81_81266 "We can't just sit still, we should send out the navy and teach those self-righteous Frenchmen a lesson!" A British naval officer pounded the table and roared: "That navy is the fourth in the world and can't say anything to the Germans, otherwise Britain will be finished!"

An old officer lowered his eyes, but his tone was the same: "The fate of the British Empire is now hanging by a thread, and those officers and gentlemen are ignoring the safety of the country, and they are pushing behind us to demand that our navy do its best to fight and redeem the defeat...... The top brass of the Navy is about to be unable to withstand the pressure, and this time we will go to war, and there will be a problem in fighting the German Navy, and will there be a problem in fighting the French Navy?"

Churchill also deeply agreed with this on the side, saying that since it could not defeat the German navy, it should be no problem to attack the French navy by surprise, right? If it could not even defeat the French navy, Britain would no longer have to struggle, and it would be over waiting for death.

Driven by this thinking, Churchill strongly endorsed the plan of attacking the French navy to prevent French warships from falling into the hands of the Germans. Although now this plan is being questioned in the discussion by many admirals and another part of the politicians.

Now he Churchill can't speak casually, because the British Navy is about to lose all his money under his leadership, so it is completely thankless for him to order which side to support, and the side he supports may not appreciate it, and the side he opposes will definitely be sneering. So Churchill felt that he should be a man like Jesus, just listen and never speak.

Sure enough, before Churchill could speak, there was an opposition voice, and a commanding general in the navy questioned: "We are now struggling under the threat of the German navy, and it would be extremely unwise to attack a neutral French navy! If the French navy is pushed to the side of Germany, our life will be really difficult." ”

"But who can be sure that France's statement of naval neutrality is true? Who dares to say that it is true? If the French navy uses delaying tactics and ends up turning against Germany at the most critical moment, will we not be even more passive?"

"This is indeed a problem, even if the French Navy really only wants to remain neutral now, it is difficult to guarantee that it will not fall to the German Navy one day in the future because of the change in shape. One of the ministers nodded and said, "It's not impossible, but it will be!"

"Indeed, although the old fox of Petain betrayed France and sided with the Germans, it must be said that he did have a great problem for us in England. The other minister nodded and said, "He brought half of France almost out of the war, and now we have to think about the future direction of this half of France." ”

"Now we are suffering locally, but we still have some advantages in general, and it is definitely not good news for the French to remain neutral at this time. As soon as we are defeated again or suffer some small losses, these French forces will immediately react on their own, and this uncertainty is too fatal for us. The second old officer who spoke was still in the same tone, but this time the content was a little less angry.

"Don't hesitate any longer, since we are not going to accept variables, let's simplify the current situation. The Minister of the Navy glanced at Churchill, who had promoted himself to his current position, and had to bite the bullet and speak for his superiors: "Dispatch the navy, sneak attack the French ** port, and sink the main force of the French navy in the military port!"

......

George, who watched the sinking of the Malaya, stood on the deck of the Royal Navy's aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, staring at the four Hurricane fighters that had recently been added to the carrier, and shook his head with a sigh.

He had watched the Malaya sink, the Eagle sink, the Barham sink, the Valiant sink, and the Athletic a few days ago, and he was already numb to the Royal Navy being teased by his opponents like a lost dog.

In the last operation, the Ark Royal lost almost all of its Swordfish attack planes and lost most of its Dapeng fighters, so it reluctantly ran back to the British mainland with the remnants of the defeated army, and as a result, the loss of dozens of naval fighter pilots could not be replenished now, and the production of new fighters could not keep up with the rhythm.

It is better than nothing to replenish 4 aircraft, but at the same time only barely replenish 2 pilots, and the combat capability of the aircraft carrier Ark Royal can only be regarded as about half of that at most. If you think about the almost annihilated Swordfish attack aircraft force, the Ark Royal is now equivalent to a warship with no offensive capabilities.

A few days ago, looking at the battleship Revenge, which was hit by a German plane and fled back to port in smoke, George no longer had the grief he had at the beginning, but just watched the corpses being carried off the battleship one by one, and the maintenance personnel walked up one by one. In order to avoid the explosion of the battleship's ammunition depot, the Revenge even released water into the ammunition depot to avoid the danger of sinking.

If you count the aircraft carrier Glory, which was lightly damaged by the German Navy, in the battle of the English Channel alone, the number of large capital warships that were sunk and damaged was close to ten, and the British Navy can now get its hands on only a few lucky ones.

This time, another combat mission was issued, and the entire harbor was once again busy, and many warships were being finally renovated, including the battleship George V, the battleship Determination, the aircraft carrier Fury, and the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, all the main forces of the British Navy were going to fight.

The ship's whistle sounded, and George collected his thoughts and climbed the stairs of the bridge, which scared him a little. The polished leather shoes made a nice sound when they tapped on the hollowed-out iron staircase, but in George's mind, it was like a hammer striking at his heart.

Since when did you start to be afraid of going to sea? Since when did the Royal Navy dispatch warships to fight with a tragic atmosphere? Since when have the warships of the Royal Navy ceased to be invincible in the world? Since when did dozens of warships sail out of the harbor with suffocation and trembling?

George shook his head, swept the uneasy feeling out of his mind, pushed open the heavily armored door of the bridge, walked into the battle command room, and stood beside Captain Lawrence.

"George, I heard that 14 of your men have applied to be transferred to serve in the destroyer?" Lawrence asked with a wry smile, stroking the high-powered telescope he was carrying on his chest with one hand and the chart table with the other.

"Yes. George nodded, and his answer was succinct. After all, he is already one of the important officers on the aircraft carrier Ark Royal with the rank of major, and saying too much or saying something that shouldn't have had a lot of impact. So he now speaks simply and clearly, a good habit that used to make Lawrence very satisfied.

But now Lawrence seemed to want to say more, so he looked at George and said: "The way of the world has changed, everyone used to think of running to the big battleship, because this is the best way to get promoted or save their lives, compared to the destroyer, the battleship was stronger and less easy to sink at that time......"

He sighed helplessly, and before George could speak, he said again: "It's different now, now it's all trying to move up the destroyer or cruiser...... Because the Germans, when they did not sink battleships and aircraft carriers, rarely attacked destroyers. After each major battle, a fleet often has only destroyers to come back. ”

"General, we are going to attack this time, and the opponent is the French, there must be no more accidents, right?" George thought for a while before he comforted: "You know, the German Navy does not dare to go south into French waters now, we will sneak attack the French port, and then return to Liverpool ......"

"The news just came. See for yourself. Lawrence handed a copy to George, looking indescribably helpless: "Before we could act, the shadow of the Germans was already hanging over our heads. ”

George took the text and took a closer look, and his eyes immediately widened, because it was written on the article: Nearly 100 German bombers attacked Liverpool, blew up the port and dock, the hull of an aircraft carrier under construction was completely blown up in the shipyard, and a cruiser that had no time to dodge was destroyed.

This is the third day in a row, and nearly a hundred bombers visit British airspace every day. Since Dunkirk and other areas were taken over by the Germans, fighter groups taking off there could easily enter the airspace over London, and Germany no longer had to send a limited number of strategic bombers to participate in the bombing of London.

The German bombers that now bombed London and nearby airfield cities have been replaced with nearly 500 Do-217 medium bombers, so the bombing is more dense, more frequent, and more terrifying. London is now a sea of fire every day, countless treasures of human architecture have been destroyed, Big Ben collapsed in the bombing of February 1, and a member of the British royal family was injured in the relief process.

Compared with the Luftwaffe's blossoming and triumphant appearance, the bomber unit of the British Air Force is synonymous with bad luck. Several bombing missions were carried out without return, and the loss rate of bomber pilots was even higher than that of fighter fighters, as high as a terrifying 97 percent. The intelligence sent back by British spies showed that the German air defense forces used radar, a new type of equipment, and combined with anti-aircraft guns and fighters, to form an airtight air defense network almost on the mainland, and it is no wonder that the British air force suffered heavy losses.

It was against this background that the Royal Navy's home fleet went out to sea and slowly drove towards its goal