Bismarck

"Report to the commander! The fleet is currently traveling at a speed of fourteen knots and is forty nautical miles northeast of Alexandria!"

"Stay alert...Have you contacted the cover group?"

"We've made contact. Zeppelin has taken off from Deba Airport with 20 planes. They'll be here in about 20 minutes..."

But at this moment, the pink-haired hamster that was almost leaning on Lindemann suddenly had a hair pop out! Then Tirpitz stretched out his hand and poked Lindemann twice:

"Commander, Lindemann, the British planes are coming from the east again, about a hundred kilometers away, at an altitude of three thousand and five thousand meters, there is a bomber squadron and a fighter squadron..."

"From the east?"

"…Ted, this old fox, knows that our cover airport is in the southwest."

Lütjens thought about it and soon came up with a plan: "If we are a hundred kilometers away, we still have enough time. Lindemann, go find Dazara to coordinate the fleet's air defense. Tizi, inform Zeppelin of the situation. Also, send a report of this enemy situation to Marshal Kesselring - act now!"

"Yes!"

After receiving Tirpitz's warning, General Dazzara quickly reorganized the anti-aircraft formation. The anti-aircraft gunners on the transport ship also operated the anti-aircraft guns and stood ready. The last twenty fighters of the GR-186 wing, led by Zeppelin himself, also flew over the fleet and rushed towards the British army.

Although there were only twenty planes left, Zeppelin was still very confident in the fighting effectiveness of his men.

In the brutal air battle, only those who survived can become the king who dominates the sky! But under Zeppelin's special training, many of her men have survived one brutal air battle after another and have persisted in fighting until now.

Those who can survive this brutal air combat are elites.

Her subordinates are not only the elite among the elites, but also the aces among aces.

Although some people may leave this unit in the near future, in her opinion, these people's qualifications, experience, rigorously trained combat skills and proud achievements are enough to support the sky of the new unit.

Buckhorn, Nowotny, Rudolf, Bar, Graf, Ehler, Weisenberg, Grieslawski, Marseille...

"If you want to break through the blockade of these lovely guys under my command, you British people still need some luck!"

He sneered with disdain, but out of habit, Zeppelin decided to check the enemy situation in the entire battlefield airspace again.

"Ok?"

"What's wrong, instructor?"

In the cockpit of the fighter, Bal seemed to hear Zeppelin's slight "hmm" and asked curiously.

"Nothing... No, Bal, you stay here with the planes of the third squadron to guard the convoy. Especially in front of the convoy, that is, in the low altitude to the southeast."

"Low altitude in the southeast? OK, I get it."

Bal, who was completely in awe of Zeppelin's art of command, simply shook the wings and turned to fly southeast in front of the fleet with the six remaining fighters of the Third Squadron!

Well, it’s actually just one-way transparency.

"Hmm? Commander, look, one of Zeppelin's men has turned and flown ahead of us."

"I see. It looks like the British are playing a feint to the east and attacking in the west... Tirpitz, look ahead of us, what's going on?"

"Ahhh... okay, okay." The ahoge on Tirpitz's head moved slightly, and without even moving his eyelids, he continued to mutter lazily: "... There is a large group of British planes coming at a low altitude of 60 kilometers ahead. Zeppelin said she has sent people to intercept them..."

Lindemann, who was already accustomed to his own Tirpitz, took out a few candies from his pocket with the hand that was not hung by the hamster, and threw them directly into Tirpitz's little mouth without even looking at them. He raised his eyebrows and said, "Ted is quite cunning."

"We should tell Dazara not to be careless. They have two bomber squadrons coming to attack us, and Zeppelin may not have enough planes... It's better to be careful..."

But before Lütjens could finish his words, the Italian destroyers on the periphery had already fired anti-aircraft fire from their 120mm main guns into the sky!

"Now they are here, we can only rely on Zeppelin and Dazzara..."

Lütjens raised his telescope and looked at the eastern sky. However, it looked okay, as there were not many British planes that broke through.

-------Highlights of the battlefield under the sunset-

"Destroyer! The British submarine is in your encirclement, turn on the active sonar! Start attacking!"

Under the command of a Persian cat female voice, the destroyer quickly dropped depth charges one by one at the corresponding points.

These powerful bombs quickly sank underwater and then exploded at a certain depth. The damage caused by these things exploding on a submarine is less, because the pressure is greater the deeper it is, and the energy is transmitted upwards, so if they explode under a submarine, the energy that gushes out is terrifying.

Unfortunately, the Bismarck's set depth was below the submarine.

Very accurately, a depth charge exploded, tearing a big hole in the hull directly, and sea water rushed in.

Somewhere outside the Mediterranean Sea, a British submarine's oil stains and fragments of wooden furniture floated up from 120 meters underwater, along with the water column of the exploding depth charge.

"It's sunk!" Bismarck jumped for joy on the bridge of the Zeppelin aircraft carrier.

Although the British warships that sank in her hands were almost half the size of the Royal Navy, this time was particularly memorable.

After all, the captain was in command before, but this "fish" was the first enemy ship that she commanded to sink.

He tried to assassinate Zeppelin's real body, but ended up killing himself.

The Persian cat in the WIFI is now boasting to Zeppelin: "Hehehe, it sank. I said I would protect your main body. What do you think? I'm awesome, right? Ha."

"Well, you played well, you deserve praise."

Zeppelin, who was always aloof, was generous with his smile towards Bismarck.

But her movements were not slow. With a short burst of fire, an A-20 Boston from the United States became her target. The natural attack trajectory and the shooting efficiency that almost killed with one shot made Marseille, who was following closely behind her, look confused...

At the same time, a group of special JU-87 Stuka dive bombers were landing on the runway of Deba Airport.

The reason why they are special is that there are foldable seams on the wings of these dive bombers. But what is even more special is that each of these dive bombers has a huge pod hanging under its wing. And on these pods, there is a long and thick gun barrel that is more than two meters long.

"See it! MK-101 30mm machine gun pod, weighing 176kg, with one gun mounted on each side. Initial velocity 900m/s, 300-round drum magazine, and the penetrating shells fired can penetrate 75mm armor plate at m away..." On a Stuka that had just stopped, Rudel jumped off his vehicle happily with an excited look on his face, and was bragging to his colleagues from other brother units.

"This thing is really good! It can hit tanks and other things with accuracy!"

"I've decided that if I need to deal with tanks or small boats in the future, I will use this! If anyone tries to steal this treasure from me, be careful or I will get angry with them!"

Right in front of Rudel, who was jubilant and boasting, the German ground crew were loading the plane with the achievements of five Allied tanks that had just been launched...

And this was also Rudel's 56th tank victory in this month's ground support mission...

Chapter 511: The Plan

The moonlight of the waning moon will not rise in the east until the second half of the night.

When Rommel personally drove the command vehicle to the dock, two devastated transport ships and a dozen or thirteen damaged small civilian ships were docked at the dock, and under the command of Grimaldi, they were nervously unloading the cargo under the cover of night.

At the entrance of the dock transport command post, the Desert Fox jumped out of the car without waiting for it to stop and rushed directly into the door of the command post. Even with a glimpse before entering the door, Rommel could still vaguely see in the dim night that dozens of trucks and hundreds of soldiers on the dock were neatly lined up in several long lines, unloading goods in an orderly manner under the dark red military night lights in the first half of the night without night lights.

Another transport ship, which had just put out the flames but was still emitting black smoke, was stranded crookedly on the shoal at the port. Several transport boats were leaning against the crooked hull, using small cranes and even plank gangplanks to carry and lift boxes of supplies.

"how's it going?"

As soon as he walked into the gate, the anxious Rommel asked Grimaldi directly. The military translator standing next to Grimaldi also quickly translated the question of the commander of the African Corps. Grimaldi, who understood the question, flipped through the account book in his hand and gave Rommel a reassuring look:

"…There were three merchant ships and thirteen civilian ships carrying supplies, with more than six thousand tons of supplies, and three thousand reinforcement troops on board."

"How is the unloading speed? How much can be unloaded before dawn?" Rommel asked impatiently as soon as Grimaldi paused.

"Well... don't worry about that. The allied fleet has transferred the supplies to small boats this time. Now we don't have to be limited by the merchant ships' own unloading capacity. As long as we have enough people to unload the goods, we'll be fine."

Looking at Rommel who was still a little confused, Grimaldi raised his eyebrows and patted his chest and said, "Let me put it this way. A merchant ship's own crane capacity and manual handling capacity are limited. No matter how hard it works, a ship can only unload about ten to fifteen tons an hour. But now they have evacuated the materials to those small boats in advance, so we can deploy more manpower and unload more goods at the same time... Excluding the stranded merchant ship that needs to be transferred bit by bit, the dock can now unload an average of 100 tons of materials per hour. It is estimated that by tomorrow morning, at least 1,000 tons can be unloaded."

"One thousand tons? That's so much." Even Rommel was a little surprised when he heard this number.

But his mouth, which was opened wide due to surprise, soon turned into a grinning ZZ expression: "One thousand tons of supplies is already considered three base numbers. If it's like this in the future, what problems will I have with logistics? Hahahaha..."

Outside the gate of the dock transport command center, even from a distance, one could hear the proud howl of a fox...

Looking at the fox grinning and laughing so proudly, Nelin, who was standing beside him, stepped back a little with embarrassment. But after thinking about it, he still had to endure the image of his own legion commander. He covered his eyes with one hand and pulled his legion commander with the other hand: "General, pay attention to your image, your saliva is dripping..."

"Huh? Is there any?"

Rommel, who was pulled back to normal by Nelin, looked around shamelessly - Yeah. The howling fox just now was definitely not me.

However, seeing Rommel return to normal, Grimaldi couldn't help but smile bitterly, and came over to pour a bucket of cold water on the howling fox: "Ahem... Your Excellency, don't think too much. Today we can only achieve 100 tons per night... The small boats don't have much material to transport, and they will be unloaded tonight. So starting tomorrow daytime, there will only be those three transport ships, about 30 to 40 tons per hour..."

"Why is this happening? My supplies..."

The fox wilted after receiving a slap on his forehead.

"Forget it. Three bases in one night is already pretty good... Nelin, send a telegram to General Lütjens and thank them for me. Also, the idea of ​​sending multiple ships in small batches is a good one. Tell them to use this method to transfer cargo in future logistics unloading arrangements."

"Okay, Commander." Nehring agreed and was about to go down. But just as he was about to walk out the door, Rommel called him again:

"…By the way, Nelin, please tell General Lütjens and the others about 'that matter' later."

-------

Because there were many people at the dock, including non-military personnel and foreigners, Rommel did not say it clearly, but Chief of Staff Nehring, who was an insider, knew what Rommel wanted to say as soon as he heard it...

"Okay, I'll go now."

The dividing line between the Axis fleets on shore, which are also being replenished at sea in batches...

"These British are really good at taking advantage of loopholes. They were transporting goods all day without shelling them. That means, today, these British have at least sent two brigades to the Aboukir coastal road and railway." (PS: British brigade = regiment of other countries, British regiment = battalion of other countries)

"Well, two brigades, a total of 164 people. The British launched a large-scale counterattack today. The th Division is under great pressure. I have to thank you, General Lütjens. If it weren't for the Zeppelin reinforcement and a dive bomber brigade to help, it would really be dangerous today..."

"Hahaha... By the way, General Nehring, I have taken the time to look over the information about 'that thing' you just mentioned. I have no objection to that plan, but our navy is not strong enough right now, and we have consumed a lot of ammunition. In addition, the Zeppelin aircraft carrier has also suffered heavy losses in its carrier-based aircraft, and we have to wait for reinforcements from the Imperial Marshal... We probably have to wait until this round of supply operations is over, and then we can transfer several destroyers from Tobruk and Matruh to implement this plan. In addition, the information and details of 'that place' are still not very detailed, so we need to investigate further and perfect them..."

"Well, that's no problem. The corps commander said that although the British are not short of logistics, the losses cannot be replenished in a short time. Under the current situation, Litchi doesn't have many cards to play. Their next supply team is expected to arrive here in more than a month at the earliest, so we are not short of time. By the way, I almost forgot, the Italian allies told us that their underwater demolition team will be here in the next two days. If they take action at that time, please cooperate with us..."

"Well, I understand that. We will cover their actions when the time comes. If there is anything else you need our cooperation with, General Nelin, just let me know."

"Hahaha, how can you be so polite? Well, okay, it's settled then. For the victory of the Third Reich."

"For the victory of the Third Reich!" At the radio station on the navigation bridge of the Duke of Abruzzi cruiser, Lütjens responded to the microphone with a serious face and then turned off the microphone.

On the chart table behind Lütjens, Lindemann was gesturing at something on the chart with a group of staff officers.

"It seems that they should perfect the draft of 'that' and prepare it..."

Lütjens couldn't help but think of the large locked box in his room on the Zeppelin.

-----

The so-called 'that' was actually a battle plan, a battle plan that was intended to take over the port of Alexandria once and for all.

During the meeting a few days ago, Rommel had already taken out the draft of this plan after the meeting - although due to the requirements of confidentiality, Rommel and Nehring actually carried the large box to Lütjens' room personally, and even Bismarck did not know about this plan.

No reward is greater than that of a spy, and no matter is more confidential than that of a spy. Who wants the secretary ship in their own home? They are too curious...

The terrain of the port of Alexandria is surrounded by the sea on one side, the lake on the other side, and the muddy paddy fields of the Nile Delta on the other side. Divided by such a fragmented terrain, the city of Alexandria has a total of three external traffic directions. In each direction, there are trunk roads and railways, which serve as the land lifeline of this transportation hub city.

To the southwest of the city is the Western Port Intersection, which is now under the control of the African Corps. There are the coastal highway leading to El Alamein, the "Cairo-Alexandria Western Highway" leading to Cairo, and the railway leading to El Alamein.

To the southeast of the city, east of Lake Mareotis, another road leading to Cairo, the "Cairo-Alexandria Eastern Highway", and a railway next to the highway are now being stubbornly defended by the 164th Division, which has been reduced to a battalion-level force.

There is also a transportation line in the northeast of the city, which passes through the Montazah Palace, King Farouk's palace in the eastern suburbs of Alexandria, and the Aboukir Bay, leading to Rashid City, the outlet of the Nile River. However, this route is basically built not far from the sea. And now that the Axis fleet controls the Mediterranean Sea, transportation along this route can be said to be extremely dangerous.

That is to say, throughout the day, while the German army was busy escorting the transport convoy, the British took the opportunity to use this route to send two brigades of more than 7,000 troops to the city of Alexandria.

But…so what?

The sea transportation of the African Corps was already guaranteed, but what about the coastal roads in the northeast of Britain? You have to know that if you only rely on filling the army with people without ensuring logistical supplies... a soldier needs nearly ten kilograms of food, drinking water and ammunition a day, and heavy weapons such as tanks and heavy artillery, a basic amount of fuel and ammunition is even more tons.

Without logistics, what is the use of having more people? Will they eat more resources from the inventory?

Thinking of this, Lütjens couldn't help but curl his lips and looked out the porthole in the direction of the distant sea where artillery fire was flashing from time to time.

Now, the sisters Duke of Aosta and Prince Eugene of Savoy of the Italian Navy are probably using their sixteen 152mm main guns to teach the British transport fleet how to behave themselves under the barrage of cruiser bullets?

However, the battlefield cannot tolerate unlimited fantasies, especially for the German naval generals who are known for their rigor...

Lütjens quickly pulled his thoughts back to the information in his hand...

----

Since the coastal road in the direction of Aboukir Bay is unreliable, in order to relieve the

According to air force reconnaissance, just between the southeast and northeast, the British were still planning to use engineering troops to try to open up a new field road in the muddy paddy fields and swamps, bypassing the positions of the 164th Division and the fire range of the seaside naval guns, and providing a stable supply to the port of Alexandria.

However, according to various materials, including photos taken by the Air Force reconnaissance, the artillery range of the 164th Division and the battle fleet in the Gulf, and even public geological data obtained by Italian intelligence agencies from pre-war Italian engineering construction teams when they contracted various projects in the British colony of Egypt, etc.

According to the analysis of the situations collected and sorted out from these messy and scattered data, the most likely end point of the road built by the British should be in the direction of the Montaza Palace.

Unfortunately, Egypt's puppet dynasty was corrupt, extravagant and licentious. Especially coveting the beautiful sea view in this area, they actually built this palace directly on the seashore.

A beautiful sea view must have large stretches of gentle sandy beaches, wide open flat land, excellent roads, and garden-style artificial forests with dense branches and leaves that will not block the way forward... Moreover, this is the palace of the Egyptian puppet regime, and a considerable number of guards are Egyptian troops whose combat effectiveness is not very good...

Even with the British helping in the defense, they also set up certain obstacles and fortifications. But even though the British had large numbers of trucks to transport supplies, the British did not get much supplies in a limited time.

At least judging from the recent reconnaissance photos, the defense here is still very weak.

No wonder Rommel held on to the elite 1st Airborne Brigade and the San Marco Marines and refused to use them...

Now, since it is a landing operation, it depends on the navy.