Iron Cross

Just as Stalin was racking his brains to deal with the suddenly worsening situation in the Caucasus, Vice Admiral Spruance, who commanded the fleet floating in the North Atlantic, also had a grim face. On the third day after he led the team out of the port, the fleet received reports of two more attacks: one was a cargo ship returning to Canada from Great Britain that was directly sunk by German planes. Fortunately, it was just an empty ship and the loss was not too great. Judging from the location of the ship's sinking, it was undoubtedly caused by the German fleet's carrier-based aircraft; the other was a cargo ship from Brazil to Britain. This was a refrigerated ship fully loaded with 18 million eggs and more than 3,000 tons of frozen meat, ham, fruits, and vegetables, but the end was very bad. The ship, cargo, and people were all captured.

This is not the most infuriating thing. What is infuriating is that the accident site is less than 900 nautical miles from the British port and less than 800 nautical miles from the Y fleet that has re-departed and is commanded by Major General Brown. In Spruance's view, this was a serious provocation that completely ignored the British and American maritime hegemony. After the British suffered a series of defeats, not only did Spain openly stand on the side of Germany and wave its flag, but even Portugal, which had always been submissive, also secretly flirted with the Axis camp.

The "Tropico" was definitely one of the most unlucky merchant ships in recent times: during their long voyage, they first received instructions from the German fleet to rush into the Atlantic Ocean and require all Allied merchant ships to find a reliable port nearby to avoid, so the "Tropico" honestly sailed to the Azores, which was the nearest port to them. As a result, halfway through the journey, news came that the Azores had been controlled by the German army. Not wanting to fall into the trap, they had to temporarily change direction and continue to look for a suitable port. At this time, the captain helplessly found that except for the Azores, they were almost the same distance from Canadian ports and British ports. Given that the ship was full of perishable goods, and heard that the German fleet was stationed in the Azores, they took the chance to let the ship sail towards the UK, hoping to get away with it.

Unexpectedly, the North Sea Fleet went out to sea again to disrupt trade after staying in the Azores for only a few days. It happened that it was only more than 100 nautical miles away from the Tropical. The whereabouts of the Tropical were immediately detected by the Ar-272. According to convention, the Germans were too lazy to look at such ordinary merchant ships that were more than 100 nautical miles away from the fleet and were alone. They could easily send it to the bottom of the sea by launching a wave of bombers. However, Marshal, who commanded the fleet, read the intelligence sent by the reconnaissance plane and said that it was a refrigerated ship flying the Brazilian flag. He immediately thought of the gains of the anti-trade fleet during the "Berlin" operation and immediately ordered the Hipper to intercept it with destroyers. As a result, there was such a fruitful reward.

Everyone smiled. Now not only did the entire fleet have endless food, but they could also make greater use of this batch of supplies. Marshal immediately ordered two destroyers to escort the Tropical to the Azores. He believed that the 20,000 to 30,000 newly arrived troops on the island would definitely welcome this great gift. The Japanese advisory group on the ship were even happier than the Germans when they heard about the harvest. In their opinion, if the supplies on this refrigerated ship were distributed to the combined fleet in Europe, 2 eggs per person per day would be enough for them to eat for nearly half a year - now they finally deeply understood the meaning and value of the word "broken commerce".

After making a fortune under the noses of the British, Marshal did not linger in the battle, and immediately led the fleet to turn around and prepare to meet the support forces protruding from the Strait of Gibraltar - including the newly acquired Kitakami and Oi two torpedo cruisers and the Strasbourg battlecruiser.

"You mean, the British blocked the Strait of Gibraltar?"

"Yes! After the emergency repairs in Spain, the Scharnhorst secretly crossed the strait from the Atlantic Ocean to Italy the night before, without any interference, but we encountered a minelayer when we crossed the strait the next night." Crank carefully recalled the scene of that night and told Ozawa everything.

Due to the continuous air raids and artillery bombardments by the German army on the Gibraltar Fortress, the radar station of the fortress was completely destroyed. The lookout could only rely on traditional visual observation to observe the enemy, but it was obviously not easy to monitor the strait with a width of more than 20 kilometers at night. The rumbling of artillery successfully covered the sound of the ship's movement. Therefore, when the Ooi, Kitakami, and Strasbourg forced their way into the Strait of Gibraltar at night, everything went smoothly until they met the British warships that came to lay mines. In order to avoid exposing its position, the Strasbourg did not dare to fire, but its strong body and speed of up to 27 knots gave it the ability to rush around. In the end, the three warships broke into the Atlantic Ocean without any danger.

Regarding Ozawa's appointment, due to Raeder's overt and covert resistance, a flexible approach was finally made. He was appointed as the first deputy commander of the mobile detachment as a German naval admiral. The commander was still Marshal Richthofen. Then on the second day after the appointment order was issued, Richthofen reported that he was not feeling well and needed treatment and flew back to Berlin. Ozawa then naturally took over the command.

The Japanese advisory group was stunned by this: Damn, who said that Germans are just one-minded? Isn’t this very adaptable? After receiving the appointment, even Horikichi sent a congratulatory message to Ozawa, encouraging him to establish meritorious services in a foreign country, and saying that the combined fleet will definitely have more than one mobile fleet in the future. The sudden change of things made Ozawa feel quite overwhelmed: He didn't expect to get such an opportunity in Germany after he failed to be appointed as the commander of the domestic mobile fleet. Now he is also in charge of two motherships, and his strength is not the same. Not too small. Moreover, although Machar is the supreme commander of the entire fleet, due to the core role of aircraft carriers in combat, coupled with the heroic performance of aircraft in the Barents Sea and North Sea battles, the German Navy accepted it faster than the Japanese Navy. In terms of the concept of aircraft carrier being number one, Ozawa's actual status is far higher than that of Tsukahara in the Combined Fleet.

In addition to commanding the fleet, Ozawa also brought two additional students. One was Machar. He came to learn the essence of aircraft carrier combat command with an open mind. After all, Richthofen was not from the navy. It was too difficult to transform into a fleet commander. It is relatively easy to transform as a traditional surface fleet commander like Machar; the other is Admiral Krank, the commander of the Mediterranean Fleet. The reason why he was allowed to break into the Atlantic aboard the Strasbourg was because Hoffman hoped that he would later Readers can also learn the essence of aircraft carrier combat command, because the Aquila aircraft carrier acquired from Italy is undergoing the final outfitting project intensively and is scheduled to be delivered to the Mediterranean Fleet in early April. By early June, the Harrier used by the Italian Navy will be The aircraft carrier No. 1 will also be put into use - it is not possible without aircraft carrier command experience.

After experiencing the influence of Germany for several months, Ozawa's thoughts have changed a lot. First, he appreciates the promotion system of the German army more. Although it is also very bureaucratic like Japan, it employs people according to their talents and has an eclectic system. There is no shortage. There is no extremely rigid seniority ranking like Japan, especially the Japanese Navy. Although Richthofen is the marshal, Machar still serves as the commander-in-chief of the fleet and commands the former; Chief of Army General Staff Zeitzler is only an admiral. With a military rank, he can still command a large group of army group commanders or army commanders with the rank of marshal or general; secondly, he has changed his concept and paid more attention to the lives of officers and soldiers, especially the lives of technical personnel. Originally, in Ozawa's idea, shipboard Although aircraft pilots are valuable, they will do anything to achieve combat goals. Germany has obviously given more thought to it and will never let technical personnel die needlessly.

What touched Ozawa even more was that the sense of hierarchy in the German army was not as strong as in Japan. Ace pilots with the rank of lieutenant could still talk and laugh happily in front of Richthofen, who had the rank of marshal, without so much restraint or unnaturalness. Many of Richthofen's ideas came directly from these grassroots officers and soldiers.

Hearing the news that Gibraltar was mined, Machar instinctively frowned: "This is very troublesome. It means that we can't even send minesweepers to clear mines before we deal with the firepower of the fortress. The other warships in the Mediterranean cannot enter or leave for the time being. But this in turn shows that the British have a guilty conscience - they know they can't hold it anymore, otherwise why would they block the channel? They should stay and continue to provide support to the fortress."

Ozawa nodded and then shook his head: "I'm afraid it's not that simple. Maybe Yingmei is preparing a big plan."

"Not so fast, right?" Mashar seemed very relaxed. He had received clear information two days ago, and Ozawa's judgment made him somewhat dissatisfied:

First, the British are very concerned and are not worried about the loss of the Azores Islands. In the past few days, they have actually cooperated with the Americans to attack Attu Island. The Japanese side notified the fleet of this situation, saying that "the battle situation It was fierce, and our troops caused heavy casualties to the enemy." Machar knew that Japanese intelligence could not be fully trusted, but one thing was certain. The Royal Navy's support forces were at least still in the Far East, and even if they rushed to the Atlantic immediately, it would be a month later.

Second, spies lurking in the United States sent a telegram. The US military has just commissioned a fleet aircraft carrier, a light aircraft carrier and a battleship. The performance, aircraft capacity and other data are unknown. According to normal circumstances, these warships have completed sea trials and It will take at least 6 weeks to get the running-in in place.

Based on the above two points and combined with the gains from the North Sea Battle, he believes that the British and American navies can now use at most 3-4 battleships and 2-3 aircraft carriers in the Atlantic Ocean. Considering that the United Kingdom must keep part of the fleet in the North Sea direction, Coupled with the advantage of the German aircraft carrier's carrier-based aircraft, he believed that even if he encountered the main force of the enemy, he would be able to fight and would not be afraid of any challenges at all.

Krank added: "I think whether Britain and the United States have such a plan or not, we should implement the instructions of the head of state, maneuver in various waters of the Atlantic as much as possible, expand the momentum and power of breaking diplomatic relations, and cover the construction of the Azores defense system. Do your best to delay possible British and American counterattacks."

This was the unanimous thought of the three of them.