More than two months is not a short time, enough for the two surrenders of France in history, and these days are also enough for the American upper echelons to reconcile their internal differences.

Officials and politicians have their own agendas, some are ardent patriots, some are staunch isolationists, some believe that they only need to follow the Monroe Doctrine, and some have ambitions to want the United States to dominate the world......

How to unify the opinions of these guys and get everyone to agree on major decisions is a great test for the President of the United States.

Even if he was also Franklin, his attitude and views were very different from those of history.

France, as an old power, collapsed far faster than expected, and Tsarist Russia was in chaos, and there was no country in the whole of Europe that could restrain the German Society, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.

Without substantial suppression of the German Society, it is certain that they will indeed be able to build a vast ensemble from Iberia to the Urals, and that Europe will be united in such an unimagined way.

It is precisely because of this that the threat to the world pattern and the hegemony of the great powers is much higher than that of the Soviet Union in the same period in history, so Franklin is also seriously considering how to deal with the German Society.

In other words, the best thing for the United States now is to try to weaken Britain so that it can no longer rise to strength, and to suppress the German society so that it cannot unify Europe, and both.

In the 40th year of the original history, in order to help Britain protect the sea transportation lines, the U.S. Navy actually began to conduct Atlantic patrols within 1,000 nautical miles; By the end of '41, the U.S. Atlantic Fleet's patrol range had been further expanded, and it was already 2,300 nautical miles away from New York and only 740 nautical miles away from the European continent.

In this range, the Americans not only cooperated with the British to protect their transport lines, but even directly tracked the discovered German submarines and informed the British escort ships of their coordinate information.

It's just that due to strong isolationism, the federal government has not taken the initiative to seek opportunities to enter the war, but it has indeed made a lot of attempts to provoke excuses.

In the same vein, from mid-August of the 39th year of Zhichang, the Atlantic Fleet began to carry out large-scale patrol operations in accordance with the orders of the Admiralty.

However, there are also big differences in some aspects -- because of the series of changes in the assassination of Commander Hu, the United States is more right-leaning than in the same period in history, and public opinion is quite radical.

This undoubtedly lowered the threshold for entering the war, and Franklin, as president, did not have to try to convince those members of Congress.

A member of the House of Representatives even had no qualms about promoting his ideas in a speech:

"We have 50 million tons of steel a year, we make more cars in a month than they make in a year, so what are we waiting for? Will it have to wait until all of Europe is shrouded in the horrors of tyranny and surveillance?"

As the time came by September, there was a gradual unanimity of opinion at the top that war against Germany was inevitable, and the question was only when it should be waged.

The reason for the later entry into the war was that the army was not large enough at the moment, and that it was still necessary to wait for a new round of expansion before there would be enough troops to deal with the million-strong army of the Germans.

Those who had entered the war earlier on the grounds that Britain, Spain, and Portugal had not yet fallen, and that it would be worse if they delayed any longer, when the Germans crossed the Pyrenees and attacked Iberia.

While politicians are still arguing, the people who are actually doing the real are already doing what they can.

The U.S. Department of War announced the establishment of the General Headquarters, abolished the Standing Army and the Reserve Army, and transferred them all to the General Command; The Army Command and Staff College and the Army War College ceased instruction, and cadets were dispersed to various newly formed units.

At present, the US army already has 15 infantry divisions, but at the turn of spring and summer, it was expanded again, and now a total of 12 new infantry divisions are being reorganized and trained, but according to their training efficiency, I am afraid that they will not be able to form combat strength until the end of the year.

In the past few years, the image of American soldiers in the eyes of the American public was like this: "panting, wearing ill-fitting military uniforms, carrying old rifles crookedly, walking endlessly on the vast expanse of land."

That's a big difference now, at least ...... The uniforms fit, and the new M1 Garand semi-automatic rifles began to be equipped in small quantities.

The anti-tank artillerymen were pleasantly surprised to find that their targets during training had changed from trucks that had been modeled like tanks with wooden planks to full-fledged tanks.

The roars and roars of the instructors filled the major bases, and the thumping gunfire never stopped from morning to night......

This is the scene in the United States, and at this moment in London, the British Isles, an ominous atmosphere has enveloped the hearts of the magnates of the British Empire.

According to aerial reconnaissance, three battle cruisers and one heavy cruiser of the Workers' Navy have left the port of Kiel and are speeding through the Kattegat Strait.

"We had no choice but to do everything we could to stop the Germans. If it fails, we can start thinking about the terms of conditional surrender. ”

It's rainy, just like people's state of mind. In the Prime Minister's residence in Downing Street, Winston was very blunt about the seriousness of the matter.

"But Mr. Prime Minister, the Germans have four routes to choose from, and we only have the Hood to catch up with them." Admiral and Royal Navy Chief of Staff Dudley Pound said with some bitterness.

To the north of Britain are the Shetland Islands, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland, all of which can pass through the straits, so if the Royal Navy wants to intercept the broken fleet, it must accurately determine the location and set up an ambush in advance.

If the judgment is wrong, then the low-speed capital ship can no longer catch up, and ordering the battlecruiser Hood to pursue it alone is equivalent to sending the sailors to their deaths.

"I don't think it's a problem, it's our last chance, the Royal Navy has no other choice. Stop those boats! ”

The gravity of the situation was beyond imagination, and the Royal Navy's worst fears came.

The Royal Navy's home fleet immediately prepared for action according to the plan, and the fleet at the Scarpa Bay anchorage was immediately put into maximum combat readiness, and the ships were ready to fire.

They planned to track the route of the German sabotage fleet through non-stop aerial reconnaissance, and the fleet would set sail for interception after identifying the enemy's situation.

The commander of the operation was Admiral Rudolf Bermeister, and the burden of this responsibility gave him a kind of pressure to "rise and fall in one fell swoop" - the crumbling Atlantic route was barely stabilized, and it could no longer withstand the toss of surface ships.

He ordered the Heavy Cruisers Norfolk and the Heavy Cruisers Dorset to patrol the Danish Strait, the northernmost point; Under the command of Vice Admiral William Whitworth, the Hood Patrol and the Sussex Heavy Cruiser and several destroyers went to patrol the Shetland-Faroe waterway.

Rudolph himself personally commanded three low-speed battleships, the USS Rodney, the USS Nelson, and the USS Barham, as well as a support fleet consisting of the USS Athletic and USS Fury, as well as ten destroyers and cruisers.

"Britain has violated many treaties, but it has complied with the most important naval treaties." Rudolph lamented: "If only the KGV had started earlier. ”

Even though the Vickers-Barrow shipyard is already working overtime, it will still take another six months for George V to be completed, and it is not ruled out that problems may be discovered during sea trials.

At the same time, the Germans were strictly implementing the "Baltic icebreaker" operation.

Unlike in history, since Norway and Sweden are now under the control of the German Society, at least there is no need to worry about the Norwegian and Swedish navies reporting to the Royal Navy.

Four destroyers and two minesweepers were ordered to escort the flotilla, and after carefully reaching the west coast of Norway, the escort operation was completed, and several warships turned back.

At 11:34 p.m. on 1 September, the fleet arrived in Bergen, western Norway.

Subsequently, four warships successively anchored in the Grimstadjord fjord. The German sailors moved quickly to change the livery of their warships, removing the original strait camouflage and starting to paint the blue-gray color that was used by German warships during their diplomatic break-up missions in the Atlantic.

[Picture]

On board the flagship Franz, the commander, Rear Admiral Hubert, made a clear announcement on the air to the officers and men of the fleet about the objectives and significance of the mission.

“…… The British must be busy, busy intercepting us, but that is doomed to be useless, and we will achieve our goal with great enthusiasm and energy. ”

“…… This is not only a glorious mission, but also a cold revenge. Let them be afraid, and let them weep as they look blankly at the empty harbor in the future. ”

Due to the need for secrecy, everyone originally left the port without knowing it, thinking that it was just an ordinary transfer, from one port to another.

After learning of this mission, the fleet rejoiced, after all, this was not only the first expedition of surface ships to the Atlantic since the outbreak of the war, but also in a sense equivalent to putting the last nail in the coffin lid of the British.

During this time, the Franz's radio listening team intercepted the British communications and preliminarily deciphered the general content - the British reconnaissance plane was ordered to search north of the Norwegian coast.

Sure enough, at 17:03 that afternoon, when the Atlantic paint was about to be finished, the air defense observation post spotted several unidentified aircraft approaching rapidly.

A squadron of Bf-109 and Bf-110 fighters of the German Air Force was ordered to hover the fleet in rotation to provide cover.

Seeing that an unknown enemy plane was approaching, the pilots immediately flew up to meet them.

"It's the Spitfire of the British!"

"They were still on course, following me, climbing and cutting in from four o'clock."

Two Spitfire PR reconnaissance aircraft were attacked and had to turn around and accelerate their disengagement.

Unlike other countries, the British reconnaissance aircraft were unarmed, and the Spitfire PR had one 5-inch focal length and two 8-inch focal length aerial cameras.

Although the two reconnaissance planes returned in vain, twenty minutes later one of the reconnaissance planes quietly slipped into the Grimstadjord from an altitude of 7,000 meters.

After taking a series of photographs of the German fleet below, the Spitfire PR flipped its fuselage and made a beautiful S maneuver and accelerated to the west.

Although it has been exposed, the operation must continue.

Next, the fleet will have to break through the blockade alone without air cover.

After leaving the west coast of Norway, the fleet continued to sail north, fine-tuning its course to the northwest, and the entire course trajectory was a multi-segmented polygonal line that approximated an arc.

At noon the next day, Major General Hubert gave the official order to enter the Atlantic Ocean through the Danish Strait.

Because it is located in the Arctic Circle, the days are long and the nights are short, and the sun does not set until half past eight in the evening.

The Broken Fleet was unfortunate enough to be spotted by a British Wellington PR long-range reconnaissance aircraft at 19:42 that night.

"Discover the Franz! Three battlecruisers and one heavy cruiser are heading towards the Danish Strait, coordinates 11°1' W longitude and 67°3' north latitude, heading 265 and 25 knots."

"What should we do, Comrade Commander, it will take 12 hours to cross the Danish Strait, and the British are afraid that there will be enough time to rush to the exit to intercept." The adjutant said with some nervousness.

"Does what they see have to be real?" Major General Hubert replied.

He then gave the order for the fleet to adjust its course to 180 and increase its speed to 26 knots, heading due south.

In this way, the fleet left just as it was about to enter the Danish Strait, just as one person suddenly turned to the left when he had reached the door.

It was dark, and four warships were speeding through the Arctic Circle's night, passing off the east coast of Iceland.

They came across an Icelandic whaling ship at midnight, and the Germans had no time to bother with it because it was a bit far away.

The next day.

At 4:15 a.m. on September 3, the dense fog reduced visibility to more than 3,000 meters. Then some large chunks of ice floe appeared on the surface, and the fleet had to reduce its speed to 22 knots and sail crookedly to avoid the ice floe.

At 17:47 p.m., the radar operator of the heavy cruiser USS Pique noticed a regular and clear signal feedback on the oscilloscope - the ship's FuMo radar detected the appearance of a large unidentified warship about fifteen kilometers away.

"Unknown ships found, ready for battle!"

The Peake sounded the battle alarm, and the other three battle cruisers were also informed of the situation, and the radio silence between the fleets was immediately lifted.

The Germans did not have time to think about why the British could still block them in time when they had clearly missed a shot.

In fact, the encounter was also unexpected by the British, and according to aerial reconnaissance before sunset yesterday, the German fleet was preparing to enter the Danish Strait.

Vice Admiral William Whitworth then sailed northwest with the USS Hood and other warships, ready to come to support.

However, just as they were about to reach the predetermined sea, they received instructions from the command that four unidentified ships had been spotted by Icelandic civilian ships passing along the east coast of Iceland.

Therefore, the British fleet had no choice but to reverse course and rush to the Faro-Iceland waterway to intercept it.

The fog has lifted, but there are still light wisps of mist on the surface of the sea.

At 18:03 p.m., the lookout post of the Hood, holding huge binoculars, spotted the German fleet looming nine nautical miles away.

With such a close distance, every second counts!

Lieutenant General William Whitworth gave the order to increase the speed of the ship and seize the advantageous position and prioritize the fire of the Franz.

The heavy cruiser Sussex was the first to open fire, and eight 203mm high-explosive shells flew towards the German battleship more than a dozen kilometers away.

Twenty-four seconds later, the Hood fired its first salvo, a dazzling flame erupting from the muzzles of the four twin 381mm guns, sending ripples through the icy sea.

【Schematic map of the routes of both sides】

(End of chapter)