Iron Cross

After determining the key areas to break diplomatic relations, Ozawa regrouped the fleet. He carefully analyzed the composition of the fleet and the tasks it undertakes, and believed that from the perspective of breaking diplomatic relations, it is more advantageous to disperse the fleet, but from the perspective of combat effectiveness, the two aircraft carriers cannot be separated, because the Europa is not an aircraft carrier in the complete sense and must It is valuable to use it in conjunction with the Zeppelin. When the two are combined, they are equivalent to two aircraft carriers. When separated, the Zeppelin can still be regarded as an aircraft carrier alone, but the Europa is going to be blind. Plus, he has a vague feeling in his heart. That kind of uneasiness - not based on intelligence inference, but based on logic or inner anxiety, so I chose to put the two aircraft carriers together in order to maximize the value.

Ozawa did not elaborate, and Machar and Krank did not understand the intermediate link. In addition, the two subconsciously believed that aircraft carriers should be used together to be valuable, so they did not question this arrangement. However, Ozawa still divided his forces appropriately. After all, there are now one battleship, one battlecruiser, two aircraft carriers, four heavy cruisers, almost the entire German navy present, and the scale far exceeds the force required to break diplomatic ties. " The harvest of the "Tropica" initially made Ozawa's eyes light up and he was very yearning for it, but when he thought of the 20,000 tons of heavy oil poured into Spain, he began to think about whether it was cost-effective - 20,000 tons of heavy oil is not a small amount. !

The adjusted formation is very interesting. The entire fleet is divided into three clusters. On the left are Tirpitz, Admiral Scheer, Ooi and two destroyers, and on the right are Strasbourg, Lützow and Kitakami. and destroyers. The main formation in the middle and rear is the two heavy cruisers Hipper and Seydlitz. The two light cruisers and 6 destroyers escort the aircraft carrier. The distance from the left and right wings to the main formation is 100 nautical miles. The above - this is an arrangement after careful consideration. This distance can easily expand the patrol and search range. If something happens, the carrier-based aircraft can arrive within half an hour to provide support, which is very convenient.

According to this arrangement, Lieutenant General Bei commanded the left formation on the Tirpitz, and Admiral Kumetz commanded the right formation on the Strasbourg. The two of them are very relaxed now - they have seen the strong winds and waves in the North Sea, and now It would be too easy to rush to South America to fight merchant ships.

"Sir, we found them..." On the aircraft carrier USS Victory, the flagship of the X fleet, the intelligence staff handed the telegram to Spruance. "Our intelligence agent in Spain sent a coded telegram. The German fleet stayed in La Coruña last night to refuel. He left in the early morning and his whereabouts are unknown.”

"How many warships are there?"

"I can't see the specific model, but the telegram said there were at least a dozen ships."

Spruance thought about it and felt relieved. Such a large fleet would indeed not go to Heroes Harbor to refuel, because all the oil on the island needs to be transferred from the outside. The island's inventory may be able to support small-scale refueling of merchant ships, but relatively For an entire fleet composed of aircraft carriers and battleships, the Azores fuel inventory is too small, and the Germans should be reluctant to use it easily.

"Where do you think they will go?" he turned to his chief of staff, Rear Admiral Chris of the Royal Navy.

"Since the Strait of Gibraltar has been blocked, they will not go to the Mediterranean, so they will have three options. First, return to the Azores; second, go north and enter the North Sea again; third, go south to perform other tasks to break diplomatic relations." After reading the chart, Rees commented, "I think it is more likely to go south. First of all, the German army has just moved south from the north, and we have been following behind. It is impossible for the reconnaissance plane to turn a blind eye to such a huge target; secondly, although it cannot be ruled out that the enemy will return Azores is a possibility, but I suggest that the fleet go south first and listen to the crow’s intelligence tomorrow and the day after tomorrow to see if they have gone to the Port of Heroes.”

Of course, the German fleet did not return to Heroesport, but the intercepted Tropicana entered Heroesport. Crow wanted to get more information, but the port had long been blocked by the Germans. He couldn't sneak in without a ticket, and even if he got the ticket, he wouldn't dare to go in - once you go in, you can't come out again. Now his space for activities is getting smaller and smaller, with only a few people left in the hotel and no new guests. The source of the most reliable and traditional information was instantly cut off. The Portuguese residents who had refused to leave in the face of German radio propaganda a few days ago suddenly changed their temper and quickly gave in when faced with the bombs dropped by British bombers. The docks were filled with long lines of people leaving Port Heroes to return to their homeland.

Faced with such a difficult situation, he even thought bitterly about who in the country was coming up with random ideas to carry out air strikes. This person was probably a German spy - wasn't this cooperating with Germany to drive people out? It would be fine if the air strikes were fruitful. The key is that the results were pitifully small. They only destroyed a section of the airport runway, 2-3 anti-aircraft gun positions, and 1 hangar. The Germans only lost a total of 6 aircraft in the air and on the ground, and there were only a few casualties among soldiers. More than 20 people. However, the loss rate of the Lancaster bomber group that was switched to daytime air strikes increased sharply. In three days, more than 20 bombers were shot down by German anti-aircraft guns and fighter jets.

General Tero, who was in charge of commanding the air strike, was also in a difficult situation. Azores was too far away. For safety reasons, the Air Force Command reduced the Lancaster bomb load to 1.5 tons, leaving enough fuel for the aircraft to fly 5,500 kilometers. Even so, in the past few days, more than a dozen aircraft were forced to divert to Portugal and make an emergency landing because they were unable to hold on after being damaged. They were then undoubtedly detained by the Portuguese authorities. The Royal Air Force paid more than 40 aircraft for this ineffective air strike. The airplane is completely worth the loss. The Lancaster that made an emergency landing entered the Portuguese military system in an instant. Salazar first received German fighter jets and tanks, and now he also received heavy bombers sent by the British. His military strength suddenly increased sharply.

Crow hopes to have the opportunity to meet some German soldiers on the street and ask about the situation, but the Germans' attitude is very cold. The most terrible thing is that he understands Portuguese, English, Spanish, and a little French, but he does not understand German—— When he dispatched the intelligence agents, he never thought that one day this place would be occupied by the Germans. His superiors were already very impressive. They considered the French factors, but who knew it would be Germany?

After leaving the port in A Coruña, the German fleet's route turned southwest and rushed toward Brazil, because the U-boat force mentioned that the waters near Brazil were heavily escorted by cruisers or destroyers. On the afternoon of March 9, the lookout post of the Tirpitz discovered the smoke column rising from the eastern water antenna while traveling halfway. Lieutenant General Bei, who had found the treasure, immediately ordered the left wing formation to prepare for battle, and at the same time increased the speed to 25 knots and quickly moved towards the target direction. But after careful inspection, it is ridiculous. These are all empty ships that transport goods and personnel to the Canary Islands and then return to Spain. They serve the German military and fly the Spanish flag. Seeing the arrival of the German warships, the sailors on the ship immediately raised the alarm The whistle saluted. In their eyes, Spain was now a quasi-ally of Germany. Apart from not firing directly at Britain and the United States, it did almost everything an axis member country should do. Vice Admiral Bei returned the salute awkwardly, and then led the fleet back to Left wing position.

This news was quickly reported back to the Zeppelin and caused a burst of laughter, but the laughter stopped abruptly after a few minutes. The Azores sent an urgent telegram saying that it had discovered the enemy's main fleet, which contained at least 4 aircraft carriers.

In order to chase the Germans south, Fleets X and Y must pass through the waters between the Azores and Portugal. Originally this was the most common thing, but after the Azores were occupied by the Germans and German reconnaissance planes were stationed in Spain, this waterway It's not as safe as it used to be. Spruance thought about it again and again, and finally decided that fleets X and Y would temporarily cancel the 200 nautical mile separation and join forces to cross the center line of the waterway together. In this way, the fleet is more than 800 kilometers away from the Azores and also more than 800 kilometers away from Spain or Portugal. This way it can cleverly avoid the air defense patrol circles in both directions.

Unfortunately, the British and American fleets encountered the third batch of Fw-190 fighter jets and joint attack aircraft flying from Spain to the Azores for reinforcements. When a fleet was discovered on the sea, the navigation aircraft dispatched by the German HNA thought it was Machar's fleet, and were thinking of jumping down to say hello. Unexpectedly, after lowering their altitude, they suddenly discovered that there were 4 aircraft carriers on the sea. Something is wrong. When will the North Sea Fleet summon the other two ships? Taking a closer look, there is no large swastika on the bow of the ship, which is most common in our navy. It is obviously an enemy ship.

The navigation aircraft instinctively wanted to launch an attack, but in order to facilitate the transition, the joint attack aircraft group flew with no payload. Except for the bullets of the self-defense machine guns, they did not even carry a bomb or a torpedo. The escorting Fw-190 fighter jets only had a few Too much fuel, and if the entanglement time is too long, it will fall before it can fly to the Azores.

"Attention, members, attention, members... Below is the enemy fleet. We maintain our formation and altitude and pass quickly. Don't get entangled. I repeat, don't get entangled."

Spruance also saw a group of German aircraft passing by in the sky, and even saw a plane that lowered its altitude to check. At first, he believed that this was an enemy plane coming to deal with him, and decisively ordered the fighter jets to take off immediately to meet him. The enemy, but before the cover aircraft group could take off, the German aircraft group flew away on its own, and none of them pounced to attack. He breathed a sigh of relief and immediately ordered the covering aircraft group not to climb any further, so as not to stimulate the Germans to come down and attack - he had no idea that these enemy aircraft did not have any ammunition that could deter warships.

"Sir, the support fleet departing from Spain reported the discovery of an enemy fleet with at least 4 aircraft carriers."

"They were attacked?" Major General Vaughns, commander of the Azores Air Force, asked in surprise.

"No, the navigation aircraft sent by the navy were very smart. They pretended not to recognize it and flew away."

"Where is the enemy fleet? Is it coming towards us?"

"Sail due south, maybe to catch up with our fleet."

He pondered: This distance is a bit far, more than 800 kilometers, and the He-218's range is obviously not enough. But when he thought of those joint attack aircraft with a range of more than 2,000 kilometers, he laughed.