Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 2266 The Scared British

Since the moment it stopped resisting, France has lost the possibility of returning to a superpower.

In the last world war, the allied forces were still dominated by Britain and France, but now they have been replaced by southern Africa, the United States, and a semi-disabled Russia. Compared with the last world war, the weakness of Britain is more obvious, and France has already Lay down completely, the so-called "maintaining neutrality" is just a way to maintain face, in fact France has become a colony of Germany.

Rock is still very restrained towards France. After the southern African army invaded Spain, it did not continue to move further north. This was not to take into account the feelings of the French, but to continue to consume Germany.

In the past winter, both the German and Russian troops suffered heavy losses. At least 100 million Russians were killed, another 240 million were captured, and nearly 300 million were injured. Before the war broke out, the Russian army had a total of 537 million people. Everyone has died once.

Mustache really underestimated Russia's war potential. While Russia suffered huge losses, it mobilized 360 million people to join the army within six months. Only 100 million people were mobilized to join the army.

In addition to the huge loss in personnel, the 15000 tanks Russia had before the war, plus the 8000 tanks added last year, now only about 3900 tanks are still operational.

In terms of the air force, Russia had 20000 aircraft before the war, and lost about 17000 of them last year. Not all of these aircraft were damaged in battle, and the non-combat loss reached about 60.00%.

There are also heavy losses in artillery. Since the outbreak of the war, Russia has lost about 40000 artillery pieces, with an average loss of about 250 pieces per day. Referring to the equipment of the Russian army, it loses about one army per day.

In terms of light weapons, Russia loses an average of 1.1 pieces per day, enough to equip a division.

It is true that Russia has a very strong industrial capacity, but in the face of huge losses, no matter how strong the industrial capacity is, it cannot be maintained. Therefore, when the time came to 1942, Russia's dependence on the transportation of the Allied forces did not decrease at all, but became more and more serious .

Southern Africa is only responsible for production, not transportation, and the British army is responsible for this work.

The division of labor within the Allied Forces is clear. The Royal Navy has so many large warships that it is no problem to deal with the German Navy. The Royal Navy has the ability to blockade the coast of Germany, and naturally has the ability to send materials produced in southern Africa to Russia.

The job is not easy either. .

At present, there are three ways for the Allied forces to send supplies to Russia. One is to transport materials by rail in the Near East, and the other is to send them to Siberia through East Asia. The last route is to sail from Iceland or Scotland, go north through the Norwegian Sea, enter the Arctic Ocean, and then Turn south to reach Russia's Murmansk or Archangel's Norwegian Sea-Arctic Ocean route.

This route is close to the German naval and air bases in Norway and Finland. Murmansk is only 50 kilometers away from the nearest German air base, so the difficulty can be imagined.

However, in terms of efficiency, this route is the highest. In just two months last year, 750 tanks, 800 fighter jets, 1400 trucks and 10 tons of munitions arrived in Russia via the Arctic route.

At the end of the year, due to the decrease in temperature, the North Pole course was interrupted for a while.

In early March, the Russians, who had just won the defense of Moscow, couldn't wait to launch a counterattack against the Germans.

On March 3, the Russian Southwest Front and Southern Front, led by Lieutenant Generals Timoshenko and Malinovsky, launched an attack on Kharkov.

The offensive ended in a disastrous defeat for Russia.

The German army, which was hit head-on in Moscow, was not injured, and the main force, which had accumulated rich experience in combat last year, did not lose its combat effectiveness.

The Russian side is mainly composed of recruits. They have not yet left the city to fight with the German army in the field. The cooperation between the various Russian troops is not skilled enough, the connection between each other is not enough, the cooperation is not smooth, and the logistical support is not sufficient. In the end, Russia 32 were lost, of which 7.5 were killed and 24 were captured.

Russia also lost 1249 tanks and 2026 artillery pieces, while the German army lost only 2 people.

The failure of the Battle of Kharkov caused the Russian army to fall into a passive state again. The tanks lost by Russia now are not small tanks with old models and backward technology before the war, but advanced tanks supported by the Allied Forces, or produced by the Russians themselves. T34.

After the setback of the attack on Moscow last winter, Mustache has regrouped throughout the winter and is preparing to launch the next large-scale attack on Russia.

The bearded man had a premonition that the situation was not good, and sent telegrams to Rock, Winston, and Roosevelt every day, urging the Allied forces to land on the Mediterranean coast to open up the second battlefield, and hoped to receive more material assistance.

Landing is impossible. The southern African troops who invaded Spain are all standing still on the West-French border. It is absolutely impossible to open a second battlefield in a short time unless the Russians and the Germans are both defeated.

Since it is impossible to open up a second battlefield, at least more assistance must be given to Russia, so that Russians have the determination and courage to persist in fighting.

On March 3, the fleet code-named "PQ-25" set off from Iceland to Murmansk.

The British named the cargo-carrying escort fleet departing from Iceland to Russia the PQ fleet, and the empty fleet returning from Russia as the QP fleet.

This is a large-scale fleet consisting of an escort fleet, an emergency support fleet and a strike fleet.

As more and more southern African equipment appeared on the Russian battlefield, Moustache has realized the importance of the Arctic route to Russia, so he sent 4 submarine groups to the Norwegian sea area, and successively increased the battleship "Tirpitz" , the battlecruiser "Scharnhorst", the heavy cruisers "Admiral Scheer", "Admiral Hipper", and "Prince Eugen" stationed in Northern Norway, and used the Luftwaffe's first More than [-] bombers from the Five Flying Squadron strengthened the maritime assault force.

The Germans gathered heavy troops in the Norwegian Sea to cut off the Arctic route.

Winston launched a heavy attack this time. While delivering supplies to the Russians, he also hoped to use PQ-17 as a bait to lure the "Tirpitz" out for encirclement and annihilation.

PQ17的护航队由34艘商船和护航舰队组成，护航舰队包括6艘驱逐舰、2艘防空舰、2艘潜艇、4艘护卫舰、4艘猎潜舰，3艘扫雷舰，以及一艘南部非洲提供的破冰船，另外还有3艘救护船和1艘补给油船。

The emergency support fleet is composed of 2 British cruisers, 2 American cruisers and 3 destroyers. British Rear Admiral Hamilton is the commander of the fleet. The main task of this fleet is to entangle the German surface fleet with "Tirpitz" as the main force. Find opportunities for strike fleet operations.

The strike fleet is the core force of the entire plan. It has the latest British battleship "Duke of York", the US "Washington" battleship, and the newly built British aircraft carrier "Victory". Tirpitz' capabilities.

In addition, on the long and tortuous Norwegian coastline, the Royal Navy also deployed 9 British submarines and 2 Soviet submarines as sentinels. As long as the "Tirpitz" goes to sea, the strike fleet will move closer to the escort.

On the 27th, the fleet entered the Norwegian Sea. The channel was full of ice floes. Although an icebreaker opened the way, a cargo ship still ran aground.

The cargo ship that hit the rocks was forced to return to Iceland, and the fleet continued to move forward.

At this time, it was raining and snowing, and the waves rushed to the deck, and they froze before they flowed down. The ice layer was getting thicker and thicker, and the center of gravity was getting higher and higher. The ship was in danger of capsizing.

The sailors worked hard to remove the ice and keep the fleet moving forward.

When the fleet passed Jan Mayen Island at 10 degrees west longitude, a German U-boat spotted the fleet, and more German ships swarmed like wolves.

Although the strength of the escort fleet cannot compete with the "Tirpitz", it is still very effective against submarines.

A German submarine surfaced to launch a torpedo.

A destroyer and a submarine hunter immediately surrounded them, and dropped the depth charges like money. The German submarine was sunk without even having a chance to launch a torpedo.

The German army dispatched HE-115 torpedo bombers to try to attack the fleet.

Under the heavy anti-aircraft fire of the escort fleet, HE-115 had nothing to gain.

On the 5th, the British submarine responsible for monitoring the movement of the "Tirpitz" sent a message that the "Tirpitz" had left the Altenfjord and its whereabouts were unknown.

A Russian submarine also discovered the "Tirpitz" and fired a torpedo at the "Tirpitz". Unfortunately, the torpedo did not hit the target, or it hit but did not explode. The main force of the German fleet, heading northeast, at a speed of 27 knots.

With reference to this speed, ten hours later, the fleet will soon enter the attack range of the "Tirpitz".

The "Tirpitz" is the second ship of the German "Bismarck" class battleship. The first ship "Bismarck" was sunk by the Allied forces last year.

Like the "Bismarck", the "Tirpitz" has four twin 380mm main guns with extremely powerful firepower. The British did not forget the tragedy of the sinking of the "Hood". All ships within the attack range of the "Tirpitz" will be sunk one by one by the "Tirpitz".

After hearing the news of the dispatch of the "Tirpitz", Hamilton, the commander of the emergency support fleet, immediately sent a telegram to Admiral Tovey, the commander of the strike fleet, hoping that the strike fleet could arrive as soon as possible.

The strike fleet was now in trouble.

In order to ensure the suddenness of the strike, the strike fleet and PQ-17 kept a distance of about four or five hours, and kept radio silence since departure.

When receiving the telegram from Hamilton, the strike fleet was struggling to advance in the ice-filled channel. John Tovey found through calculations that the strike fleet could not reach the battlefield before PQ-17 entered the attack range of the "Tirpitz" , so break the radio silence, send a telegram to Hamilton, and let Hamilton handle it himself.

Hamilton was dumbfounded.

The configuration of the emergency support fleet is to hold back the German fleet and find opportunities for the strike fleet.

The cruiser of the emergency support fleet, the main gun caliber is only 203 mm.

The main gun of "Tirpitz" has a caliber of 380mm and has a longer range. If the emergency support fleet challenges "Tirpitz", then I am afraid that the cruiser will be shot by "Tirpitz" before entering the range of the main gun. Violent fire torn apart.

Hamilton knew that he was invincible, but he did not dare to retreat without authorization. If the emergency support fleet continued to advance, it might become the same trophy of the "Tirpitz" as the PQ-17.

If the retreat was more serious, it might have to go to a military court, and the British judges would not think from Hamilton's standpoint.

So Hamilton sent a telegram to the First Sea Lord Dudley Pound, asking Dudley Pound to decide the fate of the emergency support fleet and the PQ-17 fleet.

This is definitely a hot potato. Ordering the emergency support fleet to move forward is tantamount to letting the emergency support fleet die.

Order the emergency support fleet to retreat, and some ships can be retained.

It seems that this is not a difficult multiple choice question.

But only the person who gave the order knew how tormented he was.

After thinking for three hours, Dudley Pound ordered the emergency support fleet to retreat and ordered the PQ-17 fleet to disperse to Murmansk.

Hamilton, following Dudley Pound's order, telegraphed the PQ-17 convoy and retreated.

Now it was the turn of PQ-17, the sailors were dumbfounded.

Didn't you agree that it was just bait? Why did you suddenly become an abandoned child?

No one could answer the sailors' questions.

The planned strike fleet and emergency support fleet all ran away, and the sailors of PQ-17 also wanted to run away, but they couldn't. Merchant ships couldn't run faster than warships.

Now that there is no way to escape, the sailors in the desperate situation showed the courage to face death, and they decided to continue to advance to Murmansk. Knowing that there are tigers in the mountains, they prefer to go to the mountains.

What Dudley Pound didn't know was that when the strike fleet broke radio silence and sent a telegram to the emergency support fleet, the "Tirpitz" intercepted the telegram. Although the Germans could not decipher the contents of the telegram, they already knew that the strike fleet The presence.

The British remembered that the "Bismarck" sank the "Hood", and the encirclement and annihilation of the "Bismarck" made the Germans heartbroken.

After comprehensive consideration, the "Tirpitz" returned to the port in order to preserve its strength. At this time, the "Tirpitz" was only four hours away from PQ-17.

So the task of encircling and annihilating PQ-17 was all carried out by German submarines and aircraft.

At this time, if the emergency support fleet advances at full speed and meets PQ-17, the possibility of PQ-17 escaping will be greatly increased.

It's a pity that there is no if, and the PQ-17, which lost its strike fleet and emergency support fleet, can only fight alone.

It is not considered fighting, the escort fleet of the PQ-17 fleet itself returned quickly after receiving the order to disband the fleet, leaving the slow-moving and defenseless merchant ships to the Germans.

The captains of the German submarines were well-trained, and they slaughtered merchant ships. 24 merchant ships were sunk, along with 13 tons of valuable military supplies, including 430 tanks, 250 fighter jets, and 3350 vehicles. Trucks, and a large amount of food, gasoline, tires, medicine, ammunition, radio, etc.

It was not until a month later that 13 ships arrived in Murmansk, including 2 British ships, 6 American ships, 2 Russian ships, 1 Panamanian ship, and the other 2 are the only remaining ambulance ships.

When the news came out, the whole world was in an uproar.

(End of this chapter)