Bismarck

"Of course I am too, but besides the responsibilities of my position, I also have my own wishes." Bismarck said with a smile.

If Zeppelin fought for Germany, where would she go when Germany was destroyed one day?

"For your captain?"

"I guess so." Bismarck did not comment. "But no matter what the goal is, the first thing is to ensure your own safety and not sink. Don't you agree?"

"Yes."

"Zeppelin, what will you do if we lose the war?" Bismarck said.

"Defeat?" Zeppelin looked at him strangely. "We just defeated France and drove Britain into the sea. We shouldn't fail."

"Anything is possible. This is just a hypothesis. You know, many countries want us."

"Oh, hypothetically." Zeppelin nodded. It was obvious that she answered very seriously. Bismarck knew that this was the answer in her heart. This sister was not good at joking.

"Bismarck, if I had sunk before this, then nothing would have happened. But if it hadn't sunk, and I was taken away by other countries in the port, that would be absolutely unacceptable. I have my own respect. I am a German soldier." She said lightly.

"So what?" Bismarck asked worriedly. She thought, maybe she wouldn't like to hear what was going to happen next.

"Bismarck, you should know that there is a thing called rainbow." Zeppelin's voice sounded distant and ethereal.

Bismarck was shocked and felt inexplicably uncomfortable.

The majestic national anthem sounded from the port.

"Why are you thinking so much?" Zeppelin looked at her with amusement, then took her hand and said, "Come on, follow me to the deck."

"This is..." Bismarck looked outside. The crew members were already lined up neatly on the wide deck of the Zeppelin, and on the side were neatly placed coffins. The ceremonial personnel on the shore presided over the entire ceremony.

It's time to say goodbye to former comrades.

Bismarck came to the bridge and stood with Zeppelin, saluted silently at the gangway as usual.

These were the soldiers who died on the battleships, so their bodies were fortunately preserved and transported home in coffins, but what about those pilots whose whereabouts were unknown?

It's as if they had never come into this world.

Bismarck saw a special family member. Why was it special? Because during this ceremony, the family members did not actually know that their loved ones had died, and they would not be invited to participate. They would only see the solemn coffin and a thin death notice on an accidental day.

And this woman obviously knew it.

"Who is she?" Bismarck asked.

"That's Flensburg's wife." Zeppelin sighed. She had also seen it before when Flensburg took out the photo of his wife.

"The girl next to him must be his daughter," Bismarck said.

"Yes, he has a seven-year-old daughter."

Zeppelin remembered that Flensburg often showed off photos of his daughter to his group of mostly single young men, and that he loved her very much.

"Oh, this kind of thing is really." Bismarck sighed. This is also the reason why she doesn't like war - yes, it is very enjoyable when fighting, but that is because Bismarck forced herself not to think about the consequences of her own shells, nor to think about the thousands of families behind those battleships. She pretended that these people did not exist and only saw the battleships themselves.

If she thought about this, she would probably collapse first.

However, she had to face her own people.

Zeppelin walked over.

Someone informed Flensburg's wife in advance, so even though she was heartbroken, she brought her daughter and rushed over day and night.

She once thought that she would see her husband's body, sleeping in the coffin as usual. She also wondered if she would get an incomplete body. If that happened, her daughter would not let her see it, and she would have to bear all the grief.

But the result is... nothing.

She only saw several pilots silently walking down from the huge battleship, and handed her some notebooks and photos with sad expressions. She recognized that they were Flensburg's things.

But what use does she have for this? !

···Why···

"Where are they! Where is she from Flensburg?"

Hysterical yelling.

A woman who had endured long-term grief, made countless guesses, and traveled countless times to see her husband, lost control...

"I want him to come out and see me!"

The woman grabbed the pilots by their collars again and again, yelling.

"Hand him over!"

The pilots were silent. The former proud sons of heaven did not know what to do. This was their captain's wife. Originally, this was just a simple request, a reasonable request, a request of an ordinary wife wanting to see her husband. However, they could no longer do it.

Zeppelin appeared beside them.

"Flensburg - we have no way to find him back. I am extremely sad about this. But if you want to know about his final situation, you can ask me. He is a hero, and I am proud to tell his wife and daughter about him." Zeppelin was silent for a while, then reached out and grabbed the woman's hands, saying seriously.

"Bad guy, let go of my mom, I want my dad!"

"Dad, where are you?"

The little girl struggled to move forward, but was held tightly in Bismarck's arms. "That sister is not a bad person, she is just saving your mother." Bismarck kissed the girl on the forehead and said gently.

"Liar, liar! You are all liars! I want my daddy!"

"I'm not lying to you. Your father will be watching you from heaven. He is a hero, a real hero." Bismarck's eyes were slightly red as he looked at the scene in front of him.

The girl started crying, and she could only keep comforting her.

Flensburg's wife eventually calmed down, and she and Zeppelin went to the bridge where Flensburg had worked, and listened to Zeppelin begin to tell the last story.

It didn't matter what the final result was. Bismarck only knew that when the woman left, she took away her few belongings very calmly, very calmly... On the contrary, Zeppelin was obviously sad.

"Are you gone?" she asked.

"Gone." Bismarck replied.

ps: As a person who grew up in the sea, I sincerely believe that there should be fewer wars, especially since most children in China are only children nowadays... peace is not as important as them.

Chapter 249: Regal's Fury

Now that everyone has left, it’s time for Qi Peilin and the others to go back to the factory.

Lütjens got off the ship and came to the headquarters on the shore. He first negotiated with the people in the shipyard to allocate two docks for Tirpitz and Zeppelin. As for Hipper, it could be repaired directly at the dock.

As the on-site commander of this battle, it was time for Lütjens to report to Berlin.

He and Bismarck boarded a plane in Wilhelm and flew to Berlin overnight.

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"Marshal, the commissioning ceremony for the new Hipper-class heavy cruiser is ready. Do you want to attend?"

"Oh, a new one, is it the Prinz Eugen?" Regler said. As for the Hipper class, there is only one left under construction.

"Yes, it is Prince Eugen."

"She's going to serve too, that's great." Reger patted his head and rubbed his temple tiredly. He was very dissatisfied with the recent battle results reported by Lütjens, especially the sinking of many destroyers, which made him feel unbearable. It was another battle, and the troops under his command were reduced again.

"Where is Lütjens?"

"Report to the Marshal, the general is on his way and will be at the Admiralty in about ten minutes."

"Tell him to come directly to me."

"Yes!"

------------

As soon as Lütjens arrived at the Navy Ministry, he was told by a staff officer to go to the Marshal's office. He nodded, told Bismarck to wait in his office, and went upstairs alone.

Bismarck, who was very curious, of course opened her perception and saw the following scene.

The atmosphere was wrong from the beginning, until their captain handed in a stack of reports, and suddenly, a shocking scene appeared.

"Lütjens, what is this that you wrote?!"

In Redl's office, accompanied by angry shouts and flying spit, a piece of paper was thrown in the face of Lutjens who was standing upright.

"Five of the eight destroyers involved in the battle sank, and the remaining three were all seriously damaged! The heavy cruiser Hipper was beaten to a hornet's nest and had to be towed back by a tugboat! The Tirpitz was hit by two bombs, two torpedoes, and five or six shells. It will take a month for major repairs!! The Bismarck is also in the shipyard. How much money does the navy have for you to waste like this?!"

Lütjens still stood straight, expressionless...

Bismarck had never seen Reger like this before, and the captain's expression was terribly cold.

And it seems that Raeder did not mention the Zeppelin that was badly damaged and needed major repairs after being hit by three or four shells and a bomb, nor did he mention the ninety-three aircraft that were lost or could not be repaired for various reasons, nor did he mention the sixty-four pilots and forty-one rear-seat machine gunners who fought bravely and shed their blood in the sky...

Bismarck was lying on the table in the captain's office, watching the scene in Raeder's office upstairs through his "feeling"...

Although the losses were indeed heavy, and although we had known this would happen and had anticipated it, the captain was still scolded after returning from a bloody battle...

The captain's face was covered with spit. However, facing Raeder's roar, he stood straight and accepted the training with a serious expression...

Bismarck was very unhappy...

Although the casualties were huge, and although you didn't like Zeppelin, at least the results were brilliant in two days! Three large shipyards were destroyed; one aircraft carrier and two battleships under construction were destroyed; and now it has been confirmed that the Royal Ark aircraft carrier finally sank, and the other two British aircraft carriers were severely damaged, and the Reputation was also bombed by shore-based bombers and entered the shipyard. Now the Royal Navy's only high-speed battleship that can be deployed is the Hood - damn Raeder, why don't you say anything about these? !

and…

Right next to Bismarck, on the table, there was a German high-level internal reference document, which contained internal data from the Air Force:

Since Eagle Day on August 15, until the end of the first wave of air offensive on August 19 due to bad weather, in the main battlefield of the Battle of Britain in the Channel area, the German Air Force, which once swept across Europe, was caught in a bitter battle in the sky over the British mainland.

Although under Goering's command, the German Air Force went all out in these five days, sending a total of 5,700 sorties of various types of aircraft, but suffered heavy losses in the face of the resistance of the British Royal Air Force, and achieved few results...

After paying a huge price of 290 (the British claimed 386) aircraft of various types being shot down, the only achievement was that 12 British airfields and 7 aircraft factories were damaged to varying degrees, 6 radar stations were temporarily disabled, 1 command center was bombed, 1 ammunition depot and 10 oil storage depots were destroyed, and the "exact loss" of the British Air Force was only 183 Cricket...

Although I don’t know how many were destroyed in the airport and hangars, it is impossible to count them...and many planes were forced to land, so they can probably be repaired on the spot, right?

It is said that Goering has announced that he will replace a large number of commanders of grassroots combat units with "more enterprising young people"?

But what was Zeppelin’s result in this naval battle?

In several air battles before and after the Battle of Newcastle, Zeppelin led the GR186 fighters and cooperated with the anti-aircraft firepower of the German fleet to shoot down a total of British aircraft of various types! This does not include the bombing results of the two Norwegian bomber air groups, nor does it include the planes on the British aircraft carrier that sank into the North Sea without taking off! !

I took the German Air Force battle report from the internal reference and compared it with the results I had achieved a few days ago. It was obvious that the performance of the Zeppelin aircraft carrier alone was not much different from the performance of the entire German Air Force on the other side of the Channel!!!

"...So the fight is actually very abnormal, just because of boring military interests and political infighting, and now it has been almost an hour of scolding, as for..." Bismarck turned over dissatisfiedly, looked up in the direction of Raeder's office, and sighed helplessly. You know, Goering's face is much darker than yours...

But thinking of what the captain said on the way here this morning, Bismarck had another worry...

"Our navy's losses this time are indeed not small, and they have indeed been severely damaged... Someone must be held responsible for this result... You must learn to take care of yourself and stop causing trouble for me..."

In fact, Bismarck knew that what the captain didn't say was that he might be used as a scapegoat and sent to a military court...

Politics and such, I really hate it the most!!!

Looking upstairs, Raeder was still whistling wind, thunder and rain at her captain...

"…Look for yourself, how well you fought this time! Now our entire German Navy has made a lot of money! Not counting those under construction, there are eight destroyers left, including the three that you brought back after the British took them! The only light cruisers that can be used now are Nuremberg and Cologne, and there is an Emden that is so old that it can only be used as a training ship! The only heavy cruiser we have now is Hipper, and she even sent it to the shipyard for overhaul because of you! The four battleships and battlecruisers are now all in the shipyard!"

"...Look at us now. Now we, the mighty German War Navy, only have two German-class pocket battleships left to attack merchant ships in the South Atlantic! Look at you, the commander of the Grand Fleet, look at how powerful you are!"

He roared, turned around, and stretched out his hands from time to time, pointing at the captain. The captain continued to stand straight in front of the desk, his eyes looking at his nose, his nose looking at his heart, his head lowered, and endured the scolding without saying a word...

The captain is such a big man and he was scolded like this...

Redl was still cursing.

"…If the Führer asks about this loss and wants to find someone to be held accountable, you can report to the military court yourself!"

what? !

Military court?!

He even said that if the head of state held him accountable, the captain would have to go to court-martial!

The cat is so mad!

Raeder is too bad! There is no war without losses!

Besides, Bismarck had been in the navy for such a long time. Who really thought she didn't know that the losses on the British side were no less than theirs - although her knowledge was of no use.

Because the German navy was built on the strategy of breaking up trade, a lot of them are high-speed attack ships. Although the British have many more ships than the Germans, they are mainly light warships and slow battleships! Unless these ships are concentrated to escort the fleet, the effect can be basically ignored!

Only high-speed battleships and aircraft carriers are a threat!

However, after this naval battle, although the Royal Navy's Home Fleet still had three slow-speed battleships, they could be completely ignored! Among the key high-speed battlecruisers and aircraft carriers, except for Hood, which was slightly damaged, the reputation was moderately damaged. One of the three regular aircraft carriers sank and two were damaged! The remaining three slow-speed light aircraft carriers had low aircraft carrying capacity, were outdated, and were not as fast as battleships!

And most importantly, one of the three light carriers is now chasing the two Germans in the Atlantic - if they can be caught up, there must be at least one light carrier in the Mediterranean to monitor the Italian Navy. Now there is only one Athletics left on the mainland with a speed of only 22 knots and less than 20 old aircraft!

Moreover, the damage to the Tizi was only medium, and although the Zeppelin was severely damaged, the damaged part was relatively easy to repair. It would only be a little troublesome to re-equip the aircraft and the pilot. As for the Bismarck itself, it had been repaired and modified, and it would be able to come out alive and well in a month at most!