. So that there is not much to lose. Dick also relieved himself slightly, staring at the map and said.

"Don't worry! The intelligence service has given the news that the British fighter units are all heading south, and they are trying to find ways to secure air supremacy near Dunkirk, and General Catherine analyzed that the British may have some intentions against our aircraft carrier fleet. The adjutant thought for a moment and said.

"What happens to the navy has little to do with our strategic bomber force! We just need to complete the attack order issued by the Führer! This time, we want the British to thoroughly taste the power of our Germans!" Dick gritted his teeth and said: "On the navy side, leave it to Admiral Catherine and General Lütjans!"

"Strategic bomber formations request to take off!" said an officer commanding the tower, who came to Dick's side and saluted.

"Permission to take off! All bombers, target Manchester! Second British home bombing program begins!" Dick pointed to a huge map of Britain, an industrial city called Manchester, where Britain had just built a production line for Hurricane fighter jets.